X-Men (1963) #54

Cover by Barry Windsor-Smith

Cover Date: March 1969

On-Sale Date: January 1969

FIRST STORY: "Wanted: Dead or Alive -- Cyclops!"

Synopsis: Cyclops' younger brother Alex is kidnapped by the Living Pharaoh, a crazy guy who is obsessed with - you guessed it - Egyptian pharaohs.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 2

So it turns out that Cyclops has a younger brother that he's never mentioned before.  What we have here is the first major retcon of the series (the first of many).  Cyke has already been in contact with Alex for a while, and never told the X-Men about him.  Presumably Xavier helped them reconnect after Scott came to the school.  Though come to think of it, there's no suggestion at this point that the two ever lost contact.  We know Scott's an orphan, but pretty much nothing else about his backstory.  How Alex got out of the orphanage while Scott remained is a long and convoluted tale that I'll have to deal with in time.

Alex is graduating from Landon College here, which might suggest that he's around 21.  I currently have Cyclops as 19 or 20, so that's not going to work.  Presumably he's graduating from high school.  There's a Landon School in the real world, situated in Maryland.  It's an all boys school covering grades 3-12, which fits perfectly, making Alex currently 18.

Also, it's spring.  Alex is graduating, so that would make it May.  That means there's a gap of roughly half a year between X-Men (1963) #52 and #54.  I have no idea what the X-Men are doing during this time (aside from their escapade with Blastaar in #53).  Maybe they spend some time dealing with Mesmero's army of latent mutants that vanished at the end of #52?  Maybe they stay mostly split up, as the FBI wanted them to?  Maybe the whole FBI edict goes away during this time?

Page 3, panel 1

Alex is apparently old enough to drink.  The legal drinking age in New York at the time was 18.  (It was 21 in Maryland, so I'm going to have to forget the whole Landon College thing.)

Page 4

The Living Pharaoh believes that all of Egypt's pharaohs were mutants, and that he and Alex are descended from their bloodline.  Neither of these is true (although the later introduction of Apocalypse will at least give the Pharaoh some basis for his beliefs).  The Pharaoh felt Alex's blood to call to him, whatever that means.  We'll soon learn that the two are linked, or at least that their powers are somehow connected.  The details are all a bit vague, to be honest.

Page 11

Cyclops reveals to his brother that he's a mutant for the first time.  The dude just loves keeping secrets.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story takes place over a single day.  It begins in the middle before going into a lengthy flashback.  In chronological order, it happens as follows:

• Page 2.4 to 12.3 flashback: The Pharaoh kidnaps Alex, and the X-Men come to his rescue. The Pharaoh returns and knocks Alex and Cyclops out.
• Page 1 and Page 13.1: Cyclops wakes up next to the Pharaoh's dead body, and is accused of murder by the police.
• Page 2.1 to 2.3: Cyclops flashes back to how he got into this situation.
• Page 13.2 to 15: Cyclops escapes into the tunnels below the Pharaoh's base.

I should probably cover the whole thing with the Pharaoh's dead body here.  When Cyclops wakes up, it's lying next to him.  He speculates that Alex killed the Pharaoh, then ran away.  Later, when Cyclops encounters the Pharaoh alive again, the Pharaoh dismisses it as a ruse.  None of it particularly makes sense, but the best I can do is this:

• Between Cyclops being knocked out and waking up, his brother does indeed knock out the Pharaoh and run into the tunnels.  As seen next issue, he's captured by the Pharaoh's goons.
• After Cyclops knocks out the policemen, the Pharaoh gets up and runs into the tunnels as well.  Why he appeared dead is anyone's guess, and why he wanted to appear dead is an even bigger mystery.  These Arnold Drake stories don't make a lot of sense.

SECOND STORY: "The Million Dollar Angel!"

Synopsis: Warren Worthington is sent off to boarding school, where he grows wings and saves some boys from a fire.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 2

This is the first part of Angel's origin story.  The first two pages depict a young-looking Warren getting into trouble, and his parents deciding to send him off to private school.  He looks about 10-12 here.

Page 3

At boarding school Warren's wings start growing.  An earlier letters page has said that his wings started growing when he was 13.  That's going to be a bit of a problem: after his wings sprout here, it's only a matter of weeks before they're fully grown.  X-Men (1963) #15 has Angel saying that he had to leave military school before taking a physical examination, so he can't stick around for long after this.  When he leaves school he goes right into the next chapter of the story, which is set immediately before he joins the X-Men.  I currently have Angel joining the team in XY -2, when he would be 15 or 16.  Maybe it was just his shoulder blades that started growing at 13, which Angel retroactively realised were his wings?  That just about works.

Page 5, panel 5

It's apparently 1963, just as it was in Iceman's origin story.  I'm taking that as a topical reference I can ignore, but it's handy to know that the writer intended these origin stories to be happening in the same year.

There's a plot set up here, with Angel's fellow students determined to learn the identity of their angelic savior, but it doesn't go anywhere.  Roy Thomas returns as the book's writer next issue, and this story takes a completely different turn.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story takes place over some time, possibly years.

• Page 1 to 2: Warren falls out of a tree, and is sent to private school
• Page 3.1 to 3.3: Some time later, possibly months or years. Warren's fellow students mock him for his huge shoulder blades.
• Page 3.4 to 3.5: Warren notices that he's growing tiny wings.
• Page 3.6 to 5.5: Some time later (probably weeks), Warren uses his wings (and a disguise) to rescue his fellow students from a fire.