X-Men (1963) #43

Cover by John Buscema

Cover Date: April 1968

On-Sale Date: February 1968

FIRST STORY: "The Torch is Passed...!"

Synopsis: After Professor X's funeral, the X-Men attack Magneto's island and are defeated.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 2, panel 1

As this issue begins, the X-Men are attending Professor X's funeral.  That means it's been probably no more than a few days to a week since last issue.

Page 5, panel 1

Banshee couldn't attend the funeral because he was on a mission.  We'll learn later that Banshee was an Interpol agent, but at the moment all we know about him is that he's some Irish guy who got nabbed by Factor Three.  I don't think this mission is ever revealed, but I'll keep it in mind when I'm placing events in Banshee's backstory.

Page 6

Xavier says that he has known he was dying of an incurable illness for the past few weeks.  During that time he's been working with Marvel Girl to add telepathy to her power set.  Jean's reaction can be read as simple grief, but it also works fairly well with the later revelation that it was the Changeling who died. (Presumably, she was expecting the professor to tell everyone the truth during the video, hence her disbelief when its finished.  As for her tears, she's either a great actor or she's mourning the Changeling.)

The timing of this video is very specific.  It was made right before the "Professor" (actually the Changeling) went to meet his fate at the hands of Grotesk.  The professor has also sensed Magneto's return to Earth, which means that X-Men (1963) #41-42 are intertwined with Avengers (1963) #47-49.  Presumably he recorded this message before Magneto's very public appearance at the UN.

Page 11

A few days pass between the funeral and the attempted attack on Magneto's island by the X-Men.  During this time, Cyclops hatches a plan to stow away on board a ship scheduled to pass by Magneto's island.  The ship is carrying computer equipment, and several other ships bearing similar equipment have been taken by Magneto in recent days.  Angel used his monthly allowance to buy passage for the X-Men on the ship.

Page 15, panels 4 to 6

This issue ends on a cliffhanger, with the X-Men having been captured by Magneto.  It technically continues directly into next issue, but that story will be much more heavily focused on Angel faffing about with the Red Raven.  Look, sometimes Roy Thomas just has to revive a Golden Age character.  He can't help himself.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story takes place over several days, beginning a few days after the end of last issue.

• Day 1:
• Page 1 to 6: The X-Men attend Xavier's funeral, which is crashed by Quicksilver, and watch his farewell video message.
• Several days later:
• Page 7 to 15: The X-Men attack Magneto's island and are captured.

SECOND STORY: "Call Him... Cyclops"

Synopsis: Cyclops demonstrates his powers to the reader.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

This isn't so much a story as a series of vignettes designed to highlights aspects of Cyclops' powers.  Although it's not chronologically relevant, this is where we learn that his optic blasts are solar powered.

Page 5, panel 2

The other revelation we get is how Cyclops is able to activate his eyebeams without touching his visor.  The buttons in his gloves were supposedly designed by Professor X shortly before his "death".  This doesn't make a great deal of sense, because Cyclops has been seen eye-blasting without touching his visor much earlier than that, but I'll roll with it.

X-Men (1963) #42

Cover by John Buscema

Cover Date: March 1968

On-Sale Date: January 1968

FIRST STORY: "If I Should Die,,,!"

Synopsis: Professor X really for real definitely dies while stopping Gro-Tesk from destroying the world.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 12, panel 1

If you're looking for evidence that writer Roy Thomas didn't have the Changeling retcon in mind when he wrote this, and genuinely intended this to be Professor X, this panel is probably the best you'll find.  The narration mentions that he's using his mechanized legs to walk, which the Changeling definitely wouldn't need to do.  The retcon fits fairly well with the rest of the story, but this is a glaring discrepancy.  I'll just have to assume that the Changeling was wearing them because he's really committed to maintaining his disguise.

Page 14, panels 2 and 3

Xavier mentions here that Gro-Tesk's race was killed by radiation from underground atomic tests.  I'm not sure if this was revealed last issue, but it's consistent with Gro-Tesk's origin flashback.

While I'm on the subject of Gro-Tesk, he appears to die here, but he'll return in Ms. Marvel (1977) #6, written by Chris Claremont of all people (who should know better).  He makes scattered appearances over the decades, until he gets another apparent death in X-Men: Manifest Destiny - Nightcrawler (2009) #1.

Of more importance is Xavier's revelation of why he's been pushing the X-Men so hard for "these past days": he's dying of an unspecified but incurable illness.  Of course this will eventually be revealed to be the Changeling, who is dying of cancer.  It's admirable how he kept up his ruse, even in his thought balloons, until the very end.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

This story takes place over a single day, the same day as last issue.

SECOND STORY: "The End... or the Beginning?"

Synopsis: The Living Diamond shatters when he absorbs too much power. Professor X recruits Scott Summers into the X-Men, giving him the codename Cyclops.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 2, panel 5

Professor X says that he has been a recluse for years, seeing virtually no one.  I get the feeling that the word "virtually" is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting when I get to later origin flashbacks for Xavier.

Page 4, panels 1 to 4

The Living Diamond explodes here, and aside from a brief resurrection as a zombie in Sensational She-Hulk he's never returned.  I guess he could show up on Krakoa in the present-day books, it seems as though every mutant is fair game for that era.

Page 5, panel 3

The narrations says that this costume was previously designed, and has been modified for Cyclops.  I believe this is the first indication we get in this story that Xavier already had the X-Men in mind before reading about Scott in the newspaper.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

This story mostly takes place over one day, the same day as last issue.  There's an unspecified time lapse on page 5, during which Xavier modifies a costume for Scott.

• Day 1:
• Page 1 to 5.2: The Living Diamond is defeated, and Xavier takes Scott back to live in his mansion.
• Day 2 (an unspecified amount of time later):
• Page 5.3 to 5.7: Scott tries on his new costume and visor, and is given the codename Cyclops.

X-Men (1963) #41

Cover by Don Heck

Cover Date: February 1968

On-Sale Date: December 1967

FIRST STORY: "Now Strikes... the Sub-Human!"

Synopsis: A subterranean prince known as Gro-Tesk, the last survivor of his race, seeks revenge on the surface world. The X-Men fight him.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1

This story begins explicitly at midnight.

Page 5, panel 2

Vera says that Hank hasn't called her for weeks.  It's possible that writer Roy Thomas intended this to be because he was busy searching for Professor X during the whole Factor Three saga, but the timeline shows that there's a months-long gap after that story where the X-Men aren't up to much.  The one thing that has been going on recently is the whole Xavier/Changeling deal, so I could just chalk Hank's absence up to Xavier working the X-Men extra-hard.

Page 6

Page 7

The flashbacks above detail the origin of Gro-Tesk/Prince Gor-Tok.  His underground race has existed since "time out of mind", warring with other underground kingdoms.  The bit about his people creating volcanoes is something I'll chalk up to poetic license, but the same panel shows humans dressed like stereotypical "cavemen".  That would place the existence of Gor-Tok's people way back in the Paleolithic Era.  It's currently believed that humans settled in America around 30,000 BC, so this flashback should happen somewhere between 30,000 BC and 10,000 BC.

The later flashback shows the destruction of Gor-Tok's people by an underground nuclear explosion.  The first underground nuclear weapons test in America was in 1951.  In 1974, treaties were signed which banned underground testing of bombs with yields greater than 150 kilotons.  The first all-underground series of bomb tests happened in 1961-1962, so I've decided to put this flashback starting in 1962.  If I put it in the Sliding Timeline that would put it in XY -4, but it's probably better suited to take place in non-Sliding time.  Gor-Tok's not really tied to anything crucial, and we have no idea how long his people can live for.  Besides, putting it in 1962 rather than XY -4 makes things a little less cluttered.

Page 10, panels 1 and 2

Jean and Xavier discuss the secret they are keeping from the other X-Men, and the experiments that they are working on together.  At this point, I'm pretty sure that Roy Thomas intended the secret to be that Xavier is dying of an illness, but that ends up being retconned into him being replaced by the Changeling.  As for the experiments they're doing, I assume that this is related to awakening Jean's telepathy.

Page 15, panel 4

This story ends on a cliffhanger, which leads directly into next issue.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

This story takes place in a single day, starting at midnight.

SECOND STORY: "The Living Diamond!"

Synopsis: Jack O'Diamonds, with the unwilling help of Scott Summers, uses machinery to increase his power, becoming the Living Diamond.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1, panel 1

Page 5, panel 6

There's nothing in this story that's of particular chronological note, so I've posted the beginning and the end.  It leads directly into next issue.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

This story takes place over one day, the same day as last issue.

Avengers (1963) #49

Cover by John Buscema

Cover Date: February 1968

On-Sale Date: December 1967

Synopsis: Magneto appears in front of the UN to demand that mutants are given their own nation.  The Avengers attack, and in the ensuing battle the Scarlet Witch is injured by humans.  Magneto escapes, and Quicksilver joins him willingly.  (Also Hercules does some stuff in Olympus that's not important.)

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 6

Magneto talks about having raised this island from the ocean depths in the days before he attacked the X-Men.  I assume this means that he did it before X-Men (1963) #1, although he didn't so much attack the X-Men in that issue as defend himself from their attack.  He also confirms that he gathered his Brotherhood after his first battle with the X-Men (so between #1 and #4).

The Marvel Database seems to think that this is the same island that Magneto used as a base in X-Men (1963) #6, and will use again in #147-150.  I'm not sure that either is true.  The dialogue here implies that Magneto is showing Wanda and Pietro this island for the first time, which would not be true if it was the island from #6.  As for the island from #147-150, that one was covered in weird, Lovecraftian architecture, and there's no sign of that here.  I guess Magneto just really likes raising islands from the bottom of the ocean.

Page 7

Magneto has a perpetual motion machine under his island, that he says he set in motion over two years ago.  I estimate that this story takes place around September of XY 2, nearly three years after Magneto's first appearance in X-Men (1963) #1.  If he set it in motion just before that story, that's between 2 and 3 years ago, and fits it happening "over two years ago" perfectly.

Page 9, panel 2

Magneto's appearance in front of the UN is probably his third major act on the world stage.  Those acts would be his takeover of Cape Citadel missile base (X-Men (1963) #1), his takeover and weeks-long rule over Santo Marco (X-Men (1963) #4), and this.  His other appearances have been on a much smaller scale, mostly personal scuffles outside of the public eye with the X-Men (and once with Thor).

This story will pick up again in X-Men (1963) #43, and culminate in the first true X-Men/Avengers crossover in Avengers (1963) #53 and X-Men (1963) #45.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story takes place over one day, the day after last issue.  (There's no specific mention of a day passing, but Avengers (1963) #48 was set in the evening, and this issue has a UN Assembly happening during the day.)

Avengers (1963) #48

Cover by George Tuska

Cover Date: January 1968

On-Sale Date: November 1967

Synopsis: The Black Knight escapes from Magneto and goes to the Avengers for help, but by the time they return Magneto has already escaped with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 11

This flashback, depicting the death of the villainous Black Knight, follows directly on from his battle with Iron Man in Tales of Suspense (1959) #73.  Dane hadn't heard from his uncle for years before being summoned to his deathbed.  None of this is particularly relevant to X-Men history, but you never know when it might come up; just now I remembered that Dane Whitman does have a connection to the origin of Exodus, so I guess his backstory should go in the timeline.

Page 12

A few days after his uncle's death, Dane vowed to use his inventions to do good.  He then spent months creating his own winged stallion, and designing an improved suit of armour.

Page 13, panel 2

Dane makes mention here of the original Black Knight, whose adventures were originally published in Black Knight (1955) #1-5.  Legends state that he stood between King Arthur and his evil nephew Modred.  Presumably this all happened in the 6th century AD, alongside the surprisingly large amount of other Arthurian stuff I have in the timeline.

Page 1

In storyline developments more important to the X-Men, Magneto spends most of the issue beating on Quicksilver and trying to convince the twins to rejoin his cause.  When Quicksilver contacts the Avengers, Magneto decides to split, taking his captives with him.

Page 14, panel 3

Magneto's only been back on Earth for a few hours, which encompasses the entirety of the last two issues.  While not beating on Quicksilver or berating the Toad, he's spent that time constructing a supersonic cruiser with his magnetic powers.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This issue takes place over a single day, the same day as last issue.

Avengers (1963) #47

Cover by Don Heck

Cover Date: December 1967

On-Sale Date: October 1967

Synopsis: Magneto is summoned back to Earth via magnetic rays, and captures Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES    

I should have covered this with the comics from 1967, but I forgot about it.  This run of Avengers is pretty vital set-up for the upcoming X-Men/Avengers crossover, so I should definitely include it.

Page 2

Magneto and the Toad are still imprisoned on the Stranger's world.  Magneto mentions that this has happened twice previously, in X-Men (1963) #11 and #18.  For days he's been sensing ever-stronger magnetic rays being beamed into space from Earth; these rays are the result of experiments being conducted by Dane Whitman, soon to be the new Black Knight.  On page 4, panel 4, Whitman's assistant Norris complains that they've been copped up in his castle doing experiments for "weeks on end".

Page 3, panel 1

The Stranger has apparently lost interest in Magneto since he acquired the Abomination.  This happened in Tales to Astonish (1959) #91, which was released concurrently with X-Men (1963) #32.  There's a short gap between #31 and #32 that it can slot into.

Page 4

This flashback to the death of the villainous Black Knight isn't terribly relevant to the X-Men, but I'll cover it here anyway.  His final battle with Iron Man happened "months ago" in Tales of Suspense (1959) #73, released around the same time as X-Men (1963) #16.  The Black Knight's death wasn't shown at the time, so this is the first time it's depicted.  Nathan Garrett's death was reported at the time, but not the fact that he was the Black Knight. Afterwards, his nephew Dane Whitman swore to make up for his uncle's criminal misdeeds by using his scientific discoveries for good.

Page 12, panel 1

Magneto says that he was held captive by the Stranger for "all those months".  By my timeline, he's been a prisoner of the Stranger for almost two years (from November of XY0 to September of XY2).  It's no wonder he's had enough of the Toad, really.

Page 12, panels 2 and 3

Page 13

Page 14, panel 1

This isn't the first flashback we've had to Magneto saving the Scarlet Witch, but it is by far the most detailed.  It adds in the detail that Magneto was specifically searching for other mutants, and that Wanda and Pietro had only come to the village the day before.  It also shows what had happened to Quicksilver, who was notably absent from the previous flashbacks.

Page 20

The issue ends on a cliffhanger, with Magneto having captured Wanda and Pietro, and imprisoned the new Black Knight.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

This story takes place in a single day, probably at some point after X-Men (1963) #40.

X-Men (1963) #40

Cover by George Tuska

Cover Date: January 1968

On-Sale Date: November 1967

FIRST STORY: "The Mark of the Monster!"

Synopsis: The X-Men fight Frankenstein's Monsters, which is really an alien robot. Yep.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1

This story is explicitly set in Autumn, which means that a hell of a lot of time has passed since last issue.  X-Men (1963) #29 was the last issue to be set at a specific time (Winter).  Issues #32 to #39 all happen in fairly quick succession, as they involve the capture of Professor X, and one assumes that captivity didn't last for months on end.  I could open a gap somewhere between issue #31 and #32, but #32 has references to Juggernaut being brought to the mansion weeks ago, and that means issues #28-32 should be close together.  The only conclusion I can come to is that the team has a quiet six months or so, which makes sense given that they defeated pretty much their entire rogues gallery during the Factor Three saga.

Page 3, panel 1

Professor X and Marvel Girl have apparently been working on a "hush-hush project" lately.  This is the first inkling we get that Xavier is preparing for his own death (or to fake said death, depending on how far ahead writer Roy Thomas was planning things).  Her "yes and no" answer fits perfectly well with the idea that the Changeling is involved in all of this, masquerading as Xavier.

Page 3, panel 4

This flashback shows an expedition that was financed by the New York Museum finding Frankenstein's Monster frozen in a block of ice, somewhere in the Arctic Circle.

Page 4

Professor X assigned Frankenstein for his students to read last Spring (not long after he got back from his Factor Three captivity).  Iceman didn't read it, which sounds about right, but why it's taken Xavier this long to learn about that is anyone's guess.  Perhaps he's been distracted with faking his own death.

Professor X summarises the end of the book: Victor Frankenstein pursued his creation into Arctic regions, where he died. The monster boarded the ship to see Victor's corpse, then leapt overboard and was last seen being borne away by the sea.  (The scene of the monster jumping overboard is depicted in the third panel.)  According to Angel, this happened more than a century ago; the novel was published in 1818, so it's more like 150 years.

Xavier's assertion that "he always suspected" the events of the book to be real is an odd one, and odder still is his claim that he believes the monster to be an android.  I guess his mental scan of the creature from earlier could have informed him of the latter.  As for the former, I'm tempted to say that this is actually the Changeling doing a bad Xavier impression.  "Just pretend as though you already know everything," is something the real Xavier might have told him to help him with the ruse.  You don't fool me, Changeling!

Page 15

Supposedly, the Frankenstein robot was created by aliens from a tropical planet, who were passing by Earth 150 years ago.  This would put the events in 1817 or 1818 (depending on whether we go by cover date or publication date).  The robot was supposed to contact the people of Earth as a test, to see if humanity would react with hostility, but instead the robot malfunctioned and went berserk. The aliens chased it to the arctic, where it was rendered helpless by the cold.

Mary Shelley somehow learned about all of this, and it inspired her to write the novel.  She wrote it in 1816, which screws up the timeline above; I'll have to move those events back a few years.  Of course, all of this ignores the later revelation that, in the Marvel Universe, the events of Frankenstein happened as they did in the novel, and that presumably Mary Shelley based her book on a true story.  So we have two conflicting origins for Frankenstein's Monster, which does make things a bit awkward.  Luckily for me, this won't really become relevant for an X-Men timeline, so I can just forget about the conflict and go with the robot.  (Actually, I just remembered that there's an X-Men villain who is a descendent of Victor Frankenstein, so I will have to deal with this eventually.  Stupid Marvel Universe and its stupid interconnected stories.)

COUNTING THE DAYS:

This story takes place over two days during Autumn.

• Day 1:
• Page 1 to 15.6: The X-Men defeat a robot of Frankenstein's Monster.
• Day 2:
• Page 15.7: The X-Men read about the adventure in the newspaper.

SECOND STORY: "The First Evil Mutant!"

Synopsis: Scott Summers is forced into working for mutant criminal Jack Winters (aka Jack O'Diamonds). Professor X comes to his aid.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1

Jack Winters mentions that Scott caused a stir in the capital "earlier today".  Again, Roy Thomas has his timeline messed up: earlier issues show that Scott revealed his powers, this was monitored by the FBI and reported by the media, and then the next day Xavier read about it in the paper and went to Washington.  This is the timeline I'm going with.

This does clear up another discrepancy, however: the "capital" that Winters is referencing is almost certainly meant to be Washington, so Scott's incident happened there and not in New York.

Page 2, panel 5

Professor X is shown here using Cyberno, the precursor to his mutant-detecting machine Cerebro.  This presumably means that Xavier already had the device built before this story, but the use of the word "makeshift" throws that into a doubt.  Could he have thrown it together between issues, in a matter of hours?  It seems unlikely, but it is the sort of thing that scientific types are capable of in Silver Age comics.

Page 3, panel 7

Page 4, panels 1 to 4

Winters lays out his origin story here.  He was a worker at a nuclear power plant, until a few months ago when he tried to steal some radioactive materials in order to pay off his gambling debts.  The materials exploded, and he spent months in hospital with radiation burns.  When he got out, he realised he had mental powers, and his hands were gradually transformed into pure diamond.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

This story takes place over a single day, following directly from last issue.