UNCANNY X-MEN #54: Wanted: Dead or Alive -- Cyclops!

The X-Men must rescue Cyclops' previously-unmentioned brother from the clutches of the sacrifice-happy Living Pharaoh!

Originally Published March 1969

We begin the story with an intriguing in medias res moment. Cyclops, alone in what appears to be a museum, is cornered by two policemen accusing him of... murder! Cyclops has the presence of mind to take us back to where it began, apparently with the X-Men watching the graduation ceremony of Scott's heretofore unmentioned younger brother, Alex.

However, before Scott can buy Alex his first beer, the younger Summers is attacked, as so often happens, by goons dressed as Ancient Egyptians. Bad luck!

Using Jean's telepathic powers, they find where Alex is being held prisoner, predictably enough by a villain calling himself the Living Pharaoh, who makes the bold claim that the Egyptian Pharaohs were all possessed of mutant powers, and that both he and Alex are descended from the Pharaohs despite both being white as the driven snow.

(For you history buffs out there, there was a long period of Egyptian History, from about 305 BC until 30 BC where Egypt was ruled by the Macedonian Ptolmaic Dynasty, concluding with Cleopatra, but I don't think the Summers Brothers consider their heritage to be significantly Macedonian either.)


For reasons not adequately explained, Pharaoh intends to murder Alex, strapping him to a table and dressing him in Egyptian garb for a ceremonial sacrifice. Rough deal. Luckily, the X-Men arrive to rescue Alex, and a long fight scene occurs - somehow it feels much longer than it could possibly actually be considering it takes up only 6 of the story's 15 pages.

The X-Men grapple with TLP's henchmen but when Jean tries to attack him using her psychic powers, he unleashes the dreaded Wall of Sound, (insert your own Phil Spector joke here) which sends the X-Men reeling long enough for the bad guys to get away.

As they release Alex, Cyclops reveals that he is in fact Alex's brother Scott, which I feel like Alex should not be surprised about considering he has not seen his brother without a pair of heavy red sunglasses in probably years. The others leave and give the two a moment to themselves.

As Alex adjusts to this stunning revelation - and that he, too, might probably be a mutant - Pharaoh returns to knock them both out with his hypnotic Pharaoh Eye!

When Cyclops awakens he realized he's being accused of murdering some nut in a kooky Pharaoh costume! Gasp!


Being a trained hero and occasional outlaw, Cyclops uses his powers to give the cops the slip. He deduces that if he didn't kill the Pharaoh, his brother likely did, and probably ran scared. He resolves to find Alex and help him, while the other X-Men hear a news alert on the radio that Cyclops is now a fugitive. They know they need to find him before the cops do.

Things all look to be heading to a boiling point, but if that isn't enough, who should Cyclops run into in the Pharaoh's secret tunnels?

Where does this guy get his info on Pharaohs? Never mind, to be continued!

Further Thoughts:

Leaving aside Cyclops' incredibly blithe attitude that his brother is probably a murderer (he expresses no doubt whatsoever that Alex actually did it) this was a good place to end off. Considering we were waiting to find out what, exactly, Cyclops was supposed to have done on Page 1, the fight did drag the proceedings a bit, but that's comics.

Like the Lorna Dane arc, this story gets off to an interesting start by introducing interesting new elements - Cyclops having a brother breaks up the closed-in circle of the X-Men's group in a way that even Lorna's arrival didn't. And the twist that Cyclops supposedly killed the Living Pharaoh - even though we know he didn't - helps the opening page live up to the curiosity. Especially when the blame is shifted to Alex... so much so that it almost feels a shame we learn in this issue that the Pharaoh isn't dead at all.

Maybe that's one twist too many for 15 pages, or maybe they've done "back from the dead" so many times with Magneto and others that they might as well not even pretend that Pharaoh is dead for more than a minute.

Don Heck, back on solo art duties so that Werner Roth can concentrate on the all-important back-up origin stories, tries some things here, and the results are mixed. The extreme angles and wacky panel borders actually enhance the fight scene even as it plods on, but they can be distracting when reading panels that are supposed to be setting up the story. (Jean Izzo's lettering going at funny angles to match doesn't help, but I guess we're trying something here.)