X-Men (1963) #57

Cover by Neal Adams

Cover Date: June 1969

On-Sale Date: April 1969

FIRST STORY: "The Sentinels Live!"

Synopsis: The Sentinels are back!  Working for Larry Trask, son of their original inventor, the Sentinels kidnap Lorna Dane and Alex Summers.  Iceman and Beast go to try and find her, while the rest of the X-Men stay in Egypt to look for Alex.  Meanwhile, Judge Chalmers - an old friend of the Trasks - is stirring up anti-mutant sentiment.

Proposed Placement: XY 3, May

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1

Lorna notes here that she's recently moved to a new apartment in Manhattan, and that her magnetic powers have been fading.  Her last appearance was in X-Men (1963) #52, which I have occurring back in November of XY 2.  I have #57 taking place in May of XY 3, which is plenty of time for Lorna to set up a new life.

Her fading powers mentioned here serve as a good explanation for what happened to the army of mutants created by Mesmero in issues #49-52.  Their powers slowly faded away, but for some reason Lorna kept hers.  Let's chalk it up to repeated usage under pressure, later training from Professor X, restoration by some kind of outside factor (a machine or something), or a combination of all of these.

On page 9.3, Iceman says that the X-Men left Lorna's place "not two days ago", which would be shortly before they attended Alex's graduation in X-Men (1963) #54.  They may have been helping her move in, or having a housewarming party, but those are pure conjecture.

Page 3

The flashback on this page, which shows Alex using his power to blast free of the Pharaoh's prison, takes place during the last issue.  I've placed it between page 14.1 and 14.2 of X-Men (1963) #56/1.

Page 4, Panel 5

The Living Pharaoh adds another small piece to his backstory, mentioning that he unearthed the temple that he'd imprisoned Alex in last issue.  Presumably the technology seen in previous issues was built by him or his lackeys (although with the amount of time travellers and immortal mutants in Marvel's ancient Egypt you never know).  I've lumped the beginnings of the Pharaoh's story all in XY 1, but there's no indication of a timeline here beyond the generic "years ago".

Angel mentions on page 2.2 that "it took an army of slaves decades to build that ancient temple", but that's hardly worth adding to the timeline.

Page 13

A couple of things on this page are of relevance.  First, it's mentioned on Panel 2 that Cyclops has a place not far from Lorna's.  This makes sense: he and Jean were working together in the New York area when the X-Men were split up between issues #47 and #49.  This would indicate that while they are definitely a couple, they're not living together just yet.

The last panel introduces Judge Chalmers, an old friend of Bolivar Trask who has been conducting a five-year study on "the mutant menace".  Counting back five years from where I've placed this issue indicates that the study was started in XY -2, which coincidentally enough is where I've placed all of the X-Men origins flashback stories.  The origin of Cyclops works perfectly as a catalyst for this study, so I'll put the start of it just after that story.  (I love it when things fit together like this.)  It's possible that Trask started building the Sentinels around the same time, but that's purely conjecture based on the shared backstory of Trask and Chalmers.

Chalmers has recently founded a Federal Council on Mutant Activities, following the conclusion of his study.  I have this happening in the gap between X-Men (1963) #53 and #54.

Page 14, Panels 4 and 5

The first of these flashback panels shows Bolivar Trask activating the first Sentinel, while his son Larry watches proudly.  There are no placement guidelines for this scene, except that it obviously must take place before the first Sentinel story in X-Men (1963) #14-16.  I've placed it in XY -1, the same year that the X-Men start their training, and two years before the first Sentinel story.

The second panel happens on the same day that Larry leaves for college.  It's mentioned on page 15.1 that this is the last time Larry sees his father alive, so I'd like to get it as close to Bolivar's death in X-Men (1963) #16 as possible.  I have that issue taking place in April of XY 1, so I'll put this flashback in January of XY 1, and say that Larry started college during mid-year intake.

Page 15, Panel 2

The flashback here shows Larry standing over his father's corpse, which was crushed by the Master Mold in the final scenes of X-Men (1963) #16.  I have it placed during #17, somewhere between pages 3.1 and 3.2, while the X-Men are being treated for their injuries in hospital.

Larry also mentions on page 15.3 that he's spent "years" collecting evidence to help document his and Judge Chalmers' case against mutants.  The original Sentinel story takes place in XY 1, about two years before this issue, which fits perfectly.

What doesn't fit is the bit on page 14.2 which says that Trask was killed 3 years ago.  This just about works in terms of when the stories were published (cover dates January 1966 and June 1969) but the gap is only two years in my timeline.  Either Larry Trask misspoke, or it can be written off as a real-world reference to the publication dates.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

This is a bit of a screwy one, because the story is split between Egypt and New York.  Page 2.2 states that it is dawn in Manhattan (in a roundabout poetic fashion).  Page 6.3 says that it is night in Egypt.  Egypt is ahead of New York by about 6 hours, so assuming these scenes happen concurrently it should be the middle of the day in Egypt (I think).  Later, when Iceman and Beast return to New York, they watch the 6 o'clock news.  This only works if the Lorna scenes take place quite a number of hours before the rest of the issue.  I can't see anything that rules this out, so I'm going with it.

Otherwise, it's very tempting just to throw my hands up at all the time-zone shenanigans and declare that this all takes place on the same day as the last issue.  It's ultimately not that important, but it does fit with Iceman's comment on page 9.3 that they left Lorna's house less than two days ago.

SECOND STORY: "The Female of the Species!"

Synopsis: Marvel Girl demonstrates her powers and also her feminine hotness.

Proposed Placement: Nowhere, as this isn't a story.

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

There's little to say here, as this is more a showcase of Jean's powers and character rather than a story.  I guess I could try and fit some of the vignettes into the timeline, but it's not as though they've been referenced in any later stories.  This one's entirely non-canon.