The Uncanny X-Men #450
Uncanny X-Men #450 marks X-23's (Laura Kinney's) entry into the main X-Men title and her first encounter with Wolverine in comics continuity — a meeting that defined the next chapter of both characters' arcs and eventually led to Laura inheriting the Wolverine mantle. The issue is the gateway through which a character born on television crossed fully into the Marvel publishing line, cementing her as more than a novelty and setting up her long-term role in X-Force, New X-Men, and beyond. Embedded in the wider 'X-Men Reload' initiative, the issue also signals Chris Claremont's renewed stewardship of the flagship title he had made famous, pairing him once again with Alan Davis at a moment when Marvel was consciously resetting all its X-books for a new generation of readers. That combination of a landmark character debut, a storied creative reunion, and a line-wide editorial pivot makes #450 a genuinely consequential issue rather than just a single key.
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The issue arrived in the wake of Marvel's 2004 'Reload' publishing initiative, which relaunched all X-titles simultaneously to lower the barrier for new readers, and placed Chris Claremont back on Uncanny X-Men — the book he had written for sixteen unbroken years (roughly #94–280) — after a long absence during which he had written the spin-off X-Treme X-Men. For this return, Marvel teamed him with Alan Davis, a frequent Uncanny collaborator himself and the artist who had drawn the classic Excalibur run featuring Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers, two of the issue's central characters. The story, 'The Cruelest Cut,' was also pegged to Wolverine's 30th Anniversary in 2004, giving the editorial a built-in promotional hook for X-23's surprise appearance alongside her 'template.'
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of X-23 (Laura Kinney) in the Uncanny X-Men title and her first meeting and fight with Wolverine in Marvel Comics continuity.
- X-23 had debuted in comics earlier in 2004 in NYX #3 (written by Joe Quesada); her appearance in Uncanny X-Men #450 brought her into direct contact with the X-Men themselves for the first time.
- Written by Chris Claremont with pencils, inks, and cover by Alan Davis (inked by Mark Farmer); edited by Mike Marts under editor-in-chief Joe Quesada; cover-dated December 2004 with an October 2004 on-sale date.
- The story, 'The Cruelest Cut Part 1,' is set in District X (Mutant Town), where X-23 — working undercover as a waitress at the mutant-themed nightclub 'Wannabees' — kills four mutant-bashers who attack Jade Parisi, inadvertently implicating Wolverine in the murders.
- Rachel Summers (Marvel Girl) detects X-23's identity via a telepathic scan; X-23 then stabs Wolverine through the chest and slashes his face before escaping — demonstrating that she can outmatch him in a straight fight.
- First comic appearances of Jade Parisi (daughter of mob boss Don Parisi), the Bacchae gang member Sabine, and the supporting character Marie D'Ancanto in the context of the X-Men's post-Reload lineup.
- The issue also develops a nascent romantic subplot between Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner) and Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers), and shows Sage reviewing her Hellfire Club history — threads that carry through the subsequent arc.
- Collected in the trade paperback Uncanny X-Men: The New Age Vol. 2 — The Cruelest Cut (ISBN 978-0785116455), which collects #450–454, and later in the omnibus reprint X-Men: Reload By Chris Claremont Vol. 1 — The End of History (2018, ISBN 978-1302913786).
Cast · 17 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
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The X-Men investigate a murder and meet X-23.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).