Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #154, Uncanny X-Men #155, Uncanny X-Men #156, Uncanny X-Men #157
Cover Date: Feb-May 82
Title: "Reunion" / "First blood" / "Pursuit!" / "Hide-'n'-seek!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Dave Cockrum - Penciler
Bob Wiacek & Josef Rubinstein / Bob Wiacek- Inker

Review/plot:
Corsair shows up on Earth, pursued by aliens called Sidrian Hunters, which are Ditko-esque robotic bugs.

Cyclops and Storm were at the X-Mansion, discussing whether or not Cyclops should re-assume his leadership position (Storm is getting comfortable in the role).

In the course of fighting off the Sidrian, Cyclops learns that Corsair is his father and that Storm knew about it. Corsair explains what happened.

While Storm, Cyclops, and Corsair are fighting the Sidrians...

...and snapping at each other about their secrets...

...the rest of the X-Men are investigating Magneto's island. Wolverine reveals that he knew Carol Danvers from when she was in the Air Force Intelligence and he was in the Canadian Secret Service. He also knew Mike Rossi. Her memories lost to Rogue's touch, Carol doesn't remember the incident.

All of the X-Men are then teleported to a Shi'ar ship.

It turns out that Lilandra has been kidnapped. The Shi'ar Admiral, Samedar, intends to use Xavier's mind-link with her in order to find her, but, worried about Samedar's ruthlessness and disregard for human life, Xavier invokes his right as Lilandra's consort to search for Lilandra herself. Samedar doesn't think that human barbarians have the right to invoke anything, but Lilandra's advisor Araki is able to get Samedar to delay things for 24 hours. The X-Men go to the Avengers for help, but only Tigra is home.

Shadowcat and Nightcrawler are left behind with the Shi'ar as collateral.

The kidnapper is Deathbird, who turns out to be Lilandra's sister. Deathbird has teamed-up with an alien race called the Brood.

The Brood consider the X-Men to be prime specimens, fit for the "Mother-of-us-all herself". Deathbird tells the Brood that they're more dangerous than they look which she says she knows because she fought them before. I assume she's just referring to super-heroes, or maybe humans generally, because she hasn't yet fought the X-Men.

During the X-Men/Brood & Deathbird fight...

...Colossus is mortally wounded...

...and Deathbird escapes with Xavier. He's imprisoned with Lilandra.

Colossus is taken to the Starjammer's ship, where Colossus can be healed using their advanced technology. The Starjammers chase the Brood and discover that their ship is a huge space fish.

The X-Men and Starjammers manage to rescue Xavier and Lilandra...

...and damage the fish (to Storm's regret when she learns it's an enslaved living being), but they find they don't have enough time to return to Earth before the Shi'ar's deadline.

When Xavier tries to contact Nightcrawler and Kitty to tell them to inform the Shi'ar that they've retrieved Lilandra, he sees some strange images and passes out. He's got a Brood queen egg in his belly, but we don't know it yet.

Still, Nightcrawler and Kitty feel Xavier's mental contact, and they distract the Shi'ar and manage to convince half the Imperial Guard that Samedar isn't on the up and up.

However, Araki is killed by Samedar.

Eventually the Starjammers and X-Men show up with Lilandra.

Cockrum's art is looking better, but there's still some pretty bad pictures. Kitty looks like an old woman while she's held on the Shi'ar ship and she uses their technology to create some new costumes for herself.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - first Brood

Chronological Placement Considerations: This has been moved back in time to account for Tigra's appearance; Tigra leaves the Avengers in Avengers #216, and that issue has a pre-devolved Thing, so it has to occur prior to Fantastic Four #238. Wheels within wheels! The X-Men are still in space at the end of this arc.

References:

• The X-Men spend some time investigating Magneto's island which Magneto abandoned in Uncanny X-Men #150.
  
• Carol Danvers is still recovering from the loss of her memory and powers in Avengers annual #10.
  
• After the X-Men defeated the Hellfire Club in Uncanny X-Men #152, the White Queen promised to revoke Kitty's membership at the Massachusetts Academy, and Scott receives the official letter at the beginning of this arc.
  
• Storm has known that Corsair was Cyclops' father since Uncanny X-Men #107, but Jean Grey asked her not to tell him.
  
• Deathbird has broken out of jail after her capture by Hawkeye in Avengers #189. Tigra has read the Avengers file.
  
• Kitty uses the Shi'ar costume creator to make herself look like Dark Phoenix in order to rattle the Imperial Guard, who was only able to defeat Phoenix in Uncanny X-Men #137 "because she allowed it".
  
• The scene with Cyclops and Havok in the parachute was first seen in Uncanny X-Men #144.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: X-Men Classic #58, X-Men Classic #59, X-Men Classic #60, X-Men Classic #61

Tigra was probably involved because Claremont used to write her back in the 1970s.

#157 was heavily criticized as the critics were getting tired of seeing Dark Phoenix again and again. Unfortunately, that would only get worse...

The Sidrian Hunters look very similar to the Sirian invasion robots in Magnus, Robot Fighter #17(1967).

Deathbird had her name stripped of her after it was prophesied that she was destined to commit great evil, and was later exiled from the Shi'ar Empire after brutally murdering her mother and an unnamed sister.

But what if D'Ken exploited this prophecy and set her up to ensure he would be next in line for the throne? Outlook likely!

And why during her exile did Deathbird end up on Earth of all places, a planet her brother had previously visited?

How long had Deathbird been on Earth? How long ago had her mother and unnamed sister been murdered? And how long ago had she been exiled?

Did she take the opportunity to visit Earth during her exile in an effort to discover just what her brother had been up to there, and find any possible clues that might implicate him in her mother and sister's deaths?

She couldn't come out and accuse the Emperor, her brother, so it seems likely she would need to gather hard evidence first.

Or were her mother and sister really killed? Had D'Ken perhaps imprisoned them on Earth?

Or if they were genuinely dead, what specific proof was she expecting to find on Earth to prove her innocence?

If D'Ken was behind the murder of his mother and unnamed sister, it brings into question his motivations for sending one of his starships to Earth on an exploratory mission to collect zoological specimens.

So what was he really up to on Earth too and how might the truth be connected to the royal murder?

Or how about the following:
Being Claremont it's very doubtful he intended D'Ken faked their deaths and had them imprisoned on Earth since why would someone with no qualms of killing family leave such loose ends?

But if they were alive, what if Deathbird became aware of her brother's plot to kill them and set her up, interfered by stopping their deaths but made it look like they had been carried out and let herself get blamed and exiled so she could flee with them to Earth? This could explain why she has never denied the "matricide" accusation - protecting her mother and sister.

According to commentary by Dave Cockrum, that I heard by way of Rachel & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Claremont's script direction for the first appearance of the Brood was simply "generic evil alien henchman." So it's fair to assume that Cockrum's depiction of the Brood, with their nasty stingers/ovipositors, inspired the Brood stories that followed.

I miss the days when the X-Men could have super fun sci-fi adventures.

Was N'rill'iree supposed to be the Imperial Guard equivalent of Blok? I think he was the only new Legionnaire since their last appearance. Or maybe Warstar was, since he'd only appeared at the end of the Phoenix Sage.

Either way, if it's one of those two, I think he might be the only "homage to an homage" in the Guard, since Blok was actually an homage to Colossus, just as his fellow League of Super-Assassins were copies of the other X-Men. Only Blok went on to join the Legion, though.

#157 has an unseen (I think) Shi'ar character, called "Captain K'rk".

It sounds pretty cheesy.

@Karel- K'rk was also in issue 105.

This is I think the only time pre-Secret Wars the New X-Men come to the Avengers for help and none of the leaders of the team are around. No wonder there was a lot of mistrust between the X-Men and Avengers through the late '80s.

I'll be honest, I'm re-reading these issues 35 years later and having some trouble following who is on whose side doing what to whom to some extent. Liking the art more than I did as a kid, though, as I was still comparing everything to Byrne then. Cockrum did a real good Storm.

It seems clear that Xavier being possessed by the Brood Queen spawn is set up here -- there's a panel that shows an "anomaly" in his body that's clearly a curled up, fetal Brood, and Xavier';s distorted memory when he awakens to see Lilandra works as the "implantation" scene.