X-Men Primer - Part 2

I am a huge X-Men fan, if I haven't made that clear already. The pride of my collection is a recent acquisition. It cost me $100 and it isn't even old. It's an 849-page, hardbound X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1. There is no volume two... not yet anyway, but you can bet I'll be waiting for it.

The first time that this edition was released, I missed it and it drove me crazy. The moment I spotted a copy in the comic store, I knew I had to have it... and wouldn't you know it? My debit card was rejected. I tried to withdraw cash, the bank confiscated my card, and I found out the bank had issued me a new card, canceled my old one, not told me about it, and not shipped me my new card. Fortunately, once I got this all resolved, the comic hadn't sold, but I was terrified that it would be.

On the dust jacket of this edition is the original cover to Giant-Size X-Men #1, the issue which ended the X-Men's hiatus in reprints and cameos in other books. During this period, the Beast had a brief run in Amazing Adventures as a semi-horror character. To suit his new series, a story was concocted in Amazing Adventures #11 whereby Hank starts working at the Brand Corporation, a genetics research facility, where Hank develops a serum to turn humans into mutants for short periods of time, but when he takes it himself, Hank turns into much more of a beast than he was before with gray fur, fangs, and claws. After his fur turned a more child-friendly blue, the Beast came to join Marvel's foremost superhero team, the Avengers.

Although the X-Men are my favorite, the Beast being in the Avengers always struck me as being particularly cool. I'm not sure why, but if I had to guess, it's probably because the Avengers were the best of the best taking on the worst of the worst. The idea that Hank was smart and strong enough to deal with both Earth-shattering crisises and the more subtle type of social engineering that the X-Men work on made perfect sense. (Much later, Wolverine joined the Avengers, but that was entirely motivated by sales.)

It should be noted that in early Marvel Comics, time passed much differently than they do now. Nowadays, time passes to a crawl and how much time has passed is always determined retrospectively. Often this estimate is revised as well. For instance, in X-Men #1 (1963) the X-Men range from age 15-17. In X-Men #5, they graduate from the Xavier School, but in 1973, the Hank McCoy is said to be twenty. Now, thirty years later, the original class is in their mid-twenties, although extremely accomplished for being so young.

In October 1974, Wolverine first appeared in the final page of The Incredible Hulk #180 (although his first appearance is generally credited to #181). The Hulk encountered a super-powered cannibal spirit named Wendigo in the wilds of darkest Canada. The nefarious Canadian government sends their secret Weapon X to take down the Hulk, but he goes by The Wolverine. (Check out the whiskers on the mask!) Their fight ends more or less in a stalemate with Wolverine badly bruised and not much of interest happening. (Incidentally, this accounts for about half of the plot to the recent Hulk vs Wolverine animated movie.)

Now that you are caught up, let me explain to you why a this volume begins with Giant-Size X-Men #1 and not X-Men #1.

The All-New, All Different X-Men

The X-Men as we know them didn't begin to take form until 1975 with Giant-Size X-Men #1 by writer Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. For the first time since their creation, the X-Men were getting a very different team roster, however this would only be the beginning. The biggest difference from the old team is that the new one reflected an ethnically and religiously diverse cast from around the globe.

The story begins in Germany where we find a demonic-looking man by the name of Kurt Wagner leaping across rooftops away from a torch-wielding mob. Backed into a corner, exhausted, and unable to convince them to leave him in peace, he leaps into the crowd gradually beaten down until Professor Xavier arrives and commands them all to stop. Next, Professor X goes to Quebec to recruit Wolverine... who resigns by cutting his commanding officer's tie in half. In Kenya, the Professor meets Ororo, worshipped in her tribe as a goddess for her ability to control the weather. On the Ust-Ordynski collective in Siberia, he meets a farmer's son who can turn his body into solid steel. And a little closer to home in Arizona, he meets John Proudstar whose strength and speed is greater than that of a raging bison as he demonstrates. He has a huge chip on his shoulder due to the way his people have been treated, but with a little white man's trickery, Xavier gets him to join up. Really getting jet-lagged by now, he also visits the Japanese fire-mutant Shiro "Sunfire" Yashida and reluctant X-Men enemy Sean Cassiday, the sonic-screaming Banshee. After quickly hiring a team of custom fashion designers to create original costumes for the new guys (and a new mask for Wolverine while they were at it), Professor X christening them Colossus, Storm, Thunderbird, and Nightcrawler. Together, they known as "The All-New, All-Different" X-Men (due to the covers declaring them so).

I've always felt, to some extent, that this incarnation was inspired by Star Trek and it's heavy-handed approach to diversity. Although it is indeed heavy-handed, there is something charming and indeed inspiring about seeing such strange and different people who are picked to live in a house and see what happens when people stop being nice and start--

Hey! This was the original Real World!

In all seriousness, for the first time the X-Men didn't get along and that was part of the fun. Thunderbird was just a jerk who assumed everyone was racist. Wolverine just liked to pick fights with everyone. Sunfire didn't want to be there from the beginning. Cyclops was struggling to keep them all together as the only remaining member of the original team.

Speaking of Cyclops, the story begins when it is revealed that the X-Men (with the exception of Beast and inclusion of Havok and Polaris) have been lost on the isle of Krakoa where they had gone to find a mutant whose power levels were off the charts. Only Scott managed to escape, but could not remember how. Xavier recruited this new team to save the old.

They arrive on Krakoa to find various bizarre monsters and after showcasing their powers (including Nightcrawler's ability to teleport in a puff of sulfer), they come to find their missing X-Men being fed on by vines of some sort. They soon discover that the mutant they detected was Krakoa itself (how this works, I never could figure out). After a big battle, they combine their powers and fling it into space thereby either killing a new and unique species or leaving it in limbo for eternity. On their way home Angel asks the question that readers had to have been asking by this point, "What are we going to do with thirteen X-Men?"

Starting with issue #94, Chris Claremont took over the writing on the X-Men. His first two issues were plotted by the previous writer, Len Wein, and so they don't exactly reflect Claremont's personal writing style. At the beginning of this issue, they start widdling down the team. Sunfire is the first to quit, but that's no surprise considering he nearly chickened out of the first fight. Banshee tries to quit, but Xavier talks him out of it. Finally, Angel announces that he and all of the old X-Men are leaving to lead their own lives as adults... everyone but Cyclops who stays on to lead the new team.

In a nutshell, this story is about Count Nefaria and his Ani-Men taking over NORAD and threatening the world with its nuclear arsenal. It always seemed like more of an Avengers plot to me, but it was little more than an opportunity to showcase the new team consisting of Cyclops, Banshee, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Thunderbird and Wolverine. The single-notable characteristic of this storyline (other than being Chris Claremont's debut... sort of) is that it features one of the first long-lasting character deaths when Thunderbird is caught in an explosion while chasing Count Nefaria. Although his name and costume has been reused over the years, this character remains dead... a rarity in comics.

Why Thunderbird? Well, because he didn't have any characteristics (other than racial) that the others couldn't duplicate. Colossus was stronger, Nightcrawler was more acrobatic, Wolverine had that animal fury and acted like a jerk. Thunderbird was pretty redundant, but he would be remembered as the first casualty of the X-Men... though not the last.

Chris Claremont's first issue as solitary writer was X-Men #96 which served as a memorial issue for Thunderbird. It is a more or less forgettable issue except for the introduction of Charles Xavier's best friend and former lover Moira MacTaggert, a Scottish biologist. Moira is one of the few humans to become a part of the X-Men family. In her first appearance, she fights off a demon with an AK-47. Banshee fell in love immediately.

This issue also introduced Storm's severe claustrophobia. I always enjoyed this aspect of her character. Although it was explained due to her tragic past, I like how the X-Men's powers often effect their personality. Storm hates confined spaces because she is psychically connected to the atmosphere. Cyclops is incredibly restrained because he is an unstable weapon. Nightcrawler is so kind and gregarious because he wants people to see past his demonic appearance.

Allow me to take a brief moment to talk about Chris Claremont because he was the sole X-Men writer for sixteen years writing almost two hundred issues of Uncanny X-Men and more X-Men spin-offs than I can count. More than any artist before or since, Claremont defined the X-Men and was responsible for their incredible success. With Len Wein's plots and Thunderbird's funeral out of the way, Chris Claremont began to lay the groundwork for the X-Men's most famous and popular storyline of all time.

The Phoenix Saga

X-Men #97 begins with Charles Xavier having fevered nightmares of an intergalactic civil war and a lone traveler reaching out for him. The experience leaves him shaken and wondering if he is losing his mind. Meanwhile, Alex "Havok" Summers and Lorna "Polaris" Dane are settling into civilian life when they are attacked by a mysterious stranger calling himself Eric the Red. Taking control of their minds, Eric the Red uses Havok and Polaris to attack the X-Men as they visit Jean Grey at the airport. Hurt and angry, but not defeated, the X-Men manage to repel the attack, but not save their friends from mind control.

In the next issue, it's Christmas in New York City and the X-Men are having a night on the town when the Sentinels attack without warning (which is generally the smarter way of attacking). After a brief fight, Jean, Banshee, Wolverine, and Professor X are taken prisoner on an orbital space station. The remaining X-Men fortunately have a very influential friend in the space program and soon the remaining X-Men, along with pilot Peter Corbeau, are in a space shuttle bound for the space station and racing against a major solar flare soon to hit Earth. With a few twists and turns along the way, the X-Men manage to rescue their comrades and escape in the shuttle they arrived in, yet the shuttle's autopilot had been damaged in the fight and the solar flare was about to hit any moment requiring the crew to ride in the shuttle's better shielded "life-cell," but without autopilot, there would be no one who could both survive the radiation and land the shuttle. No one except Jean. Telepathically borrowing Corbeau's piloting skills and knocking Scott unconscious when he tries to argue with her, Jean sends the others to the life-cell while she pilots the ship, protecting herself with a telekinetic shield, knowing full well that while her powers may protect her long enough to land the shuttle, they won't save her life. As she flies the shuttle down, she can feel the radiation coming through her shield and she cries out both physically and mentally.

In the following issue, #101, the shuttle crashes along the runway at JFK Airport, sliding across the tarmac into Jamaica Bay. The shuttle quickly sinks into the water, but the X-Men manage to reach the surface... all but Jean, but before they can do anything, Jean shoots up from the bay wearing a new costume, new attitude, and calling herself Phoenix.

Immediately, Jean collapses into the water and is rushed to a hospital. The doctor determines that she will be okay, although she has not yet regained consciousness, and Xavier can't help her because everytime he uses his powers his "nightmares" reappear. Meanwhile, Wolverine has discovered not only that he has feelings for Jean, but they are stronger than any he has known. On his way to visiting Jean in the hospital, he picks up a bunch of flowers, but when he arrives, he realizes he isn't the only one who loves Jean. The rest of the X-Men are already there and he tosses the flowers in the trash can.

While Scott, Xavier, and Moira stay with Jean, Xavier suggests that the others take a well-earned break and so they decide to vacation in Banshee's ancestral home of Cassidy Keep in Ireland. (Apparently Eddie Izzard is right. We do think they all live in castles.) They aren't there long before they discover that the castle has been claimed by Banshee's cousin, Black Tom (not to be confused with Uncle Tom, who is black) and the X-Men's old rival Juggernaut... although these X-Men had never faced him before.

During the fight, Ororo suffers a claustrophobic attack giving us a nice little flashback into her past. We learn that her father was David Monroe, an American photo journalist from Harlem, and her mother was N'Dare, an African princess. Both were killed in Cairo by a downed French plane in the Suez War. Ororo was trapped with the dead body of her mother for hours. She managed to escape and learned to become a beggar and a thief only to leave for the Serengati where she became a mutant and was worshipped as a goddess.

After a hard fought battle, Banshee manages to toss Black Tom over the castle wall and into the ocean where Juggernaut dives in to rescue him claiming that Tom was his only friend. Soon after, Moira MacTaggert calls the X-Men to alert them that an alarm has sounded at her genetic research facility on Muir Island off the coast of Scotland. The X-Men arrive to find Magneto has taken over. In his last appearance in a different comic, Magneto had been reverted to infancy, but Eric the Red restored him to a more vital age with his powers at their peak. The new X-Men, with the steel-skinned Colossus and adamantium-clawed Wolverine, don't fair well against Magneto and barely escape with their lives leaving Muir Island to their enemy.

A cryptic little message accompanies this storyline which the creators would not follow up on for nearly two years. Namely, what is Mutant X? (Of all the X-Men villains, X-Men director Bryan Singer named this one, who only appeared in one story, as his favorite.)

Jean awakens from her coma, able to become the Phoenix again with but a thought, just as Xavier's mysterious alien visitor finally meets him in person. Although she doesn't speak English, Xavier instinctively knows that her name is Lilandra. Soon they learn that she is the princess of a powerful intergalactic empire known as the Shi'ar. She is, for lack of a better word, Xavier's soulmate sharing a connection that she has followed across the universe knowing that his X-Men could help her stop her mad tyrant of a brother, D'Ken, from possessing the all-powerful M'Kraan Crystal. Eric the Red was sent to prevent this from happening and, true to his work, he shows up just in time to kidnap Lilandra and escape through an intergalactic stargate. Using the awesome and vaguely defined powers of the Phoenix, Jean manages to recharge the device and the X-Men jump through, not knowing what will be on the other side.

In a story titled "Where No X-Man Has Gone Before," the X-Men face the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, a large team of diverse superpowered aliens under the command of Emperor D'Ken. Jean is down from the effort of powering the stargate and the X-Men are hopelessly outnumbered by the well-trained Imperial Guard. Nightcrawler teleports to Lilandra's aid while Wolverine loses his costume and steals a new one. The X-Men do their best, but they are quickly defeated... only to be saved at the last instant by the mysterious space pirates known by their vessel as the Starjammers. Led by the human Corsair, the crew consists of his cyborg officer Raza, the feline-humanoid Hepzibah, and the giant reptilian Ch'od.

The tide of battle turns, but too late as the stars align, granting D'Ken the power of the crystal. Reality bends not only around them, but the entire universe begins to blink out of existence. The crystal is protected only by the midget Jahf who, with one punch, knocks Wolverine into orbit forcing the Starjammers to go retrieve him. Phoenix marshalls her strength and drops an asteroid on him, but it isn't before Banshee screams himself hoarse that he goes down.

Upon touching the crystal, they find themselves in a city inside the crystal where laws of space and time no longer apply. Jean reaches for a light in the center of the courtyard sensing a connection between the Phoenix and the crystal saying "Reality as we know it has no meaning here. And within this sphere is the heart of it all. I can feel life, Scott, and pain. Something is calling to me. Scott, I sense such... beauty." Suddenly, she triggers something and they all experience their worst fear. Jean suddenly realized that her own fear of death had gone when she had died, making her immune to the effect.

As the sphere cracks, Phoenix wraps her bird form around it to try to keep it from breaking and preventing a second big bang. Still, she lacks the power and it is only with the help of Ororo and Corsair that she manages to find it. As she leaves, she says, "Look after Cyclops for me, Corsair. He's the man I love, but he's also your first-born son." She becomes the Phoenix again and becomes the crystal even as she becomes the universe and life itself seeing her X-Men in mythic patterns. As suddenly as they left, the X-Men return to Earth, leaving D'Ken comatose and the Shi'ar empire in turmoil. Lilandra returns to Earth as her fate, both as heir and traitor to the crown, is debated. All in all, it's a happy ending.

Aside from being the last issue of the Phoenix Saga, X-Men #108 marked the first issue of penciller John Byrne who brought the best of both Neal Adams and Dave Cockrum to his work. The team of Claremont and Byrne is still widely considered to be the greatest X-Men collaboration of all time.

Next
The X-Men meet Canada's official superhero team Alpha Flight, the child-like assassin Arcade, the reality bending Proteus, and the hedonistic, meglomaniacal Hellfire Club.

LINKS

Part 1

Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8 (coming soon)

Okay, I was innocently researching for my story...

I was reading about Thor on Wikipedia when I came upon this and started laughing out loud:

In the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, Thor is the son of Odin and the giantess Jörd (Jord, the Earth). His wife is called Sif, and little is known of her except that she has golden hair. With his mistress, the giantess Járnsaxa, Thor had a son Magni and with Sif he had his daughter Thrud.

Am I the only one who feels bad for Thrud? I've threatened to name my child some really awful things: Dagmar, Wombat, Omega Shiva Banana, Hortense the Mule Child... but Thrud? Seriously, Thor? How did that happen? Did you swear, "I shall throw my hammer Mjolnir into the earth and whatever sound it makes, that shall be the name of my child!"

X-Men Primer - Part 1

For roughly twenty years from the late seventies to the turn of the millennium, Uncanny X-Men was the number one selling comic book. Rarely was its domination even briefly contested.

Think about that for a moment. With dozens of popular superhero comics and several movies from Superman to Batman, the X-Men were by far the favorite. Here, I hope to illustrate the rise and fall of the X-Men from their humble origins to their glut of overexposure.

The Original Five

Like almost every good idea at Marvel Comics, the X-Men sprung up from the mind of Stan Lee. According to him, they were essentially a creation of laziness. Rather than having to come up with a new way to explain someone's powers every single time he created a new character, Stan decided that they were just born with powers that eventually manifested. They were mutants.

In fact, "The Mutants" was the original proposed title of the series, but editor Martin Goodman rejected it saying that children wouldn't know what a mutant is. Stan Lee has often quipped that if they didn't know what a mutant is, how would they know what an X-Man is?

As I said before, my introduction to the X-Men was with the 1992 cartoon on Fox, but possibly my first trade paperback ("large compilation comic" for you non-comic types) was Marvel Masterworks X-Men reprinting issues #1-5. Personally, I always found it thrilling to discover that something I enjoy has a long history to it, but nothing could quite prepare me for this.

The first thing that struck me was the tapered ends on the X. The jagged lines suggested something classified to me; a secret history. The first page of the first issue opens with a large empty mansion and a solitary, old, bald man sitting alone in a wheelchair as he casts out his thoughts. Immediately, all four of his students file into the room in seconds flat demonstrating their unique powers to combat tardiness. He then proceeds to instruct his students through the Danger Room, a large training area filled with rotating knives, flame throwers, and human sized hydraulic presses, where we see the X-Men display the mastery of their powers.

They were billed as "the strangest super-heroes of all" and it is easy to see why. First, they weren't adults, but teenagers and superheroes in training. This was still an incredibly new idea when teens (with the notable exception of the recently created Spider-Man) were still sidekicks. Second, this was the first time you saw superheroes training... much less in a room designed for that purpose. Seeing Professor Xavier as the task master who pushed his students to perfection really gave you the sense that the X-Men weren't just playing around with powers (although they also spent a lot of time doing that too). They were preparing for greatness.

One by one, we are introduced to the X-Men starting with playboy millionaire Warren Worthington III... known as Angel for obvious reasons. Next is the youngest member of the X-Men, the resident class clown Bobby Drake (AKA Iceman... although at the time, he looked more like Snowman). Then there was Hank McCoy whose ape-like physique gave him the name of Beast. Originally, Hank was your average blue collar tough guy (much like the Fantastic Four's Thing) swaggering his way through the first issue brandishing machismo, but by the third issue, he was reading piles of literary canon with his feet and brandishing Stan Lee's trademark verbosity. But the protagonist/entry character/boy-next-door was the shy, tall, and beanpole named Scott "Slim" Summers whose powers were also a curse forcing him to wear an awkward visor as Cyclops or ruby quartz glasses when in his civilian identity to prevent his powers from destroying everything he sees. It's an interesting twist to the Clark Kent/Superman dichotomy with Scott's glasses literally hiding his power.

One thing that the X-Men did really well is demonstrate the awkwardness of being a mutant, which was analogous to the awkwardness of being a teenager. Warren had to put on a harness to strap his wings to his back under his clothes. Hank was often complaining how difficult it was to find shoes his size... which is part of the reason he was often barefoot. And, of course, Scott was always terrified that his glasses would slip just a little... and every once in a while, they did, destroying property and leaving him blind and helpless. Only Bobby had total control of his powers, which he was constantly using to pull pranks on others.

The X-Men's Danger Room training comes to an end when a taxi pulls up to the mansion, we are introduced to the new student, Jean "Marvel Girl" Grey, and her abilities of telekinesis. In the sixties, very few women in comics had direct powers like strength or energy blasts, but would instead have less invasive powers like telekinesis or invisibility. Subsequently, there were a lot of images of these women fainting dramatically when their powers were taxed while the men were engaged in fisticuffs. Still, in his own old fashioned way, Stan was something of a pioneering feminist. When any man started getting too friendly with Jean, she was quick to spin him around the room with her mind.

From the first issue, all of the X-Men are enamored with Jean, but I always figured that's because she was the only girl on the team. Bobby was always too immature and Hank might have had a chance, if he hadn't gotten off on bad first impression, but Warren was the most persistent and often managed to team up with Jean. But for those of us who could read their thought bubbles, Scott and Jean shared an unrequited love. Scott thought that compared to Warren's dashing charm, Hank's intellect, and Bobby's sense of humor, he was the one X-Man with nothing to offer. If I had to guess what made this attraction so irresistible, I would say it was a combination of Scott's dedication to his work and friends along with Jean's strength and self-resiliency. To me, Scott and Jean always embodied Xavier's dream because when you get down to it, all dreams are just a means to an end and that end is to find love and live happily ever after.

Also in this issue, we are introduced to Magneto thereby setting up the status quo for the series. Magneto believes that mutants, as the next stage in evolution, should naturally inherit the world, but just as naturally, the humans do not want to give it up. Professor Xavier explains to us that the role of the X-Men is to stand between the mutants and the humans to advocate peace. I love this idea because they are on neither side of the conflict. They fight other mutants and are called race traitors. They fight humans and they are lumped in with the "evil mutants."

You got to love the underdog... and nobody was ever kind to the X-Men.

This also helped me understand why Professor Xavier trained them harder than any superhero team had trained before (and since, probably). He made sure that the X-Men not only were tougher than their opponents, but that they had a degree of precision so great that they would not accidentally hurt anyone even in the most stressful situation. To maintain the peace, they had to fight, but to stay respectable, they had to have self-control.

What impresses me so much about X-Men #1 is that all of the elements that make the X-Men great (with the arguable exception of Wolverine) are there from the start. I would even argue that the complete X-Men story, boiled down to the essentials, is about four people: Professor Xavier (the dreamer), Scott (the prodigal son), Jean Grey (the heart), and Magneto (the dream distorted).

What I love about Magneto (despite the stupid name and silly helmet) is that you can't say he is one hundred percent wrong. He is a radical and a terrorist to be sure, but if I was born a freak with powers and everyone was trying to kill me, I sure as hell would try to take over the world. Hell, I'm a freak without powers who thinks everyone is out to get him, and I still want to take over the world.

Magneto had his own analog to the X-Men with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutant (renamed The Brotherhood of Mutants when later writers decided that someone who believes that he is doing good would not call his cause "evil"). The original members included the sycophantic Toad, the scheming illusionist Mastermind, the super-speedster Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch, possessing hex powers (these were said to "alter probability" but these powers were so difficult to represent in a visually interesting and understandable way that creators have futzed with them ever since; currently she is an all-powerful sorceress). These latter two were reluctant villains who served Magneto as gratitude for his protection. Later, they quit the Brotherhood, joined the Avengers, were revealed to be Magneto's twin children, and despite their strong connection to X-Men history, they rarely showed up in X-Men again, appearing mostly in Avengers comics.

In X-Men #7, we got to find out how the X-Men manage to find other mutants: Professor Xavier's own real-life thinking cap -- Cerebro.


Another element I loved in early X-Men comics was introduced in X-Men #10, the Savage Land. This was a hidden world in the Antarctic populated by dinosaurs, prehistoric man, and at least one saber-toothed tiger. I've always thought it was appropriate that the X-Men, figures of human evolution, were so closely established with the Savage Land, a world where evolution had stopped. Strangely, however, I never felt that this symbolism was ever expressed. It was always just a place to see X-Men fight dinosaurs... which is a good enough purpose, I suppose.

This X-Men comic revamped a character from the golden age of comics: Ka-Zar. Originally, he was just a stock "jungle man" character in the vein of Tarzan living in the wilds of Africa raised by a lion. This new Ka-Zar, however, was more or less the same, raised in the hidden Savage Land by his companion, the saber-toothed tiger, Zabu.

Upon returning from their prehistoric adventure, the X-Men were gathered by Xavier to defend against the unstoppable Juggernaut. They spend half the issue setting up automated defenses designed to hold off an army (Xavier is very serious about security... and with good reason) and the other half in flashback. Here we learn Xavier's origin, how his father was an atomic scientist who died in a blast, leaving Charles to be adopted by his father's friend and colleague Dr. Marko (way to move in on your best friend's woman, dick). As his mental powers developed, Charles was picked on by his older half-brother Cain (by all accounts, not a good name for a brother). When they grew up, both men ended up serving together in Korea. One day, Cain ran for cover in a cave only to find a magic gem just sitting their with magic words transcribed to English (how convenient!). As Cain reads the words, the power is unleashed and the cave collapses on top of him leaving him a human Juggernaut... as well as burried for years under tons of rock. I guess it took a couple years to get a full charge because Juggernaut lives up to his unstoppable title. Even Cyclops' eyes which can blast through a mountain only slow Juggy down. Juggernaut's only weakness, if you can remove his helmut, Xavier can control his mind.

If you can't tell by my demeanor, I was never a big fan of Juggernaut's mystical powers or irrational desire for fratricide, but I have to admit that there is something cool about a guy who is a walking tank... but maybe that's just too many years of He-Man talking.

The conflict between humans and mutants became even more pronounce with the introduction of the Sentinels in X-Men #14. Up until this point, the X-Men were operating in secret. Although the public knew about them, they didn't really know about mutants... and they didn't take well to the idea that they were an endangered species; particularly Bolivar Trask inventor of the Sentinels and writer of speculative fiction, apparently (sort of Asimov meets Hitler). These man-made machines were designed to hunt down and destroy all mutants, but like every other machine in science fiction, it gradually turned against its master when it realized that they only way to effectively eliminate mutants is to eliminate humanity. Symbolically, they represent the mindless, mob mentality brought about by fear of something different. Inevitably that kind of hatred becomes self-destructive.

Over the course of the series, Jean Grey had developed minor powers of telepathy after the momentary death of Professor Xavier (it's not worth doing into detail). It was latter explained that her telepathy first manifested as a child when she had witnessed the death of her best friend, Annie, who was hit by a car. Jean's mind instinctively reached out and experienced her death in a way a living person never should. The experience scarred her deeply. Charles Xavier was brought in to help her. Realizing her potential, he shut down her telepathic powers to allow her to cope and develop normally. Later, her telekinetic powers manifested, she joined the X-Men, and, later still, Xavier restored her telepathic abilities.

Eventually, the X-Men lost their yellow and gold uniforms (although these would continue to return in various incarnations including the recent films) and adopted new costumes that expressed their individually... sort of. Aside from this truly garish red tights and suspenders number on Angel (millions of dollars and he can't find a tailor who isn't color blind?), these costumes are some of my favorite and set the standard for these characters for years to come. Even when Marvel Girl became Phoenix, she kept the same color scheme. (Fortunately, Angel was the first one to get a new costume and it was a huge improvement.)

Speaking objectively, most of these comics weren't that good. The characters were hardly complex and (like most comics at the time) they spent as much time fighting monsters, aliens, and an empire of underground humanoids as they did fighting mutants or anti-mutant crusaders. In the later years, we were introduced to Scott's previously unmentioned little brother Alex, who would soon become the energy-wielding mutant known as Havok. Not long after, they were joined by the green-haired "mistress of magnetism" known as Polaris (AKA Lorna Dane). Both Alex and Bobby had a crush on Lorna, but ultimately the Summers genes won and these two have been starcrossed lovers ever since.

Sales dwindled, but just as the X-Men were headed for the chopping block, they saw a massive increase in sales due in no small part to the incredible artwork of Neal Adams. Although brief, this run had a few highlights including the return of the Sentinels; Sauron, the hypnotic, energy vampire, pteradactyl/mutant who took his name from Lord of the Rings; and Magneto's artificially-created mutants (called "mutates") in the Savage Land. Unfortunately, the sales figures took so long to get that the editors didn't realize the book had become successful until after it had been canceled so issues #67-93 were all reprints of earlier comics. Although Neal Adams only drew nine issues, if it weren't for him, the X-Men would definitely have been canceled and likely never recovered... and certainly not to the extent that it did.


Next
The X-Men reach their creative peak with an "All-New, All-Different" line-up and Chris Claremont begins his fifteen year stint as the quintessential X-Men writer.

LINKS

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8 (coming soon)