The X-Men do battle against their greatest foes yet! (and Toad.)
Sensational Script by: Stan Lee
Dynamic Drawings by: Jack Kirby
Imaginative Inking by: Paul Reinman
Legible Lettering by: Art Simek
Originally Published March 1964
I've checked.
Admittedly, it hasn't been an overly thorough search, but at least within the pages of their first appearance here in Uncanny X-Men #4, there is no reference to Magneto's group referring to themselves as "Evil." Or even a "Brotherhood" for that matter. That makes sense, since the old axiom goes that every villain is the hero of his own story. In fact, it's Xavier who throws the e-word around, and has since day one, which puts this usage in more of the George W. Bush "Axis of Evil" vernacular. Man, between that and the rampoant casual mindwiping, I'm starting to not like this guy so much.
While the X-Men mark a whole year of training with a celebratory cake, the Brotherhood of Philosophically Divergent Mutants is gathered around a table of their own in a bit of mirroring that does credit to Jack Kirby. The group is comprised of Toad, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and Mastermind. Mastermind has the ability to cast lifelike illusions, a perfectly villainous power since it involves deception and lets him be a cowardly hands-off type. Likewise, Scarlet Witch has a vaguely-defined hex power, which I've never really heard properly defined, but I guess that's the idea: where she points something bad happens (this was so impossible to clarify that it was completely changed to something more practical in the Avengers movies.) For a more hands-on approach, we have Quicksilver, who moves fast, and Toad who, with a name like Toad, nobody must have very high expectations of.
Got to admit, there's something fascinating about Toad, although that doesn't make him a great character. He is a true believer in Magneto's cause, a subscriber to his cult of personality willing to do anything to please his master (ie, he's a Toady, get it?) and his powers are... he jumps around and has a little pot belly. Later comics worked on him to try to make him more of a threat, but I'm not sure that juice was worth the squeeze. He's also dressed like a Ren Faire Jester, while Mastermind rocks a Sherlock cloak and Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch look like they are the Queen and Prince of Space in a 40's serial.
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch end up as the stars of the thing as they reflect on the reason why they've joined up with Magneto's group. Not out of their own hate for humans, but due to a debt of honour to Magneto, who saved Wanda's life from superstitious villagers back in the old country, and because Quicksilver feels the need to protect his sister. These two actually manage to show more character depth and motivation in a two-page-flashback than the whole X-Men team have yet displayed.
Incidentally, it was years before the comics stopped portraying these "little villages in Europe" that seem to still be in the 1800's. I do like the idea that Magneto travels the world in search of young mutants to indenture to his service and hopefully indoctrinate. No mention is made of where exactly he found Toad. (Mastermind seems like he's got his own thing going on and joined the group as a sort of business opportunity.)
Magneto's plan manages to out-do his military base attack from issue #1 for sheer brassiness, not to mention success: take over a small Caribbean island nation to use as his base of operations. To do this, he has Mastermind conjure up a military that looks exactly like the German army circa 1940, but with M's instead of Swastikas. Before long, the population of Santo Marco has defected largely to Magneto's side (thanks largely, I imagine, to empty promises and brutal suppression of the press) and he sets up shop in the Presidential palace, which looks like a supervillain's base anyway.
The X-Men go to liberate the island, and find that the Brotherhood is a match for them - even, incredibly, Toad. But as the X-Men close in, Magneto reveals his masterstroke: blow up the island with a nuclear bomb (!!) and run away. Most would agree this is an extremely drastic measure to take, but Magneto reminds Quicksilver that the humans on the island are expendable to him since he wants to kill them all anyway, so he demonstrates consistency. Quickie decides he is not down with genocide and uses his speed to sabotage the nuke but still escapes with Magneto for whatever reason.
But not before Professor X is caught in a secondary (non-nuclear) blast designed to trap the X-Men and (lucky for Magneto if he's read the past two issues) stripping him of his telepathic powers!
Admittedly, this cliffhanger would be more effective if it had come a page or so sooner - with the X-Men trapped with no means of escape with a nuke about to go off and a potentially-dead Xavier unable to help them escape, but with their mentor powerless and the Brotherhood on the loose, things are still looking pretty bad.
Further Details:
This issue features the first-ever tete-a-tete between Magneto and Charles Xavier, in this case in the mental realm. Later stories will rewrite it so that they had some background together before their ideological split, but for now they are simply two powerful leaders on opposite sides of an issue. The quick scene manages to sum up the premise quickly and effectively for the (young) audience: Magneto would kill and enslave humans, Xavier protect them, and neither are keen to negotiate. A scene where enemies at least try to talk things out goes a long way with me.
I also want to draw some attention to Warren's harness that somehow manages to obscure his giant feathery wings flawlessly. I always got a kick out of this visual, this seemingly-over-the-top inelegant solution of "how to hide mutantcy." But as I've grown up I've come to see a kinship between that and the measures that must be taken by my transgender friends to live as their true selves. So I'm not posting this for cheap laffs at Warren's large trousers, as I might have years ago, but as a demonstration of the applicability of the X-Men's metaphor, even years before it truly came to fruition.
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