The X-Men #40
The X-Men #40 quietly sets one of the Silver Age's most consequential long-running deceptions in motion: beginning here and running through issue #43, the Changeling — a reformed villain dying of a terminal illness — impersonates Professor X while Charles Xavier secretly prepares to repel an alien Z'nox invasion, with only Marvel Girl privy to the truth. The issue also delivers Jack Winters/Jack O'Diamonds' first full appearance and full origin, establishing him as the first super-villain Cyclops ever faced before being recruited to the X-Men. As a bonus wrinkle recognized by later writers, a single flashback panel retroactively makes this the first Marvel Comics appearance of the 'real' (non-android) Frankenstein Monster — folding Mary Shelley's novel into the fabric of Marvel's historical continuity. All three story threads are modest in page count but outsized in the continuity chains they initiate.
Find on ebay
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue was scripted entirely by Roy Thomas, who had taken over the X-Men writing duties from Stan Lee, with the lead story pencilled by Don Heck and inked by George Tuska, and the backup story pencilled by Werner Roth and inked by John Verpoorten. Stan Lee is credited as editor. The cover date is January 1968, but the book went on sale November 9, 1967, placing it squarely in the late Silver Age period when the original X-Men title was struggling commercially. The Changeling substitution plot — a device allowing Xavier to vanish from the book without actually 'dying' — was Thomas's way of clearing the stage for new story directions while planting a slow-burn mystery that would pay off in issue #65.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written by Roy Thomas; lead story pencilled by Don Heck, inked by George Tuska; backup story pencilled by Werner Roth, inked by John Verpoorten. Stan Lee credited as editor.
- Cover art by George Tuska.
- First full appearance, name reveal, and origin of Jack Winters / Jack O'Diamonds (also called the Living Diamond) — the first super-villain encountered by a young Cyclops before his recruitment by Professor X. His cameo debut was in X-Men #39.
- Marks the start of the Changeling-as-Professor-X substitution storyline: beginning this issue and running through #43, the shapeshifting mutant Kevin Sidney (Changeling) impersonates Charles Xavier — augmented with Xavier's limited telepathic power — while the real Xavier prepares covertly for a Z'nox invasion. Only Marvel Girl (Jean Grey) knows the truth.
- Introduces the Frankenstein Android: an extraterrestrial construct, not the literary monster, which the X-Men battle and destroy. Later Marvel continuity retroactively treated a flashback panel in this same issue as the first appearance of the actual Frankenstein Monster (as depicted in the Mary Shelley novel) within the Marvel Universe.
- The backup feature 'The First Evil Mutant! — The Origins of the Uncanny X-Men' continues the multi-part Cyclops origin story running through these issues; it also introduces a prototype mutant-tracking device called Cyberno, a precursor to Cerebro.
- Reprinted in: X-Men #88 (June 1974); Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men Vol. 4 (October 2004) and Vol. 8 (March 2010); Essential Classic X-Men Vol. 2 (2006) and Vol. 3 (2009); X-Men: First Class Giant-Size Special #1 (December 2008); The X-Men Omnibus (2009).
- The Changeling character was later reimagined as 'Morph' for the 1990s X-Men: The Animated Series — renamed because DC Comics held the 'Changeling' trademark at the time of the show's debut.
Cast · 11 characters
Full credits
Key issues in The X-Men
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.