X-Men #4 (Mar 64): The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants!Creative Team: sensational story by Stan Lee; dynamic drawings by Jack Kirby; imaginative inking by Paul Reinman; legible lettering by Art Simek
Starting Line Up: Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast, Marvel Girl
Synopsis: Magneto returns and brings with him the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: Toad, who jumps around, Mastermind, who creates visual illusions, Quicksilver, who runs very fast, and his sister, the Scarlet Witch, who casts hexes which arn't very well defined. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are reluctant to be with the group, but Magneto saved Witch from a lynch mob, so they feel they owe him. The Brotherhood conquors the small Central American country of Santo Marco, full of white people. The X-Men chase them away but an explosion causes Xavier to lose his powers.
Yeah, but is it good? The Brotherhood was great idea, even in the early days. They made the perfect counterpoint to the X-Men. It's just too bad Magneto was still generic and not yet the perfect counterpoint to the idealistic Xavier. They also furthered the X-Men's purpose of recruiting mutants before the Brotherhood can and that becomes a recurring theme of the early issues. Stan Lee had the basic idea of what the X-Men should be about, but he never followed it fully. Writters after him just didn't get it until Claremont. There's some good tension on the evil side already as the Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch dispise Magneto.
Significata: First appearance of Toad, Mastermind, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
