Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #49, Uncanny X-Men #50, Uncanny X-Men #51, Uncanny X-Men #52
Cover Date: Oct 68 - Jan 69
Title: "Who dares defy... the Demi-Men?" / "City of Mutants" / "The devil had a daughter!" / "Twilight of the mutants!"
Credits:
Arnold Drake - Writer
Don Heck - Layouts on #49 and #52
Werner Roth - Finishes on #49 and #52
Jim Steranko - Pencils on #50-51
John Tartaglione - Inker

Review/plot:
The X-Men book has been featuring solo (or duo) character stories for the past few issues, but that direction is abandoned here with a four issue arc that features the (seeming) return of Magneto, introduces some promising new characters, and, for half the issues, has art by superstar Jim Steranko (he also does the cover to issue #49). The story has its flaws, to say the least, but it's definitely a step up.

We begin with Angel checking in at Xavier's empty school and discovering that Cerebro is signaling "the highest recorded concentration of mutants".

He reaches out mentally to Jean, who sets up a psychic conference call between all the X-Men (Scott is currently working at his radio newscaster job, and Bobby and Hank, much more awesomely, are skydiving).

The scene then cuts away to the "noble pupil" of Magneto, Mesmero.

With him are the "Demi-Men" (per the cover of issue #49 only; they are not referred to as such in this story) who appear to be robots or men in full exoskeleton armor...

...although there are several indications in this story that they are supposed to be mutants. Cerebro is obviously detecting a large number of mutants, and later, while the X-Men are using a portable mutant-detector derived from Cerebro, they identify the Demi-Men as a "mutant squad".

This story hinges on Mesmero using a "psyche-generator" to activate "latent mutants".

So far the distinction between a mutant and a "regular" super-powered person like, say, Spider-Man, is that a mutant was born with their powers, which manifest at adolescence with no specific trigger. If a mutant needs their powers to be triggered via an external input, it's not very different than getting bit by a radio-active spider. In fact you could make the argument that Spider-Man was a latent mutant whose powers were triggered by the spider bite instead of a psyche-generator.

(Part of my personal lack of acceptance with the latent mutant idea is a theory or understanding i've built up over the years that there was something special about Peter Parker's genetics that allowed him to become Spider-Man when bitten instead of just getting radiation poisoning. If the idea is that anyone could have been turned into Spider-Man, then the latent mutant distinction makes more sense, i guess.)

In any event, this triggering of latent mutants should be considered a major turning point. Up until now we've seen new mutants trickle in onesy-twosy, with Cerebro generally being able to pinpoint each one. This wave should help explain the explosion of mutants in later years.

The concept might also help explain some discrepancies about certain characters. Cloak & Dagger were characterized as mutants for a while even though we know they got their powers from experimental drugs. Juggernaut and Sauron are often accidentally grouped with mutants due to their association with the X-Men. Perhaps in fact they are mutants, of the latent variety (i don't really like this idea, of course; just throwing it out there). Certainly Jack O'Diamonds, from Cyclops' origin story, was a latent mutant.

One of the latent mutants is Lorna Dane, who is affected by the psyche-generator while crossing the street, and she's rescued by Iceman in his civilian ID.

He brings her to his and Beast's San Francisco apartment to recuperate, forgetting that the other X-Men are on their way (in a supersonic ship borrowed from the Avengers) and about to show up in costume.

The X-Men sans Beast manage to sneak out, leaving Lorna at the apartment, to scout the area, and they encounter the Demi-Men. Whatever they are, the Demi-Men don't demonstrate any powers at this point, but at least one of them has a thought bubble, indicating that if they are robots, they are sophisticated ones (note also the Angel's doubts about their mutant status).

Back at the apartment, while the Beast, now in costume, is adjusting the mini-Cerebro unit, Lorna comes out of her shower, but she's now sporting green hair. She says she was born with it but normally keeps it dyed, which means that, at least, wasn't triggered by the psyche-generator wave.

At this point, any pretensions about secret IDs are basically dropped.

The X-Men leave the apartment again, this time leaving Iceman behind with Lorna. Then Mesmero shows up with a group of Demi-Men. Iceman is mentally frozen by Mesmero, and then Mesmero and the Demi-Men bow down to Lorna and hail her as Queen of Mutants.

We now begin the Steranko-drawn issues (issue #50 also debuts a new cover logo that may look familiar to you.

The Demi-Men bring Iceman and Lorna to their City of Mutants...

Click to Steranko-size

...where Lorna is subjected to the Mutant Energy Stimulator (MES), which further draws out her latent powers (so far, despite the psyche-generator, she hasn't demonstrated any).

The rest of the X-Men arrive and attack, with Angel revealing that he's not normally a fan of cookies.

Seemingly coinciding with Steranko's art, Arnold Drake's dialogue takes on an arch tone that lends to a grander feel, although it feels out of character for someone like Cyclops.

The X-Men fail to defeat the Demi-Men.

Meanwhile, Lorna is revealed to be the daughter of Magneto, and is dressed in an elaborate costume.

Lorna will retain variations of this costume, but it's an unwieldy one that i don't think works very well outside of Steranko's pencils.

Steranko also brings his interesting use of layouts to the book.

After the revelations for Lorna, Magneto arrives.

Lorna is somehow able to detect the fact that Magneto is evil, but she's still conflicted, and for a while sides with the evil mutants. Overpowered, the X-Men attempt to retreat from the City of Mutants.

At last one of the Demi-Men demonstrates some actual powers, although the fact that his powers are tied to holding hands with the other men makes that suspect.

After the X-Men escape and engage in a little in-fighting, Cyclops settles on a strategy of infiltrating Magneto's city by disguising himself as a super-villain. He calls himself Erik the Red.

It's a pretty outrageous costume, even sillier looking when Steranko's not drawing it.

Magneto was temporarily crippled during the X-Men's escape, and as Erik, Cyclops is able to not only infiltrate but gain control of the City.

He contacts the other X-Men, sans Iceman who left the group during the team's earlier argument.

Both Polaris and Magneto exhibit some degree of mental abilities. Polaris continues to sense "strange evil vibrations" from Magneto and the others, but not Erik the Red. And Magneto warns Polaris that he is "aware of your most secret musings!".

Mesmero's powers seem to go beyond basic mesmerization. He seems to generate "radio energy" and "Fires of Vulcan", although it could all be mental illusions.

Meanwhile we see no further powers from the Demi-Men during the X-Men's new assault.

The tide turns when Iceman returns to reveal that he's been doing some research and can confirm that Magneto is in fact not Lorna's father.

This frees her from familial obligation, ending the battle very quickly.

The X-Men are unable to capture anyone, though, because Magneto has mined the city, causing it to explode. Jean is able to mentally sense the mines, showing that her telepathy powers operate similar to Xavier's, and different than a conventional (if that's possible) understanding of telepathy that would only include mental communication with other minds.

Lorna isn't named Polaris yet; in fact she won't get that name until another Eric the Red calls her that in issue #97.

Lorna is being set up as Iceman's love interest in these stories ("Why single me out for... special attention? And why do I feel so strange in your arms?"), but that ultimately won't work out for him. He does get to go to the, er, "friskoteque" with her at the end of this arc, though.

While this story certainly has an epic feel to it and is an improvement over what we've been seeing in this title for several years, there's also a lot of confusion and reversals and other strangeness that comes out of it. I mentioned my personal problem with the latent mutant concept. There's also the Demi-Men - were they really supposed to be mutants, or what? Nothing in-story will ever explain. But later, during the Neal Adams run, it will be revealed that the Magneto appearing in these stories is actually a robot (that, in itself, was a bizarre revelation). But who was controlling the robot wasn't explained. Eventually the Marvel Handbooks (under the Mesmero entry) reveal that Magneto and the Demi-Men were created by Starr Saxon, in a retroactive behind-the-scenes first appearance, and invent an explanation for his involvement (which seems a little beyond the scope of the Handbooks, but it's not the only instance of them doing something like this):

Nothing is known about Mesmero's life until he became involved in the first known major operation launched by the master roboticist Samuel "Starr" Saxon, who later became known as the Machinesmith... Saxon constructed a robotic duplicate of Magneto... He also built a small army of robots with strange powers called Demi-Men... Saxon's plan was to use these androids as his means of accumulating vast wealth and power, while deceiving the world into believing them to be superhuman mutants, who had become objects of widespread fear.

Saxon decided that he needed some actual mutants to help him lead the robotic army while he himself remain[ed] behind the scenes, giving direction through the Magneto robot. First, Saxon had the robot Magneto recruit Mesmero to serve as second in command. Apparently Mesmero did not know that the "Magneto" he served was a robot, and he was probaby entirely unaware of Saxon's involvement.

Then Saxon decided that a mutant who was a natural source of magnetic power would be useful in dealing with his metal robot army. Mesmero captured Lorna Dane... and used an advanced scientific means to activate her latent magnetic powers... He also used his hypnotic powers to induce her to sympathize with the bogus Magneto... Shortly afterwards, however, Mesmero dropped his control over Dane, overconfidently assuming that she would obey her supposed father no matter what happened.

There's also the matter of Lorna Dane's relationship with Magneto. In this first appearance, the idea that Magneto was her father was debunked. But much, much later Chuck Austen restored the idea, and it's since been confirmed in Peter David's X-Factor.

Finally, there's Erik the Red. There's no explanation as to where Cyclops got that crazy S&M costume that lets him channel his eyebeams through his hands (if that's what's happening). More importantly, early in Claremont's run we're introduced to Eric the Red of the Shi'ar (with a 'c' instead of a 'k'), who wears the same costume with no explanation. It was probably intended as nothing more than an Easter egg nod to this crazy story, but the in-continuity implications haven't been addressed.

Anyway, in the context of this story only, some interesting concepts. That the ideas here were invalidated or not developed by later stories isn't the fault of Drake here.

Marvel Girl continues to be more impressive than she used to be.

The Magneto robot has a few more appearances, so i've listed it as a Character Appearing. It's questionable whether this really is the same Magneto robot that Machinesmith will use in later appearances but i suppose if he could easily mass produce robots with Magneto's powers he'd be ruling the world already.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - first Polaris & Mesmero

Chronological Placement Considerations: The origin back-ups from these issues are covered in a separate entry (note that some comments below address the back-ups, since they used to be part of this entry before i split them out).

References:

• Magneto's been thought dead since Avengers #53.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men vol. 5

While it's never been revealed who was behind the Demi-Men plot from X-Men 49-52, was Claremont's later revelation that Stephen Lang, after the defeat of his army of massive mutant-hunting robot Sentinels, pitted our heroes against his "X-Sentinels", android doubles of Beast, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl, Havok, Lorna Dane, and Professor X, who, like the robot of Magneto from X-Men #50, possessed the appearance of, and could simulate the mannerisms and powers of those they were meant to duplicate, meant to imply that he had earlier created the Magneto-robot?

While readers might dispute that Lang only worked with robots, recall when Claremont introduced him in addition to being a pioneer in the field of robotics, UXM 100 revealed he was originally an employee of the U.S. government placed in charge of a federal investigation into the origin of GENETIC MUTATION.

The question then becomes what he wanted these "latent mutants" for? Were the Demi-Men part of some government plot and what has happened to them since?

Ah you say, but there's the link with Eric the Red! Yes, we know that Shakari was a secret operative for the Shi'ar on Earth before assuming his new identity (although whether he WAS A Shi'ar is debatable as we've previously discussed on this site). According to Lilandra, Shakari had already been stationed on Earth prior to X-Men #65. Magneto will reveal in the UXM 112 that the Magneto Mesmero worked for in issues #49-52 was actually a robot double, apparently not created nor controlled by him. While it might appear that Claremont intended to reveal that the robot was under Shakari's control, and that his choice of Eric The Red as an identity was intended to be ironic, since it was the identity Cyclops used to deceive the Magneto imposter in those issues, by above suggestion that Claremont instead intended Lang is just as tenable.

The robot double's mission in those issues was to target Polaris and convert her to its side.

This is also Shakari's first move as Eric the Red.

Perhaps Polaris was originally intended to hold some other importance that would have made her important to Shakari, and which would have been revealed in the unwritten issue.

Claremont looked to be getting closer to final connections surrounding this issue close to the end of his Uncanny run. During the power-switch in UXM 250, the narrative captions suggest that Lorna is turned into energy, then resolidified. Was it that during the reforming back into solid being, the Malice entity - formerly part of Lorna's mind - integrated into Lorna's physicality instead. This was why negative psychic energy, which Malice always fed off of, started causing Lorna to become physically stronger. The negative thoughts no longer affected Lorna's mind, but it affected her body instead and is why the Shadow King required her as his anchor to remain in the physical realm.

Now recall the power of the Demi-Men!? When Cyclops throws a mighty punch at one of them, he has it reflected back at him, his target laughing and exposition explaining that he possesses the mutant power of NEGATIVE ENERGY!

So was Eric the Red's initial interest in Lorna Dane and not the Summers brothers?

There is something significant to all this with his specifically influencing her to adopt the codename "POLARIS", particularly when you consider Claremont has Mr. Sinister later suggest her codename is tied into her overall role as leader of the Marauders and her being the "pole star" of his plans!

Did Mr. Sinister bind her with Malice as some way to fulfil the original Demi-Men plot?

Was Malice used to link the powers of all the other Demi-Men as shown in X-Men #50 and this is why they were able to direct "negative energy"?

I think their name is further telling as well since Demi-Men effectively means "half-human" so does this suggest the other half is alien? I expect Claremont picked up on this as well. Otherwise if they were intended as all mutant, why not go with the Homo Superior trip particularly if they were attempting to give the impression that Magneto was behind the plot?

I never knew the "latent mutant" idea existed so long ago. I thought it was a new concept invented just to give a sales boost to heroes with obvious non-mutant origins.

Are we really sure there were no "atomic energy plants" in 1946-1947? There were no operational civilian nuclear reactors that provided power at that time, but Argonne National Laboratory had an operational reactor and was commissioned in 1946 by the Atomic Energy Commission to developed a peaceful nuclear energy program. Other government atomic laboratories also had their own reactors (then called atomic piles)and were using them for peaceful research purposes. Oak Ridge Laboratory produced medical isotopes.

Seems to me any one of them, or a Marvel equivalent, could be invoked to fulfill Hank's origin. Is there any specific to the issue that makes it absolutely necessary for the plant to be producing electricity commercially?

@Chris: why not Almagordo where Brian Xavier worked?

There's nothing in the story that specifies that Norton McCoy was working for a commercial plant (although i think it was Drake's intention). And no location is specified, so it could have been any of the historically real sites that Chris mentioned, or Almagordo (although it definitely doesn't look like New Mexico).

Anything that furthers my reverse timescale theory, i'm willing to accept ;-)

Steranko designed the new logo. Too bad he didn't write his issues as well.

@fnord: what historically real sites did Chris mention?

I meant the plants he mentioned for non-commercial use. Argonne National Laboratory (outside Chicago), Oak Ridge Laboratory (near Knoxville, TN) and others created for research or other purposes.

If we want to use real history, I don't think Alamagordo, NM actually had any atomic reactors. It was simply the site of the White Sands Missile Range where the Trinity atomic bomb tests occurred. The actual nuclear research was done in Los Alamos, NM.

The only reason to exclude that from Hank's origin is that the site was exclusive to weapons work so Hank's father couldn't have said his work was only for peaceful purposes, not bombs. One of the other labs would be a better choice.

@ Chris: Good point:)

I agree,Marvel Girl's powers are really impressive in these issues, also in #48. Marvel killing off Prof. X. (for a time, anyway) allowed her to shine--she was the most powerful member of the team, even well before she got those Phoenix-amped powers.

Weirdly I actually remember hearing about this story long before I even knew anything about the X-Men or Marvel specifics in general: just the idea of "The Devil Had a Daughter", that Magneto would have a daughter in the form of Polaris (and mind you I didn't even know of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch also being related). It's weird that it didn't quite work out that way...but then it did, but comics always seem to try and figure out what fits and what doesn't.

No one has pointed out yet that Lorna is way too young in X-Factor #245 for Magneto to have been involved when he was leading the Brotherhood when you consider she was first introduced in 1968 in her late-teens (and the Brotherhood had been formed only 5 years before).

In addition Magneto recruited Mastermind sometime between X-Men #1 and 4, working alone in X-Men #1 and forming the Brotherhood in direct response to his encounter with the X-Men.

PAD would have been much better off to reveal that Zala was the older half-sister who discovers her mother's affair with Magnus and so sabotages the plane with the aim of setting him up as the one who brought it down because she is jealous (because she hadn't developed mutant powers like her mother but Lorna was more than likely to given she is the offspring of an Omega level mutant).

There is still some interesting stuff to be worked out when it comes to Lorna Dane though. It's moot in the present-day Marvel Universe because they did the (stupid, in my opinion) thing of saying she IS Magneto's daughter, which is so very problematic. But going back to Claremont and pre-Claremont versions of the character, she is fascinating. There is an interesting tidbit dropped by CC in his earliest Shi'ar stuff about how "Eric the Red learned about the X-Men through Lorna. But he did not say how he learned of *her.*" There is something weird there; a never-explained connection between Lorna Dane and the Shi'ar's undercover agent on Earth (Davan Shakari) The very fact that, as his super-villain identity, Davan chose "Eric the Red," is a strange thing. It goes back to when the X-Men met Lorna back circa X-Men #51, and begs the question of how Eric knew about that, and why he chose that as his identity.

Fnord pointed this out before:
http://www.supermegamonkey.net/2012/09/supermegaspeed_reviews_125.shtml
and so did I:
http://www.chronologyproject.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6507
The simplest explanation is that Magneto first met Mastermind years before the Brotherhood was formed.

@Michael: fnord pointed it out yep but contradicts Lee & Kirby I'm saying, is all;)

Sorry about that fnord:(

@Walter: Okay now what's that theory you have about the Demi-Men?

Hydra. Strucker knew about mutants thanks to his encounter with Xavier and Magneto. He had an interest in co-opting mutants for his own plans (as shown by his experiments to produce Fenris). The Demi-Men plot and robot Magneto kill several birds with one stone for Strucker: he gets to lure mutants into his service while depriving Magneto of followers and maybe discrediting him. If Lorna really is Mags' daughter, there may be the added benefit for Strucker of corrupting his enemy's offspring.

Trouble is, Strucker dies while the plan is in motion. And Magneto, captured after his FF appearance, naturally gets questioned bu agent Duncan about those Demi-Men in San Francisco. Magneto quite honestly tells Duncan he doesn't know a thing about it. Once Mags breaks out, though, he goes to San Francisco to investigate. And he finds the Demi-Men in an underground Hydra base. They're not androids (OHOTMU may or may not say otherwise, but I don't believe any published story canonized their status), they may be humans using technology to fake mutant powers, or they're mutates created by Hydra, or perhaps they really are mutants.

Magneto of course hates Strucker and Hydra, so he tells these hapless goons that they can now serve the real Magneto as his latest Brotherhood--and he subjects them to the "universal machine" (actually the genetic transformer he used to create the Savage Land Mutates) and turns then into the monstrous "mutants" working for Mags in San Francisco during his clas with the Inhumans.

After Mags' defeat in that story, the former Demi-Men may die off as a result of all the genetic tampering they've suffered. Or they may continue to live underground as San Francisco's own Morlocks. Or perhaps SHIELD eventually rehabilitates them.

This is my preferred fix since it links Steranko's work here with his Captain America and SHIELD work. And Hydra, unlike say Starr Saxon working on his own, would have the resources to have a Death Valley base and all the equipment the Demi-Men have. Note, by the way, the Death Valley base is later used by the Resistants, who are of course secretly backed by the Red Skull, who had seized control of Hydra after Strucker's death. So that too seems like a natural connection. Finally, the use of robots to manipulate Mesmero is done again in Claremont's final Excalibur issues. There the manipulators are Fenris. Maybe they got the idea to use robots to control Mesmero from their father's use of the Magneto robot in the Demi-Men plot.

@Walter: That's pretty great:) I'm up for that as a dedicated fix on my blog if you're keen!?

Okay now there's the question of why Eric the Red II chose Polaris and what it had to do with the destiny Sinister later spoke of (and what that destiny was)? And why he really had the Morlocks killed?

@Walter: And it's almost ready as a fix for my blog. Would you be clean to prep it for featuring, as I'd love to promote it there?

What's further interesting about Excalibur #33 is Mesmero is being monitored by the Russians, including Colonel Alexi Vazhin who when he next appears in Uncanny X-Men #265 reveals he has been tracking the Shadow King's influence. Claremont intended to reveal Fenris were under his influence as part of an intended takeover of the Hellfire Club so did he have some input into the Demi-Men plot also?

Lorna Dane (Polaris) was originally presented as a long-lost daughter of Magneto back in the 1960s, an allegation which gained considerable credibility from her use of magnetic powers caused by a mutant gene. Just the sort of thing you would expect his long-lost daughter to be able to do if mutant powers "breed true" with a mutant's child inheriting some or all of the same superpowers of the mutant parent if she inherits any at all. (Subsequent examples in Marvel continuity have taught us that this is not a safe assumption.) By the time her first storyline was over, however, this "long-lost daughter" thing had been shown to be a total False Alarm. Furthermore, it turned out that the "Magneto" who had claimed to be her biological father was, in fact, a robot impostor (later revealed to be the work of Machinesmith while my previous preference was for it to be Steven Lang after he created robot impostors of the X-Men called the X-Sentinels until Walter came along and tied it all together with his explanation of Hydra and Strucker) after and the real Magneto probably had never even heard of Lorna at the time, much less claimed to be her progenitor.

In the 1970s Marvel then gave us a character named Zaladane who was a priestess in a tribe in the Savage Land. After she had been floating around in the background for over a decade, she moved into the spotlight as the main villain in a two-part storyline in Uncanny X-Men #'s 249-250, Claremont revealing that her "real name" was Zala Dane and she said she firmly believed that she was a long-lost sister of Lorna. (How did she know this, if it was true? She didn't bother to explain.) Zaladane appeared to feel that she had proved her point when she used a fancy device to steal Lorna's magnetic powers and graft them onto herself instead.

A few issues later, Lorna made it to Muir Island and Moira McTaggert checked her over carefully and asserted that Zala "must" have been some sort of close relative (but she didn't say "definitely your sister, Lorna!"), or else the hi-tech trick she had pulled wouldn't have worked at all. Which was a remarkably sweeping statement for Moira to make, given that Lorna didn't exactly have a set of schematics in her pocket revealing precisely how Zaladane's gadget was designed to work. (Was Moira aware that superpowers have been transferred around between other people in Marvel continuity over the years, not necessarily people who were close relatives of one another?)

It is worth pointing out that a couple of years later, Claremont returned to that plot thread and showed Zaladane trying to steal Magneto's powers as well (although she was ultimately defeated and killed). But if her power-stealing technique was workable at all with Magneto, was this meant to be a heavy hint on Claremont's part that Zaladane, Polaris, and Magneto were in fact all closely related? I strongly doubt it, but I could be wrong. Claremont's first run on Uncanny X-Men ended not long after that, so there's no telling if he meant to explore the idea further, another year or two down the road.

Whether Claremont meant to hint at such a thing or not, the whole long-discredited assertion about Lorna being Magneto's daughter has was dusted off and waved in our faces all over again by writer Chuck Austen and finally confirmed by Peter David in X-Factor last year. Of course, this begs all sorts of questions. Moira McTaggert definitely has taken genetic samples from Magneto at least once. Especially considering that she once tinkered with his genetic structure in an attempt to make him into a more easygoing individual (which obviously didn't work out). I would hazard a guess that she has samples from Wanda and Pietro, for that matter. Hadn't she ever double-checked against Lorna's DNA any time in the stories of the 80s or 90s in order to lay that ghost to rest?

Does Magneto's "Brotherhood" from Captain America Annual #4 (later known as "Mutant Force") possibly come from these latent mutants? Were the origins of Burner, Slither, Peeper, Lifter and Shocker ever told?

Sorry, that previous comment was from me.

Ah, the beginning of the ever changing family trees in the X-Universe. How ironic I should read this on a day when Comics Should Be Good posts a bit about whether or not Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are really Magneto's kids. The joy of longer reading anything new is that I don't have to be burdened with the constant revisions of what has been established. As far as I'm concerned, Pietro and Wanda are his children, Lorna is not. But good to know this confusion has been going on since early 1969.

@Erik: I likewise was never convinced at Lorna being Magneto's daughter. My alternative theory is here if you'd like a look: https://fanfix.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/the-link-between-polaris-and-zaladane-and-malice

@Nathan Adler.

That was fantastic - all that work you do in "fixing" is pretty impressive. I'm gonna continue to believe that Lorna isn't his daughter but Pietro and Wanda are his kids (and that Alicia was never a Skrull).

@Erik: Thanks:) You might also like my latest fix on my home page if you were a fan of Claremont's Mister Sinister iteration!

What a great story.

Almost from issue to issue, X-Men went from unreadable slog to an amazing book.

Steranko issues shine the best, but I also liked the other two issues. It's such a big jump in quality. And I don't mind the inconsistencies and dropped plot points, really. The action is worth it.

I wouldn't give this book C or C+ but firmly B.

From 2006 article on CBR

On Early Days at Marvel

Steranko had turned Nick Fury into a popular character who warranted his own series, then moved onto Captain America, before was asked to draw “X-Men” because the book had been late.

“At first, I didn’t want to work on the X-Men because of all the five-sided panels. I couldn’t relate to the characters, I didn’t know how to make it work, so I asked to work incognito on the book. But I signed my name to my first three covers. And that logo they had was awful. Logos were trademarked, but they let me redesign it, just to get rid of that awful logo. I never got paid for it.”

“That logo’s still being used today on the books,” said Spurlock. “If Jim got paid a royalty for everytime they used it…”

http://web.archive.org/web/20060513093429/http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6794

I love that Beast questions how the X-Men can throw a fight to the demi-men and make it convincing, then we cut to Angel authentically getting his ass kicked.

I've started last month my X-Men chronological read and just got at this point today.

I feel obliged to point the fact that UXM #50 marks the first time that a double-page spread was used in an X-Men comic, pretty neat.

Another thought on all this: Given Mesmero's "additional" powers here, maybe Drake's idea is that he, Magneto, and Lorna all share magnetic abilities of some kind. Mesmerism was originally called "animal magnetism" and thought of as a quasi-magnetic force generated by living beings, and Magneto had previously used his magnetic powers to mesmerize the Angel's parents back in issue #18.