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.