When I was a kid, I had an X-Men collection called RARITIES that reprinted a few randomly-sourced short stories about the X-Men that weren't in regular circulation, such as "First Night" from Classic X-Men #1, and "Deal With the Devil," an intriguing Storm/Mystique scene from Marvel Fanfare. Perhaps most curious, however, was a five-pager from the early 60's: "The Man in the Sky."
The story features young Tad Carter, who grows up realizing he has phenomenal powers.
In scenes that play out much like mutant origins we've seen for years, Tad learns that he can read minds and get the answers to every test, and even move objects mentally.
Unsurprisingly, Tad can't keep his differences hidden forever and he ends up being targeted by his peers because of it, only to be saved by one of those classic group beatdowns that always happen in 60's comics by an enigmatic force:
A mysterious force pulls Tad into the sky and calls to him, revealing his true nature as a mutant, the next stage in evolutionary development, a person born with special powers, of which there is a growing number.
But alas, Mankind is Not Ready, so Tad must go to his mysterious benefactor and wait for the day when rationality and understanding regarding new things rules the day.
All in all, it makes a pretty intriguing tease, and if the concept of mutants never appeared again it would have still been the standout story in this particular issue.
This story, drawn by Steve Ditko and scripted by Stan Lee, was featured in 1962's Amazing Adult Fantasy #14 (the following issue would drop the word "Adult" and introduce Spider-Man.) It would be yet another year before the X-Men would make their debut in the form we know: five horny teenagers and their aloof but emotionally stunted mentor honing their abilities at a "private school." But much of the concept of mutants, what they are and what their place in the world look like, is signified here: that individual people are afraid of individual mutants, and that they can't abide the growth of a new race of human being that may supersede them. It's a big idea, and this vignette, such as it is, is interesting confirmation that all of this wasn't quite whipped up on the fly by Lee and Kirby. As befits the anthology title, this is not really a superhero story, but more of a Twilight Zone-esque parable that points a finger at human beings for not ready to put their pride away and embrace change.
But when the X-Men finally did appear, long-underwear and all, Tad Carter was nowhere to be found. I personally never hardly thought about it until the other day, when I remembered I had the entire history of comics at my fingertips, so if I wanted to I could answer the question: did Tad Carter ever appear again?
The answer, unsurprisingly, is yes. And it's less surprising where that happened.
Thirty-nine years later John Byrne excavated this forgotten artifact for use in his throwback series X-Men: The Hidden Years. This series was set in the gap between the end of the X-Men's original 1960's adventures and the All-New, All-Different re-launch five years later in Giant-Size X-Men #1. This unusual gap allowed Byrne to play around the sidelines of the Marvel Universe as long as he doesn't risk creating something new and innovative.
As it turns out, Tad Carter was recruited into a community group/cult called The Promise, whose leader, first glimpsed on Tad's sweaty forehead, is the prosaically-named Tobias Messenger, a Richard Mulligan-looking telepath who was born without the power of speech.
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| More like a yellepath, and I right |
Messenger has a unique perspective on the destiny of the mutant race: that an all-our race war is destined to happen between humans and mutants. That's the Messenger Guarantee.
The Promise's members put themselves into suspended animation for ten years or so at a time, periodically emerging like cicadas to see if the big race war has happened yet, and to capture "willing" "recruits" like Lorna and Havok, who, being new recruits to the X-Men, are less indoctrinated to Professor Xavier's hopeless "peaceful co-existence" bullshit.
Writer Byrne is sure to note that they are plugged into "teaching circuits" that keeps them up to date on current events, meaning that one member who appears to be a small child from the 40's has the mind of a surly adult male. It's not intentional, but it's not really something Tobias wants to fix.
Ultimately it all comes to nothing. Most of the X-Men get sidetracked fighting the Mole Man while the Promise goes beddy-bye, only for one of Messenger's disillusioned disciples, a housewife named Lucy who has had to "watch" her family grow up from afar, frees Angel so that she can have a reunion with her long lost son. Tad, the Original Mutant, completely disappears into this motley crue and plays no part in the narrative whatsoever.
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| Always read the fine print. Or any of the print, really. |
Ultimately, they're also able to free Havok and Lorna and leave the rest of the Promise to wait out the Helter Skelter as planned, because honestly they're not hurting anybody (except for once every ten years or so when they abduct unsuspecting recruits and dupe them into snoozing their lives away.)
It's all an intriguing use of such a small piece of Marvel ephemera -- Messenger is posited as kind of a cross between Magneto and Xavier, a rationalist and pacifist who nevertheless believes war is inevitable. The "suspended animation" gimmick is an interesting way to acknowledge the characters' roots in the early 60's: while "The Hidden Years" is set only a little before the present day of the Marvel Universe of 2000, Tad Carter is still a person of the early 1960's.
In a way, it references another story from the 1960s, in which Angel gets sidetracked from a rescue mission to do battle with Red Raven, another echo of Marvel's early past, from before most current readers would have known who or what he was.
But when I say it's "intriguing" or "interesting," I mean it in the sense that something that is breathtakingly dumb can create interest. This is a bad story, told poorly, with no real point, except to take the opportunity to drag up something most people didn't know about. The Promise's stated mission is a really bizarre and sourly pessimistic interpretation of what "Messenger" says in the original story about waiting until "Mankind comes of age." There's no meaning attached to Messenger or the Promise or the X-Men's interactions with them, except to torture poor Lucy and to say "Hey, there's a really dumb third option between Professor Xavier and Magneto, which it's possible some dum-dums would buy into." If I were being charitable I could read it as a parable about the failure of centrism in today's political climate, but I wouldn't give it that much credit.
Ultimately, it's just a thing that happens while the X-Men are on their way to a fight with the Mole Man (in retribution for this awesome appearance) and later, who else but Magneto.
But back to Tad Carter and his illustrious return after nearly 40 years in the netherworld, and what it might mean for us. In this day and age when we have the entire history of Marvel at our fingertips and more and more of the audience can be familiar with (or brought up to speed on) exceedingly minor and random elements of comics' history, I think the creators must wield a lot of restraint not to overextend that. Tad might have been a "rarity" when I first read about him, but today I have no greater access to his original story than any Marvel Unlimited subscriber.
I think it's important to keep moving forward and be tactful which toys get used, and which are left behind. If you're going to pay homage to the past, I implore writers to make sure you are doing so in a way that helps build the future and explore what it all means, and not just trying to score points for which minor comics flashpoint you remembered better than anyone else did.
Tad Carter has not been seen since the end of X-Men: The Hidden Years, according to my sources. I had wondered what had happened to him, and now that I know, I'm kind of sorry I asked.
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