Banshee's loud, Ogre has jet boots, and Mimic is still around. Saved you a click. Wait, this is my site, please click!
Editor: Stan Lee
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Werner Roth
Inker: Dick Ayers
Letterer: Artie Simek
Noise-Maker: Irving Forbush
Originally published January 1967
The villains for Uncanny X-Men #28 are the Banshee and the Ogre, who are honestly hilarious/adorable together. Banshee, in his first appearance, although drawn somewhat like a stereotypical leprechaun with his big upper lip and pointy ears, is a tobacco-loving gentleman art-thief with a relaxed outlook on life, while the Ogre uses ellipsis in a lot of his word bubbles, and is much more fussy about getting their work done. They are truly the original Odd Couple.
Incidentally, that painting above is described as "A landscape of indescribable tranquility, of the utmost serenity," which seems like high praise for what appears to be clipart of someone fishing near a cottage and looks like it should be, at best, hanging o the wall of a motor Inn. Actually its beauty is quoted by Banshee as being described as indescribable in the newspaper, which is amazing verbiage in itself (or the mark of an art critic who didn't want to do his job that day.)
Banshee wields a sonic scream that knocks bystanders unconscious and destroys property - a pretty cool power that I always felt has come off better in the mute medium of comics than you would think. Ogre is not a mutant, but owns a pair of jet boots and other technological toys. Their mission, tasked by the enigmatic "Factor Three," is to capture Professor Xavier, and perhaps potentially use his powers for their own mysterious aims.
And they almost pull it off, too.
The bad guys fight the X-Men to a standstill, and Professor Xavier turns the tide with one of his signature moves.
Ogre and Banshee retreat empty-handed, thwarted by the Professor's formidable logrolling. In preparation for the follow-up battle, the X-Men don protective ear-shields modeled on the Ogre's headgear, leading to this truly strange sequence of Professor X requesting that Jean apply some of the ear-protecting gunk to his ears when it seems like he should be perfectly capable of doing it yourself, Charles.
The X-Men capture Banshee and put him in a containment field, then lure Ogre in for a one-on-one fight with Mimic, who summons every power he possibly can to take the purple one out. As it turns out, Banshee has been working with Factor Three against his will - his festive headband is actually a mind-control/explosive device keeping him in line! And it turns out he was really nice after all! Begorrah!
The story concludes with a warning from Banshee that Factor Three, whomever they are, has enough power to conquer the world... or destroy it!
Personally, I think that if you have intel on an underground organization bent on world domination and/or destruction, you ought to share it and not save it for a P.S. on your way out the door, but what do I Know?
Further Thoughts:
From a strategic, in-story standpoint in makes enough sense for Mimic to join the tearm - his powers make him an asset, and Professor X has determined with Cerebro that there is a powerful mutant menace awaiting them in the near future. And from browsing the letters pages (inconsistently provided by Marvel Unlimited) it seems like the Mimic was a hot enough property that his return was due.
But when you get Mimic in the mix, things are very off. By his nature, he will always have the powers of whomever he's near, thus taking away the uniqueness of each X-Man, as well as whatever villain they're against (assuming it's a mutant and not a giant robot or a husky guy with jet-boots.) In constructing stories around the guy, it's hard not to shortchange, well, everyone else.
Not to mention, if they want a brash hothead who plays by his own rules and doesn't get along with others, they could play that aspect up in Angel, since they were nicely developing the rivalry between him and Cyclops.
Many years later, a new twist was put on the Mimic, in the alternate-reality comic Exiles, where he could mimic any five powers indefinitely, but he would have to delete one of his then-current abilities to gain a new one, and I thought that was a cool power to put in them mix of a journeyman mutant, since by that time you couldn't take two steps without running into one of the 6000 already-introduced mutant characters anyway. He also became a doe-eyed soulpatched heartthrob. *sigh.*
This issue features quite a few mysteries to be addressed later, showing the book stretching its long-term storytelling muscles. Foremost is the introduction to the team's latest ultimate foe, Factor Three. Second, since Jean is still palling around with her college pal Ted Roberts, he also comes tantalizingly close to revealing the strange secret about his rivalry with his brother.
Surely this will live up to the months of build-up. As will this!
That's just where Professor X keeps the junk food, Scott. He knows you can't fight his Danger Room robots effectively if your fingers are grimy with Dorito dust. Wait, is that why the X-Men wear gloves? Another mystery!
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