X-MEN #12 (1965)
by Stan Lee (story), Jack Kirby (layouts) & Alex Toth (pencils)
cover by Jack Kirby
The villain retrospective doesn’t cover many X-Men villains mostly for two big reasons: most of the big names are from the 70s and 80s, plus I’m not a huge X-Men fan in general.
Still, I think we can all agree Juggernaut is AWESOME… but was he like that from the start?
We begin with Cerebro sending an alarm: an extremely powerful menace is about to approach the X-Men mansion. While the machine had already been introduced, most of the X-Men learn about it now.
And right away we have a problem: Cerebro is supposed to identify only mutants (it’s even pointed out here), but the story will go out of its way to clarify that Juggernaut is NOT a mutant.
Whooops.
Most of the first story is divided into two alternating segments: the X-Men preparing a series of traps for the Juggernaut…
…and Professor X narrating his origin story. This is actually the first story where we learn his real name is Charles Xavier, by the way.
Also, the story (including the digital print, but it’s there in the original) constantly talks about the nuclear tests of “Alamagordo”, either a misspelling or a stand-in for Alamogordo.
Xavier’s father was a nuclear scientist, who ends up being murdered by a jealous co-worker that even steals his wife. Not cool, man, not cool.
He’s quite the catch.
This is where we are introduced to Xavier’s step-brother, who wastes no time demonstrating he’s a a-hole.
Xavier’s new father ends up dying because his son is an idiot, and apparently he knew all along that Xavier has mutant powers. Considering his characterization, I really don’t buy that a person like this wouldn’t have tried to take advantage of the situation in some way!!!
During Xavier’s narration, the Juggernaut tears through all layers of defense: we don’t actually SEE him until the very end.
We do see little glimpses of him, building up the suspense. It works well enough, although at this point it’s blatantly clear that the traps are not going to stop him and that he’s eventually going to fight the X-Men, so this is a bit of a waste of time.
I understand wanting to create suspense, but you can only keep it up for so long.
The flashback continues, introducing the trivia that Xavier’s baldness is linked to his powers.
We’re lucky he’s not in the DC Universe, otherwise he would’ve turned evil as well!!!
Xavier is shown to be a confident fighter; I never gave too much thought to this, but telepathy must be a heck of an advantage in hand-to-hand combat.
Considering how ridiculously overpowered Claremont tended to make his mutants (was there ANY member of his team that didn’t become a world-class martial artist?), I’m frankly surprised he didn’t bring this up in his run.
One the things I’ve always liked about the Juggernaut is that, while he’s a supervillain… he’s just a regular dude who wants to use his powers for understandable goals.
But apparently before he got his powers he was A COMPLETE PSYCHOPATH.
He crashes the car, and you would THINK this is how Xavier lost the use of his legs… but we already had an explanation for that in an earlier story, so Xavier just protected himself from the crash with a mental shield. (?????)
Yeah that’s… NOT how Xavier’s powers are supposed to work, but early stories are VERY confused between telepathy and telekinesis.
At this point the X-Men are understandably getting frustrated: why IS Xavier’s stepbrother such a big deal if he’s not a mutant?
Well, turns out he discovered a magic idol during the Korean War.
As you do.
How exactly does Xavier know anything about Cyttorak? He HAS been invoked by Doctor Strange for some of his spells in earlier stories… but does the general public KNOW about him? Has Xavier read the mind of some local wizard?
Whatever the case, the flashback is over: the Juggernaut is here!
And… to be honest, the first good look we get is quite disappointing. Is it just me or he doesn’t look anywhere as big as he should be, considering the glimpses we got and how he’s described?
X-MEN #13 (1965)
by Stan Lee (story), Jack Kirby (layouts) & Werner Roth (pencils, under the “Jay Gavin” pseudonym)
cover by Jack Kirby
A MUCH superior cover when compared to the previous one. This is just gorgeous!
And yes, the Human Torch does show up.
Xavier is not the only one whose powers are not yet well-defined. The Juggernaut has a force field now, and it will occasionally pop up for years until it’s understandably discarded.
(he’s already almost indestructible, did they REALLY need to give him a force field!?)
I have to wonder: does Cyttorak give a telepathy-proof helmet to ALL his avatars, or did he just give one to the Juggernaut because of his brother?
Also, if the Juggernaut has been buried under rocks for all these years and this is the first time he attacks his brother, how the heck does HE know his helmet protects him from mental attacks!?
As the X-Men keep the Juggernaut at bay, Xavier puts on a helmet that amplifies his mental powers (WTF?), to the point he has to discharge some of that energy… somewhere. (double WTF?).
Dude… you’ve wasted an entire issue narrating your origin, why didn’t you put on the helmet and attacked the Juggernaut EARLIER!? Xavier didn’t know about the telepathy-proof helmet until he was face-to-face with his stepbrother!!!
Xavier’s signal is intercepted by the Teen Brigade (HOW!?!?) and Daredevil (WHY!?!?), but neither of them will show up to help.
The Juggernaut’s main gimmick is that absolutely nothing can stop him. It’s there right from the start, but this issue has… interesting ways to show it off.
It is kind of funny to see how utterly outmatched the X-Men really are against Juggernaut.
I still think he’s not drawn big enough, though.
Xavier’s message is also intercepted by the Human Torch, who remembers he met him during Reed and Susan’s marriage (although Stan is misremembering the issue, because it was Fantastic Four Annual #3 and not #4).
I do like the fact that he’s skeptical whether it’s the real deal or not!!!
Then he remembers “wait a minute, I’m supposed to be the hotheaded one, shouldn’t I immediately rush into things?”.
Jokes aside, I do like Johnny thinking he can’t risk ignoring a cry for help…
…but it’s then ruined by Xavier spelling out that HE is responsible.
The Torch better hurry, because Beast is the only one who’s having any luck delaying the Juggernaut… by throwing the entire Danger Room at him!
I guess the idea must’ve been that the Juggernaut is SO dangerous that even an entire superhero team is not enough. But the fact that the Human Torch does a far better job keeping him busy, it comes across as the X-Men being too inexperienced.
I mean, good job to the Torch, but… did the X-Men really need his help?
Xavier had so many traps ready, but there’s nothing in his arsenal or in the Danger Room that could’ve blinded the Juggernaut long enough for Angel to sweep by?
The Juggernaut is defeated, and as a reward for his help the Human Torch is recognized as a valuable ally and allowed to return to the X-Mansion whenever he wants.
Just kidding, Xavier mindwipes him. What a jackass.
Well… at least the X-Men will get SOME gratitude for saving his life, right?
There’s a reason this panel exists, folk.
Historical significance: 7/10
Despite being Xavier’s stepbrother, the Juggernaut is not THAT important to the X-Men mythos and to the Marvel Universe in general.
Silver Age-ness: 7/10
On the Marvel scale, the mystical aspect really comes out of nowhere.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
It’s quite evident that X-Men is the series where Lee&Kirby stumble the most… it’s a bit of an unfocused mess.
The first issue is fine: a bit too decompressed for the Silver Age, but ironically that helps making it more modern. The attempt to keep up the suspense doesn’t completely work, but it’s not bad.
The second issue, on the other hand… we’ve spent so much time hyping up Juggernaut that seeing him take his sweet time doing anything, especially when it’s clear from the start that the X-Man can’t really DO much to him, that the result is quite frustrating.
Bringing up the Human Torch to clean up their mess, only to immediately dismiss him, is also very infuriating… what was the point of his appearance!?
We also have the plague of early X-Men stories: Xavier just mindwiping away his problems.
And finally, for all the hype (and future great stories), the Juggernaut himself is not very interesting here.
How close is this to the modern character? 6/10
Not all that much. The look is there, although he’s be drawn to be MUCH bigger. But his personality is completely different: the Juggernaut is not exactly what I would consider “evil”… unless he’s under the control of Cyttorak, and even that is quite rare.
But here, he’s just stark-raving mad all the time. Plus his powers have not been defined very clearly.
The Juggernaut’s history is WAY too complicated to examine into detail. I haven’t kept up with him for a while, but generally speaking I prefer when he pops up in other series rather than the X-Men. He’s a fantastic villain in general, but he’s not very well suited for any of the X-Men themes… whenever he’s around them, he tends to get tangled up in complex stories that don’t fit him.
Just keep the Juggernaut simple, people! He’s an unstoppable force of nature AND at the same time he’s just a regular guy, that’s the beauty of him!