X-Men #20

X-Men #20
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Professor X is in his war room watching a reenactment of the events of the last three issues. Jubilee is with him, and he asks how she feels about the deaths of Colossus’ parents. She gives a cynical response and flees to check on Illyana before Xavier can follow up. Xavier checks in with Colossus; at this point everybody thinks Illyana might have strep throat, but really she has been infected with the Legacy Virus. Jubilee once again leaves before her feelings can overwhelm her and bumps into Psylocke who is dressed seductively and looking for Cyclops.

As it happens, Cyclops is down in the garage working on the Blackbird. Psylocke surprises him, and he clumsily slips and stumbles into her, knocking them both to the ground. As he stammers an apology, Psylocke licks some motor oil off of Scott and then kisses him. Cyclops pushes her away just in time to avoid being seen by his girlfriend Jean Grey. Scott leaves in a hurry, making Jean even more suspicious of Betsy.

Outside, Jubilee finds Wolverine chopping up trees; he is thinking about all the losses that the X-Men have suffered in the past couple of months. His meditation is interrupted by a strange scent, but he brushes it off as just being Psylocke.

Jean watches Beast and Gambit in the Danger Room and wonders if Beast feels that he has outgrown being an X-Man. Jean then checks on Rogue, who is having her vision tested by Storm; Rogue is now able to see again, but she is sensitive to light.

Cyclops packs a suitcase and decides to visit his grandparents in Alaska to tell them about his former wife Madelyne and his son Nathan, both of whom are dead. Storm cautions Cyclops not to run away from his relationship problems like she did with Forge. Jean watches him leave, then asks the computer to detect Psylocke; the computer has two locations, but Jean ignores the second.

In the Danger Room, Jean asks Psylocke whether she is having an affair with Cyclops. Psylocke answers by stabbing Jean with her psychic knife. According to the narration, this act showed Jean the reason Betsy was behaving this way, and then made her forget it; as ridiculous as this sounds, this point does come back up in later issues.

The former body of Betsy Braddock, Revanche, confronts Psylocke; Psylocke thinks it is a Danger Room program at first, until it calls her Kwannon and attacks her. The rest of the X-Men burst in, and Revanche accuses Psylocke of being an imposter.

How It Was: Well finally we are getting to the bottom of a couple of these mysteries, and finally subplots that have been going on for far too long are being resolved. Rogue gets her sight back, which is welcome indeed, and the Psylocke trying to sleep with Cyclops thread is finally getting put to an end. Unfortunately, we are also getting to the period of X-continuity with Revanche in it, and there are a lot of reasons to be unhappy with that.

During Claremont’s run, Psylocke’s originally British body was switched with a Japanese one after she went through the Siege Perilous, an annoying plot device that randomly manipulates characters for the sake of new story directions; this isn’t the last time the Siege Perilous screws with Psylocke either, but that is another story. Anyways, this is the story that explains what happened to Psylocke, except that in about nine or so issues it gets revised and completely changed around. Psylocke herself is really not interesting from a character standpoint; from the perspective of the artist, she is a lot more interesting. Not only does she not have a fully developed personality like the other members of the group, her powers are redundant on a team that already has two really powerful telepaths. So for nine issues we get stuck with two Psylockes on the X-Men, but the second one, Revanche, doesn’t really have a lot of personality to her, either.

There are, however, quite a few nice character moments. Professor X and Jubilee build on their father/daughter relationship set up in Uncanny #297 as she tries to act mature and hide from her feelings. Jean also has some great moments of confusion and frustration as she finally confronts Psylocke. The stuff with Beast and Cyclops is slightly less compelling. It is also unfortunate that the deaths of Colossus’ parents have been glossed over.

Art is good; the opening flashback to the previous story arc is nice and somber, while the details on the computers are very intricate. Also Revanche’s armor looks really nice and the scenes in the Danger Room with ninjas and robots have a nice sense of motion and action to them. Still, there are those phantom dust clouds as Jubilee roller blades on the metal floor, as well as when Revanche confronts Psylocke in the Danger Room. Either the X-Men need to hire a housekeeper or 1990s Kubert needs to observe what actually happens when people walk in a room. This is a necessary issue, but I can’t really enjoy it knowing that it is the start of one of my least favorite stories.

C+

X-Men #19

X-Men #19
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

X-Men #17

X-Men #17
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Our story opens on a shady government mole observing the Rasputin family on the Ust-Ordynski Collective. The youngest Rasputin, Illyana, is excited that her brother is coming for a visit.

In another Russian town, Neftelensk, Winter Guard members Darkstar and Alexi Garnoff are investigating why the entire town appears to be in a catatonic state. Darkstar’s father, the super villain the Presence, appears to her, but it is only an illusion meant to attack her mind. Garnoff is similarly attacked, and it is implied that he is reliving some abuse that his own father brought upon him.

Over in Moscow, obscure supporting character Alexi Vazhin (think the Russian Nick Fury) is debriefing two members of the Russian military over the catatonic people epidemic. Vazhin mentions that Omega Red will become available to assist in the situation.

Three days later, most of the X-Men’s Blue Team, plus Iceman and Colossus, are on their way to visit the Rasputins after picking up Wolverine over in his series. Psylocke is still coming on way too strong to Cyclops while Colossus is pondering what he is going to tell his parents about his brother Mikhail, who recently committed suicide and took all of the Morlocks with him. The reunion is suitably touching, and the government agent observing them is revealed to be known as a Flagwatch.

Back in the U.S., Rogue is still dealing with her blindness, and Gambit is trying to get her over it by almost letting her fall into the pool. Xavier observes them and wishes that Gambit would just get over himself and commit to her.

Beast asks if Xavier has a second to talk, but they get interrupted by Storm and X-Force. This subplot drags on for a couple of issues and basically turns out to be the Beast feeling old and having something of a mid-life crisis. Cannonball and Warpath want permission to go and tell the other old New Mutants and Firestar about the death of the Hellions. This leads to New Warriors #31, before X-Force finally leaves the mansion in X-Force #19.

A brief two page subplot introduces a purple clad woman beating up some gangsters in Tokyo. After beating them all up, she unmasks and states that she is ready for revenge on the X-Men. This purple haired woman later turns out to be Revanche, the woman in Psylocke’s old body.

Back in Russia, Colossus is chopping wood, Wolverine is smoking a cigar, and Cyclops is walking in on Psylocke in the shower after having a nightmare about Cable and Stryfe. In the kitchen, Iceman and Jubilee discuss how Illyana used to be a teenager and the hero Magik—a plot point that proves crucial to understanding this story. In the Moscow office, Vazhin is trying to convince his superior that Illyana is not necessary to stop the looming threat. Alexei plans on using the X-Men instead.

How It Was: This is an odd storyline that introduces a one-off villain who we will never see again. The truly perplexing detail is that this story takes place in X-Men even though it focuses on a character that regularly stars in Uncanny X-Men. And no, there is no explanation as to why Peter goes with the Blue Team instead of his regular team. At the same time, it is nice to see that the fallout from Mikhail’s death isn’t being brushed to the side as just a phone call. Unfortunately the rest of the issue is more of the same thing that has been going on for months. Psylocke is still being inappropriate towards Cyclops, Cyclops is still a stammering idiot around her, and Rogue and Gambit are still getting closer…but not too close. Nothing terrible, it’s just nothing to write home about. The Revanche subplot does offer a little bit of action, although that whole subplot does not turn out well in the end.

On the art side of things, Andy Kubert is doing some great character models. However, he is still a little over indulgent with depicting dust and smoke. The panel where X-Force walks into Xavier’s office looks like they are walking inside from a Western. And the final page has the general’s cigar filling half the room with smoke to the point that we can only see the top half of Vazhin. Other than that, the art is really awesome.

C-

X-Men #15

X-Men #15
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Andy Kubert

What Went Down:  Part 7 of the X-Cutioner’s Song. This issue starts off right where last issue ended: Reaper standing over the fallen Quicksilver and Gambit, about to deliver the killing blow. Fortunately for them, Psylocke and Havok show up and save them. Storm, Polaris, and Rogue are once again chasing Dragoness (even though they took her out in the last issue). Once again, they defeat her. Also, the fight is now taking place indoors, even though the fight was outside in X-Factor.

Cannonball and Boomer chase down brainwashed allies Rusty and Skids to capture. Before being apprehended, Skids breaks Boomer’s jaw, and a humorous scene proceeds with Boomer still talking despite the fact that nobody can understand her.

While fighting the army of MLF henchmen (now wearing armor suits, even though they weren’t last issue), Rogue is blinded by villain Strobe. This takes Rogue out of the crossover, and her blindness persists for a couple of months after the crossover ends. Iceman confronts Archangel about killing Kamikaze, but Warren just brushes it off as an accident. They agree to talk about it later, but to the best of my knowledge they never do.

Over in Canada, Bishop, Cable, and Wolverine are running from Department K airships. After they’re surrounded, Cable teleports them to his space station, Greymalkin.

Outside the mansion, Colossus is feeling sorry about the death of his brother, Mikhail. X-Factor’s Strong Guy brings him some coffee with whisky in it. Inside, the Beast and Moira are still stumped by the disease that Charles is infected with.

Stryfe is overseeing everyone from monitors in his base. Then he goes into Cyclops and Jean Grey’s cell and forces them to eat some brown goop that is supposed to be warm milk supplement. He drops some more hints about raising children, which indicate that he may be Nathan Summers, Cyclops’ lost son from the future.

After this, Stryfe decides that he needs to kill Apocalypse because he has a grudge against him, too; this also lends credence to the Nathan Summers theory since Apocalypse is the one who infected Nathan with the virus that made it necessary for Cyclops to send his son to the future. Stryfe easily defeats the Dark Riders and then breaks into Apocalypse’s chamber. Apocalypse has no idea who Stryfe is, but it is clear that both of them are about to fight before the issue ends.

How It Was: I’ll admit that this issue holds a special place in my heart since it was the first X-Men comic I ever got; special thanks to my mother for purchasing it at the A-Plus gas station back when I was eight years old. This comic is the one responsible for starting me off on a hobby that continues to consume what little money I have. Quite frankly, I still love this comic.

Trying to look objectively at the issue, outside of my own nostalgia, it isn’t particularly significant. It contains fights with not one, but two obscure C-list nineties super villain teams that are both defeated incredibly easily by their opponents. All that really happens is that the MLF are defeated and a couple of X-characters are knocked out of commission for the duration of the story. The pages spent on Cable’s team are a waste; it’s just two pages of filler before Cable decides to Easy Button the team to his base.

The only real tension in this issue comes from the Stryfe sections, and the fact that Professor X is still “dying,” although that hardly counts since everyone knew he was going to make it. Stryfe has a cool design, and I’ve always found him interesting even though most people probably see him as just whiny. I think he’s perfectly justified in feeling betrayed for being sent to a post-apocalyptic future to be raised in hardship, and I like the idea that Cyclops made the wrong call and turned his son into a petty, twisted super villain. Maybe it doesn’t come off as well in this story, but I always thought it had loads of story potential. Of course this was all before the X-offices decided to make Cable the true son of Cyclops, completely negating the purpose of Stryfe and forcing him into triviality.

The continuity between issues of the crossover could have used another editorial once over since many environment and character designs, as well as events, don’t match up with the previous issue. It’s nothing severe; it’s just annoying. Andy Kubert’s art looks really nice, especially his Iceman, Colossus, and Stryfe portrayals. Unfortunately, his penchant for drawing weird giant clouds of dust behind characters is also present: on the first page no less.

It’s really just an okay issue, but I like to think of it as an above average middle chapter. And it was obviously good enough to convince an eight year old kid to spend the next sixteen years of his life buying comics, so bonus points for that.

A-

X-Men #14

X-Men #14
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Part 3 of the X-Cutioner’s Song. The Beast is running a series of tests on the Professor while Moira MacTaggert joins in via video conference; nobody brings up the inexplicable fit she had when she left in X-Men #4, so it’s pretty much forgotten. Since it’s early in the story, Beast and Moira are obviously stumped.

X-Factor and both X-Men teams meet to discuss strategy. It is decided that the Gold Team and Beast will look for Apocalypse while everybody else goes after X-Force. Bishop decides to stay behind to protect the Professor.

All the way in Panama Forearm and Reaper, two members of Stryfe’s Mutant Liberation Front or MLF, are waiting around for Mr. Sinister. Sinister shows up and trades them Cyclops and Jean for a mystery canister that Sinister says holds a piece of the future.

Over Texas, X-Force’s ship is going down due to the damage Havok caused last issue; how they managed to get from New York to Texas in a damaged ship is beyond me. They crash land and then begin the trek back to X-Force’s base.

All the way in Egypt, the Dark Riders are overseeing the reanimation of Apocalypse from his healing chamber. Too bad for him, they take him out too soon, as he’s not quite back to full power yet. The Dark Riders explain that his Horsemen have been acting under the control of another person.

The Blue Team and X-Factor are flying in the Blackbird, and they take the time to debate the philosophies of their respective teams and X-Force.

Up in space, Cable teleports to his spaceship Greymalkin after having time travelled somewhere. His computer, called the Professor, alerts him to the events of the story that have transpired.

Back at the mansion, Bishop is standing guard outside, and Jubilee brings him some food and coffee. He thanks her and then the alarm goes off. Bishop enters the mansion to find Mr. Sinister holding Val Cooper and Stevie Hunter hostage.

And finally X-Factor and the Blue Team disembark the plane only to be ambushed by X-Force for the issue long fight next issue.

How It Was: Andy Kubert started his tenure as regular artist on X-Men with this issue, and there was much rejoicing. Kubert was a pretty decent artist already at this point in his career, but he definitely improved over the next few years. Two nitpicks about him would be that his large group shots aren’t as sharp or detailed as they should be, and he has a tendency to draw huge clouds of smoke or dust in the background of his characters. In some spots it is appropriate, like after Cable transports in from his time machine; conversely, Bishop should not have a huge dust cloud following him when he is standing on the front lawn of the mansion.

This is pretty much an issue to setup where characters are supposed to go. Everyone gets assignments, but nothing really happens until later issues. That’s not necessarily a bad thing…since it’s a crossover; the story effectively comes out weekly, so it doesn’t have to move along as much as a monthly story would. On the other hand, since the X-Office was forcing you to buy four issues a month, it would’ve been nice if something important would happen every issue.

Random question that bothers me: Why is Stevie Hunter there? I know that she was Kitty Pryde’s dance instructor during the seventies and eighties, but I have no idea what she’s doing hanging around the mansion now. Surely it would make more sense to use a character like Charlotte Jones instead because she is more relevant to the current X-Men, and she’s a cop so she has a reason to be there.

It’s not a bad issue; it’s just that it’s only setting up more interesting stories.

C