Gone but Not Forgotten: X-Men in the Early 70's (aka the Inter-X-num)

A brief look at what the X-Men got up to during the Watergate years...



Before we move forward, let's take a second to contemplate the weirdness surrounding the X-Men's plight at the beginning of the 1970's. Their book was canceled due to low sales but instead of simply ending the run and publishing something else, "X-Men" continued as a reprint-only title so new readers could thrill to years-old adventures with Factor Three and Grotesk the Sub-Human. If there was ever another Marvel comic that got this treatment in that era, I've never heard of it, so feel free to let me know.

But, you don't simply abandon a concept developed by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Characters in the Marvel Universe are frequently gone but rarely forgotten. So the X-Men did crop up from time to time, assisting the Avengers or Spider-Man in mutant-related scenarios, but mostly had to lie low. Still, it feels like there was a lot of affection for the X-Men, whose outsider status probably resonated with the new crop of writers, who were using the comics to explore the culture in which they lived...

The first major movement of post-rerun X-Men was to make Hank McCoy - far and away the most interesting of the original X-Kids - the lead character in the anthology series Amazing Adventures. The feature saw the bounding, brilliant Beast graduate from Xavier's school and take a position at the Brand Corporation, which does nebulous science stuff. In the course of researching the mutant gene, Hank takes a serum designed to give normal people mutant powers for an hour (for what purpose besides general mayhem I could scarcely imagine.) The serum transforms him into an apelike, grey-furred literal Beast. Unfortunately he misses his window to reverse it and is stuck in this form permanently, much to his chagrin.

So to recap, the serum is designed in the most Comic Book way ever, where you can take it to get powers (at the cost of a horrifying physical transformation) but you have to un-do it within an hour or it becomes irrevocable. Makes sense.

Beast's new form was to capitalize on loosening restrictions of depicting monsters and werewolves and the like in comic books. He was made more savage, less talkative (boo to that!) and yet rather self-pitying for the curse he brought on himself.

Beast was later brought on board the Avengers, where his character changed again - instead of reacting savagely to his transformation, Hank now takes he opportunity to mellow out - in the words of writer Steve Englehart, Beast basically became Marvel's first pothead.

Honestly, I don't see a disconnect between this Beast and the Hank of the 60's, who presented as a square but spent way too much time at Coffee A-Go-Go not to have been turned on. Instead of having to be the team's super-genius (as the Avengers were flush with those) Hank got to focus on being a carefree wiseacre, a characterization most would agree is his best.

The X-Men also figure somewhat prominently into one of the classic storylines of the era, Steve Englehart's original Secret Empire story, where Captain America is framed by a smear campaign that is traced all the way to "a top government official." The cultlike Secret Empire has also been targeting mutants, as various members of the X-Men were shown to go missing in titles like Avengers and Hulk.

Indeed, the Empire also includes the enigmatic Linda Donaldson, who was introduced in AA #11, along with Beast's transformation. Go figure!

The X-Men give an assist to Cap and the Falcon to gain he Empire's trust, but for some reason they're depicted in their yellow-and-blue newbie outfits, showing I guess the X-Men still weren't anybody's biggest priority.

For my money, the key X-Men story of the era doesn't even feature the X-Men, but one of their greatest villains...

No, not him! Get out of here, Lucifer, and take your stolen Twinkies with you!

I'm talking about Defenders #15-16, where Professor X recruits the ragtag group that includes Dr. Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie and Nighthawk (since the X-Men are busy with a guest-shot in Marvel Team-Up that month - imagine caring that characters appear twice in one month!) to take down Magneto, who is back on his "create a super-powerful mutant" tip again. He succeeds in creating Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant, who lives up to his name. He starts off as an unstoppable brute but every time he uses his powers he becomes more evolved until the transcends petty squabbles like this...

And with this logic, he uses his power to revert Magneto and his band (which includes Blob, Unus, Mastermind and Sexy Primative Womanchild Lorelei) into literal babies so that they can grow up again and perhaps see the error of their ways.

Let's see if it takes.

Meanwhile, former X-Men writer Roy Thomas, who had succeeded Stan Lee as Marvel's Editor-in-Chief, had been ruminating on a possible new direction for the X-Men for years. As a way of appealing to international markets, what if they put together a new team of X-Men from around the world? Sure, people might miss the old X-Men, but if one or two of these characters were to catch on, perhaps they might really be onto something...

We'll be back in two weeks to talk about the results of that premise. Stay tuned...

Banshee's love of country & western music also features into the Secret Empire storyline.

Amazing Adventures #11 originally published March 1972, written by Gerry Conway, drawn by Tom Sutton

Captain America #173 originally published May 1974, written by Steve Englehart, drawn by Sal Buscema

Defenders #16 originally published October 1974, written by Len Wein, drawn by Sal Buscema

Avengers #137 originally published July 1975, written by Steve Englehart, drawn by George Tuska