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STORY: "Where Walks the Juggernaut"
(20 pages) The X-Men and the Human Torch join forces to
defeat the Juggernaut.
What you need to know:
Big fight scene. Juggernaut is beaten and handed
over to the authorities, establishing the classic "how to beat
the Juggernaut" technique: rip off his helmet, and get a
telepath to zap him.
For some reason, Xavier just hands
Juggernaut over to the police, claiming that he'll be easily
contained without his helmet. Er, no he won't.
Presumably Stan Lee saw the power as being primarily in the
costume, rather than having the helmet as just a
telepathy-blocking device (which is what it eventually turned
into).
Daredevil has a one-panel cameo in this
issue (among various characters reacting to Xavier's thoughts
being transmitted over Manhattan). Oddly enough, he
doesn't turn up again for over 300 issues, despite being one
of the flagship Marvel characters.
Werner Roth debuts as finishing penciller.
In due course he goes on to pencil the book altogether.
Up through issue #22, Roth used the pseudonym "Jay Gavin."
At this point it wasn't uncommon for freelancers to use
pseudonyms when working for Marvel, in order to avoid burning
bridges with other, more established publishers.
A more innocent time:
Issues #13 and #14 have a "Marvel Pop Art Productions" logo on
the cover. They changed the name of the company for a
few months before realising that everyone thought it was
really stupid.
The story ends with Hank, Bobby, Warren and
Scott recovering from their injuries - and Jean playing nurse.
Comments:
Like I say, big fight scene. The problem with these
things is to find a way of keeping the Juggernaut strong while
having him lose, and the story just about pulls that off.
The X-Men beat him with a plan that only works thanks to a
passing guest star, so they can't claim to have beaten him
alone. The poor old Juggernaut goes on to become a bit
of a joke in future years through overuse - how many times can
you lose every single fight and still credibly claim to be
unstoppable? - but in this story, the gimmick works. To
be fair, they didn't exactly overuse him during the Silver Age
either. He only turns up on two more occasions during
the Silver Age run (issues #32-33 and #46).
The art is considerably improved
with Werner Roth and Joe Sinnott working over Kirby's
breakdowns. The plot's a bit ropey, to put it mildly -
if Xavier needs an entire issue to built up his strength with
a Mento-Helmet before fighting the Juggernaut, might it not
have been a good idea to do that last issue instead of
blathering on about his childhood? But it's just an
excuse for a big fight issue, and it works pretty well on that
level.
FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X, Cyclops, the Angel, the Beast, Cyclops, Iceman
and Marvel Girl I (all next in X-Men Forever #3,
then all but Angel and Iceman in flashback in Thunderbolts
vol 1 #55, then all in Fantastic Four Annual #3, then
in Marvel Heroes & Legends #1, then again in
Fantastic Four Annual #3)
GUEST STAR
The Human Torch II (between Fantastic Four vol 1
#43 and Fantastic Four Annual #3)
VILLAIN
The Juggernaut (next in X-Men Forever #3)
GUEST APPEARANCES
Daredevil (between Daredevil vol 1 #9 and
Fantastic Four Annual #3)
The Teen Brigade (last in the Thor story in Journey
Into Mystery #116; next in the Hulk story in Tales to
Astonish #97)
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