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Down But Not Out

by Drew Clements westofmiskatonic@gmail.com

Welcome back to another week of comic-book-nostalgia-goodness. This week we'll be covering yet another Marvel title that introduced a set of characters that have gone on to become superstars. With two movies (and one on the way), countless cartoons, action figures, and multiple best-selling monthly titles, the X-Men have become household names. But where did they come from? Like most of Marvel's legendary characters, they came from the fantastic minds of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Let's visit their very first adventure! X-Men #1 - "X-Men" Original Release Date: September 1963 Writer: Stan Lee Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Paul Reinman Letters: S. Rosen The most powerful telepath in the world sits in his study at a school in Westchester County, New York. His mind sends a message to his students: School is in! Minutes later the wheelchair-bound teacher, Professor Charles Xavier, is surrounded by some very strange students. Calling out their names as they enter, Cyclops, Iceman, the Angel, and the Beast, make sure their teacher is comfortable before he presents their day's studies. While Cyclops and the high-flying Angel tend to the Professor, the ice-covered and appropriately named Iceman decides its time to show the Beast a newly learned ability. Within seconds of touching the Beast's arm it develops a thick frosty shell. "I don't mind ice cubes, but I like 'em in a coke, not ticklin' my arm!" The Beast shouts as he shakes the ice from his forearm. Before the Beast can lash out at the prankster Iceman, the Professor calls the group to order. It's time for the team to practice using their powers. The Beast is up first and quickly makes his way through an obstacle course by using his super-human agility, balance, and strength. After finishing up, the Professor announces that it is the Angel's turn. With a large amount of confidence, the Angel makes his way through his own obstacle course. After Angel's practice is over, it's Iceman's turn. Unfortunately Iceman feels like Xavier is taking it easy on him due to him being a few years younger than the rest of the group. The Professor relents and gives the young X-Man a bit of free play in the workout area. The Iceman doesn't use the time wisely. Instead he uses the time to pull a party trick: he stuffs two buttons, a carrot, and a pipe into his thick snowball-like head. Turning around, he surprises the group with the impression of a snowman. The Professor telepathically tells the Beast to hurl a bowling ball at his unsuspecting pupil. Quick on his toes, Iceman creates an ice chute that scoops the ball up and sends it back at his attacker. For Iceman, the exercise is over, but there's still one student left: Cyclops. The Professor orders the straight-laced Cyclops to act as though Beast and Iceman are his enemies and quickly take them out, without injuring them. Cyclops touches the side of his visor, which keeps the constant force beams that emit from his eyes in check. Slowly, the visor opens and those optic blasts are unleashed! Beast goes down first and Cyclops turns his mighty power on Iceman, who has covered himself in a protective block of ice! "One-eye" opens his visor a bit more and the optic beams grow stronger, strong enough to shatter Iceman's giant ice cube and put him on his butt. The Professor calls on Beast and Angel to help Iceman take down Cyke. The four young super-powered students wrestle for a while before Xavier suddenly and excitedly calls the exercise off. The Professor announces to the students that a taxi is approaching the mansion, bringing an attractive young lady to the school. Beast, Cyclops, and Angel crowd around the window to get a gander at the new girl. Iceman, still a bit young for the women, couldn't care less. Angel suggests they go and change out of their black and yellow uniforms into something a bit more normal in order to welcome this young woman. A short while later, Professor Xavier welcomes the red-haired beauty in the living room of the mansion. The young woman asks the Professor why he contacted her and just what kind of school this is that he runs. The Professor suggests that she already knows why he got in touch with her; after all, he can read her thoughts very clearly. He admits to knowing all about her "talent" and that his school is home to four other people with different powers. As if on cue, the four students enter the room and Xavier introduces them: Hank McCoy, the Beast; Bobby Drake, Iceman; Scott "Slim" Summers, Cyclops; Warren Worthington, III, the Angel. The Professor then introduces the young lady as Jean Grey, Marvel Girl! The four boys, even the young Iceman, are immediately struck by Jean's beauty. They practically fall all over each other trying to do things for her, but she soon shows them that she needs very little help when Scott tries to bring her a chair. Without warning, the chair rips itself from Cyclops' hands and slides quickly across the floor, nearly hitting poor Hank. Jean explains that her power is the ability to practice telekinesis, the moving of objects purely by thought. Xavier, after Jean finishes explaining and exhibiting her powers, begins explaining why the school exists. When he was much younger, the Professor experienced the fear and hatred of normal people over his being different. He soon realized that the world was not ready to accept those with powers, the mutants. Charles created his school for those people with powers to better learn how to use and control them for the good of mankind... "To help those who would distrust us if they knew of our existence!" After finishing the background story of his school and its purpose, Xavier leaves his students so that they may get to know each other better. Elsewhere, at a secret laboratory near Cape Citadel, a caped and helmeted figure plots. The time has come! This man has decided that the human race should no longer control the Earth... it is time for the mutants to take their rightful place as the rulers! Very soon, the United States government will launch a rocket, but the powerful Magneto reaches out to the magnetic waves of the Earth and disrupts the rocket after it is launched, sending it falling into an ocean. The next day, the public at large learns of the launch failure. Apparently though, this is not the first of its kind! No, it is the sixth top-secret launch that has failed. It's a mystery to everyone! Later that day, at the very site of all these launches, the guards find themselves under attack by a mysterious force! Three guards lose control of their machine gun while a tank suddenly moves by itself! Up in the sky, letters appear to spell out "Surrender the base or I'll take it by force!" signed "Magneto!" Back at his hidden base, the villain decides to show off his power yet again. This time he pops open a silo and launches the missile inside. The weapon of doom falls into the ocean, just a few miles off the shore of the launch base. After this latest display of power, Magneto reveals himself at the gate of the launch base as he casually strolls up to the gate, very confident of his power. The guards attack with their metal weapons, but the "Master of Magnetism" waves them off very easily. Throwing up a shield of magnetic energy, Magneto continues his walk, unharmed despite the troops best attempts, through the base. The general finally confronts him and demands that Magneto tell them what he wants. "...I, the, miraculous Magneto, claim this entire installation... in the name of homo superior!" Back at the X-Mansion, Marvel Girl is impressed with the uniform that she has been given: it fits perfectly! From around the corner peer four sets of eyes. Jean turns just in time to see the peeping pupils. A loud voice echoes abruptly through their minds; it's Professor X and he wants to meet with them immediately; it's an emergency! Seconds later, the five students stand before their mentor as he explains that the first evil mutant has made his appearance! He instructs the X-Men to go to Cape Citadel and defeat the villain. Later the X-Men arrive at the scene. The general on duty lets the strangely garbed team pass into the base. Cyclops, using his powerful optic blasts, batters through the magnetic field covering the installation. Once inside the base the X-Men have to deal with a group of missiles that the villain has launched at them. Angel gets the attention of the seeking missiles and they begin to follow him, but Iceman takes them out with a few carefully thrown ice blobs. Well, he takes all of them out except for one, which continues to follow Angel! Beast manages to grapple onto it with his ape-like feet and Marvel Girl uses her telekinesis to hurl the missile into the drink! Magneto decides to show himself and take the attackers head-on! The high-flying Angel attempts to attack first, but Mags easily wraps the hero up in metal debris. Cyclops frees his teammate and the X-Men find themselves unable to find the mysterious foe. Suddenly, a pod of rocket fuel comes barreling their way with Magneto behind it, shouting, "Not all those with mutant powers are fit to rule the Earth! You must be destroyed!" Iceman quickly throws up a shield of ice around the team, which saves them from the explosion. Believing them dead, Magneto begins to walk away when a colossal beam of energy bursts through the ground near him! The X-Men emerge and attack but are foiled by a magnetic force field from the escaping Magneto. Successful in saving the world from Magneto, but not in capturing him, the X-Men exit the base and are greeted by a thankful military. The general assures the band of heroes that his unit will certainly remember the X-Men. Angel, in turn, assures the general that the X-Men will be around any time America's security is threatened. Thus ends the first issue of the X-Men. Not only were you introduced to the original five members and Professor X, but you were also introduced to the X-Men's most powerful foe, Magneto! This may not be the X-Men that you know, but this is the groundwork for what exists today. Stan Lee does what Stan Lee does best here: a great story, full of action and humor. You might be a bit surprised to see this in my column, but I have to admit that this isn't Stan's best work. It's good stuff, but it's not as good as The Amazing Spider-Man or The Fantastic Four. Stan was perfect on those titles. But hey, like I said above, this is the groundwork. Later, Len Wein sent things in a different direction in Giant Sized X-Men #1 and soon after that Chris Claremont transformed that into the X-Men we have today. Jack Kirby is here and he does his thing. It's not quite as good as what he was doing over in The Fantastic Four at the time, but it is still great stuff. There are lots of awesome panels, especially the third one on page eight, which has the Professor in a room of the mansion and Jean Grey entering the room. I'm a Claremont fan, so it's a bit hard growing up on his stuff and then coming back to this, because it's just not at CC's level of sophistication. But then again, I'm a fan of lots of the 80's and 90's Spider-Man writers, yet I still prefer Stan Lee's (and Roy Thomas') to 'em all. But hey, I still recommend checking this out; it's classic Marvel. Unless you're rich, you might wanna forget picking an original copy up and just grab one of the many reprints. The Essential Uncanny X-Men volume #1 is probably your best bet, unless you want to spend upwards of $50 on the Marvel Masterworks edition (it's in color, though, and looks great!).