Xavin

Xavin first appeared in Runaways (vol. 2) #7 (August 2005), and was created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona. They are introduced as a Skrull prince, the child of De'zean of the Skrull royal family on the planet Tarnax VI, and they are meant to marry Karolina Dean to bring peace to their two warring alien species. As a member 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 third volume of Runaways, Xavin is forced to leave the team and is last seen being taken from Earth in Majesdanian custody. ==Fictional character biography==

History When Xavin journeys to Earth to find Karolina Dean, they reveal to Karolina that their parents had one more large secret. The Deans had been exiled from their planet Majesdane for criminal activities. They traveled to Earth where they encountered Xavin's father, Prince De'zean of the Skrulls, who was going to rule the planet. 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. 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 female human form as well. After they repeatedly attack the Runaways, Xavin realizes that the aliens will not 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. ==Powers and abilities==

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, ==Reception==

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

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 is not pretending to be a woman, just learning to be human. == Relationships with other Runaways ==

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. == In other media ==

Xavin appears in the second season of Runaways, portrayed by Clarissa Thibeaux, with other actors and actresses occasionally portraying them. This version is a Xartan, a shapeshifting alien who presents as numerous people before adopting a female body. They stowed away on a ship that carried Karolina Dean'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. ==References==