1983: Infectious X-Men part VI: Charles In Charge (of his legs!)

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In the sixth part of Infectious X-Men, most of the team is about to transform into Brood royalty courtesy of the rapidly maturing embryos in their guts. Ready to go out in a blaze of glory, the X-Men learned of a better, more noble way to pay back the "sleazoids" for what they had done. Oh, and back on Earth... Charles Xavier has assembled a band of, well, New Mutants. But more on that later.

After learning they'd been infected by the Brood Queen, the X-Men's initial response was to head back to the Brood homeworld and kill as many of them as possible before they turned. Thanks to Storm, who had rid herself of her own embryo by sacrificing her life in space, only to end up inside the cheek of an infant Acanti Prophet-Singer (ah, comics), the team came up with a better idea. They agreed to help free the soul of the Acanti, which had been trapped inside the deceased form of the former Prophet-Singer that the Brood had enslaved ages ago. They'd even forced it to commit suicide by crashing on a planet, where they Brood used its rotting remains to build their throneworld. 

The plan is relatively simple: the X-Men would approach the Brood homeworld, keeping themself hidden inside the infant Acanti Prophet-Singer that Storm is now guiding. Once they're within range, they'll use the teleportation systems of their space ship (Lilandra's yacht the Z'reee Shar) to beam down to the planet and look for the Acanti soul. 

Meanwhile, aided by Binary, Storm and the Acanti would keep the Brood's planetary defense forces properly distracted. However, Wolverine has some concerns about the X-Men still being trustworthy. After all, they could change at any moment. More annoyed by Logan's attitude than we'd grown accustomed to, Cyclops dared him to finish them all off if he felt they weren't to be trusted.

Luckily, Kitty intervened before the big ol' snikting could start.

"Stop it, both of you...Stop it!"

With everyone relatively calmed down, the X-Men headed for the Brood homeworld to carry out their plan. The appearance of the Acanti alarmed the Brood military, giving Lilandra and the X-Men the opportunity to beam down and get to work. However, Cyclops still wasn't anywhere near his usual self.

"Energize, Scotty! Beam us down!"

Thanks to Carol Danvers, by now in full control of her newfound Binary powers, Storm and the Acanti child were able to hold their own. The Brood Queen was intent on getting her tentacles on the young Prophet-Singer, aware that capturing the infant space whale would assure the Brood's control over its race for ages to come. As suspected, she sent the bulk of her forces after it, totally unaware the renegade X-Men were on her world. 

That is, until this happened....

"Do you not recognize your own progeny?"

Secretly and silently, one of the X-Men had already started to change, even able to contact her mother the Brood Queen before she finally took over. Furious to find out she was being deceived, the Queen led a strike force to the lower level catacombs of the Acanti corpse  The Brood, as it turns out, were hesistant to go down there because the world they crashed the Prophet-Singer on turned out to be filled with indigenous lifeforms (read: monsters) even the Brood were no match for. (read: the natives had the sleazoids for breakfast. Literally, as Kitty discovered when she stumbled on a nest that was littered with Brood skeletons). 

The X-Men meanwhile had met some those fearsome natives the second they beamed down. During the fight, Kitty had accidentally gotten seperated from the team and was wandering the corridors aimlessly, discovering the aforementioned nest remains in the process.

During this, Wolverine made a disturbing discovery.

"I've been worryin' since we started about a traitor in the group...
an' I think I just found one!"

Reading Uncanny X-Men I#166  back when I was a kid, this particular image haunted me for days. I guess yours truly was what they nowadays refer to as a "sensitive child". Still, it is a pretty gruesome image, both on face value (see what I did?) and the inherent implication: the changes were happening and as far as we knew, nothing short of a miracle could stop the Brood embryos from hatching. Also: note the level of detail artist Paul Smith puts in the ripped off visor: the tiny nuts, bolts and wheels flying off. 

Her identity revealed, the young Brood Queen inside Cyclops showed what she was truly capable of, controlling Scott Summers' eyebeams in a way her host was never capable of due to alleged brain damage (. After already having stunned most of his former teammates, all the X-Men were taken out when the Brood Queen arrived on the scene with her forces. Cradling her soon to change daughter, the Queen ordered the other X-Men and Lilandra to be chained up awaiting their transformation.

Meanwhile, the Brood had found the lost Kitty Pryde... After they chased Shadowcat for quite a while, the young mutant suddenly received help from the unlikeliest of allies: a certain native of the Brood planet who used his fire powers to turn the terrible creatures to toast.

"Are you for real?"

Before she could properly meet her savior, they were attacked by a lone Brood soldier whose blast hit a particular fleshy wall (remember, all this went down inside the belly of the dead Prophet-Singer)... 

"No! It burns! It burns!"

And while Kitty and the Brood warrior entered the innerchamber of the Acanti Prophet-Singer's soul, the
X-Men found themselves captured by the Brood Queen.

Luckily, things weren't all that bad out in space. Despite the fact the Brood warriors incapacitated Binary with a variation of the slaver virus they use on the Acanti, Storm was able to keep the young one safe for the moment. Her luck lasted long enough for the cavalry to arrive...

"The great starship has been searching for the X-Men for weeks...
True to form, they've arrived in the proverbial nick of time."

Back on the surface, the Brood Queen was already celebrating her victory when Cyclops' embryo suddenly decided to fully hatch. In a move that stretches all credibility, this process caused both embryo and host such tremendous discomfort and pain that Cyclops started firing his eye beams uncontrollably, knocking out Brood warriors left and right.

Wolverine, sensing an opportunity, jumped in front of one of the blasts in order to shatter his shackles. Now free, he quickly knocked out Cyclops, used his claws to cut off the Brood Queen's poison stingers and held her hostage while he ordered the remaining Brood to free his teammates. With the Brood soldiers chained up using the X-Men's old bonds, the team dragged the Brood Queen and a shackled Cyclops down to where Wolverine sniffed out and eventually located Kitty.

"X-Men, you are flesh of my flesh, where you go... So shall I"

With the Brood Queen in tow, the X-Men entered the domain of the entire Acanti race. However, as soon as they were inside, their embryos tried to take over. As the host bodies went through the change, the Brood's dark, evil influence tainted the crystalline purity that is the unblemished Acanti soul. 

"A majestic sight, is it not?
The empathic resonance of their metamorphosis already saturates this chamber"

Wolverine, free of the Brood's influence because of his healing factor, is ready to kill his friends before their change is completed... And to be honest, seeing the X-Men and Lilandra about to overtaken by the embroys is as horrific as it gets. Fortunately, before Logan could strike, the newly recovered Binary entered the Acanti's inner chamber and intervened. Using her amazing (dare we say anything-to-fit-the-story) borderline magic abilities, this happens...

"A blinding bolt of energy rips upward into space...
Leaving in its wake a song of longing and joy and eternal love."

Thanks to Binary's energy powers, the trapped Acanti soul is able to reconnect with the infant Prophet-Singer that Storm had been shepherding. This set the race of space whales free (even though most of them are still mindless slaves to the Brood, who have erected prime real estate in their flesh). Still, a new chance is a new chance, no matter how you turn it. Speaking of turning, weren't the X-Men and Majestrix Lilandra about to turn into Brood royalty? Well, sure, but Deus Ex Danvers had struck again...

"I think the soul took care of things for us... by purging the Sleazoid elements from their bodies."

Well, isn't that convenient? Not only did Binary's intervention allow the Acanti to gain their freedom, upon leaving the race's soul also rid the X-Men of their Brood embryos... And, more importantly, even turned the Brood Queen herself into a collectible crystal figurine. Newly restored to normal, the X-Men were then teleported to the Starjammer where they were met by Corsair, his teammates and... Storm, whose original body had miraculously been restored by the newly anointed Acanti Prophet-Singer after absorbing its race soul.

With everyone alive and well, the time seemed ripe for a celebration of sorts. But Wolverine, ever the party pooper, made one rather poignant observation in the closing pages of the double sized issue...

"Before she died, the Queen boasted about another royal embryo, one that indirectly threatened the Earth itself. I figure there's only one person who could be hosting it: Charles Xavier."

Yup, what everyone had already suspected for several months (or weeks, if you've first discovered this storyline through these recaps), Charles Xavier had been infected by the Brood Queen as well.
Carrying the embryo around longer than any of the X-Men, the young Queen inside Xavier was already calling the shots. First, by assembling another band of fresh faced, impressionable young teenagers with powers... Better known as the New Mutants. While the X-Men were still fighting for their lives in space, the Brood controlled Xavier was slowly grooming his young charges to become the Brood's future progeny... However, she sensed the young Native American Dani Moonstar would be trouble, forcing the embryo to act during a dream like sequence back in New Mutants I#2.

"You alone have sensed my presence, you alone could bring about my destruction."

That's why in New Mutants I# 2 & 3, circumstances made it seem as if Dani was either losing her mind or had been mentally unstable to begin with. Then, driven so mad by the infant Queen's influence, Dani used her powers to drag her teammates into a lifelike illusion that saw them fighting the Brood Queen (remember, they still had no idea who or what the alien was). That all ended when Moonstar pleaded with the others to knock her out, correctly figuring this would end the illusions.

Later that night, a still shaken up Dani was consoled by her teammate Sunspot (Roberto DaCosta), who managed to bring her back inside so all of them could watch Tom Selleck in the latest episode of Magnum P.I.
But not before they spotted a shooting star.

"I've never seen one so bright. Consider it a good omen."

Or, maybe not... Because a month earlier, Uncanny X-Men I#167 came out and revealed just what this "shooting star" really was: the arrival of the Starjammer in Earth orbit and the inevitable return of the X-Men in possibly one of *the* defining spreads of the early 1980s.

"Who's been sleeping in my head?"

Shocked and even a little stunned, the New Mutants nonetheless remembered what little combat training they'd received from the professor at this point and their best to hold off these somewhat familiar assailants. 

While two generations of mutants duked it out downstairs, Kitty Pryde secretly phased in with a Shi'ar blaster in hand, ready to take out the professor before he could become a problem. But, speaking of problems, how do you surprise a telepath? The answer's not that hard when you think of it: You just don't. Cos, well, as soon as you think of it... They know.

Don't believe me? Well...

"You should have heeded Wolverine's injunction, child, and fired."

Fully aware of the danger, the Brood controlled Xavier took care of Shadowcat before making his presence known to both teams of mutants fighting downstairs. What followed was one of the most memorable but nonetheless truly horrific scenes of the early 1980s. Professor Charles Xavier transformed into a Brood Queen and just how so much graphic detail ever got past the Comics Code Authority is quite possibly the eighth miracle of the world.

So, here goes... the full page horror that is Charles Xavier: young Brood Queen.

"Charles Xavier is no more."

Reading this as a kid of nine, maybe ten, I wasn't that shocked per se. Sure, it was disturbing but I knew Xavier would be fine one way or another (I'd just read 1991's massive hit X-Men I#1 by Claremont and Lee, with Xavier alive and well, so...don't start with me). Funniest thing though, even today, whenever I'm at the dentist I can't help but recall that fourth panel with the Brood fangs shooting out of the professor's gums. Fat load of good all that brushing did over the years.

The X-Men and New Mutants quickly teamed up to stop the young Brood Queen from escaping, with Wolverine even lobbing off her stingers, but she gets away anyway and takes to the skies... Only to find some unexpected opposition waiting for her.

"The name's Binary! I hate to disillusion you, monster. But from us... there's no escape."

On a complete and total side note, I obtained the Dutch version of this issue from the back issue bins at the local market when I was around 10. Call it Claremont's striking storytelling, Smith's surprisingly strong visuals or a child's vivid imagination... But back then, yours truly was able to imagine himself a part of the adventure.

Especially Binary's surprise attack really stuck with me. So much so that for weeks on end, I imagined myself being Binary swooping down to dole out vengeance whenever I rode my bike off this small slope right next to  my primary school.

I suppose it takes a magnificent amount of imagination to make that fly, but there you go.
... And there I went...

But before we segued into another episode of "Jef: The Mini Series", the injured Brood Queen was caught off guard by Binary's assault. Coupled with Storm trapping her inside a freak weather event caused the Queen to crash to Earth. Pinned down by the X-Men and the rather frazzled New Mutants, her fate seemed sealed. X-Men don't kill? Think again, bub... That is, until a voice of reason popped up from the most unexpected of places.

"Kill me, Scott. I beg you!"

Wolverine was ready to honor Xavier's request, but Cyclops refused to lose the closest thing he ever had to a father. Making a command decision, he ordered the Brood Queen to be taken to the Starjammer (incidentally captained by his actual father Corsair). There, the ship's chief medical doctor Sikorski teamed with doctor Moira MacTaggert to create a new body for Charles. 

Guess how that turned out...

"Professor Xavier?! You're all right?!"

With a freshly cloned body (though you'd think they could have corrected his hair loss), Charles was no longer plagued by the spinal cord injury that paralyzed him fighting the alien Dominus. Now able to walk after fifteen years in a chair, Xavier eagerly made his first steps... only to fall back into said chair, doubled over in pain. Even though he was potentially able to walk, he'd completely forgotten how to, causing his muscles to spasm (along with the fact he'd been using his telepathy to dull the pain of having shattered limbs all these years).

Charles was now forced to retrain himself, but that didn't seem to bother him. He was thrilled to have his first students home again... And we all know what the professor does when he has his dander up...
That's right, make someone else feel miserable.

Take 'r down a peg, Chuck!

"As soon as we return to Earth... you are to leave the X-Men... and join the New Mutants!"

As Kitty Pryde'll be happy to attest, possessed by a parasitic alien embryo or not: professor Xavier is still a jerk.

That pretty much concludes the X-Men's early run ins with the Brood... But like any other good horror movie monster, they always come back, as we'll see in part VII of Infectious X-Men: Normals Need Not Apply.

1983: Infectious X-Men Part V: Interlude (or: How Brooding Charlie Got His Groove Back)

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In the fifth part of Infectious X-Men, we leave the team out in space while checking in with professor Xavier.  After his lover Lilandra and the X-Men mysteriously vanished, Charles was left heartbroken and demoralized, even having seemingly lost fate in his dream. That is, until fate, Moira MacTaggert and quite possibly the alien Brood Queen bubbling in his belly decided to intervene.

Let's have a quick recap: the lengthy X-Men-In-Space-Fighting-Brood arc started back in Uncanny X-Men I#155 when Corsair came to Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters looking for help. He had some Sidri bounty hunters on his tail who completely destroyed the school before they were defeated. Everyone lived to tell the tale, and by the time Corsair and the Starjammers left to look for the X-Men a group of Shi'ar build bots had completely restored and even improved the building.

The school was open for business again, but professor Xavier was in no mood to take on a new class. However, he still had to look after whoever was left in his care, in this case Colossus's sister Illyana Rasputin. After getting sucked into Belasco's Limbo the infant girl somehow aged about a decade before the X-Men were able to rescue her. In Uncanny X-Men I#164 Charles finds himself alone at the school with Illyana as he prepares dinner for the two of them.

Reading the issue back when I was still an innocent little boy of nine or ten, I didn't see anything wrong with this scene. But, a decade or two later, their interaction really didn't sit right with me. Judge for yourself... 

"I taught you while you slept"

It's a good thing Xavier wasn't drinking wine with dinner, otherwise this exchange would have felt like a very inappropriate first date. Also, having Charles get on his high horse about telepaths never using their powers on those under his care moments after he just admitted to pumping his massive, erm, vocabulary into the the young girl while she slept? Awkward much? 

Illyana then teases him about the fact she can do "neat stuff too, like Piotr", but refuses to tell Charles just what she meant by that. However, she turns out to have an extra-ordinarily powerful and sophisticated mental shield surrounding her thoughts, so Xavier can't find out for himself (just how he was able to bypass that shield to give her the aforementioned overnight telepathic language course isn't explained either).

Despite being presented with a mystery suited to his abilities, he refuses to get involved. That trend continued in Uncanny X-Men I#165 when Moira MacTaggert presented him with another young mutant in need. Let's see how the naturally altruistic Xavier responded to this desperate plea for help.

"No."

The Xi'an Coy Manh mentioned by doctor MacTaggert was actually a character Claremont helped create with Frank Miller. As the credits in her 1980 debut issue, Marvel Team Up I#100, claimed, she saw the light of day thanks to inspiration the two got after the comics convention Ithacon 1979. In her first appearance, the mind controlling Vietnamese girl proved powerful enough to turn Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four against each other. All the more reason she ought to receive the proper training. 

Continuining his tendency to build bridges to connect seemingly seperate sections of the the Marvel universe, Claremont now brought Karma into the X-Men's sphere of influence even though Charles wasn't exactly champing at the bit to take Xi'an on. However, after a particularly nasty exchange which ended with Moira leaving Xavier to stew in his own juices for a bit, he reached the only logical conclusion.

"Then, at last, a decision is made... A Rubicon is crossed..."

Xavier made the call and brought in Xi'an for preliminary testing. The story of her arrival at the school was told in 1983's Marvel Graphic Novel I#04, by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod. In it, we see the birth of the next generation of mutants, as over the course of the story Xavier and Moira slowly assemble a band of young (oh, go on then, new) mutants clearly in need of the guidance and help only he can provide. So, at the end of that particularly enjoyable comic, we end up with this band of fresh (faced) teenagers with powers.

"I see that our relationship is becoming as... fascinating... as I anticipated."

Oh boy, Danielle Moonstar... If only you could see what was coming for you in the X-Men/Micronauts limited series scheduled for 1984. Or even what was really going on right now... Marvel Graphic Novel I#04 only briefly mentioned the X-Men's disappearance, yet the Brood weren't mentioned, not even the fact Xavier wasn't quite himself thanks to the young Brood queen growing inside him. 

It's hard to tell if Xavier's decision to gather a new band of mutants was fully his own choice... Or actually the handiwork of the Brood Queen embryo who was already subtly influencing her host. After all, having suitable host bodies available as soon as she hatched would only make sense. One might argue Xavier's distinct aversion to assemble a new class was Charles' last (sub)conscious act of resistance. When he decided to call in Karma in Uncanny X-Men I#165, that could symbolize the moment the infant Brood Queen won out. Xavier might look human, but she's the one calling the shots (even though she'd still need to be pushed around).

Which brings me to another thing: it's been well established the Brood embryos hypercharge their hosts' recuperative abilities to make sure they are fully fit by the time the young Queen is ready to take over. In Uncanny X-Men I#164, Kitty Pryde caught a lethal dose of radiation, only be fine the next morning... Shouldn't Charles' shattered spine have been mended, allowing him to walk again? 

Of course, just in case someone at Marvel reads this and has a No Prize left somewhere... The baby Brood might well have restored Charles's legs, but having her host suddenly walking might cause people to grow suspicious before she was ready to take over. Best to keep playing it straight. 

Sorta.

"A royal egg will be implanted within each of you..."

While the X-Men's trials and tribulations in space continued (which we'll cover in the next part), these new mutants got their own spin off title called... Ow, don't make me say it.

After a rather inoccuous first two issues fighting some Sentinels, New Mutants I#3 saw Dani Moonstar (then going by Psyche) getting taunted, hunted and mocked by the Brood growing in Xavier. Time was clearly running out, but who could save them? 

Come back and find out in part VI of Infectious X-Men: Charles In Charge (of his legs!) 

1983: Infectious X-Men IV: For The Soul Of The Starbeast

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In the fourth part of Infectious X-Men, the team has a lot to deal with. Not only did they just find out most of them are unwilling hosts of infant Brood Queens ready to take over their bodies, they're also about to die from explosive decompression.  And oh yeah, long time Uncanny X-Men penciller Dave Cockrum was replaced by one Paul Smith.

First things first... imagine you're a fan of Uncanny X-Men back in late 1982. It's a good time to be following Marvel's mutants. Ever since 1976, Chris Claremont has been delivering solid stories that continue to raise the stakes and enrich the tapestry of the tales. And as for the art... Dave Cockrum had been the book's principle artist, his tenure only interrupted when one John Byrne enjoyed a relatively brief stint on the book. After Byrne left (wonder what happened to him?), Cockrum was back in the saddle. All the fans knew were either the Byrne or Cockrum version of the X-Men. And then, in Uncanny X-Men I#165... Paul Smith happened. 

Judging from the cover alone, fans could already tell something new was about to start. Up to that point, Smith had been relatively unknown, mostly doing fill ins. He worked with Claremont before on the X-Men and Ka-Zar story in the opening arc of Marvel Fanfare during which he also followed Cockrum. His highly stylized style is a far cry from the warm, fuzzy and distinctively "dated" feel Cockrum's art evoked.

Smith's take on the characters was somewhat closer to Byrne's work, but in no way comparable. The arrival of Paul Smith effortlessly dropkicked the X-Men into the 1980s, any sense of late 1970s nostalgia went right out the window when Cockrum left (to do Futurians, his creator owned project for Marvel). Speaking of things going out the window... In the opening pages of Smith's debut issue the team was about to get sucked out into space.

Well, for a few seconds anyway.

"Here it comes, Petey!"

Full disclosure: yours truly really started getting into the X-Men during Paul Smith's days on the book, so I might be slightly biased... But it is impressive how Smith was able to capture the essence of the characters so perfectly even in his debut issue. Sure, they look remarkably different from the way either Byrne or Cockrum drew them, but they nevertheless still feel like their distinctive selves. 

So, what happened to cause the hull breach? Well, Carol Danvers happened... Or rather, Binary, after she discovered the Brood's experiments gave her the ability to become one with a white hole. After learning her friends had been implanted with Brood eggs and were about to become hosts to the next generation of Brood Queens, Carol grew incensed and flew off to avenge her friends. Seeing as she was now powerful enough to give the Silver Surfer a run for his money, she could actually pull it off.

More on that later, first... Let's check in on Storm, who left the Z'Reee Shar last issue after discovering she was pregnant with what she initially thought was a baby. After sensing it was in fact a Brood embryo, she freaked out and took off in a Shi'ar shuttle.

Things aren't going great.

"This creature is evil... But does that give me the right to destroy it?"

Storm's inner monologue speaks volumes of just how well Claremont understood the characters he'd been shepherding for over seven years by this point. Ororo Munroe was so consecrated to protecting life, she couldn't even consider the embryo growing inside her as an unwanted intruder that deserved to die because it got forced upon her. As cruel and crass as it may sound, Ororo's plight indirectly mirrors the decision female rape victims have to face after discovering their traumatic ordeal left them pregnant. What do you do? 

Unfortunately for Storm, her time had seemingly run out...

"Eh...?! My hands...?!"

You can speculate just why Storm's egg was the first to hatch. It might be because she was a woman in her child bearing years, possessing a body biologically ready and eager to gestate new life. This in stark contrast to Kitty Pryde who at 13-and-a-bit would barely have hit puberty... And as for Lilandra and her egg, if the Shi'ar are anything like other avian species they have a very specific, brief window of fertilty.

Oh, and sure... Wolverine's egg was the first to hatch back when the X-Men were still stuck on the Brood homeworld. But that might have been the neophyte Brood Queen's own decision, after sensing her host's mutant healing factor. She decided to take over his body moments after he was left severly injured. It could be she felt this was the right time to force the metamorphosis, only to realize halfway through she couldn't beat him after all.

Anyway, back to Storm... Even as she was changing, her shuttle drifted out of the nebula it had been stuck in. It entered open space near the center of the universe. The intense light of the billions of stars startled the neophyte Brood queen so much she aborted the take over. Briefly restored to normal, Ororo now concluded she didn't have to take another life to save her own... If she decided to end her own existence. Using her mutant weather control powers to summon the solar winds, Storm decided to soar one more time before the end..

"As Storm hopes, the embryo does not survive the ordeal"

Since this is a scene from late 1982, I'm pretty sure it won't be that big a spoiler when I reveal Storm lives through this. But how? We'll find out in a bit.

First, let's get back to the X-Men and Lilandra aboard the Z'Reee Shar. With both Storm and Binary gone and time quickly running out, the team  was forced to face some rather grim realities. Kitty Pryde was taking it especially hard...

"It grabs her, she tries to phase through its tentacles but her power no longer works"

After having a nightmare about her funeral, which ended with the grief stricken X-Men looking on while Kitty was being brutally victimized by the Brood that emerged from her own corpse, Kitty Pryde woke up crying. Luckily, Colossus was nearby to console her... Which gave them a fine opportunity to take their already more than a little flirtatious relationship to the next level.

"However, little one, you are not older"

Erm, Peter? For future reference... the right time to voice any of your moral objections regarding tongue wrestling with a 13 year old would be, well, *before* you french the aforementioned child. But rest assured, the alarming thing these (way too) young lovers spot isn't the Comics Code Authority there to shut them down.

We'll soon get back to what caused Colossus to go shirtless in front of the minor he just accosted. For now, let's check in on the other people aboard Lilandra's stellar yacht. Wolverine, Cyclops and Lilandra have been discussing what to do with their remaining time before the metamorphosis. When Logan casually mentions the possibility of heading back to the Brood homeworld to dole out a little payback, we see one of the first signs that show just why Lilandra Neramani is the Majestrix Shi'ar, empress of a warrior race.

"From this moment on, wherever, whenever I find them....
Be they highborn or low, adult or child...
Their lives are mine!"

Cyclops and Wolverine agree with Lilandra's decision to return to "Sleazeworld" for final retribution. Afterwards, Logan stops by Nightcrawler's quarters to see how his buddy Kurt is doing. To Wolverine (and the readers'!) surprise, he finds him on his knees praying.

"I never figured you for the religious type."

The late, great painter Bob Ross was fond of saying there are no mistakes in art, only happy accidents. These three panels, almost throwaway in their casualness, would go on to define the character of Kurt Wagner for more than a generation. 

He already exhibited genuine faith back when the X-Men fought Dracula and Kurt's makeshift cross actually forced the lord of the undead to keep his distance. But here we have him in private conversation with his lord and savior, cross out and all. It was this scene that would eventually blossom into Nightcrawler becoming an ordained priest (before falling from grace, dying and coming back to life with the disciple like Bamf!-creatures following him around).  

Almost at the same time, everyone aboard the Z'Reee Shar is surprised by the unexected appearance of several different versions of Storm. From the infant girl she was, thieving on the streets of Cairo, to her time alone in Africa and via her brief interlude as Dracula's lover to her regular self. Well, sort of... Storm had come back and she brought a rather unusual friend.

"I am not the Storm you knew"

I'll say... But that particular mystery was further explained in Uncanny X-Men I#166, in which we finally learned what Binary had been up to. Not to spoil the plot, but she was kinda busy giving the Brood a bloody nose... For instance, by attacking their outpost on the planet of Madreezar just as the Brood were getting ready to "recruit" a new space whale... I mean, Acanti, as they're called. The Brood infect these noble beings with a slaver virus that destroys their higher brain functions and turns them into mindless beasts, easily controlled. Binary destroyed the Brood outpost on Madreezar. Initially excited about having saved the captured Acanti, Carol was ready to set it free when she realized the Brood's slaver virus had already caused irreperable damage.

"Releasing you won't do any good, will it?"

Of course, it's only comics... but Carol Danvers *did* just euthanize a sentient being so it wouldn't continue to  suffer needlessly. Pretty bold move for a Comics Code approved book in the early 1980s. Moments after Binary flew off, she was located by Storm in her new form who guided Carol to the Acanti that had swallowed the Z'Ree Sh'ar. As they entered the creature through its mouth, Binary spotted something rather... disturbing.

"Consider it a legacy of one of my... less pleasant moments"

Yup, right here imbedded in the Acanti's lower left cheek was Storm's actual body. It would appear the Acanti's healing factor was trying to restore the shell to full healh, but judging from the way Ororo looks... they're not exactly doing a bang up job. Watching her own body didn't seem to bother Storm as she guided Binary into the Z'Reee Shar to reconnect with the X-Men. After apologizing for her abrupt departure, Carol was on board to help her friends take out as many Brood as possible before their time ran out.

However, Storm proved to be the voice of reason:

"You would accomplish nothing. The stakes are far higher than mere vengeance."

She then used her new powers to show Binary, Lilandra and the X-Men what was truly at stake. In a nutshell: the creatures the Brood have been using as their ships are actually members of the Acanti, an ancient and benign race of sentients led by their leader, the Prophet-Singer. Ages ago, the Brood managed to capture and enslave the Prophet-Singer, turning him into one of the first of their living ships.

They discovered he carried  the Acanti racial soul within him, a mark of leadership that made the entire race obey and follow him. Hoping to exploit this, the Brood crashed the Prophet-Singer's massive form on the planet that would become known as the Brood homeworld. Even though his physical form had long since perished, the Brood kept the Prophet-Singer's soul trapped in its rotting shell in order to keep attracting new victims.

Storm then revealed the spacewhale that had saved her was actually a prematurely born Prophet-Singer. When the other Acanti found her dying in space, they bonded her body and soul to that of the infant creature so her mature sensibilities could help guide him along until he was old enough to take care of himself. After explaining her current status quo, Ororo convinced the X-Men to help her free the Acanti's trapped soul. With it, the young Prophet-Singer could finally lead his remaining people away to safety. 

"I think we're agreed on this."

With the plan made and agreed on, let's end part IV. Next time, while the X-Men prep for what might well be their final mission, we'll visit Earth to see what professor Xavier has been up to. Remember how he'd been implanted with a Brood Queen embryo as well? No worries, he'd forgotten too, but that doesn't keep him from doing some empire (re)building as we'll see in part V of Infectious X-Men: Interlude (or: How Brooding Charlie Got His Groove Back) 

1982: Infectious X-Men part III: Logan's Choice (nah, he won't run)

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

When we last left the X-Men, they had been captured by the Brood and implanted with their royal embryos. Wolverine was the first to get rid of his, but had to deal with the fact his teammates were destined to become sleazoid royalty. In part III of Infectious X-Men, we'll see what Logan's planning to do about it. Spoiler alert: it contains a lot of *SNIKT*, bub...

The original Brood saga, not to mention the entire race of body stealing baddies, have often been compared to the 1979 sci-fi horror hit movie Alien. While all art can be considered derivative, the cover to Uncanny X-Men I#163 really resembles the finale of that movie, with Sigourney Weaver defeating the creature by tossing it into space. But, as always, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Brood didn't just abduct the X-Men, the Shi'ar empress Lilandra was implanted as well. Visiting X-Men associate Carol Danvers wasn't deemed suited for a Brood embryo, instead she was taken away by Brood scientists who were fascinated by her unique Kree/human genetic structure. By the time Wolverine made his way back to the palace the others were  being held, the experiments on Carol were already well under way.

"Her physical form we can alter at will. What has proven most fascinating is her psychic resistance."

The Brood bio engineers had been experimenting on Carol for quite a while, cruelly shifting her form to show some visiting dignitaries what she was capable of becoming. Luckily for Carol, her scent was the first one Wolverine locked on to once he entered the palace. Horrified by the ordeal his old friend was put through, he decided to free her. Of course, this meant hacking and slashing his way through a considerable number of Brood  so he could reach the controls of her transformation booth/torture chamber. But, how would Wolverine know how to operate, let alone shut down, a high tech alien device without harming or even killing Carol in the process?

Ow, just guess...

'I can't make head nor tails out of the controls (....) Instead, I cross my fingers...an' wreck everything in sight. Simple, effective, like me."

Contrary to any and all forms of scientific procedure, let alone common sense, destroying equipment that morphs your very form in mid process actually returned Carol to her original body. Seemingly none the worse for wear, Danvers claimed she felt felt more energetic than ever (ow boy, plotpoint!). Grabbing one of the Brood blasters lying around, she joined Wolverine in his attempt to free the others. 

Speaking of the others, most of them still believed they were among the Shi'ar as their honored guests. The Brood put them under this particular illusion so they would be calm and compliant until their eggs were ready to hatch. Luckily, around the time Logan and Carol came for them, some of the X-Men were coming to their senses.

Cyclops was the first, after sufferinga terrible nightmare in which he and his teammates were slowly being turned into Brood. Talk about foreshadowing... However, Scott had no idea how prophetic his dream was... Not even when he went for a walk and ran into Ororo who was meditating.

"Energy coalesces around Ororo into the form of one of the creatures from his nightmares...
The young queen smiles at him..."

Oh boy, that ain't even subtle anymore... But Cyclops and Storm still didn't put two and two together. How could they, after all? As fate would have it, Wolverine and Carol met up with Scott and Ororo and told them what was going on. The four of them, free from the Brood's illusions, went to collect Colossus, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler who were still seeing whatever the Brood wanted them to see. That made for some amusing, if not slightly disturbing moments. 

With the X-Men reunited, they decided the best way to escape the Brood world was by using Lilandra's ship the Z'Reee Shar (after all, it brought them there after the Brood captured them on it back in Uncanny X-Men I#161). However, Lilandra was held at a seperate location, forcing the team to split up. With Storm, Nightcrawler and Shadowcat off to recapture the Z'Reee Shar, all the others were trying to liberate Lilandra. And that led to an interesting dilemma, to say the least...

"Tunnel breaches, Cyke. Left one leads to Lil. Right one... Cripes, we hit the jackpot!"

By this point, Wolverine still hadn't told the X-Men, they had been infected While the X-Men tried to free Lilandra, Wolverine sensed a prime opportunity to already avenge his friends by assaulting the Brood Queen responsible for their fates. While Wolverine disobeyed a direct order from Cyclops by going after the Queen, forcing Scott and Colossus to accompany him, Carol Danvers went off on her own to rescue Lilandra. 

Meanwhile, Storm, Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler tried to reach the Z'reee Shar. After Storm managed to get them into a high enough orbit for Nightcrawler to spot the Shi'ar vessel, Kurt teleported himself and Kitty to the hull of the yacht. Kitty then phased into the craft, well aware Kurt was slowly dying from exposure if she didn't find an airlock to bring him in soon (why she didn't simply phase him inside the second they arrived? Shhhh, let's not be too logical here).

As soon as Kitty regained her bearings, she found herself under attack by a Brood guard... And, in a scene truly reminscient of the first Alien flick, Ripley, pardon, Kitty... got rid of her assailant by venting him out to space. But no worries kids, Kitty ain't no murderer... The bad Brood accidentally killed himself. 

See?

In the end, the X-Men, Carol Danvers and Lilandra were saved from certain death courtesy of Nightcrawler and Kitty who used the Z'Reee Shar's teleportation systems to beam everyone out of the royal chambers. The yacht took off, with the Brood Queen ordering her forces to stop the X-Men. 

And that brings us to Uncanny X-Men I#164, featuring the introduction of...

Oh well, you guessed it.

But before Carol Danvers begins her new career as Binary, she first has to help the X-Men fight off the Brood forces that have come to collect them. Lilandra shows the team the way to the weapons and that's when we get this lovely piece of early 1980s nostalgia.

"These controls look fairly easy to operate. Simply pretend it's a video arcade game"

Yeah, let's pretend you're playing Space Invaders while you're fighting off, well, space invaders. 

The X-Men manage to hold their own against the Brood inside their space sharks (yes, actual, living sharks... in space). But the only reason they're still breathing is the fact the Brood Queen doesn't want to hurt her gestating children. Eventually, they'll be overcome if they don't get out of Brood space and into warp. Unfortunately enough, the warp drive was damaged by a stray blast and someone had to go outside in a spacesuit for repairss. While Kitty volunteered for the job, Carol suddenly felt a little dizzy.

"Everything's normal now, probably stress..."

You also shouldn't have skipped breakfast, Carol... It ís the most important meal of the day, you know...

Disaster struck when the Brood mounted another massive attack just as Kitty was hit by some shrapnel while trying to fix the damage outside. Back inside, Carol Danvers suffered another seizure and became a deus ex Danvers when she suddenly shot out massive amounts of destructive energy that obliterated the entire Brood armada. Despite her injuries, Kitty fixed the warp drive and the Z'Reee Shar took off...

"Carol! Thank heavens... Is that you?!"

Yeah, it's the new and improved Carol Danvers. Leave it to Chris Claremont to rescue and restore the former Ms. Marvel to new and greater glory. After all, Claremont didn't exactly keep it a secret he disliked what had happened to the character he wrote for most of her first soloseries. As any fan of the Marvel 1980s knows, Avengers writer David Michelinie had Carol get mind controlled and impregnated by Immortus' son Marcus, with Carol "freely" volunteering to move to Limbo with him. It all happened in Avengers # 200, one of the most villified issues of the era. 

Claremont didn't waste any time after that, writing 1981's Avengers Annual #10 in which he brought back Carol, revealing she'd been living in San Francisco for months before she was robbed of her powers by the mutant Rogue. At the end of that story, Carol had chastised the Avengers for their ignorance, neglect and carelessness and ended up staying with the X-Men... which led her into space and her newfound status as Binary. The Brood experiments on her body somehow allowed her to tap into a white hole and manipulate its massive stellar energies.

Sure, let's run with that.

At any rate, Carol is overjoyed by her newfound abilities, but also realizes what they entail when Colossus (trust me, he's the one inside the suit there) asks her if she'd like to join the X-Men.

"Earth was Carol Danvers' home, Colossus. But I fear it has no place for Binary."

Speaking of Earth, what's been going on there? 

Well, for one thing...Thanks to Lilandra's builder bots, the entire Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters has been rebuild within days. The heart and soul of the man who gave his name to the facilities is another matter altogether. Xavier's been shattered and demoralized by the disappearance of the X-Men. A fact Moira MacTaggert revealed to Corsair, who came by to announce he was taking the Starjammers to look for the missing mutants.

"My son has been kidnapped. I intend to rescue him. Or avenge him."

Moira pointed out his other son, Havok, would want to go with him. But Corsair refuses to consider the notion, even though he'd love to have him at his side. After all, space is no place for a young son to accompany his father. You're better off safe 'n sound on Earth, especially if they might run into trouble up there. Safety first, don'tcha know?

"This young fellow is my son Scott. He's the one who just gave your spaceship a sunroof."

Oh well, never mind. 

With Corsair and the Starjammers off to find out what happened to the X-Men, there's at least some kind of cavalry on the way. But space is big and the X-Men's time is steadily running out. After Binary brought in the severly injured Kitty Pryde, everyone was stunned when she made a complete recovery pretty much overnight. Which was great news of course, if not for the fact Nightcrawler (the team's de facto medic) had concluded she couldn't possibly survive both the wound and the radiation exposure. Something was very wrong... And Wolverine knew what was up, but still couldn't bring himself to revealing what he knew.

"Wanna bet?"

The sense of dread aboard the Z'reee Shar was palpable in those pages. Sure, they might have escaped the Brood, but they all felt there was still something very wrong. Storm, terribly affected by being in space and cut off from her natural connection to Earth, was the first to sense just what was wrong. While talking to Cyclops, she all of a sudden felt something kick inside her...

"Scott, I sense... life within me! A... Child!"

Reaching out to "her little one", Storm is shocked when she sensed just what she was carrying. Freaking out, she took off in one of the Z'ree Shar's shuttlepods. Fed up with being kept in the dark, Cyclops assembled everyone and confronted Wolverine to tell them what was going on. 

He finally gave in.

"When it hatches, a physical metamorphosis occurs"

In the pantheon of X-Men artists, Dave Cockrum doesn't really get the recognition he deserves compared to other greats like John Byrne, Jim Lee or even Paul Smith who takes over from daring Dave next issue. But the way he manages to capture the X-Men's individual reactions to Wolverine's horrifying news is exceptionally well done. Cyclops' grim resolve, Lilandra's regal determination, Colossus barely concealed anger, with Kitty reaching out to the overcome Nightcrawler despite her own tears. It's all beautifully portrayed.

 But all of that emotion literally goes out the window, courtesy of Binary...

"Explosive decompression! We're being sucked into space!!"

You'd think that getting sucked into space would resolve the whole "we're about to become Brood Queens" dilemma... But we'll see how the team gets out of this particular pickle, courtesy of the X-Men's new artist Paul Smith in part IV of Infectious X-Men: For The Soul Of The Starbeast