X-Men (1963) #19

 

Cover by Werner Roth

Cover Date: April 1966

On-Sale Date: February 1966

Synopsis: The Mimic uses his mimicking ability to gain all the powers of the X-Men, but he is tricked into losing his powers permanently.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 4, panel 1

Professor X refers to the team's battles with the Sentinels and Magneto as happening in "the past few months", which is odd phrasing for a series of adventures that took place over no more than a few days.  Possibly he means that those adventures happened a few months ago?

Page 5, panels 1 to 3

Vera helped Cal Rankin find some books on mine engineering, and he's been pestering her for a date ever since. Vera doesn't seem at all interested.

Page 10, panel 3

The Mimic somehow has special glasses that hold back his optic beams, just like Cyclops. My explanation for this is that when he scouted the mansion the night before, he mimicked Xavier's telepathy and learned about the glasses.  That, or he just doesn't have the brain damage that causes Cyke's power to be uncontrollable.

Page 15

Page 16

This two-page flashback is a pretty comprehensive look at the Mimic's life up to this point. It's not clear how old the Mimic is supposed to be, so I've made the assumption that he's 18 in this issue. My placement of the various flashbacks, as shown below, is based on this assumption.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story takes place over two days

• Day 1:
• Page 1 to 9.3: Calvin Rankin bumps into Hank, Bobby and Jean, and after mimicking their powers realises that they are the X-Men. He follows Jean back to the mansion.
• Day 2:
• Page 9.4 to 20: Rankin challenges the X-Men, mimicking all of their powers. He tries to make them permanent with a machine built by his father, but the machine erases his powers instead.

There's also a long flashback detailing the Mimic's life. I've broken it up as follows:

• XY -18 or -17
• Conjecture: If Calvin Rankin is 18 in this issue (in XY 1) then he is born in either XY -18 or -17.
• XY -6 or -5
• Page 15.2 to 15.3: Calvin knocks over a beaker in his father's lab and breathes in some gas. Assumes he is 12.
• XY -5 or -4
• Page 15.4: Calvin knocks out the school boxing champ, and realises he can mimic others' abilities. Assumes he is 13.  (I like him to be a teenager here, as a parallel to mutant power manifestation.)
• XY -3 or -2
• Page 15.5 to 15.6: Calvin's great at everything, he becomes arrogant, and everyone hates him. Assumes he is 15.
• XY -2 or XY -1
• Page 16: Calvin's dad builds a machine in a cave, and tells Calvin it will make his abilities permanent. An angry mob kills Calvin's dad, and Calvin vows to complete the machine. Assumes Calvin is 16.  (I like the idea of placing this flashback around the same time that the X-Men are gaining their powers. This means that it takes Calvin several years to dig up and fix his father's machine, but that's fine. He doesn't come across as being all that  intelligent, motivated or competent.)