Uncanny X-Men 013

September 1964

In which the X-Men battle the unstoppable Juggernaut as he closes in on revenge against his step-brother Charles Xavier. Who will heed Xavier's mental call for aid, and how can the X-Men defeat the most powerful enemy they have faced?

Cover Story

Juggernaut looks like an arm, and nothing else. This is an important point and needed making. Let's move onto things in the usual order.

Uncanny X-Men 013 Cover
Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, Sam Rosen

The classic X-Men logo is red with a black drop shadow on a blue sky. The red is striking but the blue is a bit weak, and since we are indoors here it's also a little out of place. There is just the one caption introducing the story title.

Angel is resplendent gliding through the air towards Juggernaut and is clearly the star of the issue we can gloss over the fact that he isn't actually in it much and the other characters are much further into the background.

Human Torch hurls a fireball at Juggernaut in a typically dynamic Marvel pose; Beast and Iceman, while looking quite small are also in great dynamic poses. Cyclops is basically cupped off the edge of the cover, Xavier has gone into battle with his blue comfort blanket and, wait, is Jean Grey at the disco? Seriously, she looks like she'd getting down to boogie here! 

Overall it's not a great cover; making the villain huge and the heroes tiny is a perspective trick that has served the X-Men well so far, but here Juggernaut is just reduced to an arm with the helmet that is so vital to the story, looking like a shoulder pad. Sure Angel is rendered really well, but the other characters are far too small considering Angel doesn't have the most appearances at the moment. More on that later on by the way!

Where Walks The Juggernaut!

Cyclops and Angel versus Juggernaut

Credits Written by Stan Lee Layouts by Jack Kirby Drawn by Jay Gavin Inked by Joe Sinnott Lettered by Sam Rosen n.b. Jay Gavin is in fact a  pseudonym of Werner Roth

We rejoin the action where we left it at the end of the previous issue, Juggernaut confronts Xavier and as Juggernaut postures Xavier lets rip with the full force of his mutant mind; Juggernaut protected by his helmet is barely affected.

The X-Men attack and as Jean lifts Juggernaut telekinetically Cyclops bores a deep hole to drop him into; Iceman drops ice boulders on him for good measure.

Uncanny X-Men 013 p5.5

Cyclops and Angel stand guard as Jean rushes Xavier to his laboratory and Beast and Iceman collect his equipment, inside Xavier completes his Mento-Helmet and uses it to intensify his power; he unleashes excess energy by sending out a mental distress signal.

Juggernaut escapes from his pit taking Cyclops and Angel by surprise, although they counter attack their strategies are ineffective; meanwhile The Teen Brigade and Daredevil hear Xavier''s call for help but neither can respond.  Beast and Iceman rush to support Cyclops and Angel.

Iceman and Beast versus Juggernaut

Cyclops and Angel are struggling to hold up Juggernaut, who places Angel between himself and Cyclops' optic blast; Angel is stunned. Victorious Juggernaut makes for the stairs but Iceman freezes them sending him back to the bottom.

Uncanny X-Men 013 p11.4

Johnny Storm, the Human Torch receives Xavier's distress call but dismisses is as a ploy by his enemies,  Xavier realises Human Torch can help them defeat Juggernaut and decides to turn his mental powers to recontacting him, and convincing him to come to their aid.

Iceman has managed to freeze Juggernaut in a solid block of ice, but he easily escapes taking Iceman out of the battle in the process. Beast attacks and keeps Juggernaut off balance for a while but at Xavier's command Beast latches on to Juggernauts helmet and loosens it. Juggernaut catches him and breaks his foot.

Beast escapes on his hand and lures Juggernaut into the Danger Room and starts the program. Juggernaut turns the Danger Room's attacks on Beast and he is left unconscious.

Xavier manages to persuade Human Torch to come to the aid of the X-Men.

Marvel Girl and Human Torch versus Juggernaut

Marvel Girl and Professor Xavier enter the battle and Marvel Girl is quick to capture Juggernaut in a telekinetic forcefield. Just as it seems Juggernaut will be able to break free, the Human Torch arrives on the scene.

Human Torch flies a distraction pattern around Juggernaut while Xavier calls Angel back into the battle. Human Torch is able to temporarily blind Juggernaut allowing Angel to go on the attack.

First Appearances Johnny Storm - Human Torch Matt Murdock - Daredevil

With Juggernaut off balance, Angel swoops in and removes Juggernauts helmet, loosened earlier by Beast.

Juggernaut can no longer resist the awesome mental power of Professor Xavier, he incapacitates Juggernaut with his power and believes the authorities will be able to contain him as long as he is kept from his helmet. I'd like to see them try! Juggernaut's helmet is not the source of his awesome physical power, but it's the last page and they are trying to wrap up the story!

Xavier uses his power to wipe Human Torch's memory of their encounter and send him on his way. The X-Men, all of whom are injured apart from Jean take to their infirmary beds to recuperate, but Xavier warns them they have to clean up the school once they are well.

Mutant Evolution

Mutant	Power Evolution
Marvel Girl	Marvel Girl is able to lift a mutant more that double her own body weight for two significant periods without negative effects.

 

Advert Corner

In the original print of this issue, close to the back was an interesting little advert for a set of ten vinyl records containing popular music. The records contained 60 songs for the price of $2.98, if you've been following previous Advert Corners, you know we convert these prices to what they would cost today in pounds sterling; and that's £16.48!

If you were buying these sixty songs online you would be looking at about 70p per track, if you could find them, for a total of £42. Clearly this was actually a pretty good offer, and the songs were much more recent then. That being said I only recognised about ten of the songs listed - so maybe it wasn't such a bargain.

Statistics Corner

Here we are on only the second appearance of Juggernaut, if we don't count the waiting of Cerebro in issue 11, and yet Juggernaut has already had the same number of panel appearances as Blob from three issues, and Mastermind from six.

Character Appearances in Uncanny X-Men Issues 1-13

In fact Juggernaut is already eighth in order of most appearances behind the X-Men, Professor Xavier and Magneto. Juggernaut is flat out top in the contest for issues to panel ratio with an amazing 58 appearances per issue, Unus The Untouchable has 51 and Cyclops is third with 41.4 appearances per issue.

Of course Juggernaut has the advantage of being always heavily featured in the issues he is in, where as many other characters have issues where they don't appear so much, so it's always likely to be the villains in the lead.

Looking at just the core five characters, Cyclops has had the most appearances, nearly 550, Beast also has more than 500, but Angel and Iceman have only around 450. Marvel Girl is lagging way behind at a measly 420 appearances more than nine appearances per issue less than Cyclops. These differences might not be noticeable in a single issue, but over the course of the first 13, its clear who the stars of the magazine are.

The Merry Marvel Marching Society

This month on the Merry Marvel Marching Society page an amazing special offer, an X-Men T-Shirt for only $1.50, even with the 15c postage and handling that's a cheep as chips £9.11 in today's money.

Of course in these cases i usually try and find a place you could buy the item from and give a comparison, the trouble is this item isn't actually that widely available.

I did find one website offering a long-sleeved variant for about £14.50 but even my old friend e-bay didn't have this exact shirt. Maybe no-one bought one; except there is definitely one owned by this marvel fansite and then finally, when I was about to give up looking and write a different feature, I found them at Country Outfitter in the states. I can't vouch for the site in any way, but they are retailing what looks like an accurate replica of the shirt for  £29.95 or about £21.60; they don't ship internationally unfortunately, but do let us know in the comments if you've purchased this item.