Very astute, Beast! You are indeed on trial -- for your very lives! And I, who am called the Changeling, am your prosecutor! In the best traditions of Western jurisprudence, you shall receive a fair trial, with all evidence dually weighed -- and then -- you shall be destroyed! 
- —The Changeling
Appearing in "We, the Jury..."
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Villains:
- Factor Three
- ⏴ The Changeling ⏵ (First appearance as The Changeling)
- The Mutant Master ⏵ (First appearance)
- Arachnoid Robots
- ⏴ The Blob ⏵
- ⏴ Unus the Untouchable ⏵
- ⏴ The Vanisher ⏵
- ⏴ The Mastermind ⏵
Other Characters:
- Unknown airplane passengers
- The Juggernaut (Appears on screen)
Locations:
- Central Europe
- Factor Three's hideout in the Alps (May be Bavarian Alps or Swiss Alps
Items:
- Cyclops' Visor, version 1
- Spider Robots / Arachnoids
- Oblivio-Ray
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "We, the Jury..."
Reviewing the X-Men's previous battle against the Juggernaut, the Changling, commander of the Factor Three conspiracy, dispatches another one of his minions in a saucer in order to deal with the X-Men, who are even now approaching their base aboard an airplane bound for Central Europe.
The X-Men are discussing their plans to deal with Factor Three when suddenly the commercial airplane they are traveling in is attacked by the saucer. Knowing its Factor Three and not wanting the other passengers to be harmed, the X-Men reclaim their luggage and jump out of the planes emergency hatch. Cyclops manages to destroy the saucer with a well timed optic blast. Without parachutes, the X-Men are rapidly plummeting to the ground below, and to make matters worse Scott's ruby quartz visor is blown off his face. However, with some fast thinking, Warren's wings, and Bobby's ice powers, the X-Men manage to land safely on the ground without any injury.
Safe on the ground, the X-Men change into their costumes and are soon attacked by a small army of Factor Three's spider-robots. After destroying one, they are outnumbered and flee from them and two of Factor Three's troops. Rounding a cliff side, the group walks into a cloud of knock out gas and is rendered unconscious. When they revive, they find themselves prisoners before Changeling and Factor Three's mastermind, the Mutant Master. Viewing the spectacle from a remote location are four of the X-Men's greatest foes, the Vanisher, Unus the Untouchable, the Blob, and Mastermind.
Showing the X-Men that both the Professor and their ally the Banshee are their prisoners, the members of Factor Three put on a mock trial against the X-Men. One by one, each of the four X-Men foes "testify" against the X-Men, telling a story of each of their defeats at the X-Men's hands, finding them "guilty" of betraying Homo Superior. With their "verdicts" read, Changeling sentences them to death. Before they are destroyed though, Mutant Master explains to them that he intends to trigger World War III. To cause this, Mutant Master would first set off a bomb at a top level meeting of Russian officials, while at the same time gassing high ranking US military officials with a paralytic gas. This in turn would hopefully cause both nations to blame the other and trigger a nuclear war. While Factor Three would remain safe, they would wait until the world finished annihilating itself and then take over the world and rule over the survivors.
The X-Men are then left hooked up to an oblivio-ray, which will ultimately wipe out the X-Men's minds leaving them mindless husks that will carry on a living death. This trap fails to stop the X-Men, who short out the machine when Jean uses her telekinetic powers to raise ice created by Iceman over the machine and waiting for it to melt.
Freed, the X-Men head toward the control room where they are stopped by a robot, which they easily destroy and continue on to the Mutant Master's control room to find it empty. Then appearing before them on a view screen, Mutant Master reveals that even though the X-Men have managed to break free from their fate, they are too late to stop Factor Three from beginning their plan.
Notes
- This issue is reprinted in many other comics and books, see references for more info.[1]
- credits:
- Special Location: Changeling's Computer
- Stan Lee Presents a Roy Thomas-Ross Andru Apex of Atomic-Age Accomplishments!
- Delineated by: Don Heck!
- Lettered by: Artie Simek!
- Jury-Stacking by: Honest Irv!
- references: X-Men #35, X-Men #2 (Vanisher), X-Men #8 (Unus), X-Men #3 (Blob), and X-Men #4 (Mastermind)
Trivia
- The first page battle between Juggernaut and the X-Men on the video screen is from X-Men #13. Although there are 2 errors, 1 being that the X-Men are wearing their red uniforms, instead of the yellow, and the red uniforms weren't shown until about a year ago. Another error is that if the images came from the Professors' memories, then the Changeling shouldn't have been able to see that angle, unless he was following telepathically, but he should have been too busy gaining his mental strength at that time.
- The plane that the X-Men used is possibly a United Airlines flight. Noted by the way the stewardess says "I hope you're enjoying flying the friendly skies", which was a commercial tag-line for the company at that time.
