This Issue! Things Get Worse! #133 (Wolverine Pop-Culture Break-Out Star Edition)

The Uncanny X-Men #133
“Wolverine: Alone!”
Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Synopsis
Wolverine stands alone against the entire Hellfire Club. Can he somehow rescue the rest of the X-Men from them?

Rolling Commentary
Page 2. Yay for Wolverine killing sprees!

Page 4. Hey, wait a second; isn’t Wolverine’s skeleton made of adamantium too? (Yes) Does he just not know that yet? (i.e. has Claremont not decided that yet?)

Page 7. Ororo’s name means “beauty”? I totally didn’t know that.

Page 8. Yay for Scott and Jean’s rapport. I always liked that part of their relationship.

Page 9. Random cut to Scotland!

Page 11. Is this the first reference of Senator Robert Kelly? Why, I do believe it is.

Page 14. Where did Mastermind and Cyclops learn to sword fight like this?

Post Mortem
Bah, don’t believe it for a second. Cyclops starts to stand up on the opening splash page of the next issue. That being said, being forced out of someone’s mindspace can’t be particularly comfortable. And yeah, how is it Mastermind is pulling off all this nonsense anyway?

It’s been said that, historically speaking, this is one of the most important issues of the X-Men for Wolverine. It’s really the first time he’s all alone in the series. This is generally considered the turning point for the character, where he really solidified his place as the series’ breakout star. Obviously, he remains the X-Men’s most popular character to this day.

Although the 18th century stuff still weirds me out a little bit, it was kind of cool to see a classic duel for Jean’s life between Cyclops and Mastermind. I also was darkly amused to see Jean turn blatantly racist against Ororo when made evil. Just goes to show how much of a bastard Mastermind really is.