Monthly Archives: September 2005

A reprint of X-MEN #5 (1964) in this issue, a 24-page Kirby/Reinman story, with the second round of the ongoing battle with Magneto’s Evil Mutants. As we begin, they’re recovering from their last encounter, which has left Professor X without his powers. A few odd scenes follow, with a visit from Jean’s parents and Cyclops accidentally left in the Danger Room to provide an action sequence.

Shortly thereafter, Magneto has the Toad pose as a competitor in a track meet showing mutant powers in order to lure in the X-Men, hoping to reveal their headquarters.

They unmask him in time, leading to a battle on the subway, and then the Angel is taken prisoner aboard Magneto’s Asteroid M headquarters. The X-Men follow, and are able to prevail and escape thanks to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch being reluctant to follow Magneto’s commands to the point of murdering the X-Men. I wonder at what point it was decided they would join the Avengers? Anyway, the X-Men return home and find out that, among other things, Professor X is a jerk.

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a huge fan of Reinman’s inks compared to some of the other inkers of the era, but he does preserve most of the interesting things in Kirby’s art.

Published 1994

Two S&K stories in this issue, both fairly short so lacking a bit in the complexity of their early romance classics, but with some good points.

“Wedding Present” is a 6-page story about Hank, a young man who falls for Kay and then plans to ask her to marry him just as he gets his draft notice. Unfortunately for him, Kay has been getting serious about another man and Hank reacts poorly to the news.

The action then shifts to Korea, where Hank still has trouble accepting his rejection, even to the point of ignoring obvious advances from a pretty nurse. His rival, Charlie, shows up wounded, and a lecture and blood transfusion later and Hank is ready to move on with his life and finally notices the nurse’s attentions.

This could have been a really good story with a few more pages, and still has some nice scenes, but comes across as more of a summary of a story with just six pages.

“Norma, The Queen of the Hot Dogs” is a 4-page story with a pretty odd title and premise. Norma, a fashion model, is unsure of what to do with her life, wanting to live the high-life but unwilling to marry her rich boss. She ends up going into business with a local hot dog vendor after he remarks that business picks up whenever she hangs around his stand. The new concept for the stand is successful, and they franchise it to more stands with other pretty girls. Yes, S&K predicted Hooters… Of course she still wants more and marries their accountant. Bit of a let-down ending, where it turns out all she really wanted was a strong man and beautiful babies.

As the “anniversary” issue, this also has a page with a short note from the editors and a small reproduction of the classic first issue of YL from 1949.

Published 1953