Uncanny X-Men #166 (Feb 83): Live Free or Die!Creative Team: Chris Claremont, scripter; Paul Smith, penciler; Bob Wiacek, inker; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Glynis Wein, colorist; Louise Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Storm, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Sprite
Guest Star: Binary
NOTE: In Marvel Graphic Novel #4, Xavier recruits the New Mutants before Pierce, formerly of the Hellfire Club, does. Pierce wanted to use them to overthrow Sebastion Shaw.
Synopsis: Binary attacks a Brood outpost where they capture and lobotimize the Acanti with a slave virus. She destroys the base, and sensing the Acanti's slowly dying mind's last request, kills the creature. The spectre of Storm appears and leads her back to the young Acanti containing Lilandra's ship and the X-Men. Binary appologizes for blowing a hole in the ship earlier. The X-Men contemplate a suicide attack on the Brood homeworld. Storm explains the Acanti: They are ancient peaceful beings, led by a Soulsinger. Whenever a Soulsinger dies, it's spirit is transfered to a younger replacement Soulsinger. The last Soulsinger's bones are now the citidel on the Brood planet and the soul cannot escape. The Acanti that Storm is bonded with is a young Soulsinger, the first since the death of the last, but needs the Soulsinger soul to lead its people. The Acanti found Storm in a state of neardeath and took her in to a) repair her body and b) allow her consciousness to guide the still juvenille Soulsinger. The X-Men decided to attack and at the same time rescue the soul. Wolverine suggests only he and Binary do since they are free of the embyos and the killers in the group. Cyclop gets on his case bad and asks him to just kill everyone now since they're going to die anyway. He considers it until Kitty stops them. Storm gives Cyclops leadership of the team for this mission (as if he hasn't usurped the position since returning back in issue 150 anyway). The Acanti/Storm leads them to the planet and the X-Men and Lilandra teleport down. The Brood are alerted to their arrival by a traitor, one of the X-Men who has already begun transformation. The X-Men head towards the location of the soul. Binary attacks the Brood spaceships to protect the Soulsinger/Storm. On the planet, Wolverine and Cyclops start arguing during battle like they did in the old days. Kitty gets seperate from the team. She ends up in a giant next with one hatched egg and lots of Brood skeletons. Binary starts to lose the battle in space, but is rescued by the Starjammers. Cyclops' aim starts getting worse and worse. Wolverine realises that he's alreay transformed and that he's the traitor. Cyclops joins the Brood and defeat the X-Men. Meanwhile, Kitty is being elsewhere being chased by the Brood. She's about to caught when the Brood run in terror from... a flying dragon... the size of a cat. It fries all the Brood in sight except one. The three are greeted by a brilliant light (the soul) and enter. Meanwhile, the X-Men have been captured and taken before the Queen Mother. Cyclops' transformation continues and he loses control of his optic blast. Wolverine takes the opportunity to break out of his bonds and take the Queen hostage. He demands the rest of the Brood surrender and free the X-Men, or he kills her. They comply. Kitty then returns from the soul and invites them all to follow. The Queen insists on going too since one of them is almost a Brood now. They enter. The Queen manages to catch Wolverine off guard and injects him with lethal venom. Binary arrives to help and uses to her power to free the soul. As the soul escapes, it destroys the Brood embryos in everyone and turns the Queen into solid crystal. The disruption causes the planet to start to destruct. Everyone (except the Dragon) beams away just as the planet explodes. The X-Men are reunited with the Starjammers and Storm is returned to her rehealed body. The X-Men then realise there is still someone who is impregnated with a Brood embryo... the first... Charles Xavier.
Yeah, but is it good? The conclusion (sort of) to the Brood epic story and it's a big fight issue. Some of it gets a little ridiculous like the soul of the Acanti soulsinger and all that BS. But this is mostly a big action issue. Lots of Wolverine, too. He's clearly the most popular character at this point, taking center stage in the Brood storyline. Hmm... what could this be leading to? More X-titles, of course. But that's still a ways off. As for the Kitty's dragon... you either love it or hate it. Actually, I guess you don't have to since I sort of like it in a silly sort of way. Kitty is obviously Claremont's favorite character and he wants to make sure she always gets her moment.
Significata: The X-Men's embryos are destroyed and everyone is returned to normal. They realise Xavier still has his. The Queen Mother is turned to crystal. Kitty's dragon debuts (and she calls it Lockheed at one point). Double size issue sold for $1.00.
