Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert
What Went Down: The issue starts with a really cool two page spread looking into the dreams and nightmares of the captive X-Men; it’s so cool that I don’t mind that it’s drawn sideways. The X-Men’s dark dreams are as follows: Psylocke is tortured by her feelings of attraction for Cyclops, Cyclops feels guilt over Jean and Madelyne Pryor and his son Nathan, Wolverine is being torn apart by his dead girlfriend Mariko Yashida, Iceman is being melted by his girlfriend Opal, and Jubilee sees her dead parents.
The Soul Skinner relates to Cyclops’ loss of a child and explains his own origin. He had a daughter, Oksana, who was very sick. He tried to use his powers to ease her pain, but was unable to do even that. After Oksana died, the Skinner learned that his wife, and Oksana’s mother, had been a Flagwatch—a mole hired by the government to monitor potential threats. Blaming her for not using her resources to help their daughter, the Skinner turned his powers on his wife, and now he cannot stop.
Colossus and Vazhin are still in the cabin with the captive children trying to figure out why they are immune to the Soul Skinner’s powers. Vazhin detects the entrance of a government craft, and figures that it contains Colossus’s sister on it. Alexei tries to stop Colossus from attacking the soldiers, but Peter plows through them. During the fight, the Soul Skinner reveals to Colossus that his parents were just killed by these same soldiers; Colossus doesn’t take it well.
Back at the X-Mansion Rogue is still blind, but she has decided that she wants to do some flying, so Gambit gets to act as her eyes. Jean Grey approaches Beast about how down he has been; Beast is sad because he is turning thirty and feels old, so Jean agrees to share a coffee and talk with him.
Colossus attacks Vazhin while he pleads that he was not responsible for the death of the Rasputins. As Peter calms down, the Soul Skinner attacks them both. Illyana pleads with the Skinner to let him go, but instead he activates the age accelerator so that she will stop him. The other X-Men and the Winter Guard wake up and assist in the fight against the Soul Skinner. Cyclops and Garnoff try to free Illyana while Colossus comes up with a plan to stop the Skinner; he has Psylocke stab one of the children with her psychic knife and then stabs the Skinner, overwhelming him with the children’s innocence. Vazhin then shoots the Skinner in the head, killing him. Colossus frees Illyana, Wolverine tells everyone that Omega Red got away, and Jubilee makes a throwaway line at the end.
How It Was: Mehh. A mix of good and bad, so let’s go with the good first. The Soul Skinner’s origin is actually really interesting in a tragic kind of way. The idea that he isn’t evil, but just can’t deal with his own guilt works really well for the story. Plus, it connects really well with the issues that Cyclops is going through at this time. And, well I guess Colossus’s reaction to his parents’ death gets some good dramatic mileage out of the character.
What’s problematic about this issue is that the ending isn’t very satisfying. First we have Psylocke overwhelming the bad guy with children’s innocence, which is really lame. And then you have everyone standing around, looking for a note to end on. The right way to end the story would be to have everybody react to the death of Peter’s parents and possibly go after those responsible. Instead, all the characters just stand around and remark about how twisted and tragic the Soul Skinner was. Also, the plotline about Beast feeling old at thirty is really boring, and nobody cares. While some important events happen for Colossus, the rest of the story is easily skippable.
C
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