X-Men #133 (May 80): Wolverine: Alone!Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer/co-plotter; John Byrne, co-plotter/penciler; Terry Austin, inker; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Glynis Wein, colorist; Jim Salicrup, editor; Jim Shooer, ed.-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Cyclops, Pheonix, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus
Guest Stars: Banshee, Angel
Synopsis: The Hellfire soldiers are searching the basement for Wolverine's body. He jumps out of hiding and takes out the guards quickly. He uses the last guard to get information on where the rest of the X-Men are being held. Upstains, the Inner Circle have the X-Men held captive, with inhibitor bands to keep them from using their mutant powers, and in Cyclops' case, a ruby quartz mask. Jean, as the Black Queen, continues to believe she in th 18th century. She sees Storm as her turncoat slave girl. She cruely taunts her former friend. Cyclops thinks back to when they were hiding out in New Mexico from last issue. Phoenix had created a psychic rapport between them, keeping their minds open to each other. Cyclops plans to test if the rapport is still there and hopefully as it to free Phoenix as well as themselves. Nightcrawler asks Shaw why they havn't killed the X-Men yet. Shaw reveals he plans on using the X-Men's genetics to create an army of mutants to help them take over the world. Meanwhile, on Muir Island, Banshee returns from a jog to find Moira McTaggart studying. She reveals that when Jean became Phoenix, she had been give the power of a god. But because she only has the limitations of a human, her mind created mental circuit breakers to limit her power until she could adjust. Those circuit breakers have been released and Phoenix is again on the brink of tapping near-infinite power levels. Meanwhile, in New Mexico, Xavier is pensive and Angel tries to console him. Xavier revealed that he's begun to resent Cyclops a little because his role as leader of the X-Men has been taken over. Back at the Hellfire Club, Wolverine continues to sneak about the building up to the second floor where the X-Men are held, but he's caught with a gun pointed to his head. Upstairs, Phoenix flirts with all the members of the Inner Circle. Cyclops concentrates and tries to connect with her mind. He ends up on the Astral Plane, where the 18th century illusion continues. He meets Jean, but also Mastermind as Wyngarde. They begin a sword duel, and Cyclops is outmatched. Downstairs, Wolverine escaps his would be captore, but ends up in the Hellfire Club party. One of it's guests in presidential candidate, Sen. Robert Kelly. The Hellfire security jump Wolverine and begin to flog him. On the Astral Plane, Cyclops loses his sword duel by being run through. His flesh and blood body drops an is no longer breathing.
Yeah, but is it good? Yes, but a little misleading. They build it up like it's Wolverine cutting and slashing his way through an entire army to get to the other X-Men. There's some of that, but not as much as one might hope. Wolverine playing Dirty Harry with one the soliders is absolutely great, though. The desire to use the X-Men as genetic models to create an army of mutants for world conquest has been done before and it pretty weak. I like Sebastian Shaw as a villain, but his motivation here became quickly generic. The Astral Plane stuff was pretty cool. And Cyke loses! But... is he dead? According to Xavier from issue 117 his body will remain alive, but his mind will go through eternal torment. I get the feeling that isn't going to happen here.
Significata: Cyke dies on the Astral Plane. Moria predicts Phoenix will soon reclaim her godlike powers. Xavier desires to lead the X-Men like he did the old team. This eventually leads somewhere. Sen. Robert Kelly, a presidential candidate, is mentioned for the first time.
