Collecting X-Men #24-45 and Avengers #53.

X-Men #24 written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Werner Roth. The X-Men are confronted my bad scientist Dr. August Hopper, who as the super-villain the Locust wants to unleash a plague of giant insects upon the world. Once the plague has been unleashed, Hopper will create a cure under his true identity and will become world famous.

The Locust is so goofy that I was sure he would have ended up as Scourge fodder when Captain America writer Mark Gruenwald bumped off a bunch of minor villains during the Scourge of the Underworld story arc. It turns out I was mistaken as the Locust was still appearing in comics in 2002, long after the Scourge of the Underworld story arc had finished. He's definitely not one of the X-Men's most memorable villains. He's not exactly Magneto, is he?

In X-Men #25, a treasure hunter named El Tigre uncovers a hidden pyramid and its treasures. Among them is a stone fragment that grants El Tigre mental powers. El Tigra sets out to find the other half and finds it in New York's City Museum. His arrival is detected by Cerebro, so Professor Xavier sends the X-Men after the possible menace. The story continues in X-Men #26, where El Tigre combines the two stone fragments together and is transformed into the Mayan god Kukulcan. He then transports himself back to the hidden pyramid and finds the Solar Stone that is the source of his powers. The X-Men follow, but soon find themselves in trouble with the local people that Kukulcan has mesmerised to do his bidding.

El Tigre is another pretty forgettable X-Men villain. I think he only appeared a couple more times in Ka-Zar's own title more before committing suicide because his powers were too much for him. I guess Roy Thomas didn't have much success creating new villains when he took over writing X-Men from Stan Lee. The drama with Cyclops and Angel's rivalry over Marvel Girl's affections is getting pretty tiresome as well, especially as Cyclops seems incapable of telling Jean how he feels.

In X-Men #27, the X-Men return home with an injured Angel and, feeling guilty about accidentally hitting Angel with his optic blast in the battle against El Tigre, Cyclops steps down as leader. Meanwhile, Jean Grey has troubles of her own as an explosion at Metro College restores fellow student Calvin Rankin's powers and memories, meaning that the Mimic is on the loose once more. The Mimic blackmails the X-Men into letting him join or he will reveal their secret identities. The Puppet Master is secretly spying on events and takes control of the Mimic to use against the Fantastic Four.

The Mimic isn't one of the X-Men's biggest villains, but at least he is more memorable than the likes of El Tigre. The Locust is memorable, but probably for all the wrong reasons. At least Mimic is a character that would go on to appear again in the future instead of fading into obscurity only for some creator to bring him back to be fodder in another one of Marvel's unending crossover events.

In X-Men #28, Professor Xavier works on boosting the Mimic's power, but his presence is rapidly getting on the nerves of the other X-Men. Cerebro detects the presence of a new mutant in Manhattan. The new mutant is named Banshee, an operative of a group called Factor Three. Banshee uses his powers to hypnotise people and steal a painting where he is engaged by he X-Men. Banshee's partner Ogre also tries to take off with Professor Xavier as a hostage.

Banshee of course would go on to join the second team of X-Men properly in Giant-Size X-Men and would stick around for a while. He would end up losing his powers in battle, but would remain a longtime member of the X-Men's supporting cast. The way Werner Roth drew Banshee looked weird to me, but maybe it is wrong of me to hold up the art in comics from the 60's to standards of modern comic book art. Ogre won't appear again until Thunderbolts #33 in 1999. As far as I know Ogre doesn't have any powers of his own, he uses technology to commit crimes.

In X-Men #29, Cyclops wanders off into the woods to try and control his powers without the need for glasses. The noise disturbs the Super-Adaptoid residing in a hidden base inside a nearby mountain. The Adaptoid observes the X-Men as they train and plans to follow them to find more super-powered subjects to make into an army which it will use to take over the world.

The Super-Adaptoid seems like a neat villain. He has the powers of the Avengers, but I don't see how Captain America's shield or Hawkeye's arrows count as super powers though. That's just me being nit-picky. Maybe the Super-Adaptoid can copy their weapons too. This is only the first story I have seen the Super-Adaptoid in, so I still don't know much about it. I still think it's a neat villain though. I do have to wonder if the character was inspired by DC's Amazo, who has the powers of the Justice League.

Jack Sparkling is on art duties for X-Men #30, in which a mutant with incredible mental powers named the Warlock (no, not the pretentious orange man or the techno-organic New Mutant) plans to use a special machine to revert humanity back to the Medieval times. The Warlock attracts the attention of the X-Men when he captures Jean Grey and plans to make her his queen.

It turns out that this Warlock fellow is a recurring character. He first appeared in an enemy of Thor claiming to be the wizard Merlin. For some reason he changed his name for this appearance. He would still be calling himself Warlock the next time he encountered the X-Men, but would be calling himself Maha Yogi when he popped up in an issue of Incredible Hulk.

Werner Roth is back on art in X-Men #31, in which Scott and Warren visit Jean Grey in college. Warren is fed up of competing with others for Jean's affections and gives up, but he soon meets childhood friend Candy Southern. Meanwhile, the brother of Jean's college friend Ted Roberts, Ralph, unveils an armoured suit that he invented. A bump of the head causes Ralph to start calling himself the Cobalt Man and he puts on the suit deciding to hunt down Iron Man.

It was a relief to get a resolution to the romantic rivalry between Cyclops and Angel. I always find love triangle so annoying. Of course, Cyclops still can't bring himself to tell Jean how he feels. I guess that means there is more drama ahead. At least the Cobalt Man was a bit of fun, even if he was a knock-off Iron Man. I have to wonder about the seeming obsession that Marvel had about cobalt though. The robot Replicus that Thor encountered in his comic kept going on about its cobalt tendrils and now we have the Cobalt Man. Was cobalt a big deal in the 60's or something?

In X-Men #32 we find out the mystery behind the secret door in Professor Xavier's lab. Professor Xavier has the comatose body of his step-brother Cain Marko, aka the Juggernaut, and is trying to drain off his power. Unfortunately, Factor Three interferes and Cain escapes. If the Juggernaut wasn't unstoppable enough it now turns out his has Professor Xavier's mental powers as well for some reason. The story continues in X-Men #33 as the X-Men learn about the mystic gem that gave the Juggernaut his powers. It is revealed that the Ancient One (Doctor Strange's mentor) trapped the gem's guardian inside it long ago so that when Cain Marko found it there was no one there to stop him becoming the Juggernaut. The X-Men try to contact the Ancient One, but find Doctor Strange instead. Cyclops and Marvel Girl and transported inside the gem while the rest of the X-Men fight the Juggernaut.

Finally, a story with a villain that I actually care about. I have to admit that I never really cared about the Juggernaut until I read the 'Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut' story line from Amazing Spider-Man or the Acts of Vengeance tie-in where Thor fights the Juggernaut. Now he's one of my favourite X-Men villains. Not that he has much competition. I always struggle to think of my favourite X-Men villains.

Dan Adkins is on art for X-Men #34, where Jean's college friend Ted contacts her to ask if the X-Men can find his missing brother, who has been kidnapped by the subterranean Tyrannus. Angel, Iceman and Marvel girl head underground to find Tyrannus, but find the Mole Man instead. The Mole Man takes control of the X-Men and uses them to attack Tyrannus.

I liked the artwork on this issue. It was slightly more realistic than the other issues. Werner Roth's artwork is fine, if a little unremarkable. It would have been nice if Dan Adkins stuck around for a while longer instead of filling in for one issue. It's always nice to see the Mole Man make an appearance and I enjoyed the fact that Roy Thomas decided to link together the subterranean kingdoms of the Mole Man and Tyrannus. This isn't the only time that the two kingdoms would go to war as I also remember a crossover with a bunch of Marvel Annuals with Lava Men and the Deviants getting involved in the war of subterranean kingdoms. The crossover was imaginatively called 'Subterranean Wars'.

Werner Roth is back again for X-Men #35. Banshee is searching for Factor Three's headquarters when he is attacked by a spider robot. He tries to send a message to the X-Men, so Factor Three sends the robot after the X-Men. However, Peter Parker is vacationing in the area and destroys the robot as Spider-Man. The X-Men mistakenly attack Spider-Man, thinking he is behind the spider robot.

I'm always happy to see Spider-Man make a guest appearance in other comics, but there was something off about him here. Maybe it was because this was the first time that Spidey was written by somebody other than Stan Lee. Oh well, at least it wasn't awful. It was only for the one issue.

Ross Andru is the guest artist for X-Men #36. The X-Men try to figure out a way how they can get to Europe to find Factor Three and the missing Professor Xavier. Professor Xavier's fortune as well as that of Warren's parents are unavailable to them, so the X-Men decide to get jobs. Meanwhile, a student uses an experimental suit to cause trouble in an attempt to get his father's attention.

The few scenes of the X-Men getting up to hi-jinks trying to earn money were nice, but I just wish Roy Thomas would hurry up and get on with the Factor Three story already. It just seems like the story has been strung along after the past few issues. It hasn't helped that there was a pretty lame villain in this issue and a tiresome superhero fight in the last issue either.

The X-Men finally make their way to Europe in X-Men #37. The members of Factor Three are finally revealed. It's none other than their old enemies the Vanisher, Unus the Untouchable, the Blob and Mastermind. They are working for somebody called the Mutant-Master and a mutant named Changeling is his second in command. The story continues in X-Men #38 and #39 as Don Heck takes over on art duties. The X-Men are stuck in Factor Three's base as it self destructs before escaping and splitting up to find the locations where Factor Three will attack to cause an international incident that will lead to nuclear war.

I can't say how glad I am that the Factor Three story arc is over and done with. It was good to see some recognisable X-Men villains, even if they were a bit B-List. The Blob and Mastermind just about make the A-List because they would go on to appear in important story arcs in the future, but I can't say the same for Unus and the Vanisher. They would appear again, but never do anything really important like Mastermind or the Blob did in The Dark Phoenix Saga or Days Of Future Past.

The X-Men are given new costumes at the end of this issue. I think most of the costumes are pretty neat. We never get to see Iceman's new costume because he is covered in ice. Marvel Girl's green costume with the yellow mask is the one that stays in my memory the most. Cyclops gets the most long-lasting costume as he would continue to wear it well into the 80's. Beast's new costume looks pretty similar to the costume he would wear as part of X-Factor. Angel's costume is terrible though.

In X-Men #40, Professor Xavier learns about a giant creature having been discovered encased in ice. Believing it to be the Frankenstein's Monster from the book, Professor Xavier hopes to learn more from the creature. Unfortunately, the X-Men arrive too late as the creature has already defrosted and goes on a rampage.

I guess we're back to the corny villains again. There are a whole load of different versions of Frankenstein's Monster in the Marvel Universe. The first version of Frankenstein's Monster to appear in a Marvel comic book was in Menace #7, back when Marvel was caused Atlas Comics. The version here is only a robot replica. The actual Monster first appears in a Marvel comic book proper in Silver Surfer #7. The character would get its own ongoing series in the 70's, when Marvel was churning out horror comics. To top it all off, there have also been various clones of the Monster appearing in Marvel comics too.

In X-Men #41, while on a date with their respective girlfriends, Beast and Iceman encounter a subterranean creature named Grotesk on a rampage in the subway. The creature wants revenge on the surface world for the atomic test that destroyed much of the creature's city and poisoned its people. The story continues in X-Men #42 as Beast and Iceman report back about their fight with the creature Grotesk. However, Marvel Girl refuses to come and help Cyclops and Angel who are still fighting the creature.

Beast's girlfriend Vera Cantor would still be appearing in comics when the original X-Men became X-factor. I don't know what happened to Iceman's girlfriend Zelda though. Presumably they broke up when Bobby started seeing Lorna Dane. Would it be a spoiler to say that Professor X doesn't actually die in X-Men #42? Spoilers for a comic that is 50 years old, I guess. I'm not going to spoil how we know that Professor X didn't die, that will be revealed in the next X-Men Epic Collection, The Sentinels Live. I have pre-ordered the trade, so you can expect a review eventually.

George Tuska is on art duties for X-Men #43. The X-Men prepare to bury the deceased Professor X when Quicksilver arrives. Magneto is back and has reassembled the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch have joined with the Brotherhood again in the hope that Magneto will be able to find away to return Wanda's powers to her. Don Heck is on layouts while Werner Roth is on pencils for X-Men #44. Gary Friedrich takes over as writer as well. Magneto has taken the X-Men prisoner and prepares to execute them. Quicksilver manages to convince Magneto to spare the X-Men and try to recruit them into the Brotherhood instead. Angel manages to escape and flies off to find the Avengers for help. However, Angel gets sidetracked with an encounter with the bird-man Red Raven. Cyclops manages to escape in X-Men #45 and immediately gets into a fight with Quicksilver. The story concludes in Avengers #53 (by Roy Thomas and John Buscema) as the Avengers arrive in Magneto's base, but he brainwashes the X-Men into fighting them. Meanwhile, Toad is getting sick of all the abuse he gets from Magneto.

This version of Magneto obviously isn't the more nuanced sometimes ally that Chris Claremont gave us in the 80's. This Magneto is in full-on raving villain mode. He isn't exactly subtle. The story with Angel and Red raven was entirely pointless. It served no purpose to the plot other than to stretch it out for another issue. Don Heck might have only done the rough art to be finished off by Werner Roth, but I liked it much more than Roth's usual art. The art looked more dynamic that Roth's more static artwork. The panels weren't the same old boring rectangular shape. John Buscema's art in Avengers #53 is the best out of the lot.

X-Men #38-42 and #44-45 also have back-up stories about the origins of the various X-Men. The back-ups are all written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Werner Roth. The back-up in X-Men #38 starts the origin story for Cyclops. A young Scott Summers saves a crowd from falling debris with an optic blast, but the crowd turns on him. Learning of this and other incidents in the news, FBI agent Fred Duncan decides to start investigating the so-called mutant menace. Professor Xavier also learns of the incident with Scott Summers and decides to work together with Duncan. Scott is still on the run from the angry mob in the back up to X-Men #39. He soon meets a strange man living in a shack in the woods that claims to also be a mutant. In X-Men #40 the strange man introduces himself as Jack Winters, who has the power of teleportation as well as hands made of diamonds. Winters was given his powers due to coming in contact with radioactive materials, so he believes that more radioactive exposure will strengthen his powers. However, Professor Xavier is hot on Winters' heels. Professor Xavier finds that his mental powers are matched by those of Jack Winters in the back-up to X-Men #41 and the villain is soon turned completely into diamond. Cyclops' origin story concludes in the back-up to X-Men #42 as Jack Winters, now calling himself the Living Diamond, continues his mental battle with Professor Xavier.

X-Men #44 (by Gary Friedrich and George Tuska) begins Iceman's origin story. When bullies attack a young Bobby Drake while on a date, Bobby has no choice but to retaliate with his new ice powers. The display not only scares off the bullies, but also his date, who says that she never wants to see him again. Bobby heads home to his parents, but an angry mob soon follow him and throw him in jail. The origin story continues in X-Men #45 as Cyclops arrives to break Bobby out of prison. Bobby is convinced that he will get a fair trial if he just stays where he is, but Cyclops knows better and a fight soon breaks out between the two.

The origin for Cyclops was let down by a pretty lame villain. It was too soon for me to form an opinion about Iceman's origin as we only get the first two parts of the story. It looks like Iceman's origin story will continue in the next X-Men Epic Collection that I mentioned above. I'm intrigued to see Beast and Angel's origin too. I'm not sure if we get to see an origin for Marvel Girl in these issues though. I think we got an origin story for her in the very first issue any way.

The writing in these issues was pretty wordy, but I suppose that was the style of the time. It was a little corny, but not something that really got on my nerves or anything. It might also surprise people to find out that the X-Men comics weren't always popular. The series wasn't selling very well and even ended up getting cancelled after X-Men #66. The series would still continue to be published until X-Men #93, but only as reprints of old stories. It wasn't until Giant Size X-Men #1 that the team would become the smash hit that we all know and love.

My rating: 3 stars.