Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #151, Uncanny X-Men #152
Published Date: Nov-Dec 81
Title: "X-Men minus one!" / "The Hellfire gambit"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Bob McLeod & James T. Sherman / Bob McLeod - Penciler
Josef Rubinstein - Inker

Review/plot:
Emma Frost uses her mental powers to force Kitty Pryde's parents to withdraw Kitty from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngers...

...and enroll in the Massachusetts Academy. Storm drives Kitty to her new school and Emma is waiting there.

She forces a mind switch...

...and heads to Xavier's school to defeat the rest of the X-Men. She's supported by a squadron of Sentinels sent by Sebastian Shaw.

This leads to a full-out battle between the X-Men and the Hellfire Club...

...which ends when Emma loses control of Storms powers.

When Storm gets back inside her own body she is enraged and ready to kill Emma but Wolverine (!) talks her down.

It's revealed in issue #152 that the Hellfire troops that Wolverine clearly killed in his rampage in issue #133 were not actually killed, and they've now been turned into cyborgs.

For what it's worth Code of Honor #2 suggests that they were in fact killed. Maybe Wolvie killed some but not all?

Art in these issues is (mainly) by Bob McLeod, filling in during Cockrum's run. It's sometimes and improvement, sometimes not so much.

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• The X-Men first confronted the Hellfire Club in Uncanny X-Men #129-131.
  
• Cyclops says he thought they were done with Sentinels after they defeated Stephen Lang in Uncanny X-Men #98-100.
  
• Some Hellfire Club goons get a little payback from Wolverine for cutting them all up in Uncanny X-Men #133.
  
• As Kitty Pryde runs through the X-Mansion, there's a reference to Kitty's fight with the N'Garai demon in Uncanny X-Men #143, just saying that she runs even faster this time.

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: X-Men Classic #55, X-Men Classic #56

Jim Sherman was previously known for drawing Legion of Super-Heroes for DC; he did very little Marvel work.

Haven't ever read the Code of Honor issue, and it's been a long time since I read the relevant Reavers issues, but my memory of it is that the cyborg Hellfire henchman became the Reavers. Which means there's no way to retcon them as all having died in the Dark Phoenix storyline, since the Reavers are kind of important.

Anyone who's read the Reavers stories more recently is free to correct.

These guys do become the Reavers. The Code of Honor series is riddled with continuity errors. This one is at least No-Prize-able in that either Wolverine killed lots of Hellfire goons and only some of them survived to become the Reavers, or the ones that appear to be dead in CoH are actually alive enough to be re-built as cyborgs.

Jim Sherman was actually announced as solo artist for these two issues; Bob McLeod came in at the last minute because everything was really late.