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: September 1, 1964 Cover: November 1964 12 cents Writer: Stan Lee Artist: Jack Kirby Inker: Chic Stone Letter: S. Rosen 20 pages
The X-Men are no longer students, but the status quo hasn’t changed much. They now train for missions; their training sessions look very similar to the classes they used to take. Professor X is still away and Cyclops is in charge; so he is running the training session. Hence, he is in a suit rather than a uniform. So you know he’s in charge.
Iceman practices making his body icier. As he does, some of the smoothness fades, allowing defined corners within his now icy body. These are the first hints of a new look forming. Iceman’s visual evolution is similar to Thing’s, going from a softer ill-defined look to lots of defining lines and corners.
It’s weird that Iceman is described as transparent and compared to the Invisible Girl. I usually think of the ice as a layer around him; they seem to be suggesting his insides are turning to ice as well, though the art indicates nothing of the kind.
Featuring: Thor Release: August 4, 1964 Cover: October 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee, the monarch of the Marvel Age, at the pinnacle of his power! Illustrated by: Jack Kirby, the prince of pageantry, at the height of his titanic talent! Inked by: Chic Stone, the dean of line design, at the peak of his prowess! Lettered by: S. Rosen, the sultan of spelling, at the little table in his studio! 18 pages
I don’t know what to make of these Thor stories since Kirby returned to the title. The art is certainly improved. This is very iconic Kirby, especially with Stone on inks. Everything very melodramatic, especially the posing.
And it’s cool that Thor meets Magneto. The battle between them starts off pretty well. Again, Kirby on that dramatic action depiction.
But the weaknesses of the story increasingly detract as the issue goes on. That battle which had been going well then moves to the now familiar trope where Thor loses his hammer and becomes Dr. Blake mid-battle, luckily just out of view of the villain. How did he lose it? He dropped it, then forgot about it.
After 60 seconds, the hammer turns into a walking stick. Sometimes that is what happens, and sometimes it is not.
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.
