X-Men (1963) #56

Cover by Neal Adams

Cover Date: May 1969

On-Sale Date: March 1969

FIRST STORY: "What is... the Power?"

Synopsis: The Pharaoh kidnaps Alex (again!) and seals him away. This allows him to achieve his full power as the Living Monolith, but he is defeated when Alex escapes.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

Page 9

Okay, so we finally get the Pharaoh's deal, albeit couched in some flowery language.  He used to be an archaeologist, and at some point discovered he was a mutant.  Cue obsession with pharaohs, and a desire to rule the world.  Around the time that Alex's mutant powers started to awaken the Pharaoh's started to wane, and some "mutant instinct" led him to Alex.  The two of them are both powered by cosmic rays, but as long as Alex is free the Pharaoh can't achieve his full power.  (Whether this applies in reverse is unclear.)

Page 11

There's not much to discuss for this story in chronological terms, so here's an image of the Living Monolith.  He gets depowered back to his human form at the end of the issue, and next issue he'll be scooped up by the Sentinels and taken away.  He remains an occasional villain over the decades, though rarely a prominent one.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

Takes place over a single day, the same day as the end of last issue.

SECOND STORY: "The Flying A-Bomb!"

Synopsis: Angel fights the X-Men, then disposes of a bomb to prove his heroism. He is recruited into the X-Men.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 2, panels 4 and 5

While the X-Men fight Angel, his downstairs neighbours complain about the noisy teenagers.  I have Angel at around 15 or 16 at this point in the timeline (December XY -2).

Page 4, panels 4 and 5

Angel notes once again that it's 1963.  As I've said before, this year is a topical reference I'm ignoring, except as an indication that all of these origins are taking place in the same year.  (If I were to count back from the publishing year, that would be a six-year gap, and would place these stories in XY -3.  I could do that, but it creates a really long gap between the recruitment of the X-Men and their first story.  I'll stick with them in XY -2 for now.)

Page 5, panel 6

Angel is recruited into the X-Men, a little over a year before X-Men (1963) #1.  Because this has to happen in Winter before the Beast's origin, which takes place on December 7th, it means that he's on the team for just a few days before their first mission against the Conquistador.

COUNTING THE DAYS

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

LETTERS PAGE

The letters page weighs in on how old the X-Men are supposed to be at this time: Iceman is around 18, and the others are 19 or 20.  This roughly matches up to my timeline: Beast will be turning 21 a few months after this story, which puts him currently at 20.  Angel, Cyclops and Marvel Girl would all be in the 19-20 range.  Iceman is the only discrepancy, as I have his 19th birthday a few months before this issue,

We also get some guidance as to what's going on with Alex's academic career.  The editor suggests that he could have entered college during his 16th year, and completed his studies in 3 years (making him 18 or 19).  Havok never really displayed any particular academic gifts during his super-hero career, but it's just about plausible.