STORY: "The Coming of Sunfire" (20 pages)  The X-Men battle Sunfire, a Japanese nationalist terrorist who plans to destroy Capitol Hill in revenge for the bombing of Hiroshima, at the behest of his racist uncle Tomo.  Sunfire has a change of heart after Tomo kills his father Saburo.

What you need to know:
It's the debut of Shiro Yoshida, aka Sunfire, who'll go on to join the X-Men (very, very briefly) in 1975's Giant-Size X-Men #1.  As tends to be the case with national superheroes from this period, he has ethnically-themed superpowers.  Fortunately, the "sun" theme gives plenty to work with.

Sunfire's origin story needs a bit of revision for modern purposes.  The version which appears here has Sunfire's mother being badly injured in the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.  She dies "a few years later" giving birth to Sunfire, who's very bitter about the whole thing and becomes a Japanese ultra-nationalist, and is encouraged by his racist uncle Tomo.  His powers emerge when visiting the ruins of Hiroshima and touching the ashes.  Tomo then trains him as Sunfire, more of a patriotic terrorist than a superhero at this stage.

Sunfire's father Saburo is a beloved Japanese diplomat who argues against all this nationalist nonsense.  Tomo shoots him for getting in the way, which causes Sunfire to have his crisis of conscience, kill Tomo, and collapse in tears.

The X-Men have got a midtown apartment with its own Cerebro, which they're keeping as a New York headquarters.  This may be a dialogue fix to keep the X-Men away from the Mansion in preparation for Professor X's big return next issue, since it's the first time it's been mentioned.

This story has been out of print since its original publication.  It's not by Neal Adams, so nobody wants to know.

A more innocent time:
Bystander: "It's time to split - before he decides it's time for toasted flower-child!"

Hiroshima is depicted as some people in kimonos running away from a mushroom cloud.

Ronald Barrington of Linden, Texas writes in to politely complain about Neal Adams.  ("Please give us back Don Heck or Werner Roth...  I have nothing against Neal personally and am sure he is a great guy but his artwork needs a little practice.")

Comments:
Let's be honest, it's not exactly subtle.  Sunfire is caught between two father figures, representing evil old Japan and nice forward-looking Japan, and choosing the wrong path leads him to tragedy.  It's very much a story of its time.  World War II was only 25 years ago, and this would have been a perfectly good theme to explore.  It's just that Thomas lays it on with a trowel, and Saburo and Tomo aren't exactly rounded characters.  Saburo's a saint, Tomo is apparently "sick", and it's all pretty much what you'd expect.

And let's be honest, if Sunfire and his uncle want revenge for the destruction of Hiroshima, you'd think they'd be setting their sights a bit higher than burning down the Capitol Dome.

Don Heck provides fill-in art, and it goes without saying that it's a big step down from Neal Adams.  He has a brave stab at livening up the page layouts, but it's just not the same.

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

VILLAINS
Sunfire (Shiro Yoshida; first appearance; next in Sub-Mariner vol 1 #52; also in flashback preceding this story; between panels of that flashback, he appears in flashbacks in Rogue vol 3 #8, then in Rogue vol 3 #10, then again in Rogue vol 3 #8)
Tomo Yoshida (first appearance; Sunfire's uncle; last in flashback in Rogue vol 3 #10; dies)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Saburo Yoshida (Sunfire's father; first appearance; dies)

Updated: 1 September  2005

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