One X-Cellent Scene

This is the type of imagery that makes you incapable of sleeping at night.

My first introduction to the X-Men as a kid was reading the Brood Saga, but I didn’t read it in order. I started with The Uncanny X-Men #165, at the start of Paul Smith’s run, which was near the end of the Brood storyline. That issue featured Storm, a black, female superhero with a high moral standard, white hair and blue eyes. A mutant with the ability to control the weather, she discovers that she is way more powerful in space, manipulating solar winds and gravity. She was immediately relatable to me, her unique appearance mirroring my own. The story, Storm realizing she is a host for a Brood queen, was both shocking and heartbreaking. The cover was hard to look at, but so very well executed by Paul Smith, it was even harder to look away. It was like Empire Strikes Back being the first Star Wars movie you saw.

If you are unfamiliar with the Brood: the Brood is an alien species that looks like the alien from Aliens, except they can fly and have both endoskeletons and exoskeletons. Frightening. They also, like Alien, use living hosts as an incubator for their kids. But what’s worse is the M. Night twist – like the Borg, they absorb your genetic uniqueness and acquire the abilities of their host. Now imagine the X-Men being chosen as hosts. Nightmare inducing.

Super-sidebar! I then had to backtrack: I went 20 issues deep to The Uncanny X-Men #145. A brief recap:

Doctor Doom has captured Arcade and his associate, Miss Locke blackmails the X-Men into rescuing Arcade from Doom’s castle located in the Adirondacks! They are defeated by Doom and captured and placed in elaborate traps. A second team of X-Men is tasked with Rescuing their kidnapped friends and family at Murderworld, where they face freakish tests of their own. I go this far back to illustrate Storm’s power level – Storm is trapped by Doom in some type of metallic shell, immobilizing her into a statue and triggering her claustrophobia, which manifests as crazy weather across the entire Eastern seaboard. When her fellow X-Men finally free her, Storm is mad with power, and requires a therapeutic crisis intervention before she destroys Doom’s castle and everyone in it.

The next adventure takes the X-Men into a conflict with Magneto after a brief sidebar involving Dazzler and Caliban. A great deal more happens before the X-Men face the Brood in outer space. Storm is possessed by Emma Frost, Dave Cockrum takes pencils from Bob McLeod, Cyclops’ father, Corsair shows up with alien assassins (the Sidri) on his tail, the alien Shi’ar appear to rescue their queen Lilandra, who is romantically linked to Professor Xavier, Colossus is mortally wounded, but rescued by the Starjammers, then they fight Deathbird, Lilandra’s sister and the Brood. The Shi’ar threaten to blow up the Earth if they don’t get their queen back, and hold Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde as collateral. Kitty impersonates Dark Phoenix, the X-Men meet Rogue… did I mention that Carol Danvers has been hanging out with the X-Men this entire time? She is a depowered Ms. Marvel with a hybrid Kree/Terran physiology and enhanced stamina and reflexes, at a Captain America level maybe. And Rogue absorbed Carol’s powers and her memory. Professor Xavier goes into a coma after discovering an alien presence in his brain. More on that later.

And we are still not at the Brood saga.

Issue 159: Storm gets attacked by Dracula. Yes, Count Dracula. Issue 160: Colossus’s sister, Ilyana, goes to another dimension for seven years and becomes a magician. Issue 161: While comatose, Xavier visits memory lane to his first encounter with Magneto, and sets up the gateway with his son, David Haller, also known as Legion. Then, the X-Men are captured by Deathbird and the Brood! Finally.

In Uncanny X-Men #162, we focus on Logan and realize that all of the X-Men, including Professor Xavier, have Brood eggs implanted inside them. Logan’s mutant healing factor and adamantium skeleton is able to destroy the Brood embryo, but Logan is concerned that he will have to kill the rest of the X-Men to prevent them from becoming Brood queens. In issue 163, Logan effectively rescues the X-Men, Lilandra and Carol, but not after some serious experimentation on Carol by the Brood. This is important for later…

In issue 164, Carol develops those Captain Marvel powers she is known for, but in the comics she is called Binary. The Brood attack, but hold back because they know the X-Men are hosting queen embryos. The Brood damage the X-Men’s ship, but Kitty is able to repair it. Storm realizes she has been infected, freaks out and leaves via shuttle. Logan reveals to everyone that they are all hosts to a Brood queen, and he had seriously considered offing all of them.

Which brings us back to issue 165. The first Paul Smith issue, the issue where Storm defeats her Brood embryo and merges with the Acanti, which to me, felt like an homage to both slavery and the decimation of the indigenous population of the Americas. Also, the development of the New Mutants is hinted.

IN double-sized issue 166, the X-Men face the final battle with the Brood… and it is epic! Good issue … you should read it.

Wow. AND all this leads to issue 167, the transformation of Charles Xavier into a Brood Queen!

The X-Men are able to defeat him, however, and clone him a new body and transfer his mind.

Of course, watching Professor Xavier transform into a giant creature that looked like a cross between the alien from Alien and an insect gave me nightmares, but I was hooked. If Chris Claremont was writing it, I was reading it. I read The New Mutants Graphic novel, The X-Men graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, The New Mutants comic (Bob McLeod was fine, and I tolerated Sal Buscema, and was relieved when Bill Sienkiewitz took up the pencils) and started gathering all the back issues of The Uncanny X-Men I missed. I wanted to go to the beginning, but could only afford the non-colorized trade paperback.

And that is my X-Cellent scene. It led me into comics in earnest, Made Mine Marvel a little more than DC (but I could go for some Dark Horse… it is the George Harrison fan in me), helped me get through the Wonder Years. The 1980s brought us the best artists in comics – John Byrne, Paul Smith, John Romita (Jr. and Sr.), Walt Simonson, Bob McLeod, George Perez, helped to visualize all the great concepts of a Marv Wolfman, John Byrne or Chris Claremont.