Featuring: X-Men
Release: September 1, 1966
Cover: November 1966
12 cents
Editing.. Stan Lee
Script.. Roy Thomas
Art… Werner Roth
Inks.. Dick Ayers
Lettering… Sam Rosen
Mayan headdresses… Irving Forbush
20 pages
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|---|---|---|
| X-Men #25 | Reading order | Strange Tales #150 |
| X-Men #25 | X-Men | X-Men #27 |
I hate to sound like a poor man’s Hawkeye, but I can’t seem to stop myself! Why should Jean prefer Scott over me?
Last issue, the gem-hunter El Tigre found a pendant which transformed him into the Mayan feathered-serpent god Kukulcán. He now has the power of the sun. Which sounds pretty powerful.
This seems to be basically what happened to Don Blake. He found a mystic artifact and now finds himself the avatar for a god.
Jean is not with the X-Men on their adventure, as she is back at college. Her friend Ted Roberts introduces her to Calvin Rankin. Of course she and we recognize Cal as the Mimic. However, Xavier had wiped Cal’s memories (he likes to do that), so Cal doesn’t recognize Jean. This is a hint that the Mimic will return next issue.
Cyclops had fired an optic blast off Kukulcán, but it bounced off the god and instead hit Cyclops himself with double force. Had it been anybody else, that may have been fatal. But Cyclops possesses a degree of immunity to his own optic blasts. It hurt him, but not as much as it might have.
The drama is heating up. Scott has resolved to tell Jean how he feels. Warren is jealous of Jean’s affection for Scott, and is thus a jerk to Scott. He does apologize for this, and compares himself to Hawkeye, who had been similarly challenging to Captain America’s leadership of the Avengers. No woman involved there, though.
It seems like it’s all going to work out until Cyclops hits Angel with his optic blasts. It was an accident; he was aiming for Kukulcán. But Angel thinks otherwise. What do Iceman and Beast think?
Anyways, there is an earthquake. With the idol swallowed by the earth, Kukulcán reverts into El Tigre. Like when Thor drops his hammer.
Cyclops carries a wounded Angel Pietà-style.
My vocabulary word of the day is: stela.
Rating: ★★½, 47/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in X-Men Epic Collection vol. 2: Lonely are the Hunted.
Characters:
- Professor X
- Kukulcán/El Tigre
- Cyclops
- Ramon
- Toloc
- Iceman
- Angel
- Beast
- Marvel Girl/Jean Grey
- Ted Roberts
- Calvin “Cal” Rankin/Mimic
Minor characters:
- Albert (Midwesterner)
- Barney (Midwesterner)
- Juan (San Rican peasant)
- Pedro (San Rican peasant)
Story notes:
- Cerebro shows image of Kukulcán to Xavier. He radiates unspeakable evil.
- Kukulcán plans to conquer the world, the birthright of the Mayans.
- Cyclops’ beams deflect off Kukulcán and hit himself with double force.
- Not appreciating he’s now a god, Kukulcán’s men turn on him.
- Kukulcán unleashes the energy of the sun.
- Kukulcán must replenish powers by returning to their source. A sphere of solar force transports him.
- Ramon and Toloc unconscious. Professor X directs the awakened X-Men to Rendezvous Point C.
- Ted introduces Jean to Cal Rankin. Jean recognizes him as the Mimic. Professor X had removed his memory of the encounter, but he gets a strange feeling he knew Jean.
- Jean visits the mansion to bring a selection of Pre-Columbian works from the Metro College Library.
- Legend of curse of the pendant may be from a volcano which covered a Mayan city.
- Cyclops possesses a certain degree of immunity to his own optic blasts, but they still hurt him.
- The X-Men leave for San Rico; Jean returns to college.
- Cyclops resolves to tell Jean how he feels.
- Kukulcán finds Solar Stone, which will restore the Mayan empire.
- Solar Stone absorbs sun’s energy and transfers it to Pendant of Power.
- All descendants of the Mayans called to Kukulcán’s city.
- Soon people are mining for gold or acting as soldiers for Kukulcán.
- X-Men take boat to Kukulcán’s city and are attacked by a jaguar.
- Beast mistakes boa constrictor for vine.
- X-Men land in a trap of Kukulcán’s, guarded by Indians who speak Mayathan.
- X-Men battle Kukulcán. Iceman tries to cover Solar Stone with ice.
- Cyclops blasts at Kukulcán, but accidentally strikes Angel.
- Kukulcán’s solar bolt strikes a faultline, and creates an earthquake.
- Angel claims Cyclops struck him deliberately because of Jean.
| Previous | #613 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| X-Men #25 | Reading order | Strange Tales #150 |
| X-Men #25 | X-Men | X-Men #27 |
Well, leaving aside the craziness of this story and how it doesn’t seem to fit with the X-Men, Kukulcan’s involvement is disappointing. You’d expect a being on the same level as Thor or Hercules, he should be a more difficult opponent for the X-Men, maybe like Juggernaut; but he felt more like a generic enemy of the week. The only X-Men who got hurt was Angel and that was more Cyclops’ fault than Kukulcan’s… In fact, at this point the love triangle between Cyclops, Jean and Angel is getting annoying and would get much worse as the years went by, replacing Angel with a Canadian mutant and getting to the point where the Cyclops thing seemed more like an obsession than a crush. Maybe it would have been a good idea to have Jean to fall in love with Ted Roberts, who seemed like a nice guy, to break up the love triangle and bring a new dynamic to the show, maybe strengthening Cyclops and Angel’s friendship so they could get over Jean and move on.
I will say that at least this issue has forward progress on the love triangle. A lot of them seem to be in holding patterns. But Cyclops deciding to tell Jean how he feels is a step forward. If he ever does it, at least.