Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 36

 Mojo's back and I'm feeling sick remembering it.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Archangel and Apocalypse returned. Warren Worthington III has developed a lasting, burning hatred for Apocalypse and is trying to uncover any hint on how to kill him despite his immense power. An aide brings him a scroll telling of a weak spot on Apocalypse’ back, conveniently just before Apocalypse attacked New York. He faced off against the man that turned him into Death, but metal wings > Apocalypse and his like 15 different powers. The X-Men, meanwhile, use a Shi’ar enhanced Cerebro to track down Apocalypse’s ship, a massive mile long vessel that can cloak itself. They get the alert about the fight and go to give Warren backup. Apocalypse flees after they arrive and they take Warren back to the Mansion to recover. While the others formulate a plan of attack, Rogue looks after Warren and gets drawn in by his talk of revenge, implied to be an effect of having absorbed his memories a few months back. The X-Men tell Warren about their plan to turn Apocalypse’s ship against him, but that’s not good enough for Warren who flies off to fight Apocalypse again, Rogue following him and Gambit following her. Beast, Cyclops and Wolverine find and land on Apocalypse’s ship. The ship is intelligent and seems to not like working for Apocalypse, so lets them aboard and set a trap to capture Apocalypse in his own force cage. Archangel, Rogue and Gambit track down Apocalypse and do battle with him, driving him off. He returns to his ship and is promptly captured in the force cage. Warren arrives and can’t accept Apocalypse being imprisoned as just punishment. He tries to break the field holding Apocalypse to try to kill him, but it doesn’t work. Apocalypse frees himself, revealing he had a failsafe override code the entire time. And then revealing he was the aide, and planted the idea of having a weak point to draw Archangel into the open. The ship, having bonded with Beast, leads him to an override control to the override. The ship activates a containment protocol, trapping Apocalypse in a pod and jettisoning him into space. It is severely damaged though and crashes into the ocean below, dead. The others escape, Archangel flying off in a fury when it's clear that no one, even Rogue, agrees with his insane vendetta anymore. Beast mourns his lost friend, the ship. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Logan doing his best to teach Jubilee how to drive. She’s… inconsistent to say the least. Logan has her pull into a convenience store so he can grab something, and when she’s alone, Longshot materializes in his seat. For those who don’t remember, Longshot was the star of an interdimensional TV show of the same name run by Mojo. Mojo being a gross bloated alien creature that walks on robotic spider legs. Jubilee missed that adventure so they get introduced right before Mojo sends some goons including the six armed Spiral to grab him. Spiral seems upset with Longshot for trying to leave and prepares to slice him, but Jubilee blasts at them, allowing Longshot to escape. Longshot grabs Jubilee and they run. The aliens summon up some war dogs to hunt them. Logan, somehow having missed all that, scents Longshot and goes after them.

 

The war dogs chase the duo for a few block, catching them in an alley, just before Logan catches up and starts slicing them. Jubilee and Longshot help out, disabling the war dogs but then Spiral and the others catch up. They drive Spiral and co back, who hadn’t anticipated him having backup, fall back to regroup. Logan, after checking on Jubilee, demands to know what Longshot is up to. Longshot claims he doesn’t know, as he can’t remember anything. Yep, it’s an amnesia story. Jubilee goes to bat for Longshot, saying he’s on their side. Logan’s not so sure, but is willing to take Longshot to the professor for some mental scans.

 

Back in Mojo’s dimension of Mojoworld, the titular disgusting creature that I can best describe as looking like aged cheese smells, is screaming at Spiral and Co for losing Longshot. He’s still under contract so every second he’s not spending on screen is costing Mojo big bucks. He whines about his issues, as he’s currently dealing with slave rebellions, employees demanding to be paid, all the usual despot stuff. Spiral, tired of his whining, snidely asks why he doesn’t get Longshot himself if he’s so hug up on him. Mojo, pissed off, grabs her and seems to suck the very life out of her with his hands. His major Domo does point out Spiral’s idea has merit, suggesting that if Mojo were to lead an expedition to our primitive planet and face off against the X-Men, it could be a major ratings hit. It takes a count of four on Domo’s fingers before Mojo is on board, positively drooling at the though of how much money they’ll make. Domo also saves Spiral’s life by pointing out that they’ll need her to pierce the veil between dimensions. Mojo restores her and orders Gog, one of the goons from earlier, to get his guys and get down to wardrobe. He also orders they scramble a remote crew, as they’re going live.

 

Jubilee and Logan show Longshot around the X-Mansion, Jubilee excitedly and Logan begrudgingly. They find Rogue and Beast in the rec room, and both are shocked to see him. Logan is distrustful of Longshot but Jubilee is clearly smitten with the fella. Xavier comes in and asks what’s going on, when Jubilee and Logan try to talk at once, he stops them and has Beast explain. Logan’s pretty sure this is a Mojo trap of some kind, and wants Charles to scan Longshot’s mind for clues. Charles sticks to his rule about only brain scanning the willing, so tells Longshot to think hard about it. Jubilee grabs him and says they’re going somewhere less hostile. Rogue tells Logan she’ll keep an eye on things and asks if he notice Jubilee was smitten with Longshot, to which Logan growls that he did.

 

Jubilee shows Longshot some of the grounds, loudly announcing that she hates it when Logan treats her like a little kid, saying she’s 15… and upping her age a little to 17. He says that she was brave protecting him and gives her a flower, which makes her swoon a little. Mojo and co appear on Earth, Mojo immediately deciding to rebrand the planet Danger World or Terror World, something to get the ratings up. He promises that there will be action and excitement, but not too much violence. Cuz this was FOX Kids in the 90s, standards were weird.

 

Jubilee shows Longshot to the War Room as it looks like he agreed to the mind scan. Charles begins his scan, saying that Longshot’s mind seems barren, but he’s getting a little something and he hopes he can help Longshot reconstruct his mind. Logan goes to check on Jubilee. Jubilee, meanwhile, sees a tubby scarecrow on the grounds, goes to investigate it and is attacked by Mojo. Charles helps Longshot remember what happened. Turns out, the genetically engineered slaves on Mojoworld rebelled against Mojo, and Longshot lead the group. We was captured and Mojo attempted to brainwash him to use Longshot as the face of a media propaganda campaign to get things to cool off. The rebels saved Longshot and sprung him, but in the escape Spiral hit him with a teleportation blast that sent him to Earth. Logan then interrupts via an intercom and tells them all to come check something out.

 

Rogue flies Beast and Longshot to Logan, at a patch of the mansion grounds where the earth has turned black and rotten. Logan says it’s Mojo’s doing, he can smell him. Which, man, I’m so sorry Logan, that sounds awful. Beast theorizes that if they don’t get Mojo off Earth fast, he might start rotting the whole planet. Logan also found Jubilee’s jacket. Longshot takes the jacket, his eye flashing and I finally learn what his power is. He’s got a form of psychometry, the ability to read aspects of people via touching an item. He also has slight control of luck, hence all his lucky escapes. He says he can’t read anything about Jubilee which is… bad. The group follow the path Mojo laid for them, Logan making it clear that he doesn’t trust Longshot. He tells him that if anything happens to Jubilee he’ll cut it from Longshot’s hide. Mojo appears, announcing they’ll be part of his new show, Intergalactic Gladiators. Live from Terror world. He also proclaims this as Longshot’s last appearance ever. Mojo unleashes a bunch of robots to serve as contestants, saying that the first to get to his compound gets the special grand prize, Jubilee. He sends Jubilee to a ‘new show’ to wait this out. Rogue tries to fly ahead but gets shot down, Mojo announcing no one can fly but him. They set off.

 

Wolverine tells the others to handle the goons as he can move faster alone. Beast thinks someone should go with him to watch his back and Longshot volunteers. Wolverine tries to say no, but Longshot insists, saying that he knows Mojo’s style, tech, and thoughts so he’ll be indispensable. Wolverine begrudgingly agrees.

 

Rogue and Beast lure the goons towards an attraction Mojo set up, Cretaceous Park. They’re immediately attacked by… a big… purple… T-Rex? Mojo’s right, the kids will love this dinosaur… whom I think should be named something with a B… Barry the Dinosaur? Bart? Barn… Ah whatever. The rex chases Beast into a tree and Rogue smacks it with a tree, revealing it’s a robot. They’re attacked by a few raptors too, but Rogue and Beast are able to escape. Meanwhile, Wolverine smells someone following them and tells Longshot to keep going while he doubles back. He’s snuck upon by a ram headed guy, who prepares to shoot him after a headbutt, but Longshot steps in, asking the fella (named Quark) if he wouldn’t rather be known as the man who defeated Longshot. They fight, Longshot easily dodging around him until Quark knocks himself out hitting a tree. Longshot asks if he’s okay and Wolverine says he heals fast. They see a crewman land to grab Quark, and smile at each other.

 

They stole a hover craft and ram it at Mojo’s ship, knocking him aside to get to the compound. Mojo, having barely dodged their strafing rush, is positively apoplectic that all this is happening without cameras on them. He orders all cameras back to the compound, letting Beast and Rogue escape in the confusion. Longshot and Wolverine make it to the main building where they’re cut off by Spiral. When Wolverine asks why she’s got beef with Longshot, he just says that they used to Date. She goes to kill him, but Wolverine blocks her and tells Longshot to save Jubilee. Unfortunately, Mojo anticipated this and removed the door controls. He orders Gog to kill Longshot, and it looks like it work too, until Rogue drops Beast on them. Rogue smashes into the building to save Jubilee, but it is knocked back by a robot that mimics her. Longshot shoots the remote, destroying it and shutting down the robots. Mojo laments that he’s putting himself in all this danger only for his ratings to start dropping. He order Spiral to take him out of here but she’s busy fighting Wolverine. He’s pissed and starts attacking Longshot. Jubilee shouts ‘NO,’ and shorts out Mojo’s legs, causing him to crash into a tree. Longshot grabs a sword and prepares to execute Mojo, but Spiral portals him away. She then uses her powers to remove all their personal and equipment, saying that she wants a rematch with Wolverine. Pay-per-view of course. The portal stays open long enough for Longshot to follow. He says a quick goodbye to Jubilee, thanking her for being nice to him and giving her a kiss on the forehead before running through. The episode ends with everyone heading back to the mansion, Jubilee tearing up.

 

Overall, this was an average episode. Didn’t blow my mind, but didn’t leave me feeling bored either. I think there’s a lingering bad taste in my mouth from Mojo’s first appearance, with it being essentially three action set pieces before Longshot breaks everyone free. This one at least had a bit more of plot, with Longshot arriving mysteriously and then having to compete in the race to save Jubilee. Plus a story where Logan has to learn to trust someone is always a fun ride because my favorite Canadian refuses to let grudges go until he absolutely has to. Mojo is still a creature that is just not fun to look at, being a blobby monster that just looks wet all the time which tells me he stinks to high heaven. A couple of his cracks got me laughing this time, though, like saying that there won’t be much violence because they’ll save that for the news. Longshot as a character works for me, in that I totally believe he was genetically engineered to be a leading man in a 90s action movie. All face, almost no personality. I like that between episodes they gave him some stuff to do so he’s not just a handsome fella doing action set pieces for Mojo. Do I believe he actually could lead a rebellion? No, not on purpose, but even if I don’t believe it it’s a better gig that him working for Mojo. Who is the visual equivalent to the nastiest fart you’ve ever smelt. Sorry, last one. I just really, really, really don’t like looking at Mojo. And Spiral leaving but saying she wants to fight Wolverine again on pay-per-view and with generous control of the royalties and such was a good line for her to exit on. So yeah, good, not great, happy it’s done. Next time we return to X-Men: The Animated Series we’ll be catching up with Bobby and see the episode that really throws the timeline out of whack. See you then. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 35

 Revenge is a dish best served cold. 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Scott quit. The first X-Man and field commander of the team took the supposed death of his beloved extremely badly and angrily quick the X-Men because he felt tired of caring about human/Mutant relations. Lost and angry he ended up returning to the orphanage he grew up in and met Sarah, another former Orphan who’d grown up to run the place. She mentions that four of her kids had recently been adopted by Zebadiah Kilgrave, local millionaire, all of them Mutants. A fire starts in the night and we learn it was caused by accident by Rusty, one of the Kilgrave adoptees. He tells a wild story about Kilgrave having a torture chamber in his basement and having evil plans. Sarah is reluctant to believe Rusty as the kid has some issues. He’s picked up by Kilgrave and we learn that he’s absolutely up to no good, using his own Mutant power to brainwash the kids into being his minions. He has a, frankly, extremely convoluted plan to use the kids to cover him breaking into the governor’s office and brainwashing him to give him control of a damn project. It’s step one of a larger plan to takeover the world and install a Mutant government. I think? His plan is… very slapdash, not going to lie. Anyway, Scott and Sarah hear about the governor abdicating his position siting ‘medical issues’ and Scott learning what Kilgrave has to gain without him in the big chair. He and Sarah rush to Kilgrave’s house to demand to see the kids. They seem normal at first… but then at a snap of Kilgrave’s fingers, he gets hit by the wheelchair kid and knocked out. Kilgrave has him drowned but Sarah pulls him out. They save the kids and bring them back to the orphanage. Kilgrave, insane and stupid, shows up with an attack helicopter and demands they turn over his ‘children’ or die. Conveniently in front of a camera I should add. He forces Rusty to set the building on fire, but Scott breaks through is mind control to shoo down his helicopter and save the kids. Sarah offers him a spot at the orphanage but Scott decides he needs to get back to the X-Men. He arrives back home just in time to hear Cerebro has detected Jean’s brainwaves. Woo. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

The episode opens with Warren Worthington III, former Angel current Archangel, at an archaeological dig. Apparently since we last saw him, he’s been using his money and power to scour the globe for information about Apocalypse. He’s at the stage where he assumes every new artifact will give him what he wants, much to the archaeologist’s annoyance. A crate is opened and reveals a sandstone carving of Apocalypse depicted him Egyptian hieroglyphs. The hieroglyphs depict Apocalypse destroying a settlement, proclaiming him Apocalypse the invincible. This infuriates Warren who angrily shouts he’s NOT Invincible. The head archaeologist points out that that is the one fact that every culture that seems to depict Apocalypse agrees is true. They’re willing to keep working but are headed out for the day to rest. Warren, furious, launches his metal feathers at them, saying they don’t get to rest until they get results. An aide arrives, bringing Warren a scroll and so other papers. The scroll is from the Ming dynasty in China, it depicts at weak point at the back of Apocalypse’s neck that it says will destroy him. They then get alerted to a sighting of Apocalypse in New York harbor and Archangel flies off to get his revenge.

 

We find Apocalypse marching on Liberty Island. The evil cyborg is clearly waiting for Archangel, chuckling evilly as he flies in to fight him. Back at the X-Mansion, Cerebro tells the X-Men and us that it’s gotten upgrades from Shi’ar tech that have helped it’s detection capabilities. It’s discovered a large vehicle, over a mile long, that seems to blip in and out of existence whenever it’s detected. They wonder how you can hide something that big when Cerebro alerts them to Archangel and Apocalypse fighting. The X-Men head out to help him. Archangel does about as well fighting a giant machine man as you’d imagine. He flies around Apocalypse but any time he’s caught he’s thrown around like a toy. He demands Archangel return to him as his Horseman of Death or be destroyed. The X-Men touch down in the Blackbird and try to help. Archangel tries to skewer Apocalypse with one of the spikes from Lady Liberty but Apocalypse blocks him. They knock Apocalypse to the ground and tie him down with an anchor chain but that barely slows him. He tosses the X-Men aside and leaps away. Beast says that they need to outthink him, but Cyclops asks why, since they can’t seem to hurt him. They gather up Archangel, Rogue saying that they need to help him. Gambit is doubtful he can be helped, saying Apocalypse’s machine made him L’ange de Mort, the Angel of Death now and forever. Rogue tells him he’s wrong as when she absorb some of his essence she learned he was still Warren Worthington inside.

 

Back at the Mansion, Beast, Charles and Cyclops are trying to map Apocalypse’ movements. They’d figured out he’s attacking a power station, a defense plant and industrial park. Beast thinks it’s a deliberate trail, and Cyclops says it’s a deliberate trap. They track the moments and use their new scanner to find Apocalypse’s ship, the mile long something that Cerebro had been tracking. Beast references Apocalyptic Scholars that found references to this, a ‘mighty ship designed by creatures from beyond the stars.’  Charles says that he thought it was a myth, and they realize that that vessel might be powerful enough to defeat Apocalypse if they can get ahold of it.

 

In the infirmary, Rogue is looking after Warren. She pulls down the hood of his costume to reveal he’s still got his luscious blonde locks underneath. She asks why he’s risking so much, to which Warren tells her no pain can outweigh what Apocalypse did to him. Rogue remembers touching him and absorbing some of the darkness in him. Rogue agrees she kind of gets it, and Warren begs her to help him use the information he’s gleamed about Apocalypse to destroy him. All the while Gambit watches this conversation, looking distrustful. The others come in and say they found the ship. Beast tells Archangel he's headed southeast but they’re going with an indirect assault. This infuriates Archangel who flies off, screaming Apocalypse must be destroyed. Rogue follows after him, despite the others telling her not to, and Gambit goes after Rogue.

 

Cyclops, Wolverine and Beast take the Blackbird to the ship. It hails them, demanding they identify themselves. Beast thinks this means it’s self-aware and they ask permission to board, which it gives. Beast does a scan tells the ship she’s a work of art. The ship thanks him and lets Beast start to work on reprogramming the Ship to help them defeat Apocalypse. He gets zapped while he works, Ship apologizing for not warning him of that protocol. Beast sets a trap for Apocalypse, using Wolverine to demonstrate. He set up a field that should trap Apocalypse in place, the barrier drawing power from force used against it. He says that Apocalypse’s own power will trap him. Cyclops announces that Beast has done it, but he corrects him, saying “We’ve” done it. An alarm starts blaring, and it's revealed that Apocalypse predicted this outcome, and set up a contingency plan. It detected the power usage increase and starts a self-destruct protocol.

 

Meanwhile, Archangel and Rogue fly toward Coney Island looking for Apocalypse. Archangel, still being super intense, demands that Rogue pledge herself to him to help him defeat Apocalypse. She’s clearly freaked out by the request but agrees to help. Apocalypse rises from the water like a Kaiju and the two do battle. Rogue tries to join but she’s cut off by Gambit in a smaller X-Jet, him warning her that fighting Apocalypse here could get civilians hurt. She refuses to listen and helps Warren fight. He gets around Apocalypse and fires some feathers at him but he doesn’t react. Rogue tries skewering Apocalypse with a bit of a tower but that doesn’t work either. Gambit fires rockets at him. Apocalypse gets annoyed and says that if they resist they will be obliterate, like their clever friends will before flying off. Rogue wonders aloud what he meant by that.

 

Onboard the Ship, Wolverine asks if anyone has any ideas. The ship says it does. IT helps them blow a hole in the side of the ship and then throw the explosive out the hole, saving them. It looks for a moment like Wolverine got launched into the ocean but Beast grabbed him at the last minute.

 

Archangel and Rogue fly after Apocalypse, Archangel rambling about how he won’t rest until Apocalypse is dead. He gets incredibly graphic with his description. Rogue once again freaked out by this but flies after him.

 

Back on the Ship, Beast prepares the trap. Wolverine complains about missing out on all the action. Apocalypse arrives, telling them to be careful what they wish for. He tells the X-Men that it’s good they’re here, it’ll give him servant a good reminder about what happens to those who oppose him. Beast hits the switch, trapping Apocalypse in the barrier. The three X-Men breath easy now that Apocalypse is trapped… but then Archangel flies in and demands Apocalypse give up his tender back. He launches feathers at Apocalypse. The others tell him that Apocalypse is trapped forever, and Beast thanks the ship for the help. Warren, not accepting this as a punishment, slams into the computer controlling Apocalypse’s barrier. Beast asks the Ship if she’s alright and she says she is. Apocalypse, feeling smug, delivers another of his most kick ass lines. “Beast, how many peoples have dreamed on my end? You are no closer than the Babylonians with their swords and Firesticks.” He asks if they truly believe he’s not invincible. To prove the point, he gives his ship an override code that frees him. Once freed Apocalypse shapeshifts into Warren’s assistant, revealing he fed Warren the detail about a supposed weakness to flush him out. He announces that Warren is his, mind, body, heart and soul. As the others try to stop him, he shouts another bad ass line “I am the rocks of the eternal shore, crash against me and be broken!” Then Gambit flies in and hits him with the jet, shouting “the name’s Gambit. Remember it!” … OH my God, a line from 30 years in the future suddenly made a hell of a lot more sense… more on that later. Ship tells Beast to go for the emergency controls. The others hold Apocalypse off long enough for Beast to get to the panel and start pushing buttons. The ship reveals a remote of some kind that he starts typing on. Apocalypse gloats that he can’t be stopped. But then the Ship’s defenses starts shooting at him. Beast reveals that he and the Ship were able to override Apocalypse’ override. The Ship traps Apocalypse in like a five different prisons and starts sealing that prison off from the outside. It almost traps Gambit inside with Archangel when he goes to try to save him. The Ship is able to free everyone, and they take off in the Blackbird. It launches Apocalypse into orbit, saying that he won’t be gone forever but the Ship bought them time. Archangel swears he’ll be ready when Apocalypse comes back. Cyclops tells him he can wait alone as his insane vendetta almost got them killed. Warren leaps out of the Blackbird in a huff, saying that either Apocalypse dies or he will. The Ship crashes into the ocean and starts to sink. Rogue apologizes for not stopping Archangel, but Beast doesn’t seem to hear as he mourns the death of the Ship.

 

It's nice to see Warren again, even though it’s clear he’s not doing super well right now. I understand where he’s coming from, he was used and abused by Apocalypse so nothing short of his death will sate him. But he is absolutely obsessed. Like, even a few seconds thought would have told him that a One Hit KO weakness for Apocalypse is WAY too convenient to be true. But no, Apocalypse must die so no additional thought needed. Apocalypse was great in this too. Once again props to James Blendick, Apocalypse’ Voice actor. He’s clearly having a blast recording these insane, grandiose lines from the World’s oldest Mutant who loves to pontificate. Roughly 5000 years old, oft delayed but never destroyed, I get why Apocalypse has such a god complex. I don’t know why exactly he seems obsessed with Warren, beyond the fact that Warren is a recurring character, therefore he must serve Apocalypse. And, I’ll just say it, Warren’s relationship to the X-Men still feels weird. I know, the show didn’t know right away that they would follow the comics this closely, but it’s weird that Beast and Cyclops don’t react to Warren like they know him. In about 2 episodes they’re going to reveal he’s a founding X-Man along with Ice Man, so maybe include a line or two from Beast or Cyclops mentioning how Warren is or isn’t acting like he used to. Maybe have Hank say how much it saddens him to see an old friend so consumed by rage. Don’t give me that look, both this and Cold Comfort were produced in the same batch, they knew they were approaching this storyline. I did like that they played with the Rogue and Warren relationship a little, with their mutual understanding via memory absorption kind of forcing Rogue to go along with his ideas even though they’re clearly nuts. And I like that Gambit put protecting Rogue over anything else. He’s a good man, that Cajun thief. Beast’s relationship with the Ship was short but sweet. It was nice to see him bond with it in the brief time they were together and see him mourn it as it crashed. It’s about as realistic as his relationship with Carly, who no has not nor will ever be mentioned again. So Apocalypse is contained for now, and Jean is… somewhere recovering. Sorry, I guess I was wrong that she’d appear immediately after being detected. My memory of the episode order is a bit all over the place. Next time, Mojo’s back. Oh joy. See you later. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 34

 Scott faces off against the Purple Man, what a weird set up. 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, the Phoenix saga came to a close. D’Ken merged with the M’Kraan crystal, cracking it and causing all nearby matter to be sucked into it. Once inside the weirdly fleshy world of the Crystal, the X-Men, Starjammers and Praetorian guard did their best to fight off D’Ken but he’s basically one with all matter in the crystal and is more or less invincible. The crystal started sucking in mass from the sun and caused major weather disturbances on Earth. The Phoenix finally recovered, though and fought D’Ken long enough to get everyone else out. She said her goodbyes as she learned the only way to stop D’Ken was to sacrifice herself. Calling on her friends for strength and willpower, Phoenix sealed the crack and D’Ken inside. She then took the M’Kraan crystal into the sun. It can’t be destroyed but the interior of a star is basically hell so no ones getting at it again for at least a couple billion years. The others return to Earth and Scott begins to mourn his lost love. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

The episode begins with the X-Men having a funeral service for Jean. Beast reads a poem for her which most of the X-Men love but makes Scott leave. He’s… not processing this well. Jubilee also has a bit of a breakdown, crying because she also doesn’t want to face the possibility Jean is gone forever. We find Scott in the War Room watching a hologram of Jean and being sad. Charles joins him and tries to comfort him but basically says all the wrong things. Scott is tired, and angry, and in pain, so he doesn’t want to hear that the pain will fade, or that he needs to soldier on. He shouts at Charles that he’s sick of playing den mother to the team and just sick of caring. He throws his uniform on the ground in front of Xavier and saying he won’t need this anymore. And storms off.

 

Scott takes a bus out of town and thinking about his time with Jean. He remembers proposing to her and how happy he was when she said yes. He’s pulled out of the memory by a boy shooting a toy gun at him and telling the Mutant to ‘die.’ His mother scolds him, saying that the nice young man doesn’t want to be called a Mutant. Huh… weirdly correct ma’am. He returns to the McNeil orphanage where he grew up. He remembers playing tag with other kids right before he gets hit with a migraine and fired off his first eye beam. A woman sees Scott and asks what he’s doing there. They recognize each other, the woman being Sarah, a woman that Scott lived with at the orphanage. They go inside to catch up, Sarah saying she started volunteering at the orphanage after her husband died and has since taken over. They have tea, and Sarah turns on the news, a story about Zebidiah Kilgrave donating to help disadvantaged children playing in the background as they chat. Sarah says that he’s the main reason that the orphanage has stayed afloat, not only has he donated to them but he’s adopted four ‘special’ kids. And when Scott asks what she means she clarifies to say they’re Mutants. Scott flashbacks to when he lost out on an adoption due to his eye beams. A fire alarm starts blaring and Scott and Sarah rush to save the kids. Scott finds the fire and uses his eye beam to put it out. He sees a kid in a storage area and chases him. He catches the kid and demands to know why he set a fire. The kid rushes to Sarah, who says he’s Rusty and that he’d been adopted by Kilgrave two days ago. He does not want to go back there for some reason, and is so worked up his hands start burning. Scott asks to talk to him. He and Rusty go for a walk, Scott showing off his eyebeam to prove to Rusty that he knows what Rusty is feeling. He tells Rusty that there’s someone out there willing to look after him, so maybe he should give Kilgrave another chance. Rusty starts babbling about Kilgrave having a ‘plan’ to run the governor out of office and has a torture chamber in his basement. Sarah hears him and scolds Rusty and he runs off. Scott asks if there’s any truth to what he says, but Sarah says that Rusty is a troubled kid with a checkered past, so she doesn’t believe him. Kilgrave arrives with several police looking for his wayward Child. Rusty begs them to not let them take him. Sarah tells him Rusty is having trouble adjusting, and that maybe he should stay with them a little longer. Kilgrave makes veiled threats about pulling his funding if he doesn’t get Rusty back. Scott asks if Rusty should have a reason to fear Kilgrave, Kilgrave saying that the boy just doesn’t understand the loving discipline of a father. He takes Rusty back to his house, saying “I already love you like a son” in the most threatening way that sentence can be spoken.

 

At Kilgrave’s manor, Rusty is strapped into a chair and Kilgrave orders him to get back to work. Rusty tries to fight, but Kilgrave uses his power to force Rusty to comply. For those who may recognize the name, yes, this is the same Kilgrave from Jessice Jones, the Purple man with mind control pheromones. Rusty is lined up along with the other Mutant children and forced to watch a brain washing video. He repeats that the future is now, they will overcome their hatred and that they will be respected on a loop. Kilgrave’s skin turns purple and the video reveals Kilgrave’s plan. After their minds become nice and malleable, he lays out his plan. First he’ll send Taki, a kid in a wheelchair with the power to transform said wheelchair (weirdly specific) to attack the capital building front gate, Skids (a girl who can slide on an energy she releases and form a forefield around herself of the same stuff) and Boom-Boom (Fires explosive balls) will hold off the guards and Kilgrave and Rusty will enter the building. Rusty’s really just there to serve as a bodyguard. He forms a firewall to keep the guards out. He makes it to the Governor’s office and uses his power to force the governor to give him a “Platte River Project.” I feel like he maybe could have done this with a simple meeting, but whatever.

 

Back at the orphanage, Scott is still helping Sarah out. Sarah asks him who Jean is, as she heard him cry that name out in his sleep. Scott admits Jean was someone he loved, but doesn’t want to explain. He thanks Sarah for her hospitality but says it’s time to go. Before he can leave, though, he sees a special report about the Governor resigning, sighting health problems, and saying that this bodes will for Kilgrave. Turns out that the governor was blocking his bid to take over the Platte River hydroelectric damn project. Scott realizes Rusty might have been right about Kilgrave and tells Sarah they need to save those kids.

 

They drive out to Kilgrave’s manor. Sarah isn’t sure she can believe that Kilgrave is involved in something criminal. Scott says he’s not sure he can either but they can’t risk it. He has her stay with the car as he wants to talk to Kilgrave himself. Turns out the adult orphan takes serious issue with someone adopting kids with powers for their evil schemes, who knew? Kilgrave quickly applies makeup to his face to hide his purple skin when Scott comes knocking. Scott demands to see the kids, which Kilgrave allows, showing them all doing activities. Taka is playing the piano while the girls play chess. They greet Scott together, speaking in an obvious ‘we’re mind controlled’ monotone. Rusty comes in an offers Scott a Cookie. Kilgrave snaps his fingers and Taka rams into Scott, striking his head on a wall and knocking him out. Kilgrave tells his goon to throw Scott in back and that he has a press conference to get to. Scott is thrown into the pool to drown. He has visions of Jean as the Phoenix reaching out to him, and he reaches out to her, only for it to be revealed that Sarah fished him out and was trying to resuscitate him. She says she saw Kilgrave drive off and knew something was up. He asks if Kilgrave had the kids, and when she said no they rush into the house to save them.

 

Inside, the kids are watching their final ‘training’ video. Before he can elaborate Scott blasts the monitor and says that everything Kilgrave told them is a lie. Acceptance has to be earned, not forced. He and Sarah bring the kids back to the orphanage, Sarah beating herself up for falling for Kilgrave’s lies. Scott tells her not to blame herself and asks why she didn’t seemed shocked that he has powers. She admits to having known he was a Mutant since childhood when she saw him melt a bike on the playground. He says that she never made him feel like an outcast, and she says that she was always his friend. They’re interrupted by Kilgrave attacking them with an assault helicopter. Bro, overkill. A news truck arrived, convenient. Kilgrave says humans hate Mutants and that he’ll punish her and Scott for turning his back on Mutant kind. Scott says that the only hate he feels is Kilgrave’s. Scott tries to shoot down Kilgrave’s helicopter, but Kilgrave uses his power to stop him. He summons the kids and has Rusty start a fire to kill them all. Sarah notices that Taka is still inside and rushes to save him. Scott, driven by grief and fury, fights through Kilgrave’s control, shoots down his chopper and then rushes in past Sarah to save Taka. He puts out the fire with an optic blast and asks Sarah what she’ll do now. She says she’ll rebuild and offers Scott a place at the orphanage. Scott thanks her but he realized in helping her that he’s needed somewhere else.

 

Scott returns to the Mansion. Xavier and the others welcome him back. It’s just then that Cerebro goes off. It detected Jeans mind. Scott and the others shout her name before the credits roll.

 

First off, let’s talk about the Elephant in the room. If you’re following along with me that first thing you’ll notice about this episode is that the production quality and animation feels way off. Turns out, after The Phoenix saga, episodes were released more or less at random. While this episode is included in season 3, season 3, 4 and a bit of 5 were all just sort of mixed together in a big mush. As a matter of fact, despite being an episode that was meant to air immediately after the phoenix saga to show off Scott’s grief, this episode didn’t air until 1996. For context, the final part of the Phoenix saga aired September 9^th 1994, and this episode didn’t come out until September 21^st 1996. That’s a long time to go without showing this episode is all I’m saying. They do the same thing for the Dark Phoenix saga, by the way, with an epilogue episode of Scott grieving (again) not airing until over two years later. I don’t pretend to understand production schedules, but this is baffling to me. Aside from the trivial this episode is… okay? I like seeing the bit of history Scott has pre-X-Men, how he grew up in the orphanage, how his powers made his life harder, and how he did have at least one friend who didn’t care even if he didn’t know it. But the Kilgrave stuff feels so tacked on to give the episode action. Especially when, again, Kilgrave could have done his plan by scheduling a meeting with the Governor and bringing his makeup with him to reapply after mind controlling him. And the news truck just showing up to out Kilgrave because he was screaming his evil plan while shooting at an orphanage was just weird. The messaging with Sarah is a bit weird, not going to lie. I chock this up to older eras of storytelling though. They clearly wanted Sarah to be Scott’s friend from childhood, but it was 1994, and the idea that a boy and a girl can be friends without any sexual tension was not something we in the US had figured out how to convey by in large. Heck, we even added romantic subtext to shows imported here because the idea of boy/girl friendships was weird to us. (I still standby that Tai/Sora makes more sense in classic Digimon than Matt/Sora, just saying.) I think I like these two as friends with no tension whatsoever so I’m choosing to ignore the intimate waist hug and the moment where it looked like they were a beat away from kissing. Cool? Cool. Oh, and I liked how this episode touched on Scott’s frustration with the X-Men’s lack of real world progress. Scott Summers is the original X-Man, he’s Charles’ student, son, and acolyte. The man worships Charles Xavier and his dream, and even he hits a breaking point when it comes to the Human/Mutant coexistence that just never seems to come. There’s a reason why I think of his time when he broke with Charles and ran his own team of Mutant extremists (and killing Charles when infused with Phoenix Power) as his “Broken Oath Paladin” arc. His devotion to the man runs deep, so him breaking with Charles even for a little bit is earthshakingly significant. I will say I give Charles props for letting Scott go to process things. Sometimes ya just need to let people grieve, ya know? Oh and Jean will just be back next time. They don’t, like, need to find her or anything. She’s just… there. Guess the Phoenix just dropped her off after placing the Crystal or something. Whatever. Next time, we’ll see how Arcangel has been doing. Here’s a hint. Not well. See you then. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 33

The Phoenix takes flight. 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, the X-Men headed back to space. The Phoenix used her immense power to transport the combat oriented X-Men to Lilandra’s ship by transforming into her Phoenix form. They arrive and see the M’Kraan Crystal, a large gem that apparently can destroy the whole universe. Before they can really do with this, the group is attacked by the Starjammers, a group of pirates lead by a human named Corsair. The X-Men try to fight them off but as they get the upper hand Corsair has his ship fire a stunning blast that knocks them out. The situation is further complicated due to Phoenix reading Corsair’s mind and realizing that he’s Scott Summers’ presumed dead father Christopher. She’s knocked out before she can tell anyone this. The Starjammers take the crystal and Cyclops with them. Corsair makes a deal with Emperor D’Ken, he gets half the imperial treasury and D’Ken gets the crystal. We learn a moment after the deal is struck that D’Ken plans to betray it, a fact that real upsets Gladiator. Corsair talks with Cyclops, revealing that he’s planning on using Cyclops to murder D’Ken, asking him to optic blast the crystal when he has a chance. Cyclops wants to know why and Corsair reveals his wife was killed by D’Ken years ago and he wants payback. The Starjammers arrive to make the trade, the X-Men warping in at the last second to save them after Phoenix locks onto Cyclops mind. A huge firefight breaks out, the X-Men and Corsair attempting to fall back with the crystal. Unfortunately, D’Ken and Gladiator get around them and grab the crystal and Lilandra to use as a hostage. D’Ken opens the crystal and begins to absorb it’s energy. Phoenix tries to stop him but the power transfer happens too quickly and she’s not strong enough yet. Just before the credits roll Phoenix says that if they can’t stop D’Ken the whole universe will be pulled into the crystal. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We return to see D’Ken absorbing the M’Kraan crystal’s energy, causing him to pixilate for some reason and grow huge. The X-Men try to fight him off, but their powers don’t hurt him. The line “You fools. Your foolishness amuses me,” made me scratch my head at the redundant word choice but moving on. He suddenly gets pulled into the crystal and disappears. Gladiator asks what’s going on, and Phoenix says that he is now one with the crystal and is making his own universe within it. And they’ll all be sucked in… probably in about 18 minutes or so, given the half hour timeslot. Corsair orders his team to evacuate and get as far away from D’Ken’s ship as possible. Phoenix tells her friends to fall back as well so she can test to see if the power of the phoenix can contain D’Ken’s insanity. She morphs into her phoenix form and flies them to the Starjammer before doubling back. We see the other Shi’ar evacuate the ship as she flies in and says to herself that she must learn how to heal the crystal.

 

Cyclops demands to see what’s happening and Corsair pulls up a feed of D’Ken’s ship, though he says they’ll be out of range soon. Phoenix asks the crystal to help her heal it, but then is drawn into the crystal. A shockwave fires off from the ship and everyone gets drawn back towards the M’Kraan crystal. Turns out it’s going full blackhole and drawing all nearby matter into it. Corsair orders his ship to fire on it, just to try to do something but it doesn’t even slow it down. Unfortunately given it’s placement and blackhole qualities, the crystal starts drawing in mass from the sun.

 

On Earth, Jubilee is outside, sulking about being left behind again when she sees the sun start to go dark. She runs inside to warn the professor. Charles is in the middle of a call with Storm who is reporting that major weather disturbances are occurring globally. She doesn’t say it out right but her word choice suggests she’s trying to use her powers to correct this but it isn’t going well. He explains to her that they’ve detected a gravitational disturbance near the sun that he assumes is the crystal and that soon it’ll gobble up the whole solar system at minimum. Jubilee asks if there’s any hope to stop it and Charles says the hope is the X-Men.

 

On the Starjammer, Gladiator tells Lilandra that he’s sorry his service to her as empress has to be under these… universe ending circumstances. Ya, as I said before, Gladiator’s loyalty is to the throne so the second that D’Ken peaced out to enter the crystal and no longer was able to do his duty as Emperor, he swapped to team Lilandra. The Starjammer keeps getting drawn into the gravity well. As they start to get drawn in, Gambit grabs Rogue and tells her if this is their last ride they’ll take it together. He goes in for a kiss but they get thrown about before he can get drained in a romantic last stand. The ship gets pulled into the crystal and crashes into… something. The landscape has an almost organic feel to it, like they’re standing on a giant mass of flesh more than a planet. Lilandra asks what happened to D’Ken, only for the emperor to reveal himself in the form of a giant pulsing light. He recreates a giant version of his body, saying that he’ll pull in the universe and rule it forever. Wolverine, having had enough of this guy, says he’s going down fighting and he, Gambit and Rogue try to rush him. He blasts them with lightning and throws them back. Rogue, not deterred, throws a boulder at him but D’Ken turns it to mush. He laughs and tells them they don’t understand. He grows a new body of stone from the landscape to show off his power. Cyclops sees Phoenix in the distance, her body turned to tattered cloth. Lilandra tries to reason with her brother, pointing out that he’s now trapped in the Crystal and that if they don’t close it again their entire empire will be consumed as well. D’Ken doesn’t care. Gladiator flies at him to try to stop his ravings, but get’s knocked aside. Rogue catches him and they land together. D’Ken declares he’s grown bored with them and he’s going to finish them off. His stone body crumbles, and he forms into a face in the sky. He catches Lilandra in a beam from one of his eyes and draws her skyward. Cyclops, shocked, tells Logan that he never thought he’d say it, but there’s nothing them can do.

 

Back on Earth, Mt. Fuji is erupting. A hero known as Sunfire is holding off the lava as best he can. Storm’s spiritual son Mjnari is helping evacuate people in Tanzania. And we see the silhouette of Spider-Man helping save people from debris as War Machine flies a woman to safety. In Canada, Alpha Flight is protecting civilians. And in New York Storm is using her powers to block tidal waves. She reports that the immediate threat to New York is over, but to her senses it feels like the Earth has gone mad. Charles tells her to try to remain calm. He knows the disturbances will end if the X-Men can stop what’s happening.

 

Inside the Crystal, the X-Men, Praetorian Guarda and Starjammers try to save Lilandra from D’Ken and fight off his stone soldiers. They’re efforts are easily thwarted by the fact D’Ken is literally the world around them. His body gets destroyed but he forms a new one from stone. He shatters the landscape and grabs his sister, saying they’ll watch him punish her for her treachery. Phoenix finally recovers, taking on her firebird form. She whisks everyone back to Lilandra’s ship, saying that’s far enough from D’Ken’s influence to be safe. D’Ken demands the Phoenix leave his galaxy. She says that the crystal has consumed him but the galaxy won’t suffer the same fate. The firebird phoenix stays behind to hold D’Ken off while her human form drops everyone off at Lilandra’s ship. She explains that her time out of the spotlight let them (referring to herself and Jean as separate entities) how to restore the crystal. She also says that Jean was chosen as her vessel in part for her empathic abilities and it’s those powers that helped her get an understanding for the crystal. She says she’s going to merge with the matrix of the crystal and try to patch the hole D’Ken made. Cyclops says she might get trapped inside, but Jean tells him not to try to stop her. He wants to come with her, but she says he can’t. Wolverine tells her that he knows, but that doesn’t’ make it easy. She says goodbye to them all and has a passionate kiss with Scott before going full Phoenix and flying at the crystal.

 

We see a visualization of the crack in it and Phoenix trying to fill it with her body. She calls on Charles’ Wisdom, Ororo’s Compassion, Hank’s gentleness, Jubilee’s Innocence, Logan’s courage, and Scott’s Love. While she leaves out Rogue and Gambit for some reason, they are included in her mental image of a great tree of bonds that help her seal the crack. D’Ken tries to stop her but he’s locked in tight at this point. The Crystal shrinks and merges with the heart of Phoenix.

 

On Earth, the calamities stop, but Charles muses at what cost did this victory come. Back in space, Jean tells the X-Men that the crack has been sealed, but to make sure this doesn’t happen again she’s going to have to take the crystal somewhere where mortals can’t get at it. The core of the sun won’t destroy it, but it’s somewhere that mortals can’t reach easily, so that’s what she’s settled on. She says goodbye to Cyclops and he says goodbye to his love. Maybe mention his dad is alive, Jeanie? NO? Kay. She dives into the heart of the sun.

 

Back at Castle Cassidy, everyone says their goodbyes. Both Charles and Lilandra tell the other to stay/come with them, but their duties make that impossible. They share a kiss though. Corsair apologizes to Cyclops for the whole… ya know, using him in his plan to kill D’Ken. He admits since his wife died, he’s only thought of revenge. But now that it’s been had he’s going to have to find a new thing to live for. Scott accepts, saying that no one knows how they’ll react to grief. They part, Scott musing that he’d have liked to talk to Corsair more, since they have loss in common. Bro. Tell. Him. Your. First. And. Last. Name! Or Corsair, you do it. Both of you should know enough about human culture to know that Cyclops and Corsair aren’t people names! Siggghhhh. Okay. Beast gives him a quote by Dickenson about partings as the Shi’ar fly out. Cyclops looks toward the sun and clearly wants to be alone. Logan digs out the picture he has of Scott and Jean (weird that you have that, Logan) and whispers her name before leaving. Charles asks Scott if he knows the legend of the phoenix, and Scott says he’s not in the mood for legends. He tells Scott about the Phoenix raising from the ashes before leaving him with his thoughts. He looks toward the sun as it sets and sees Jean’s face as he begins to cry.

 

I remember this finale shocking me as a kid. But obviously as an adult I know that there’s a zero percent chance Jean would be gone for long. The gate to Mutant Heaven is a revolving door, at least for the most popular characters. This was a great finale to the arc, though. We got to see just how screwed the world would be if D’Ken’s plan came to pass and just how much power the Phoenix had to throw around to stop him. One thing I liked about this era of Marvel cartoons was the fact that the production team did all these cameos (even if technically they weren’t legally allowed to) of other Marvel heroes and properties to show that other heroes are picking up the slack while the X-Men are handling the big threat. It always bugs me when a huge calamity is happening and it’s implied to be handled by one character or a small team. Like… obviously when the world is being shaken to its foundations and there’s global disasters, you need more than 8 people to handle things. Especially in a Marvel universe where a not-zero percent of people have powers too. Plus, I love Spider-Man, so getting to see him cameo is always a plus for me. The final bit where Phoenix is sealing the crack is a great little moment of her acknowledging her relationships (even though she left out Rogue and Gambit for some reason). I like when a character gives a nod to the important people in their life before making a big sacrifice. It makes things like seeing Beast tear up and Scott and Logan’s moans of sorrow seem more believable. I did want someone to acknowledge that Scott and Corsair are related but that’s my one nitpick. Like… Logan, surely they smell similar in a weird way, right? Ugh, I’m griping about a show that’s almost as old as I am as if they could fix these details, I am such a nerd. Anyway, the Phoenix Saga is an example of some of Marvel’s best adapted stories for a reason. The only one that I think that’s held in higher regard is the Dark Phoenix saga… but more on that later. So yeah, good finale, Jean is gone but we all know she’s coming back soon. In part because this show is over 30 years old and in part because comics. See you tomorrow when we see how Scott’s handling the loss. Have a good night. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 32

And now there are space pirates, because why not? 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, we had a couple family reunions. Charles Xavier’s new lady friend Lilandra of the Shi’ar was kidnapped by his step-brother Juggernaut and Juggernaut’s new partner Black Tom Cassidy. Juggernaut, wanting to end things with Charles, hurls him out a window. He’s saved from drowning by Sean Cassidy via his ability to fly while screaming. Because the baddies cleared out before they could get back to Charles’ room, and weirdly that Miur Island doesn’t have security cameras, both Moira MacTaggart and Sean believe Charles just had another psychotic episode. Charles calls the X-Men in to prove him right. While the team is skeptical, Cyclops agrees to send them over because they at the very least need to check it out. At Muir Island, Logan quickly confirms that three other people were in Charles’ room and one of them doesn’t smell human. Turns out Juggernaut and Black Tom were hired to capture Lilandra for Eric the Red, and after he tried to stiff them on the bill he arrives to collect her. Lilandra is able to get a psychic message out to Charles which included an image of a Stag and Dragon crest that Sean recognized as his own family crest and deduces that Black Tom is held up at their family’s castle as the two are brothers. The X-Men plus Sean Cassidy in his Banshee costume arrive at castle Cassidy and do battle with Eric the Red, Juggernaut and Black Tom. Their fight is interrupted by the arrival of Gladiator, the captain of the Praetorian Guard of the Shi’ar Emperor. He makes quick work of Juggernaut as he’s basically blue Superman, and tries to take Lilandra so she’ll take him to the M’Kraan Crystal. Lilandra calls out psychically to Charles who calls out psychically to the X-Men, inadvertently waking up the Phoenix within Jean Gray. As the Phoenix, Jean flies to castle Cassidy and humbles Gladiator by hurling him back into deep space. We learn that the Phoenix is the guardian of the M’Kraan crystal from Lilandra and that she needs its help to stop her brother. Gladiator stops just in front of Emperor D’Ken’s ship as it comes out of hyperspace. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We return to Castle Cassidy and see Black Tom is really hoofing it out of the castle. We jump up to the roof of the castle where Charles assures Lilandra that his X-Men will help protect the crystal. She says she needs to get back to her ship ASAP, but her transporter isn’t strong enough to take two people. Phoenix gets up and says that she can do it, but Logan points out that she don’t look it. Phoenix says that her body is young and strong, and it recovers quickly. They’re distracted from her condition and odd word choice a second later when the Blackbird flies in, I guess Cyclops, Beast and Storm must have sprinted to it when Jean left and broke the sound barrier to get from New York City to a castle on the coast of Ireland in like 45 minutes. Scott runs out and demands to know where Jean is, Charles pointing him to where she’s floating. He runs up beside Wolverine who is watching her float, saying that as best he can tell she’s searching for something. We see Phoenix using her powers to locate D’Ken’s ship and look within it, we see he’s appearing before (assumedly) his Praetorian Guard and one member sense Jean’s mental probe and tries to track her.

 

Scott gets Phoenix’s attention and asks her what’s up. Phoenix says she’ll need his help to prepare the others for the battle that is to come. Beast introduces himself to Lilandra and says that he’s looking forward to learning more about her people before Phoenix comes over and says it’s time to go. She teleports all of them skyward and releases a psychic shockwave that is felt all the way in London. It at least gets the attention of Captain Britain (Not England’s Captain America, he’s more of a magic Superman) and Emma Frost of the Hellfi- Inner Circle Club. They edited the name of the group but not Emma Frost’s outfit of a coreset and thigh high boots? The 90s were weird. Oh, and Dr. Strange felt it in New York too. Back at the Castle we see that Phoenix just took the adult active duty X-Men, leaving Charles, Jubilee, Moira and Sean on the rooftop. Charles begs to come to, but Jubilee says she’s not coming back, and that the way Phoenix said goodbye makes it sound like none of them will.

 

We jump to the dark side of the Moon where Lilandra’s ship is parked. Her crew fires on the Phoenix as it approaches, which is understandable. If I saw a firebird I’d probably fire on it too. They dodge the shots and appear in the ship. The transfer visibly weakened Phoenix but she bounces back quickly. We’re shown the M’Kraan Crystal for the first time. It’s about the size of a big truck tire. Gambit asks the obvious question of how a universe could fit in there, with Beast saying the faceted configuration of the crystal allows it. Rogue jokes that she knew there was a simple explanation and Gambit says he’ll get her one for Christmas if she likes it. A ship arrives and starts firing on them. Lilandra orders evasive action, but they get hit with a stun blast that disables everyone. The X-Men recover quickly but Lilandra and her crew are out cold, Beast theorizes that the blast was probably calibrated to specifically effect Shi’ar biology. The docking bay hatch opens and we’re introduced to the Starjammers, alien pirates lead by Corsair, a human. A firefight breaks out to get the M’Kraan Crystal. The X-Men hold off the Starjammers long enough for Phoenix to read their minds and tell the X-Men what their deal is. Corsair calls back to his ship’s pilot, Raza, and tells him to recalibrate their stunners for Humans. Cyclops tells him to standdown of he’ll shoot. Phoenix reads Corsair’s mind and sees two boys in his memory, clearly a young Scott and his brother Alex. Phoenix realizes who Corsair must be and stops Scott from shooting, but Corsair’s stunner gets through and drops the X-Men. I’m a little shocked that it works on such non-standard humans like Beast, but what ya gonna do? Corsair is grabbed by his crew who also get the M’Kraan crystal and flee. Wolverine is the first to recover and grabs a woozy Phoenix and helps her to a seat. She says they took the M’Kraan Crystal and Scott too. He asks why she stopped Cyclops, to which she says she can’t tell him. But thicks to complete the sentence, that Corsair is Scott’s father. We cut to Corsair’s ship where they have Cyclops in shackles. Raza asks if they took him to be a hostage, but Corsair says that he took Cyclops because he’s a weapon, the last one they’ll ever need.

 

We cut to Gladiator as he’s hauling Erik the Red (real name Davan Shakari) to D’Ken’s ship for Erik to be debriefed. Onboard, D’Ken demands to know how his agents could be beaten by lowly humans. Gladiator tries to tell him that the Phoenix kicked their asses, but D’Ken insists the Phoenix is only a legend. Their meeting is interrupted by a holographic message from Corsair, who Gladiator calls a traitor. Corsair reveals he has the crystal and offers to trade it for half the imperial treasury. D’Ken agrees, swearing a sacred oath to do it. Corsair promises to hand over the treasure along with Scott for D’Ken’s amusement. When the transmission ends, D’Ken orders Gladiator to dispose of Corsair and the Starjammers immediately after they have the crystal. Gladiator is clearly not okay with this, as D’Ken swore an oath, but must accept. He calls in the other Praetorian Guard and tells them to execute the Starjammers and bring Corsair in to face the emperor’s judgement.

 

We cut to the Starjammer ship. Corsair meets with Cyclops. It looks like in the interim between scenes they stuck a device on his visor, presumably to keep him from using it. He reveals that he’s agreed to give D’Ken the Crystal. When Scott protests, asking him if he knows what the mad emperor will do with the Crystal, Corsair says that D’Ken will never touch the crystal as Cyclops is going to wipe out his miserable existence. He says that the only way to get close to D’Ken was to offer him the crystal, and while he might suspect an attack from Corsair, he won’t from the ‘helpless prisoner’ Cyclops. He should be able to get off one full power blast at the Crystal during the exchange which should kill D’Ken. Cyclops asks why he’s so hellbent on getting D’Ken and Corsair reveals that D’Ken killed his wife. As he leaves, Scott asks if one woman’s life is worth all the bloodshed, to which Corsair says that she was to him. … And would be to Scott too if he knew your name is Christopher Summers and your wife was Katherine, ya dingus.

 

Recovered, Lilandra’s ship heads out to chase after the Starjammer’s ship, the Starjammer. As they fly, Beast checks out the ship specs while Wolverine paces and Gambit tosses cards into a Shi’ar helmet. Wolverine kicks the helmet in frustration and asks how they can fight something they can’t reach, to which Gambit says they’ll fight little green men soon enough. Lilandra begs Phoenix to transport them into the Starjammer like she did with Lilandra’s ship, but Phoenix says she’s too weak just yet. She needs a little more time to recover. She claims to grow stronger with each use of her powers.

 

Corsair returns and asks Scott to help him stop D’Ken. Scott says that they both know he doesn’t have a choice. After saying goodbye to his crew, and ordering them to flee if anything goes wrong, they head out. On the trip crossing ships, Corsair reveals he’s from Earth but says that the story is too long to tell. He asks Cyclops if he has kids, to which Cyclops says no, and Corsair says he wouldn’t recognize his own if he saw them, but does remember his oldest had his mother’s eyes. Of course he does.

 

Back on Lilandra’s ship, Phoenix reveals that if she can get in contact with Scott’s mind she can use it as a beacon and transport them all to him. Corsair and Cyclops arrive in the throne room as Phoenix connects to him. Phoenix flies them towards Cyclops in her phoenix form. Corsair presents the crystal to D’Ken. He orders Cyclops to shoot, but the Praetorian Guard and X-Men arrive. Corsair runs to kill D’Ken but finds out the D’Ken there is a shapeshifting decoy. The X-Men battle the Praetorian Guard and play keep away with the crystal. Corsair tells them to fall back to the Starjammer. They fall back but are outmaneuvered by D’Ken and Gladiator who grab Lilandra and the crystal. He tells the X-Men he’ll have Gladiator crush Lilandra if they interfere. Wolverine is obviously still up for a scrap, but Phoenix tells him to stand down as this is her fight now. D’Ken does a chant and awakens the M’Kraan crystal’s power. Phoenix tries to grab it, but he finishes the chant and starts absorbing the energy of the Crystal. Phoenix says she wasn’t strong enough yet to stop him and he’s taking in its power. Wolverine asks if that means the power will get out, but Phoenix tells him it’s more like all of this universe will be pulled in. Dun Dun DUUUUN.

 

Took a little while to get back out into space but we’re here and things are heating up. I find it funny that Jean as the Phoenix now has access to nearly infinite amounts of cosmic power but she’s still constantly getting hit with dizziness and fainting spells as per usual. The writers have one trick to keep Jean “Phoenix” Gray from just ending things immediately. I’m trying to refer to Jean with her Phoenix power as just Phoenix to differentiate her from her normal state. While she’s usually powerful, when infused with the Phoenix she’s on a whole other level. And the Phoenix Force itself is a fairly distinct entity from Jean herself, so treating the combined version as something wholly separate from Jean alone feels right. The introduction of the Starjammers feels a little sudden and out of nowhere but I guess there’s literally no other time to introduce us to Scott’s dad. Don’t judge him too harshly for not returning to Earth for like 15-20 years, he was… dealing with some stuff. What with his wife being killed by the Shi’ar emperor and such. Plus Scott and Alex were intentionally split up do to the machinations of a insane 18^th century geneticist, it was a whole thing and finding his boys would have been tough. Before you ask, no, Christopher “Corsair” Summers isn’t a Mutant, he’s vanilla human with fancy alien tech. But literally every child he and his wife produced are, so odds of him having a dormant form of the X-Gene is high. He certainly hasn’t aged enough to look like an at minimum 55 year old man, but maybe that’s just the animation style. And in his defense for not recognizing Scott, it is a fairly common name and most of the X-Men call him Cyclops in the field. Obviously with a five part story, D’Ken was going to get the crystal at some point in this episode so they can actually face off with him in the finale… but it did seem a little contrived to just have him get it during a scene change. At least show us how Gladiator got the drop on Lilandra to get the crystal. Yeah, there’s no doubt in my mind that D’Ken stayed back and let his literal superman do the dirty work to get the gem. So he’s now filled with negative energy, this will go along swimmingly, I’m sure. See you next time. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 31

 There's a couple family reunions in this one. 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, the X-Men came crashing to Earth. After crash landing on Earth after their mission in Space, Jean arises from the ashes in Hudson Bay and announces herself the Phoenix before collapsing yet again. While Jean recovers, Charles attempts to leave the hospital but has a psychic fit that causes him to pass out and creates an evil doppelganger of him. The evil psychic projection goes to the X-Men and makes them see visions of their greatest fears to try to drive them mad. They have a hell of a time fighting him as Evil Charles is just a mental image, he can’t be hurt by any of them. He tries to attack Scott and Jean but Jean’s new power lets her blast him away, destroying the villainous image. Charles explains that the projection was basically a manifestation of all the negative emotions he bottles up. He decides to take a leave of absence from the team for a bit, traveling to Muir Island for some R and R. He meets Moira and her fiancé Sean Cassidy before heading to his room. In private he gets hit by another massive psychic blast and connects to Lilandra. He pulls her into his room from the astral plane or something and we learn what her whole deal is. Namely, she’s sister to D’Ken, emperor of the Shi’ar and has recently learned her brother is going to use their people’s sacred relic the M’Kraan Crystal to make a weapon. She also explains that she and Charles share a deep psychic connection despite not having met before this point. Before they can talk more, Juggernaut breaks in, saying he’s after his step-brother’s new lady friend. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Moira and Sean talking outside the Muir Island research station about how Sean wonders if Charles still loves her, but she doesn’t think so. He needs a friend and she’s basically the only one he has. They kiss but are interrupted by hearing Charles screaming from the station. She tries to run to him alone, but Sean insists on coming with. Inside, Juggernaut is throwing Charles around and saying this is more fun than bumper cars. Lilandra, for some reason out of her space suit and now in a sexy costume, shoots at Cain with a blaster. It doesn’t hurt him, obviously, but Charles tells her to go for the helmet since his mind is his weak spot. Cain hurls a bookcase at Charles, who quickly evacuates his chair. Lilandra blows off Cain’s helmet. He slaps her aside and says that he loves crushing people that know Charles. Charles, having had enough of his brother’s shit, mentally blasts him, telling Cain to feel all the pain he’s caused. We see mental flashes of a younger Cain bully Charles, and Cain knocking over a vial and starting a huge fire. Before Charles can finish him off, a fella with a stick sneaks up behind him and blasts him. This is Black Tom Cassidy, a friend of Juggernauts who’s hear to help with this bounty of theirs. He tells Cain that he’s wasted enough time rampaging and to just grab the woman so they can get paid. Cain says screw you, as he’s here more for killing Charles than getting paid. He redons his helmet and picks up Charles. He says he’s been wanting to do this for a long time, says “So long, Chuck,” and throws him out the window. Moira and Sean see him falling and Sean dives after him. Sean, as it turns out, is a Mutant (his codename is Banshee) and he’s able to fly using his powerful scream to generate lift. He grabs Charles and they bring him back inside. Charles asks where Lilandra is, but Moira and Sean didn’t see anyone so assume he was having a vision or something. Charles insists that she is real and when Moira asks how he knows that, he says it’s because he loves her. Disney princess have nothing on Charles Xavier.

 

Back in New York, Jean’s powers go off again, manifesting a giant Phoenix around herself and scaring the Bejesus out of Scott. She announces that she and the Phoenix are now one. Gambit, Storm, Jubilee and Rogue come in and ask if she’s okay. Scott says he’s not sure, her powers keep going off and while she can’t speak this ‘phoenix’ seems to. Rogue says that she should have been the one flying the ship, as with her powers she could have done it and her constitution is obviously tougher than Jean’s. Gambit tells her to not blame herself as she was on her own mission and can’t be everywhere at once. Logan comes in and tells them about the situation with Charles and Lilandra. Scott says that he won’t leave Jean. Logan, pissed off, tells him that he’s not the only one that worried about Jean, and that the world is turning upside down, and they need to do something about it. Storm says she spoke with Moira and Moira insists this is a paranoid delusion Evil Charles created. Scott, realizing that they do have to check this out, tells the others to head out. He and Storm will stay with Jean, though, as he’s sure her condition is tied to this.

 

We cut to a castle and Black Tom asking Juggernaut where his contact is. A ship touches down as he complains about tardiness, good timing, and Erik the Red comes out. He demands to see the Princess, but Black Tom says that ain’t happening until he’s paid. Erik, being a dick, says here’s your payment and blasts him. Before he can shoot Black Tom again, Juggernaut grabs him and starts squeezing. Erik orders his mind-controlled minions to shoot Juggernaut. Juggy just tosses him at his goons and Black Tom asks about their money, and Erik agrees to pay them.

 

The X-Men, Wolverine, Jubilee, Rogue and Gambit, touch down at Muir Island. Moira insists that they shouldn’t do this as it’ll just reinforce Charles’ delusions. Wolverine tells her not to get in his way and storms off. Sean grabs him and says that Moira knows what’s best for her patient and that someone should teach Wolverine some manners. Before a fight breaks out, Moira insist a fight won’t cure Charles’ hallucinations. Wolverine says “if” he’s crazy, and that he’ll be able to tell definitively if he is.

 

We cut back to the castle, revealed to be Cassidy Keep, where Black Tom and Erik the Red are counting the payment. Black Tom loves the sound of 10 million dollars. Juggernaut comes in with an unconscious Lilandra. Erik wakes her with a blast and asks the princess condescendingly how she’s doing. She names him Shakari and that he’s a spy. He says on Earth he’s Erik the Red and demands to know where the M’Kraan Crystal is. Lilandra looks around and focuses on a coat of arms over the fireplace before mentally reaching out to Charles.

 

In Charles’ room, Wolverine is sniffing around and confirms that Juggernaut was there with two other people he’s never smelt before. And confirm one is an alien. Charles feels Lilandra and tries to connect with her. Erik the Red blasts her before he can get more than the coat of arms, a Stag and a Dragon. This shocks Sean Cassidy, who says he knows where Lilandra is. Shock of shocks, the two Irishmen named Cassidy are related.

 

At Cassidy Keep Erik the Red realizes that Lilandra may have had time to contact Charles, but Juggernaut insists he killed him. The X-Men and Banshee fly in. When they land, Wolverine says that with Banshee’s scream they may as well should have tried sneaking in with a marching band. Sean tells him he should hear his singing voice. Rogue reminds Wolverine that they can’t beat Juggernaut, so they’re just here to grab Lilandra and run. Jubilee asks if they know what she looks like, to which Wolverine says she’s from another galaxy, so if ya see a strange woman just grab her and run. They’re suddenly blasted by Erik’s minions, Banshee screaming at them to knock them out painlessly. The villains hear Banshee’s scream, and Black Tom remarks that the lord of the castle has come home… to be buried. The X-Men burst in, Banshee declaring Black Tom has disgraced their family for the last time. Black Tom says that his big brother has stood in his way for too long and they start fighting. The others try to stall Juggernaut and grab Lilandra but Black Tom keeps getting in the way. It’s revealed both brothers Cassidy are immune to the other’s power, so they start fist fighting. Juggernaut tries to crush Rogue, but Jubilee blasts him for long enough for her to dodge and get them both away. Lilandra free herself but Juggernaut grabs her as Erik the Red says they just need to get to his ship. Erik throws an ice grenade and freezes them in place, but they break free a moment later and cut the villains off.

 

Suddenly, someone enters Earth’s atmosphere and flies to the cate. This is Gladiator, leader of the Shi’ar Emperors Praetorian Guard. Erik tries to suck up to Gladiator, but Gladiator isn’t having it, he demands to why Erik the Red isn’t ready with Lilandra and the M’Kraan crystal. Erik tries to earn some credit for having Lilandra but that’s not enough. Lilandra asks why Gladiator serves D’Ken when he’s a man of honor, and Gladiator points out he serves the Shi’ar throne and D’Ken is emperor. Juggernaut, annoyed with all the talking, tries to attack Gladiator but his punch doesn’t phase the alien. Gladiator grabs Juggernaut and throws him clear across the country. They X-Men try to stop Gladiator to save Lilandra, but are stopped by a cold icy breath from Gladiator and then eye lasers. … FYI the Praetorian Guard are homages to the DC Comic’s Justice League and yes, Gladiator is their Superman. Black Tom hands Lilandra over and runs. Gladiator demands she turns over the Crystal. Lilandra refuses, mentally calling out to Charles, who mentally calls out to the X-Men to save Lilandra, and wakes up Phoenix. Scott tries to stop her but the Phoenix must go. She transforms into her new form and flies to Cassidy Keep and says Lilandra is under her protection. Erik the Red runs away but Gladiator tries to fight. Despite how powerful he is Phoenix is stronger, literally hurling him back into space. But before she does she tells Gladiator to tell his master to back off. Lilandra asks if Jean is truly the Phoenix, when she confirms it, she says the Phoenix is the guardian of the M’Kraan Crystal and must help her protect it. She tells Lilandra that D’Ken has arrived. Out in space, Gladiator stops his flight just in time to see D’Ken’s ship arrive, the Shi’ar emperor announcing that he can feel the Crystal in this galaxy and laughing evilly.

 

Well, that was a hell of a continuation. It’s always nice to see Juggernaut and his irrational hatred of Charles again. Black Tom has been his partner in crime on a few occasions in other stories so it’s good to see him too. They make a formidable duo. It was interesting to see how everyone is reacting to Charles’ mental condition after his evil rampage, with Wolverine still willing to believe anything Charles’ says as reliable, where Storm, Scott and Moira are more taking Charles at his word that he can’t be trusted right now. Good thing he did go there or else Erik the Red might have made off with Lilandra… though I am questioning why Muir Island doesn’t have security cameras that could have confirmed Juggernaut and Black Tom leaving with Lilandra… Whatever. The battle between the two groups was good, even though the dialogue between the brothers Cassidy was clunky as hell to explain why they have a beef. And really, we just learn that Black Tom is a criminal and Sean is a goodie two shoes from their back and forth. Gladiator’s entrance sure was memorable. He’s a real powerhouse, as he demonstrated by tossing Juggernaut a few hundred miles. Like I said, he’s basically Superman, so he’s one of the strongest characters the X-Men go up against. Typically, the goal isn’t even to beat him, it’s either to run, or to get Lilandra on the throne to make him switch allegiances. Yeah, he takes that oath of office to the throne super literally. The Phoenix is now active, which is a sort of good news/bad news thing, as her power is definitely needed for this but Jean really can’t handle all this cosmic energy flowing through her. But we’ll see more of why that is later. Next time, the race to find the M’Kraan crystal is on. See you there. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: What If...? ep 26

What If... it's the end? 

Last time on What If…?, we got to catch up with Captain Carter. Since we last saw her, Peggy formed a new Guardians of the Multiverse that traveled to different dimensions to help protect them from extra dimensional threats. Her team, consisting of a Mjolnir wielding Storm, an adult Byrdie the Duck, and Kahhori, fight off that squid monster Carter fought in her universe, killing it and saving Nova Prime Nebula’s version of Xandar. Before they can celebrate, shards from the Watcher’s Fifth dimension land near them. Realizing something like this means Uatu must be in danger, Peggy and co try to find a way to use the fragments to travel to the Watcher’s plane to help him. After two failures, one technological and one magical, the team settles on getting an Infinite Ultron to get them to the plane, as Infinite Ultron was the only being able to travel to that higher plane. Carter, fearing for her team as she’s the only one to see literal dead universes that Infinite Ultron left in his wake, headed out alone. The others follow and find her broken Shield near Infinite Ultron. The ladies try to start a fight but even Storm, a literal Goddess with Mjolnir, isn’t powerful enough to actually hurt him. He uses the Time Stone to freeze them in place before explaining he had the ‘I’m the last thing in existence, the F*** did I exterminate life?” epiphany and says that he didn’t attack Carter. Instead another Watcher, most likely the Executioner, attacked Carter and took her back to his home dimension. He agrees to help the others find Carter, takes the Shard of the Fifth Dimension, powers up, and leads them to it. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Ep 26: What If… What If?

 

We open with a flashback to Uatu the Watcher on his first day as a Watcher. In the Fifth Dimension he just looks out on the Multiverse and basks in infinity before the Eminence joins him. Uatu asks how anyone can take it all in. The Eminence says that not everyone can, but as Watchers, they’re the exception. He compliments Uatu on his dedication to their order, to watch but not interfere, and that he thinks Uatu will do great. Uatu asks what if the Eminence is wrong. The Eminence answers that “what if is an irrelevant question.” He explains that the belief of the Watchers is that to preserve the natural order is to not interfere with it, just watch. He asks Uatu if he’s ready to do it, and Uatu says he will. He takes the Oath of the Watchers, to Watch over everyone he must become no one, and gains his robe of office. The Eminence shows him the crystal hallways of the Observational Plane. Uatu says that it’s beautiful, but the Eminence corrects him and says it just is. They can offer no judgements, only observations. Which, ya know, just sounds like the worst job ever. Not going to lie. Uatu asks what the point is of just watching, but the Eminence says that is something he’ll figure out on his own. Uatu says he will never fail the Eminence.

 

We then cut to the Eminence announcing that Uatu failed him. Nice cut. He claims that Uatu left them as a Watcher but has returned to them as a Heretic. Uatu is on trial for the crimes he committed, specifically interfering with the natural order and exposing their secrets to mortals. Uatu insists he only shared their secrets with Heroes. The Eminence asks if he truly considered Strange Supreme a hero, the man that destroyed his own dimension and then, with help from Uatu, recreated it. Uatu claims that he sacrificed his own soul to undo his mistake, and that his new universe is creating new branches of reality. He calls it a miracle, they call it an abomination. He equates it to gardening, that he’s merely cultivating, weeding, and using pesticide on his garden to help things grow. They claim that’s a convenient excuse, and charge him with interfering to save the life of Riri Williams, Jun-Fan, Nick Fury, and Madisynn, to name a few. Uatu kind of just shrugs at that. Sidenote, I do think it’s hilarious that Madisynn with two Ns and a Y that’s not where you think is this ultimate basic white girl that keeps getting bailed out by beings infinitely more powerful than her. They then reveal that Captain Peggy Carter is the most dangerous of Uatu’s projects and that they have her in custody. They ask him why he’s risking everything for these beings who, in the grand scheme of things, don’t matter. Uatu says that they matter to him, to which the Eminence says that is his failing, nothing can matter to a Watcher. He repeats the line that a Watcher is No One. Carter tells him to not believe that, as no person is no one. The Eminence sentences them to death. Uatu says that that’s not their way, but the Eminence says it’s the only way to correct what Uatu broke. And the fact he now has to break an oath of non-violence to do it is what hurts the most. Way to make this execution all about you, bro. Infinite Ultron bursts in and blasts them. Uatu is shocked to see Infinite Ultron and that he’s with Carter, who cheerily tells him he now knows what a surprise feels like. Infinite Ultron frees them and says he’ll cover them in time to get to the ship. Carter says that they can’t leave Infinite Ultron, but he tells them to go, as this is what he's programmed for. The Guardians meet up and fly out, Byrdie using the upgrades Ultron did to the ship to help them slip through the seams of reality. Uatu says that this is pointless as the other Watchers have seen everything, every moment of their lives and every variation of those moments. Carter has the bright idea to take them into Strange Supreme’s reality. In his sacrifice, he infused himself with every atom of that reality and they hope he’s still aware enough to help them and can repress the other Watchers powers. The Eminence kills Infinite Ultron. The Three Watchers appear before the group and announces “No more Running,” and blast them out of the seams.

 

The ship crash lands on an alien world a few universes short of Strange’s reality. Everyone lands safely, but then the Watchers appear before them. Byrdie, Storm, and Kahhori blast the Watchers and try to force them into Strange’s reality, but it doesn’t work. The other Watchers insist that the only way they can Watch reality is to not be tied to it, Uatu insists that that doesn’t have to be the way. The Eminence blasts them and smashes them against a mountain. Uatu tells the group that they need to take the Oath of the Watcher, which they do, accepting the Oath before being blasted. This gives them the power to survive the blast and to face off against the Watchers. The other Watchers suit up for battle, the Eminence repeating that he was meant to be no one. Uatu announces that he’s not no one, that he is Uatu and they battle. I’m just now realizing that they haven’t said his name before but I use it all the time. Whoops.

 

The Guardians and Watchers face off. The Watchers are powerful, but Carter and Co have experience using unfathomable power and hold them off. Uatu tells the Eminence that he doesn’t want to fight, but the Eminence says that there’s power in choice and he has made his. Their clash cracks the planet they’re on. Storm, using the combined power of herself, Mjolnir and the Watcher’s summons up a huge cosmic cyclone to catch up the other two Watchers before Uatu tosses the Eminence in with them. They ask that the Watchers yield but they announce they never will. Uatu tells the others to stop. He tells the Eminence that this isn’t what he taught him. The Eminence says that he didn’t teach Uatu everything. The Three Watchers combine their power and blast them. The Eminence announces that this attack won’t just destroy them, but will erase every version of them throughout the multiverse. We see alternate versions blow off Carter and the rest and Carter starts to disintegrate. She screams no and forces her body back together. She announces she’s not losing any friends today and rushes the Watchers, hitting them with her full power. She stops their attack and reverses it, blasting them away.

 

Uatu gets up and realizes Carter is gone. The Eminence says she’s gone, and for nothing. He tries to blast Uatu, but it doesn’t work. It’s revealed in Peggy’s last attack she transferred them to Stephen Strange’s universe. He asks how could he not see this coming. Uatu tells him that in spending all time watching over things, it becomes hard to fathom what they haven’t seen before. The Eminence assumes Uatu transferred them here to kill them, but Uatu says he only wants to teach them. He thinks that maybe in this universe without his powers, the Eminence and the other Watchers can learn to see as well as watch.

 

In the fifth dimension, the Guardians hold a funeral for Peggy with her shield. Storm says that she only wished Peggy could be there with them. Uatu says that maybe she is and that for the first time in all of his existence that he feels like someone is watching over him. The Shield is fixed and tossed into the cosmos. Storm asks if he really believes there’s another road after this one. Uatu says that some questions only answer… is more questions. Uatu gives his speech about how time is more than a linear path and we’re shown some alternate universe characters. These include: Mutant six armed Spider-Man, Ghost Rider as a samurai, A cyborg Punisher lady, Gamora as a bride, Moon Knight Nick Fury, Weapon X Thanos, Ms. Marvel Wasp, Sorcerer Supreme Hulk, Howard the Duck Warlock, and more. He asks the viewer to open their eyes, dare to face the unknown and ponder the question What if?

 

As finales go, this was fine. They had to survive until Peggy makes her big sacrifice and saves the day. Not anything too groundbreaking. The fight scene was cool, though, with a lot of reality warping, powers on display and planet smashing. Uatu ultimately sparing the other Watchers in the hopes that they can learn and grow was a nice message to end on.

 

Overall, I think I was warmer to What If…? than many of my fellow superhero fans and content creators were. Was it amazing? No. Did I love every episode? No. Do I regret watching it? Also No. I think that the shows two biggest weaknesses were mostly sticking to 30-ish minute run times and sticking too closely to the main MCU. The runtime issue is pretty self-explanatory, it’s hard to tell good, complete stories in 30 minutes. A few What If’s…? could have worked as full series in my opinion, but trying to set up a new world and catch everyone up on the changes while telling a compelling story is hard. And sticking too closely to the MCU is just what it sounds. Most of the episodes were just too… basic to be that memorable. My favorites were ones like Marvel Zombies, 1602, and 1872, worlds where things are so radically different that the plot didn’t feel the need to keep anyone too close to the rules of the MCU. The beauty of What If…? storylines is to really flex the creative muscles and see what you can come up with. So just doing the little tweaks like Howard the Duck and Darcy getting married is just so… bland. And, personally, I think I’d have preferred this show staying more of an anthology series, without the big fate of multiverse finales. It’s just… hard to top saving all realities over, and over, and over again. The best one in my opinion was the Infinite Ultron story, and so Strange Supreme’s Universe Forge and the Watchers attack is just lesser by comparison. And, I’ll just say it, it’s funny in an ironic sense to me that the show that is all about infinite possibilities tapped out at less than 30 episodes. Oh, a middling Disney TV show run, how infinite. I’m being a jerk, sorry. I did have fun watching most of these. I’m a big fan of animation, so I hope the fact that this series wasn’t a runaway success doesn’t hurt the chances of shows like X-Men 97 and Spider-Man: Freshman Year from getting to stretch their legs a little. It’d be great to see something do well enough that Disney risks a season 4. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Have a good night, everyone. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social