In Claremont’s 2nd Brood story, he inverts the perspective to a brood-infected every-man vantage point character who is in way over his head. With dramatic irony, Claremont denies Harry the ability to perceive that he is an infected (and infectious) killer. 1/4 #xmen

This sort of narrative technique became popular in the 1950s in the wake of Cold War paranoia. We see it manifest extensively in pulp SF of the time (such as Philip K Dicki’s “Imposter”) or in many of the EC Comics werewolf stories (something Silvestri riffs on beautifully). 2/4

From Harry’s perspective (and thus the readers here) the X-Men are the bad guys, a ruthless squad of super-powered killers who attack him in his home and relentlessly hound him across the city before eventually murdering him outright. 3/4

It’s a grim, violent, emotionally exhausting story that ups the visceral brutality of the Brood whilst also providing a rare glimpse into how terrifying the X-Men are from their foes’ perspective, an important conceptual development for the Australia Era strike team. 4/4