Magneto is back...and he's brought some friends along with him...can the X-Men hold their own against these fearsome foes?
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This is a monumental issue for the X-Men. For the first time, the team is not going up against just one mutant, but five! This isn't some random mishmash of mutant villains either, this is a team of very powerful mutants lead by the X-Men's nemesis Magneto. This team of super villains is known as The Brotherhood and consists of:
Magneto
The Toad - is it too on the nose to say that he is Magneto's toady? Toad's powers are not fully explained in this issue, however his need to please Magneto is very apparent.
Scarlet Witch - has Hex power which can affect the environment around her. She owes a life debt to Magneto for saving her life against an angry mob of villagers.
Quicksilver - fastest man known in the Marvel universe. Brother of Scarlet Witch, and is acting as her bodyguard against Magneto.
Mastermind - has the ability to create illusions so real it can trick anyone.
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The X-Men are training in the Danger Room when we find them, and the professor is really pushing them to their limits this time.
While the X-Men are training, The Brotherhood is meeting on their fortified island while Magneto is out on a mission. All is not well within the Brotherhood, as Mastermind and Quicksilver get into a fight after an altercation between Mastermind and Scarlet Witch...and Toad is all too excited to report this to Magneto.
Magneto however has bigger fish to fry. He's arrived at a shipping line where they are about to start reading the bids for one of the line's newest freighters. Magneto has other plans for that ship though, and by use of his magnetic powers he traps the owners of the shipping line in their office and steals the freighter.
As Magneto sails back to The Brotherhood's fortified island in his newly acquired freighter, The Angel soars high overhead and sees the seemingly unmanned vessel and takes a closer look...neither mutant sees one another. What seems like an odd but otherwise normal occurrence means a lot to Professor X.
While checking The Angel's stats, Professor X get's a hunch about the freighter...a hunch which is verified a few days later when a news report comes in stating that a lone freighter attacked an entire South American nation called Santo Marco.
On the island, The Brotherhood is hard at work at capturing power. Mastermind cooks up an illusion which tricks the island inhabitants into thinking that an entire army, armed to the teeth has invaded their country. This lead to a quick surrender from the Santo Marco leaders, and Magneto took power of the island. However, even though he is now armed with a real army, Magneto cannot protect his mind from other mutant threats.
Professor X and Magneto meet on what appears to be an ethereal plane, where they have a psychic confrontation, and where we finally solidify Magneto (and The Brotherhood's) hatred toward the X-Men.
The X-Men arrive in Santo Marco to stop The Brotherhood shortly after this psychic confrontation. The X-Men are able to dodge all the obstacles that are thrown at them...but The Brotherhood are cowards and escape before they can face the X-Men head on.
Magneto booby-traps a door with a bomb, and arms a nuclear bomb to detonate and destroy the entire island of Santo Marco just in case. The X-Men storm headstrong at the door, and Professor X realizes too late the dangers which lie behind the door. Before Beast can enter and trigger the booby-trap, Xavier throws himself in front of him and takes the full force of the explosion. This is a dire mistake for Xavier because the explosion has caused him to lose all of his mutant powers! Gasp!
The Brotherhood escape down a hidden slide which exists right by their freighter. Before Quicksilver leaves he disarms the nuke and saves the country.
Can the X-Men prevail without their fearless leader's powers to guide them?
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Now this is the type of X-Men issue that I've been waiting for! Not only do we get to see the altercation which clearly defines the reason why Professor X and Magneto are mortal enemies, we also get to establish a team of bad guys (many of whom are still popular to this day), as well as start to treat these homo superiors with a little more respect because they were able to more than just rob a bank.
In fact, Magneto makes some really ballsy moves! First he steals a freighter ship, then overthrows an entire country's government and amasses their army to fight for him. I mean, all in the manner of what I can only assume is a few short days. That really shows you what this guy can do when he is determined.
We also see that Magneto is willing to sacrifice anything for his cause. I mean the guy armed a nuke, and was willing to blow up an entire island, just to escape the X-Men. I mean that's some crazy right there. Magneto is definitely a man who means business.
This issue really makes the X-Men continue to have that "flavor of the week" style storytelling we're used to in a lot of TV shows (particularly season 1). We can see they are developing the plot, but they want to build a world around it. So Magneto is absolutely the overall plot point for the comic, while our "one off" books like Issues 2 and 3 are the fluff that makes this all seem more commonplace.
Another thing I got a chuckle out of was this panel between Professor X and Magneto while they had their ethereal argument.
Little did Stan Lee know that what Xavier said is exactly what Marvel was doing to the comic industry. Issuing it out of the Golden Age of comics and into the Silver Age.
This was by far my favorite issue, and I'm actually really excited for issue 5!
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