X-Men #1 (next issue)
"X-Men"
Writer:
Stan Lee
Artist:
Jack Kirby
Inker:
Paul Reinman
Letterer:
Sam Rosen
Publisher:
Marvel Comics
Cover date: September
1963
Cover price: 12 cents
Nowadays, Marvel can slap the letter 'X' on a bunch of blank pages and it will sell hundreds of thousands of copies, and you'll run out of digits trying to count all the spin-off books. So it's hard to believe that the X-Men were once a second string team which was not very prominent in the Marvel universe, more like the
Champions or the
Defenders than the
Avengers. (It was one of the first books of the Marvel superhero relaunch that Stan Lee turned over to another writer,
Roy Thomas starting with issue 21.) And it's even harder to believe the X-Men book was essentially cancelled in
1970 with their last new story in issue 66, and the comic was filled with reprints for the next five years.
The team as we know it now, largely the result of the lengthy tenure of writer
Chris Claremont, was introduced in
Giant Sized X-Men #1 in
1975, and new stories started up again in issue 94. Many familiar characters, like
Wolverine,
Nightcrawler,
Storm,
Colossus, etc. were not introduced until then. In the beginning, there were only five team members:
Angel (Warren Worthington III), the
Beast (Hank McCoy),
Cyclops (Scott Summers),
Iceman (Bobby Drake), and
Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), who, 40 years later, still doesn't have a decent superhero name.
Yet many of the basic elements are still there. The team is based out of
Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters near
Salem Center in
Westchester County, New York. A school for superheroes is a novel enough concept, but more important was Lee's concept that the school was for "mutants." Originally, Lee wanted to call the book "The Mutants", but it was nixed by Marvel head
Martin Goodman because he thought no one would know what the hell a mutant was. Most superheroes' powers were the product of bizarre magical or pseudoscientific means, but Lee's mutants were simply born with them and usually manifested them during
puberty. Lee took this one step further: since the mutants were born different, they were the object of fear and hate for ordinary humans. Some mutants responded to this by developing a hatred of the human race themselves, and it is these "evil mutants" that the X-Men will combat. Lee was tapping into human
prejudices and fears of the
atomic age, which is the cause of all those mutant births. Professor X notes that his parents worked on the first
A-Bomb project.
"In the main study of an exclusive private school in New York's Westchester County, a strange silent man sits motionless, brooding…alone with his indescribable thoughts. Finally, his meditation comes to an end! Then, while he remains completely motionless, a sharp, commanding
thought rings out, echoing through the great halls of the building!" And with that, class was in session. Angel, Beast, Cyclops, and Iceman promptly appear and Professor X puts them through their paces. This is the first of many "
Danger Room" training sessions readers would see over the years, where the X-Men practiced the use of their powers against the room's equipment and each other. (Note that here the Danger Room is clearly on the first floor. Years later, after an attack the mansion was restored and the Danger Room was rebuilt with
Shi'ar technology in subbasement two.)
The X-Men demonstrate their powers to the reader for a couple of pages, and Iceman briefly turns himself into a snowman. Then Professor Xavier mentions a visitor, an attractive young redhead which will be the school's newest student. The teenage horndogs quickly put on their best duds and are introduced to Jean Grey, who demonstrates her
telekenetic abilities. Professor X explains some of the basic concepts noted above to Jean and the readers. He also mentions that he lost his legs in a "childhood accident". This was a little
white lie; we'd soon learn that he lost them well into adulthood thanks to
Lucifer, an alien
Quist who'd be introduced in
X-Men #9.
Meanwhile, in a "secret laboratory" near
Cape Citadel, a US military installation, we meet
Magneto, one of those "evil mutants" who plans on striking a blow against
homo sapiens on behalf of "
homo superior", which is what evil mutants call themselves when they're not calling themselves evil mutants. Magneto has control over
magnetism, and since that is one of the four
fundamental forces, he is one tough cookie. He interferes with a missile and causes it to crash, which prompts the amusing newspaper headline "Sixth Top Secret Launching Fails at Sea!" If it's top secret, why is it the headline in the Daily Globe?
Later that afternoon, Magneto stops by for some fun. Guns fire, tanks move, missiles fire, all under control of Magneto. He corrals the base personnel and surrounds the installation with a shield of magnetic energy. Professor X hears the news on the radio and sends his team into action about a jet he controls with "thought impulses". (Later, the X-Men would still use a jet, but pilot it using more conventional means.)
At Cape Citadel, Cyclops punches through the energy shield with his optic blasts. Magneto fires some missiles at them. Iceman knocks most of them out with "ice grenades", and the Beast even catches one with his oversized feet. So Magneto resorts to rolling a tank of rocket fuel at them, but Iceman protects them from the explosion with an "ice igloo shield". Apparently running out of things to toss at the X-Men, Magneto simply flies away. The X-Men are hailed as heroes, and for now they are to the public, instead of the outcasts and villains they'd be thought of as in later years.
Magneto would become the X-Men's most familiar foe, and his distinctive helmet even showed up in a
Roy Lichtenstein painting. During the Chris Claremont years, Magneto became a more complex character. He was revealed to be a man named Magnus, a Jew who was interred in
Auschwitz, making the book's themes of prejudice and hatred all that more powerful. His evil with a capital E days were over as he became allies with his former foes, even as the rest of the worst still thought him a villain. For a time, he even ran the school as "Michael Xavier", Professor X's fictional cousin, while the professor was away in the Shi'ar Galaxy.