Comments
I see the Marvel age of unrepentant overstatement is still going strong. I'm not necessarily against a supervillain being accompanied by witless flunkies, but "most treacherous terrors ever to troop from Marvel's titanic imagination!" is probably somewhat grandiose a term for people of below average intelligence but above average bush-craft skills.
Bush craft honed in the Amazon and Argentina, at that, so it's not clear why Juan Meroz (sorry, he, Juan Meroz -- known to other gem hunters as El Tigre!) hired them to help out in searching the Mayan ruins of Central America. Guatemala has, like, thirteen fucking million inhabitants, you couldn't get one of those to show you around Kaminljuyu? Or do all Central/South Americans look alike to you?
Racist.
Also, why is Xavier still sulking about not being able to help the X-Men in battle? He has mechanical legs, he has the ability to put on a mask. Stop whining, cueball, and grab yourself some spandex!
It would certainly make more sense than turning the volume up on Cerebro: it's already deafening whenever an enemy attacks, making it louder so it can penetrate Xavier's sound-proof lab seems distinctly counter-productive. Note to Xavier - blinky lights are useful as well as pretty.
By my count, this is about the thirty-seventh time Cyclops has thought about leaving the X-Men. I never really warmed to him when I started reading the comic in the '90s, but I'd take the repressed square-jawed cardboard cut-out over this sulking child any day. I guess he's not the world's first teenage emo, though.
Clues
This issue takes place over several days.
The story begins with the X-Men accompanying Jean as she returns to college, just after defeating the Locust. The fact she'll be late for classes is mentioned, suggesting this is taking place on Monday morning. We then fast-forward a few days to allow El Tigre and his flunkies to make the trip from Central America to New York - we'll make our standard assumption that "a few days" means around 72 hours. That puts El Tigre's arrival on the Thursday, and the rest of the story takes place that same day.
(This relies on us taking Xavier claiming to not have used his new legs "for a few days" as really meaning "since the day before yesterday". Still, any later and Jean would have been playing hookie; it's more likely Xavier exaggerated the length of time so that Beast felt less embarrassed about having forgot that his mentor had only just learned to walk again.)
Jean is told she was wise to start college during the summer, confirming that at the most it's been three months or so since their encounter with Count Nefaria (though of course I'm assuming that it's been less than a fortnight).
Date
X-Date
X+437 to X+440.
Compression Constant
1 Marvel year = 2.56 standard years.
(Iceman is 34 years old)
Monday 11th to Thursday 14th of June, 1979.
 |
| "Ridin' an iceboard is a blast, too... but I don't make a federal case out of it!" |
A human-powered aircraft, the Gossamer Albatross, successfully crosses the English Channel.
Standout Line
"Got to have a drink of water... even if it comes from the Hudson river!" Does making someone so thirsty they'll drink from the Hudson constitute murder by poisoning? And is this then the first death in the comic's run?
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