X-Men #4

A villain gets a team

The X-Men launched in September 1963 as a bimonthly. Lee originally wanted to call it The Merry Mutants, but Marvel's editorial team insisted on X-Men. The first issue introduced the original five X-Men, students of Professor Charles Xavier. Issue #4, cover-dated March 1964, went on sale on January 3, 1964, priced at 12 cents.

The 23-page story, 'The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants!', brings Magneto back with a team of his own. The Brotherhood steals a freighter and uses it to seize the fictional South American nation of Santo Marco. The X-Men invade and take the country back, and Xavier is caught in an explosion that costs him his mental powers.

The issue introduced four members of that team at once: the twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, called Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, the Toad (Mortimer Toynbee) and Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde). It was Magneto's second appearance.

Lee, Kirby and a pair of reluctant villains

Stan Lee wrote and edited the issue and Jack Kirby penciled it. The story credits list Paul Reinman as inker and Artie Simek as letterer. For the cover, the Grand Comics Database credits George Roussos as inker, citing comics historians Carl Gafford and Nick Caputo, and notes that older indexes gave the cover to Reinman; some sale listings still repeat the older credit.

Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were drawn as unwilling members of the Brotherhood, who wanted safety from persecution rather than Magneto's plans for conquest. In later continuity they had joined him out of obligation because he had saved Wanda from an anti-mutant mob. In this issue Quicksilver voices a theme that would come to define the franchise: 'Why should we love homo sapiens?? They hate us, fear us because of our superior power!'

Kirby weighed several names for the witch. The back of a splash page from the issue lists 'Jinx,' 'Witch Woman,' 'The Sorceress,' 'Evil Eye' and 'Miss Witch.' In the story her costume is shades of red, but on the cover she wears green, a choice one sale description explains as a way to set her apart from Magneto's bold red costume.

From the Brotherhood to the Avengers

The twins did not stay villains long. With The Avengers #16, cover-dated May 1965, Lee and Kirby replaced nearly the whole roster: Captain America stayed, joined by Hawkeye and the two former Brotherhood members. The lineup was nicknamed 'Cap's Kooky Quartet,' and swapping almost an entire superhero team at once was unprecedented at the time.

The Scarlet Witch's Avengers tenure has been called one of the longest and most impactful; she later marrying the android Vision in Giant-Size Avengers #4 in 1975. Quicksilver fared less well inside Marvel: a 1972 internal memo, later made public by historian Sean Howe, ranked him as the only superhero on the list rated 'not as important.'

On screen both found large audiences. Elizabeth Olsen played Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel films beginning with a mid-credits scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and led the Disney+ series WandaVision (2021). Quicksilver was played by two actors for two studios at once, Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Evan Peters in the X-Men films, a result of a rights split between Marvel and 20th Century Fox.

The X-Men series itself struggled. It met a lukewarm reception, went monthly with issue #14 in November 1965, and became a reprint title in 1970 before Giant-Size X-Men #1 and a new international team rekindled interest in 1975.

Copies and sales

No print run for X-Men #4 has been published. A price guide reports two copies graded CGC 9.8, without giving a census date. One of those 9.8 copies, with white pages, sold at auction on July 28, 2012, for $26,290, the highest price the issue has brought in the sales verified here.

A year earlier a CGC 9.6 copy from the Twin Cities pedigree sold for $22,705. A CGC 9.4 brought $19,600 in September 2019. Mid- and low-grade copies trade far more often and at a fraction of those figures.

How to identify it

An original first printing is cover-dated March 1964, priced at 12 cents, and carries an indicia naming Canam Publishers Sales Corp., a bimonthly frequency, Comics Code approval and The Eastern Color Printing Co. of Waterbury, Connecticut, as printer. The cover shows the Scarlet Witch in green.

The story has been reprinted many times, including in Marvel Super-Heroes #23 (November 1969) and Amazing Adventures #7 and #8 (1980). A British edition of #4 also exists and is tracked as a separate variant.

The numbers

Print run

Not published; no figure verified

CGC census

Two copies at 9.8 reported by a price guide; no census date given

Pages

36, with a 23-page lead story

Cover price

12 cents

Frequency

Bimonthly at the time; monthly from #14

Timeline

1. Sep 1963

   The X-Men #1 launches the series, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

2. Jan 3, 1964

   X-Men #4 goes on sale, cover-dated March 1964, introducing Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, the Toad, Mastermind and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

3. May 1965

   Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch join the Avengers in The Avengers #16.

4. Nov 1965

   X-Men becomes a monthly with issue #14.

5. Nov 1969

   The story is reprinted in Marvel Super-Heroes #23.

6. 1970

   X-Men becomes a reprints-only title.

7. Jun 1975

   The Scarlet Witch marries the Vision in Giant-Size Avengers #4.

8. Jun 1980

   The story is reprinted again in Amazing Adventures #7.

9. 2011

   A CGC 9.6 Twin Cities pedigree copy sells for $22,705.

10. Jul 28, 2012

    A CGC 9.8 copy with white pages sells at auction for $26,290.

11. 2014

    Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson debut as the twins in a mid-credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

12. Sep 2019

    A CGC 9.4 copy sells for $19,600.

13. 2021

    WandaVision premieres on Disney+.

The world in 1964

• Jan 8, 1964

  In his first State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson declares a War on Poverty.

• Jan 11, 1964

  Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to health, the first such statement from the U.S. government.

• Jan 18, 1964

  Plans to build the World Trade Center in New York are announced.

• Feb 1, 1964

  The Beatles reach No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.'

• Feb 9, 1964

  The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, seen by an estimated 73 million viewers.

• Feb 25, 1964

  Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach; on March 6 he announces his new name, Muhammad Ali.

• Mar 9, 1964

  The Supreme Court decides New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, and the first Ford Mustang is built in Dearborn, Michigan.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, X-Men #4 is number 61 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (56 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Stan Lee wanted to call the series The Merry Mutants.
• Kirby considered naming the Scarlet Witch 'Jinx,' 'Witch Woman,' 'The Sorceress,' 'Evil Eye' or 'Miss Witch.'
• On the cover the Scarlet Witch wears green, not red.
• Little more than a year after debuting as villains, both twins were Avengers.
• Quicksilver was played in the same era by two different actors for two different studios.
• A 1972 internal Marvel memo ranked Quicksilver as the only superhero rated 'not as important.'