Featuring: X-Men
Release: September 1, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Inker: Chic Stone
Letter: S. Rosen
20 pages
| Previous | #270 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Fantastic Four #32 | Reading order | Sgt. Fury #12 |
| X-Men #7 | X-Men | X-Men #9 |
The X-Men are no longer students, but the status quo hasn’t changed much. They now train for missions; their training sessions look very similar to the classes they used to take. Professor X is still away and Cyclops is in charge; so he is running the training session. Hence, he is in a suit rather than a uniform. So you know he’s in charge.
Iceman practices making his body icier. As he does, some of the smoothness fades, allowing defined corners within his now icy body. These are the first hints of a new look forming. Iceman’s visual evolution is similar to Thing’s, going from a softer ill-defined look to lots of defining lines and corners.
It’s weird that Iceman is described as transparent and compared to the Invisible Girl. I usually think of the ice as a layer around him; they seem to be suggesting his insides are turning to ice as well, though the art indicates nothing of the kind.
Cyclops and Jean have a relationship pretty common in these comics. Both have feelings for the other but can’t admit it. Jean because she’s a girl, and Cyclops because he has to focus on being the leader now.
We get the strongest hint yet that the X-Men aren’t well-respected; Xavier noted in the first issue they would be feared and hated, but most evidence has suggested the opposite, particularly the government support for the team. But now when Beast saves a child, an angry mob attacks him for no particular reason. This leads Beat to quitting the X-Men, tired of defending humans who “hate us, fear us, want to destroy us!”
Beast’s departure leads Cyclops to contact Professor X with Cerebro. We find Professor X in a cave in the Balkans on the trail of Lucifer. He doesn’t literally mean the devil, but a villain by that name we’ll meet soon enough.
The Beast is now a professional wrestler under the stage-name “Beast”. Mastermind is in the audience but doesn’t recognize him. How many people with giant feet who call themselves Beast are there?
Unus is desperate to join Magneto’s band. Why? Good pay? Benefits? But Magneto isn’t just accepting anybody anymore. Unus needs to prove himself. I have questions. First of all, the whole point had seemed to be that Magneto and Xavier were competing to recruit mutants to their cause. So it’s weird that Magneto now treats his organization as exclusive.
Second weird thing–though it will become an oddly common trope–is the inappropriate admissions test. Unus just has to defeat the X-Men to prove he’s worthy of joining the Evil Mutants. How can that be a criterion? The entire team has repeatedly failed to defeat the X-Men. How can they insist every new recruit do the one thing they’ve repeatedly failed to do? It would be like the Avengers’ adding an admission criterion that you’ve got to beat the Hulk, despite the whole team only fighting him to a standstill themselves on 6 occasions.
Unus’ mutant powers make him untouchable. Any attempt to punch him or fire an energy blast at him just bounces off.
As MC Hammer would say: U can’t touch this!
Beast’s plan is actually rather clever. Increase Unus’ powers to the point where he is unable to touch anything, including food.
But perhaps somebody could explain to me how Beast was able to hit Unus with his power-increasing ray when nothing else, including Cyclops’ energy blasts, could get near him.
Since this was a Beast-focused issue, it’s appropriate it ends with a Beast pin-up.
While we’ve peeked ahead a bit to finish stories that had already started it’s now officially September, so let’s glance through September’s other offerings.
Over at the Distinguished Competition, Aquaman (basically an off-brand Sub-Mariner) is named King of Atlantis and marries Mera, perhaps the first superhero wedding. Brian Cronin talks about the strange wedding here.
Meanwhile the first episode of the new animated series Jonny Quest is adapted into comic book form by Gold Key. The show was created by the great Doug Wildey. I’ve always had a fondness for the show, though it’s well before my time.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 55/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
Scans are mostly taken from a reprint in X-Men: The Early Years #8 (1994).
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:
- Angel
- Marvel Girl
- Cyclops
- Beast
- Iceman
- Professor X
- Unus
- Mastermind
Minor characters:
- Maxie (Unus’ trainer)
Story notes:
- Full title: The Uncanny Threat of… “Unus, the Untouchable!”
- Cyclops unable to admit his love for Jean; Jean loves him but fears it’s not reciprocated.
- Angry mob attacks Beast after he saves a child.
- Iceman and Beast were on way to coffee shop, perhaps the same one we’ve seen before.
- Cyclops uses Cerebro to contact Professor X.
- Professor X in a cave in the Balkans.
- Professor X trusts Beast will not join the Evil Mutants.
- Professor X on the trail of Lucifer.
- Beast becomes pro wrestler, a successful “villain”.
- Beast wrestles Unus, who he deduces is a mutant. Mastermind is in the audience to recruit Unus.
- Unus steals money from bank robbers; Cerebro detected his presence.
- No attack can touch Unus the Untouchable.
- Beast creates ray to increase Unus’ power; the X-Men think he’s betrayed them.
| Previous | #270 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Fantastic Four #32 | Reading order | Sgt. Fury #12 |
| X-Men #7 | X-Men | X-Men #9 |
