This is the first issue of X-Men I remember buying, and I recall reading it over and over. I must have read this comic at least twenty times back in the 1980s. But it wasn’t until just now, reading it decades later, that I noticed this little thing with Storm–she’s killed someone in the past!
It was little character touches like this that made Claremont such a great writer.
This is a big Magneto issue. Huge battle, saving the world, and all that. In fact, a half dozen world leaders make appearances.
In addition, we learn that his garb is chain mail, so he can do a really cool costume change.
He destroys a Russian city to get his demands met.
Although he’s a megalomaniac, we do see that there are outer boundaries for what he is willing to do–when he thinks he’s killed Kitty, he surrenders.
This is also the issue where Cyclops returns to the team and, in the end, Kitty Pryde uses “the force” to lift the Blackbird out of the ocean.
A little over thirty years ago, I saw a t-shirt in a comic-shop that had a professionally-made representation of the cover of ‘Uncanny X-men’ #150 on it, and , in a silly fit of “I’m too old for all this shit.”, I did not buy it. Silly me. I have not seen another ‘Uncanny X-Men’ #150 t-shirt since. This cover is my favorite ‘X-Men’ cover not drawn by Neal Adams. It has everything! Good ( Cyclops ) versus Bad ( Magneto ) Drama! Beautiful Storm blubbering over dead ( as if we could ever be THAT lucky ) Sprite! Dynamic Dave Cockrum at the height of his powers! Wish I had that t-shirt! The story was epochal, as well. Magneto goes on a global killing spree to make his point, slaughtering tens of thousands across the globe to make his point, and yet- in a turn of events which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, when he mistakenly believes that he has killed Sprite, he is ready to throw in the towel! This is, of course, asinine!! All these people he’s murdered throughout his villainous career, across several decades’ time, and he only NOW vapor-locks over a little girl who got in the way after being in the wrong place at the wrong time!?? I am SURE that if there’s ANYBODY who has ever lived who grasps the concept of “collateral damage”, it’s the Master of Magnetism!! This fuzzy-wuzzy, feel-good, Phil Donahue “misunderstood nice-guy” take on Magneto is pure, undistilled Chris Claremont at his most annoyingly liberal, and it STINKS!!!! Had Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, or Arnold Drake written this issue, Magneto’s attitude towards the fallen Sprite would have played like “That’s unfortunate, but war is war, and in war, people die-including children. The TRUE killers of this child are the traitorous, anti-mutant FOOLS who enlisted her into your foolish crusade in the FIRST place!” ( aka “Batman&Robin Syndrome” ) That’s how I see it. But what a cool cover-and subsequent t-shirt!! X-celsior!!!