Featuring: X-Men
Release: June 30, 1966
Cover: September 1966
12 cents
Editing by: Stan (Busy Bee) Lee
Script by: Roy (Bookworm) Thomas
Art by: Werner (Worker-ant) Roth
Inking by: Dick (Doodlebug) Ayers
Lettering by: Sam (Pussycat) Rosen
20 pages
| Previous | #551 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Fantastic Four #54 | Reading order | Thor Annual 2 |
| X-Men #23 | X-Men | X-Men #25 |
“Grow! Grow! Grow! Let not one X-Man survive!”
“Now, how does a rational person argue with sentiments like those?”
As we learned last issue, Jean is leaving the X-Men to go to college. She’ll be at Metro College, the same college as Johnny Storm. We just saw that Johnny Storm was on school break with Wyatt Wingfoot, and using that break to travel to the Great Refuge to try to free the Inhumans.
The Narrator notes Johnny and Wyatt are in the Himalayas. Last we saw them, they were traveling from Wakanda in Africa and on their way to the Great Refuge, which had been in the Andes, not the Himalayas. Perhaps they got lost.
We meet a new character, Ted Roberts, a new schoolmate of Jean’s. Perhaps a rival for her affection against Warren and Scott.
I came into the X-Men late. My first X-Men comic came out 25 years after this one. And by then, the underlying thematic premise of the X-Men was better established. That they fought for mutant rights, against prejudice against mutants, and against mutants who wanted to use their powers for domination. We’ve definitely seen them fight Magneto and his evil mutants in this series, and seen several examples of anti-mutant prejudice, most notably when mutant-hunting robots got constructed. And those stories are starting to shape the idea of what an X-Men story should be about.
They can also be generic superheroes fighting generic super-villains. This issue pits them against the Locust, a mad scientist who has mutated various bugs to grow super-large. This is still early days, so what makes a good X-Men story was not well-established. But I claim this isn’t it. This is a generic superhero story against a generic mad entomologist villain.
The last issues where they fought Count Nefaria and assorted rogues had a similar problem. That could have been any superhero’s story.
Professor X attempts to justify why this is an X-Men story by claiming the giant locusts count as mutants.
Beyond that, it’s absurd that the Locust himself is any type of threat against the whole team of X-Men. Yet they talk up his tough armor and power of flight as though these things make him a credible threat.
Now, a whole horde of giant wasps is a credible threat to the X-Men. But that threat somehow gets brushed off easy.
It’s worth noting Locust’s real surname is Hopper. Get it?
Also, Jean is back with the team. Because it’s a weekend. So all the sobbing and farewells at this issue’s start seem a little overblown. She’s moved down the road and apparently will still be suiting up to join them on missions when her class schedule permits.
Rating: ★★½, 49/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in X-Men Epic Collection vol. 2: Lonely are the Hunted.
Characters:
- Angel
- Professor X
- Marvel Girl
- Iceman
- Cyclops
- Beast
- Ted Roberts
- The Locust/Dr. August Hopper
- Mr. Hamilton
Minor characters:
- Henry (husband plagued by locusts)
- Cora (Henry’s wife)
Story notes:
- Jean’s parents have withdrawn her from the school to send her Metro College, not far away. The X-Men are sad about this.
- Jean borrows some books on telekinesis.
- X-Men present corsage as parting gift.
- Angel notes Johnny Storm goes to Metro as well.
- Warren wishes Jean would love him; Jean wishes Scott would love her; Scott does love her but can’t say so because of his eye issues.
- Warren notes it’s the summer when Jean is starting college.
- Ted Roberts gets Jean checked in, and then he wants to split a Big Orange Drink.
- Locust hatches ionically-treated insect eggs.
- Locusts become giant as they feed.
- Iceman notes there are only a dozen locusts at present.
- X-Men get caught in a crop-dusting.
- Ted and Jean get coffee in the Metro Student Center.
- A student makes fun of the mad scientist, Doc Hopper.
- Hopper had been a top name in entomology until his crackpot theories got him fired. He now works for Ryan Chemicals.
- Hopper feels credit has always been stolen from him, but he will get the credit for saving mankind from his own giant bugs.
- Iceman has a date with Zelda and Beast with Vera… if they solve the bug mystery fast enough.
- Professor X notes it’s an artificially stimulated mutation; there is a human agent in the picture.
- X-Copter equipped with portable Cerebro which would have detected a mutant presence in a 20-mile radius.
- Jean tells how the giant locust aligns with Dr. Hopper’s theories; Professor X has Warren drive him to Ryan Chemicals.
- Mr. Hamilton is the plant supervisor who greets Xavier and shows him Hopper’s lab.
- Professor X mentally probing machinery, notices locust egg containers missing.
- Locust can fly and has ionic stun gun; exo-shell withstands optic blast.
- Locust summons giant beetle and activates horde of giant wasps.
- Professor X disguises himself as an anachronistic hermit to try to talk the Locust down.
- Cocoon silk entraps Angel.
- Jean realizes the Locust controls insects with his antennae and twists them.
- Locust’s mobile lab is lost, but the X-Men save him. He repents and surrenders to authorities.
| Previous | #551 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Fantastic Four #54 | Reading order | Thor Annual 2 |
| X-Men #23 | X-Men | X-Men #25 |
