Issue(s): X-Men #15
Cover Date: Dec 92
Title: "The camel's back"
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
Andy Kubert - Penciler
Mark Pennington - Inker
Lisa Patrick - Assistant Editor
Bob Harras - Editor

Review/plot:
We left with Reaper about to kill Quicksilver and Gambit. Psylocke takes him out. What follows seems to be a case of Fabian Nicieza fighting, or at least reacting to, Andy Kubert's art by putting in explanations or jokes in the script.

The fight with the MLF continues. We learn that Dragoness' wings aren't part of her mutant power. And we see that Slab is with the MLF. We met him as a Nasty Boy but we knew that he was Thumbellina's brother.

Rogue gets blinded by Strobe. Boom Boom gets her jaw broken by Skids. We also get confirmation that Rusty and Skids have been brainwashed. Although if Cannonball saw the way they were talking in the Cable miniseries, he might think they were faking now.

The rest of the MLF are mopped up...

...and the X-Men begin to interrogate them about Stryfe.

Stryfe himself continues to try to get Cyclops and Jean to guess that he's their son.

He then goes to one of Apocalypse's bases. He fights the Dark Riders...

...and then wakes up Apocalypse, who is taking another bath.

This issue feels a little light on plot, but that's notable in itself. For a long while, it's felt like every issue of X-Men has been light on plot. During the X-Cutioner's Song, that's not the case; there's a lot going on. And even this issue isn't that sparse. It's really just that we're deep into the crossover at this point so it's a lot of fighting and moving the pieces around. But there are still time for character moments (like that nice line from Iceman talking to Angel about killing Kamikaze) and a number of different scenes. I skipped over a scene of Colossus thinking about his brother, and of Cable, Bishop, and Wolverine escaping Department K. So Andy Kubert (and it's true of the artists on the other books as well) are providing nice fight sequences and cool splashes while still doing dense enough layouts for a lot to happen.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part seven of X-Cutioner's Song. Part eight is in X-Force #17.

References:

• Colossus thinks about his brother, who seemingly killed himself and all the Morlocks in Uncanny X-Men #293.

Crossover: X-Cutioner's Song

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Wow, this issue does showcase some bad Andy Kubert art. That pose by Psylocke in the first scan has all the ridiculousness of Jim Lee with none of Lee's prettiness. The second scan shows Boom Boom defeat Forearm by standing around passively... And all of this is topped by the scene from Apocalypse's temple, where we're supposedly seeing Psynapse and Tusk being swiftly defeated by Stryfe... which, actually looks like Tusk sleeping and Psynapse jumping off him. Kubert!!! *shakes fist*

@Piotr W- fnord omitted a panel where Boom Boom is shown throwing her time bombs at Forearm.

Point taken. Still, I think that my other examples stand... Andy Kubert was supposed to be Jim Lee's replacement, but his art was very sloppy at places.

Good God, that art.

Pennington didn't help things at all.