STORY: "Monsters Also Weep" (20 pages)  Sauron tries to kill Tanya Anderssen's father so that he can marry her, but has last-minute attack of conscience and flees to Tierra del Fuego, where he commits suicide despite Tanya and the X-Men's attempts to stop him.

What you need to know:
For some reason Sauron feels compelled to go back to Tierra del Fuego and commit suicide in the place where he gained his powers, although you'd think this was awfully inconvenient when he could simply shoot himself or something. 

Sauron dies by throwing himself off a cliff while in human form.  Issue #115 explains that he survived by simply landing on a ledge and climbing down to the bottom.

Karl's beloved Tanya Anderssen shows up out of nowhere, claiming to have had a "premonition that something dreadful had happened to you."  Her father tags along in order to melodramatically proclaim that they shall not wed.

According to Xavier's notes, Sauron is "a non-mutant variant", whatever that may be.  Presumably it's just an X-centric way of saying he acquired superpowers during his life.  Surprisingly enough, even though he has a completely different body, Sauron apparently sounds just like Karl Lykos - Tanya and her father both recognise his voice.

Bobby's noticed Lorna's interest in Alex, and he's not best pleased.  She puts off the conversation until later.

Angel is knocked out by Sauron and remains behind in New York when the rest of the team head to the Savage Land.  He sets off separately, as we see in a flashback next issue.

The full story is reprinted in X-Men Visionaries: Neal Adams.  It also appears, split into two halves, in X-Men Classics #2-3.

A more innocent time:
Angel, on Sauron's hypnotic illusions: "Monsters, three of them - and each one uglier than the rest!"  Um, how does that work, exactly...?

Baffling period reference: "Do you mean, Lorna, that Angel here just soared in thru the kitchen window like the prime pigeon in some detergent commercial?"  I'm told the reference is to a long-running advert for Dove.

Comments:
The concluding part of the Sauron storyline requires an awful lot of generosity from readers.  Unfortunately, the plot is hideously contrived.  Tanya turns up with no decent explanation, simply because the plot requires that she should do so.  Everyone decamps to Tierra Del Fuego so that Karl can commit suicide in a needlessly difficult manner, and Tanya somehow not only guesses where he's going, but manages to get there on her own.  (She's determined to get there before the X-Men, so presumably she didn't ask them for a lift.)  It's all a bit much to swallow.  Plus, Tanya's a hopeless cipher who's only there to advance the plot, which makes it hard to care about her relationship with Karl.

But the basic idea is perfectly good - Karl's seduced by power, redeemed by his love for Tanya, but then kills himself in a tragic sacrifice.  And once again, Neal Adams does wonders with the Sauron character design, getting far more expression out of him than most artists manage.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Cyclops, Beast, Iceman  and Marvel Girl (between pages, all appear behind the scenes in flashback in issue #62)
The Angel

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Alex Summers and Lorna Dane

VILLAIN
Sauron (next in flashback in issue #115)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Tanya Anderssen and Dr Anderssen
 

Revised: 5 September 2005

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