STORY: "A Skinning of Souls, part two: The Crops Mature" (22 pages)   Enlisted by Alexei Vazhin, the X-Men try to stop the Soul Skinner.  Meanwhile, the Russian government go back to the original plan by killing Colossus' parents and abducting Illyana, intending to age her to adolescence and restore her powers.

What you need to know:
Omega Red gets defeated by the Soul Skinner in the opening pages and spends the rest of the storyline as his mind-controlled henchman.  (Not that this is always clear, since Omega keeps talking as if he has a mind of his own.)

In a nice nod to history, Iceman is particularly concerned about the fate of Darkstar and Garnoff.  He met Garnoff back in X-Factor Annual #1, and Darkstar was one of his teammates in the obscure, short-lived Champions of Los Angeles.

In Vazhin's absence, the Russian authorities go back to the "age Illyana to adolescence" plan.  Matsuo Tsurayaba is present at the meeting which decides this, apparently because Vazhin went through him to contact Omega Red (though it's not made very clear).  Matsuo presumably likes the idea of using the Illyana plan, since it increases his prospects of getting Omega Red back - but again, his attitude is rather ambiguous.

Colossus' parents are killed, for no apparent reason, by the Russian soldiers who abduct Illyana.  (Next issue, the Soul Skinner claims that the parents were killed because the government were sure Illyana would die trying to stop him.  Quite how that explains it, I have no clue.)

In another subplot page, Revanche turns up at the home of her former employer Nyoirin, and slaughters all his guards as an application to get her old job back.  Nyoirin basically tells her to go off and kill Psylocke first.  Revanche wears a mask throughout this sequence, in order to preserve the surprise in issue #20.

Comments:
This is just histrionic.  The plot is over the top already, but the dialogue doesn't help.  For example: "I look inside you and see nothing but a shattered mirror, Arkady!  The jagged taste of broken glass is like sweet candy on my tongue, but it does not make for a filling meal!!  You are undone, Omega Red!  Such physicality, bordering as unto a primal force of nature, you might be in body, but in mind, you are as unto a gentle summer rain."  Painful.

The art is just as bad - scattershot and uncontrolled, it also ridiculously has Psylocke striking cheesecake poses in her leotard in the middle of a snowbound landscape.  Giving her a small jacket only makes the silliness more obvious.  Put some clothes on, woman.

Admittedly, the tease of aging Illyana to adolescence and thereby bringing back Magik was quite an effective little idea.  But the story is struggling badly by this point, and wheeling out the idea that the Soul Skinner can't affect the innocent kiddies doesn't help matters.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Colossus, Iceman, Psylocke and Wolverine
Cyclops (also in flashback following the flashback in Uncanny X-Men #144 and preceding the flashback in X-Factor vol 1 #115)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Jubilee, Illyana Rasputin and Alexei Vazhin
Alexandra Rasputin and Nikolai Rasputin (both die)
Revanche (next in issue #20)

VILLAINS
The Soul Skinner and Omega Red
Fyodor Sheltov (no further appearances)
Matsuo Tsurayaba (last in Wolverine vol 2 #60; next in issue #21)
Lord Nyoirin (Nyoirin Henecha; first appearance; a Japanese crimelord and Revanche's former employer; last in flashback in issue #32; next in issue #21)
Russian soldiers

GUEST APPEARANCES
Darkstar and Alexei Garnoff
Alex Summers (in flashback following the flashback in Uncanny X-Men #144 and preceding the flashback in X-Factor vol 1 #115)

Updated: 29 October 2004

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