X-Men #134 (Jun 80): Too Late, the Heroes!Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer/co-plotter; John Byrne, co-plotter/penciler; Terry Austin, inker; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Bob Sharen, colorist; Jim Salicrup, editor; Jim Shooer, ed.-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Cyclops, Pheonix, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus
Guest Star: Beast
Synopsis: Cyclops isn't dead, nor his mind insane. He's just hurting after dying on the Astral Plane. Phoenix begins to regard everyone in the room cruely. Before anything can happen, Wolverine busts in the room, with two Hellfire security handing off him. Wyngarde orders Phoenix to take care of him. She obliges, but while the Inner Circle is watching Wolverine, she telekinetically unlatches Cyclop's ruby quartz mask and assures him she's been freed on Wyngarde's control. He blasts off the mask, which knocks out Pierce. Cyke then blasts everyone's shackles and the go right into battle. Cyclops blasts Leland through a wall and over a balcony. Wolverine goes after him. Cyclops then blasts a hole in the floor, which Sebastian Shaw falls through. Colossus, in human form, goes after Pierce, but Pierce fights back and nearly knocks him out. Cyclops sends Storm and Nightcrawler after Shaw while he tracks down Wyngarde aka Mastermind. Wolverine jumps off the balcony toward Leland. Leland instinctively uses his powers on Wolverine, only too late realising it was a dumb move, and an extra heavy Wolverine lands on him hard. Meanwhile, at the Avengers mansion, Beast recieves a police report of the X-Men attacking the Hellfire Club. He decides he better go alone, since the Avengers might not think the X-Men to be heroes in this situation. Colossus and Pierce have a test of strength which Pierce almost wins, but his anti-mutant comments make Colossus so angry he fights back and breaks off Pierce's cybernetic arm. Pierce uses the sparks to blind Colossus and escapes. Storm and Nightcrawler have caught up with Shaw and Nightcrawler does his best to fight Shaw without hitting him. He doesn't succeed, but Storm radically drops the temperature about Shaw and weakens him. He throws Nightcrawler and Storm and also escapes. He meets up with Pierce and they accept defeat... this time. Upstairs, Cyclops is trying to clam the regular Hellfire guests, but Mastermind uses an illusion to make them all panic. That's when the lights go out, thanks to the exposed wires in the sewer. Cyclops has Wolverine round up the rest of the X-Men while he goes after Mastermind. Phoenix finds him first. Her rage towards him for what he did is intense. She reveals watching Cyclops, the man she loves, die on the Astral Plane snapped her out his control, not severe her last remain tie to reality like he assumed. She demands to know how he got in to her mind, since his power is just to create visual illusions. He reveals he used the White Queen, Emma Frost, to get him into her mind. Her punishment for Mastermind is what he desired: power. She uses her power to open his mind to all knowledge in the universe. His human mind cannot cope with it, and he goes catatonic. Cyclops finds her and the X-Men rush to escape before the police arrive. Shaw vows to use his connections to make the X-Men public enemy number one. As the X-Men get aboard their jet, Cyclops begins to realise what is happening to Phoenix. He believes her only hope is for him to get her to Xavier. But it's too late. Once airborn, the Phoenix power once again completely takes her over and reaches cosmic levels. She becomes Dark Phoenix.
Yeah, but is it good? Oh Hell Yeah. A great conclussion to the Hellfire storyline, and the beginning of a new, epic one. After issues of every X-Men except Phoenix getting trounced by the Hellfire Club and their various guards, the team finally rallies and kicks some ass. A epic storyline is about to follow, and the seeds are about to be sown for another all time classic coming up soon. This is why I call this a peak (one of several) in Claremont's writting. These are the stories everyone remembers. These are the ones that they reproduced in the animated series. These are the ones the movies should avoid since they will NEVER do them justice. And these are why I am the X-Men fan that I am.
Significata: Phoenix becomes Dark Phoenix (her costume is a different color). Jason Wyngarde aka Mastermind became cosmically aware for a brief period and rendered catatonic. Sebastian Shaw plans on using poltitical connections to ruin the name of the X-Men.
