FIRST STORY: "Red Raven, Red Raven" (15 pages)  Angel escapes Magneto.  On his way to get help from the Avengers, he encounters the long-forgotten Red Raven and his Bird People.

What you need to know:
This is a weird issue, which exists largely to drag the Red Raven into modern continuity.  Basically, the Angel stumbles on the hidden island of the Bird People, a race of winged humans.  The Red Raven put them in suspended animation years ago because they were about to embark on a suicidal assault on the human race.  Raven helpfully explains his origin story, sends the Angel on his way, and puts the island back to sleep.

Golden Age heroes didn't come much more obscure than the Red Raven, who debuted in Red Raven Comics #1 (August 1940).  He was created by writer Joe Simon and artist Louis Cazeneuve, and evidently he wasn't much of a success, because until this issue, he had never appeared again.  The title continued as Human Torch Comics, because back in those days, issue #1s were considered bad for sales.  So it was fairly common for titles to be completely reinvented, but take over the numbering of an existing book.

The Red Raven was the only survivor of a plane which crashed into the Bird People's floating sky island.  He was taken in and raised by them, and given artificial wings.  Eventually he became a superhero, and later stories gave him a career with some of the other Golden Age B-list heroes as members of the Liberty Legion.

But wait!  It gets more complicated!  Because Erik Larsen dredged the character up in Nova vol 3, and declared that every previous postwar appearance of the Red Raven was actually an impostor, whose job was to distract attention from the real Bird People.  (Quite how he achieves that by patiently explaining his origin to the Angel is unclear, but that's supposed to be the idea.)  Anyhow, this isn't the real Red Raven at all - it's an impostor.  The real Red Raven does appear in this story, but only in the origin flashbacks.

And as if this wasn't confusing enough, this version of the Red Raven also gets yanked into the future in Fantastic Four vol 1 #405 in the middle of the story.  You don't really need to worry about that, though.  It's one of those "Let's drag lots of characters out of the timestream and make them fight" stories.

New writer Gary Friedrich takes over as scripter.  Not exactly one of the better known 1960s writers, Friedrich did a lot of scattered work for Marvel around this time - such as this five-issue X-Men run.  He had longer runs on Marvel's war comics, writing a lot of Nick Fury & His Howling Commandos stories, as well as most of the spin-off book Captain Savage & His Leatherneck Raiders.

This story was reprinted in issue #92 (February 1975), but it's been out of print since then.

A more innocent time:
Magneto imprisons the X-Men with some remarkably underwhelming technology, but the Toad is still awestruck.  Apparently, only Magneto "and no one else" would come up with an idea like "titanium handcuffs" for the Beast.  You'd have thought stronger handcuffs were a fairly obvious idea, but maybe the Toad is just easily impressed.

Quicksilver can fly!  And an editorial footnote apologises for not being able to remember why.  (In fact, this one wasn't a continuity error - Quicksilver learnt to fly for short distances in Avengers vol 1 #43, but the idea was almost immediately forgotten about.  This just happens to be an issue from that period.)

The Red Raven is remarkably stupid.  He decides that he can trust the Angel because "somehow, I can sense that you also are different from normal humans."  Do you think the wings might have been a tip-off?  But perhaps not, because it seems the Red Raven grew up on the Bird People's island "without ever suspecting that I was different from everyone else."  Despite the fact that he's the only guy on the island without wings?  He's missing two limbs, and he never suspected he was different?  Perhaps the "dumb robot" retcon wasn't such a bad idea after all...

Keith Giffen writes into the letters page, to complain that the X-Men haven't had an annual yet.  The editors tactfully explain that they don't think there's enough demand.

Comments:
Remember, they had this big idea that they were going to put a different character's name on the cover of each issue.  So despite the fact that we're in the middle of a storyline, it's time to send the Angel off on an adventure of his own - and boy, does it feel shoehorned in.

Gary Friedrich may be scripting, but you can tell this is a Roy Thomas story.  Who else, when asked to do a story focussing on the Angel, would decide to dredge up an obscure Golden Age hero who had appeared in only one comic, 28 years previously?  There's a certain mild curiosity factor in the Red Raven, who's obviously a precursor to the Angel in some ways.  But he's not that interesting a character - it's easy to see why he only lasted one issue.  And as I mentioned above, he's so incredibly stupid that it's hard to take him seriously.  The Bird-Men seem to be borderline brain damaged as well - they just can't get it through their heads that 200 guys with wings are not going to conquer the world.

The art changes again, as Don Heck shifts to breakdown pencils while Werner Roth returns to finish them off.  Unusually, Roth just finishes the pencils, and John Tartaglione is left to ink them.  It seems to be an attempt to get Roth's more polished look back onto the book, despite the fact that he was a relatively slow artist for the time.  It certainly does make the book look more attractive.

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

GUEST STAR
Red Raven II (a duplicate of the original; first appearance; appears between pages in Fantastic Four vol 1 #405; next in Sub-Mariner vol 1 #26)
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch

VLLAINS
Magneto and the Toad

GUEST APPEARANCE
Red Raven I (behind the scenes in flashback following Red Raven Comics #1 and preceding his appearance behind the scenes in flashback in Sub-Mariner vol 1 #26; also in flashback between flashbacks in the second story in Thor Annual #12; also in flashback following the flashback in Sub-Mariner vol 1 #26 and preceding Marvel Premiere #29; also in flashback between flashbacks in Sub-Mariner vol 1 #26; also in flashback following the flashback in Sub-Mariner vol 1 #26 and preceding his appearance behind the scenes in Invaders vol 2 #1)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Aerivar XVIII (in flashback; first and only modern appearance)
The Bird People (last in Red Raven Comics #1; next behind the scenes in Sub-Mariner vol 1 #14)
Red Raven's parents (killed behind the scenes in flashback)

SECOND STORY: "The Iceman Cometh" (5 pages)  Bobby Drake uses his powers publicly to fend off a bully, and ends up in prison while a lynch mob gathers.  Professor X and Cyclops set out to rescue him.

What you need to know:
The story is set in "Nassau County", although for some reason it doesn't specify which one.  Later stories confirm that Bobby comes from Long Island, so it's the New York one.

Interestingly enough (if you're of a certain bent, anyway), the narrator expressly tells us that this story is set in 1963.  In other words, the book is meant to be running in real time...

Iceman's parents make their first appearance in this story.

This story was reprinted as a back-up strip in 1980's Amazing Adventures vol 3 #7, but it's been out of print since then.

Comments:
"Origins of the X-Men" resumes, and this kicks off a three-parter for Iceman - technically, I suppose, Gary Friedrich's biggest contribution to X-Men mythology.  It's less than memorable, which might explain why it's almost never mentioned, and has been out of print for almost a quarter of a century.  The bully, and Bobby's girlfriend, are stock characters, and the "lynch mob" routine is something that's since been done to death (though to be fair, it was a lot fresher in 1968).

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (between the "Origins of the X-Men" stories in issues #42 and #46)
Cyclops (last in the "Origins of the X-Men" story in issue #42)
Bobby Drake (last in X-Men Forever #4)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
William Robert "Willie" Drake (Iceman's father; first appearance; chronologically last in flashback in issue #319; next in the "Origins of the X-Men" story in issue #46)
Madeline Beatrice "Maddy" Drake (Iceman's mother; first appearance; next in the "Origins of the X-Men" story in issue #46)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Judy Harmon (first and only appearance)
Rocky Beasely (first and only appearance)

Written: 4 December 2004

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