X-Men #4

Featuring: X-Men
Release: January 3, 1964
Cover: March 1964
12 cents
Sensational script by: Stan Lee
Dynamic drawings by: Jack Kirby
Imaginative inking by: Paul Reinman
Legible lettering by: Art Simek
23 pages

The Scarlet Witch seems to be wearing green on the cover.

Pedantic notice. The title of this comic is “The X-Men”. After 3 issues, I decided I was tired of typing that. It’s easier to just call it “X-Men”. I will be doing that from now on. Same for “The Avengers”. I’d already been doing that for “The Amazing Spider-Man” without really thinking it through.

I should be paying more attention to the taglines. They are dubbed “X-Men: The most unusual teen-agers of all time!” Last issue had the same subheading. In #2, it was “the strangest super-heroes of all time. The covers of the first two issues dubbed them the “strangest super-heroes of all”.

I feel it should be pointed out that we’ve already met some pretty darn unusual teenagers, notably Human Torch and Spider-Man. So the tagline may be somewhat hyperbolic.

This issue introduces the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Not what I would name my group of mutants. And it’s not clear who, if anybody, named them that. The cover of the comic and the title of the comic call the group that, but the group is not named within the story.

Professor X calls them “evil mutants”, but he has often referred to “evil mutants”. I could never tell if he was speaking generically, or specifically referring to Magneto’s group. I still can’t.

Designation issues aside, introducing a team of villains to battle the X-Men is a good idea, since they themselves are a team. It’s hard to show a team always fighting against a single individual, even though that’s mostly what the Fantastic Four have done. It’s a bit surprising they are yet to come up with a team of villains for them. They’ve come close. Red Ghost had his Super Apes, and that was now four, er, members who could each match one member of the FF. But I have trouble counting that as a team since they are apes. Dr. Doom recruited the Terrible Trio, so again we had 4 people, each meant to face off with one FF member; but that was not so much a team of super-villains as it was Doom and three henchmen.

This is a full-fledged super-villain team. Five characters with distinct powers and outfits, each of whom will be a significant character in their own right. A perfect numeric match for the five X-Men, aside from Professor X. This is a good idea. The Avengers should follow suit.

The powers of the Scarlet Witch have been difficult for people to understand for decades now. Even the filmmakers seemed to struggle with them. This issue won’t give us a full understanding, as we only see her use them twice. She exercises her power by pointing her finger. Wherever she points, a disaster of some scale occurs. She doesn’t seem particularly able to control the type of occurrence, only the location. She must also be careful of idle pointing, lest she accidentally cause disaster.

Quicksilver is very fast. Toad can jump really well, I guess. And Mastermind makes hypnotic illusions.

It interests me where superhero names come from. In these early comics, they didn’t think about it much. It was accepted that everybody should have a codename, so they did. Modern takes and modern movies always want to try to explain. So far, everybody has just come up with their own name, as far as we know. Perhaps Professor X gave some of the X-Men their names. Scarlet Witch was named by the villagers who feared her. She accepted the name they gave her, intended negatively, and claimed it for herself.

This gets us into motivations. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver seem less evil than their teammates. They have specific reasons for working with Magneto. Magneto saved Wanda’s life, and she feels a debt. She serves him to repay that debt. Quicksilver stays for his sister’s sake. His only obligation is to her. He does hate humans, but mostly disagrees with Magneto’s philosophies. In particular, when Magneto plans to set off a nuclear bomb that will devastate the nation, Quicksilver expresses concern for the innocent lives, and ultimately decides to defuse the bomb himself.

Mastermind seems to be just evil, and Toad seems to be a sycophant.

What are Magneto’s philosophies? He sees mutants as a new species, one superior to humans. He therefore thinks mutants should rule the world and humans should be slaves. In this issue, he does a test run of his ideas by conquering and enslaving an entire nation.

My moral and philosophical analysis of Magneto’s position is that he is incorrect.

Magneto and Professor X have an astral meeting to hash out philosophical differences. Professor X says they should work with humanity to usher in a new golden age for all. That sounds better, but I have questions about the details.

So far, Professor X’s only actions have involved recruiting teenage mutants and training them as a paramilitary organization to hunt other mutants, including mutants who commit crimes and mutants who simply refuse to join his paramilitary organization. All while lusting after his teenage student.

Professor X has also spoken about how humans will hate and fear mutants, but we’ve seen very little evidence of that. Angel is beloved by teenage girls. Everybody from citizens to the military are always thankful to the X-Men. The FBI and military work closely with Professor X and have given the X-Men special licenses and clearances, including access to classified information.

The only real indication we’ve seen of any negative reaction to mutants is Scarlet Witch getting attacked by villagers for being a witch. But those people were Europeans, who are known to be backward and superstitious.

I thought it would be fun to look at the cinematic renderings of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But then it occurred to me that I hadn’t even looked at the big screen versions of the X-Men yet. For whatever reason, I’ve been more inclined to share the movie versions of minor characters rather than major ones. Hela and Dum-Dum Duggan over Thor or Spider-Man. Maybe I just had too many other things to say when Spider-Man got introduced.

The first X-Men film came out in 2000, more than 30 years after this story. In that time, many more X-Men and evil mutants were introduced. But let’s peek at the screen versions of the ones we’ve seen so far. In 2011, X-Men: First Class gave us a soft reboot of the franchise, set earlier in the careers of the X-Men. Hence, we have two actors for many of the characters. Quicksilver is a special case, as complicated legal negotiations between Disney and 20th Century Fox allowed him to appear in both the X-Men and the Avengers franchises. Scarlet Witch has only appeared in the Avengers franchise, though there are hints of her in the X-Men franchise. There is a character in X2: X-Men United (2003) who is based partially on Mastermind, but different enough that I’ll leave him out.

I’ll note the film where each actor was introduced and the year if we haven’t already seen it.

Professor X, played by Patrick Stewart (X-Men) and James McAvoy (X-Men: First Class).

Cyclops, played by James Marsden (X-Men) and Tye Sheridan (X-Men: Apocalypse, 2016).

Marvel Girl, though never called by that name, portrayed by Famke Janssen (X-Men) and Sophie Turner (X-Men: Apocalypse).

Angel, portrayed by Ben Foster (X-Men: The Last Stand, 2006) and Ben Hardy (X-Men: Apocalypse).

Beast had a cameo appearance in X2: X-Men United portrayed by Steve Bacic. He had major roles by Kelsey Grammar (X-Men: The Last Stand) and Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class). Kelsey Grammar only appeared in the blue-furred form we have not yet seen in the comics.

Iceman, portrayed by Shawn Ashmore (X-Men).

Magneto, portrayed by Ian McKellen (X-Men) and Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class).

Toad, portrayed by Ray Park (X-Men) and briefly portrayed by Evan Jonigkeit (X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2014).

Quicksilver, portrayed by Evan Peters (X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Aaron Taylor-Johson, introduced fully in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) after a cameo appearance in Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014). I’m not sure if any movie has bothered to call him Quicksilver, usually just referring to him as Peter or Pietro.

Scarlet Witch, portrayed by Elizabeth Olsen, introduced alongside Quicksilver, and never referred to as Scarlet Witch.

Rating: ★★★☆☆, 57/100
Significance: ★★★★★

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men vol. 1. You can also find this story in X-Men Epic Collection vol. 1: Children of the Atom. Or on Kindle.

Characters:

• Marvel Girl/Jean Grey
• Professor X
• Iceman/Bobby Drake
• Cyclops
• Angel
• Beast/Hank McCoy
• Toad
• Quicksilver/Pietro
• Scarlet Witch/Wanda
• Mastermind
• Magneto/The Leader

Story notes:

• They note it is 1 year since the class began. That probably does not indicate 1 year since X-Men #1, when Jean arrived, but whenever the first student arrived.
• Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are siblings.
• Mastermind turns Toad into a pig–but it’s only a hypnotic illusion.
• Mastermind flirts with Scarlet Witch; this angers her.
• When Scarlet Witch points her finger, a disaster occurs; Wanda pointing causes jar to spill; another time, the ceiling caved in.
• Magneto referred to as “the Leader”.
• Quicksilver has super speed.
• We see the office of large shipping line examining bids for ex-convoy freighter with cannons on her deck.
• Magneto holds humans in place with band of magnetic force.
• Angel on routine long-range test flight.
• Jean assisting Professor X with some type of lab work.
• Wanda has debt to Magneto; Pietro stays to watch over her.
• Wanda from “heart of Europe”.
• Villagers nicknamed Wanda “Scarlet Witch”.
• Magneto saved Wanda from frightened villagers “not long ago”.
• Magneto thinks mutants must rule the earth with humans as slaves.
• Quicksilver not sold on Magneto’s ideas, but also dislikes humans and stays to protect his sister.
• Brotherhood has base on fortified isle.
• Magneto and his evil mutants conquer tiny South American republic of San Marco.
• Huntley-Brinkley Report reference. Second in as many issues.
• Mastermind creates illusion of Magneto’s army; Magneto soon recruits real army.
• San Marco under Magneto’s control; borders closed.
• Magneto and Mastermind seem evil; Scarlet Witch feels indebted, but often questions Magneto’s methods.
• Cyclops describes his blast as a “force beam”. He has previously called it an energy beam. Force and energy are not the same thing.
• Magneto sets two bombs, one which should destroy the X-Men, and a nuclear backup that will destroy the entire nation. Quicksilver expresses concern for the innocents.
• Professor X loses powers in explosion.
• Quicksilver defuses nuclear bomb.

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