Xavin

Xavin is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is commonly depicted in association with the Runaways. Xavin is gender fluid (made more prominent due to their shape shifting abilities) with seemingly no preference in which pronouns are used for them ("they/them" pronouns are used throughout the article for clarity's sake). They were created by author Brian K. Vaughan and artist Adrian Alphona, and debuted in Runaways (vol. 2) #7. Xavin is often seen as a male, simply to be "intimidating". Xavin, often called "Xav" for short, is known for their obtuse and warlike personality. They had originally found it hard to fit in with the Runaways due in part to Xavin's constant gender switching and unfamiliarity with Earth values and norms though through proving their loyalty to the group found acceptance. Xavin is the child of the Skrull Prince De'zean. As members of the Runaways, they appeared in the comic book Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers, which involves both the Runaways and Young Avengers teams. In the short lived third volume of the Runaways, they were forced to leave the team and was last seen being taken from Earth in Majesdanian custody. They return to Earth, where they help rescue Molly Hayes from the New Pride. Xavin survives the attack by shape shifting their organs out of the way. They find Hulkling injured, targeted for assassination by Veranke herself. Xavin usually reverts to the male Skrull form when in battle, insisting that it adds to a more intimidating persona, despite Karolina thinking that it is sexist, yet still spends some time in the male human form as well. After they repeatedly attack the Runaways, Xavin realizes that the aliens won't stop until they get Karolina. Karolina apparently leaves the group with the Majesdanians, but the Runaways, except Nico, are later shocked to find the real Karolina knocked out. Xavin shapeshifted into Karolina's form and took her place to take all the punishment for their species' war. Kissing Karolina, Xavin whispers their love and departs the group. Their fate is unknown.

Xavin, being a Skrull, has the Skrull's natural ability to shapeshift. As stated by Xavin, they are still a Super Skrull in training, so they can only use their Fantastic Four abilities one at a time; at one point, when Xavin was bombarded with high frequency sounds, they lost control of their powers and burnt up the Griffith Observatory. something that irritates the other Runaways,

In 2008, Xavin was named the fourth (out of ten) best Skrull characters in an article published on Marvel's official website.

Due to Xavin often changing through their three main forms, (human female, human male, and true Skrull form) both characters within the series and fans question the nature of their gender. As a Skrull, a race of shapeshifters, Xavin stated "for us, just changing our gender is no different than changing our hair color", though it causes Xavin to start questioning their own nature. Although Karolina does truly love Xavin, even so much as to deny Xavin disguised as Nico due to loyalty, she does become depressed when Nico questions Xavin's true gender. In Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways, Xavin is mostly male, but female briefly. Karolina is fixed on the idea that Xavin is female, and that Xavin isn't pretending to be a woman, just learning to be human.

Due to their war like, yet rash attitude, Later on, during an argument, Xavin subconsciously reverted to their female human form, which both surprised and pleased Karolina, who had earlier expressed some lingering doubts about Xavin's true gender. This version is a Xartan, a being with the ability to shapeshift, presenting as numerous people before adopting a female body. They are first named in "Last Rites" as one of the aliens on Jonah's ship, before it is blown up by Pride. They begin telepathically conversing with Karolina before adopting the appearance of a charitable stranger and briefly interacting with her while shopping. They tell Karolina they stowed away on a ship that carried Karolina's biological father, "Jonah", and his family of exiled Gibborim royal magistrates for the purpose of fulfilling an uncertain prophecy that she believes they are a part of that will unite two worlds and bring peace to the universe. Xavin stays at the hostel where she speaks with Leslie Dean and reveals to her that she is pregnant with Jonah's heir and that he and his family have inhabited other bodies, later revealed to be Stacey Yorkes, Tina Minoru, Victor Stein, and one unknown party (Alex Wilder). They try rescuing Karolina from Victor/Jonah, but they are overpowered. They regroup at the hostel with Leslie, Alex, Molly, and Nico to plan out how they will rescue their friends from Jonah.