Issue(s): ROM #17, ROM #18
Cover Date: Apr-May 81
Title: "Hybrid!" / "And a child shall deceive them!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Sal Buscema / Frank Giacoia, Al Milgrom, & Sal Buscema - Inker
Al Milgrom - Editor

Review/plot:
Chris Claremont is listed as a 'consultant' on issue #17, and he and Mary Jo Duffy are credited with 'inspiration and assistance' on issue #18.

At least one Dire Wraith has fallen in love with a human and made a baby. But that baby is evil... eeeeeeevil!

And his name is, imaginatively enough, Hybrid.

Similar to the Sub-Mariner, the species interbreeding has also produced a mutant, so Cerebro detects it...

...and Xavier sends in the X-Men. But when they show up, they assume that ROM is picking on the mutant, because Hybrid is able to change into the form of a human child.

The fight, which occurs during a storm created by Hybrid, which Storm can't affect and which limits everyone's visibility, gets out of control really fast...

...and both ROM and Hybrid wind up getting sent to Limbo by Kitty, who is the only one who is able to wield ROM's Neutralizer because she can stay slightly out-of-phase.

Hybrid is awesomely scarey looking. He's designed much better than the Dire Wraiths we've seen so far. And while the story is mainly a formulaic Misunderstanding Fight, the resolution that allows Kitty to wield ROM's Neutralizer is a decent twist.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Hybrid. He'll be back a few times.

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Danger Room is intact, placing this either before Uncanny X-Men #143 or after #144. Also see the Comments regarding Wolverine's reference to his fight with the Wendigo. ROM is stuck in Limbo at the end of this issue and shouldn't appear elsewhere between this arc and the next one..

References:

• There's no footnote, but when Colossus first hears the screech of Cerebro detecting Hybrid, he wonders if Banshee's powers have returned. Banshee lost his powers in Uncanny X-Men #119.
  
• This is the second set of super-heroes that ROM has met, the first being Jack Of Hearts in ROM #12.
  
• Wolverine says "I ain't had a chance to really unleash my adamantium finger nails on anyone since we fought the Wendigo", which happened in Uncanny X-Men #139-140 (no footnote).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Surprisingly well drawn X-Men from Sal.

In agreement with the preceding comment...but it looks as if Al Milgrom did the additional inks, not Frank Giacoia.

Giacoia is the only inker credited, but now both the UHBMCC and the GCD list Milgrom as well. The GCD says "Al Milgrom (pages 1-7, 15); Frank Giacoia (pages 10-14); ? (page 16); Sal Buscema ? (pages 17-30)"

So Sal inked some of #18 as well, and there's apparently one page unaccounted for.

I've updated the credits. Thanks.

if it's any help regarding X-Men placement, in issue 18 Wolverine says he hasn't used his claws since fighting Wendigo (X-Men #139-140), and it's also worth noting than at the beginning of #17, Kitty asks what Cerebro is, which implies this issue is her first exposure to the device (I don't know whether this may or not contradict any X-Men issue).

Thanks, purplelamb. If nothing else, that needed to be a reference. Wolverine's comment is actually subjective though. It might even be a subtle reference to the fact that Storm made him sheathe his claws during the fight with the Brotherhood in UX #142. Looking at the other Wolverine appearances that i have between UX 139-140 and this issue the fight with Enchantress' demons in Dazzler #2 is the only fight that possibly contradicts with Wolverine's comment, and i'll plead hyperbole for that one.

Regarding Kitty and Cerebro, i didn't track any instances of it being used in front of her prior to this, but i haven't gone back through them all.