As I wrote about last year, when Roy Thomas started writing the origin of the X-Men — how did Professor X recruit Scott, Bobby, Warren and Hank before #1? — in X-Men #38, he referred to Cyclops meeting Professor X in the mid-1960s rather than pre-1963. By the time we get to the Angel’s story in #54-56, apparently he’s rethought that. Here’s the backup story’s splash page by Werner Roth from #55, cover dated April, 1969.
Wow. A world before Barbra Streisand. Before the Beatles. Before Spider-Man. Can you even conceive of such a thing? I don’t know why that amuses me, but it does (hence this post).
It may be Roy wrote the first time reference without thinking and course-corrected. Or that after two years he was more conscious of the passage of time since the early 1960s — there was a lot of change in those years — and wanted to mention it. Either way, I was tickled.
#SFWApro.
