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STORY: "Mekano Lives" (20
pages) The X-Men stop wannabe supervillain Mekano from
destroying a library. Mekano's father shows his
gratitude by paying for their plane fare to Europe.
What you need to know:
The plane's out of fuel and the X-Men don't have any money
to hand, so it's an entire issue of them trying to raise money
in Greenwich Village. By applying for a welfare loan,
looking for construction work, and busking.
Marvel Girl's getting a lot more powerful.
She's now capable of flinging girders around the place.
Mekano, a one-off villain who never
returned, is just a bloke in an exoskeleton. He's a
spoilt rich kid trying to attract daddy's attention.
Ross Andru takes over on art, although he
only stayed around for two issues. His main contribution
to X-Men history was to design the costumes that debuted in
issue #39, after he'd left - the Cyclops design, in
particular, stayed around for years.
A more innocent time:
The Mansion has huge great futuristic computers in it,
complete with reel-to-reel tape recorders.
Cerebro apparently doubles as a hypnotising
machine, for wiping the memories of burglars.
Comments:
Er... good lord. This is just downright odd.
In fact, the Factor Three arc is
pretty strange in a number of ways, not least the pacing.
Last issue, the X-Men worked out where Professor X had been
taken. This issue... they go busking in Greenwich
Village to raise money for the plane fare. Really, it
means we get a completely unrelated story while the Factor
Three threat continues to loom in the background.
Mekano is a weird character.
Basically, he's an ungrateful rich brat whining about his bank
balance. But there are Nietzchean overtones in here - he
rambles about the man of action and the will to power, and he
makes his debut by trying to a destroy a public library.
All of this leads to an excruciating scene where daddy
realises that he hasn't shown little Mekano enough love.
("So, it looks like I'm the one who's guilty here - not you!")
It's not hard to see why the character never returned.
FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (behind the scenes), Cyclops, the Angel,
the Beast, Iceman and Marvel Girl I
VILLAINS
Mekano (Tom Regal; first and only appearance)
Factor Three: The Changeling, the Mutant-Master, the
Vanisher, Mastermind I, the Blob and Unus the
Untouchable (the latter five behind the scenes)
OTHER CHARACTERS
Curtis (behind the scenes; last in issue #14; no further
appearances)
Mr Regal, his chauffeur, Miss King and her supervisor
(first and only appearance for all)
Written: 7 November 2004
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