UNCANNY X-MEN #39: The Fateful Finale!

The X-Men must finally confront the Mutant Master and Factor Three, and get a change of wardrobe!

Originally published December 1967

When we last left off, the X-Men had split up to try to foil Factor Three's two-pronged plan to provoke World War III: use knockout gas on an American missile complex to fire the weapons at the USSR, and use a suitcase bomb on several officials behind the Iron Curtain. I'm not entirely convinced both these measures are necessary, but I suppose the Mutant Master is nothing if not thorough.

Cyclops and Iceman manage to freeze the Air Filtration unit in question, preventing any tampering, but are attacked by Mastermind and Unus for their troubles. Combining their powers to create fog, they escape both the evil mutants and the Military, who naturally think they are up to no good.

Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe, Beast, Jean and Angel escape their cell and nab the briefcase bomb, but have to engage in a little hot potato with the Blob, who intends to hold onto it until it blows, believing his invulnerable mutant flesh will protect him.

Jean points out that this might be somewhat naïve on Blob's part - what if the Mutant Master designed the blast to be powerful enough to kill the Blob, so as to not risk his capture? Blob proclaims his absolute faith in MM, but bails anyway just to be on the safe side.

Angel tosses the bomb outside in the nick of time, and you know what, it does look like it was probably big enough to kill the Blob, but that's just my guess.

The X-Men and the Evil Mutants all rendezvous at Factor Three HQ for a big final showdown, when Professor X, who had had some words last month with Changeling about the Mutant Master's true intentions, shows up to interrogate the Master's goals and methods.

Mutant Master loses his shit a little, and starts having his androids attack everybody. Banshee wakes up, and uses his sonic scream to defend himself, destroying all the androids... and Mutant Master's artificial outer form, to reveal... wait for it...

He's a freaking alien!!!

That's right, Mutant Master was, in actuality, an evil Replicon from Beyond the Moon. His whole scheme was to get the humans to destroy the planet and render it uninhabitable by anyone but, presumably, his race of slug-squid-cuttlefish people.

In all the chaos, a second Xavier appears, but it only takes a moment for the real Professor to telepathically identify himself, leaving the others to presume that this was Changeling's ability, to imitate other forms. Some good it did.

In shame for his defeat, the Artist Formerly Known as Mutant Master commits ritualistic suicide (this book is for children.)

With that, the X-Men and their foes agree to part ways and resume fighting each other another time.

And lastly, back at the X-Mansion, the kids are given a special gift for their successful mission: new costumes!

Further Thoughts:

There have been a certain number of multi-part adventures so far, but the Factor Three saga is the first one to be built in this way, with the threat lurking quietly in the background during various adventures until the X-Men were finally ready to confront it.

Was this type of storytelling a success? To some degree I think so: a lot of attention was drawn to Factor Three without having to show them doing too much (and, comic book stories being what they  are, failing.) The impression we're left with is that there was a sophisticated multi-part plan that the X-Men were able to foil by dint of their cunning and fighting ability. The first installment of this 3-parter, bringing back old bad guys as a kind of super-threat, and effectively selling the high stakes threat of a world-destroying war, was strong.

In reality, it was mostly just a bunch of random stuff thrown together, capped off by a totally bonkers final few pages: Factor Three were a kind of all-purpose mysterious faction, capable of impressive things until it came down to the wire and the Mutant Master sabotaged himself when it was revealed he was a Kang-and-Kodos type. Still, that was an interesting way to go, in a "Betcha didn't see that coming" sort of way.

The Changeling was also a squandered opportunity, an abused underling (another one) who only sorta gets his payback, and a shape-shifter who only reveals his power at the end, when it doesn't matter. (I'm confused as to whether it was he or the real Prof who blew the whistle on MM, and it doesn't really matter in the long run.) If they had planned to introduce this character for a while, they could have laced him into the story throughout, increasing the intrigue and cohesiveness of the plot, but, ah well. Leave it to later writers to figure out how someone with those abilities might be useful.

As to the X-Men's haberdashery... let's not linger too long but it's worth noting that they now all have individual costumes, to signify their growth and independence. The X-Men occasionally flirt with uniforms, especially in younger, school-aged teams, but mostly default to their own looks after this for the main grownup teams. The costumes introduced here are hit-and-miss in terms of staying power: Cyclops will usually be associated with plain blue, and Jean with green (except for her unfortunate khaki period in the 90's). Beast hasn't reached his iconic gray/blue fur look yet, and Iceman is more about how his ice form is drawn than what he is (or isn't) wearing. That leaves poor Angel, whose yellow top and red suspenders look doesn't catch on, for good reason. Yikes.