X-Cutioner's Song Part 7: X-Men (1991) #15

             Welcome back nerds, to the seventh movement of the grand concerto that is the X-Cutioner’s Song. Our concern today is X-Men (1991) #15, written by Fabian Nicieza, with pencils from Andy Kubert, inks from Mark Pennington, letters from Chris Eliopoulos and colors from Joe Rosas, our issue picks up right where it left off with Reaper attempting to murder Gambit and Quicksilver. Sadly, our erstwhile terrorist fails in this as he is attacked by Psylocke and Havok. Here Psylocke presents what I believe to be the most egregious example of the Psylocke pose. The Psylocke pose is something that is difficult to describe with words, but you know it if you see it, a trend where writers and artists would put female characters, and especially Psylocke into pinup poses as often as possible. Here, Psylocke pulls off a maneuver that is designed to show as much tits and ass as possible with as little regard to human anatomy as possible. It is so bad that Fabian has Boom Boom call it out in the dialogue to make it look like the writers are self-aware. Havok, Boom Boom, and Psylocke then manage to dispatch Reaper and Forearm, while Polaris, Storm and Rogue apprehend Dragoness. Most of the other goons fall in quick succession with Iceman stating that without Stryfe there as a commander they are an ineffective fighting force. Boom Boom and Cannonball personally apprehend Rusty and Skids, two former New Mutants who had been brainwashed into joining the MLF, but not before Skids breaks Boom Boom's jaw. Eventually our mutant coalition secures the MLF base and all of the terrorists within, with the exception of Stryfe, and begin interrogations to find the mad man. We smash cut to Newfoundland, where we see Bishop, Cable and Wolverine trying to escape from Department K and as they are just about to be captured, Cable teleports them to his orbiting space station base, Greymalkin. Cut back to New York for a moment, we see Colossus stewing on his brother’s suicide and Moira and Beast bemoaning their inability to make any progress on the Professors treatment. As we pull back from this, we find Stryfe in his throne room, watching all of this unfold on his monitors confirming that this is all, even beyond the kidnapping of Jean and Scott, part of his plan for revenge. As he leaves his throne room to torture Scott he grabs some baby formula, speaking to the computer that controls his base in the same way as Cable speaks to his AI Professor. As he incapacitates Cyclops, he forcefeeds him baby food, continuing his weird baby fixation with Cyclops and Phoenix, asking “is that how you nurse a child?” This all lays out a parental connection between himself and the Summers, similar to the one that's been hinted at between Cable and Scott and Jean. Stryfe leaves this weird torture tableau to go face Apocalypse in Egypt. As he arrives, Stryfe encounters the Dark Riders and dispatches the entire team in the course of a few moments. Stryfe is essentially throwing a temper tantrum through this whole fight calling these mutants who define themselves by the mantra of survival of the fittest, weak and unworthy. Stryfe eventually finds Apocalypse who has no idea who he is. Stryfe implies some connection though, monologuing: “as you are the devil of yesterday who haunts my tomorrows, I am the demon of tomorrow who has come for cold retribution.” And as the two raise their fists to fight, the issue ends, and we are told we will see the battle next time in X-Force.

            A bit of an inconsequential issue, but one that builds nicely on what has come before it. Our heroes are getting closer and closer to Stryfe as more and more of his cards are being placed on the table face up. I have already said my, mostly ambivalent, piece on the art for these issues. Nothing really changes in the grander scheme of things, but this issue does a lot to flesh out Stryfe as a character. He gets a lot of dramatic monologues that paint him as a bit of a diva, someone who has strong opinions about childcare and someone who is ultimately driven by revenge. The Apocalypse connection is a bit weird as Stryfe has little reason to care about the old man, but we will see how that gets fleshed out next time. 7.5/10