FIRST STORY: "Wanted: Dead or Alive - Cyclops" (15 pages)  The Living Pharaoh kidnaps Alex Summers after his graduation.  The X-Men stage a rescue attempt, which leads to Scott being knocked out.  When he comes round, he finds that Alex has gone on the run, while he's been framed for the murder of the Pharaoh.  Scott pursues Alex, only to find the Pharaoh alive and well.

What you need to know:
It's the debut of Alex Summers, Scott's previously unmentioned younger brother!  In fact, Alex is a major continuity headache, who creates some hideous timeline problems that future writers have wisely ignored, since there's no way around them. 

When we meet Alex in this story, he's graduating from university.  But we're expressly told that he's Scott's younger brother, so Scott must be even older than that.  They're also both old enough to drink, which makes them at least 21.  In which case... how much time has passed since issue #1, when Scott was a schoolboy?

The official X-Men Index from the 1980s wrestles with this problem and tries to explain it away by saying that Alex must be a child prodigy.  That doesn't really work, for three reasons.  First of all, it's completely inconsistent with the character, who has never been written as a genius (though to be fair, he graduates third highest in his class).  Secondly, he was a college athletics star, making it unlikely that he's a child compared to everyone around him.  And thirdly, we're told outright that Scott and Alex are both old enough to drink, which makes them older than 18. (Thanks to several correspondents who wrote within 24 hours of this page going up to let me know the correct legal drinking age in New York state in 1969!)

Basically, it's just a monumental cock-up and since it can't be satisfactorily explained, it's easier to turn a blind eye to the whole thing.  The actual explanation seems to be that Drake thought the book took place in real time - for example, in this issue's back-up strip, he places Angel's origin in 1963.

Surprisingly, nobody has ever got around to writing the story where Scott and Alex are reunited after being separated in the orphanage.  By the time of this story, Scott has apparently known about him for some time, but hasn't mentioned him to the rest of the team.  (As we find out next issue, Alex went to university in Manhattan, so it wouldn't be that hard to track him down.)

It's also the debut of the Living Pharaoh, a mad Egyptologist mutant who claims that all the historical pharaohs were also mutants (they weren't, even in Marvel history), and also fakes some magic for the benefit of his followers.  The Pharaoh proved surprisingly enduring, until he was eventually kicked off the planet in Marvel Graphic Novel #17. He was finally brought back as one of the Twelve when that storyline was unsatisfactorily resolved a few years ago.

The big idea is that the Living Pharaoh and Alex Summers both draw their powers from the same source.  So the fact that Alex is around inhibits the Pharaoh's powers, and vice versa.  Therefore the Pharaoh has a vested interest in getting Alex out of the way.  This vaguely makes sense if you're prepared not to think about it too closely (because they're both also meant to be solar-powered).

Incidentally, Alex has brown hair in this issue and the next.  They didn't change it to blond until later on.

This story has never been reprinted.  Which is odd, because it's the opening part of a storyline which picks up halfway into the Neal Adams trade paperback - but there you go. 

A more innocent time:
This being the 1960s, the Pharaoh and all his henchmen are coloured caucasian.

Comments:
Er, well.  This is a strange storyline, and the Pharaoh is very much an Arnold Drake villain.  With his gimmick costume and appropriately-dressed henchmen, he's very much a character who'd be at home in 1960s DC.  Over in the Marvel Universe, he doesn't really fit.  Still, the basic idea - a delusional mutant who's convinced he's the rightful heir of the pharaohs - isn't too bad.

This is Arnold Drake's final issue, rounding off a bizarre and largely forgettable nine-month run.  Still, he managed to give us Polaris, Havok and Mesmero, so it can't be brushed under the carpet.  I suspect his departure may have been rather hasty - he left both the lead and back-up strips in mid-story, and the back-up strip ends by setting up a plot which Roy Thomas proceeded to completely ignore when he returned to the book next issue.

Don Heck returns on art, but there's a sudden and remarkable shift in his work.  Suddenly the pages have gone all weird.  The grid layouts are a thing of the past, replaced by oddball shapes and panels drawn at strange tilts (complete with skewed diagonal lettering).  Basically, he's gone from a house style artist to one who's trying to capture the style of the period.  And it's a big improvement, to be honest.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Cyclops, the Beast, Iceman, Marvel Girl I (all last in Sub-Mariner vol 1 #14) and the Angel

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Alex Summers (first appearance; Cyclops' brother; chronologically last in X-Factor #-1)

VILLAINS
The Living Pharaoh (Professor Ahmet Abdol; first appearance; chronologically last in flashback in Marvel Graphic Novel #17) and his cultists

SECOND STORY: "The Million Dollar Angel" (5 pages)  Warren Worthington is sent to boarding school, where he becomes a star pupil, but develops wings.  He disguises himself as an angel to help rescue pupils from a fire.

What you need to know:
We've now jumped back in time to fill in the origin of Angel, who appeared out of nowhere in the Beast's origin story.

X-Factor vol 1 #47 - a fill-in story by Kieron Dwyer - gives a slightly conflicting version of Warren's schooldays, where he was simply unpopular from the word go.  In this story, Warren gets on perfectly well with the other kids until he discovers his wings and embarks on a campaign to make everyone hate him.  The idea is that he's deliberately isolating himself from the school so that nobody will discover his wings.

This story has never been reprinted.

Comments:
Passable, but some of the plot elements are feeble.  Warren's parents send him to boarding school because he was so keen on climbing trees.  There's love for you.  At school, Warren's laughed at because of his... large shoulder blades?  What?

The end of the story has the other schoolkids vowing to discover the identity of the "fabulous character with wings."  This was completely dropped by Roy Thomas, who took over the story next issue, and leads me to suspect that the change of writers may have been a bit of a last-minute thing.

FEATURE CHARACTER
Warren Worthington III (last in flashback in X-Men vol 2 #29; he appears in various origin flashbacks and elaborations between pages of this story; for full listing, see Angel back story)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Warren K Worthington Jr (last in flashback in X-Men vol 2 #29; next in issue #14)
Kathryn Worthington (chronologically earliest appearance; next in issue #14)

OTHER CHARACTER
Curtis (chronologically earliest appearance; next in issue #14)

Updated: 27 March 2005

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