Classic Review: Uncanny X-Men #268

Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: Jim Lee
Cover By: Jim Lee



This issue is a little confusing because it keeps jumping between the past and the present. It takes a lot of time to figure out what’s actually going on, but when you do, it turns out to be a pretty good story. Well, the story begins with Captain America fighting off The Hand in Madripoor. The year is 1941, and he has no idea who The Hand is. Wolverine jumps into the brawl to give Cap a hand, telling him he’s just there to help. The duo is able to fight off the ninjas and Logan and Cap have a short exchange of words. At this time, they do not know each other yet.

From here, the story jumps to the present-day Madripoor, where Black Widow is getting attacked by The Hand. It looks like Widow is overwhelmed until Jubilee and Psylocke help her out, along with Wolverine. From that point, they are able to take out The Hand pretty handily. Logan and Black Widow talk, and then the story jumps right back to 1941. Now you can see why this issue is so confusing.

What’s happening is that there are two stories going on simultaneously. One is a memory, being shown in all flashbacks, which consists of Logan helping Cap and protecting Natalia Romanova ( Black Widow) from both Baron Strucker and The Hand. The story taking place in the present is basically Wolverine, Jubilee and Psylocke helping Black Widow catch Soong, a criminal in Madripoor, while fighting the hand at the same time. The whole situation is a little puzzling, and the stories are a little cluttered. If you pick them apart, there is nothing complex about them at all, I just wish that they were made a little more clear.

The only other thing that bothered me was the ending. There are technically two endings, one for the mission with Cap, and one for the present day with Widow. The past story actually had a decent ending, with Wolverine crashing Cap’s execution and ruining Strucker’s plans, but the other story really lacked any closure. Basically, once Wolverine arrived with Widow, Jubilee and Psylocke, all the bad guys ran away. That really left me with nothing.

Overall, this issue was pretty fun, but it just was too much of a hassle to read. It was hard to get too into the story when I had to keep going back and looking at pages I had already read to figure out what was going on. It did include some funny interactions between the various characters in this comic, mostly Jubilee and Psylocke. When Psylocke told Jubilee, “Child, please,” I couldn’t help but think of Chad Ochocinco. Also, the art was great and the cover was even better, but what do you expect from the great Jim Lee? The story leaves you with a chuckle when Cap hints to Logan that they should be a team, and both are thinking that the other should be the sidekick. Of course, neither would ever settle for being the sidekick, so it would never work.

I’m gonna give this one a 3.5/5