Unknown Secret Mission

[surfer99]

Among other X-men storylines...

 

I spent some time (OK a lot of time) this weekend researching X-men storylines from the 70's (my forte), looking through the footnotes in each issue, and updating my comic descriptions to link the various issues associated with a particular storyline. Why? Because I like to follow the story along to see how it plays out, and now I can. If anyone else would like to check out some of these great stories, I've put them in order and listed them under their respective plotlines. Enjoy!

 

Beast- flying solo

1972 Amazing Adventures #11-12

1972 Marvel Team-Up #4

1973 Amazing Adventures #13-16

1973 Incredible Hulk #161

1974 Captain America #174-175

1975 Avengers #137 (joins a new team)

 

Magneto- world domination

1969 X-men #61-63

1970 Fantastic Four #102-104

1971 Amazing Adventures #9-10

1973 Avengers #110

1973 Daredevil #99

1973 Avengers #111

1974 Defenders #15-16

 

Magneto- revenge against the X-men

1977 X-men #104

1977 Super Villain Team-Up #14

1977 Champions #16

1978 Marvel Team-Up #69 (Beast sub-plot)

1978 X-men #111-113

 

Juggernaut- escape from limbo

1968 X-men 46

1969 Dr. Strange #182

1973 Amazing Adventures #16

1974 Incredible Hulk #172

 

Secret Empire- operation hostile takeover

1972 Amazing Adventures #13 (Brotherhood of Evil Mutants captured)

1972 Incredible Hulk #150 (Havok and Polaris captured)

1973 Avengers #111 (Angel captured)

1973 Incredible Hulk #161 (Beast captured)

1974 Incredible Hulk #172

1974 Captain America #172-175

 

Secret Mission- unknown?

1974 Marvel Team-Up #23

1974 Defenders #15

In these issues, references are made to a "secret mission" the X-men have been tasked with, but this occurred after the Secret Empire was defeated in Captain America #175. The question then becomes WHAT was this secret mission?!? This next part kind of blew my mind a little...these two issues, Marvel Team-Up #23 and Defenders #15 were both written by none other than Len Wien- the man who only a few months later would bring us Hulk #181 and Giant-Size X-men #1! It's apparent from comments made in GSX #1 that the Professor knew of Wolverine and had been keeping tabs on him, so my guess is this secret mission was to enlist him in the X-men. Unfortunately before the X-men could reach out to him, they received a new mutant alert from Cerebro that resulted in their defeat and capture by Krokoa. As a result, Professor X was left to gather a whole new team on his own that included Wolverine. Pretty cool to think Len was laying the groundwork for the new team in these issues and we didn't even know it!

 

Yeah, I know I spend too much time thinking about this stuff, but it's fun! Something else that came out of my research- I found another Bronze Age X-men appearance I didn't know existed! I was reading the footnotes in Power Man and Iron Fist #57 and saw a reference to Defenders #63 (1978). I did a quick search on eBay and sure enough, there's Havok and Polaris on the cover! How cool is that? Of course I bought a reading copy right away, so now I'll be on the lookout for a 9.6 copy to add to the collection.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Til next time...

 

 

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