Uncanny X-Men (1963-2011) #166

Uncanny X-Men (1963)

by Chris Claremont, Paul Smith (Artist)

The X-Men find themselves on a world transformed by the Brood. Is there any way to save the planet, let alone themselves?

Genres: Comics, X Men, Comic Book, Marvel

39 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 4, 2014

About the author

Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.

Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.

Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.

Reviews

[Tawfek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly totally forgot that Lockhead isn't part of Kitty Pryde's powers.
He is an alien dragon who saves her life in this very issue from the brood and then accompanies her to earth.
I was reading Astonishing X-men Volume 2 #3 when I read that he is an alien and stopped reading to refresh my memory about this.
It's crazy how extensive the story is, that's the high word count in old comics for you, new comics barely have a quarter of this word count.
So stay hopeful, it's going to be easier to read these one day (a message to anyone crazy enough to read the entirety of X-Men in 2024+)
(Advice though maybe read Ultimate X-men and jump from it to an advanced run, but I didn't try this myself so it might not work.)

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little apprehensive on how they would explain what happened to Storm. I have to say, as far as 80s explanations go, this one wasn’t too bad! There were a lot of moving parts in this ish which all came together pretty well at the end. I love the fact that these comics are becoming a little more complex (compared to the 60s/70s comics). We also had the first appearance of Lockheed! I would say I’m glad this whole Brood Saga is over but it’s not quite done yet…

[Tiag⊗ the Mutant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was probably my favorite issue by Chris Claremont up until this point, the Brood storyline had its ups and downs, but this double-sized finale was stupendous, you can tell Claremont was super inspired, the whole book reads like one really good Star Trek episode, it really surprised me, and I had no idea he had already came up with a cocoon resurrection in this story, I wonder if that was an inspiration for Jonathan Hickman when he created his very own krakoan cocoons.

This was a really cool cosmic story, with equally cool art by Paul Smith, inked by Bob Wiacek, which looks very similar to what John Byrne was doing previously, it's almost identical when the characters are in costume, only the faces look different, and the coloring looks awesome in digital format, quality job on all fronts, five stars.

[zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claremont is king. Wrapped up the arc in a fun way that made me appreciate the whole story a bit more.

[Britt Halliburton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely not my cup of tea, and is, frankly, why I never like the space stuff.

So, our heroes must now help space-whale-Jesus get to the corpse of the previous space-whale-Jesus to release its magical-macguffin-soul, which judges creatures as worthy or not (by whose authority do space-whales think they get to judge non-space-whales?), so kills a planet full of brood, á la Old Testament-style, and turns their queen into crystal (for some reason). Storm is brought back to life by space-whale-Jesus, but she also uses her normal lightning powers… as a whale…….. I believe the whole point of mutants is that their powers are linked to the mutation inside their own bodies so……. How does this happen? In space?? She says that the materials she uses to create weather is stronger in space than in atmosphere… like…. What?? Cue the Linkara “of course, don’t you know anything about science!?” Meme.

We briefly see Lockheed. Technically the return of Lockheed, who was originally a fantasy creatures she made up a while back, but is now manifested like some kind of little-fat-dragon angel.

The part that is quite a shocker though, is the very last page. Definitely an ‘omg’ moment.

Overall, this is another ending where the X-Men are usurped by magical-god-beings in saving the day. The build-up to this was actually alright, but the resolution sucks.

[nae · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

Daaaaamn, it was a nice ride tbh. We got the most from Ororo (which story with the Acanti was beautiful and a clever way to explain why she survived), Binary who’s the mvp here as well, and even Wolverine who proved he’s more than just a killer. Also, was the Dragon with Kitty Lockheed?



At the end the action in this issue was great and had some good moments involving Cyclops and Wolverine’s trust issues. The Brood saga has been really interesting and fun to read, still has some big problem to be solved but for now it’s been of my favorite series.

And that ending i wasn’t expecting it indeed.

[Mikey The Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Double the size and double the action! Some really cool plot points in the Brood saga!