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The Uncanny X-Men #146

Jun 1981
Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum

The Uncanny X-Men #146 cover

Story Name:

Murderworld!


Synopsis

The Uncanny X-Men #146 synopsis by Anthony Silvestro
Rating: 3.5 stars

Doctor Doom stands triumphant, watching an ever-increasing thunderstorm rage outside. Doom then shows Arcade the personalized deathtraps he has put each of the X-Men in. Nightcrawler finds himself in a featureless room, with no doors or windows and no indication of how far he is from anything. Without that knowledge, teleporting is dangerous, as he could reappear inside something, leading to a messy death. Colossus is trapped on a rock in the middle of a whirlpool that’s slowly eroding his perch. At the bottom of the room are energy weapons that destroy anything that falls through the whirlpool, making escape that way tricky. Wolverine floats in an anti-gravity chamber, with flashing lights and op-art walls to scramble his senses and repeller fields to bounce him around the room if he hits a wall. Angel simply finds himself on a perch with an array of lasers primed to shoot him should he try to escape.

Storm comes to offer them some wine, leading a shocked Arcade to inquire how Doom managed to make Storm into his obedient servant. Doom reveals that this Storm is a robot he built and that the real Storm is still stuck as a chrome statue. However, we see that though her body is frozen, her subconscious cries out for freedom, whipping up the monstrous thunderstorm currently raging all around them. The storm can even be felt on the island that Scott Summers and Lee Forrester currently find themselves on. A sudden lightning strike causes Scott’s blindfold to come loose, and his optic blasts to fire momentarily, revealing his power to Lee.

Meanwhile, the reserve team of X-Men head to Murderworld to rescue their kidnapped loved ones. Polaris tracks the magnetic energy patterns to locate Murderworld beneath the abandoned amusement park it’s hidden under. Havok blasts through the ground to reach Murderworld and as soon as they blast inside, Polaris sends out an EMP to fry all of the electrical systems in the place. However, a hologram of Miss Locke appears anyway, revealing that the backup generators are still working, and reveals her double-cross. The floor opens and deposits each of these X-Men into their own wacky deathtraps. Havok is deposited in a roller coaster car that shoots off into a holographic space battle. Iceman lands in an ice hockey rink facing a gang of robot hockey players. He fights back, revealing acid below the ice and heaters in the walls, making things more unbearable by the second. Polaris is dropped in a deadly merry-go-round, and Banshee finds himself in a simulacrum of the wild west.

Banshee explodes the wall with a micro-bomb, revealing Moira MacTaggert apparently tied to the tracks of an oncoming rollercoaster! Havok escapes his trap and finds himself in the utility tunnels, blasting an important-looking junction box. In the control room, the junction box’s destruction is noticed and Mr. Chambers heads to check it out. Polaris escapes her trap but is knocked out of the sky by an inhibitor field, dropping her right into Iceman’s trap. Iceman catches her and they bust through the wall of his trap, as Havok deals with the investigating Mr. Chambers in the utility tunnels. Havok eventually makes his way to the control room and shuts down the whole place, allowing the others to rescue the hostages. They exit Murderworld to the raging storm going on outside, realizing they must get back as soon as possible. Back at Doom’s castle, Doom watches as the storm now blankets the entire northeastern United States! Arcade then smugly comes up to Doom and reveals that Nightcrawler has disappeared from his prison! To be continued!


 

Review / Commentaries


The Uncanny X-Men #146 Review by (October 16, 2024)

Review: The main X-Men have been captured by Doom and put into personalized deathtraps, leaving the backup team to rescue the hostages from Murderworld! Claremont had this idea of a reserve team being around to help out the main team every now and then. It was meant to be a semi-recurring thing during big stories, but this is the only time it ever happens. It could be because this reserve group isn’t filled with the most interesting characters, and they were all characters that Claremont notably refrained from using all that much. Perhaps readers weren’t into the idea or perhaps Claremont realized he’d rather just write for the main team. To be fair, another reason could be that juggling this many characters is hard, and he’d rather focus his efforts on the core team. Havok, Polaris, Iceman, and Banshee going through Murderworld, many for the first time, is still pretty entertaining, as Murderworld usually is, but I did kind of find myself wishing we could just get back to the main team already, whose deathtraps, courtesy of Doctor Doom, are much more engaging. This little section with the reserve team even largely ends off-panel, so perhaps Claremont felt the same way.

Comments: First time Havok, Polaris, and Iceman experience Murderworld.



> The Uncanny X-Men comic book info and issue index

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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Dave Cockrum
Joe Rubinstein
Glynis Wein
Dave Cockrum (Cover Penciler)
Joe Rubinstein (Cover Inker)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Angel
Angel

(Warren Worthington III)
Banshee
Banshee

(Sean Cassidy)
Colossus
Colossus

(Piotr Rasputin)
Cyclops
Cyclops

(Scott Summers)
Doctor Doom
Doctor Doom

(Victor Von Doom)
Havok
Havok

(Alex Summers)
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler

(Kurt Wagner)
Polaris
Polaris

(Lorna Dane)
Storm
Storm

(Ororo Munroe)
Wolverine
Wolverine

(James Howlett)

Plus: Lee Forrester, Stevie Hunter.

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