Previous Posts: Introduction | Chapter 1: Lee/Kirby Part 1 | Chapter 2: Lee/Kirby Part 2 | Chapter 3: The Roy Thomas Era (1966-1968) | Chapter 4: The End of the Silver Age (1968-1970) | Chapter 5: Origins and Flashbacks Part 1 | Chapter 6: Silver Age Flashbacks Part 2 | Chapter 7: X-Men: First Class Vol 1 | Chapter 8: X-Men: First Class Vol 2 Part 1

And now we come to the end of the X-books strange little 21st-century journey through the X-Men’s early school days. X-Men: First Class continues to offer fun little character pieces as well as ample evidence for Bobby’s homosexuality.

X-Men: First Class Vol 2 #12 (May 2008)
Writer: Jeff Parker
Artist: Roger Cruz

Angel leaves the X-Men to join a secret society that lives in the Iguacu Falls in Brazil. And that’s about it.

Strangely, this issue has Warren’s parents turn up at the mansion knowing all about Warren’s wings and the X-Men. Perhaps everyone came clean after they turned up in X-Men #17-18 and then Xavier wiped their minds again after losing their son in Brazil, because they next turn up in the hiatus period unaware he’s a mutant.

The Fit: Between X-Men #19-20. This issue kicks off a multi-part story where Angel leaves the X-Men, all of which must be grouped together between issues of the original series. See notes for #15.

 

X-Men: First Class Vol 2 #13-14 (June-July 2008)
Writer: Jeff Parker
Artist: Roger Cruz

The X-Men team up with a prototype of Machine Man to fight the Lava Men.

Before Machine Man pops up, Iceman is helping a very sweaty and shirtless Beast, who’s assembling a giant sloth skeleton in short shorts. Iceman accidentally breaks the skeleton when he tries to put on the skull and Beast chases him with a big rib. That’s right, after Iceman tries to give him head, Beast tosses him the bone.

 

During a scrap with Machine Man, Bobby says he can’t wait to haze the new kid after the way they hazed him when he joined. Bobby was the second X-Man recruited, so maybe he’s just referring to the fight he and Cyclops got into in their origin story. Nevertheless, hazing has a long homoerotic history.

Later, when discussing whether or not Xavier eavesdrops on their private thoughts, Bobby remarks to Hank, “Are you sure about that? Because he knew about Zelda and her friend—you remember…the thing…” Why on earth is Bobby being so cagey about talking about a double date?

Hank’s response, “Well, if you think something that loud, of course he’s going to pick up on it,” mirrors Jean’s excuse for outing Bobby in the Bendis run.

The Fit: Immediately after the preceding issue.

 

X-Men: First Class Vol 2 #15 (August 2008)
Writer: Jeff Parker
Artist: Roger Cruz

The X-Men help the amnesiac Medusa escape the Wizard and Angel returns just in time to save the day.

Nothing much else to say about this issue.

The Fit: This has to fit between Fantastic Four #43-44, which are dated June-July 1965. The contemporaneous X-Men issues are #11-12, but the FF gap includes the Richards’ wedding, which is meant to be contemporaneous with the Sentinels story that begins in X-Men #14 and runs without break until X-Men #18. This is the final part of a four-part story that includes X-Men: First Class Vol 2 #12-15, and #13 alludes to Vera, who doesn’t debut until X-Men #19. So, the best fit is to shove the whole arc between X-Men #19-20.

 

X-Men: First Class Vol 2 #16 (September 2008)
Writer: Jeff Parker
Artist: Patrick Scherberger

After they fight with their respective teams, Iceman teams up with the Human Torch to fight the Beetle and Scorpion, but their team-up ends when Bobby sees Johnny making a move on Zelda.

It’s fun to read this issue as a case of deeply closeted Bobby desperately trying to impress his boy crush Johnny. Sure, he talks a lot about girls, but that’s just to impress Johnny and cover for himself. Look at how cute they are in this picture.

When Bobby catches Johnny with Zelda, who exactly is he jealous of?

In the end, Xavier is certain Bobby was coming back to play with his X-Men crush, Beast. Of course he is. He’s been reading Bobby’s mind.

The Fit: This issue could go almost anywhere there’s a gap before Xavier’s death, even immediately following the previous issue. But it sure reads like it belongs earlier in the series, and definitely before Bobby and Hank’s road trip. I think it best belongs in the gap between X-Men #5-6, after Strange Tales #120 but before Fantastic Four #28. Zelda didn’t make her first appearance until X-Men #7, but that issue makes clear that Bobby is already a regular at her cafe and they’re already on a flirty, first-name basis.

 

 

Giant-Size X-Men: First Class #1 (October 2008)
Writer: Jeff Parker
Artists: Dean Haspiel, David Williams, Nick Kilislian, Michael Cho, Roger Langridge

A Halloween-themed anthology where the X-Men fight pod people in Antarctica, California, and North Korea.

We learn that the mysterious FBI Agent Baker who’s been liaising with the X-Men in lieu of Agent Duncan in this series is a sleeper for the Skrulls (though even he doesn’t know it). That was meant to tie in to the then-recent “Secret Invasion” story, but Baker never showed up again outside this series.

The only bit of importance in this issue for our purposes is that Beast chooses Iceman to accompany him on the investigation in Antarctica, after Xavier tells Beast he can take any X-Men not busy with exams. To be fair, Iceman is pretty uniquely suited to the environment. Can’t think of one less suited than Beast, though, who dutifully trudges out into the snow in bare feet without gloves.

The Fit: It comes shortly after the Medusa story in ­X-Men: First Class Vol 2 #15, since Beast still has Wizard’s anti-gravity ship, so let’s put it right there between ­X-Men #19-20.

 

X-Men: First Class Finals #1-4 (November 2008-February 2009)
Writer: Jeff Parker
Artists: Roger Cruz and Amilcar Pinna

A four-part story in which the X-Men get ready to graduate from Xavier’s School while dealing with Jean’s “ambient dreaming.” This story takes place well after the original series, right before Beast leaves to join the Brand Corporation.

While trapped in Jean’s mindscape, Iceman makes his family home appear, and Hank dryly notes “I expect this is going to involve the babysitter you always mention when talking about your teen years.” Uh, isn’t Bobby still a teenager? And why would a teenager have a babysitter? Nonetheless, no babysitter appears because that was likely just a dumb skeevy story he tells guys to seem macho.

Still, we get to check in on Bobby’s other long-running subplot about his father being disappointed in him and trying desperately to mold him into a copy of himself.

Continuity Notes: Frederick, the deformed mutant we thought Scott killed in Vol 2 #10 returns, although Agent Duncan helpfully says once he’s captured that his radiation poisoning seems to be finally killing him.

There’s a running gag where Jean makes suggestive comments about Xavier’s lady scientist friend that he’s visiting in Scotland. This doesn’t go over well with Xavier, of course. It’s obviously a reference to Moira, although why Moira’s in Scotland when she’s supposed to be running the Muir-McTaggart research station in New York (per X-Men: Deadly Genesis) isn’t clear (though not a continuity error – there’s many reasons she could have needed to go to Muir, including checking in on Proteus). Classic X-Men #43 and Uncanny X-Men #273 did establish that Jean and Moira had met before she joined the X-Men, so maybe she’s actually picked up on his former feelings for her? She’s also been to Muir Island already in X-Men: The Hidden Years #10.

The X-Men are in their individual costumes, though Bobby is wearing a full-body outfit that looks like Cyclops’ uniform, rather than the just briefs look he tended to sport in the original stories.

If you’re saying to yourself, “Wait, didn’t the X-Men graduate in X-Men #7?” you’re not wrong. But that was high school. All through this series, they’ve referred to themselves as college students. So this is the X-Men receiving some sort of college diploma or degree. Bobby and Angel both say they plan to study business after graduation, which alludes to their eventual stint at UCLA in The Champions. Beast has a job offer from the Brand Corporation, which he’ll accept in Amazing Adventures #11. Jean and Scott plan to stay on at the school in part for Jean to get a better grip on her powers and to help lead the new class. All of this smooths the transition to the new team, but it undercuts the original stories where Bobby was resentful of the new class replacing them, Jean left after all, and Xavier was shocked that they left.

Xavier explains his transition plan for the new class of X-Men that he plans to recruit, and that he wants to shut the school to focus on the X-Men as adventurers. I believe that’s the first time this is made clear, but logical since the school had no students between X-Men #94-138.

Alex is said to be away from the mansion for the story – presumably he took Lorna with him, but she’s not mentioned. At the end, the X-Men do have a graduation ceremony, but Alex and Lorna aren’t seen at it (They may never have been a students at the school, given Alex already had his Bachelor’s degree, and their time there only briefly overlaps with Xavier being alive). I guess dropping Bobby’s love triangle story into this series at this point would have been awkward.

Immediately after the ceremony, Xavier sends the team on one last mission – to Krakoa, as seen in Giant Size X-Men #1 (again, Havok and Lorna are off-panel, but on the plane). The timeline doesn’t work with this, because although the camera keeps Beast off panel, we know that he left the X-Men and transformed into his ape-form many months before the Krakoa mission. Take the “One hour later” caption as literary license.

The Fit: Mostly immediately after X-Men: The Hidden Years, with the final pages immediately preceding Giant-Size X-Men #1.

And that would be it for the First Class era, except that one year later Marvel commissioned four one-shots set in the same era and striking a similar tone, which were packaged in a TPB called X-Men: First Class – Class Portraits.

 

Iceman & Angel #1 (March 2011)
Writer: Brian Clevinger
Artist: Juan Doe

Iceman and Angel spend Spring Break in New York, where they help Goom, The Thing from Planet X, find his slacker son.

Of course Iceman was excited to spend Spring Break at a resort with his crush, Angel. Once in the city, Warren immediately picks up two girls, to Bobby’s consternation. Interestingly, Bobby doesn’t seem even a bit interested in the girls, instead acting huffy that Warren is ignoring him. This all tracks.

Later, while arguing over whether Warren’s wings follow the laws of physics, Bobby remarks “Oh right, I forgot your mutant power is to go topless at the drop of a hat.” Just read that as not being a complaint.

Believe it or not, this isn’t Goom’s only appearance in the X-books. He also appears in Wolverine & The X-Men #17 and Uncanny X-Men Vol 3 #33.

The Fit: With one caveat, this seems like it should take place very early in the original run, before Iceman and Beast become a dynamic duo.

However, page one has a throwaway joke where Bobby says “Wolverine went to Japan” on break. That can’t be correct because Wolverine was never a student, and certainly never while Bobby was at the school. That would seem to indicate that this is not in continuity, BUT, this is also delivered in a distinctly colored panel that forms part of the title and credits, so it’s probably just to be taken as a joke that isn’t part of the story, like the “yearbook” pages in the original series.

Let’s just put it arbitrarily between X-Men #10-11. That’s before Hank and Bobby are a thing, and after the high school graduation in X-Men #7, so they’re college kids on break now.

 

Cyclops #1 (March 2011)
Writer: Lee Black
Art: Dean Haspiel

Cyclops spends his day off tracking down Batroc the Leaper and the Circus of Crime.

Iceman only appears in Cyclops’ narration about how the other X-Men think he’s too uptight.

The Fit: Cyclops is already a regular at the Coffee A-Go-Go, so let’s place it between ­X-Men #8-9 after First Class Vol 1 #6.

 

 

Marvel Girl #1 (February 2011)
Writer: Joshua Hale Fialkov
Artist: Nuno Plati

After nearly injuring her teammates when her emotions get the better of her, Jean Grey takes a break from the X-Men and finally comes to terms with the death of her friend Annie.

Iceman and the other X-Men only appear at the beginning of the story where Jean tears into Warren and Scott for fighting over her and Bobby tells Hank “Remind me never to date Jean.” I don’t think he’ll need the reminder.

Continuity: Annie’s grave has a surname that ends in “EK,” but her surname is Richardson.

The Fit: It needs to go in the early days, before the Warren/Scott triangle fades away. The story isn’t entirely clear on this point, but Jean doesn’t use telepathy anywhere, so there’s no continuity problem needing explanation. Let’s put it in the gap between X-Men #3-4. Warren was being particularly dickish about chasing Jean in #3, so it works out.

 

Magneto #1 (January 2011)
Writer: Howard Chaykin
Artist: Edgar Delgado

On Magneto’s first visit to the United States, he encounters a mutant community in Brooklyn. The X-Men do no appear, but I’m including for completion’s sake.

The Fit: Uh…I suppose it goes in Magneto’s backstory before X-Men #1, but the inclusion of a visible mutant community in New York at this time is just… wrong. And it even undermines the point Magneto’s making in the story, where he chastises a mutant for not being part of the mutant community, which this Brooklyn neighborhood pretty much is the only example of. It also implies that Magneto’s first visit to the US is after the debut of the Fantastic Four and the other Marvel heroes, which has to be wrong. At the very least, he fathered Lorna Dane before that.

Presumably this story was commissioned to sort of tie in with the X-Men: First Class film that was about to come out, since Magneto wasn’t even in the First Class comic, and none of the other silver age X-Men were in the film (other than Xavier).

Where to find these stories: They’re all on Marvel Unlimited. They were also collected into TPBs a decade ago, although you can still find Finals and Class Portraits fairly commonly in bookstores and eBay.

Next week: We begin the end of Bobby’s school period with John Byrne’s X-Men: The Hidden Years.