UNCANNY X-MEN #43: The Torch is Passed...!

The X-Men mourn the loss of Professor Xavier, then continue his good work by looking for a fight.

Originally published April 1968

We begin our story with the newly-returned (from... space?) Magneto learning of Professor X's untimely passing. He's disappointed that he, himself, was not the one to snuff him, but from where I'm sitting a W is a W.

The X-Pupils, having waited for an appropriately rainy day to hold the funeral (me, I've been to a few funerals in my life and none of them were in the rain), express their grief, privately ruminating about the Prof's true mission to safeguard the world against evil mutants - which is strange because they appear to be the only ones attending the funeral (remember, X's entire family is either dead or a Juggernaut, and the numerous women he has loved are all busy doing fascinating work in exotic locales.) So they fret over not mentioning their secret exclusively to the priest overseeing the funeral, which is a shame, since if you can't admit to your pastor that you are a heroic mutant, what's the point (of heroism? Or religion, for that matter?)

Hiding the secret is tough, because Quicksilver - once again in the employ of Magneto - has dropped by to pay his respects (or gloat, or fight, or seek assistance, the X-Men can't be sure.) But Cyclops gets a little close to him and scares him off, like a Pokemon in the Safari Zone.

The X-Men retire to the mansion to view Xavier's video will, which informs them of his illness, his belief that Magneto is returning, and that he his secret project with Jean Grey has been to transfer her a portion of his telepathic abilities.

It is also outright stated that he made this video immediately before going into battle with Grostesk (the Sub-Human*) [Prince Gor-Tok] which shows a very odd skewing of his priorities but I guess he wanted his last message to be as up-to-the-minute current as possible.

Elsewhere, Magneto roams his latest cool island base, demonstrating his power on a passing ship - although he was kind enough to let the crew escape, both to share news of his unfathomable might, and because committing mass murder was still considers a bit much by the standards of 1960's comics. We get some insights into Quicksilver's state of mind - his sister, Scarlet Witch, has lost her Hex Power, an ailment he believes only Magneto can cure, thus explaining their heel turn. And hey, maybe he can, maybe not, but when your best option is a mass murdering would-be dictator... I mean, sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

Penciller George Tuska renders Magneto with the insane bulgy-eyed glare of an ornery pug at all times, which I love, if you're going for an all-out cartoon villain.

Magneto is waiting for a planned shipment of Very Important Equipment for his Planetary Mind Control Device (!!) to sail past his island, which it does right on schedule. Unbeknownst to him, the X-Men have stowed away on the vessel to mount a sneak attack.

Minus the sneak, I guess.

They throw down with the Evil Mutants, and Magneto is able to get them to his Secret Tazer Floor and stun them... a perfect spot for a to be continued!

Further Thoughts:

I have mixed feelings about the death of Xavier. On the one hand, it's good to inject a little drama and the death of a mentor is a time-honooured tradition. Whether they squandered this drama by rushing through the story and killing him against a nothing-foe like Grotesk, with a previously unmentioned (beyond vague hints) illness, or maximized it with its suddenness, depends on your own POV.

There's also the question as to whether The X-Men - the book - needs Xavier. Throughout the X-Men's history, Xavier will be here and gone (yes, I'm breaking gimmick to admit he comes back later, but you already knew that) I think because he represents a bit of a Catch-22. He is an extremely powerful character, so the temptation will always be there that he can just roll up and easily stop the villain with his mind powers - so he is likely to be written out time and again to remove the temptation to do that, rather than write around it. Yet to some writers, the book doesn't feel complete without his presence as a guiding mentor to these young mutants.

This death theoretically eliminates the use of Xavier as a crutch to come in and mentally blast this month's villain into submission. Except not, since he bequeathed his powers to Jean, so we're back to Square One. And Jean is now, certifiably, the Most Powerful X-Man. She actually already was, so long as you didn't count Charles as an actual active X-Man (I never did, but he usually did indicate that he thought of himself that way.) That revelation was handled a bit swiftly, and we don't yet know what the limits of Jean's new powers are, and how they might come into play to defeat Magneto.

So we're back to Catch-22. The X-Men feel incomplete without a telepath. But with one, defeating villains is too easy. Unless they have the power resist mind probes, in which case the telepath is useless. It's a classic playground scenario: "I have the sword that can cut through anything" "Well I have the shield that can block your sword." Nuh-uh, yuh-huh.

But this is all minutiae. Really, it all comes down to whether the creators are up to the challenge of exploiting these possibilties and devising suspenseful scenarios that aren't cop-outs.

After close-reading 40-odd issues of this book, I don't like their chances.