Featuring: X-Men
Release: January 10, 1967
Cover: March 1967
12 cents
Stan Lee, editor
Roy Thomas, scripter
Jack Sparling, designer
John Tartaglione, delineator
Artie Simek, letterer
Irv Forbush, manicurist
20 pages
| Previous | #660 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales to Astonish #91, Story B | Reading order | Sgt. Fury #40 |
| X-Men #29 | X-Men | X-Men #31 |
Because it pleases me, I shall explain my master plan to you…
Last month we saw Jack Sparling drawn a Captain America story.
This is his second Marvel work, and his last one for a very long time.
Sparling is drawing some uniquely structured pages compared to the rest of our Marvel reading.
We’re up to the 660th entry in our read-through of the Marvel Universe. I’ve been scoring every story out of 100 points. It’s a loose system. Every 10 points correponds to a half-star in my ratings. The lowest score I’ve given is 20 points, which I’ve given to two comics.
One of which was the battle of Thor vs. Merlin in Journey Into Mystery #96.
And then I have a significance score, out of 5 stars. 5 stars means essential to anyone who wants to know Marvel. The most famous stories, and introductions of the most famous characters. 4 stars is the second tier of essential, introductions of important characters or comics with far-reaching consequences. 3 stars is what I give to most comics, comics which matter in some way to the larger story of the Marvel Universe, and seem an important part of an MU read-through. 2 stars for the comics you wouldn’t noticed you’d skipped. And 1 star for the comics where a read-through of the Marvel Universe would make more sense if you didn’t read them.
I gave that Thor comic 1 star in significance.
Because its treatment of Merlin is hard to reconcile with the Marvel Universe in general. We read as a prelude Black Knight #1, in which Merlin was a hero. The 1950s comics aren’t necessarily part of our canon, but when we meet Marvel’s third Black Knight, that version of Merlin will become important. We’ve seen other versions of Merlin as well in the “weird tales”, that again aren’t necessarily canon.
The only Marvel Age mention of Merlin comes from Incredible Hulk #5, where we learn Merlin had sentenced Tyrannus to his fate. That Hulk comic came out before the Thor comic, and so is in my mind more canon. And they are already hard to reconcile.
The Thor comic revealed Merlin was a mutant. It amuses me that the comic came out the same day as X-Men #1, which introduced a bunch of mutants. But also the same day as Fantastic Four Annual 1. Which described Namor as a mutant. So mutants were really in on July 2, 1963.
To my mind, comics like that Thor story should just be thrown out. Just pretend they don’t exist. And the Marvel Universe reads better.
Roy Thomas can’t do that. Roy wants everything to be canon and everything to be reconciled. Thor fought a Merlin who was revealed to be a mutant? He’s writing a comic about mutants? He can’t help himself but tie these things together.
But my desire to forget that Thor comic exists then infects this X-Men comic and makes me want to forget it exists.
So I go into this comic in a pretty bad mood.
But taken on its own terms, this comic is also not very good.
Merlin starts calling himself the Warlock and has kidnapped Jean Grey to be his bride. Because he’s smitten with her.
But then who isn’t smitten with Jean? Well, Iceman isn’t.
The Warlock has three scientifically created winged horses. The last time we saw a scientifically created winged horse, it was from the Black Knight. Did one’s research inspire the other, or were these horses developed in parallel?
Part of why that Thor comic was dumb was it had a dumb ending. Merlin was so freaked out by Thor turning into Don Blake that he put himself back into another thousand year coma.
At least Roy seems to agree that ending wasn’t very good, and we learn Merlin was just tricking Thor, and biding his time. He awakened because Thor had been off-planet for weeks. Thor was off-planet a long time in the Thor comics, but recently returned in Thor #140. That comic was released 2 months after this one, so Thor had been off-planet when this comic was released. We read that Thor comic early to make room for his Avengers meeting and get all the Secret Empire/AIM craziness in order.
Does Merlin’s comment imply this comic comes out before Thor #140? I don’t think so necessarily. I think he awakened prior to Thor’s return to Earth, but it’s taken him a bit of time to recruit his criminal army and build his fancy machine and such.
The Warlock has a machine to revert the world to a medieval state, so he’ll be able to conquer it easily. And he has hired a gang of hoodlums and disguised them as knights.
When the X-Men follow him to save Jean, the Warlock puts them into a tournament. Because.
Jean is under the Warlock’s spell, and the Warlock is a threat to the entire world.
“I only pray I don’t have to choose between her fate and that of a planet,” muses Cyclops. Don’t worry, Cyclops. I’m sure that will never happen.
“Not even a mutant can attack and defend at the same time!” That seems like quite the generalization, Cyclops. What if the mutant had claws and a healing factor?
This time the Warlock won’t be defeated as easily. Well, until Beast pulls his cloak over his face. And so the world is saved. Plus some mental powers of Professor X to put him back into a coma for another thousand years. Or 17 issues.
Unfortunately, Roy Thomas will pit the Warlock against the X-Men again in the not-too-distant future. Not looking forward to that comic.
“I’m still not exactly sure what happened,” says Iceman. Neither am I, Iceman. Neither am I.
Jean begins to suspect Scott does love her. But why would he not have told her?
It’s January 1967. Let’s take a walk around the newsstand with the help of Mike’s Amazing World and the Grand Comics Database.
- Archie’s Joke Book #110, Archie
- Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #1, Charlton
- Sweethearts #92, Charlton
- Batman #190, DC
- Flash #168, DC
- Inferior Five #1, DC
- Flying Saucers #1, Dell
- The Monroes #1, Dell
- Beep Beep the Roadrunner #3, Gold Key
- The Owl #1, Gold Key
- Turok, Son of Stone #56, Gold Key
- Richie Rich Millions #23, Harvey
I’ll note that The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves includes a story by our friend Steve Ditko!
Rating: ★½, 28/100
Significance: ★☆☆☆☆
Scans come from a reprint in X-Men #78, 1972.
Characters:
- Beast/Hank McCoy
- Cyclops/Scott/”Cyke”
- Iceman/Bobby Drake
- Marvel Girl/Jean Grey
- Angel/Warren
- Professor X/Professor Xavier
- Merlin the Magician/The Warlock
Story notes:
- X-Men still recuperating from battle with Super-Adaptoid, and now training in the Danger Room when they are attacked by a giant glowing hand.
- Iceman suspects Magneto is behind this, but he’s a prisoner of the Stranger.
- Jean and Professor X are transported to a void.
- The reprint in X-Men #78 makes a note to differentiate this Warlock from Adam Warlock. The note is not in the original, as we are still about 6 months away from that Warlock’s introduction, and further away from when he adopts the name Warlock.
- Jean is under Warlock’s control. Professor X has been sapped of his powers. Angel has made his way to Warlock’s void.
- Warlock employs modern criminals, dressed as knights but armed with modern weapons.
- Warlock has a machine he will use to conquer the world. Machine will revert minds of humanity backward to the level at the time of King Arthur, leaving them unable to oppose his conquest of the planet.
- Angel deduces Warlock can only control one mind at a time.
- Warlock commands Marvel Girl to telekinetically stop the Angel.
- Warlock sets Angel’s wings on fire. Actually, it was just the power of suggestion.
- Professor X’s powers return, so Warlock immobilizes Marvel Girl.
- Warlock’s self-teleportation power is not at its peak, but he can traverse short distances.
- Professor X manages to summon the rest of the X-Men from Negative Space.
- Warlock has quasi-hypnotic abilities. Most of what appears to be happening is in their mind.
- Warlock prepares tournament for the X-Men. If they survive, he will cancel his plans for world domination. “The Tournament of Time”.
- They fight an assortment of hoods dressed as medieval foes, horsemen, archers, etc.
- Professor X and Warlock mental powers at stalemate; Jean starting to resist Warlock’s control.
- Beast can gain a toehold on virtually any surface.
- Warlock is ultimately defeated by Beast pulling his cloak over his face. Then Professor X puts him back in a coma.
- Professor X reminds us of the looming threat of Factor Three.
| Previous | #660 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales to Astonish #91, Story B | Reading order | Sgt. Fury #40 |
| X-Men #29 | X-Men | X-Men #31 |
