X-Man #12 Cover

The Story:
On the cliffs of Muir Island, Nate Grey (displaced from the Age of Apocalypse) battles a classic Excalibur team in Colossus, Nightcrawler & Captain Britain. The X-Men books post AoA kept up the momentum for a while with great art, characters & stories. This was a 2-Parter crossover with Excalibur as X-Man was just getting integrated in to the Marvel universe.

The Art:
I think Steve Skroce is underrated. He's one of the main storyboard artists on the Matrix (with Geoff Darrow) and covers like this make that easy to see. The dynamic movement frozen in time, each character uniquely drawn in his design, and tremendous inking by Bud La Rosa, his best inker IMO.