Under a cloud of increasing anti-mutant sentiment, Professor Xavier creates a haven at his Westchester mansion to train young mutants to use their powers for the benefit of humanity, and to prove mutants can be heroes. Xavier recruited Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast and Jean Grey calling them "X-Men" because they possessed X-tra power due to their possession of the "X-Gene", a gene normal humans lacked and gives Mutants their abilities. Though the X-Men started off with just five members, as years went on many characters joined the team and just as many left; Cyclops is the only original character to have had a relatively solid seating in the series. Storm, Wolverine, Beast, and Jean Grey also are main characters within the group.