The X-Men fall (dividedly) to five hired villains in the service of the dapper Count Nefaria!
Editor Emeritus: Stan Lee
Script By: Roy Thomas
Art By: Jay Gavin
Inking By: Dick Ayers
Lettering By: Artie Simek
Colosso By: Irving Forbush
Originally Published July 1966
The Professor has noticed that the X-Men have been frequently attacked by giant robots, so for his latest training program, he has designed for them, the giant robot to end all giant robots. Meet... Colosso!
You've got to appreciate the logic that goes into Colosso. "X-Men, you are constantly grappling with these killer giant robots, so we are going to train you on killer giant robots." It beats flying Angel through hoops hour after hour. On the flipside, the out-of-universe logic is a bit harder to figure out: we've literally just seen the X-Men fighting robots for much of the past year! Do we need another 7 pages or so of the X-Men taking on yet anther dang robot? Where's a giant crystal when you need one?
Luckily, the Professor did what neither Bolivar Trask nor Lucifer were courteous enough to do: made it so that all that was needed to defeat Colosso was to throw all their combined powers at it at once. With that lesson in teamwork firmly taken care of, Professor X dismisses them all for yet another soon-to-be-truncated vacation.
Cyclops is, as usual, out here contemplating how his deadly eye beams prevent him from confessing his love to Jean Grey, and Warren is in the mix to play spoiler. Oh and you'd better believe this involves an appearance by Zelda and Vera.
The real Vera does eventually arrive.
The villain for this two-parter is Count Nefaria. His deal, as the awesome name might indicate, is that he is a Central European Noble (complete with monocle!) and the head of a continental crime syndicate known as the Maggia. He was most recently thwarted by Iron Man, with his crime empire apparently in ruins, but has resurfaced to incorporate the X-Men in his latest scheme. I love this guy. Just love his whole deal.
His first step is to kidnap the X-Men, whom he lures from their vacations by using holographic X-Men and cause confusion and lure them out. Let's forget the fact that using fake X-Men to menace the real X-Men was already done like a minute ago - even the X-Men themselves point that out.
PS, gotta laugh at the loving cheap shots at the Mets taken throughout this issue. To be fair, this was the first year in the franchise's 5-year history where they didn't reach 100 losses (only 95 in 1966!) so nyah.
To put the hurt on the genuine X-Kids, Count Nefaria has actually hired five unique supercriminals who have recently been defeated in the pages of other Marvel comics. Each of these five has their own particular routine: Plantman controls trees and vines, Scarecrow has a trained flock of birds, Eel shoots electricity and is slippery. Porcupine seems to pile gimmicks on gimmicks with various knockout gasses and other toys in addition to the expected armoured suit of quills.
Unicorn, though, is the real standout, not because of his "power horn" (which looks unlike any unicorn I've ever seen but hey, there's something to be said for creative interpretation) but because he demonstrates the most casual disregard for the chain of command as delineated by Count Nefaria. Each of these henchfellows aspires to be the ringleader, but Unicorn is most obviously gunning for the #1 slot.
All five manage to dispatch an X-Man in their own unique ways, leading to their capture. After all, it simply would not be an X-Men story without one or all of them being held in captivity.
Nefaria provides them with a unique opportunity for collaboration: since the X-Men are so hated by the general population, why not join up with the Maggia? Beast declines on behalf of the team, at which point the Count reveals the splendid scheme they could be part of:
You think he's mad now? Wait until you see how he intends to accomplish this lofty goal. It's nothing short of magnificent. To be continued!
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