A fill-in issue created before John Byrne took over as the X-Men. It may have consistency issues but as far as storyline is concerned, it’s actually very good!
TITLE: The Uncanny X-Men issue #110
YEAR: April 1978
COMPANY: Marvel Comics
WRITER: Chris Claremont
ARTIST: Tony DeZuniga
INKER: Terry Austin
LETTERER: Annette Kawecki
COLORIST: Andy Yanchus
EDITOR: Archie Goodwin
With Issue #110, this was an interesting issue because it was commissioned a year ago when Marvel wanted to give then-artist Dave Cockrum a chance to be two months ahead of schedule. And it was meant to be a “fill-in issue”.
But who would of thought that Dave Cockrum would leave and John Byrne would take over.
And because issue #106 featured Bob Brown, #108 and #109 which featured John Byrne as the artist, as the goal for people to get used to Byrne’s artwork, when could this issue be used? Well, they decided it would be bumped up to issue #110.
For the most part, it was created as a standalone issue but with a mysterious boss calling the shots.
The issue begins with the X-Men taking some R&R and playing baseball.
With a telephone line repair worker to come into fix things at the mansion, it turned out that the worker is Warhawk.
He quickly takes out Moira MacTaggert and once everyone is done practicing, Cyclops tells everyone it’s time to train in the Danger Room.
Warhawk manages to knock out Professor X and Jean Grey and then heads to the Danger Room.
What the group doesn’t know is that Warhawk has entered and set the Danger Room controls at the highest level of danger.
Cyclops and the others must come up with a plan, as the Danger Room is programmed with knowing the X-Men’s weaknesses and using it against them. How will they survive?
For the most part, it’s a very good story in seeing the group work as a team and also to push themselves to the limit. From Nightcrawler having to transport someone along with him to a farther distance, to also seeing Cyclops starting to (finally) notice Wolverine starting to show his attention towards Jean Grey.
It’s a very good issue for a “fill-in” and how far Warhawk had sabotaged the Danger Room, would not come into play nearly two years later for issue #130, when we learn who Warhawk was working for and what else he did to the Danger Room.
Because this story was done a year earlier, there are some consistency issues, mainly Phoenix getting taken out by Warhawk. And also Lilandra is not featured in the issue at all. So, the X-Mail section had to let people know why this issue may seem a little out of place.
Nevertheless, if you can overlook these two consistency issues, the story is actually very good and I enjoyed it!