STORY: "The Uncanny Threat of Unus, the Untouchable" (20 pages)  Mutant wrestler Unus tries to defeat the X-Men in order to impress Magneto.  The Beast creates a weapon that magnifies Unus' powers and leaves him trapped behind his own forcefield, forcing him to surrender.

What you need to know:
Iceman finally loses the snowman look, and changes to the ice version that we know and love.  The change is attributed to Iceman developing more control of his powers.

Scott and Jean are still yearning for one another and doing nothing about it.

The idea of humans hating mutants rears its ahead again, as Hank nearly gets lynched by a crowd after saving a child.

Professor X is off in a subplot, hunting for Lucifer.  We'll get back to him next issue.

Unus the Untouchable makes his debut.  He's a professional wrestler with a forcefield, and he's got criminal aspirations.  In this story we're told that his power only deflects things that are trying to hurt him; later stories just have it as a generic force field.  Perhaps the Beast's ray gun made some permanent changes.

A more innocent time:
Professional wrestling is real.  (See also: Spider-Man's origin.)

Comments:
Perhaps the penny dropped that the Brotherhood were being overused, since they're reduced to a fairly minor role in this story - and they don't come back again until issue #11.  Instead we get the debut of Unus the Untouchable, a wrestler with a force field.

Unus is a perennial C-list villain who's never done anything of particular interest, but who keeps turning up every few years regardless.  He's currently being used in Excalibur vol 3.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Unus and some other early sixties C-listers keep turning up more out of affection for Lee and Kirby rather than because they're particularly interesting characters.  This is the second issue built around the question of how the X-Men are going to defeat a seemingly invincible opponent (the first being the Vanisher in issue #2), and once again it's a villain with a passive power.  I can never quite buy Unus as a threat, since while you can't hurt him, he can't hurt you either.

Still, there's a nice enough little story based around the question of how they're going to beat him (answer: invent a magic ray gun), and Scott's attempts at professional detachment are a nice idea.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X
Cyclops, Iceman, the Angel, the Beast and Marvel Girl I (all between Untold Tales of Spider-Man #21 and Untold Tales of Spider-Man '97)

VILLAINS
Unus (Gunther Bain; born Angelo Unuscione; first appearance; a mutant with a force field; next in issue #20)
Magneto (behind the scenes; next in issue #11)
Mastermind I (next in issue #11)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Maxie (first and only appearance; Unus' wrestling trainer)

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