X-Men (1963) #38

Cover by Dan Adkins

Cover Date: November 1967

On-Sale Date: September 1967

FIRST STORY: "The Sinister Shadow of... Doomsday!"

Synopsis: The X-Men try to stop Factor Three's plan to start World War 3.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1

Beast thinks about the "long, desperate weeks" in which the X-Men have been searching for Factor Three.  It seems to me that they've spent more time faffing about with the likes of Mole Man, Tyrannus and Mekano, but we'll have to take Beast's word for it that they've actually been looking.  A few weeks between X-Men (1963) #33 and #38 seems doable.

Page 3, panels 4 to 6

Changeling mentions that he was the one who gathered the enemies of the X-Men to work for Factor Three.  The Mutant-Master wasn't able to do it himself because he's immobile, which raises the question of how he met and recruited the Changeling.

Page 15

The story ends on a cliffhanger, as the Mutant Master's plan to ignite a war between the USSR and the USA looks poised to succeed.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story takes place over two days, starting on the same day as last issue.  It's not outright stated that this story goes over two days, but I figure that the plane ride and the trial last issue would have eaten up most of a day, so I had this issue span over two.  As usual, I'm not bothering to factor in timezones here.

• Day 1:
• Page 1 to 6.3: The X-Men escape from Factor Three's base, and learn about their plan to start World War 3.
• Day 2:
• Page 6.4 to 15: The X-Men split up to try and stop Factor Three in the USA and the USSR.

SECOND STORY: "Origins of the X-Men: A Man Called... X"

Synopsis: This story takes place before the formation of the X-Men. After Scott Summers starts a riot, Professor X contacts FBI Agent Fred Duncan and his partner and offers to help them in their dealings with mutants.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 1, panel 4

The narration places this story in the "middle 1960s".  I have the current day stories happening early in XY 2, so if this story happens before X-Men (1963) #1 in XY -1 that would place it three years ago in the equivalent of 1964.  That's "middle 1960s" enough for me.

Page 2

The paperboy has been delivering to Xavier's mansion for months, without ever seeing anyone who lives there.  Xavier has obviously been living as a recluse for a while.  (Later stories will have Amelia Voght living with him at this time, but I don't have to deal with that yet.)

Xavier's reaction to the newspaper suggests that this is the first time the existence of mutants is made public knowledge.  I'm not sure if this fits later continuity; I've definitely never seen anyone make use of Cyclops' status as the flashpoint that kicked it all off.  His deadly eyes are to blame for everything!

Xavier claims to have lived as a recluse since witnessing his step-brother become the Juggernaut, but we already know this isn't true: at the very least he took a trip to Tibet to investigate the presence of Lucifer.  Maybe we could say that was a one-off, but later stories will show Xavier up to all sorts of nonsense between his military service and his withdrawal from society.

Page 3, panel 1

Xavier thinks to himself that he vowed months ago to keep out of human affairs.  His shattered legs would be a pretty good motivation for this withdrawal, but that happened around a decade before this.  "Months" is probably a vague enough timeframe for that to work, but it's not ideal.

Page 4

This film reel shows events from earlier that day, in which Scott Summers inadvertently caused an accident with his deadly eyes, saved everyone, and got chased by anti-mutant bigots.  The flashback begins on page 3 (not shown here), and panel 1.4 (shown above) is also a part of it.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story takes place over two days, as follows.

• Day 1:
• Page 3.6 to 4.3 flashback: Scott Summers uses his eyebeams and starts a riot.
• Page 1.4 flashback: The crowd are still mad at Scott.
• Page 1.4: FBI agent Fred Duncan and his partner watch footage of Summers saving people with his eyebeams.
• Fred Duncan informs the newspapers about the "mutant menace".
• Day 2:
• Page 2 to 5: Professor X goes to FBI HQ and convinces Duncan they should work together.