Sibling Rivalry

Uncanny X-Men #13 – by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Layouts) & Jay Gavin (Pencils)

Part two of this story brings the threat of the Juggernaut home to the X-Men. Juggernaut is within inches of achieving his goal of killing his step-brother, Professor Xavier, and the X-Men have proven unable to stop him. The issue opens with a classic splash page from Kirby illustrating the Juggernaut looming over a cornered Professor X, starting off the story with the right amount of tension.

Professor Xavier retreats with Marvel Girl to his study where he begins to assemble his “mento-helmet.” He claims this device will essentially “super-charge” his mental powers, but it will take some time. This device looks like the helmet apparatus that will eventually become part of the Cerebro systems. Up until now, we’ve only seen the chaotic inner-workings of the device and the desktop control panel, but no helmet. Professor Xavier must incorporate this device into Cerebro to enhance his powers to better locate mutants.

Meanwhile, the remaining X-Men fight a delaying action, keeping Juggernaut from reaching the Professor. Nothing they do can slow him down – Iceman tries to encase him in blocks of ice, Cyclops uses his eye-beams at full force, and Angel and Beast do their best in directly and indirectly confronting the unstoppable villain. Eventually, Beast takes center stage luring the Juggernaut into the Danger Room and unleashing the rooms various threats against the enemy. During the confrontation, Juggernaut not only succeeds in breaking Beast’s leg, but also about runs him over with a “ten ton” barrel of steel.

Early in the issue, Juggernaut's powers and defenses are a bit further defined. When Xavier initially tries to blast him with mental energies, Juggernaut admits the powers granted him by the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak cause his body to produce waves of force even when he’s not moving. This field around him comes into play several times throughout this issue. The Temple of Cyttorak also gave him his costume and helmet. The helmet protects him from all manners of psychic attack, rendering Xavier’s standard abilities almost useless. I know the helmet become his Achilles Heel over the years, but I never remember the field being mentioned later. It’s a nice explanation for the power and could certainly be a mutant ability that was unclear last issue.

Using the “mento” helmet, Xavier reaches out to the Human Torch and calls him to the X-Men’s aid. The young Fantastic Four member helps frustrate and distract the Juggernaut while Xavier readies his final moves. Xavier orders the Angel to swoop in and tear the protective helmet from Juggernaut’s head. Xavier himself follows up with a pair of powerful mental blasts, knocking out the human powerhouse and ending the threat.

Of course, Xavier wipes the memory of this event from the Human Torch’s mind. Even though the teams have met previously, the Professor was not actually present. His desire to keep his involvement with the X-Men a secret makes this little indiscretion a necessity. I am curious when it becomes widely known that Xavier is the X-Men’s leader.

I found this two-parter to be the best X-Men story to date. It featured a villain that was compelling not only for his powers, but his link to one of the main characters. The emotional involvement in this component of the story was compelling and the reader could completely understand both Xavier’s and Marko’s side of the issue. The fight scenes were very interesting and built nicely one upon the other. You really get the sense that the Juggernaut is unstoppable and the X-Men simply do everything they can to prevent his forward momentum.

This is truly a classic of the Silver Age and it’s obvious why reprints decided to start here instead of earlier in the run.

Note: This issue was reprinted in December, 1970 as the second story in Uncanny X-Men #67 (cover by Marie Severin) and again in May, 1995 as X-Men: The Early Years #13 (Cover by Ken Lashley).

Professor Xavier and the X-Men #14 – by Jorge Gonzalez and Eric Battle

Unlike the previous two issues, this one follows very closely to the script of the original – to the point of exact dialogue being brought forward.

As I said, the story follows the original very closely, but this time, Gonzalez chooses to have the story narrated by Marvel Girl. I suppose he just felt it was “her turn” because she adds very little to the story in this role. A lot of her insights were simply box text in the Stan Lee script and any new commentary adds very little to the story. It would have been more effective to be in Xavier’s head during this issue. Being privy to his thoughts and feelings would have been intriguing and added so much more to the context of his relationship with Cain Marko.

The issue’s artwork is very stylized almost to the point of over-exaggeration, but it does add some excitement and energy to the visuals. Battle’s interpretation of the Human Torch is a little strange – he actually looks a lot more like Frankie Raye when she became Nova. Not a bad interpretation, just unusual. I actually think a lot of his action sequences are great and some of his images of Juggernaut are outstanding.

As we’ve seen in previous issues, the action quotient is amplified from the very beginning. Juggernaut actually tosses Xavier around in the beginning of the issue, even though he never touched the Professor in the original. Juggernaut swat down the Angel, barrels through Cyclops and tosses Beast around like a rag doll.

Ironically, one change to this version is Juggernaut doesn’t actually break Beast’s leg here. The panels where he actually snaps his lower leg are left out, and the Beast is hurt a little later. Beast states that he has “sprained” his leg clearly, but shortly after, Jean says she feels his seriously injured. And in spite of his valiant efforts, Beast doesn’t even get the credit for having loosened Juggernaut’s helmet, but Xavier takes the credit claiming HE loosened it telekinetically.

Xavier also doesn’t bother to wipe the Human Torch’s memory in this version. Most likely because everyone in the 90’s knew Professor Xavier was the leader of the X-Men and it would only have confused the issue.

In general, this is one of the more faithful reimaginings, and as result makes it pretty worth reading. It was a nice update to a great story. I just wish previous issues would have been handled similarly.

Next: Uncanny X-Men #14 and Professor Xavier and the X-Men #16