FIRST STORY: "Twilight of the Mutants" (15 pages)  Cyclops infiltrates the villains as "Erik the Red".  Iceman finds evidence that Lorna isn't Magneto's daughter.  The villains are defeated, but Magneto escapes.

What you need to know:
Iceman turns up with a bunch of affidavits apparently demonstrating that Lorna isn't Magneto's daughter after all.  She's adopted, but her true parents are her adoptive father's sister and her husband.  Again, Chuck Austen recently attempted to overrule this and restore the idea of Lorna as Magneto's daughter, despite the fact that it was never the plan in the first place.  The plot idea was that Magneto found somebody with similar powers and tricked her into believing she was his daughter so that she would obey him.

Bobby and Lorna are effectively a couple as the issue ends.

Magneto (or rather, the Magneto robot) escapes; he turns up again in issue #58, where he gets unceremoniously smashed to pieces.

The story has never been reprinted.

A more innocent time:
Scott (as Erik) tries to sound bombastic and doesn't quite pull it off.  Unfortunately, I don't think this was intentional.  But judge for yourself: "Perhaps, boastful one, you have never read that most practical recipe for roast chicken which begins... first, catch a chicken!"  "See how they fall before my own mutant might... in wholesale lots!"

The tactical wisdom of Mesmero: "Attack!  One at a time or in unison!"

Comments:
We're back to Don Heck and Werner Roth on art, and without Steranko, it's a very forgettable story.  The whole plot hinges on the faintly ridiculous idea that Lorna will just roll over and obey Magneto because he's her father, even when he's a lunatic world-conquering supervillains.  The idea of Lorna trying to defend Magneto is fair enough, but having her shrug her shoulders and say "Oh well, I'm the reluctant queen of the supervillains" is just a bit silly.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Cyclops, the Angel, the Beast, Iceman and Marvel Girl I (all next in Avengers vol 1 #60)

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Lorna Dane (next in issue #57)

VILLAINS
Mesmero (next in issue #58)
The Demi-Men (no further appearances)
Starr Saxon (behind the scenes; next in Daredevil vol 1 #49)

SECOND STORY: "The Crimes of the Conquistador" (5 pages)  With his parents as hostages, the Beast reluctantly steals an experimental miniature nuclear reactor for El Conquistador.  Meanwhile, the X-Men track him down.

What you need to know:
A partial reprint appears in Amazing Adventures vol 2 #17, but the full thing has never been reprinted.

Comments:
Not much to be said about it, really.  Competent but no more than that.  As I've said about several of these back-up strips, there's a reason why nobody ever references them.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X, the Angel, Cyclops and Iceman
Hank McCoy

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Norton McCoy and Edna McCoy

VILLAINS
El Conquistador and Chico

Written: 3 January 2005

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