Everyone's favourite plus-sized mutant is back as Magneto continues his campaign to Win Friends and Influence (Mutant) People!
Written with all the spell-binding skill of: Stan Lee
Drawn with all the titanic talent of: Jack Kirby
Inked with all the vibrant verve of: Chic Stone
Lettered with all the words spelled right by: Art Simek
Originally Published September 1964
As promised a few months ago, it's Graduation Day for the X-Men, who are proud to receive their blank prop diplomas (Professor X assures them the real ones are coming.) With his students' convocation, he announces that he will be taking a sabbatical to tend to a few matters - and when the Prof. starts getting cryptic about his actions, you know some really messed up stuff is about to go down, as we'll see as X-history marches on.
In the meantime, he names Cyclops as the deputy leader, a title he has informally been filling since the beginning, and which he modestly claims not to be seeking. But Prof. assures young Mr. Summers that he possesses a rare skill that all leaders must exemplify: leadership skills.
Xavier unveils the Cerebro Machine, a mutant-detector that will become a core part of the X-Men mythos for decades to come, usually to help them locate lost members, potential new ones, or sparring partners for this month's issue. With that, Prof leaves Scott to contemplate the burdens of command while his teammates go off to have a good time in the city until trouble arises.
Magneto - making his fourth stab at X-Men Murder in as many issues and fifth overall - recruits the mighty Blob for his latest scheme. And this makes sense, since Blob proved pretty formidable and adds a certain physical element to the Brotherhood that Toad and Mastermind can't really match, without all that pesky betrayal and undermining you get from Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. After a Gilligan-style bonk to the head, Blob remembers he is a mutant, and prepares to resume his justifiable vendetta against the people who erased his memory. He recalls the X-Men were concerned with him joining Magneto, and declares that if that's what they want him to not-do, then that's what he should do-do.
The X-Men have a hard time with Blob, especially with Magneto's added contribution of throwing torpedoes around (the fight takes place at Magneto's personal torpedo factory.) Finally, Magneto finds a moment when all of the X-Men are gathered together and throws one last salvo of torpedoes their way, even though Blob is also in the line of fire.
But Magneto has underestimated Blob's power, and his mutant girth ends up shielding the X-Men from the blast. Possibly out of embarrassment, Magneto bails with the rest of the Brotherhood in tow, and Blob decides his particular charisma works best as a solo artist, and opts to go back to his fulfilling existence as a sideshow freak (this time of his own volition.)
Further Thoughts:
More than for the actual fight, this issue is notable for what it adds to the series: the X-Men are no longer "students," and Cyclops is "deputy leader" behind Professor X. But the best part is that it starts to establish some outside interests for the X-Men. Hank and Bobby hit up a café in Greenwich Village, where go-go dancers and beatnik poets introduce counterculture to the Marvel Universe. It's a good scene for them, since the beatniks and dropouts don't mind mutants and even celebrate Beast's outrageous anatomy when he removes his feet. Personally, I think they'd take more exception to how square the two are, with their prep school suits and all, but I think it's cool to have these two guys, who really just want to "fit in" in the world, find a truly accepting crowd where the type of normalcy the X-Men crave is spurned.
Scott, already the most morose X-Man because of his powers, is now distanced even further from the other four, allowing charismatic playboy Warren to swoop in (pun painfully intended) on Jean, who doesn't suspect Scott's feelings but feels her own for him. This is a subplot that will simmer quietly in thought balloons and the occasional "X-Men at play" scene without really amounting to much until Jean and Scott declare their love somewhere down the line.
Speaking of being left alone, this issue also features a subplot of Mastermind hitting on Scarlet Witch, using his illusion powers to show her the kind of opulent life they can share together. And although that's another sleazy example of a woman in an X-Men comic being treated solely as an object of desire, it does manage to be a fairly interesting examination of the nature of illusion and reality... until the book drops it to better get to the month's plot about a circus freak roughing up a bunch of square-jawed teenagers.
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