Cover date: May 1964
Spell-binding story by: Stan Lee
Dazzling drawing by: Jack Kirby
Inking: Paul Reinman
Lettering: S. Rosen
"Never have you, the reading public, been so instantly fascinated by a group of super-powerful villains as last issue, when you met Magneto's evil mutants! Now, we present them again... more exciting, more unpredictable, more dangerous than ever!!"
I’d say that’s a bit of a stretch. Even considering the bi-monthly publishing schedule of this book, I have a hard time believing there was any feedback received for issue four when the Brotherhood first appeared before this issue was plotted. But we wouldn’t have known that back then, and Stan Lee has ever been the master of self-promotion and hyperbole.
This issue does make the re-appearance of the Brotherhood the first instance of what you might call a multi-issue story arc in this book, even if the main plots of the individual issues are unrelated. But certain plot points are carried over from last issue, most notably that Professor Xavier is still unconscious and his metal powers are shut down. We join the X-Men returning home from their last mission in Santo Marco, with the injured Professor X in tow. They gingerly put him to bed while he’s in his coma-like state, with Marvel Girl remarking “It sure seems strange to see him sleeping that way, just like any normal homo sapiens!” I’m not really sure what she was expecting, but she says it makes her feel so alone. The X-Men share a sad moment together, but resolve that they must continue his fight against evil mutants before they hear a car pull up in front of their school and realize that Jean Grey’s parents have come to visit. They quickly change out of costume to greet them and show them around, explaining Xavier‘s absence by saying that he is unavoidably detained. Mrs. Grey notices how interesting Scott’s glasses are and grabs for them as Cyclops completely overreacts, shrieking “NO! DON’T TOUCH THEM!!!” before catching himself to explain that he has an eye infection.
A gratuitous action sequence is achieved when the rest of the X-Men walk the Greys out of the “gymnasium” (really their Danger Room) and Cyclops gets shut in, with the control system set on automatic. Why they would program it to automatically start operating the moment the door is shut doesn’t speak well to the level of education these “most unusual teenagers of all time” are receiving at this so-called school. Since the program that runs was intended for the Beast, Cyclops has no problem obliterating battery of tests and obstacles hurled at him with the oh-so-deadly optic beams that he’s always whining about. One interesting bit to note during this whole opening waste of time is that the Greys say that they were hesitant about sending their daughter to this school when Xavier invited her, but they were persuaded when they were contacted by Washington, D.C. (not the city itself, I presume) recommending the course at Xavier’s so highly. Mrs. Grey also comments as they’re leaving that she’d like to know what the school’s connection to the government is. Me too. “Perhaps they’re teaching a special secret science course! Oh, well, I suppose we’ll find out some day!” Don’t count on it, honey. This is obviously in connection to FBI Special Agent Fred Duncan who popped up a few issues ago and continues to occasionally throughout the 1960’s run, but my recollection is that it’s never fully explored and might have been an interesting subplot in the book had anything ever been done with it. I don’t think any concrete statement about the government’s involvement with the formation of the X-Men is every explicitly addressed again until the mid-1980’s, where it’s only referenced so that it can be swept under the rug. (And possibly when a horrendous character, the X-Cutioner, shows up in an annual in the 1990’s with some weaponry and a costume based on Fred Duncan’s original files on the X-Men).
We transition into the actual plot of this issue with the Greys driving off in their car, not noticing the mysterious man in a trench coat and fedora standing outside the school on a curb. It’s Mastermind, of course. This is the kind of think Mastermind continues to do throughout his career -- stand in the street, not being noticed for who or what he is. Very bizarrely, he’s been searching for the X-Men and cannot find them, even though he has made his way to the sidewalk in front of their headquarters. He calls for a lift, and is picked up by a small plane of Magnetos’ that operates on magnetic energy -- even though Quicksilver is inside controlling it. They fly to their new base -- an asteroid!! Asteroid M (the first of several) to be exact. Magneto is certainly coming up in the world, so to speak. Some bickering among the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants ensues until Magneto starts shouting and they shape up. He wants to go after the X-Men. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are having second thoughts again, Magneto browbeats them into line, and then makes a plan. Incidentally, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch’s costumes are miscolored on the cover.
Meanwhile, the X-Men are still at the school that serves as their base of operations that Mastermind couldn‘t locate from the sidewalk. Professor X is awake, though it’s not really brought to our attention except that he’s sitting there in his wheelchair in front of the television with Jean attending to him. Bobby asks Scott if he’d like to watch the great track meet that’s on TV. Scott goes into hysterics about Xavier losing his powers and preparing for the next strike of the evil mutants and Bobby wasting time with a juvenile track mee. It’s another overreaction. But honestly, he’s got a point about the track meet. Why the hell would he want to watch that? This must have been what passed for real entertainment on television in the ‘60’s. BUT! Of course there’s a reason they ought to be watching that track meet, because it turns out a young mutant is participating, using his leaping ability to win various events. The human participants and the crowd get understandably pissed off, but get a little bit out of control by turning into a potential lynch mob. The “world that fears and hates them” theme is solidifying itself, although I suppose they could just be pissed off about the guy cheating, and not because he’s a mutant.
The X-Men make their way to the stadium and rescue the mutant. Beast somehow recognizes something familiar about the boy, and figures out that it’s the Toad, based on his leaping powers. Beast is a smart guy. He probably should have figured that out from watching him on TV. Anyway, the Toad is unmasked, the X-Men pursue, then Magneto shows up and captures the Angel by wrapping some iron train gates around him with his power of magnetic manipulation. The rest of the X-Men are occupied fighting off the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. It’s Quicksilver’s turn to be a little dense, when he doesn’t realize that Cyclops can fire his optic blasts while his arms are held behind his back. But maybe we haven’t seen Cyclops use his power without lifting his hand to his visor or glasses. Quicksilver almost certainly hasn’t, I guess. Magneto and the Brotherhood (minus the Toad) take off with Angel, with Magneto claiming “Forget the Toad! Run! We have the Angel! I’ll swap him for that high-jumping fool any day!” Poor Toad. Magneto’s most loyal lackey is always getting shit on like this. The design of Magneto’s magnetically powered get-away ship is priceless. The base of it is in the shape of a horseshoe magnet!
Back on Asteroid M, Magneto subjects Angel to some mild torture in the form of disorienting light strobes and sirens. The X-Men, meanwhile, are left with the abandoned Toad on their hands. But they don’t have much time to worry about what to do with him or try to beat information out of him as he’s suddenly overtaken by a strong, unexplained trance-like urge to return to Magneto. I’m not sure that this mental control over the Toad is ever properly explained later. Or perhaps it is at the end of the issue. More on that later. He presses a button on a sensor attached to his ankle and one of those convenient magnetically operated planes drops out of the sky to pick him up. The X-Men aren’t completely stupid and take advantage of it by boarding the plane along with him to be taken to Asteroid M. Lots of fighting ensues, as Magneto uses a magnetic intensifier strapped to his head to take control of all of the metal on the asteroid to fend them off. As Magneto is on the verge of killing the X-Men by blasting them out of the airlock, the Scarlet Witch uses her hex powers to short-circuit his control panel and is backed up by Quicksilver in refusing to let him kill anyone. Again. I wonder why he even bothers keeping these two around. They’re really awful sidekicks for this Silver Age cackle-n-shackle version of Magneto. They are great characters in these issues, though, with Quicksilver’s arrogance matched only by Magneto’s.
The X-Men take that opportunity to make their way to Magneto only to be fended off so that Magneto and the Brotherhood can make their escape. As the asteroid falls apart around them, Iceman creates an ice tunnel from one fragment to another so that they can avoid exposure to space. I’m not really sure that there is a clear understanding of all that space travel entails here. At any rate, they make it to an escape capsule and return safely to Earth. The hands down most hysterical moment of this issue is when Asteroid M is beginning to fall and Magneto off-handedly remarks that someone must have brushed up against the self-destruct button during the melee. Magneto is clearly not the evil genius he thinks he is if he's designed his lair with a self-destruct button that someone could so easily brush up against. Especially when he employs the likes of the semi-retarded Toad.
Upon returning to their school, they are greeted by Professor X who tells them that he was mentally with them the whole time, listening to their thoughts. The X-Men are shocked that he has his powers back. Xavier tells them that he never lost them and that it was a test that they had to pass on their own. What a dick. But even though it isn’t stated, I guess it could have been him nudging the Toad along to return to Magneto, helping the team to save the day. So Xavier without his powers is a road that, unfortunately, lasted all of one issue. I thought maybe he would go some time without his powers, or come back with much reduced telepathic ability, so that the writers had a reason to be telling stories about the X-Men fighting evil mutants, rather than just shoving Xavier out there in his chair to mind wipe everyone at the end of every issue. Oh well. Xavier also says that this was their final exam and that they have graduated from their training. What an odd way to completely undercut one of the major premises of the series only five issues in. Surely more mileage could have milked out of that. Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters doesn’t operate as an actual school again until 1982 when the New Mutants show up. I wonder what he claimed on his taxes all those years in between.
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