X-Men (1963) #33

Cover by Gil Kane

Cover Date: June 1967

On-Sale Date: April 1967

Synopsis: While the X-Men are dealing with the Juggernaut by banishing him into the dimension inside the Ruby of Cyttorak,  agents of Factor Three kidnap Professor X.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 3, panels 2 and 3

While the Juggernaut is on a rampage, Cyclops has been on the phone to the governor of New York and gotten him to call out the National Guard.  Despite the brief flare-up of anti-mutant sentiment around X-Men (1963) #14-16, the X-Men are still respected and trusted by the government, and the core theme of the book is yet to come to the fore.

The mento-wave amplifier makes a return from issue #20.  Jean notes that Professor X once showed her how to use it, which he sort of did on-panel during that issue.  Given that he was in a coma and barely functional at the time, it's likely that he gave her some more instructions once he was back to normal.

Page 4

This flashback set centuries ago shows the Ancient One venturing to the Temple of Cyttorak and banishing its guardian, the demon Xorak, into a dimension known as the Crimson Cosmos.  I guess he wouldn't have been known as the Ancient One back then, but what else am I gonna call the guy?

The Marvel Database places the Ancient One's birth in 1430 AD, so I figure this flashback takes place somewhere around 1450 AD.  When Cyttorak was banished from Earth, he left Xorak behind to guard his temple.  It's mentioned that Xorak has had "eons of easy victories" before facing the Ancient One, which is pretty vague.  Cyttorak's entry on the Marvel Database says that he placed the ruby in his temple about 1,000 years ago, which is good enough for me.

This flashback comes courtesy of Professor X's mind.  Cyclops believes that Xavier learned about it recently by probing the Juggernaut's mind, and there's nothing else in the story to contradict that.

Page 7, panel 1

The X-Men try to get help from Doctor Strange, who is currently dealing with much more important matters in Strange Tales (1951) #158, and has very little time for them.

Page 19, panel 3

Juggernaut says here that he first touched the Ruby of Cyttorak over a decade ago, which lines up well enough with my estimate of XY -14 to -12.  Shortly after this he gets sucked into the Crimson Cosmos, so he shouldn't be making any appearances between this story and X-Men (1963) #46 when he makes his return.

Page 20, panel 4

Professor X has been kidnapped by shadowy agents of Factor Three, and he won't be back until X-Men (1963) #39.  You'd expect the X-Men to get on this right away, but they get up to a whole bunch of bullshit between now and their rescue of the professor.  Get ready for one of the most ineptly told sagas in X-Men history.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story takes place over one day. It continues directly from last issue, but because last issue started in the evening I decided to have midnight tick over in between. It's neater that way.