X-Men (1963) #66

Cover by Marie Severin

Cover Date: March 1970

On-Sale Date: January 1970

Synopsis: The X-Men fight the Hulk then go on hiatus for five years.

Proposed Placement: XY 3, May

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

Page 1

Professor X has returned after "many long months".  I have his "death" in September of XY 2 and his return in May of XY 3, a gap of 8 months.

Page 2, panels 1 and 2

Lorna has only known Xavier for "a few days", which fits pretty well with the established timeline.  Xavier must have emerged from hiding shortly after the X-Men left to chase Sauron to Tierra del Fuego in issue #61.

This is also setting up the long-term, inseparable pairing of Havok and Lorna, and breaking up the young Iceman/Lorna relationship.  At the very least it's setting up a love triangle, which seems like an odd thing to be doing just as the series is ending.

Page 3, panels 2 and 3

The device that the X-Men think will revive Xavier is based on articles published by Hank Pym.  Xavier apparently finished building the mind-probe shortly before his "death" (which would be in the gap between X-Men (1963) #39 and #40).  The footnote above would suggest that this issue takes place some time after Avengers (1963) #68, although that's probably not going to be relevant to this project.

Page 11, panel 3

Xavier and Bruce Banner apparently exchanged correspondence years ago, on "the gamma-ray treatment of mental exhaustion".  Banner apparently built a device based on their mutual theories, and this is what the X-Men need to save Professor X.

The question of when this all happened is up in the air, aside from being "years ago".  We already know that Xavier spent some time working with Karl Lykos before forming the X-Men, so there's an established period where he was openly collaborating with other scientists.  I have Xavier working with Lykos in XY -4, and it makes sense to put his correspondence with Banner around the same time (a period when he is thinking about creating the school but hasn't recruited any X-Men yet).

Page 20

This is, of course, the final issue of X-Men to feature new material for quite some time.  Sales had dwindled by this point, and for the next five years the book will be a reprint title.  The X-Men will still be guest-starring all over the place, and I'll cover all of those appearances, but for now they've been demoted from starring roles to background parts.  It's as good a time as any for me to update the timeline, and then I'll move on to the "hidden years" of 1970-1975.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

This issue takes place over a single day, following directly on from last issue.