The X-Men (1963) #7

Cover by Jack Kirby

Cover Date: September 1964

On-Sale Date: July 1964

Synopsis: Professor X takes off on a secret mission, leaving Cyclops in charge. The Brotherhood recruits the Blob, but after they fight the X-Men for a bit he decides he doesn't want to be involved anymore.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 1

Once again the X-Men are described as "the most unusual teen-agers of all time". At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if we assume that this issue is still in XY 0 that means they were all born between XY -16 and XY -20. We'll assume that tag-line doesn't apply to Professor X.

The X-Men are posing for their graduation photo, and Professor X later says that he has diplomas stating that they've completed their normal prep school curriculum.  Graduation time in the US generally happens around May or June, which would be a good time to place this story.

Marvel Girl's trying yet another new cowl design. I believe this one only lasts for this story, and then she's back to the original.

Page 3, panels 1 to 3

Professor X reveals here that he is leaving the team for a while to take care of some personal business.  He doesn't tell the X-Men, but he's actually heading off to Europe to look for Lucifer, the alien responsible for crushing his legs years ago. This will culminate in X-Men (1963) #9, in which Xavier returns to the team. Needless to say, he shouldn't be appearing with them between issues #7 and #9.

Page 3, panel 4

Magneto has summoned the Brotherhood to a meeting at this "ramshackle mansion at the edge of town".  I've always assumed that this mansion belongs to Mastermind; he does act like he owns the place, especially before Magneto arrives. I suppose his later affiliation with the Hellfire Club made me think he must be at least a little wealthy.  There's no other evidence for this in the story, though.

The implication here is that the Brotherhood must have split up for a time after their last defeat. That was in X-Men (1963) #6, where Magneto's island base was wrecked. Having lost this base as well as Asteroid M, it's possible that Magneto has run out of places to use as a secret headquarters at this point.

Page 5, panel 6

This is the first appearance of Cerebro, Professor X's mutant detecting machine, which he has been working on for "a long, long time". Cyclops is learning about it here for the first time; the other X-Men won't find out about it for a few more issues. Indeed, the entire west wing of the mansion, where Cerebro is located, has been off-limits to them for months, presumably since they moved in.  No doubt that's where Xavier gets up to his shadiest business. Hey, maybe Sage lives there!

Page 6, panels 1 to 3

This is pretty significant: Professor X officially names Cyclops as the leader of the X-Men in his absence.  It seems here like the appointment could be temporary, but it pretty much sticks from this point forward. Later on Cyclops claims that he was planning to leave the team to seek out a cure for his deadly eyes, but remained out of a sense of duty.  One wonders how much of the professor's decision here was made in order to keep Scott from leaving.

Page 11, panel 4

Magneto helps the Blob to regain his memory, and recruits him into the Brotherhood. Professor X wiped the Blob's mind back in X-Men (1963) #3, so Blob shouldn't be making appearances with his complete faculties between #3 and #7.

I do have to ask, though, how did Magneto find the Blob?  He doesn't have his own version of Cerebro, as far as I can tell, and Blob's attack on the mansion was a fairly private affair.  The Fantastic Four were aware of it, but we've established that they share a secret wavelength with the X-Men and the Avengers; there could be some other kind of information-sharing going on between them as well. Regardless, Magneto found out about him somehow.

Page 12, panel 1

In somewhat less momentous news, this is the first time we see Iceman and Beast hanging out at the Coffee-a-Go-Go, and the first appearance of Bernard the Poet.  This isn't necessarily the first time that the two have gone there; Bobby is already familiar with the waitress Zelda, also making her first appearance. We'll see plenty more of this place throughout the 1960s.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story is happening an unspecified amount of time after issue #6. It's graduation time, so it's probably somewhere in May or June.

• Day 1: Page 1 to 6.3. The X-Men graduate, Professor X tells them he's leaving, the Brotherhood meet in an old mansion, and Professor X appoints Cyclops as team leader.
• Day 2: Page 6.4 to 22. Magneto recruits the Blob and lures the X-Men into a trap. After Magneto tries to kill him along with the X-Men, Blob decides he's had enough and goes back to the carnival.