UNCANNY X-MEN #61: Monsters Also Weep!

Single White Female seeks educated, accomplished Vampiric Dinosaur Monster for Long Term Relationship

Originally Published October 1969

Angel has tracked Sauron, the self-identified evil identity of energy-sucking vampire Dr. Lykos, over the skies of New York City. This was not a difficult task to accomplish given that Sauron is likely the only other flying creature out tonight, and is conspicuously dinosaur-shaped. However, Sauron unleashes his hypnotic powers on Angel, causing him to believe he is facing a cadre of monsters, "each uglier than the rest," which is an amazing sentence when you think about it.

As Angel flaps around wildly battling hallucinations, the X-Men arrive to assist. They get Sauron on the ropes as the mutant energy he absorbed - which, somehow, precipitated his transformation into were-dinosaur form - fades, leaving him prone to reverting to his normal human Lykos form.

Luckily, he is able to hypnotize Angel into assisting his escape before the X-Men realize their trusted physician is a horrifying life force-drinking monster.

The whole lot of them reconvene at Dr. Lykos' office just in time for Alex Summers to awaken from his hypnotherapy, reinvigorated and displaying absolutely zero negative side-effects of having some of his life force drained. They don't even seem all the least bit interested in the details of this mystery cure, and why would they need to? This is fine, everything's fine.

Also making a surprise appearance is Karl's childhood love, Tanya, who appears to have aged half as much as Karl in the years since he saved her life. She announces her intention to marry Karl (yay) but is pursued by her father, Herr Doctor Anderssen, who forbids the match (boo) because Karl's earning potential is low - despite the fact that he is a physician with an apparently thriving practice, high patient satisfaction, and cutting-edge experimental hypnotherapy techniques. Tanya points out that she is a grown woman (yay), but apparently this evidence is not convincing enough, and Herr Anderssen drags her away (boo).

Karl doesn't take it well.

Dr. Lykos vows revenge, and as a part-time dinosaur monster, he knows exactly how to do it. First he sneaks into the X-Mansion (which he presumably knows about as a former colleague of Xavier) and steals a decent supply of mutant energy from Polaris, Angel and Havok. Next he flaps over to the Anderssen residence in Scarsdale, intent on murdering his beloved's father, which as we all know is the ultimate act of love.

Anderssen recognizes Karl's voice, which is surprising, given that being transformed into a pterodactyl seems like it should at least lower your vocal register. Ashamed by what he has become, Karl uses the last of his monster power to fly back to Tierra del Fuego to die in isolation.

That would be a cruel enough fate, but Tanya actually convinces the X-Men to help her pursue him, so they find Lykos, which causes him to panic, and...

Further Thoughts:

What a ride. As far as story goes, this is the best two issues I think we've seen yet. Just enough work had been put into the Lykos character that, even though he was introduced as a literal cackling mad scientist, his suicide at the end of the story seems like a fittingly tragic end rather than a tacky twist. Again, part of that is down to the humanity and weight Adams uses to render the characters, and if you didn't buy Karl's redemption, I feel like you could at least accept Tanya's love for him.

And that's where we're at, just at the tail end of this initial run of X-Men comics - the creators have managed to transmute it quickly from a zippy, paper-thin action comic to something of substance. Not great depth, mind you, but this is a 15-cent comic marketed to fourteen-year-olds and it is quite overachieving at being that.

I also love this minor romantic subplot between Lorna, Bobby and Alex, where Iceman seems to think he's a lot closer with Lorna than he actually is.

Neal Adams is a legend in the industry for his DC work but that leaves his all-too-brief time with the X-Men as sadly under-appreciated. He takes every opportunity to really sink his teeth into visuals of these mutants and villains using their powers against each other.