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The Uncanny X-Men #151

Nov 1981
Chris Claremont, Bob McLeod

The Uncanny X-Men #151 cover

Story Name:

X-Men Minus One!


Synopsis

The Uncanny X-Men #151 synopsis by Anthony Silvestro
Rating: 4.5 stars

Professor X gathers the X-Men to announce that Kitty Pryde’s parents have made the decision to withdraw her from the school, opting to send her to another school with students closer to her age. The X-Men react in disbelief, but Xavier says there’s nothing he can do, prompting Kitty to run out of the room in frustration. Hours later, Storm comes to comfort Kitty, who is still sulking about the whole thing. Kitty reveals that the new school her parents are planning to send her to is the Massachusetts Academy run by Emma Frost, White Queen of the Hellfire Club! Kitty blames her parents’ impending divorce for the decision and Storm tells her that change is part of life, even when it hurts, and learning to accept that change is part of growing up. After Xavier checks that Kitty’s parents aren’t being manipulated by Frost, the day comes when Kitty is to head off to her new school. She shares a sweet goodbye with each of the X-Men, especially Colossus, as the two share their first real kiss, as a temporary goodbye.

Kitty heads off with Storm on the long drive to the Massachusetts Academy. They reach their destination by the afternoon and Kitty reveals she did a lot of research on Frost after their last tussle, concluding that she and the rest of the Hellfire Club only do crime for kicks, being rich enough not to need to. Storm waits in a lounge while Kitty gets settled in, where she is suddenly surprised by Emma Frost, followed by a flash of light! Not much later, Kitty says farewell as Storm heads out, driving a good distance from the school before pulling over. Storm experiments and marvels at her powers, before lighting a cigarette and placing a call to the Hellfire Club. The call is answered by Sebastian Shaw as it soon becomes clear that Emma Frost switched bodies with Storm as part of a plan to infiltrate and capture the X-Men, and Emma tells Shaw it’s almost time for phase 2. Meanwhile, in a prison room in the sub-basement of the Massachusetts Academy, Storm awakens to find herself in Emma’s body and can’t believe the sight!

On the grounds of Xavier’s school, Nightcrawler and his girlfriend Amanda Sefton share a stroll, not having seen each other in quite a long time. Ther bliss is short lived as they are suddenly ambushed by a Sentinel and Nightcrawler is knocked unconscious. Cyclops suddenly blasts the Sentinel from the mansion and Wolverine arrives to aid Kurt and Amanda. More Sentinels arrive, while Sebastian Shaw surveils the situation from the Hellfire Club headquarters. Nightcrawler awakens and gets Amanda to safety while the newly arrived Colossus and Wolverine tangle with the Sentinels. Wolverine is temporarily blinded by one of them and Xavier guides him mentally. However, just then, another Sentinel breaks through the ceiling and knocks out Professor Xavier and Cyclops with a dose of nerve gas!

Emma, as Storm, draws near the mansion, seeing that Shaw started phase 2 without her. The Sentinels start to overrun the X-Men, until Nightcrawler saves the day, grabbing some plastique from the mansion’s armory and rapidly teleporting, placing it all over the Sentinels’ legs. The plastique explodes, incapacitating all but one of the Sentinels. “Storm” arrives and explodes the last Sentinel with a lightning bolt, which knocks out Wolverine when he shields Amanda from the explosion. The other X-Men question Storm’s recklessness but drop their guards, allowing her to knock them all out with lightning as well, capturing them for the Hellfire Club. Back at the Massachusetts Academy, Storm, in Emma’s body, picks the lock to her room but quickly gets overwhelmed by Emma’s psychic powers and the sudden influx of thoughts she receives. She runs out of the building and remembers something Jean Grey once told her about the difficulty of controlling her telepathy. Storm concentrates on quieting the thoughts and runs to Kitty’s room. Her entrance startles Kitty who tries to escape and Storm accidentally mind-blasts her when she reaches out, meaning to save her, but perhaps killing her instead! To be continued!


 

Review / Commentaries


The Uncanny X-Men #151 Review by (October 30, 2024)

Review: This cool little story sees the return of Emma Frost when Kitty is withdrawn from Xavier’s school and sent to hers! There’s no explanation for Emma’s survival, though her fate was left rather ambiguous to begin with, and long-time X-fans knew she wasn’t dead anyway. Emma switches bodies with Storm as part of her and Shaw’s ploy to take out the X-Men, aided by Sentinels. The Sentinels here are the only real follow up to the epilogue to Days of Future Past, which saw Shaw working with Henry Peter Gyrich and Senator Kelly to build new Sentinels to take out the X-Men. These aren’t exactly new but they’re under Shaw’s control, which as mentioned is all the follow up that sub-plot really gets. Nightcrawler gets to be MVP against the Sentinels, pulling a really cool move by teleporting a bunch of explosive plastique all around their legs, taking nearly all of them out in the blink of an eye! Makes you wonder why he doesn’t do things like that more often (at least against robotic foes) but that might make the other X-Men seem redundant. The issue ends with Storm in Emma’s body accidentally mind-blasting Kitty, which I can’t help but notice is the second issue straight in which Kitty is teased to have been killed. It just isn’t her week.

Comments: Guest art by James Sherman and Bob McLeod. Kitty and Peter share their first real kiss. Kitty calls Kurt “fuzzy elf” for the first time, which will become one of her standard nicknames for him.



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

Elektra

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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Bob McLeod
Bob McLeod
Bonnie Wilford
Dave Cockrum (Cover Penciler)
Joe Rubinstein (Cover Inker)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Colossus
Colossus

(Piotr Rasputin)
Cyclops
Cyclops

(Scott Summers)
Kitty Pryde
Kitty Pryde

(Kate Pryde)
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler

(Kurt Wagner)
Phoenix
Phoenix

(Jean Grey)
Professor X
Professor X

(Charles Xavier)
Storm
Storm

(Ororo Munroe)
White Queen
White Queen

(Emma Frost)
Wolverine
Wolverine

(James Howlett)

Plus: Amanda Sefton, Hellfire Club.

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