Uncanny X-Men #162 (Oct 82): Beyond the Farthest StarCreative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; Dave Cockrum, pencil; Bob Wiacek, inks; Glynis Wein, colorist; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Louise Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, ed-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Storm, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Sprite
Guest Star: Carol Danvers
Synopsis: Wolverine has escaped the clutches of the Brood and is fighting his way through an alien jungle. He gets an intense pain in his stomach then has a hallucination of going horseback riding with Mariko Yoshida and being captured by the Brood while she's killed. He comes to to find the Brood actually chasing him. He fights them fairly well but falls off a cliff into a giant web. The web is between bones of the skeleton of one of the large living beings the Brood uses as a spaceship. The Brood figure Wolverine for dead since many predators like down there. In the web, he gets another intense pain and hallucinates of Deathbird and the Brood taking them all hostage. The rest of the X-Men thought they were still on Lilandra's yacht but only Wolverine could see the world for what it was. The Brood take Carol Danvers off to run tests on her. The X-Men and Lilandra are taken to, in their view, recieve awards, but are really being taken before the Brood Queen for implantation. Wolverine comes to to find predators coming for him. Despite the pain, he fights them all off, then collapses, ready to die. He hallucinates of waking up after being taken before the Queen but still none of the X-Men will believe him. He says goodbye to Kitty and leaves. On his way, he spots Fang of the Imperial Guard, apparently the Shi'Ar traitor who helped the Brood attack. The Brood watches on as their ally is transformed into one of their own thanks to an egg implanted in him. Wolverine is spotted, and that's how we get to the start of the issue. He comes to again and refuses to die. He hijacks a flying Brood and demands it take him to the X-Men. He gets the pain again, and the Brood uses the chance to dump him in front of a bunch of Brood warriors. Wolverine goes berzerk again and destroys them all. He gets the pain again, and this time his transformation into a Brood begins. But thanks to his healing factor, his body fights it. In the end, the Brood cannot take over and he remains alive, although with a minor scaley affect on his skin. Wolverine vows to go back and prevent the X-Men from turning into the Brood... even if it means killing them.
Yeah, but is it good? It's good to be back in the Claremont era. This is a great one. If you like Wolverine, and we all do, this is an issue for you. It's told in a first person narrative and it's almost poetic. Maybe a little too poetic for Wolverine. But it's great to see Wolvie going berzerk and killing things.
Significata: The X-Men have been implanted with Brood eggs. Wolverine kills his. The Brood take Carol Danvers for medical experiments.
