Uncanny X-Men #163 (Nov 82): Rescue MissionCreative Team: Chris Claremont, scripter; Dave Cockrum & Bob Wiacek, artists; Joe Rosen, letterer; Bob Sharen, colorist; Louise Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Storm, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Sprite
Guest Stars: Carol Danvers, Havok, Polaris
Synopsis: The Brood are running tests on Carol Danvers. They're amazed by her altered human DNA and alter her body into a myriad of shapes. Wolverine finds her and kills all the Brood torturing her. Her body is in a state of shapelessness that he hopes will be fixed by destroying their machinery. If not, he'll kill her anyway since she's got a Brood embryo in her. She returns to her human shape, but has a strange sense about her that both she and Wolverine detect. They go looking for the rest of the X-Men. Back on Earth, Havok, Polaris, and Corsair are rebuilding the mansion and are also worried that the X-Men are now dead that they've been captured by the Brood. Corsair plans to go looking for them or to avenge them, but without Havok. Meanwhile, Cyclops dreams of fighting the Brood in their alien jungle. He spots the other X-Men, but they turn into Brood. He fights them until he's saved by a giant Xavier. He wakes up, still seeing the world as Lilandra's homewold, and finds Storm also having a nightmare. They know something is wrong. Wolverine and Carol find them and get them to see the world as it is. They find the rest of the X-Men who follow and believe, but still see the illusion. Storm, Nightcrawler, and Kitty go towards the yacht to get an escape, while Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, and Carol go rescue Lilandra. Wolverine picks up the scent of the Queen Mother of the Brood and wants to go kill her (not telling them why) and Cyclops won't let him. As they fight, they are attacked. Carol sneaks away from the battle to rescue Lilandra. Cyclops tries to withdraw back to the yacht, but Wolverine takes off after the Queen. Meanwhile, Storm flies Nightcrawler and Kitty as high into the atmosphere as she can, then Nightcrawler teleports with Kitty to the ship, and Kitty phases inside. She's attacked by a Brood, but ends up blowing out to space when she tries to let Nightcrawler in. Back on the planet, the team has fought their way to teh Queen and Wolverine is about to finish her off when the team is teleported onto the yacht. They start to flee, but are soon followed by Brood ships.
Yeah, but is it good? Lots of action. The recuring theme of this issue is the justification of killing. Wolverine wants to kill the Queen out of revenge for what she did to the rest. No one knows his motivation, but Carol and Lilandra, seeing it as war, are willing to follow. Cyclops is reluctant. Kitty feels remorse for killing the Brood warrior to save hers and Nighcrawler's life. This is an issue the X-Men will move more towards. Some are warriors who kill out of necessity, others are there to preserve life, any life, at the risk of their own. Some are in the middle and confused. There's also a lot of conflict in Wolverine on whether to tell the X-Men what he knows or not. One could argue he hasn't had much of a chance yet.
Significata: Carol Danvers goes through Brood experiments. The mansion is rebuilt. Corsair leaves to find the X-Men.
