Posted December 4-11, 2011 | Updated March 19, 2013 | April 2, 2013 | August 22, 2015

X-Men 8

By the eighth issue, Iceman is looking less 'snowy'.

I did mention that the X-Men where starting to become the 'popular' kids. Well, maybe Lee didn't think that would fly very well with fans - popular kids probably didn't read comics in the sixties, they're too busy brushing their hair or something. Anyway, its the start of the end of the X-Men as the 'popular kid' group as Lee introduces anti-mutant sentiment. Here Beast rescues a child, an in return, he gets a lynch mob.

Hank quits and decides to become a wrestler. Not the sport, something like WWE. Its theatrical, its showy, and if its good enough for Spider-Man its good enough for the Beast.

Here is where the Beast meets the untouchable Unus.

As an application to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (them again!), Unus stages a bank robbery. This is a great Kirby panel of bullets bouncing off Unus' personal force field

Back in the day, the X-Men operated more like a a super-hero group, actively crimefighting (a role they would try to come back to in the early issues of Astonishing X-Men). So they very quickly happen on Unus and, just as quickly, discover his power.

Once again the mystery question is: How do they defeat an untouchable foe? The answer lies not in any mutant power of the X-Men, but on the extreme smarts of one Hank McCoy - one of the geniuses of the Marvel Universe.

Unus gets defeated by a tactic based on wisdom : A little of a good thing is good, a lot can be ruinous. Very satisfying issue.