During a brief slow moment at work, I started jotting down some questions about Marvel's Merry Mutants, the Original X-Men and came up with these:
- I'm positive that the first team of X-Men were indeed the first class at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. So Professor X was a certified teacher, going through regular high school courses, though how he taught phys-ed is another matter. But then he taught them college courses as well. So how credible could his diplomas be if no one heard of him before? How much of a benefit could degrees from Mutant High really be?
- How did Professor X function with no help whatsoever, no staff, no driver, no assistant? He was physically handicapped. How did he maintain the building and the property? Who cooked? Who kept the entire place clean? The X-Men were supposed to be students, heroes in training AND servants? Personally I think Charles mind-controlled the locals to do the mundane chores.
- Why didn't he find more teenage mutants? Was five his limit?
- Technically speaking, every X-Man that joined the team after Giant Size X-Men #1 could have been found much earlier. Most were teens when Professor X made it his mission to teach young mutants. Why was EVERY mutant Cerebro detected already an adult?
- The X-Men weren't that secret anyway. The government, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers knew about them. But when did the heroes learn about Professor X and his powers?
- When was it established that the Prof and Magneto were "old friends"? Was it Chris Claremont altering their history? Obviously the two knew each other in Uncanny X-Men #1.
- Was the Beast super-strong or just very strong? He certainly wasn't in the Hulk's or Thing's league, heck he wasn't even in Spider-Man's!
- I recall that Professor X made the team's parents forget that they were mutants. When did that stop? After enough time passed that they couldn't sue him? ;-)
- I wonder what they majored in? The Beast was a biochemist, Iceman a CPA, the Angel a businessman, Marvel Girl a model and Cyclops a radio announcer. Man, Prof X really did teach EVERYTHING!
- Were the Original X-Men the runts of Marvel's super-teams? Could they have even beaten Cap's Kooky Quartet? I mean a team with the Porcupine and the Scarecrow gave them a good scrap! Why were they so weak?
Obviously there are more questions but I'm X-hausted. Still I am X-cited to hear your responses and comments and I X-tend the invitation for you to do so! Hopefully there will be some X-pert opinions!
X-celsior!
Replies
You don't have to be able-bodied to teach phys ed...you can coach from the sidelines without doing it yourself.
THERE MAY HAVE BEEN A FIVE KID LIMIT INITIALLY SET BY AGENT BROWN OF THE FBI. It was never stated.
And that increased to six upon the Mimic joining... They were always on the hunt for more mutant kids. Even the Toad slipped in among them once before calling Magneto to crash the party.
I think Cerebro changed or could be changed to look for different ages, powers, abilities... over time.
Initially, it didn't look for just kids... it picked up the Stranger...Toad....Unus...Blob... Vanisher...Juggernaut...Magneto...Mimic...Factor 3....
THE FF met the X-men for the first time inFF #28. The Avengers met them in X-men #9. They appeared again in FF ANNUAL #3for the Wedding of Reed and Sue... but they were guests in FF #36 as well, as I recall. There seemed to be some knowledge that they were a new teen hero group, but "mysterious".
AS I RECALL, Eric and Charles got a backstory in about X-men #161 or so, in a story that introduced gabriel Heller and the Nazi gold...it was a done in one story, and was a surprise to us all!
The beast was never strong...he was nimble and agile. And had prehensile or opposable big toes that helped grip.
That stopped about the time it was revealed that the Prof had duped them all into thinking he was dead...X-men #65!
Remember, at least two of Cap's Kooky Quartet were former Brotherhood members. In fact, the X-men had offered them membership before Wanda and Pietro applied to the Avengers. Those two could hold their own against all five of the x-men as was shown time and again. Quicksilver and cyclops have it out in X-men #45, I believe. As for why they had trouble with the Porcupine and scarecrow, remember that the writing chores had just changed to Roy Thomas, as I recall.
I was joking about phys-ed (mostly) but one man teaching every subject for high school AND college? Even in elementary school, I had several teachers. They fixed that in the movies with the older mutants instructing the younger ones (Storm with history, Cyclops mechanics "Gotta have a Plan B!" and Wolverine art!) ;-)
Not to mention that Prof X had to have dealings with the local and state boards of education. You can't just start a school!
My main point about Cerebro was that it should have detected the various evil mutants far sooner since they were older than the X-Men. And one of my pet peeves from X-Men 3 is that Juggernaut is NOT a mutant!
I think that Prof X accompanied the X-Men to Reed and Sue's wedding but no one knew of their connection. I'm not sure about Hank and Jan's wedding.
The Beast was more than nimble! I wouldn't want to arm-wrestle him!
Magneto was probably too ashamed to hang out with the other villains! Every other villain squad could have taken out the X-Men: the Masters of Evil, the Frightful Four, the Sinister Six, the Emissaries of Evil, Batroc's Brigade and the Lethal Legion. Okay maybe they beat the Terrible Trio but I have even money on the Super-Apes!
Yeah, that Professor, he was well-rounded!
Regarding the Beast, I believe I read somewhere that he does have super-strength, being able to life around a ton. So certainly not in Spider-Man's class, but definitely stronger than any normal human.
Regarding the strength of the team, I've long thought that the Legion of Substitute Heroes could easily have taken out the original X-Men--and they didn't even have Captain America. So yeah, I think the team of Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch would mop the floor with the original team.
Randy, remember that the original brotherhood...Magneto, Toad, Mastermind, Pietro and Wanda... couldn't beat the kids.
They held their own against heavyweight Magneto time and time again. Now, if you switch out Mags and Mastermind with Hawkeye and Cap, I don't see much of a power difference. Only Cap might have more stragegy and battle experience, as we have seen in AvengersVSx-Men, I'm not sure that was enough.
However, it would be fund to see a flashback story told my someone like either Roger Stern or Dan Slott and illustrated by Steve Ditko or someone in an old-school style. I'd be up for seeing a match up along the lines that you suggest. I'd like to see Pietro and Wanda having trouble keeping their team mates from moping up the kids, and have the X-men wonder just where the brother-sister's loyalties lie. After all, they did ask them to consider joining. Perhaps the next time they saw them was just after they joined the Avengers, and it wasn't clear if they were on the straight and narrow yet. Even Hawkeye was considered a criminal at that time. The story possibilities are endless....
I would argue that Pietro and Wanda never put as much effort into the Brotherhood as they did with the Avengers. They never fought to the fullest of their ability, and they' received zero training. When they joined the Avengers, Cap immediately began training them in both tactics and teamwork. They were there in their fights against the X-Men, but their hearts were never in the fight.
Obviously the Toad wasn't much of an adversary, and Mastermind was never as powerful back then as he later became. So it wasn't exactly five on one, but pretty close, at least in my estimation.
Also, having had previous battles against the X-Men could have given the Avengers a tactical advantage as well, especially if the others had never met before.
I am trying to remember just when Pietro and Wanda would have squared off with the X-men after their departure from the brotherhood in X-men #11.
As I recall, the X-men offered them membership, but they declined, saying they'd make their own path. As I recall, they were resting in Europe when they read of the Avengers announcing a call for membership in Avengers #16. They immediately join, and I don't recall ANY interaction with the X-men over the next two dozen issues, until the Black Knight/Dane Andrews accidentally summons Magneto back from the Zoo of the Stranger in about Avengers #46 or so. Pietro is convinced that the humans shot Wanda on purpose, when Magneto jerked their hands and guns around. This leads more or less directly to X-men assault on Magneto's island fortress, of which we see the Pietro/Cyclops fight in X-men #45.
So, unless i'm missing something, there's been no fights with the X-men since, say X-men #11. I've just looked up the issues in the GCD and found that both X-men #11 AND Avengers #16 were dated May 1965. So Stan clearly intended to roll them right from the Brotherhood into Cap's Kookie quartet.
I'm pretty sure the next appearance of the stranger was the Tales to Astonish #88 three parter with the Abomination drawn by Gil Kane.
I didn't think the stranger shows up again until a Captain America appearance, but I have a vague memory of the Stranger's purpose being revealed as a countermeasure for the Overmind...but i'm not sure of that. The Overmind was a trumped up villain in about FF #114-115-116 or so.
The story in X-men #11, especially with the surprise twist, feels a lot more like the monster/morality tales of the pre-hero era. As I look through Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense, i'm finding more and more images and twists that have been reused elsewhere in the Marvel Universe, from the mole man, to underground civilizations to twist endings. It really is quite amazing how many images, concepts and storylines get recycled again and again. They even steal from their prose text to form the plot of a short art story several months later.
The Stranger from Captain America #149-150 was actually Jakar dubbed the New Stranger who resembled the original only with black hair.
Oddly enough, my first encounter with the Stranger was Avengers #137 (Jl'75) and THAT wasn't the real Stranger either!
My recollection is he's briefly seen at the conclusion of #18, coming to collect Magneto. In 1969 he appeared in The Silver Surfer #5, where he meant to wipe out life on Earth. His 70s appearances include Marvel Team-Up #55 (where he fights the Gardener) and a storyline in The Champions.
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