The X-Men need the help of a special guest star to defeat the Professor's evil step brother. Who could it be?
Story By: Smilin' Stan Lee
Layouts By: Jolly Jack Kirby
Penciling By: Jay Gavin
Inking By: Joe Sinnott
Lettering By: Swingin' Sam Rosen
Originally Published September 1965
Although the X-Men had spent four consecutive issues earlier battling Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in separate occasions, this marks our very first two-part adventure. The entirety of Uncanny X-Men #13 is concerned with the battle against the Juggernaut, which is only right - Stan, Jack and guest-artist Alex Toth spent the entire previous issue building up the menace of Professor X's stepbrother, delving into the complex, acrimonious and death-riddled backstory between the two and, in the present day, depicting the X-Men watching in horror as he smashed through their (admittedly hastily-improvised) defenses. Here on page one, the Unstoppable one is face to face with his wheelchair-bound brother, ready to deliver the killing blow.
Any minute now, Jug.
If you've been following along, you know the Prof's first move will be to attack the Juggernaut with a mental attack, but - swerve! - the Juggernaut's magic helmet prevents his mind from being victimized, Vanisher-style. With that, the Juggernaut brutally murders the Prof with his bare hands and kicks the X-Men out of the house that his now rightfully his.
Okay, that does not happen. In fact, in the length of time it takes Juggernaut to explain this, the X-Men are able to regroup and come to Xavier's aid, managing to dump the Juggernaut into a hole until they can get the Prof to his mento-helmet, which will help increase his mental abilities.
Juggernaut climbs out of his hole and takes on the X-team (minus Marvel Girl, who is aiding the Professor because of course) but find themselves outmatched - he shrugs off Cyclops' force beams, swats Angel away, and breaks out of Iceman's icy prison and swatting Beast so hard it breaks his leg. I actually liked that bit the best - Hank has to walk on his hands for the rest of the fight as a result.
Using his mento-helmet, the Professor manages to contact the Human Torch, who helps fend off the Juggernaut once X has convinced him the X-Men are good guys. He distracts him long enough for Angel to remove his helmet for Prof. X to deal the decisive blow with his mental powers.
Ah yes, the only way it could have ended... surrounded by teens, Cain in metallic red fetish gear, duking it out in the battlefield of the mind.
The Prof delivers a quick thought on the nature of power, noting that his are in-born rather than acquired like Cain's, which is exactly the sort of perspective a privileged one-percenter trust fund kid like Xavier might have.
He then erases the Torch's memory of the event - which seems unnecessary but totally in character - and the issue ends with the four X-boys convalescing and Jean as nurse (because of course.) The Professor has a special reward for the team, having helped him defeat his most deadly foe yet...
Further Thoughts:
After last week's special Alex Toth fill-in, pencils are now being provided by Jay Gavin, working over Jack Kirby's layouts. Gavin will continue to draw the X-Men for a lengthy stint, later reverting to his real name of Werner Roth.
I would grade this issue-length fight a middling score. On the one hand, we have the stated obstacle of Juggernaut's helmet preventing X from punking him out the way he did to Vanisher, the Blob, and Lucifer (and Quicksilver, in the Namor issue.) So it's a classic Achilles heel story, where they know they have to reveal the helmet. And, well, they do, it just takes them a while and some help. The problem we are always going to have with Professor X around is that his powers make him an instant-win condition, which probably explains why later writers just had a tendency to pack him off altogether, to space, or death, or Scotland or wherever.
In terms of guest-appearances, the Human Torch is less heralded than the Avengers, Namor or Ka-Zar - he's on the cover, but only as part of the crowd and doesn't even get a cool button with his name in it. But he plays a pivotal role, except he's forced to forget and pretend it never happened, thus leaving the X-Men's relationship with the Fantastic Four still a bit foggy. I'm surprised the guest role wasn't given to the Thing, so that it could become more of a slugfest, but I'm sure that happens one or two or thirty times as history marches on.
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