The X-Men (1963) #4

 

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: March 1964

On-Sale Date: January 1964

Synopsis: Magneto and his Brotherhood take over the small country of Santo Marco, and the X-Men go down there to kick them out. Professor X is injured in the battle, and loses his powers.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

The most obvious conclusion to jump to from the above panel is that it's been a year since Marvel Girl joined the team in X-Men (1963) #1. It's only been about half that time in publication terms, though, and in general it's going to work better for the in-story time to run slower than it does in the real world.  This could be the anniversary of the first member of the X-Men joining, or the last member before Jean, or the first time they started training in the Danger Room, or any number of things.  I'd like to avoid it being the anniversary of the first issue, though, if possible.

This is our first look at the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.  Whether Magneto recruited them before or after his takeover of Cape Citadel in X-Men (1963) #1 is unclear, but in the context of these early stories I'd say that he went out and found them after getting his butt kicked by the X-Men.  I'm not sure we ever get to see how Magneto recruited the Toad and Mastermind, but Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are a different story.

The backstories of Quicksilver and (especially) the Scarlet Witch will become frightfully complicated, but here it's pretty simple: some villagers tried to kill Wanda because of her powers, Magneto showed up to save her, and she agreed to join his cause to repay her debt to him. Eventually I'll have to tackle the whole tangled parentage of the Maximoff twins, but for now it's not really relevant.

This is the first published confrontation between Professor X and Magneto. It's written ambiguously enough that this could be interpreted as their first meeting ever, or just the latest in a long history (as will eventually be the case).

Magneto is in charge of Santo Marco long enough to establish his own military force, as well as enforcing curfews and border security.  His conquest of a nation, even a tiny one like Santo Marco, should probably be a much bigger deal in X-Men continuity than it has been. It pretty much never comes up again after this issue.

This is our cliffhanger leading into next issue, as Xavier claims to have lost his powers. There shouldn't be any other stories placed between this issue and the next.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This issue takes place an unspecified amount of time after X-Men (1963) #3, on the one-year anniversary of something-or-other.

• Day 1: Page 1 to 8 and the first three panels of page 9 take place on the same day. The X-Men train and celebrate an anniversary, Magneto's Brotherhood bickers, and Magneto steals a freighter.
• Day 2: Magneto and the Brotherhood use the stolen freighter to begin shelling Santo Marco. This isn't shown, but mentioned in a newspaper on page 9.
• Day 3: The last five panels of page 9 and pages 10 and 11 take place in a single day (days later than Magneto's theft of the freighter, according to a narrative caption). Xavier reads about the attack and confronts Magneto on the astral plane, and Magneto conquers Santo Marco with an illusory army created by Mastermind.
• During the weeks that follow, Magneto recruits a real army to replace the illusory one, establishes a curfew, converts the presidential building into his palace, and closes the borders to everyone except travelling students (presumably because he wants to let the X-Men walk into a trap). There's at least one rebellion during this time, and the rebel leader is captured just before the next scene.
• Weeks Later: Page 12 to 23 all take place on the same day (although there's scope to split it over two). The X-Men enter Santo Marco and kick Magneto out. A bomb he leaves behind injures Professor X, seemingly robbing him of his powers.  There's no specific timeframe given for this story, but I need to give enough time for Magneto to enact his policies in Santo Marco, and for the X-Men to travel to South America.  You'd think this would be an urgent mission, but it looks to me like the X-Men drive all the way from Westchester to South America (unless they flew most of the way and drove the last stretch).  It's odd that they don't take one of their planes, or that Agent Duncan and the FBI aren't more involved given the stakes. Perhaps Xavier was told not to intervene by Duncan for political reasons? Could this be the reason Xavier seemingly cut ties with his government contacts? After all, they're not seen in the main series until after his fake death.  I won't be including this kind of conjecture in the main timeline, but I do like to speculate now and then.