MRL - Uncanny X-Men (1963) #1

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #1 - Stan Lee/Jack Kirby

 

The X-Men, finally!

This team came about because Lee wanted another team, after the success of the Fantastic Four, but didn’t want to bother with origin stories.

We meet Professor X - Charles Xavier - in an exclusive private school in Westchester, New York. He's testing his students who “possess eXtra powers” using only mental commands.

Said students are: Hank McCoy “Beast", who has ape-like features and superhuman agility; Warren Worthington III “Angel", who can fly thanks to a pair of angel wings; Slim (he only becomes Scott in issue #3) Summers “Cyclops" who shoots energy beams out of his eyes; and Bobby Drake “Iceman" (the youngest), who has ice powers.

Satisfied with his students’ progress, the Professor introduces “the most attractive young lady” (yes, really) who’s the new student - Jean Grey “Marvel Girl”, who has telekinetic powers. She uses them to put Hank in his place when he gets too familiar (Bobby is not impressed by a girl student, btw).

Professor Xavier gets the chance to expound on his objectives with his school: he wants to train other mutants - X-Men - like himself to use their powers to protect humanity from evil mutants. Even if humanity is not ready to accept mutants.

The X-Men first mission come soon enough. Magneto - one of the evil mutants, who can control magnetism - is trying to take over the Cape Citadel base, a site for missile testing. He uses magnetic waves to create energy shields, disrupt missile tests and control guns. At a loss of what to do, the base commander allows the X-Men 15 minutes to take action.

They are successful, of course. Cyclops energy beams are strong enough to break Magneto’s shields and, together, they evade missiles and flush Magneto out, even if he gets away in the end.

This is a nice introduction to the team. We get to see how well they work together and a good sense of what their objectives are.

 

Random Stuff

The series was initially called simple The X-Men, but it's listed everywhere as Uncanny X-Men.

Professor Xavier’s parents worked on the A-Bomb. He believes he might be the first mutant.

The X-Men plane is mind controlled by the Professor.