X-Men #2

Issue Information

Title- X-Men (Volume 1) #2

Release Date- November 1963

Writer- Stan Lee

Artist- Jack Kirby

Major Notes

This issue is the first appearance of the Vanisher

Brief Summary

After receiving a mental command from Professor Xavier the X-Men hurry back to the mansion. Along the way Cyclops and Iceman prevent a group of construction workers from being crushed by a falling wall. Beast uses buildings and his dexterity to travel the distance. Angel and Jean Grey use a train where Angel becomes popular with the ladies. When they finally arrive at the mansion Beast, Angel, Iceman and Beast go through rigorous training after Professor Xavier has told them about a new mutant menace known as Vanisher. A short time later the Vanisher robs a bank and uses his teleportation abilities to escape before he can be captured by the police. Sometime later the Vanisher tells the Government that he will be stealing top secret plans from them but he does not steal them straight away. Professor Xavier sends the X-Men to Washington DC so that they can prevent Vanisher from stealing the plans. Despite their best efforts the Vanisher escapes with the plans. Later the X-Men return to the mansion and argue amongst themselves about their failure but Professor Xavier becomes the voice of reason as he tells them that they did well considering their youth and lack of experience. At the same time Vanisher also offers to sell the plans back to the Government for ten million dollars. The next day Vanisher is on the lawn outside the White House along with an army of tommy gun wielding thugs but the X-Men are already there waiting for him along with Professor Xavier. As the Vanisher approaches Professor Xavier he uses his telepathic powers to wipe Vanisher’s memory and shortly after the X-Men are able to defeat the army of thugs. Professor Xavier congratulates the X-Men before telling them that the human mind is the most powerful weapon a person can wield.

My Thoughts

Does anyone remember the Vanisher? Only those who read the X-Men comics do. During the original run of the X-Men there were many villains that were introduced that have stood the test of time. Unfortunately the Vanisher is not one of those. His costume in this issue makes him look like a cobra but he is the first teleporting mutant introduced in the series paving the way for others like Nightcrawler and Blink. There is no reason given for why the X-Men were in costume at the start of the issue when they were outside, maybe they were on another mission I’m not sure. It was also funny to see Beast walking up a wall much like Spider-Man and it seemed funny to see Cyclops and Iceman reach the construction yard just when the wall was falling. It was like they had timed the entire thing. Also this issue states that the X-Men have a good relationship with the government and even Professor Xavier contacts a FBI agent directly. There is no way that the government would support the X-Men in anyway nowadays, not like they would with the Avengers or the Fantastic Four.  Also in this issue we see Beast uncharacteristically overconfident which leads him to losing the top secret documents to Vanisher so I’m thinking that this is what led him to his more passive personality. At one point in this issue Professor Xavier is referred as Doctor X. I believe that Doctor X is actually the name of the main bad guy in the Action Man series. The issue is from the 60’s so back then they had to fit a lot more in an issue in comparison to today’s. Nowadays one part stories in a main series is quite uncommon, back then practically all issues back then were one shot stories. There were a few that were two part and even the odd three part stories. Back then a three part story was probably like a twelve part story now. At

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X-Men (Vol 1) #3