*Marvel: With Jolly Jack Kirby leaving the art chores of the X-Men after issue #11, Stan Lee realised he had to crank up the excitement to keep readers’ attention, and he certainly achieved it with this dynamic two-parter which introduced one of the X-Men’s (and the broader Marvel Universe’s) most powerful opponents, the Juggernaut! Cain Marko, the hitherto unsuspected step-brother of the X-Men’s mentor Professor Xavier, dabbled with arcane forces and was transformed into the embodiment of an irresistible force – giving him the power to crush his hated step-sibling, and his super-powered students! This two-parter reveals the origins of Professor X and the Juggernaut, and reveals some of the reasons why Xavier set about training the new generation of mutants. #12 is a decent lower graded pence stamped copy, slightly mis-cut so that more of the white spine shows towards the bottom, but apart from fine lines of edge wear and corner blunting isn’t too bad. The back cover is actually much worse, with creasing, staining and a small chip out of the edge. Staples are firmly attached and page quality is okay. #13 is a little better, pence printed, edge wear and corner blunting with a long colour-breaking crease across bottom front cover, good staples and page quality and overall a cleaner and fresher copy. 
PICTURED: X-MEN
#12 GD p £140 SOLD
#13 VG- p £65