STORY: "The Origin of Professor X" (20 pages)  While the Juggernaut attacks the school, Professor X recounts part of his origin story.

What you need to know:
This is quite an important one - not only does it introduce the Juggernaut, who goes on to become an X-Man himself in forty years time, but it sets out a large chunk of Charles Xavier's back story.  Deep breath...

This is the first issue to give Xavier's first name.  (Thanks to Jason Powell for reminding me about this, after I completely missed it the first time round...)

Charles Xavier's parents, Brian and Sharon, are introduced.  (Well, strictly speaking, we never see Brian.  But he's spoken about.)  Brian was a scientist working at Alamagordo, New Mexico alongside Kurt Marko.  He was killed in an atomic blast, which Kurt conveniently escaped.  On his deathbed, Kurt later insists that Brian really did die in an accident; however, Kurt could have saved him, but didn't.

Kurt, clearly a man of taste and decency, seizes on the opportunity of marrying Sharon and getting hold of the Xavier family fortune, and makes a move on her at Brian's funeral.  After a few months, Sharon lets him move into the mansion.  Kurt's son Cain shows up as well, after being expelled from boarding school.  Cain, of course, is an asshole ("an aura of sheer cruelty and thinly disguised evil", in Silver Age terms), and Kurt is abusive.

Sharon, according to this story, dies broken-hearted.  There's a later flashback in issue #309 that suggests she'd turned to drink by this point, which doesn't seem entirely unreasonable.

Cain tried to blackmail Kurt with the (apparently false) allegaiton that Kurt murdered Brian.  The mansion is set on fire in the ensuing fight, and Kurt is killed while saving Charles and Cain.

Kurt Marko knew that Charles had superpowers before Charles himself.  At the very least, that suggests that somebody had been doing tests on Xavier and had their suspicions.

Xavier's powers emerged soon after Kurt died.  Xavier attributes his powers to his parents' radiation exposure.

Xavier was a star quarterback at school.  Now there's a miniseries dying to be written...

Xavier and Cain Marko served together in the Korean War.  Obviously this now causes chronological difficulties.  Recent flashbacks in Chris Claremont's stories seem to be trying to relocate their war service to Vietnam.  Moving it any further forward than that would create other problems, because Xavier was drafted into the military (an essential plot point in breaking up his relationship with Moira MacTaggert).  At the time this story was published, the Korean War was relatively recent; this part of Xavier's life seems to be receding ever further into the distance with the passage of time.

Cain deserted under fire and Xavier gave chase.  They discovered the "sacred lost temple of Cyttorak", where Cain touched the Cyttorak Ruby and became the Juggernaut.  Not that it did him much good, because the mountain promptly fell on him.  Xavier decided to just leave him there.  Cain spends the following years trying to dig himself out.

Cyttorak had been mentioned before (in Strange Tales vol 1 #124), but he doesn't actually show up in person until Dr Strange vol 3 #44.

A more innocent time:
Marvel Girl's power is described as "teleportation" again.

The X-Men fortify the school - from scratch - in five minutes.

Little Charles Xavier wears a suit around the house.

Xavier survived a car crash by "harnessing my brain power to its fullest extent" and "creating a mental shield around me."  That'd be telekinesis, then.  Which isn't his power.

Comments:
This is one of the first issues to lay down large chunks of back story that actually stuck for decades to come.  The background of Xavier's parents and the Alamagordo test site have been tinkered with by later writers, but it really remains much as you see here.

The story's based around alternating between the unseen Juggernaut ploughing through the X-Men's obstacles, and Xavier recapping the history, with a big reveal at the end.  Shame they put the Juggernaut on the cover, really, because he looks a lot more impressive there than he does on the final page.  Starting with this issue, Jack Kirby only provides breakdown pencils for the rest of his run.  The rest of the art on this issue comes from Alex Toth and Vince Colletta, and to be honest, it's not fantastic.  It looks rather muddy, not least because of all the contortions they have to go through to avoid showing the Juggernaut clearly for most of the issue.

Still, the story does a good job of establishing the Juggernaut as a villain.  It hammers the point a bit, but we're certainly left in no doubt that this guy is Very Powerful Indeed. 

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (also in flashback following the flashback in X-Men Forever #4 and preceding the flashback in issue #309; also in flashback following the flashback in issue #309 and preceding the flashback in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12; also in flashback between panels of the flashback in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12; also in flashback following the flashback in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12 and preceding the flashback in issue #389; also in flashback between panels of the flashback in issue #117)
Cyclops, the Angel, the Beast, Iceman and Marvel Girl I

VILLAIN
The Juggernaut (Cain Marko; first appearance; from behind the scenes in the previous issue; also in flashback following the flashback in X-Men Forever #4 and preceding the flashback in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12; also in flashback between X-Men Forever #4 and preceding the flashback in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12 page 24 panel 24; between page 8 panels 5 and 6 of this flashback, he appears in flashback at page 24 panels 1-3 of X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12; also in flashback following page 25 panel 2 of X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12 and preceding X-Men Forever #3)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Sharon Xavier (Charles' mother; first appearance; in flashback only; last behind the scenes in flashback in X-Men Forever #4; next in flashback in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12)
Kurt Marko (Cain's father and Charles' stepfather; first appearance; appears in flashback following the flashback at page 11 panel 2 of X-Men Forever #4 and preceding the flashback at page 22 panel 1 of X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12; also appears in flashback following X-Men Forever #4; between page 8 panels 4 and 5 of that flashback, he appears in flashback in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12; he then dies, and his corpse appears next in flashback at page 24 panel 4 of X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #12)

Last revised: 16 August 2004

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