Featuring: X-Men
Release: April 5, 1966
Cover: June 1966
12 cents
Exemplary editing by: Stan Lee
Extraordinary writing by: Roy Thomas
Exceptional art by: Jay Gavin
Exhilarating inking by: Dick Ayers
Exasperating lettering by: Artie Simek
20 pages
| Previous | #526 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| X-Men #20 | Reading order | Sgt. Fury #31 |
| X-Men #20 | X-Men | X-Men #22 |
We are now preparing to engage the enemy in his own lair– and it is always there that he is most dangerous!
Porter Mack runs the local dude ranch and thinks there may be a reward if his men capture the X-Men.
They are outmatched.
This is an example of the anti-mutant sentiment, which would make a better focus for these stories than alien invasions.
Anyways, back to the alien invasion. Lucifer has captured the X-Men, and his race has a robot called Dominus who takes care of most details of their world-conquering.
The X-Men not only stop Dominus from conquering Earth, but apparently destroy some machines that will likely free every world enslaved by Lucifer’s people. Well done, team.
In a weird moment, Cyclops attacks Angel because Professor X has telepathically warned them not to attack Dominus.
Why this strange command? Because their attacks against Dominus would be useless and it was better to concentrate on the small robots. Was that really worth attacking Angel over?
This story began with the X-Men being framed for crimes by Blob and Unus. Did that ever get resolved?
Angel reminded us in the beginning they need to capture Lucifer to clear their names. But Lucifer was banished to some nameless dimension. They didn’t capture him. Professor X asserts at the end that they won. But… aren’t they still criminals?
Also, last issue Cyclops had left the team to seek a cure for his eyes. Is he still planning to do that?
We’ve reached April 1966. Notable for the release of Steve Ditko’s final Marvel books. His work can still be found on the newsstand, such as in Get Smart or Hogan’s Heroes for Dell, or Eerie for Warren.
Over at DC, Batman gets a new villain in Poison Ivy.
What else do we see this month?
- Archie’s Joke Book Magazine #101, Archie
- Army War Heroes #14, Charlton
- Thunderbolt #52, Charlton
- House of Mystery #159, DC
- Swing with Scooter #1, DC
- Young Romance #142, DC
- The Naked Prey #1, Dell
- Porky Pig #6, Dell
- Tarzan of the Apes #158, Gold Key
- Little Dot #105, Harvey
- Richie Rich #47, Harvey
- THUNDER Agents #5, Tower
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 50/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men vol. 2.
Characters:
- Marvel Girl
- Angel
- Beast
- Iceman
- Cyclops
- Professor X
- Porter Mack
- Lucifer/Agent One
- Dominus
- Robot Gamma
- Robot Epsilon
- Robot Delta
- Supreme One
Minor characters:
- Smith (Works with Porter Mack)
Story notes:
- Pulsating light materializes in path of X-Men jet. Beam emanating from opening in sky.
- Porter Mack runs a dude ranch. He’s concerned about customers being driven away.
- Light appeared near Buchanan’s Butte.
- Opalescent gases intended to shield something.
- Plane dodges man-made erupting geysers.
- X-Men follow river into Lucifer’s volcanic hideout.
- Mack thinks there may be a reward for the X-Men and attacks; his men retreat after a thrashing. Mack sent away in an ice cube.
- Robots capture Xavier. They mention Dominus, a name Xavier had not before heard.
- One by one X-Men captured. Lucifer tells captured Xavier of his plans.
- Dominus is the ultimate machine that Lucifer’s race has used to conquer many worlds. Their last conquest was a planet of the star Sirius, whose inhabitants are now slaves.
- X-Men trapped in cosmic crystalline cube.
- Ultra-robots destroyed. Dominus useless without them and other worlds will revolt.
- Lucifer banished to nameless dimension where neither time nor space exists for his failure.
| Previous | #526 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| X-Men #20 | Reading order | Sgt. Fury #31 |
| X-Men #20 | X-Men | X-Men #22 |
This is not a good issue, and Lucifer is a pretty crappy villain. However, one of my favorite storylines in comics is the big time-travel epic in West Coast Avengers, which uses these aliens as well (where they are also pretty bad, but the rest of the story is great). So as much as it is undeserved, I do get a little warm glow seeing them here!