The X-Men visit the office of the eminently capable and trustworthy Dr. Karl Lykos.
Originally Published September 1969
We begin by tying up the loose ends from the X-Men's last adventure. The team entrusts Judge Chalmers with setting all the captive mutants free, including - indeed perhaps entirely consisting of - criminal mutants like the Blob, Unus and Mesmero. Chalmers also replaces Larry Trask's tacky medallion which both erases his memory of being a mutant and suppresses his power of future-sight. If you're asking how a piece of jewelry can do all of this, I don't think you ought to be reading comics from the 1960's, or probably ever.
They abscond in one of the Sentinels' jets. And if you're questioning why giant robots who can fly into the sun under their own power need jets to get around, which can be piloted by regular-sized humans, I guess you can refer to the above.
Meanwhile, the X-Men resolve to bring Alex "Havok" Summers to the trusted care of one Dr. Lykos, who had worked with Professor Xavier on the subtly-named "Project Mutant" but about whom little else is known. But how can you not trust this face?
Seems like a fun guy.
Lykos, shown using "hypnotherapy" to treat hypertension, asserts that he must be given privacy to work his treatment on Alex and that Scott may return later to collect him. So without much of a fuss (albeit to his credit, not zero fuss) Cyclops and Jean leave him to it and return to the Mansion to find the others engaged in a vigorous Danger Room workout.
Cheers to you for playing the field, Lorna. No need to settle down.
Back at the lab, Dr. L, a generous boss if there ever was one, allows his nurse to go home at 1 PM, over her protests that it's "still early."
Hmm, that's a weird thing to say.
Dr. Lykos is having some conflicting feelings about whatever it is he intends to do to Alex, salivating one minute that "one of them" has come to him, but also considering his intentions demonic and unthinkable.
This inner conflict prompts him to reflect on his childhood trip to Tierra del Fuego, which as far as family vacays go, is not exactly the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.
They had come as guides for the icy and removed Herr Anderssen, who like Lykos Sr., had an inappropriate yen for bringing his young children on dangerous trips to the far-flung corners of the world. When his young daughter Tanya goes missing, it is the young Lykos (Karl) who discovers her in a hidden cavern swarming with monstrous flying dinosaurs.
Which is surprising and scary to normal people like us, but Karl Lykos decides to kill one with a stick.
This kid is like twelve. Stay out of his way.
What I suppose we're supposed to put together is that Tierra del Fuego would be not far from the Savage Land, the hidden jungle in Antarctica where dinosaurs and primeval tribesmen mingle freely, as seen here.
In the aftermath of the attack, young Karl felt the mysterious and insatiable urge to "drain" energy from others, which he hid (as one would likely do) while he grew up to pursue a relationship with Tanya.
Sadly, it was not to be as Herr Anderssen forbade their love, possibly out of a growing sense of what a creepy little weirdo Lykos would grow to be. Lykos devoted his life to becoming a Doctor, hypnotizing his patients and stealing their "life energy."
Okay, let's take a pause here for a moment and see if I've appraised the situation accurately. What Dr. Lykos does is, patients come to him complaining of various ailments - hypertension, cracked ribs, what have you - and instead of treating them with "Normal" or "Actual" medicine, he hypnotizes them and uses his misbegotten dinosaur curse vampire powers to steal their life energy.
But then they wake up feeling okay, and like they want to come back and get the treatment again?
Sounds like good work if you can get it.
Sure, I have no doubt that this supposed life energy-stealing process is detrimental to the patients' long term health, but a study will have to be done before it can be formally banned. Until then, buyer beware, am I right?
So, Lykos gets to work absorbing Alex's life energy and finds that the mutant energy he has been craving has some interesting side-effects.
On the one hand I feel like we've been given a lot to chew on here, but you can't tell me that "Life Energy Sucking Vampire Mad Scientist Transforms Into Monster Dinosaur" is a totally left-field story turn at this point. It seems eminently logical to me by now. And if this all seems a little much for you to process, I think I've made my position clear earlier in this post about whether you should be reading these comics.
Lykos, that nerd, rechristens himself Sauron, after the villain of his favourite book, Lord of the Rings. Which is a shame because "Lykos" is a perfectly serviceable bad guy name. But I guess, you know, Dinosaur, soar-ing through the sky, I see how you got there, Karl.
The X-Men hear about this monster on the news and when mutants get the blame, that hothead Angel decides he's going to storm off and do something about it, even if he has to roll solo. He declares his independence by donning his vastly superior pre-X-Men costume that just debuted via flashback a few issues ago. I wonder if they designed that story specifically to get him out of that tacky yellow shirt/red suspenders combo down the line. Guess I'm a costume-truther.
Angel does indeed find Sauron real quick (he stands out, understandably) but finds the were-pterodactyl has an extra power we had not seen yet: a smouldering, sexy look of evil!
Further Thoughts:
I love this, I love Sauron, I love comics. Sauron is gimmick on gimmick on gimmick - mad scientist vampire were-dinosaur with hypnotic eyes. There is no context where all of that can come together into a workable character besides comics.
This story continues the trend of devoting a lot of time to exploring the villain's backstory, like during the Sentinel story where the X-Men weren't seen for long stretches as we probed into Larry Trask's mutant-hating complex, his quest to avenge his father, and his own secret mutant-ness. This would irk me a little bit if it weren't for the entertainment value of the bananaballs crazy origin we get for dinosaur-killing Lykos, and the fact that all of that is absolutely necessary to hear about so that we can comprehend what the Sam Hell is going on when Lykos transforms into a dinosaur.
It just has me a little worried about the future of this blog, because there is so much to digest with every issue now, it leaves me a little pooped at having to write it out. But you know, like one of Lykos' patients, I chose this course, and it hasn't killed me yet, so I'll see you next week.
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