STORY: "Rifts" (39 pages)  The X-Men and the Brotherhood form a reluctant alliance to help protect Gene Nation from the Friends of Humanity.

What you need to know:
This issue features the X-Men who were appearing in X-Men vol 2 at around this time.  Which, of course, is why it's the Uncanny X-Men annual...

The ending of the Storm miniseries is subtly but wisely retconned. At the end of that miniseries (still arguably the worst thing Warren Ellis has ever put his name to), Storm brought Gene Nation (formerly the Morlocks) back from the other dimension where Mikhail Rasputin had trapped them, and announced her intention to pack them off to live the African village from issue #198 ("Lifedeath II").  Now, since the whole point of that story was that the village couldn't sustain any more people and somebody had to die for every new person born, sending Gene Nation there would be an act not just of monumental idiocy but also of mass murder.  This issue maintains the idea of packing Gene Nation off to Africa but instead sets them up in their own completely new village in Sudan.

Slightly less subtle retconning - apparently, we're now to take it that Havok was insane in issue #339 (the one where he threw Cyclops out of an aeroplane), but he's better now.  This is making the best of a bad job.

Gene Nation dump Storm as their leader.  Quite right too, she's done absolutely nothing for them other than show up late a few times and tend to the wounded when they've been being massacred.  A new character called D'Gard takes over.

Comments:
Ah, now this is a minor gem.  Especially when you consider it has to deal with both Gene Nation and the Brotherhood, plots which generated almost nothing of value elsewhere. The writer responsible is Jorge Gonzalez, better known (slightly) as the writer of Maverick.

The plot couldn't be simpler - Gene Nation are being attacked, and the X-Men and their rivals the Brotherhood squabble while rescuing them.  But Gonzalez gets an enormous amount of material out of this seemingly basic plot.  You've got the Brotherhood, being written sanely for once, representing a more radical and aggressive (but not villainous) alternative to the X-Men's pacifism, providing a proper counterpoint to the heroes.  You've got the arguments between the brothers Cyclops and Havok to personalise it.  Storm's nominal status as leader of Gene Nation gives more depth to the X-Men's involvement in the plot, and the Dark Beast's relationship as the creator of Gene Nation (of sorts) is used to give his involvement a bit of context.  Gonzalez also creates a few new characters to act as mouthpieces for Gene Nation and the Friends of Humanity, with reasonable success.  For once, all of the potential in these relationships is actually thought through properly.

Art comes from Duncan Rouleau, who you either love or hate. Personally, I adore his heavily distorted style, and although some of his higher profile work has been marred by excessively odd storytelling devices, this issue reads pretty clearly from start to finish.  This issue has pretty much been forgotten by posterity, but it remains one of my pet favourites.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Cannonball II, Cyclops, Phoenix III and Storm (all last in Uncanny X-Men #342; all next in X-Men vol 2 #62-66, then in Wolverine vol 2 #115-118, then in Uncanny X-Men #350)

GUEST STARS
Gene Nation (last in Storm #4; no further appearances)
Boost, Tether and D'Gard (first and only appearance for all three)
Havok, Fatale and the Dark Beast (as the Brotherhood; all between X-Factor #133 and X-Man #26)

VILLAINS
Humanity's Last Stand (last in Punisher vol 3 #18; no further appearances)

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