Narrow Escapes and a Random Lost Civilization

                                                          art by Don Heck and Marie Severin

X-Men #44 (May 1968) takes us back to the Pietro/Wanda situation that began back in Avengers #47 several months earlier. We are getting to the tail-end of the story arc--2 issues of X-Men (including this one) and then a final issue of The Avengers will wrap it up. 

The credits are complicated, so let's just get them out of the way. Roy Thomas plotted the book, then Gary Friedrich wrote the script. Don Heck did the layouts, then Werner Roth did the finished pencils. 

In the last issue, the X-Men has been captured by Magneto at the villain's island HQ. Toad, naturally, is sucking up to Magneto and insisting the X-Men simply be killed. Pietro, though, argues that they should be kept alive. Though the con Magneto ran on him and Wanda earlier in the story arc was a good one--convincing the siblings that he had set aside his murderous ways--it's starting to get to be a bit of a stretch to accept that Pietro still trusts him. 

But Magneto does agree to keep the heroes imprisoned, with each of them attached to a devise or cage that nullifies their powers. But someone has carelessly left a disintegrator ray near Angel's cage, allowing him to free himself. (This seems contrived, but it will eventually be explained.)

Cyclops, in fact, suspects its a trap and tells Angel to just run for it and get help from the Avengers. Quicksilver tries to follow (he claims to have "recently gained the power of flight, but it seems that he just uses his superspeed to jump really far), but Angel outflies him.

It's a long flight back to New York City. Angel is caught in a storm and lands on a rock to rest. But the rock then rises up and reveals an island. Inside is a super-civilization guarded by a guy in a winged suit called Red Raven.

After a brief (and pretty cool) fight, Raven explains the situation: The secret island city is the home of a race of Bird People. When he was a baby, Raven was the lone survivor of a plane crash and was raised by the Bird People. After Raven grew to adulthood, the winged guys unwisely decided to attack the rest of the world. Raven gassed them all unconscious and put them in suspended animation cylinders. The island has risen up out of the ocean because it's time for them to wake up. Raven, though, intends to put them asleep for another 20 years. (By the way, Raven is later retconned into being a construct based on the World War II-era character--but that's a story for another time.)

Angel objects to this plan, thinking that the Bird People technology might benefit mankind. Raven knocks him out, re-sinks the island, and uses an anti-gravity ray to keep Angel afloat until he wakes up again. When he does wake up, Angel resumes his flight to find the Avengers.

So the book advances the main story arc a little, but most of it is given over to a side story. But this is fine, since its a good story and adds another interesting element to the Marvel Universe that other writers can dip into if they ever want to do so. The Angel/Raven fight scene is fun as well. 

Next week, we'll move to the next issue of X-Men, in which the main story arc will begin to gain speed.