X-Men Publication History--A list of X-Books arranged in their order of Publication.

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ISSUE:The Sub-Mariner(1968) #18
PUBLICATION DATE:October 1969
CREATORS:W:Roy Thomas/P:Marie Severin/I:Mike Esposito





--Namor unites with the Inhuman,Triton,to defeat Dynarr the Stalker......As a result of battling Dynarr,Namor loses the power to breathe underwater!

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ISSUE:X-Men(1963) #61
PUBLICATION DATE:October 1969
CREATORS:........W:Roy Thomas/P:Neal Adams/I:Tom Palmer.



--Sauron battles the X-Men but escapes......Reverting to human form,Lykos drains mutant energy from Angel and Polaris reverting back to Sauron......He intends to eliminate his nemesis,Dr Anderssen and grab his love Tanya but after another battle with the X-Men he realises how dangerous he has become.....He heads for his childhood home of Tierra Del Fuego to die......But Tanya follows him and when he is tempted to drain her life force,he throws himself off a cliff(seemingly to his death)rather than harm her......The X-Men arrive but are too late to prevent the tradegy.

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ISSUE:The Sub-Mariner(1968) #19
PUBLICATION DATE:November 1969
CREATORS:W:Roy Thomas/P:Marie Severin/I:Johnny Craig




--Namor battles Sting-Ray(Dr Walter Newell)in what is a first appearance for this character......Nice design on that costume.

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ISSUE:X-Men(1963) #62
PUBLICATION DATE:November 1969
CREATORS:........W:Roy Thomas/P:Neal Adams/I:Tom Palmer.




--Angel travels to Tierra Del Fuego and tries to recover Karl Lykos' body.....But he ends up in The Savage Land and attacked by Pteradactyls.....He is rescued and healed by a mysterious benefactor who is helping Savage Land mutants......The rest of the X-Men hook up with Ka-zar and end up battling against some of these same 'mutants'.....Unknown to Angel,his benefactor is Magneto!

--Magneto returns with a new costume(to disguise his identity but it's not a patch on his original number).....Appearing for the first time are Amphibius,Barbarus,Brainchild,Piper,Gaza,Equilibri us and Lupo,the Savage Land Mutates......Also Guest-starring Ka-zar and Zabu.

--Angel had been having a torrid time of it lately,following his encounters with The Sentinels,Sauron and now The Savage Land wildlife......He's easily duped by helmetless Magneto.....However,at least Magneto finally solves Angel's costume dilemma,presenting him with a snazzy blue and white number.

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ISSUE:The Invincible Iron Man(1968) #20
PUBLICATION DATE:December 1969
CREATORS:W:Archie Goodwin/P:George Tuska/I:Mike Esposito



--I'm stretching things a little including this issue......But it features the X-villain,Lucifer,who interestingly reveals in this issue that he was banished to Limbo after his defeat at the hands of the X-Men(The X-Men did not banish him there)....He tries to escape in this issue but ends up being sent back at the end of the story.

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ISSUE:The Sub-Mariner(1968) #20
PUBLICATION DATE:December 1969
CREATORS:W:Roy Thomas/P:John Buscema/I:Johnny Craig




--In N.Y.,Namor evades the police by ducking into the Latverian Embassy.....Once instead,he finds Doctor Doom trying to capture him.

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ISSUE:X-Men(1963) #63
PUBLICATION DATE:December 1969
CREATORS:........W:Roy Thomas/P:Neal Adams/I:Tom Palmer.




--Magneto reveals his true identity and that he has actually mutated some of the Savage Land people to make the 'mutates'.....He reveals his latest creation,Lorelei,who has the power to mesmorize males with her haunting voice......Unfortunately for Magneto,Marvel Girl is unaffected and this leads to Magneto's inevitable defeat.

--Once again,Magneto seems to perish at the end of the issue.

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ISSUE:The Sub-Mariner(1968) #21
PUBLICATION DATE:January 1970
CREATORS:W:Roy Thomas/P:Marie Severin/I:Johnny Craig




--The Atlanteans invade the surface world!.....But which side is Namor on???(I haven't read it so I can't tell you!)

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ISSUE:X-Men(1963) #64
PUBLICATION DATE:January 1970
CREATORS:........W:Roy Thomas/P:Don Heck/I:Tom Palmer.




--Introducing the Japanese mutant,Sunfire,whose mutation is a result of his mother being exposed to radiation during the Hiroshima bombing......If you thought Calvin Rankin was moody,wait until you meet this angry young man!.....Great costume too.

--Don Heck takes over from Neal Adams for an issue and does a great job--there are times when the difference is hardly visible.

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ISSUE:The Sub-Mariner(1968) #22
PUBLICATION DATE:February 1970
CREATORS:W:Roy Thomas/P:Marie Severin/I:Johnny Craig



--Part 2 of a 3 issue cross-over with Doctor Strange and The Hulk......Part 1 was Doctor Strange #183(last issue of the now discontinued series).....Part 3 is in the upcoming The Incredible Hulk # 126

--Dr. Strange restores Namor's ability to breathe underwater in this issue.

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ISSUE:X-Men(1963) #65
PUBLICATION DATE:February 1970
CREATORS:........W:Denny O'Neill/P:Neal Adams/I:Tom Palmer.




--Neal Adams returns to pencil his last issue and Denny O'Neill takes over scripting......A pretty poor issue that is most memorable for the re-introduction of Xavier,who was playing dead the whole time......'Professor Xavier is a jerk!'.....His attitude sucks.

--After a run of 'honest' covers,this one just plain lies to the readers.....Angel's speech bubble is particularly mis-leading predicting a huge showdown between Cyclops,Iceman and a giant kick ass alien.

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ISSUE:The Sub-Mariner(1968) #23
PUBLICATION DATE:March 1970
CREATORS:W:Roy Thomas/P:Marie Severin/I:Johnny Craig




--Namor goes up against Orka,the human killer whale!

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ISSUE:X-Men(1963) #66
PUBLICATION DATE:March 1970
CREATORS:........W:Roy Thomasl/P:Sal Buscema/I:Sam Grainger.





--Xavier lapses into a coma and the X-Men try to track down Bruce Banner after Xavier hints that he may be able to help......A scrap with the Hulk results.

--The last issue of the Original X-men.....Print run statistics of Average Paid Circulation of 235,811 issues per calender month over last 12 months......Unbelievably,this was only about 4,000 issues per month less than the Avengers and not too far behind some of the other superhero titles......I wonder how far the Avengers were from cancellation?.....But there was a move away from superhero titles around this time and a lot of the new titles Marvel were producing were basically horror,war or cowboy titles.......How can the mutants recover from this?!

--Just to put things in perspective,here's a Marvel comic launched around the time of the X-Men's demise......(Dude's got big hands!):

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ISSUE:Avengers #75
PUBLICATION DATE:April 1970
CREATORS:W:Roy Thomas/P:John Buscema/I:Tom Palmer



--Following their escape from Magneto in Avengers #53,Quicksilver,Toad and The Scarlet Witch had wandered Europe trying to restore her powers.....But Wanda has been kidnapped by Akron and Quicksilver returns to the Avengers mansion to seek the help of his former team-mates.

--Quicksilver and Wanda re-join the Avengers......Quicksilver changes his costume from his original green number to his better known blue costume.

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ISSUE:The Sub-Mariner(1968) #24
PUBLICATION DATE:April 1970
CREATORS:W:Roy Thomas/P:John Buscema/I:Jim Mooney




--Namor faces Tiger Shark once again.....Also featuring Orka,Doctor Dorcas and Krang........Can't believe Tiger Shark's got the balls to call Namor 'Fish-Man in a derogatory way......pot/kettle,anyone?