X-Men (1963) #12

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: July 1965

On-Sale Date: May 1965

Synopsis: As the Juggernaut approaches the mansion, Professor X tells the X-Men his life story.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1

This page picks up from last issue's cliffhanger, as Cerebro continues to warn of the Juggernaut's approach. This doesn't necessarily mean that there's no gap between issues; Cerebro is much more urgent here than it was in #11, so some time could have passed.  I prefer to keep these stories close together, with only a few hours at most passing between the two.

This scene is played as though it's the first time that the X-Men other than Cyclops and Xavier are made aware of Cerebro.  While it's possible that they haven't seen the machine before, they certainly know about it: Professor X was openly talking about Cerebro in X-Men (1963) #10.

Page 4, panels 1 to 5

This issue features extensive flashbacks to Xavier's past.  The first covers his father's death at Alamagordo, and the subsequent funeral where his mother is comforted by Kurt Marko.  The Marvel Database claims that Charles was 9 when his father died; I'm not sure where they got that from, but I'm happy to go with it.  Based on a mention in X-Men (1963) #1 of Brian Xavier working on the first A-bomb project, the earliest that this death should happen is XY -21, but I'm throwing that out as a topical reference.  The timeline, particularly the part involving the Korean War, works better if Xavier is a little older. I'm placing Brian Xavier's death in XY -23.

Based on this timeline, Xavier is born in XY -32 or -33, making him in his early 30s when the X-Men are formed.

Page 5

Kurt Marko's marriage to Sharon Xavier is said to happen months after the funeral, so I'm keeping it in the same year. Some more time passes before Cain Marko's arrival. Xavier doesn't look any older, so I'll keep it in the same year as well. I could just as easily move them to the next year if I need to.

Kurt mentions a prior marriage here, although nothing is said about what happened to his previous wife. Cain was expelled from his previous school not long before this flashback.  He looks to be a few years older than Charles.

Page 8

In an attempt to space things out, I've placed the deaths of Sharon Xavier and Kurt Marko a year later, in XY -22.  Charles would be around 10 years old.  Note that Kurt is aware of his powers already.  Charles realises that he is telepathic not long after this.

Page 10, panels 3 to 6

This flashback spans a number of years. As a side-effect of his powers Charles began to lose his hair while still in his teens, so I'm placing him at 13 in the first panel. This would put it in XY -19.  Charles looks to be a few years older during his unlikely stint as a star sportsman, and the subsequent fight with Cain.  I've placed him at 15, in XY -17, which fits with Cain's assertion that he's been waiting for years for an excuse to beat Charles up.

Page 12, panels 2 to 5

This flashback happens as Cain is driving Xavier to college after vacation. Because Xavier is a genius/dirty cheat, I have him starting college at age 16, in XY -16.

He saves himself here with a mental shield. He's not usually depicted as being telekinetic, or able to project force fields, but everyone's powers were a lot more loosely defined in the '60s.

Page 15, panels 3 to 6

Charles and Cain serve together in the Korean War, which took place from 1951 to 1953.  Because Xavier's involved I can't use the real dates without screwing up his age, so I have to make this war a part of the sliding timescale. This issue was published in 1965 in the real world; in terms of my timeline, I have it taking place late in XY 0.  That would put Xavier's war service from XY -14 to XY -12, when he would have been aged 18-20.

Cain spends over a decade after this flashback buried under the rubble, so he shouldn't be making any appearances during that time.

Cyttorak's temple has been spoken of in rumours for centuries, which is nice and vague. All we learn of Cyttorak is that he was a deity of black magic, who was driven from Earth but left behind the curse of the Juggernaut.

COUNTING THE DAYS

The entirety of this issue takes place over a single day, very shortly after X-Men (1963) #11 (I've placed it the day after, starting a little after midnight).

The timeline of the flashbacks in this issue is as follows:

• XY -32 or 33
• Charles Xavier is born; before this, his parents were exposed to radiation while working at a nuclear research station
• XY -23
• Page 4.3 to 4.6 flashback: Brian Xavier is killed, Kurt Marko hits on his wife at the funeral. Charles is 9.
• Months later, Kurt and Sharon are married.
• Page 4.7 to 5.1 flashback: Kurt moves into the Xavier mansion.
• Page 5.2 to 5.6 flashback: The marriage isn't going well. Cain Marko moves into the mansion.
• XY -22
• Sharon Xavier dies.
• Page 7.5 to 8.6 flashback: Kurt Marko dies in a chemical fire. He reveals that he knows Charles has powers.
• Charles realises that he is a telepathic mutant. He is 10.
• XY -19
• Charles starts losing his hair.
• Page 10.3 flashback: Charles reads his teacher's mind. He is 13.
• XY -17
• Page 10.4 to 11.6 flashback: Charles uses his powers to be good at sports, and Cain fights him about it. Charles is 15.
• XY -16
• Page 12.2 to 12.5 flashback: Cain and Charles are in a car crash on the way to college. Charles saves himself with a mental shield. Charles is 16.
• XY -14
• Page 15.3 to 16.2 flashback: In Korea, Cain becomes the Juggernaut.

Avengers (1963) #16

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: May 1965

On-Sale Date: March 1965

Synopsis: The old Avengers quit, and a new team is formed consisting of Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 20, panel 5

A new team of Avengers is formed in this issue, which includes Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. From this point forward the mutant twins cease to be X-Men villains, and are much more connected to the Avengers.  I won't be tracking their chronologies unless they intersect with the X-Men.

Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp all effectively quit the team with this issue. They'll all be back eventually, but any scenes with that particular team should be placed before this.

Page 10, panel 1

Wanda notes here that Quicksilver is older than her. They're twins, so the age difference is negligible, but nevertheless she defers to him on most decisions in this era.  (I'm not actually sure if it's been established that they're twins at this point, but given that I'm about to stop tracking their chronologies it's something of a moot point.)

Page 10, panel 2

This flashback seems to be an alternate angle of a scene from X-Men (1963) #6, taking place right after page 3.1 of that issue.

Page 10, panel 3

This flashback doesn't match up with any of the X-Men/Brotherhood battles we've seen, but once again the off-panel fight from Journey Into Mystery (1962) #109 comes to my rescue.  I'll place this flashback during that issue.

Page 14, panel 1

At some point between X-Men (1963) #11 and this issue, the X-Men put out a public statement saying that Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are no longer to be considered menaces to society. It's quite remarkable how trusted the X-Men are by the media and the authorities in this era. That's something that will change going forward, after the Sentinel arc in X-Men (1963) #14-16.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

There are a lot of intersecting subplots in this story, taking place over several weeks at the very least. The passage of time is a little vague, but thankfully I only have to track what's going on with Wanda and Pietro.

Given that X-Men (1963) #11 ends on a cliffhanger, this issue will have to be placed out of publication order.  It most probably occurs after the Juggernaut story in X-Men (1963) #12-13, and before the Sentinel story in #14-16.

• Day 1:
• Page 6.3 to 8.6: Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp decide to quit the Avengers. Hawkeye breaks into the mansion, and is accepted as a member.
• A source leaks Hawkeye's membership to the media.
• Day 2:
• Page 9.5 to 10.5: Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, in their European homeland, hear that the Avengers are recruiting. They decide to apply.
• Days later:
• Page 13.4 to 20: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch arrive in New York. They are accepted as team members, and the new Avengers team is formed.

X-Men (1963) #11

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: May 1965

On-Sale Date: March 1965

Synopsis: The Brotherhood try to recruit an alien called the Stranger, and it doesn't go well for them. Mastermind is turned to stone, and Magneto and the Toad are taken into outer space. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch decide to go home to Europe.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1

The X-Men are reacting to the professor's new radar-image beam, which is an addition to Cerebro that allows it to project an image of the being that it has detected.  I assume that the professor has been working on it since he returned to the team in X-Men (1963) #9, and finished it some time after #10.

Page 9, panels 1 to 3

The Brotherhood tries to recruit an alien called the Stranger, and this is the first indication that it's not going to go their way.  After a demonstration of his power of illusion, Mastermind is turned to stone by the Stranger.  He won't return until X-Men (1963) #37.  The organisation known as Factor Three cures him of being a statue behind the scenes (somewhere around issue #20 I'd guess), but he shouldn't be making any high-profile appearances between this issue and #37.

Page 15, panel 2

Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch finally decide that they've had enough of Magneto and his Brotherhood. They leave for their home in central Europe, but they won't stay there long: they join the Avengers in Avengers (1963) #16, which was published a mere week later.

Page 18

The Stranger takes Magneto and the Toad back to his homeworld as mutant specimens.  Magneto will briefly return to Earth in X-Men (1963) #17, and both of them will make their permanent returns in Avengers (1963) #47.  Needless to say, they shouldn't be making generic appearances in the interim.

The Stranger's account of his people here is vague, and doesn't really fit with his later origin stories. There are a bunch of conflicting stories about the Stranger, but luckily for me they take place in comics I don't have to consider for this project.  Despite making his first appearance in X-Men, the bulk of his appearances take place outside of the x-titles.

Page 20, panels 5 to 7

This issue ends on a cliff-hanger, with the approach of a powerful new menace. There's some leeway for time to pass between this issue and the next, but I'm pretty sure the intention is that they continue fairly closely.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

The entirety of this story takes place in a single day, an unspecified amount of time after X-Men (1963) #10.

X-Men (1963) #10

 

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: March 1965

On-Sale Date: January 1965

Synopsis: The X-Men go to the Savage Land, where they fight some dinosaurs and swamp people, and meet Ka-Zar and Zabu.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 3

The flashback on this page shows Ka-Zar and Zabu causing a ruckus at an Antarctic base, which prompts the X-Men to go and investigate. It happened the day before the start of this story.  Note that Professor X had already been contacted by Washington about the incident, and determined that Ka-Zar is not a mutant.

Page 4, panel 3

The X-Men have been inactive for weeks, and are absolutely gagging for some kind of adventure.  In publishing terms, their last mission happened in X-Men (1963) #9, so I'll probably place it around a month after that story.

Page 10, panel 4

This is all we get as far as on origin for Ka-Zar goes.  "Many moons ago" is very vague as far as telling me when Ka-Zar became lost in the Savage Land.  I'm not particularly up on my Ka-Zar lore, and I couldn't find anything on the internet to indicate how old he was at the time.  Looking at the flashback in Daredevil (1964) #13 I'd estimate that Ka-Zar was 8 years old.  Assuming he's in his mid-20s when he meets the X-Men, that would place his origin in XY -17.  These ages are all conjecture, and are open to change if I find some more concrete information.

This is also the first meeting between the Ka-Zar and the X-Men.  They'll team up with him plenty of times in the future.

COUNTING THE DAYS

• Day 1
• Page 3.2 to 3.4 flashback: Ka-Zar and Zabu cause a stir at an Antarctic base
• Washington notifies Professor X about the "Antarctic wild man", and the professor determines that he is not a mutant.
• Day 2:
• Page 1 to 4. The X-Men see footage of Ka-Zar on TV, and Professor X gives them permission to investigate.
• Some days pass in which the X-Men make preparations and travel to Antarctica.
• Days Later:
• Page 5 to 20. The X-Men meet Ka-Zar in the Savage Land, and rescue Marvel Girl from a tribe of swamp men.

Fantastic Four (1961) #35 and #36

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: February 1965

On-Sale Date: December 1964

Synopsis: Professor X and Cyclops go to State University to look for mutants, and bump into the Fantastic Four.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 2, panels 4 and 5

Xavier and Cyclops make a rather brief cameo here, having just finished interviewing some students to determine if they are mutants. Note that although Reed Richards has heard of Xavier's school, the two have not met before.

Elsewhere in this story, Reed Richards proposes to Sue Storm, which becomes relevant for the very next issue.

COUNTING THE DAYS

For the X-Men, this takes place over a single day. It has to be during the school year, so it's probably in late August or September.

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: March 1965

On-Sale Date: January 1965

Synopsis: The X-Men and Professor X attend the engagement party of Reed Richards and Sue Storm.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 8, panel 2

The X-Men can be seen here being the life of the party at Reed and Sue's engagement.  (Well, not Cyclops, but what do you expect.)  Professor X is still maintaining his secret identity, as the X-Men must pretend that they don't know him.  Amusingly, the Thing met Professor X last issue and has already forgotten who he is.

After the party ends the FF are attacked by the Frightful Four, but the X-Men have left by that point.

COUNTING THE DAYS

For the X-Men this takes place over a single day, not too long after their guest appearance in Fantastic Four (1961) #35.  In publishing terms, both of these issues came out between X-Men (1963) #9 and #10.

X-Men (1963) #9

 

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: January 1965

On-Sale Date: November 1964

Synopsis: While Professor X confronts the alien Lucifer, the X-Men must stop the Avengers from interfering.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 3, panel 4

Professor X is said to have contacted Cyclops "last week", which leaves things fairly vague.  By my thinking that could be anywhere from a few days ago to about ten days ago.

Page 4, panels 1 to 3

After two issues of searching, Professor X has located the lair of Lucifer. We learn here that Lucifer was responsible for crushing Xavier's legs years ago. Previously he'd told the X-Men that this had happened in a childhood accident, but that lie never comes up again.  On the scale of lies told by Xavier to the X-Men, it's fairly innocuous.

Page 11, panel 3

This is the first meeting between the X-Men and most of the Avengers. Iron Man fought then befriended Angel in Tales of Suspense (1959) #49, and briefly met the rest of the X-Men in Avengers (1963) #3. Thor almost had a run-in with the team in Journey Into Mystery (1952) #109.  For the others - Giant-Man, Wasp and Captain America - this is a genuine first meeting.

Page 12, panel 2

This isn't chronologically relevant, but I just wanted to point out that Angel is absolutely not worthy enough to lift Thor's hammer.

Page 15, panel 5

Thor sort of meets Professor X for the first time here, via telepathic conversation.  None of the other Avengers are made aware of Xavier's presence in this story.

Page 20, panel 5

Part of Lucifer's plan in this story involves a powerful bomb that will go off if his heartbeat is stopped. This bomb was specifically designed as a defense against Professor X.  Given that it took Lucifer ten years to design and build, that gives us a pretty good indication of when their first confrontation took place.

COUNTING THE DAYS

The entirety of this story takes place in a single day (although there's probably a week or so beforehand between Xavier contacting Cyclops and the X-Men arriving by ship in Europe).

Strange Tales (1951) #128 (1st story)

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: January 1965

On-Sale Date: October 1964

Synopsis: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver seek help from the Fantastic Four, as they wish to leave Magneto's Brotherhood. Instead they end up fighting the Thing and the Human Torch, and decide that Magneto is the only one they can trust.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

The X-Men don't appear in this story; the only relevant characters that appear are Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. For the most part I won't be tracking their appearances outside of the x-books, but it seems appropriate to do so while they're primarily X-Men villains.

Page 2, panel 3

This quick flashback to the Scarlet Witch's origin is depicted pretty much exactly as it was in X-Men (1963) #4.

Page 2, panels 5 and 6

These panels depict most of the publicly active super-heroes at the time (with the X-Men being a notable omission). The only one we haven't seen before is Daredevil, so this is confirmation that he's active by this point.

Page 3, panels 4 to 6

The X-Men have just released official photos of the Brotherhood to the media.  This seems like an odd thing for them to do without Professor X around, as the original X-Men defer to him on pretty much every important decision.  It could perhaps be a reaction to the mob violence that Beast and Iceman were subjected to in X-Men (1963) #8; the X-Men may believe that if they identify the evil mutants, anti-mutant sentiment might be focused on them rather than mutants in general.

Page 4, panels 1 to 4

Here we get a pair of flashbacks to the events of Strange Tales (1951) #120 and Fantastic Four (1961) #28. They don't have any new information to impart.

Page 12, panel 5

This is the first time that the Thing and the Human Torch meet Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. They don't part on the greatest of terms, but this issue is the strongest indication yet that the two "evil mutants" are destined to be something other than villains.

COUNTING THE DAYS

The entirety of this story takes place in a single day, probably between X-Men (1963) #8 and #9.

Timeline - End of 1964

I've reached the end of the comics published in 1964, so it's about time to post the chronology as it stands.  I didn't do one for 1963, because it would only have included two comics.

First off, I here's a list of the comics in question, and the chronological clues I need to take into consideration:

• X-Men (1963) #1
• Iceman is 16, and the rest of the X-Men are a couple of years older. Beast is the oldest.
• It's either the start of the school year (August/September), or mid-year enrolment (January).
• Xavier's parents worked on the first A-bomb project.
• Takes place over two days.
• X-Men (1963) #2
• Can't take place on Sadie Hawkins Day (November 13th).
• Xavier has made contacts within the FBI, Agent Fred Duncan specifically.
• Takes place over four days.
• Tales of Suspense (1959) #49 (1st story)
• Probably happens before X-Men (1963) #4.
• The Avengers (Hulk, Thor, Giant-Man, Wasp, and Iron Man) are all active.
• Takes place over one day.
• Avengers (1963) #3
• Happens after Tales of Suspense (1959) #4.
• Takes place over one day.
• X-Men (1963) #3
• Blob's been aware of his powers for years, but never realised he was a mutant.
• Takes place over two days.
• X-Men (1963) #4
• It's been one year since the X-Men's classes began, whatever that means.
• Magneto rescued the Scarlet Witch from a mob, "not long ago". Presumably he recruited the rest of the Brotherhood around the same time.
• Takes place over three days, plus a final day with a gap of some weeks in between.
• X-Men (1963) #5
• Probably happens during the months of April to October, due to the New York World's Fair being referenced.
• Professor X designed a wing harness for Angel at some point.
• It's been weeks since last issue.
• Takes place over two days.
• Strange Tales (1951) #120 (1st story)
• Happens the day after an X-Men/Brotherhood battle (probably the one in X-Men (1963) #5).
• Takes place over one day.
• Journey Into Mystery (1952) #109 (1st story)
• Possibly happens the day before Fantastic Four (1961) #28.
• Takes place over one day.
• Fantastic Four (1961) #28
• Probably happens between X-Men (1963) #5 and #6.
• Happens the day after the X-Men have a chase through New York (possibly the one in Journey Into Mystery (1962) #109).
• Happens several months after Strange Tales (1951) #120.
• Mad Thinker's been studying the X-Men for weeks.
• Takes place over one day.
• X-Men (1963) #6
• Happens after Fantastic Four (1961) #27.
• A flashback to Magneto hurling a  freighter from his island happened some days ago.
• Takes place over two days.
• Amazing Spider-Man Annual (1964) #1
• Happens before X-Men (1963) #7, as Professor X is present and Iceman is in his snowman form.
• Doctor Strange and Spider-Man are active by this point, and Captain America has been thawed from the ice.
• This story happens during the school year.
• Takes place over one day.
• X-Men (1963) #7
• The X-Men are graduating, so it's late May or early June.
• Takes place over two days.
• X-Men (1963) #8
• Unus possibly wins the WWWF Championship in May 17th, 1963 (which would be XY -1).
• Unus possibly loses the WWWF Championship on July 11th of XY 0.
• Unus has been a wrestler for years.
• Takes place over one day, with a gap of some weeks, then another day.

With that done, it's time to put it all together.  Here's the complete X-Men timeline, as it stands at the end of 1964.  Note that XY stands for X-Men Year, and is used to determine things based on Marvel's sliding timescale.  XY 0 is the year in which X-Men (1963) #1 takes place, and everything else is relative to that: negative numbers happened before that issue, and positive numbers happen after.

A COMPLETE CHRONOLOGY OF THE X-MEN (as of December 1964)

XY -22 or -21

• Professor X's parents work on the first A-bomb project. This will become topical over time, but it's still useful as a guide to when they were alive. Which year this happens in depends on whether they worked on the UK/Canada's Tube Alloys Project, or the USA's Manhattan Project.

XY -16 or -17

• Iceman is born. The year depends on whether his 16th birthday was in XY 0 or -1.

XY -17 to -20

• Angel, Cyclops and Beast are born during this span of time, with Beast being the oldest. Marvel Girl's age is a bit more ambiguous, but probably falls around the same time period.

YEARS LEADING UP TO XY 0

• Professor X makes preparations to open his school. This includes the creation of many machines, vehicles and training devices in his mansion, as well as making contact with the FBI. His liaison with the FBI is Fred Duncan.
• Magneto begins making his plans for conquest. This involves the establishment of many secret bases, including Asteroid M and his island in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Blob discovers that he is extra-strong and resilient. Thinking he's just a freak, he joins the carnival.
• Unus becomes a wrestler.
• The Fantastic Four get their powers (in Fantastic Four (1961) #1).
• Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk (in Incredible Hulk (1962) #1).
• Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man (in Amazing Fantasy #15).
• Donald Blake becomes Thor. (in Journey Into Mystery (1952) #83).
• Henry Pym becomes Ant-Man (in Tales to Astonish (1959) #35).
• Tony Stark becomes Iron Man (in Tales of Suspense (1959) #39).
• Janet Van Dyne becomes the Wasp, and joins Ant-Man on his adventures (in Tales to Astonish (1959) #44).
• Doctor Strange becomes active in New York (in Strange Tales #110).

XY -1

• Cyclops, Iceman, Angel and Beast are recruited by Professor X to join the X-Men. They begin their classes with Professor X in March. Professor X designs a harness the Angel can use to hide his wings.
• Conjecture: Unus wins the WWWF Championship on May 17th.

XY 0, January

• The Avengers are formed (in Avengers (1963) #1).
• Jean Grey gets a message from Professor X to enrol at his school. Her parents are hesitant until they are contacted by the US government.
• X-MEN (1963) #1: Jean Grey (Marvel Girl) joins the X-Men, and they go to fight Magneto at Cape Citadel. Takes place over two days in January.
• X-MEN (1963) #4 flashback: Magneto rescues the Scarlet Witch from an angry mob, and she and Quicksilver join him to repay their debt.
• Presumably Magneto recruits Mastermind and the Toad around the same time.
• Ant-Man becomes Giant-Man (in Tales to Astonish (1959) #49).
• X-MEN (1963) #2 flashback: The Vanisher robs a bank. Happens on the same day that X-Men (1963) #2 begins.
• X-MEN (1963) #2: The X-Men face the Vanisher. Takes place over four days in late January.

XY 0, February

• TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) #49 (1st story): Angel temporarily goes bad, and fight Iron Man. Takes place over one day in early February.
• AVENGERS (1963) #3: Iron Man tries to recruit the X-Men to help the Avengers search for the Hulk. Takes place over one day in mid-February.
• X-MEN (1963) #3: The X-Men battle the Blob. Happens over two days in late February.
• The Avengers find Captain America in a block of ice, and thaw him out (in Avengers (1963) #4)

XY 0, March

• X-MEN (1963) #4, page 1 to 11: The X-Men celebrate the one-year-anniversary of the beginning of their training. Magneto conquers Santo Marco. Happens over a period of three days in early March.
• Weeks pass, in which Magneto consolidates his rule over Santo Marco.
• X-MEN (1963) #4, page 12 to 23: The X-Men drive Magneto and the Brotherhood out of Santo Marco. Takes place over one day in mid March.
• Weeks pass while the X-Men try to get the injured Professor X from Santo Marco to Westchester. The Brotherhood are searching for them the whole time.
• X-MEN (1963) #5: The X-Men fight the Brotherhood on Asteroid M. Takes place over two days in late March. (This is outside of the April to October timespan I mentioned above, but the months-long gap between Strange Tales (1951) #120 and Fantastic Four (1961) #28 means I had to push it back slightly. Maybe Jean's parents are planning to stay in New York for a week or two.)
• STRANGE TALES (1951) #120 (1st story): Iceman and the Human Torch stop Captain Barracuda from robbing a boat. Takes place the day after X-Men (1963) #5, in late March.

XY 0, April

• Mad Thinker begins studying the X-Men, and trying to discover the identity of Professor X. (My conjecture is that he does this using footage and photos of the battle with the Vanisher from X-Men (1963) #2.)

XY 0, May

• JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (1952) #109 (1st story): Magneto fights Thor in a sub in the New York harbor, while the X-Men fight the Brotherhood in Manhattan. Happens over one day in early May.
• FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #28: The Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master manipulate the X-Men into attacking the Fantastic Four. Happens the day after Journey Into Mystery (1952) #109, in early May. (There's meant to be a several month gap between this and Strange Tales (1951) #120, but I've had to shorten it to two months, from March to May.)
• X-MEN (1963) #6 flashback: A freighter gets too close to Magneto's island, so he hurls it away with his giant magnet. This happens in early May, some days before the main story.
• X-MEN (1963) #6: Magneto recruits the Sub-Mariner, and the X-Men fight them on his Atlantic island. Takes place over two days in early-mid May.
• AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (1964) #1: The X-Men ignore a message in the sky from the Human Torch to Spider-Man, and continue training. Takes place over one day in mid-May.
• X-MEN (1963) #7: The X-Men graduate prep school. Professor X leaves, and makes Cyclops team leader. Magneto recruits the Blob, and they fight the X-Men. Takes place over two days in late May.
• X-MEN (1963) #8, page 1 to 7.3: Iceman and Beast are chased by an angry mob. Beast quits the team. This takes place over one day in late May.

XY 0, June

• One week later, Beast debuts as a wrestler. He very quickly becomes a top-draw heel in the WWWF. It's implausibly quick, to be honest, but there's a reference in a later issue of X-Men that makes me  want to place this story in June.
• X-MEN (1963) #8, page 7.4 to 20: After wrestling Unus, Beast helps the X-Men defeat him. This happens on June 6th, because it has to be on the same day as a WWWF show at Madison Square Garden in 1964.

XY 0, July

• Conjecture: Due to his criminal activities, Unus is pressured by the WWWF into dropping the championship. This happens on July 11th.

X-Men (1963) #8

 

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: November 1964

On-Sale Date: September 1964

Synopsis: Unus the Untouchable is told that he has to defeat one of the X-Men before he's allowed to join the Brotherhood. Beast shoots him with a ray that makes his force fields go out of control, and makes him promise to give up a life of crime before returning him to normal.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 2, panels 5 and 6

Iceman adopts an icy form for the first time here, and will pretty much appear like this going forward, abandoning the snowman look altogether. The idea that he's transparent in this form will be quickly dropped, however.

Page 6, panel 3

After being chased by a mob of angry mutant-haters, Beast quits the team. He'll be back later this issue, so it's not all that significant, but I'm placing this here because this is about the point where the original X-Men are dragged to the future for the Brian Bendis run, starting in All-New X-Men (2013) #1. I'm a little hazy on the details, but I think they get returned to the exact point they left.

Page 6, panels 5 to 7

Professor X makes a cameo here, searching for Lucifer in the Balkans.  He only left last issue, and he'll be back next issue, so technically his leave of absence didn't result in him leaving the comic at all.

Page 7, panels 4 to 6

Beast makes his debut as a wrestler one week after leaving the X-Men, and has to make a meteoric rise up the ranks if I'm going to keep this story down to a reasonable time-frame.  This is televised wresting in the New York area, with a pretty sizable crowd, so the inescapable conclusion is that Beast is wrestling for the WWE (or the WWWF as it was known back in 1964).

Unus is described by the ring announcer as the "untouchable champion of all time", so here's another inescapable conclusion: Unus had a run with the WWF Heavyweight Championship.  In 1964 the champion was Bruno Sammartino, who had won it in May of 1963 from Buddy Rogers, and would hold it all the way until 1971.  From a 1964 perspective, the simplest thing would be to say that Unus won the title from Rogers in 1963, then dropped it to Sammartino in 1964, some time after this story (or possibly had it stripped for getting involved with a bank robbery).  This will all have to be disregarded as topical due to the sliding timeline, but it's helpful to determine how long Unus held the title for.

The WWWF held their New York events at Madison Square Garden. Generally, they held one of these events a month. In 1964, the dates were as follows: January 20th; February 17th; March 16th; May 11th; June 6th; July 11th; August 1st; August 22nd; September 21st; October 19th; November 16th; and December 14th. This part of the story should take place on one of those dates.

Unus notes later that he's spent years in the ring. This is all we get on his background, but I guess at least one of those years was spent as the WWWF Champion.

Page 12, panel 3

This story is the first meeting between Unus and the original X-Men. I should also note that he meets with Mastermind, but not the rest of the Brotherhood or Magneto.

Note in the background that Jean is back to her original cowl after a period of experimentation. She'll stick with this design for a while.

Page 20, panels 3 to 8

Unus is blackmailed here into leaving the super-villain life behind, under the threat that Beast will use his ray-gun to make Unus' powers go haywire.  A little bit before X-Men (1963) #20, Unus is made immune to that ray by Lucifer, but he shouldn't be making any prominent appearances as a criminal between this story and #20.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This is a tricky one, because I have to wedge a weeks-long wrestling career in here for the Beast. Here goes...

• Day 1: Page 1 to 7.3. The X-Men train, Cyclops gives them a day off, Beast and Iceman are chased by a mob, Beast quits the team.
• One week later, Beast begins his wrestling career.
• One day, weeks later: Page 7.4 to 20. Beast wrestles Unus, Unus tries to defeat the X-Men, Beast zaps him with his ray-gun, Unus decides to go back to wrestling. This story should happen on the same date as a WWWF show at Madison Square Garden. X-Men (1963) #7 happened around graduation time (late May, early June), so June 6th or July 11th seem like good options.

Journey Into Mystery (1952) #109 (1st story)

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: October 1964
On-Sale Date: August 1964

Synopsis: Magneto gets his arse kicked by Thor.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 2, panel 5

The Brotherhood have gone from conquering a South American nation and living in an asteroid base to being cooped up in a tiny submarine in New York's harbor. Mastermind complains that it's boring being in the submersible "day after day", so they've been there for a while.

Magneto also mentions that he's long suspected the X-Men were based somewhere in the New York area. It seems unlikely with all the retconned past between Magneto and Xavier that this will hold up to scrutiny, but we'll see.

Page 7, panel 4

This is the first ever meeting between Magneto and Thor.  Sadly, Thor doesn't meet any of the Brotherhood during this story, as they're off in Manhattan looking for the X-Men. His first meeting with future Avengers Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch will have to wait.

Page 16, panel 6

Speaking of the X-Men, this and one of Cyclops' eyebeams are the extent of their appearances in this story.  They apparently scuffle with the Brotherhood in the city before tracking Magneto down to his sub, which means that I have a handily vague X-Men/Brotherhood fight to wedge flashbacks into.  I can also use this as the basis for the newspaper article that appeared in Fantastic Four (1961) #28.  That article featured the X-Men in a "big city chase", which fits this battle pretty well.  It does involve placing this story out of sequence; it originally came out between X-Men (1963) #7 and #8, but the new placement would put it between #5 and #6.

COUNTING THE DAYS

The entirety of this story takes place in a single day. Given that I'm using it to explain the newspaper article in Fantastic Four (1961) #28, it should happen the day before that story.