Where issue #1 was full of fresh and different material, #2 has a weak villain and a mediocre story. Vanisher. But look at that great splash page!
And the hurry-up-and-get-to-Professor-X panels that follow are fun, too.
I miss when superheroes were a “new” thing and everybody was seeing them for the first time. Like Angel being mobbed by ladies who find him adorable.
Later, Angel will be ashamed of his wings and need to hide them–but here, he’s hardly seen as a freak. I think this is the far more realistic outcome.
It’s because of the damn media. Once they latch on to the mutant menace thing, it’s all over for X-Men.
Anyway, Professor X does some recon and briefs his students about the latest threat.
X “presents” mental images to his team by seemingly projecting them on a wall like movie screen. I’m going to chalk this up to artistic license, particularly since the panels below have cloud-like borders, suggesting that they are in fact the kind of thought projections we would expect from Professor X and not a psychic “movie.”
Vanisher asks the cops for directions to a bank to rob, and they’re remarkably friendly. White privilege, eh?
The kids then specifically train with Professor X on how to beat a villain who uses teleportation, which is a nice touch. They’re new heroes and it makes sense that would focus on how to beat a specific target.
But in the end, none of that matters because X just mind-wipes Vanisher.
Yet the villain still escapes.
After Vanisher is gone, the X-Men make short work of his mobster allies.
We also learn that Professor X has a mind-link with an FBI agent—and he’s working with him. Kinda hurts the old “outcast” rep when you’re sharing brainspace with The Man, Professor.
That’s FBI Agent Fred Duncan, who gets a tag because he appears in multiple series in the future and even gets his own solo story in 2008’s “X-Men: Odd Man Out.”
I won’t always be tagging non-powered government liaisons, but a few are worth it. Peter Gyrich. Maria Hill. And Agent Duncan.
Professor X continues to be creepy.
Finally, it’s worth noting the X-Men’s flying craft.
That doesn’t look real, does it. But it is real! Here’s a real-live McDonnell XV-1 NASA.
