Uncanny X-Men #94-95: Sometimes You Just Got To Punch Out A Jet Fighter

We start at the beginning of this story with the original X-Men saying it is time for them to move on. Jean, Bobby, & Warren all decide to go. Cyclops though, decides to stay, as he feels that his place is with the X-Men, and he doesn't have anywhere else he belongs. Jean is not too happy about this (at some point in the Dark Times they had actually confessed their love for each other and are an item), but she has made up her mind to leave. Sunfire also decides to leave cause fuck America.

Then we get an 80s training montage (though this is the 70s), as the team works together in the Danger Room to become more of a team and less of a group of individuals. We get to the end of the montage, and tempers flair up as the new team is a lot rougher around the edges, and Cyclops and Thunderbird are having a spat, with Cyclops pushing him probably a bit too hard for his mistakes, and Thunderbird reacting badly too it.

Xavier breaks it up and Thunderbird is admonished. We then zoom to the villain, Nefaria who takes over the the NORAD Valhalla Base which controls the US nuclear arsenal with his "Ani-Men" who appear to be people he experimented on to turn into human animal hybrids, and he holds the whole "I won't turn you back unless you help me" thing over them. I have the feeling they were not good people to begin with though.

The X-Men arrive in the X-Jet, and it gets shot down by Nefaria, the team uses their powers to reach the ground safely, then break in to the complex. There is a series of fights, and Thunderbird and Banshee get knocked out in one of them, but the rest of the team prevail over the Ani-Men. As the rest of the team move on to turn off the machines that would launch all the nukes, Thunderbird and Banshee wake up to see Nefaria escaping in a jet.

Thunderbird jumps on and starts ripping out pieces of the jet as it is flying off. Banshee flies after them yelling for him to jump off, Xavier mindscreams at him to jump off, Cyclops screams helplessly from the ground for him to jump off. Thunderbird instead keeps ripping, saying he will prove himself as a warrior. The jet explodes, and Thunderbird dies.

X-tra Notes: This is the beginning of Claremont's long run on X-Men (though he was cowriting with Wein here), and you can tell hit the ground just understanding the assignment. There is something about it that just feels right. The characters feel much more individualistic than the X-Characters have in the past.

Additionally there is one scene I want to call out that I really loved. After the argument in the Danger Room, Nightcrawler goes looking for Cyclops, when Scott asks him what he can do for him, Nightcrawler instead asks him if he is OK because of the argument. Scott shows some introspection I've never seen from Xavier when he is a bit of a hardass, and points out that he was the one who was probably pushing too hard and was responsible for it, but Thunderbird was the one who "took the lumps". On top of being a nice scene for Scott, it really emphasizes Kurt's empathy.