X-MEN #36 (1967)
by Roy Thomas & Ross Andru
Sure the Locust and Cobalt Man were lame, but they’re still better X-Men villains than Mekano.
Professor X is not going to show up this time, because as part of the Factor Three storyline he’s currently in a coma.
Security at the X-Mansion is so bad that a couple of regular burglars manage to sneak in (???) and they’re beaten up by Beast.
This is an interesting opportunity: with Xavier around he would normally just mind-wipe them, but what are the X-Men going to do without him?
EXACTLY THE SAME THING!!!
Technically speaking they’re not lobotomizing them, but WOW has this aged poorly!
To save Xavier, the X-Men have to travel to Europe. The details are not important for this story, but I don’t recommend checking out the Factor Three storyline because it’s soooooo boring.
You would think that with both Angel and Xavier being rich it would be easy to go catch a plane, but nope!
So the X-Men have to try getting some money at a welfare center (!!!)…
…which doesn’t really work because A) they’re minors B) they’re very sketchy C) they ride around in a Rolls Royce so it’s hard to believe they REALLY need money!!!
We’re told they don’t just sell the car because it belongs to Xavier, which is all well and good… but why exactly don’t they call the Avengers or the Fantastic Four to help? At this point they’ve already teamed up a couple of times!!!
No, the best solution is for the X-Men to find jobs as construction workers.
SERIOUSLY.
Honestly? If they just did THIS instead of turning their school into a paramilitary organization, mutants would probably face far less discrimination.
Not saying it would END discrimination, because I can easily see this turning into a “mutants are stealing our jobs!” thing, but still.
Untapped story potential there.
Guys, just leave Xavier and join a union. You’ll probably make tons of money in construction.
The X-Men’s car gets towed away (!!!!), so they have to make a friend.
Is it just me or is Jean a bit too judgmental here?
Way to spoil the fact he’s going to be the supervillain, Thomas.
Beast and Iceman have a different plan on how to raise money quickly.
So at this point you might be wondering: wasn’t this supposed to be about a supervillain?
And here he is, at the end of page 10.
Of a 20 page story.
The X-Men haven’t done ANYTHING in the story up to this point, and they’re already been tricked into getting bad publicity.
Even Spider-Man is not THIS bad with his relationship to the public!!!
Iceman even gets handcuffed by regular cops because he has “used up” is ice powers.
Despite, you know, still being completely covered in ice.
So what DOES Mekano bring to the table? Well, he’s strong enough to knock out Beast…
…he can leap like a kangaroo…
…and he doesn’t like books.
Clearly the kind of guy you can reason with, according to Cyclops.
I think I understand why Angel sucks so much in the Dazzler series.
The writers probably took inspiration from the Roy Thomas run.
Thankfully Mekano is SO lame that, after he leaps away, he almost kills himself.
And then we discover Mekano is the son of the philanthropist that owns the library, not to mention the guy who gave the X-Men a lift earlier.
The philanthropist is so moved by the X-Men saving his son that he gives them the money they need to go to Europe.
Money well spent, I’m sure.
Historical significance: 0/10
And he was never seen again.
Silver Age-ness: 9/10
On the Marvel scale, when else are you going to see such a casual use of mind control?
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
This was really, REALLY bad. Like, embarrassingly so.
Roy Thomas continues to struggle to find anything interesting to write about the private lives of the X-Men, and even the normally awesome Ross Andru artwork looks incredibly stiff (maybe it’s the George Bell inks?).
All of that could be salvaged by some fun superhero action… but Mekano is legitimately one of the worst supervillains I’ve ever seen.
How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
Mekano has never, EVER shown up again.
Do you know how dull you have to be as a 60s character that is not used ONCE after his first appearance!?
You’d have to be Mekano!!!
The Rolls Royce appears again in UXM issue that introduced Dazzler.
Who’s in the cockpit of the plane talking about it being out of gas? Jean, Beast, Angel and Cyclops are all standing outside, so that leaves Iceman. But has Bobby ever worn a mask like whoever is in the cockpit is wearing? And if it is him, I like how quickly Jean agrees that he should ask his parents for plane fare. I’ve always had the assumption that the Greys were more well-off than the Drakes, though I’m not sure what I base that on. Anyhow, why didn’t Jean suggest they all contact their own parents for plane fare instead of happily dumping it on the mystery pilot’s mom & dad? Then Cyclops could’ve angsted in a thought bubble “But I have no parents. Jean must not care about me at all if she said that!” (Y’know, just to make this issue even worse than it already is.)
And while it’s weird to consider anything to be a lost opportunity to bring Mekano, the nearly as obscure Champions villain Rampage was also just some guy in an exoskeleton – he even nearly had the same character design. I’m sure if Roy Thomas ever saw him, he’d have wailed “Why didn’t they just bring back Mekano, because then Angel and Iceman could recognize him and we could have a continuity loving footnote referencing X-Men 36?”
Hmmm – now I see that Rampage is maybe not as obscure as I thought. He bummed around as a Punisher side character for a while and is still making sporadic appearances this century. I thought he’d pretty much disappeared after the Crimson Dynamo tricked him into blowing himself up back in the Champions.
You’re right, he can’t be anyone else in this period.
Not to my knowledge. In fact I don’t think he has ever worn a mask, period.
Based on the dialogue, my understanding is that the script needed to have Angel in the cockpit (also supported by the following panel, not shown in the review, where Angel mentions his parents are abroad right now). But it was lost in the artwork and Angel was drawn in the wrong place and neither the writer nor the editor caught it.
I assume because they don’t want the parents to learn they’re the X-Men, since they think it’s a regular school.
As for why they don’t just come up with a cover story, like they do with other people later… everyone’s pretty dumb in this story 🙂
True story: when I was researching for the review, I was under the impression that Mekano had at least one other appearance. I kept thinking “I’m sure I have seen a minor villain with an exoskeleton with a similar design again”, but couldn’t remember where.
And now that you mention it: yeah I was totally thinking about Rampage the whole time!
This was the first X-Men story I ever read–in the early ’70s reprint. And while it probably hasn’t aged well, it was enough to give a very young me an interest in the team. The X-Men were teens at a time when teens generally had to depend on their parents for money, so what do the X-Men do when their parent-figure vanishes? They get jobs to raise cash. Using their powers for construction work or as street entertainers was quite inventive. Makes you wonder why more superheroes didn’t think of that. Daredevil teaching other blind people how to use their senses. Spider-Man selling his web fluid as a powerful but temporary adhesive . . . the mind boggles.
Mekano is probably a forgettable villain, but he’s basically a kid not much older than the X-Men who has daddy issues and is trying to prove himself in some way. An exoskeleton seemed way cooler in the early ’70s than it probably does today.
I haven’t read this story in many years, but the review brings back positive memories and feelings. I think there was an innocence to the X-Men of this period that stood out against the other comics available at the time (again keeping in mind that this was a reprint from 1967). The target audience for this story didn’t much care if the plot made sense. They wanted to feel a sense of belonging and that teens could do what they needed to do to save the people they loved. Even if you have super-powers, you still have to deal with limitations due to age, experience, lack of money, etc.
Thanks for the interesting perspective!
This is exactly why I don’t give quality scores. As per your example, a story might not stand the test of time in the sense that it can’t be done the same way for a modern audience, but that doesn’t mean nobody can enjoy it.
And the first time someone discovers a character or a universe is extremely important, as per your case. Perhaps you wouldn’t have enjoyed this issue so much if you already read better X-Men stories that were published earlier, but so what? That doesn’t make it any less valid!
With very, VERY rare exceptions (which typically result in negative scores), my jabs at a story are in good fun.
Spider-Man has done that quite a few times; sometimes it’s even worked. You have a point about Daredevil… true he has super-senses so it normally wouldn’t help other blind people, but at this point it’s clear that if you’re blind in the Marvel Universe it’s a legitimate starting point to get powers. He probably doesn’t do it because most of the time he already makes good money as a lawyer 🙂
You’re welcome–and I know your jabs are intended in fun. I’ve always learned something from your reviews.
I was thinking that DD could use his powers to help the blind for philanthropic reasons, but I did set it up as a means to earn money. 🙁 I wasn’t aware that Spidey had tried to sell his web fluid. In a world filled with Post-Its, just think what he could make!
There was an Avengers story in which the Avengers had disbanded, and Wanda tried to get a job as a singer. A singer?! Lady, you have the ability to alter reality with your hexes. Why don’t you offer your services to Hollywood?