STORY: "Frayed" (22 pages)
Hiro defends Iceman, Opal and the Drakes. Opal is decidedly more impressed by him than by Iceman. Meanwhile, Forge becomes convinced that Storm does not truly love him, and leaves her and the X-Men.

What you need to know:
Opal is pretty obviously becoming more attracted to Hiro than to Iceman. This is a set-up for her to dump him in a few issues, though really it would work better if she dumped him now and the Forge and Storm plot was delayed.

Mikhail Rasputin has gone mad and starts killing people with his powers.

The story suggests very strongly indeed that Storm doesn't really love Forge, even though she thinks she does. Very odd.

Mystique's going mad. Well, maybe. This certainly seemed to be the idea at the time, though later stories suggest she was faking.

Forge dumps Storm and goes off with Mystique, thereby satisfying the prophecy made by Destiny in issue #255. Since nothing really comes of it, though, the prophecy rears its head again when they both serve as members of X-Factor some years later.

Comments:
This is the last issue that Whilce Portacio worked on. It's at this point that Portacio, along with six other popular artists of the time, decided to leave Marvel and set up their own publisher - which, of course, became Image. This naturally left a bit of a gulf in the X-books' creative team, since Portacio and fellow Image founder Jim Lee had until recently been writing and drawing both the X-Men titles. On top of that, the ever-controversial X-Force plotter and artist Rob Liefeld was among the leavers too. And only four months down the line, there's a massive big crossover. From having some of the most popular creators in the industry, Uncanny X-Men went in a few months to having the relatively untried Scott Lobdell, then best known to X-Men fans for his string of, um, variable fill-in stories for Excalibur. Not surprisingly, there was a certain degree of scepticism.

As for Whilce Portacio, things didn't quite work out as planned. He'd intended to launch his own series, Wetworks, but due to problems in his personal life it all became rather derailed. Eventually he sold his share in Image. Wetworks would finally appear, two years later, through Jim Lee's WildStorm imprint. It did alright, but the speculator boom and the megabucks had passed. Poor Whilce.
 

FEATURE CHARACTERS
The X-Men: Bishop
Forge (leaves the X-Men and appears next in Infinity War #1)
Colossus (last in issue #288; next in Infinity War #1, then in Fantastic Four #367, then in Infinity War #2, then in Moon Knight vol 3 #41, then again in Infinity War #2, then in Wonder Man vol 2 #13, then again in Moon Knight vol 3 #41, then in Fantastic Four  #367, then concurrently in Infinity War #2 and Moon Knight vol 3 #41, then concurrently in Fantastic Four #368, Wonder Man vol 2 #13, Infinity War #3 and Moon Knight vol 3 #41, then in Fantastic Four #368, then concurrently in Wonder Man vol 2 #13 and Moon Knight vol 3 #41, then again in Wonder Man vol 2 #13, then again in Infinity War #3, then again in Fantastic Four #368, then in New Warriors vol 1 #27, then concurrently in Quasar #38 and Infinity War #3, then again in Fantastic Four #368, then again in Wonder Man vol 2 #13, then again in Fantastic Four #368, then again in Quasar #38, then again in Infinity War #3, then concurrently in Infinity War #3 and Warlock & The Infinity Watch #8, then again in Quasar #38, then in Fantastic Four #369, then again in Infinity War #4, then in War Machine vol 2 #14, then concurrently in Infinity War #4 and Fantastic Four #369, then again in Wonder Man vol 2 #14, then again in Infinity War #4, then again in Wonder Man vol 2 #14, then again in Infinity War #4, then again in Wonder Man vol 2 #14, then again in Infinity War #4, then again in Fantastic Four #369, then again in Infinity War #4, then in Quasar #39, then in Infinity War #5, then again in Fantastic Four #369, then concurrently in Infinity War #5 and Fantastic Four #369, then again in Infinity War #5, then in Infinity War #6, then in Fantastic Four #370, then concurrently in Infinity War #6 and Fantastic Four #370, then again in Infinity War #6)
Iceman (next in Infinity War #1-2, then in Alpha Flight vol 1 #110, then again in Infinity War #2, then behind the scenes in Wonder Man vol 2 #13, then concurrently in Infinity War #2 and Moon Knight vol 3 #41, then concurrently in Infinity War #2 and Fantastic Four #367, then in Wonder Man vol 2 #13, then in New Warriors vol 1 #27, then in Infinity War #3, then in Fantastic Four #368, then again in Infinity War #3, then concurrently in Infinity War #3 and Warlock & The Infinity Watch #8, then in Quasar #38, then in Infinity War #4, then in Fantastic Four #369, then again in Infinity War #4, then in Quasar #39, then in Infinity War #5, then in Wonder Man vol 2 #15, then in Infinity War #6)
Jean Grey (next in Infinity War #1, then in Fantastic Four #367, then in Infinity War #2, then concurrently in Infinity War #2 and Moon Knight vol 3 #41, then again in Infinity War #2, then concurrently in Wonder Man vol 2 #13 and Infinity War #3, then in Fantastic Four #368, then again in Wonder Man vol 2 #13, then in New Warriors vol 1 #27, then concurrently in Quasar #38 and Infinity War #3, then again in Fantastic Four #368, then again in Wonder Man vol 2 #13, then again in Infinity War #3, then concurrently in Infinity War #3 and Warlock & The Infinity Watch #8, then again in Quasar #38, then in Infinity War #4, then concurrently in Infinity War #4 and Wonder Man vol 2 #14, then again in Wonder Man vol 2 #14, then again in Infinity War #4, then again in Wonder Man vol 2 #14, then concurrently in Quasar #39 and Infinity War #4, then again in Quasar #39, then behind the scenes in Sleepwalker #17, then in Sleepwalker #18, then in Infinity War #5, then in Dr Strange vol 3 #46, then in Quasar #40, then in Fantastic Four #369, then in Infinity War #6, then concurrently in Infinity War #6 and Fantastic Four #370, then again in Infinity War #6, then again in Fantastic Four #370, then again in Infinity War #6)
Storm (next in Infinity War #1-2, then concurrently in Fantastic Four #367 and Infinity War #2, then again in Infinity War #2, then in Moon Knight vol 3 #41, then again in Infinity War #2, then in New Warriors vol 1 #27, then in Infinity War #3, then concurrently in Quasar #38 and Infinity War #3, then in Fantastic Four #368, then in Wonder Man vol 2 #13, then again in Fantastic Four #368, then again in Quasar #38, then again in Infinity War #3, then concurrently in Infinity War #3, Quasar #38 and Warlock & The Infinity Watch #8, then in Fantastic Four #369, then in Infinity War #4, then in Wonder Man vol 2 #14, then again in Infinity War #4, then again in Wonder Man vol 2 #14, then again in Infinity War #4, then in Quasar #39, then in Infinity War #5, then again in Fantastic Four #369, then again in Infinity War #5, then concurrently in Infinity War #5 and Fantastic Four #369, then in Wonder Man vol 2 #15, then again in Infinity War #5, then in Infinity War #6, then in Fantastic Four #370, then again in Infinity War #6)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
William Drake, Madeline Drake (both next in issue #319), Opal Tanaka (next in issue #301) and Hiro (no further appearances)

VILLAINS
Mikhail Rasputin (last in issue #286), Mystique (next in X-Factor #108) and the Cyburai (next in X-Factor #112)

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