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

Review/plot:
Kitty Pryde's parents decide 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 Storm's 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 an improvement, sometimes not so much.

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Hellfire operatives injured by Wolverine shown to be cyborgs

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.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: 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.

Body-swapping isn't as common as mind-control in Claremont stories, but it is a recurrent trope. We'll see it again in Excalibur and Claremont's FF run, and probably a few other places I'm not thinking of at the moment.

Walter Lawson, Emma will do it again in the issues before Phalanx Covenent (of course that wasn't Claremont's doing...)

There is some odd formatting in the HTML code of this page. Some important info has been placed right after the sentinels picture.

Luis, maybe this was just a page failing to load fully? I don't see anything unusual here.

The future Reavers thing really is annoying. Wolverine confronts four Hellfire goons in #133. Prior to this, they're starting to think he might have been killed, so it's not like he's running around slaughtering other mercs.

The four are all named. Angelo (Macon), Murry (Reese), and (Wade) Cole are the three who show up alive in #152 and Wolverine clearly slashes all three of them, even saying explicitly that he's killing Cole as he strikes him.

The fourth is Rosen, and Wolverine specifically promises not to kill him (nor is there any reason to assume he does).

The only other merc that Wolverine confronts is a guy he doesn't even pop his claws to deal with. He just judo tosses him into a crowded room.

However, I think if one were really so inclined, one could fanwank that between dealing with Rosen and the next time we see him, Wolverine could have met up with another group of mercs and actually killed them.

But it's still really out there that Wolverine clearly was doing his best to kill these guys and failed with all three. It's not like he was going for "slow, lingering death" with any of them.

Am I the only one who wonder what that is across Emma's chest in the panel where Storm wakes up and realizes who she is? Is it an error by the colorist (as in, the rest of her chest below that line shouldn't be flesh colored)? Is it an error by the inker? Is it supposed to be some sort of clothing?

The area below the line does look slightly differently colored than the area above it to me, suggesting it's probably some sort of frilly pink dress.

Everyone else is fully clothed, while Kitty's in a bikini. No wonder her parents want her out the school. (Though I guess Emma's school, where the headmistress wears lingerie and everyone else is fully clothed, is the only place worse.)

Storm and Colossus aren't fully clothed either.

Yeah sorry, was just making a dumb joke about the sexualisation of Kitty in this period. (I was viewing it on my phone so the pics are smaller and I couldn't see Storm and Colossus till you pointed it out.) She does remain in the bikini a few pages after everyone else though, and she actually is the only one in a bikini in both 154 + 155. (Though I guess Storm's costume means she's pretty much always wearing a bikini, with a cape anyway.)

This story and the Dark Phoenix Saga were the best Hellfire Club stories, with the latter being the best one. The rest of the Claremont issues with them are nice, but not like these two. After Claremont left, the Hellfire Club went downhill. Hopefully Bunn's upcoming storyline in UNCANNY X-MEN #10 and onward will bring them back up. Emma's been missing since Secret Wars, so I think she ought to return here. Lady Mastermind would do well as a replacement for Wyngarde, and maybe a brand new character or two to replace Leland and Pierce. And I think the Red Queen/Madelyne Pryor should be on board, too, and then they'd have her Sisterhood (Enchantress, Typhoid Mary, Lady Deathstrike, Chimera) as assistance.

Regarding Erik's question, the line might be an intended art correction.

Seeing Storm turned evil and in Emma Frost clothes is kind of hot.

2nd page, 5th panel...
Xavier: "I may have indulged in such tactics in the past, Wolverine, but no more. To deliberately manipulate a sentient mind... ...would make me no better than the villains we oppose."
*Wolverine looks straight at the reader with a knowing, sarcastic smirk*

:D

There's a caption in #151, just before Kitty leaving, that states that "A discrete check by Xavier confirms that Carmen and Terri Pryde are indeed acting on their own,", so I'm not sure I agree with you when you say at the beggining of you review that Frost manipulated Kitty's parents.

Still, at the end of #152 Kitty stays with the X-Men...I have to read the following issues to see if her parents react to this.

Storm-as-Emma is wearing a nightgown with a sheer lace front panel, nerds.

The suddenness of the parents' decision seems deliberately suspicious, but you're right about the caption so i've removed that line. Thanks.