Uncanny X-Men #146 (Jun 81): Murderworld!Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; Dave Cockrum & Josef Rubenstein, artists; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Glynis Wein, colorist; Louis Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Storm, Angel, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Sprite (DNA)
Guest Stars: Cyclops, Havok, Polaris, Iceman, Banshee
Synopsis: Outside of Doctor Doom's castle, an enormous storm in brewing. Doom ponders if Storm is the cause. He sends Storm, acting as his slave, to get him some wine. Arcade enters and we learn he is a prisoner of Doom's, but because he entertains Doom, he's allowed to move about the castle. Doom shows Arcade what's done to the X-Men. Nightcrawler is in a featureless cubical room. He can't teleport out since he has no idea how think the walls around him are, which could cause him to reappear inside of them if he doesn't teleport far enough. Colossus is on rocky spire above a whirlpool. The water is rising, and the spire is breaking apart. There are blasters in the water shooting anything that falls into the whirlpool. Wolverine is in a zero gravity room where he is unable to tell how big it is or how close he is to the walls. Everytime he moves, even slightly, his mind is blasted with a psychadelic light show. Wolverine hits a wall, and it bounces him around the room like mad, causing even worse lightshows. Angel is placed on a giant perch where he is safe. Anytime he tries to fly away, lazers shoot out at him in random patterns, making it impossinle to fly through them. Storm brings Doom his wine and Arcade is amazed that Doom could possibly bend Storm's will. Doom admits it's just a robot, and the real Storm is still trapped in living chrome, where she is alive, but cannot move, age, or think. Subconsciously, though, her mind is greating the massive storm outside. The state she's in is bad for her claustrophobia and she intends to break out at any cost. The storm can be felt all the way in the Carribean, and Cyclops and Aleytis look for shelter. His blindfold is knocked off and his eyes open, revealing his power to Lee. She helps him put the blindfold back on. The replacement X-Men arrive at Murderworld's above ground entrace. The blast in to save their friends. But their arrival is detected. The four are seperated and thrown into Murderworld scenarios. Havok is in a space battle. He manages to blast some small ships, but is confronted with a massive one. Iceman is on a hockey rink. A killer robot hockey team comes after him, but in the fight he finds the layer of ice is extremely think and underneath is a pool of acid. And heaters have been activated. Polaris is on a carousel and finds Colossus' sister, Illyana. Polaris goes to her, but is attacked the horses on the carousel. She easily dispatches them, but Illyana pulls a gun on her. Banshee is in an old west town and survies a shoot out (all he has is a gun since he has no powers anymore). He finds Moira being tied to a railroad track. Havok finds a way to abandon ship and get his way into the Murderworld utility tunnels. She destroys some of he systems, so Arcade's other assisstant, Mr. Chambers, goes to check it out. Polaris destroys the Illyana robot, but the carousel starts starts spinning out of control. She manages to escape, but falls into Iceman's ice/acid arena. He saves her and the two of them bust out of there. Havok finds Chambers and blasts him. On the railroad track, Banshee can either save Moira, or the two girls on the train, Amanda Sefton and Candy Southern. He's about to make the hard choice of saving the two over the one he loves, when Iceman and Polaris come to his aid and rescue all three. The three hostages turn out to be robots as well and explode, but Polaris gets a magnetic shield up in time. Havok makes his way to the main control center and forces Miss Locke to end the game. The makeshift X-Men and the hostages leave, but the storm outside is raging like mad even as far away as they are. At Doom's castle, Doctor Doom is becoming concerned with the weather. Arcade then shows Doom on his video monitor that Nightcrawler has disappeared from his cell.
Yeah, but is it good? The previous Murderworld storyline back in issues #123 & 124 were boatloads of fun. This one, not as much. The problem is the whole story felt so rushed. The fun part of Murderworld is every charcter is put into a unique sitation, they spend some time trying to figure out the solution, eventually someone does, and one by one they all meet up again. This issue had that, but they were was barely anytime spent on the problem solving of each situation. And the fact that it was replacement X-Men. I'm all for seeing old characters make returns now and then, but a whole team of non-regulars is a little dull. They should have mixed the teams up. Trade Angel and Colossus for Banshee and Iceman or somethiong. At least then some of the main characters are featured. It does feature a nice build for the next issue, though.
Signicata: Havok, Polaris, Iceman, and Banshee come back for a "one arc only" reunion tour. Cyclops' powers are revealed to Aleytis Forrester. Illyana Rasputin is now in New York and will not return to Russia for a very long time.
