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
| Previous | #401 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Marvel: Heroes & Legends #1 | Postlude | |
| Fantastic Four Annual 3 | Reading order | X-Men #15 |
| X-Men #13 | X-Men | X-Men #15 |
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”.
We see Trask’s press conference just as the X-Men are recovered enough to take a vacation. This press conference must be just a couple days before the wedding. That dichotomy.
“Mutant Menace!” is a Daily Globe headline. Perhaps the day before their headline was celebrating a superhero wedding.
Xavier claims the school is home to him now. This mansion that he owns and grew up in now feels like home.
The paper’s artist depicts the possible fate of mankind if mutants are left unchecked.
Here’s an interesting article from Brian Cronin on the image of the mutant in the paper. He talks about how it’s referenced in an X-Men story several decades later and also a possible influence from a science fiction article by Otto Binder and Kurt Schaffenberger.
Professor X describes the hysteria as a witch-hunt.
By the time the debate between Xavier and Trask begins, the wedding must be in the past.
Is Xavier a Commie or a Right-winger? Nothing about his speech seems especially right-wing to me.
Trask uses the debate as an opportunity to introduce his robotic mutant-hunting Sentinels. However, it turns out he’s not in as much control of them as he thinks.
In fairness, Trask was introduced as a leading anthropologist, so perhaps he’s only an amateur robot builder. I appreciate that scientists in all fields are expected to be able to build sentient robots, including surgeon Don Blake.
Meanwhile, Beast and Iceman are at Coffee A-Go-Go in Greenwich Village.
“Those tender sentiments do wonders for my libido”? Do we talk about libido in a children’s comic?
Bobby tries to ask out the waitress Zelda. His interest in girls has blossomed since we first met him. It goes awry when he has to abandon her for Xavier’s summons.
There’s a joking reference to superheroes changing in phone booths, suggesting it’s already part of accepted pop culture that Clark Kent often used phone booths to change into Superman, when in fact he rarely ever did so, outside of two famous occurrences in the 1940s animated films. Here’s an article (again from Brian) on the topic.
We get to meet Warren’s parents and his butler Curtis.
“We were created to be the guardians of mankind! And, to guard them properly, we must rule them completely!”
We see the Taxi driver riling up the mob, and hopefully can agree the person driving a mob to frenzy and anger should probably bear some legal responsibility for the actions of that mob. Whether the mob leader is a taxi driver or a president.
Up to this point, the comics have been pretty inconsistent about what the public thought of mutants. There are references to the public fearing and hating them back to the first issue. But the X-Men also seem to have explicit US government support, and Angel had a fan club of screaming girls treating him like one of the Beatles. And they were just invited to the big celebrity wedding of the year. This is the first issue that really plays up the idea that the public is caught up in anti-mutant hysteria.
To the point where the Sentinels are seen as a logical solution to the mutant problem.
And so this issue really begins the idea that the saga of the X-Men can be seen as a stand-in for real world prejudice.
The issue ends with the X-Men in seeming trouble from the Sentinel defenses, so we’ll pick up here next time.
We should note how wild it is that the the introduction of Juggernaut and the introduction of the Sentinels are from adjacent story arcs. These are some of the most famous X-Men villains. The concentration of great stories and great characters will never be as high as it is right now.
Bolivar Trask was played by Peter Dinklage in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
We see here the film’s take on the Sentinels.
Rating: ★★★★☆, 77/100
Significance: ★★★★★
Scans are taken from X-Men: The Early Years #14 (1995).
Now I want some X-Men Pasta. It’s more than a meal. It’s an adventure.
Characters:
- Marvel Girl/Jean Grey
- Cyclops/Scott Summers
- Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X
- Beast/Hank McCoy
- Angel/Warren Worthington III
- Iceman/Bobby Drake
- Dr. Bolivar Trask
- Sentinels
- Section Leader (Sentinel)
- Zelda
- Bernard, the Poet
- Curtis (Angel’s butler)
- Warren’s dad (Presumably Warren Worthington, Jr.)
- Warren’s mom (Presumably Mrs. Worthington)
- Sentinel 3-R
- Sentinel 6
- Sentinel 7
- Sentinel 8-R
Story notes:
- Angel’s normal spot in the logo is yielded to a note X-Men is now monthly.
- Jean notes Scott’s Opti-Ray Force is almost back to normal after the battle with Juggernaut, according to the energy register.
- Best needs crutches to walk at the start of the issue.
- Angel uses harness to help exercise his wings.
- Iceman heals in ice-intensifier.
- Did Jean call Ka-Zar a neanderthal?
- Dr. Trask one of the world’s greatest anthropologists.
- Warren notes it’s important his identity stay secret. Bobby not so sure.
- Angel’s wings didn’t sprout until he was in military school. He dropped out to avoid physical exams.
- Cyclops closes eyes to remove vizor and put on special sunglasses.
- Warren drives Jean off in his Mustang. She hinted she wanted to go with Scott. Scott is afraid about his eyes. Warren is just noticing Scott likes Jean.
- Network eager to get scientist of Xavier’s stature. Great authority in the field of education.
- Trask uses debate to show off his army of robots, Sentinels who will destroy mutants.
- One Sentinel called Section Leader.
- Beast and Iceman travel with ice slide.
- Angel is very wealthy.
- Worthington residence on North Shore of Long Island.
- Sentinel catches Iceman in heat ray.
- Scott in cab drops glasses and his ray fires off.
- Sentinel mysteriously collapses before hurting Cyclops or Beast.
- Jean uses powers to levitate–only for short distances.
- Professor X has limited telepathic power with machinery; he can sense where the Sentinel wants to return.
- Sentinel muttered something about “Master Mold”.
- Sentinels have secret underground base.
| Previous | #401 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Marvel: Heroes & Legends #1 | Postlude | |
| Fantastic Four Annual 3 | Reading order | X-Men #15 |
| X-Men #13 | X-Men | X-Men #15 |
