X

History: While in Europe, Charles Bentley bought a typewriter at an antique shop. Bentley, a writer of fantasy comic books, used the typewriter for writing his story plots. First writing a story about a sea serpent, and then a two-headed space demon, Bentley was shocked to learn that his imaginary creatures had somehow come to life on seperate occasions. Bentley's next creature was “X”, an alien from another dimension that could alter its atomic structure. Shortly thereafter, a real “X” appeared to terrorize the world. Figuring the typewriter was somehow “magic”, and that any story creature he typed about on it would come to life, Bentley raced back home. Pursued by the shape-shifting “X” along the way, Bentley reached his apartment and threw the typewriter out the window. The typewriter was destroyed in the resultant fall, causing “X” to fade from existance.

In modern times, the dream demon Nightmare created duplicates of several monsters, including a duplicate of one of X's forms, to attack a young Peter Parker in his dreams.

Height: Variable
Demonstrated Powers: “X” was a creature from the imagination of writer Charles Bentley, brought into corporeal existance by the “magic” typewriter. “X” could alter its form into creatures of a variety of shapes and sizes.

Comment: Speculation - It is possible that the dream demon Nightmare, who once created a duplicate of X, was behind the menace of X all along, creating the monsters from the dreams of Charles Bentley.

Comment: It is possible that X is the same creature as “X the Unknowable”, a similarly powered monster introduced in Alpha Flight (vol. 2) # 17.

Comment: A similar story was told in Tales of Suspense # 12 in The Monster in My Cellar! (art by Reed Crandall) wherein a writer types a story about a monster which then comes into existance; since this story precedes the story of “X”, could this writer have been using the “magic” typewriter later purchased by Charles Bentley?

Comment: An earlier similar story can be found in Astonishing # 4, The Nightmare, wherein editor Stan Lee told writer Hank Chapman to use creatures from his nightmares in stories, and Chapman was later assaulted by the creatures his nightmares created.

Comment: The goddess Venus helped cartoonist Jimmy Rogers battle his own monstrous cartoons when they came to life in Venus # 17.

Comment: There is no apparent connection between “X” and “The X-Men”.

For another entry on X, click HERE.

The 2-headed dragon that appears is very similar to the 3-headed beast - the “Tricephalous” - that the Fantastic Four encounter in their first adventure on Monster Isle.

I read the tale some time ago. I loved the bit with the editor saying “good…good great”. By the way, it says that charles Bently had great strength that he used to almost subdue the being in one of his form. He doesnt look it. I was sorry he had to smash the typewriter at the end, it would have been great if it materialised in Marvels later works.

if you ask me,bentley looks a LOT like woody allen!!!i would hate to see him do a comic-book,and you thought spiderman was neurotic….jeez…by the way,that link to the nightmare story has a story simply titled,''THE MONSTER'' that crawls out of the earth and is from a subterranean race,at the end it retreats back to earth,since humans are so unimpressed….now,THATS a possible deviant mutate if there ever was one,it mentions captain america(as a liscensed property)so it must exist at SOME point in continuity,you can see the story by clicking on the ''NIGHTMARE'' link above which posts several other atlas era stories,another link can be found in the comics archive section on FF#10.

X shouldn't be confused with X(Willie Dance)[Power Man#27(10/75)] a wrestler empowered by a Super Soldier Serum variant and given temporary super strength.

Comment on X