Welcome to the twenty-second installment of A Very Merry X-Mas, where I count down my 24 favorite X-Men (or X-Men related) Christmas stories!

Today, we look at #3 in the countdown, "Wounded Wolf" by Chris Claremont and Barry Windsor-Smith from Uncanny X-Men #205.

The "problem" with this one is that it is fairly light on Christmas-y stuff. It's probably my favorite story of all of the stories on this list and it does have a DECENT amount of Christmas stuff in the story, but not enough to rank it over the top two stories on the list, which lean into Christmas a good deal more than this one.

For Christmas-related stuff, it's mostly the fact that Katie Power is on a Christmas trip to the city when she runs into Wolverine.

Anyhow, after leaving comics for a number of years to pursue other art projects, Barry Windsor-Smith made a triumphant return in the 1980s. He began a tradition where he would draw at least one issue of Uncanny X-Men a year for a few years there (sometimes more than one). Typically, his issues would be one-off stories. His most famous one was "Wounded Wolf," which introduced the modern depiction of Lady Deathstrike. Wolverine has always been best contrasted when used with young, female heroes and that was evident in this classic issue, where Katie Power (Energizer from the Power Pack) is separated from her class during a field trip to New York City for Christmas when she runs into Wolverine, who is being hunted by Deathstrike and the Reavers. Wolverine has been abused and is barely more than an animal at this point...

However, his instinctual need to protect Katie eventually leads to Wolverine making the conscious choice to be a human over an animal. Chris Claremont and Barry Windsor-Smith really were a wonderful team together.