UNCANNY X-MEN #55: The Living Pharaoh!

The X-Men pursue the Living Pharaoh to Egypt to rescue Cyclops and his definitely-just-a-normal-human brother Alex!

Originally Published April 1969

When we left off, Cyclops was bumbling around the Living Pharaoh's hidden catacombs looking for his brother, whom he believes to be a murderer, and whom he thinks may want some help, when who should he run into instead but The Living Pharaoh, the would-be murder victim in the flesh! They scuffle for a while until Pharaoh uses his power of hitting Cyclops in the back of the head to knock him out.

Pharaoh and his goons transport Cyclops - trapped in the customary eyebeam-proof hood - to Egypt. The X-Man discovers his brother Alex is also along for the ride, trapped inside a sarcophagus or "mummy case."

The X-Men pursue but Pharaoh is able to blast them out of the sky, where they must presumably paddle their downed aircraft from New York to Egypt. He brings the Summers Brothers to the Great Pyramids of Giza, where he makes the dubious claim that "No one shall ever find us here ... NO ONE!!" Give the X-Men some credit for probably putting the Pharaoh-themed villain together with the Pyramids.

Pharaoh leaves his prisoners in a flooding room and, per villain bylaw, leaves them to their fate. Cyclops realizes that Alex's casket is loose and decides to break it open with his face.

I don't care what your mutant power is, that's hardcore.

Cyclops and his ostensibly-powerless brother now have to deal with Pharaoh's horde of thugs with only Scott's optic blasts and Alex's right hook. It's a pretty dire scenario because Living Pharaoh has the ability to manifest new tricks and weapons on pretty much every page.

Luckily, the X-Men arrive in the nick of time to even the odds. It's a pretty neat fight. Angel, flinging Pharaoh up to the top of the pyramid, notes their enemy seems to have lost his hand-blasting powers from last issue.

Cyclops reflects, over and over again, on how helpless Alex would otherwise be without the X-Men's help because he definitely for sure 100% does not have any powers whatsoever.

So it certainly comes as a shock to all of us when, as the Egyptian guys retreat, Alex gestures randomly and blasts Pharaoh down from his perch.

No shit!


Further Thoughts:

Subtlety has rarely been a big thing in comics, you know, but I do appreciate the story aspect of Alex realizing he's got powers. Mind you, it was almost exactly like Lorna's appearance in the previous big story arc, but you take what you can get. After reading 55 of these comics you definitely have to take them for what they are, and this was a nice middle-chapter for a story, with the chase, the battle scene and the big finish - corny cliffhanger and all.

Roy Thomas is back scripting this book for reasons I can only speculate, likely having to do with Arnold Drake's advocacy for creator's rights, which is partly why he had to leave his previous gig at DC Comics as well. Really it makes no material difference to the series itself. His writing on the X-Men was inconsistent to say the least - the better issues were the best of the series to date, the worst were among the very worst. Here's an intriguing article about his Marvel work that mainly focuses on his original creation of the Guardians of the Galaxy (not the Pratt/Bautista/Groot ones though.)