STORY: "The Sentinels Live" (15 pages)  Larry Trask and Robert Chalmers appear on TV to announce their new Sentinels to the world.  Meanwhile, the Sentinels capture Lorna and Alex.

What you need to know:
The Sentinels are back, for the first time since issue #16.  These guys are, technically, the Mark 2 Sentinels.  Marvel kept tracking the Marks up until the mid-1980s, after which point it all became so garbled that nobody cared any more.

These ones were created by Larry Trask.  He's the son of Bolivar Trask, who built the originals.  Larry wrongly believes that the X-Men killed his dad back in issue #18, and he's most annoyed about that.  Larry has hooked up with Robert Chalmers, a federal judge who's done five years of research into the subject and has convinced himself that mutants are evil.  He's running something called the Federal Council on Mutant Activities.  Larry's Sentinels appear to be approved by the Council (or, at the very least, by Chalmers in a personal capacity), which would make the Council the first outright anti-mutant US government organisation.

As we find out in issue #59, the truth is a little more complicated that that.  Larry is a mutant who has precognitive powers.  Robert knows that, but Larry doesn't.  Larry wears a medallion which he was given by his late father Bolivar, and which shuts down his powers.  According to Robert in issue #59, Bolivar was motivated to build the Sentinels by the fear that another mutant would discover Larry's secret (which, to be honest, doesn't make much sense), and Robert tried to carry on his work after he died.

All of which begs a few questions about Chalmers.  If he knows that Larry's a mutant, and he still wants to help him, then evidently he doesn't genuinely believe that all mutants are evil.  In which case, why is he helping out with this sort of project?  Apparently we're meant to take it that he has a blind spot for Larry because of his close friendship with Larry's dad - that's certainly what's suggested next issue.  But let's be honest, it's a little bit shaky.  Incidentally, Larry isn't wearing his medallion in this issue (he might have it under his clothes, but that's not how he wears it in the next two issues).  This might suggest that Roy Thomas was making it up as he went along...

Alex is terrified by his powers, and doesn't want to go with anyone in case his powers are set off by accident and he kills them.  So he runs off into the desert while the X-Men are dealing with the cops.  There, he's halfway through a maudlin and angst-ridden soliloquy when he gets captured by the Sentinels. 

The Pharaoh somehow returns to civilian clothes between issues.  This is handy for him, because when the Egyptian authorities turn up, they recognise him and pretty much take his word for everything.  The X-Men eventually leave the Pharoah with them, and of course they release him straight away.

Lorna Dane turns up again (and we're assured that she and Bobby are still a couple).  The Sentinels attack her apartment and capture her.  This results in the team splitting up - Bobby and Hank go back to America, while the others stay in Egypt hunting for Alex.

Reprint-hunters can find this story in X-Men Visionaries: Neal Adams.  An edited version also appears in Giant-Size X-Men #2, which runs issues #57-59 compressed into a single story.  It was also reprinted in 1983's X-Men Classics #1, a miniseries which reprinted the Thomas/Adams run in the light of the X-Men's later popularity.  (They skipped issue #56, since this is a better jumping on point.)

A more innocent time:
The Egyptian police are relying on camels to get around.  Cyclops rather uncharacteristically dismisses them as "camel jockeys."

Comments:
Now we're getting somewhere.  After years of largely ignoring the subject, the book finally ploughs headlong into anti-mutant sentiment, government anti-mutant projects, and the X-Men as renegades.  Oh, and Alex is really hammering the angst in this issue.  Even though this stuff didn't stop the book getting cancelled, it's finally on the right track here - after all, it's this sort of story which drove the book under Claremont.

Granted, there's some very melodramatic dialogue to put up with, not to mention a rather dodgy portrayal of the Egyptian authorities.  But the book is finally dealing with the big themes that make it work, and Neal Adams' art continues to impress - particularly a fantastic page of the Beast falling from an open window, with a really powerful layout.  A very good issue.

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

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Alex Summers (also in flashback between pages of issue #56)
Lorna Dane (last in issue #52)

VILLAINS
The Living Pharaoh
Larry Trask (first appearance; chronologically last in issue #-1)
Robert Chalmers (first appearance; chronologically last behind the scenes in flashback in Marvel Super-Heroes vol 3 #7)
Bolivar Trask (in flashback only; last in flashback in the next issue; next in issue #-1)

FEATURE: "The Female of the Species" (5 pages)  Marvel Girl demonstrates her powers.  Oh, and she's cute, too.

What you need to know:
In terms of the actual content, not much.  However, this story does have the remarkable distinction of being the only story to be written by a woman in the title's 42-year history.  If it even counts as a story.  (So far as I'm aware, by the way, Linda Fite's only other published stories were in The Cat #1-4 and Night Nurse #4.)

It's also, of course, the last back-up strip from the "Origins of the X-Men" series.  Poor Marvel Girl doesn't get a full origin story, presumably because they were pulling the plug on the whole idea and wanted to free up the space for Thomas and Adams.  The gaps were eventually plugged in the Phoenix story in Bizarre Adventures #27.

An edited version of this feature (missing a page) was used to pad out Giant-Size X-Men #1.  For some unfathomable reason it also appears in 1973's The Cat #4.

A more innocent time:
"Special aside: Ye olde Bullpen thought it'd be glitzy if, just for a change, this featurette on the mesmerizing Marvel Girl were written by a member of the supposedly weaker sex!  So, make room for lovable Linda Fite, ex-Marvel staffer and X-Men fan supreme!"

Comments:
Actually, it's quite fun as these things go.  "Please don't be alarmed if you feel strangely compelled to pay unusual attention to the contents of the following pages."  Werner Roth's art is quite good, too.

Written: 5 May 2005

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