Ororo drops Kitty off at the Massachusetts Academy and gets ambushed by a mind-swap from Emma Frost, seen for the first time since Phoenix supposedly killed her over a year previously. This was only the third issue of X-Men I bought as a kid, so I was still learning who all these characters were. I had never heard of Emma Frost, so the recap at the beginning of this issue was both helpful and intriguing. I would soon discover the world of back issues, thanks to the centerfold ad from Mile High Comics. I'm happy to have two consecutive pages.
The credits for this issue are quite vague, simply reading, 'Jim Sherman, Bob McLeod, and Josef Rubinstein, artists.' In a November 16, 2022 YouTube interview with Bill Cox on Comic Art Live, McLeod explained: 'They needed someone to do a fill-in on the X-Men, and I was the only one around. I don't know why they chose me. Jim Sherman had started X-Men #151 and had to abandon the job. They needed someone to pick up where he left off. He had done basic layouts on some pages. I think he finished the first page pencils, and the rest near the end of the book was nothing. I took over and penciled that job and inked a couple of pages in the back, and I penciled the next issue where the White Queen and Storm had switched bodies. That was a really fun job to pencil. I did all of that myself.' Joe Rubinstein believed that this particular page had no Sherman layout guiding the McLeod pencils, but McLeod said it was all Sherman, none of him.
The text is pasted on, and the page lacks one caption and one word balloon at the bottom, revealing a hidden bird bath. I like the spooky wall-sized paintings gracing the center panel. The Dutch Angle and dramatic lighting make the fourth panel extra spooky. Emma wears a more conservative version of her usual white bodice, in consideration of the school setting. Xavier's green Bentley can be seen in panel five. "8" on the top right corner has been replaced by "10." The actual publication was on story page 8, but perhaps there were two pages of advertisements in there.
