STORY: "The Power and the Pendant" (20 pages)  Despite the X-Men's efforts to stop him, gem hunter El Tigre comes to New York and recovers the second half of a magical pendant which transforms him into the Mayan god Kukulcan.

What you need to know:
Scott and Warren are both jealous of Jean's friendship with Ted Roberts.  And Scott's still thinking about leaving the team.

El Tigre debuts.  He's a gem hunter from the fictional country of San Rico.  (You wonder what the Marvel Universe map of the world must look like.  Central America and Eastern Europe must be incredibly crowded.)  Much like the Locust, the character never took off; after this arc, he had a run-in with Ka-Zar, and then just disappeared.

Xavier's mechanical legs are playing up - possibly somebody was having second thoughts already.  But they turn up again in issue #30, so Thomas wasn't abandoning the idea just yet.

"Kukulcan" is the Mayan name for the Aztec sun god, perhaps better known as Quetzalcóatl ("feathered serpent").  Marvel have never really got into the Mayan pantheon in much detail, and other than a minor appearance in Thor #300, this arc is the only time he actually appears.

A more innocent time:
The opening splash page is a symbolic page showing the heroes and the villains facing off - a concept helpfully explained by Stan Lee in an accompanying caption headed "Special academic aside to artwork aficionados."  ("A symbolic splash - intended to underscore the deep socio-psychological significance of the suspenseful saga you're about to devour!")  If that wasn't tongue-in-cheek enough, the story also features "the mildly incomparable menace of El Tigre!"

El Tigre, Ramon and Toloc wander around New York in full Latin American costume, complete with capes and sombreros.  El Tigre's idea of subtlety is to tell Toloc to hide his machete.

Comments:
Er... yes.  Mmm. 

El Tigre holds the awkward distinction of being the first non-white character with a speaking part in X-Men history - a little over three years into the series.  And I use the word "non-white" loosely.  At least in the Marvel Masterworks reprint, El Tigre and his henchmen, Ramon and Toloc (supposedly an "Indian" from "the Amazonian jungles"), are all coloured as caucasians. 

The story is fairly standard stuff - nasty villain with somewhat untrustworthy henchmen comes to New York in search of magical macguffin which will give him power.  What makes this one distinctive is the Mayan trappings, but it's very much a Silver Age interpretation of that.

Reads rather oddly today.  Undistinguished stuff.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X, Cyclops, the Angel, the Beast, Iceman and Marvel Girl I

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Ted Roberts

VILLAINS
El Tigre (Juan Meroz; first appearance)
Ramon and Toloc (his henchmen; full names unrevealed; first appearance for both;

OTHER CHARACTERS
Kukulcan (a Mayan god, incarnated in El Tigre's body in this story; first appearance; last in flashback in Thor vol 1 #300)

Written: 22 September 2004

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