The X-Men discover a prehistoric world, and you'd better believe one of them fights a T-Rex!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Inker: Chic Stone
Letterer: S. Rosen
Originally Published March 1965
After an extremely minimal amount of setup, the X-Men find themselves in the Antarctic, where they discover the entrance to a hidden prehistoric realm (not identified here, but later known as The Savage Land.) They battle pterodactyls and get attacked by surprisingly advanced savage tribesmen (not that they have iPods or anything but they do have bows capable of launching multiple arrows at a time.) The tribe is fended off with the aid of Ka-Zar* but not before, predictably, they succeed in kidnapping Marvel Girl (the most powerful X-Man, who was earlier seen disassembling and reassembling a rifle in training.)
*Pronounced "KAY-sar," according to a footnote on the title page.
Ka-Zar is a jungle warrior in the mold of Tarzan. Actually, he's exactly like Tarzan, right down to the speech patterns, except he lives in the Savage Land instead of Africa, which minimizes (but somehow does not eliminate) the icky colonialist aspects of the story, and he has a tiger named Zabu, which is cool, but has never made him a compelling lead. The remaining X-Men agree to team up with the jungle-dwelling hero to rescue Jean, and also Angel, who has also gotten himself captured.
Tbh Marvel, if you happen to be doing a(nother) re-up of the old X-Men stories anytime soon, just put Angel in the "damsel in distress" role every time. I can buy it.
Ka-Zar** and the X-Men track down the savage tribe, who plan on sacrificing Jean and Warren to their T-Rex. There's actually a perfectly sensible line as to why Jean can't just untie her own ropes and save herself (they're covered in pitch so her telekinesis can't be used to undo the knot.) The fact that this tribe thought to safeguard their restraints against a telekinetic captive is just another example of their intermittent advancements.
**Not to be confused with Quasar, a later character.
As far as guest team-ups go, this is one of the better ones, with the guest being able to demonstrate his unique specialties as a denizen of the Savage Land, calling on mastodons to tear down the walls to the tribal camp. The X-Men pull their weight, too, managing to avoid being guests in their own book... and Jean demonstrates why I keep calling her the most powerful X-Man when she takes out the T-Rex using her telekinesis.
Way more menacing than a hole.
Satisfied with what they have learned about this blond jungle warrior and the land he inhabits - although not the least bit curious about the how or why of any of it - the X-Men take their leave of Ka-Zar*** and his land. The end, for now, on to the next thing.
***Pronounced "LEH-nerd SKIN-nerd."
Further Thoughts:
I chirp the series for having somewhat flimsy plots, but things like "structure" and "character" were relatively later additions to the comic writer's toolkit. The primary attraction was inventive settings, far-out adventures and demonstrations of powers, which this issue all does very well. As far as "The X-Men + Dinosaurs" go, this is a pretty good ish.
Let's take a minute to think about what sets the X-Men on their path to Antarctica: they see a news report on the mysterious loincloth-sporting hero who saved a member of an expedition team and fled. The decision to investigate involves a fascinating exchange between the X-Men and the Professor, where the Prof says essentially "He's definitely not a mutant but go check it out anyway because I'm sure you guys are bored. I'll wait here, though."
It's a little weird, that even with Cerebro to tell them when evil mutant shenanigans are afoot, they end up fighting so many non-mutants, which they have to hear about on the news. I don't know how many more plots we have to look forward to that are kicked into gear by the X-Men just happening to see something on the tv. The snarky part of me wants to see it taken to its logical conclusion: "Did you hear? Red Lobster is having Shrimpfest! This could be part of Magneto's latest fiendish plot!" Warren, if you want to go to Red Lobster, just say so.
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