UNCANNY X-MEN #24: The Plague of... the Locust!

The X-Men thwart the mutant insects of a disgraced university professor with delusions of grandeur!

 

Edited By: Stan (Busy Bee) Lee
Written By: Roy (Book-worm) Thomas
Art By: Werner (Worker-Ant) Roth
Inking By: Dick (Doodle-bug) Ayers
Lettering By: Sam (Pussy-cat) Rosen
Originally Published September 1966


As we learned last issue, Jean's parents have withdrawn her from the Xavier School after being made aware that she has been graduated for some time. This exposes the flaw in the X-Men's cover story, but I guess it would be a bit much for the Prof to get the school accredited as an institute of higher learning, especially not without hiring at least one other teacher. This leaves the X-Men shorthanded for the third time in their history to date, after the departure of Beast (for nearly a whole issue in #8) and Cyclops (for nearly two pages in #20.)

After dropping Jean off at her new school, the four remaining X-Lads and their Professor go by Helicopter to investigate some mutated locusts that have been destroying crops in the heartland.

As it happens, Jean learns about a disgraced former professor at her new school, Doc Hopper, who was fired because of his crazy theories about insect mutations.

Oh, who's that boy Jean is talking to? That's Ted Roberts. He's a fellow student at Jean's new school, he'll be around for a little while, and he's very fond of something called "Big Orange Drink."

Rebound alert.


Doc Hopper is, of course, behind the giant bugs, with the crux of his plan being the classic "Create a problem only you can solve and be called a hero" scheme by letting the mutant locusts loose on crops nationwide and then saving the day with his patented Bug Disintegrator Ray.

Oh, and he designed himself a costume, too.

Hmm. The beard feels like a dead giveaway, but I guess he wasn't counting on any of the X-Men being students at the college where he used to teach and continues to hang out.


Locust attacks using various mutated bugs, and buglike powers generated by his battle suit, and manages to escape to continue his scheme elsewhere. The X-Men - including Jean, who is back for the weekend - track him down, and Xavier whips out his mechanical leg braces and yet another kooky disguise to try to talk some sense into Doc Hopper. It doesn't take.

So they fight again and Locust loses control of his insects thanks to the X-Men's meddling. His mobile lab and most of his equipment is destroyed in the fracas. The X-Men rescue Hopper from his own creations, causing him to see the error of his ways. And that's pretty much that.

Further Thoughts:

When I was a kid, one of my favourite cartoons was The Tick, whose villains included the Breadmaster, whose exploding loaves expanded to smother entire city blocks, and El Seed, the vegetable revolutionary who gave sentience to corn crops. (And of course, Chairface Chippendale, who wanted to write his name on the moon with a laser.) I was a smart enough kid to know it was meant as a spoof, but I still felt that the vein they were tapping for their humour must also be pretty imaginative.

It may not be cool to say so, but I do enjoy the occasional "Locust" type story, of delusional mad scientists and the bananaballs-crazy schemes they cook up, delivered with old-fashioned earnestness. This is a kind of story that it is simply not possible to tell with a straight face anymore. I wouldn't want to survive on a steady diet of it, but as a snack, it's tasty. The problem is, I just can't tell if it appeals to my sense of irony or to my remaining childlike wonder. I hope it's the latter. That's kind of why I opted to even talk about these early comics to begin with instead of jumping straight to the moment where these characters "grew up."

As grown up readers, we're conditioned to demand a certain level of sophistication, which can sometimes be a hindrance when you're still writing stories about colourfully-garbed square-jawed heroes who shoot lasers out of their faces or make ice out of thin air. Can't we allow ourselves a dose of earnestness every now and again, and let the medium rise to its inherent weirdness?