The X-Men have come a long way from their Silver Age beginnings. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the team tapped into the civil rights struggles of the ’60s, introducing the concept of “mutants” to the Marvel Universe. Today, mutants are one of the most important parts of the House of Ideas; in fact, there was a period when mutants basically kept the lights on at Marvel. However, that wasn’t the case when they started out. The X-Men were easily the least popular of the publisher’s early ’60s output. Lee and Kirby stayed on the book for a little over a year, and then it kept falling down the charts until it was profitable enough to keep publishing, but not enough to pay for new stories, becoming a reprint book.
While the team failed in a lot of ways, those early Lee/Kirby issues had some magic to them. They introduced numerous amazing X-Men villains, starting with Magneto, and issue #4 would see the creation of one of the most important Marvel mutant teams – the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. This team was Magneto’s strike force, with four new characters debuting to fill out the roster – Toad, Mastermind, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch. All four of these characters would play a big role in mutant history, but it’s those last two that are the most important. This issue began the drama of one of the most important and complicated families in the Marvel Universe, with the twins eventually revealed to be the children of Magneto, a development that would lead to major changes for the Marvel Universe.
The Saga of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Is One of Marvel’s Most Momentous
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Magneto was the X-Men’s first villain, his dream of mutant conquest juxtaposing beautifully with Xavier’s dream of peace. He made a great threat, but he was just the first. The next two issues introduced the Vanisher and the Blob, mutants using their powers to do evil. Issue #4 would bring back the Big M, along with a group of new mutants who followed his bidding. We got Toad, Mags’ right hand mutant and whipping boy, the mind-controlling Mastermind, played as something of a smarmy pervert, and the young twins Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. The group steals a freighter, attacks the country of San Marco, forcing the X-Men to intervene and attack the villain team.
Right away, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were important. Toad and Mastermind fought over Wanda, who was played as the naive young woman, with her brother Quicksilver protecting her. In 2026, Scarlet Witch is the Sorcerer Supreme, but this book created the characterization for her that would become a major part of many of her early stories – the perpetual victim. Look at the history of the character and you find that she constantly had people making excuses for her or trying to protect her. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been so annoyed with the character in the 21st century; she’s done legitimately terrible things and yet is always protected by the people who pretend to be the most moral.
Quicksilver was the young hothead, Toad was the bully who was himself bullied, and Mastermind was scum personified. Headed by the bombastic Magneto, the Brotherhood would form the first version of a family we didn’t even know about at the time. See, at this point, Magneto wasn’t thought of as the parents of twins; this would come much later (much like Magneto’s own Holocaust origin). However, the dysfunctional nature of their relationship – Magneto as the exacting patriarch, Scarlet Witch as the “favorite” daughter that was being used by her “father”, and Quicksilver as the hotheaded young sibling, who did all the work and got all the flack – was apparent. Their dynamic would change in many ways over the years, especially because of the shifting morality of all three characters, but it would follow the tropes laid out by Lee and Kirby.
The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants would play a bigger role in the earlier years of the X-Men more than the latter. They were the evil opposites of the team, making them an easy threat to have pop up. Blob would join and Magneto would eventually be replaced by Mystique and Destiny, who would eventually end up bringing the team to the US government and becoming their premiere mutant strike force, Freedom Force. They were a major foe throughout the ’80s, but ended up losing most of their prominence in the ’90s, when Mystique and Destiny’s team went away. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch would move over to the Avengers and become iconic, with Scarlet Witch getting the most spotlight. None of that would have possible without the work done in this issue.
X-Men (Vol. 1) #4 Changed the Course of the Marvel Universe and No One Knew It
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
The early X-Men comics get a pretty bad rep, but these early Lee/Kirby issues were the height of the team’s early years (other than the Thomas/Adams run right before the book went to reprints). These stories introduced the basics of the character beautifully, introducing loads of amazing characters. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants were a basic part of comics – evil opposite villains – but they’d end up becoming a massively important part of Marvel history. It planted the seeds for the saga of Magneto, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver and introduced Mastermind and Toad, two villains who would play a huge role in the future of the X-Men. These developments would lead, in a lot of ways, to the successes of Marvel in the ’00s, where Scarlet Witch became a major part of the biggest stories. The Marvel Universe wouldn’t be the same without the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
While Magneto, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver are no longer biologically related, they are easily one of the most important Marvel families. This issue laid the groundwork for all of the trials and tribulations that they would go through over the decades. Creators took the basics of that relationship and expanded on it beautifully, creating a familial relationship that would change the course of the Marvel Universe more than once. This issue is an amazing example of everything great about Marvel Comics – a story from two of the best creators ever that laid the groundwork for the future brilliantly.
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