X-Men #44, Red Raven, Red Raven!

Dear Reader, turn your clock upside down and travel back in time with me to the dim and distant days of 1972 and that indoor market on Lytham Road in Blackpool.

I've only just started reading American comics and, during this fortnight-long summer holiday, I get my hands on the issue of Captain America in which our hero finds himself battling a talking gorilla that can control dogs. I also get a Batman comic in which the cowled crusader is confounded by bolas. I get an issue of The Flash which mentions Jerry Lewis, and an issue of Teen Titans in which our youthful do-gooders have a caveman in the back of their van.

What I also get is an issue of the X-Men.

Naive fool that I am, I'm still too inexperienced in the ways of super-herodom to know that I don't actually like 1960s X-Men comics and, so, the tale seems a thrill ride to me, in which the main appeal is that one of its be-winged characters wears a yellow and red costume and the other  wears a red and yellow costume. It's amazing how costume colour can be the most important factor in story-telling, when you're eight.

But that was then. This is now. We're back in 2019 and, for the first time since I re-read the tale in a mid 1970s' issue of Mighty World of Marvel, I have my hands on that story once more.

Will I be as impressed by it now as I was then?

There's only one way to find out.

The X-Men have been captured by Magneto - and the Toad can't wait for them to be executed.

Magneto, however, harbours hopes that he might yet convert them to his cause, and so imprisons them in his dungeon.

Unfortunately for the magnetic menace, the Angel manages to escape and flees the island, in search of the Avengers.

Sadly, grown tired from flying, he seeks rest on a lump of rock protruding from the ocean - a rock which turns out to be the mere tip of a submerged island!

And, now, that island is submerged no longer - because it's the home of Red Raven who's put his own people, the Bird-People, into suspended animation to prevent them trying to wage a disastrous war against humanity.

His story told, Red Raven knocks the Angel out and then re-submerges his island, vowing to keep the Bird-People in their deep sleep for another twenty years.

Regaining consciousness, to find the island gone, the Angel takes to the air and sets off, once more, in search of the Avengers.

The story's credited to Stan Lee but, with its revival of a Golden Age character, it'll come as no shock to anyone that it's plotted by Roy Thomas. Oddly, though, there's no acknowledgement of Red Raven's previous use by Marvel. You could easily think he's a newly minted character.

Don Heck and Werner Roth's artwork isn't going to win any awards but it's efficient in its story-telling and isn't in any way off-putting.

There are some oddities to the tale.

There's the manner of the Angel's escape from Magneto's clutches. He finds some sort of laser cutter on the floor, next to where he's being held captive, and uses it to slice through the net that's holding him. That's a remarkable piece of luck and I wonder if it is a piece of luck or if the device has been left there by either Quicksilver or the Scarlet Witch who are currently back with Magneto, after their initial Avengers stint, and are clearly not happy to just go along with his megalomaniac plans.

Quicksilver can fly! During the Angel's escape bid, Pietro actually takes to the air and flies after him for a short spell before having to return to Earth. It's clear from the dialogue that this power has never been used before but was it ever mentioned or used again?

Red Raven must be the least observant man in the history of the planet, as, according to his flashback, he managed to reach adulthood before realising that he alone, among the Bird-People, doesn't have wings. How on Earth do you not notice a thing like that?

Red Raven also seems to be totally mentally unstable, oscillating randomly between wanting to kill the Angel and wanting to save him, wanting to fight him and wanting to talk to him. I do wonder if the Bird-People's plan to invade the world even ever existed or if he's just convinced himself it did.

The Toad really is an obnoxious little psychopath in this tale. My memories of the character are of him being a servile weakling, bossed around by Magneto and wishing he was free of his influence but, in this one, while Magneto seems content to be reasonable about things, the Toad is constantly goading him to commit murder.

There's no sign of the Bi-Beast. How can we have a story about the Bird-People without mention of the Bi-Beast?

Admittedly, that's almost certainly because he hadn't been invented yet. But, when reading the tale from a 21st Century perspective, his absence does feel highly noticeable.

Anyway, all that aside, did I strike gold with my first ever X-Men comic, all those decades ago?

No I didn't. It's clearly not some kind of classic and it's not as compelling or as accomplished as the Captain America tale I reviewed the other week.

Having said that, I did enjoy it more than I do most Silver Age X-Men tales. Possibly, the fact that it's not really an X-Men tale at all and is clearly Thomas taking an opportunity to reintroduce a half-forgotten character to the then modern age, makes it more appealing to me.

I therefore come to the conclusion that I did get lucky with it in 1972, as there are few 1960s X-Men issues that I would have been better off having.