Featuring: X-Men Release: November 3, 1966 Cover: January 1967 12 cents Stan Lee editor Roy Thomas writer Werner Roth artist J. Tartaglione inker Artie Simek letterer Irving Forbush noise-maker 20 pages
How could these puny humans– who dwell among the smoke and noise that they call civilization– hope to appreciate such matchless beauty?
So my normal standard for making posts is to prepare the post one day, but not publish it the same day. I sleep on it and give it a last lookover before publication.
I’m skipping my usual standards today. Because today is St. Patrick’s Day. So I’m posting this without my usual extra day to edit. And from a pub. While some number of drinks in.
As seems appropriate.
This issue feels appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day because it introduces the character of the Banshee.
Who I think is Irish. Though they don’t say so. At least, I associate banshees with being Irish. Of course, I also associate banshees with being women, so shows what I know.
Featuring: X-Men Release: September 1, 1966 Cover: November 1966 12 cents Editing.. Stan Lee Script.. Roy Thomas Art… Werner Roth Inks.. Dick Ayers Lettering… Sam Rosen Mayan headdresses… Irving Forbush 20 pages
I hate to sound like a poor man’s Hawkeye, but I can’t seem to stop myself! Why should Jean prefer Scott over me?
Last issue, the gem-hunter El Tigre found a pendant which transformed him into the Mayan feathered-serpent god Kukulcán. He now has the power of the sun. Which sounds pretty powerful.
This seems to be basically what happened to Don Blake. He found a mystic artifact and now finds himself the avatar for a god.
Featuring: X-Men Release: August 2, 1966 Cover: October 1966 12 cents Edited by: Stan Lee Scripted by: Roy Thomas Illustrated by: Werner Roth Inked by: Dick Ayers Lettered by: Sam Rosen Imitated by: Brand Echh 20 pages
At some point, we are faced with the question, are all these heroes interchangeable, or are their distinctions amongst the titles, making some stories more suitable for one title than another.
There are hints here of what I think the X-Men are about. Moments.
Featuring: X-Men Release: October 5, 1965 Cover: December 1965 12 cents Writer: Smilin’ Stan Lee Designer: Jolly Jack Kirby Penciller: Jovial Jay Gavin Inker: Darlin’ Dick Ayers Letterer: Adorable Artie Simek 20 pages
We can only guard the human race by becoming its master! Humans are too weak, too foolish to govern themselves! Henceforth, we shall rule!!
We pick up with Trask a prisoner of the Sentinels he created to hunt mutants, with the X-Men laying futile siege to the Sentinels’ underground layer.
For a long while, the tagline had been “The most unusual teen-agers of all time!”. They’ve changed it, deemphasizing the youthful nature of the team, now referring to them as “the most unusual fighting team of all time!” This recalls the original tagline, “the strangest super-heroes of all time!” The regular tagline about teen-agers first appeared in issue 3.
The Beast is confused about Xavier’s capabilities, unsure where his confidence comes from.
Featuring: X-Men Release: September 2, 1965 Cover: November 1965 12 cents Stan Lee, D.S. (Doctor of Story) Jack Kirby, D.L. (Dean of Layout) Jay Gavin, M.A. (Master of Art) V. Colletta, B.I. (Bachelor of Inking) Artie Simek, T.O.L. (Tired of Lettering) 20 pages
The world must be shocked! The danger was never greater! We’ve been so busy worrying about cold wars, hot wars, atom bombs and the like, that we’ve overlooked the greatest menace of all! Mutants walk among us! Hidden! Unknown! Waiting–! –Waiting for their moment to strike! They are mankind’s most deadly enemy! For only they have the actual power to conquer the human race! Even as we speak, they are out there– scheming, plotting, planning– thinking we don’t suspect! But– there is still time to smash them! If we strike now!
We just read the wedding of Reed and Sue, followed by a retelling of the story form 1996. The retelling focused on a child named Mark caught up in the chaos. A child wearing a Fantastic Four t-shirt who idolized the superheroes, but was afraid of the X-Men, because they were mutants.
We’ll soon read Marvels #2, which will focus on this central dichotomy. The inspiration for Marvels #2 came from Kurt Busiek looking at the same continuity we are now. The X-Men attended a wedding, all seeming in good shape. But we know that the X-Men battled the Stranger and Juggernaut in a single day, and then were badly injured for a period of time. We further know, because Human Torch helped the X-Men battle Juggernaut, that the wedding had not yet occurred. As we read the coming issues, we will see the X-Men’s adventures leave them little space for a wedding after this issue.
The X-Men must attend the wedding within the pages of this issue. This issue affords them only a space of a couple days between getting their bandages removed and getting captured by the Sentinels. Thus we know very tightly when the wedding occurred.
The wedding was a big media circus. Celebrities like Tony Stark and Millie the Model were in attendance. The Fantastic Four fan club was outside cheering. It was front page news.
The Fantastic Four are celebrities and people love them.
On the days surrounding the wedding, Trask would go on the radio to talk about the mutant menace. And the public listened and took him seriously, and was sympathetic with his plan to create mutant-hunting robots to destroy the mutant scourge.
It’s a very strange dichotomy. The Fantastic Four gained their powers through cosmic accident. The X-Men were born with theirs, perhaps because their parents had been exposed to nuclear radiation. The “Children of the Atom”. That difference seems so insignificant, and yet, this is exactly how bigotry works.
We’ll explore this dichotomy further when we get to Marvels #2.
These continuity considerations and thematic contrast are why we’re reading this X-Men arc now, two months early. The FF wedding issue was released the same day as X-Men #13, which noted the wedding was “soon”. X-Men has been published bi-monthly, which doesn’t help. But we see on the cover that X-Men is now monthly, so we’ll have less alignment trouble in the future.
The issue opens with the X-Men recovering from the injuries left by the Juggernaut.
We see Professor X remind Beast not to think of “normal” humans as inferior. Probably they should find better language than to refer to one group of people as “normal”.
Featuring: X-Men Release: March 4, 1965 Cover: May 1965 12 cents X-traordinary script by: Stan lee X-travagant art by: Jack Kirby X-ceptional inking by: Chic Stone X-emplory lettering by: Artie Simek 20 pages
The basic tension of the series is that every mutant that comes along, Magneto wants to recruit them to be evil. And Professor X wants to recruit them to be not evil. General agreement that no third option is acceptable; every mutant must join either the X-Men or Evil Mutants. When Blob tried to do neither, the X-Men attacked him and tried to mindwipe him. The only fine print there is the word “mutant”. Occasionally, someone such as Ka-Zar turns out to not be a mutant, in which case they are not obligated to join either team.
Now we meet a man who describes himself as a Stranger. He is very powerful. Is he a mutant? If so, they must recruit.
Featuring: X-Men Release: July 2, 1964 Cover: September 1964 12 cents Written with all the spell-binding skill of: Stan Lee Drawn with all the titanic talent of: Jack Kirby Inked with all the vibrant verve of: Chic Stone Lettered with all the words spelled right by: Art Simek 22 pages
The time has come for the next chapter in the history of the X-Men. The series began with the premise that the X-Men were students of an unusual school. We saw two issues back that they passed their final exam. Now, it’s graduation day.
We just saw Johnny celebrate his spring break. And we are almost a year (in publication time) away from Peter’s graduation. It’s possible the publication dates poorly reflect when this story is set within the Marvel Universe, but it’s also possible this unique private school does things its own way, and has a much earlier graduation date than the regular schools attended by Peter Parker and Johnny Storm.
It’s odd that Iceman is graduating with the rest given that he’s a couple years younger than them. Maybe he’s gifted. Or maybe it’s just a really weird school.
Featuring: X-Men Release: May 5, 1964 Cover: July 1964 12 cents Written: With the flair of Stan Lee Drawn: With the air of Jack Kirby Inked: With the care of Chic Stone Lettered: On a dare by S. Rosen 22 pages
Once again, we see that Namor and Hulk are the binding that holds this nascent Marvel Universe together. Most of the heroes haven’t met each other, but they’ve almost all met Hulk or Namor. (Daredevil hasn’t met either yet, but we’ve only read two issues; he’ll meet Namor soon.)
My confusion about what to call Magneto’s group remains. It’s becoming clearer that “Evil Mutants” is how Xavier and the narrator refer to them. It’s less clear what they would call themselves. They were called the “Brotherhood of Evil Mutants” on the cover, and in the title, of their first appearance; however, that name has never shown up in-story.
Featuring: X-Men Release: March 3, 1964 Cover: May 1964 12 cents Spell-binding story by: Stan Lee Dazzling drawing by: Jack Kirby Inking: Paul Reinman Lettering: S. Rosen 24 pages
They’ve redesigned the cover box to make room for Beast.
The story begins right where the last issue left off, but then has a bit of time jump mid-story. It opens with a strange piece of narration. The narrator tells us Professor X “seemed” to lose his powers. Interesting phrasing. Why not just say Professor X lost his powers? Unless you know something about this issue’s twist ending I don’t.
I would warn you that spoilers follow, but I would argue the opening page narration has already spoiled the whole story.
Featuring: X-Men Release: January 3, 1964 Cover: March 1964 12 cents Sensational script by: Stan Lee Dynamic drawings by: Jack Kirby Imaginative inking by: Paul Reinman Legible lettering by: Art Simek 23 pages
The Scarlet Witch seems to be wearing green on the cover.
Pedantic notice. The title of this comic is “The X-Men”. After 3 issues, I decided I was tired of typing that. It’s easier to just call it “X-Men”. I will be doing that from now on. Same for “The Avengers”. I’d already been doing that for “The Amazing Spider-Man” without really thinking it through.
I should be paying more attention to the taglines. They are dubbed “X-Men: The most unusual teen-agers of all time!” Last issue had the same subheading. In #2, it was “the strangest super-heroes of all time. The covers of the first two issues dubbed them the “strangest super-heroes of all”.
I feel it should be pointed out that we’ve already met some pretty darn unusual teenagers, notably Human Torch and Spider-Man. So the tagline may be somewhat hyperbolic.
This issue introduces the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Not what I would name my group of mutants. And it’s not clear who, if anybody, named them that. The cover of the comic and the title of the comic call the group that, but the group is not named within the story.
Professor X calls them “evil mutants”, but he has often referred to “evil mutants”. I could never tell if he was speaking generically, or specifically referring to Magneto’s group. I still can’t.
Designation issues aside, introducing a team of villains to battle the X-Men is a good idea, since they themselves are a team. It’s hard to show a team always fighting against a single individual, even though that’s mostly what the Fantastic Four have done. It’s a bit surprising they are yet to come up with a team of villains for them. They’ve come close. Red Ghost had his Super Apes, and that was now four, er, members who could each match one member of the FF. But I have trouble counting that as a team since they are apes. Dr. Doom recruited the Terrible Trio, so again we had 4 people, each meant to face off with one FF member; but that was not so much a team of super-villains as it was Doom and three henchmen.
