Featuring: X-Men
Release: December 12, 1965
Cover: February 1966
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Layouts: J. Kirby
Pencils: Jay Gavin
Inks: Dick Ayers
Lettering: A. Simek
20 pages
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| Sgt. Fury #27 | Reading order | X-Men #18 |
| X-Men #16 | X-Men | X-Men #18 |
Somehow, when I’m high in the sky this way, I feel there is no danger I cannot face– no problem I cannot solve– no enemy I cannot defeat!! Everything seems clean– and pure– and right! The way it ought to be! The way it must be one day, if man is ever to fulfill his promise– his glorious destiny!
I quite like the red glow of the cover. The cover warns me not to spoil the ending, but, well, I’m gonna do that anyway. Be warned.
Thoughts on the reading order. When books are published is a key factor, as is the order in which characters appear, as are story-arcs. What I’m not considering closely is the calendar date within the stories, as I don’t often know. We paused our X-Men reading because the Sentinels story ended and the next one was about to begin. This gave us a chance to catch up on other titles.
But this story begins the same day as the Sentinels story ended. Similarly, the X-Men had fought the Stranger and Juggernaut on the same day, with a short gap of time while the X-Men were injured between these momentous days.
In particular, it must now be within a couple days of Reed and Sue’s wedding, while most of our stories have jumped forward a bit more from that day.
While it’s been more than a year since the Stranger story was published, it’s only been a few weeks for the X-Men.
Professor X’s questionable ethics are again on display as he tries to take control of the General’s mind, but then releases it when he realizes the General is already sympathetic to mutants. He’d been anti-mutant, but was impressed by the X-Men’s heroism against the Sentinels. He might be anti-mutant again if he learned how ready Professor X was to control his mind.
The Worthingtons are on their way to the school to see Warren, but Xavier senses danger there, and sees a vulnerability in the kids’ parents being used as hostages.
A nice splash page of Angel.
A mystery villain his hiding at the school. As the X-Men approach in small groups, they are easily defeated. Perhaps the means of their defeat are clues as to our villain’s identity. Cyclops does recognize the villain’s voice.
Beast recuperates quickly and notes all mutants do. Does Beast have a healing factor?
Marvel Girl gets a decent showcase as the last one standing.
The X-Men are all defeated, except for Iceman, who remains in the hospital from his injuries against the Sentinels.
Mrs. Worthington wonders how Xavier can run a school with so few students. A fair question, but a confusing one. As the X-Men have already graduated. Perhaps they graduated high school and they are now college students?
Anyways, I’m going to defy the cover and show you the last page with the grand reveal of who the villain us.
SPOILER ALERT!
Obviously, Magneto was recently captured by the Stranger and taken to an interstellar zoo for mutants. As discussed above, that was probably only a few weeks ago story time, so what is Magneto doing back? And what happened to Toad, who had also been captured by the Stranger. Perhaps some of these answers will come next issue.
This begins a noble tradition in the pages of X-Men, of comics ending with the reveal that Magneto was the villain. Brian Cronin covers this phenomenon here.
Brian leaves out one of my favorite examples, the ending of Uncanny X-Men #269.
Rating: ★★★½, 60/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: X-Men vol. 2.
Characters:
- Angel
- Iceman
- Cyclops
- Beast
- Marvel Girl
- Professor X
- The General
- Mrs. Worthington
- Mr. Worthington (presumably Warren Worthington Jr.)
- Dr. Thomas
- Magneto
Story notes:
- Medic finds Iceman’s pulse impossible.
- Professor X needs to hide his connection to the X-Men.
- Iceman, Beast, Cyclops injured and taken to hospital. Professor X mentally warns them to leave mask on.
- Cyclops only bruised.
- Bobby insecure because he’s the youngest.
- Doctor has no legal right to insist Beast unmask.
- X-Men have automatic phone answering device. You can call it remotely to see if there are messages.
- Mystery villain at mansion. Angel stands alone.
- Now Professor X and Cyclops against the villain. Per Cerebro, it must be a dangerous mutant. Powerful enough to block Professor X from mentally detecting him
- Mechanical mental-wave distorter takes out Xavier.
- Then Beast and Marvel Girl against foe.
- Reporters from Affiliated Press question doctor about Iceman’s true identity.
- Doctor prescribes new medication, a new type of sulfa drug.
- X-Men locked in steel gondola attached to balloon.
- A doctor wants to study the parents of a mutant.
| Previous | #469 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Sgt. Fury #27 | Reading order | X-Men #18 |
| X-Men #16 | X-Men | X-Men #18 |
