X-Men (1963) #28

Cover by Werner Roth

Cover Date: January 1967

On-Sale Date: November 1966

Synopsis: The X-Men are attacked by the Ogre and the Banshee, agents of Factor Three. They are able to free the Banshee from Factor Three's influence, and they part as allies.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1

The narrations says that it's an Autumn morning.  The last run of stories happened in Summer, which means that Roy Thomas is making my job easier by paying attention to these kinds of things.

Page 3, panel 3

Professor X has apparently been using his psychic powers to boost the range of Mimic's abilities, which is yet another dubious application of his telepathy that we're seeing in these early issues.  Regardless of whether it's something he can do later, he claims to be doing it here.

Note that Angel still has his arm in a sling from being eye-blasted by Cyclops in X-Men (1963) #26.  It takes about 12 weeks for a break or fracture to heal, but mutants in general are supposed to heal more quickly than humans.  Then again, Angel has those hollow bones, which could complicate matters.  Last issue was in July, and this issue is in Autumn. That's a span of anywhere from 8 to 16 weeks, so I guess it's in the ballpark.

Page 4, panel 1

The Mimic is said to be a teenager here. I believe this is the first clue we get regarding his age.

Page 4, panel 6

There's nothing chronologically relevant here, but just check out that first bit of dialogue from the Mimic.  It never fails to crack me up.

Page 5, panel 1

Ogre and Banshee have been assigned to monitor the New York area so that they can discover the headquarters of the X-Men.  The Ogre talks about hours of watchful waiting, but that's vague enough to fit just about anything.

Page 7, panel 6

Xavier has spend recent weeks making calculations to predict the activity of Factor Three.  Again, it's vague, but it's at least something to go on.

Page 8, panel 1

It says here that Jean is enjoying an Indian Summer, which is apparently a period of unseasonably warm weather in late Autumn.  It's said to happen around October or November, which gives me some specifics to work with.

Page 10, panel 1

Professor X mentions that someone has tried to take over his mind twice since the defeat of the Puppet Master.  I don't know if this is ever confirmed, but it's probably the work of Factor Three.

Page 17, panel 5

This oaken door in the cellar has been locked ever since the X-Men returned from their last vacation.  Behind the door is the Juggernaut, but we won't find that out for a while.  That vacation probably happened between X-Men (1963) #27 and #28; it has to refer to an off-panel vacation, because they sure haven't had any successful on-panel ones.

Page 20, panel 4

At some point in the past, Factor Three captured Banshee and forced him to work for them by putting a bomb around his head.  No time-frame for this is given.  I'm also contemplating whether to add a note in my timeline about Banshee getting facial reconstructive surgery.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This issue takes place in a single day in October or November of XY 1 (meaning that there's a 3 or 4 month gap since last issue).