STORY: "When Titans Clash" (20 pages)  Professor X kicks the Mimic out of the X-Men.  Before leaving, the Mimic redeems himself by defeating the Super-Adaptoid, though he loses his powers in the process.

What you need to know:
Scott has now got it into his head that the reason Warren survived his optic beam in issue #26 was because he was subconsciously holding back.  From that, Scott concludes that he's gaining some control over his optic beam.  So he goes off to test his powers of control (nil), and ends up more miserable than ever.

The Mimic proves to be so intolerably obnoxious that Xavier loses patience with him and kicks him out of the team, only two issues after he joined.  He redeems himself by fighting the Super-Adaptoid, and they end up wiping out one another's powers.

The Super-Adaptoid was a robot assassin created by AIM, who eventually wandered off on his own and started following his own rather odd agenda, based on his original programming.  H's big plan is to turn everyone into robots.  And that's it.  He was still pursuing this aim into the 1980s, when Dr Druid finally managed to confuse the poor Adaptoid by asking him what he planned to do after turning everyone into a robot.  It turned out that he'd never really thought about it.

A more innocent time:
It's December, it's freezing... and Jean is ice-skating in a microskirt.  Is she from Newcastle?

Despite living in the Marvel Universe, none of the other X-Men will believe poor Iceman when he says he was attacked by a ten foot robot.

Mimic has a dreadful closing speech setting out the moral just in case you didn't get it.  "I was a self-centered, glory-hungry fool - who didn't deserve such power!  Funny... it took an inhuman, emotionless thing like the Super-Adaptoid... to make me realise the true value of the motion called... friendship!  Even if the Mimic is gone forever, it was worth it... if Cal Rankin became --- a man!"

Comments:
Typical Roy Thomas - dig up a villain from a different comic entirely.  But the Super-Adaptoid, who at that point mimicked the powers of all the original Avengers, is at least a good fit for the Mimic's opposite number.  He works in this particular storyline; he'd be a very odd choice of X-Men villain at any other time.

This is very much the Mimic's issue.  Three issues is a possibly a bit short for this storyline, especially when you consider some of the weirdos the X-Men have put up with in later years.  And the Mimic's still a two-dimensional character at best, so his hard to get that worked up about his redemption arc.  Not a bad idea, though.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X, Cyclops, the Angel, the Beast, Iceman and Marvel Girl I
The Mimic I (expelled from the X-Men; next in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #161)

VILLAINS
The Super-Adaptoid (last in the Captain America story in Tales of Suspense vol 1 #84; next in Avengers vol 1 #45)
Factor Three: The Mutant-Master, the Changeling, the Blob, Unus the Untouchable, the Vanisher and Mastermind I (the latter four last in flashback in Thunderbolts #33; all behind the scenes)

Written: 3 October 2004

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