Storytelling melodrama necessarily led to an escalation of power in early Marvel comics.
Super-powered heroes needed to face even more powerful enemies, and, soon enough, virtually omnipotent beings began to intrude upon a hapless humanity.
The Norse chief god Odin came to Earth. Thor faced the unstoppable Destroyer. The Fantastic Four ran into the Infant Terrible, the Impossible Man, Molecule Man and the moon-based Watcher (soon to be dwarfed by the planet-devouring Galactus).
Among my favorites from this all-powerful crowd was the Stranger, who arrived on Earth in X-Men 11 (May 1965),
“Powerful aliens are nothing new to comics, and Marvel has introduced a fair share of them,” observed Drew R. “However, the Stranger represents something fresh for the X-Men. His powers are initially undefined and appear omnipotent, which makes him a fascinating and unpredictable antagonist — or perhaps something else entirely.”
In a tale that is visually reminiscent of Odin’s visit to Earth, the Stranger wears a business suit and top coat, plucks a fistful of money from the air, and then walks on that same air, surprised and irritated that he is attracting attention. He phases through the wall of a building to confront Magneto and his minions.
But Magneto’s reach exceeded his magnetic grasp when he tried to recruit the Stranger to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
After Magneto and the X-Men clash, fruitlessly, the Stranger reveals the full extent of his power, swelling to giant size and whisking away into space with Magneto and the Toad, “…whose loyalty is to touching.”
“We shall never return,” the Stranger announces, having converted all three of them into beams of energy.
“Magneto’s removal from the narrative feels dramatic, almost akin to a symbolic death — a classic comic book trope for a supervillain’s ‘final defeat,’” Drew R. wrote. “While the story frames his departure as final, seasoned readers know that nothing in comics stays final for long.
“What stands out, however, is the development of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Their decision to leave Magneto and the Brotherhood has been hinted at many times before, but here, it finally comes to fruition. They break free of their bonds to Magneto, setting off to forge their own path. While their chosen path is one of neutrality and normality for now, we all know they’ll return — and when they do, it will be as heroes rather than villains. This evolution has been brewing since their introduction, making this issue a pivotal moment for both characters.”
Their rehabilitation would come that same month, in fact, when Captain America welcomed into the reshuffled ranks of his super-team in Avengers 16.
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