Continuing my mission to figure out who were the most recurrent villains of early Marvel, let’s tackle the mutants.
This is a shorter one though, because I will be looking at only the first 66 issues of X-Men.
Because, as you probably know, the title went into reprints from #67 in 1970 and would not begin publishing new material until #94 in 1975.
I suppose I could just skip the reprints and continue analyzing the book… but then there would be the 16-year Claremont run, which doesn’t have a neat point where I can stop.
So with that in mind, let’s see which villains showed up the most.
Despite the low number of issues, there’s quite a few villains: I counted 49* distinct one.
*you’ll see why
To be fair, in the second half of the series there are several issues with a back-up story (set before issue 1).
And once again, without really trying, this fits neatly into a Top Ten.
#10: the one-hit wonders (one appearance)
There are a surprising 19 enemies that show up only ONCE.
Out of those, 16 don’t really have a whole lot to do with the X-Men in the rest of their history, so I’m putting all of them at the bottom.
Those include heroes like Namor and the Hulk, as well as villains borrowed from other series: Blastaar, the Puppet Master, the Super-Adaptoid, Tyrannus and Computo.
Wrong one. This one is revealed within the story to actually be Quasimodo.
Wrong one. The Fantastic Four villain.
Also stuck at #10 there are one-offs like the Stranger, the Z’Nox, some Savage Land tribes, Red Raven, the Ogre, Mekano, Cobalt Man, the Locust and Frankenstein’s Monster.
You might think that the X-Men fighting Frankenstein’s Monster is bizarre, but don’t worry.
This is actually an alien robot.
#9: the one-hit mutants (one appearance)
Banshee, Mimic and Sunfire also are the villain for 1 issue, but considering their later role I think this warrants a higher position.
Banshee actually shows up later as an ally, and Mimic is for all intents and purposes a full member of the team for like a dozen issues.
#8: the two-issue nobodies
There are 11 villains that show up twice, and most of those are Count Nefaria and his team of losers composed of the Eel, Plantman, Porcupine, Scarecrow and the Unicorn.
But we also have Grotesk, Kukulcan, the Savage Land Mutates and Sauron.
Wrong one. The were-pterodactyl energy vampire who, despite the meme, doesn’t typically want to turn people into dinosaurs. His main powers are hypnotism and copyright infringement.
Okay, enough with the jokes about weirdly recycled names.
The next one with two appearances is Warlock.
This poor guy just can’t catch a break! He was originally named Merlin in his first appearance in 1963.
Since this guy is NOT actually the same Merlin from King Arthur, they changed his name to Warlock. And they changed his name AGAIN to Maha Yogi for his second X-Men story.
In retrospect that was a stroke of luck, because the change happens BEFORE Adam Warlock takes the name and years before the New Mutants one is created.
#7: the three-issue gang
The Vanisher (their second-ever villain!), Unus The Untouchable, and the Living Pharaoh all reach 3 issues each.
As does the very minor villain Lucifer, booster by being the one responsible for paralyzing Professor X (something I’m shocked has not been retconned yet!).
That’s the ALIEN Lucifer, not… nevermind.
But with 3 appearances we also have Changeling (who you might know better as Morph… yeah that one) and the unbelievably lame Conquistador (boosted by being in the Beast back-up storyline).
But also, you might be shocked to find Magneto* this low in the ranking!!!
That’s because this is specifically a robot duplicate of Magneto, acting independently from the real one. Although we don’t learn it well after his initial storyline, he WAS initially considered to be the real one for three issues (and he’s not the villain in the one where it’s destroyed).
#6: how are these two not a bigger deal?
I never understood why Mesmero never became a big name. He’s kind of like Purple Man with another color, sure, but A) his power is not as limited B) he’s a mutant fanatic follower of Magneto.
Jack O’Diamonds is not as interesting, but his powerset is so WILD that he should be used more often. Seriously: he can turn into diamond (initially just his hands), he can track mutants, he’s immune to telepathy while in diamond form, and he can teleport!
He’s basically Emma Frost AND Caliban AND Nightcrawler rolled into one!!!
#5: the big boys
The Blob and the Juggernaut have 5 appearances each… and yet they don’t fight each other!
Come on, you have one guy whose power is “nothing can move me” and the other one whose power is “nothing can stop me”!!!!
#4: the best and the worst of the original run
Two villains are the main threat 6 times: the Sentinels, which I would argue are what turned the X-Men into the X-Men…
…and Factor Three. Which I consider the worst of the worst of the original run.
Not just because this nebulous conspiracy controlled by aliens is not just UNBERABLY BORING, but their storyline just… won’t… end.
#3: not what you were expecting to see
Mastermind shows up in several issues with the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants… but not ALL of its incarnations. Adding to his appearances with Factor Three and the one time he sent Unus to attack the X-Men, he’s a villain for 7 stories.
#2: the Brotherhood of Problematic Names
There are EIGHT stories where the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are the villains.
Mastermind is there only 5 times, but Toad, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are always there… although the latter two are part of the team against their will for the last three times.
Considering there are 66 issues in this analysis, the Brotherhood are the villains 12% of the time.
#1: the master of hogging the spotlight
There was never any doubt that Magneto would be on top of the ranking: it was just a matter of HOW MUCH ahead of the others he would be.
All things considered, not THAT much: he’s the villain in 13 issues, which is almost 20% of the 66 issues.
Except… that’s only if we count the one that we know is the real Magneto AFTER the revelation that the Magneto* android was fake (which happens in #58).
But he WAS for all intents and purposes the real Magneto when issues 50 to 52 were considered!
And because of that…
#1+: almost a co-protagonist at this point
If we add the appearances of Magneto and the Magneto* android… this hypothetical MagnetoX is the villain of 16 our of 66 issues, or 24% of the stories.
That’s ALMOST A QUARTER OF THE ISSUES, easily beating the previous record of Kingpin showing up in 10% of Daredevil issues, or Doctor Doom showing up in 16% of the Fantastic Four run by Lee & Kirby!!!
Bonus: Magneto’s presence is even more ridiculous when we examine the Lee & Kirby run.
Considering the issues with FULL Kirby pencils, that’s X-Men #1-11 (he only did layouts for issues #12-17). Out of these 11 issues:
