X-Men (1963) #55

Cover by Barry Windsor-Smith

Cover Date: April 1969

On-Sale Date: February 1969

FIRST STORY: "The Living Pharaoh!"

Synopsis: The Living Pharaoh captures Cyclops and Alex Summers, and takes them both to Egypt.  The X-Men rescue them, and Alex is revealed to be a mutant.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1

The Pharaoh reveals here that he wanted the authorities to think Cyclops had killed him.  He doesn't go into specifics about how it was accomplished, but I did my best to explain it in my last post.  I was struggling to think of why he'd go to the trouble, but I guess making Cyclops desperate enough that he'd consider serving the Pharaoh makes enough sense for this era (or it would if the Pharaoh doesn't straight up try to kill Cyclops later in the story).

Page 5, panel 4

Jean is tracking Cyclops telepathically, and she senses a mental pattern similar to his, only evil.  This is never followed up on, but it seems to me as though writer Roy Thomas may have been setting it up for Scott and the Pharaoh to be related.  Thankfully that never came to pass, and we can just chalk this up to the weird connection between the powers of Alex and the Pharaoh.  (It's revealed much later that Mr. Sinister as involved with connecting them, so maybe there's some Summers DNA floating around in the Pharaoh's makeup.)

Page 10, panel 6

The Pharaoh has been "searching and scheming" for years.  We know he thinks all the pharaohs were mutants, that he's a mutant, and that he wants to conquer the world.  Also, he wants Scott and Alex dead for reasons as yet unspecified.  It's otherwise vague what he's been doing for all that time.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story takes place over two days, as follows.

• Page 1 to 8: The Pharaoh takes Scott and Alex to Egypt.
• Page 9 to 15: The X-Men rescue them, and Alex is revealed as a mutant.

SECOND STORY: "Where Angels Dare to Tread!"

Synopsis: Warren is now a crime-fighter in New York, under the name of the Angel. He stops some thieves from stealing an explosive canister, and the X-Men show up to recruit him.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 1

The caption says that it's Winter 1963, before the Beatles, Barbra Streisand and Spider-Man become famous.  Streisand's first album dropped in February of that year, and the Beatles had their first UK #1 in January.  The writer's intention is obviously for this story take place in January of that year, but that's not going to work for my timeline.  Angel has to debut before the Beast, who I have joining the X-Men in December, and I can't really see putting Angel's origin a full year before Beast's.  So I'm placing this story in early December, just before the Beast's origin, which still puts it in Winter.

(As with the origins of Iceman and Beast, this story is said to take place in 1963.  I've been ignoring that year as a topical reference, and only using it as an indication that all of these stories are intended to take place within the same year.)

As for Spider-Man, it's easy enough to say that his origin (in Amazing Fantasy (1962) #15) happened after this story.  As it stands, Angel's origin will be late in XY -2, a little over a year before X-Men (1963) #1, so there's plenty of room for Spidey's origin to squeeze in.

Page 2

Angel patched his own costume together, apparently, and it seems as though he put together his gas gun as well.  The gas drive him crazy later on, so he did a predictably bad job of it.  This appears to be Angel's first mission.

There's also an editor's note that the Avengers don't yet exist at this time.  Their first issue shipped concurrently with X-Men (1963) #1, so that makes sense.

Page 4, panels 1 to 3

Angel is shown here renting an apartment, inventing his gas gun, and practicing flight.  He apparently has two months until he has to go back to school, which is odd; winter break in the US is usually only a couple of weeks.  We know from X-Men (1963) #15 that Angel had to drop out of school to avoid a physical examination, so perhaps he's managed to use his wealth and influence to get a longer break than normal.  (Or maybe military schools have different breaks than everyone else, I don't know.)

Page 5, panel 6

This is the first time Angel meets any of the X-Men.  So far, every mutant that Cyke has tried to recruit has responded by trying to punch him in the face.

COUNTING THE DAYS

This story takes place over two days in early December (before the 7th).

• Day 1:
• Page 1 to 4.3: Angel stops some warehouse burglars.
• Day 2:
• Page 4.4 to 5.6: Angel stops some thieves from stealing an explosive canister from an atomic institute. The X-Men show up to recruit him.