X-Men (1963) #50

Cover by Jim Steranko

Cover Date: November 1968

On-Sale Date: September 1968

FIRST STORY: "City of Mutants"

Synopsis: Lorna is taken by Mesmero to his mutant city, where her magnetic powers are awakened.  Magneto shows up to declare that he is Lorna's father.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 3

Last issue, I discussed the narrow window of time available for Magneto to have recruited Mesmero and built the psyche-generator.  Now we learn that Mesmero's running an entire city of mutants, something Magneto definitely couldn't have set up in a matter of days.  I guess it's possible that Mesmero did all this on his own after being left to his own devices, but come on, it's Mesmero.  It's amazing just how much better this story fits after its version of Magneto is retconned into being a robot impostor.

Page 8

Oh look, Magneto invented some special knock-out gas as well!  Boy, what a busy week he had after returning to Earth.

Page 12, panel 5

Mesmero's claim here that the X-Men killed Magneto is the main reason I don't just have Magneto setting all of this up after his last appearance in Avengers (1963) #53.  It all has to happen before that, unless Mesmero is lying here for some reason.  He doesn't have any reaction at all to Magneto's appearance later in the story, so it's difficult to say either way.

COUNTING THE DAYS

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

SECOND STORY: "This Boy -- This Bombshell!"

Synopsis: Hank McCoy becomes a star footballer in college, and during a game he stops some thieves and becomes a hero.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 1

Hank is shown here as a preternaturally strong and agile toddler.  Assuming that he's around 3 years old here, I've placed this in XY -15.

Page 2, panels 1 and 2

Hank looks to be around 8 years old here, which places this scene in XY -10.

Page 2, panels 3 to 5

Hank is a freshman here, so he's in his first year at university.  This would suggest that he's around 18 here, but I currently have him turning 18 in XY 0 (around the same time as his illustrious pro wrestling career in X-Men (1963) #8).  So it looks like Hank went to university at a younger age than most, probably 16 (which would place this scene in XY -2).  That works for Hank: not only is he smart enough, he's also strong and agile enough that it's plausible for him to become a star sportsman despite his relative youth.

The football team has lost the last five games straight.  We know from the Iceman back-up in X-Men (1963) #44 that these stories are supposedly taking place in 1963.  That's a topical reference that will be made irrelevant by the sliding timeline, but it does at least let us know when writer Arnold Drake intended these back-ups to happen.  As such, I can date this story using a calendar of the 1963 University Football Season.  No doubt I'm about to display my complete ignorance of American football, but here goes.

Hank apparently attended Bard College (don't ask me when that was revealed; it's in his entry at the Marvel Database).  This fits with him living in New York (Bard College is real; Chris Claremont went there!).  Bard College isn't listed on the NCAA page I linked to above, so I guess their football team played in a different division, but whatever.  That's the only football calendar I could find going back that far.  According to that page, the season kicked off on September 20th.  Assuming that Bard's games were all played on Saturday, that means the team's five losing games happened on September 21st, September 28th, October 5th, October 12th, and October 19th.  The scene above, where Hank joins the team, happens somewhere between the 19th and the 26th of October.

Page 3, panel 3

Since Hank joined the team, they've won six games straight.  These games happened on October 26th, November 2nd, November 9th, November 16th, November 24th, and November 30th.  The game above is happening on December 7th.  Coincidentally enough, that's the last date listed for the 1963 season on Wikipedia.

If we cast our minds back to the Beast origin flashbacks from X-Men (1963) #15, they show Hank celebrating that his team has won the conference championship.  That would be the same game depicted above. I think that makes sense with this being the final game of the season, assuming they ended up with more wins than the other teams in the conference. I could be wrong; I'm Australian, so I don't know how inferior versions of football work.  I guess they go and play in a Bowl of some sort after this?  (Not that it matters, Hank won't be there. I assume they go right back to losing after he leaves.)

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story spans well over a decade, as follows:

• Page 1.1: Flashback to Hank's dad saving the power plant, probably happens in XY -19.
• Page 1.2 to 1.3: Hank as a strong and agile toddler. Probably in XY -15.
• Page 2.1 to 2.2: Hank crushes his uncle's hand. Probably in XY -10.
• Page 2.3 to 3.2: Hank joins the college football team. Probably in XY -2, between September 19 and 26.
• Page 3.3 to 5.5: Hank stops some thieves while playing football. Happens on December 7th, probably in XY -2.