Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 7

 Come to Genosha, all Mutants are welcome. You'll never want to leave.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Wolverine sought some peace in the frozen north. He is almost immediately jumped by his nemesis Sabretooth. He gets thrown to the icy water but is saved by a local Inuit tribe. Wolverine forms a bond with the elder of the tribe, a man named Pooyetah, but the animosity of Kiyoek, the local hotshot that he sort of usurps. Kiyoek meets Sabretooth and agrees to help him get rid of Wolverine. He leads Wolverine away from the tribe assuming they’re going to jump him, but Sabretooth instead kidnaps the tribe and burns their homes down. Wolverine and Sabretooth face off again, this time with a ticking clock as the villagers are tied to an ice bridge. Wolverine is almost thrown to the water again, but Kiyoek helps distract Sabretooth long enough for Wolverine to win the day. He parted with the tribe on good terms. Meanwhile, Storm, Gambit, and Jubilee head out to a resort in Genosha. The island nation claims to be a Mutant haven and they’re there to check the validity of that statement. It seems like paradise at first, but Storm is recognized, and that group is attacked their first night by the Genosha army before being captured by Sentinels. Oh no. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open in a detention facility. Storm and her team are being held by the Genosha military and being kept in line with inhibitor collars. These devices somehow repress their abilities, leaving them powerless. They’re being used as a labor force to build a ‘better Genosha’ for their leader.  Some fun background character Easter Eggs we get in the group shots: You can see Pyro, Avalanche, Mystique, Wolfsbane, Warpath, Sunfire, and Blob as fellow captives.

 

They’re forced to help build a dam for their captors. They get told that the collars will be turned off so they can use their powers to help with their work but if they try to escape the collars will be reactivated and detonated. Damn, overkill much? The second their collars are turned off, Storm leaps into the air and attacks, Jubilee tries to help too but Gambit stops her. She destroys one of the control remotes, but another is used to reactivate hers. She falls into the river and is fished out by a Sentinel that was hiding in it. The Sentinel returns Storm to the group. Bolivar Trask comes out and tells them that their Leader has promised to release the captives when the dam is finished, but if they try to escape again, they will be held indefinitely. The biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard but dictators gotta dictate. Trask orders Storm to be executed, but Gambit runs forward to beg for her life. He reveals that she can control the weather, and that she’ll be able to fill their artificial lake in no time. Trask agrees that she’ll be useful and orders her put in ‘the box’ until the dam is finished. Putting a claustrophobic into a tight space… brilliant idea, Trask you psychopath.

 

Jubilee and Gambit are forced to lay rebar for the damn. Jubilee says she feels horrible for Storm being locked in the box, but Gambit points out that’s still better than dead. Blob walks over and yells at Gambit to put his back into the work before a guard orders Gambit to go break rocks. We see another Mutant, Sunfire, being forced to rapidly dry concrete just before an attack starts by a rebel Mutant. Sentinels are sent out to deal with it and the Mutants are forced back to their cells. In the shuffle, Jubilee pockets some cable fibers.

 

Back at the Mansion, Cyclops is frustrated that he can’t get in contact with Storm. Jean reminds him Ororo grew up on the streets of Cairo, so she’s probably fine even with bad reception. Wolverine returns, the other’s ask where he’s been, and he just says somewhere cold.

 

At the prison, the lights and cameras start flickering on and off. Jubilee, seeing an opportunity, pulls out the fiber and uses it to pick the lock. She goes to Gambit and tries to convince him to help with her plan. It’s a simple one, to just wait for the guards with the control to come in and jump them right at the gates. Gambit refuses, he seems resigned to serving for some reason. Jubilee tries to get the other Mutants on board but they’re about as apathetic as Gambit. The lights start coming online and Jubilee has to race back to her cell.

 

Cyclops, Jean, and Rogue enter the War Room and they tell Charles they’re going to head out to check what’s happening on Genosha. Cyclops asks if the Professor is sure he doesn’t want to come. Charles tells him that there is probably nothing going on in Genosha and that he has things to cover here. After they leave, he dials up a place called Miur Island and asks to speak to Dr. Moira McTaggart. The others fly off.

 

The next day, the Mutants were woken up. Jubilee goes to check on Gambit, but he was taken in the night. Sunfire tells her that the others have agreed to help, they just need her to say when. She starts the attack, kicking the lead guard and taking the remote control. The others try to fight back, but they still can’t access their powers. Jubilee is caught by a Sentinel, the controller dropped and revealed to be fake. The Sentinel announces it caught the leader of the rebellion and the Leader reveals a ‘Fellow Mutant” sold her out. She’s thrown into the box. She’s next to Storm in the cell. She’s clearly freaking out, and disassociating, saying that she’ll summon a blizzard in the morning and that Gambit will save them.

 

At the main Genoshian building, Trask shows Gyrich his latest invention, the Mastermold. It’s a truly colossal robot that serves as the main control system for the Sentinels and a mobile Sentinel Factory. It fully assembles the Sentinels within it’s body and the finished robots just need an outside power source to activate. The Leader and his aide Cameron Hodge arrive, saying that the Mastermold needs too much power, and they blacked out half the island last night. Trask says that once the dam is built, they’ll have enough power and then the Sentinels can be sent out to round up all the Mutants. The Leader asks about the slave revolt, Trask says that they let the revolt happen to break their spirits, revealing it was indeed Gambit that betrayed them. Gyrich asks if Gambit was involved with the factory after recognizing him as one that helped Jubilee at the Mall. Gambit confirms this, says he’s an X-Man and offers to take Gyrich to the X-Mansion in exchange for his freedom. Gyrich asks why he should believe that Gambit would sell out his ‘friends’ but Gambit claims they don’t like or trust him. They use him like the Genoshians do. Gyrich agrees, but orders Gambit to go back to the prison until they’re ready for him. On the drive out, Gambit offers to show them a card trick, hitting both guards while they’re distracted and tries to make a run for it. They try to follow but their car is destroyed. Gambit goes for one of their rifles but a white-haired Mutant step on it and tells him uh-uh. He says he’s looking for the Leader before they’re attacked again. The man destroys a tree to drive the guard off. Gambit asks who he is, and he says, “The Wild man of Borneo,” before leaving. I’m shocked Gambit doesn’t point out the obvious X on the dude’s armor, but what are you gonna do? Gambit asks for his help; the man gives him a key that he got off one of the Leader’s goons and says he can make use of it before disappearing. In a voiceover, we learn from Hodge that this is Cable (yes, that Cable) a US mercenary that used to work for the Leader until he leader the dude was an authoritarian dictator. They think that he’s a Mutant, but they aren’t sure. The Leader claims that Cable lives by his code but not for much longer.

 

Gambit returns to the dam and frees Jubilee and Storm. Jubilee is pissed that he didn’t tell her he was acting but before she can yell at him the guards start attacking and the group make a run for it. We switch between a scene of Gambit freeing the other two and the board room. In the board room the Leader reveals that he got the collars from a Scottish scientist and Trasks wonders if they can get a bulk order. He thinks that when the dam is complete, and they can mass produce Sentinels they’ll need quite a few. The Leader learns Gambit freed the others as Cable attacks them, destroying their power source in the process. The X-men return to the damn, freeing the other Mutants and leading another revolt. They try to get the other Mutants to help them destroy the dam and Mastermold, but they refuse, saying they’ll take care of the Sentinel problem once Genosha is theirs. Gambit points out dam busting is a bit beyond them, but Storm creates a massive storm to destroy it.

 

Gyrich says that the situation is falling apart and threatens to fall back to Washington, Trask saying that Gyrich better not abandon him. Cable slips by them and to the Leader’s rooms. He’s only stopped from killing the Leader by a half-finished Sentinel the Mastermold sent after him. He crushes the incomplete robot by blowing a hole in the ceiling and letting heavy machinery land on it.

 

Jubilee isn’t sure that Storm is strong enough to destroy the dam, but Storm orders them back. She summons a massive thunderstorm that destroys the whole thing. Her strength spent, she tumbles with the rubble, but is saved Rogue flying in.

 

The Leader and Hodge try to flee, saying they’re headed to Switzerland, but are stopped by Cable destroying their car. He is about to shoot the Leader when Hodge draws a gun on him. The standoff is cut off by the wave Storm created cresting and swallowing them all up. The Mastermold, meanwhile, gets up and tries to walk away but discovers it is still plugged into the wall. It and its Sentinels seem to be washed away in the wave.

 

The blackbird touches down and Gambit, Rogue, Jubilee, and Storm get in. They take off. Cyclops tries to radio into the professor but they’re just getting static. Jubilee apologizes to Gambit for not trusting him, but the Cajun says that maybe he’s just tricking her into thinking he’s an upstanding dude. They reach the mansion but are horrified to discover that it’s been completely destroyed. Oh no.

 

Another solid episode. Seeing Mutants being lured in by the promise of acceptance in Genosha only to be used as a slave labor force was depressing as hell. Particularly when we learn it’s to build a damn that will power the Mastermold and lead to a mass kidnapping of Mutants across the world. Salt in the wound. The Mastermold is a truly terrifying bit of machinery for the X-Men to face, being a walking Sentinel factory that can mass produce Sentinels if left with enough time and resources. The fact it needs an industrial amount of power and that most industrialized nations might not want to publicly fund an evil robot factory is probably the only reason the Sentinels haven’t been unleashed just yet. While it was washed away in the flood, it won’t be the last we see of the mega machine. And this was a cool introduction to Cable. The mysterious Mutant is an extremely important member of the X-Men universe. He’s an incredibly powerful psychic and has extremely advanced weapons at his disposal. I don’t feel like I’m spoiling anything to point out that he’s actually a time displaced X-Man from the Future and is the son of Cyclops and Jean. The show never outright confirms this identity but heavily imply it in future appearances and his origins are a big part of X-Men: 97. The Leader should be thankful the wave did Cable’s work for him, as the Mutant supersoldier is not kind to those who he thinks wronged him. My only complaint about the episode is that the Gambit betrayal is introduced and resolved in like four minutes tops. I think they intended for Gambit keeping Jubilee from helping Storm to be the first indicator that Gambit might be willing to sell out his friends for a better deal…  but he’s telling a teenager to not get involved in something that would get her hurt. Hardly backstabbing right there. I don’t want to hate Gambit, but if that’s the cover for his actions then give me a chance to do that is all I’m saying. Oh, and the cameos are fun. I read recently that the X-Men: The Animated Series team worked a lot of unofficial cameos into their story by just modeling background characters after the Marvel characters they wanted without naming them. That’s probably not the cases with the cast here, as all are X-Men related characters, but I’ll call out a few that I remember when we get to them. And that’s all I have to say about that. Have a good night. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 6

 Wolverine is going to get in touch with nature.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Jean and Scott tired to take a night off. The OG X-Men went to a showing of Phantom of the Opera but on their way out saw a green Mutant child being targeted by a mob because he stole some fruit. They try to protect the kid but end up meeting the Morlocks, a group of Mutants that live underground due to their obvious physical abnormalities. Scott and Jean get kidnapped by them, as their leader, Callisto, wants Scott to be her consort. He’s obviously not interested, for several reasons, but she’s not taking no for an answer. Jean briefly frees herself and causes some damage, but she’s recaptured. Thankfully, she let out a mental SOS to the Professor. He sends the X-Men to save them. This isn’t an ideal situation as Storm’s de facto in charge while Scott is MIA, and her claustrophobia is in high gear. They battle Morlocks, Gambit gets taken out by a Mutant’s viral touch and Rogue returns him topside, and they end up finding Scott and Jean after a few traps. Callisto has her hypnotic Morlock try to drive the team nuts, specifically using Wolverine’s jealousy of Scott and Jean’s relationship to try to disable him. Storm, having had enough of this shit, challenges Callisto to a duel. They have a staff fight, Storm winning and becoming the Queen of the Morlocks. She offers to take the tribe to the X-Mansion, but they refuse as they know they’ll be persecuted on the surface. Storm promises to come for them if/when they get Mutant rights. After checking on Gambit, he’s recovering fine, Jean and Scott go to thank Wolverine only to find he left the mansion. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Scott speculating why Wolverine ran off. He’s upset that Logan would just up and run-off like that without telling anyone. Jean tries to defend him, but Scott’s not having any of it, saying Wolverine’s temper is always getting him and the team in trouble like this. He storms off and when alone Jean admits to herself at least that he left because of her.

 

We cut to Wolverine skiing in the Alaskan wilderness. This is his usual coping mechanism, when things get too ‘real’ at the Mansion he runs to the most secluded parts of Canada or Alaska to find his version of inner peace. He starts skiing again after basking in the quite landscape for a bit, not knowing he’s being watched by Sabretooth. He’s been tracking Wolverine for a few days now, it seems and is tired of it. Once Wolverine crosses an ice bridge, he sets off a bomb, throwing Logan to his feet. Sabretooth says that he’s gone soft, that a decade ago he’d have never gotten this close to Logan, but Wolverine’s willing to show he can still scrap. The two wrestle and punch each other, but after they have the grapple-roll-a-round fight, Wolverine ends up being dropped off the side of the cliff into the water below. Sabretooth bellows his victory… seeming to forget that Wolverine has a damn healing factor. Wolverine bobs out of the water and grabs onto some ice, Sabretooth throws a big block of ice at him. He misses but vows that Logan will die by his hands or by the cold of the arctic water. He doesn’t really care which. Logan floats away.

 

Back at the X-Mansion’s War Room, Cyclops and Gambit are having a shouting match. Cyclops is telling him not to spread rumors, and Gambit is telling him not to tell Gambit what to do. Xavier joins them and demands to know what is going on. Gambit heard a story from a friend of the island of Genosha, where Mutants are welcomed with open arms. Cyclops says he didn’t want Gambit to spread rumors and accuses him of just wanting to go on a beach trip to an island paradise. Charles ends up backing Gambit, though, saying that sort of mission could be just what they need after the stress of the last few weeks. He is hopeful that Genosha could be an example to the rest of the world. He tells Scott to send a team of three to check it out and for Scott to try to relax in the meantime as well. Scott selects Storm, Gambit, and Jubilee (after she begs) to go. He’s sure a beach can’t be too dangerous for her. They’ll visit as tourists, but they’ll need to keep their eyes open.

 

Wolverine washes up on an ice drift and is found by some Inuit fishermen. One of them, a man named Kiyoek, wants to turn Wolverine in to a government center to get a reward but his elder, Pooyetah says they help strangers around here. Meanwhile, Sabretooth is beginning to pack up to begin his hunt anew when he hears a motor in the distance. He sees Wolverine being taken away by the Inuit and says that he has a cowards luck.

 

Logan wakes up in a tent and meets Pooyetah. Pooyetah tells Wolverine to take it slow, as no man recovers from the ice so quickly. Wolverine almost spills the beans on his Mutant status, but figures that with how remote their camp must be that Pooyetah might not have heard of Mutants before. He decides to keep it that way, just saying he’s a fast healer. He claims that he’ll recover faster if he can work out the kinks in his muscles and that he wants to help to give thanks.

 

We switch over to the airport where Storm’s team is taking off from. Jubilee is ecstatic to be going to a resort but wonders if she brought the right clothes. Gambit tells her not to worry, as you just need sunscreen and a swimsuit.

 

Back in the Arctic, Kiyoek begrudgingly takes Wolverine out with the other fishermen. He tells Wolverine to do as he’s told and stay out of the way. Wolverine is a natural fisherman, though, and clearly irritates Kiyoek with how good he is. Don’t feel bad, bro, he’s literally got over a century of experience living. Pooyetah compliments Wolverine on his haul, saying this is the best catch they’ve seen since the southerners came up and took most of the fish. Wolverine shows off how easily he can lift two full bags of fish. Kiyoek, feeling insecure when his girlfriend says Wolverine is as strong as a polar bear, tries to do the same but dumps all the fish. The others laugh at him, and I just have to say, my guy, you can’t compete with James Howlett.

 

That night, Pooyetah comments on how happy the villagers are tonight because of Wolverine. Wolverine says that he feels happy too. He says that he wants to give Pooyetah his full story but can’t just now, Pooyetah respects Wolverine’s silence, saying that he’ll talk when he’s ready. He’s pulled into the dance to celebrate as well. Kiyoek starts climbing the mountain and walking into the wilderness. He’s frustrated that Wolverine has taken his place as the local hero; it seems. He wonders for a bit before he runs into Sabretooth, who shrieks that he has the scent of Wolverine all around him. Sabretooth goes to gut him but Kiyoek says that he’s no friend to him. Sabretooth asks if Kiyoek would lie to him, but Kiyoek says that he wouldn’t as a ‘snow demon’ like Sabretooth can read minds. Sabretooth says that he’s a Mutant, just like Wolverine, and if Kiyoek want’s Wolverine gone, he’ll do as he’s told.

 

Storm and company land in Genosha. They’re welcomed by a taxi driver and taken to their resort. Gambit sees a sign saying to ask about their Mutant Discount. Storm says to not say anything. The hotel manager does a retinal scan of Storm, I guess, and sees footage of her using her powers. He sends them to Bungalow 12, and the second they’re gone pulls out a phone and says he has new arrivals.

 

Later, Wolverine is mending nets with Pooyetah when Kiyoek comes up to him with a harpoon and asks if Wolverine is brave enough to hunt with him on the open sea. Pooyetah says that Wolverine has nothing to prove to him, but Kiyoek asks if maybe Wolverine has something to prove to an old enemy or friend. Wolverine picks up on the implication of those words and agrees. They row out from shore, and Wolverine demands to know what this is about. He unsheathes his claws and when Kiyoek calls him a Mutant, Wolverine demands to know where he heard that. After slicing up his harpoon. Suddenly there’s an explosion back at camp and they go to check it out. The camp is completely burned and everyone is missing. Wolverine gets Sabretooth’s scent and howls that he can never find peace. Kiyoek joins him and admits to working for the other stranger. He thought he was luring Wolverine into a trap, not leaving the village to be attacked. Wolverine is pissed but wants to use that anger on Sabretooth. Logan resolves to face this, alone.

 

He goes out to meet Sabretooth in his costume. Kiyoek follows and refuses to leave as his people are in danger. Sabretooth reveals himself and that he’s got the Inuit villagers strapped to a bridge with dynamite charges on either end. Wolverine has one minute to save them, or they all die. Wolverine says that he doesn’t want to fight Sabretooth anymore, he doesn’t care who started it, they need to bury it. Sabretooth tries to bury him in the snow. They start fighting again. Wolverine is faster than Sabretooth, but Sabretooth is stronger. They wrestle, and Wolverine goes over the side of the cliff again. He catches himself with his claws. Sabretooth goes to crush him with ice, but Kiyoek tackles him to distract him. Wolverine climbs up and eggs Sabretooth to attack him, dodging out of the way when he lunges. Sabretooth goes over the cliff and Wolverine tells him to stay gone this time. Kiyoek and Wolverine save the tribe and throw the bombs into the ravine. Wolverine apologizes for their village being destroyed and offers to help them rebuild it. Pooyetah thanks him but says that they’re moving on. They’ve decided to move to the city and let the young men of the tribe find a new way for them. Wolverine is just happy they still call him friend.

 

At the bungalow, Storm’s team are relaxing. Storm believes the Genoshians are sincere in their kindness to Mutants, but they need to keep an eye open. She tells Jubilee to get some sleep. She goes to her room, and we see a squad of soldiers approach their building. Blast shields drop over their windows and gas start venting into their building. The group flees, only to have the soldiers outside tell them to surrender. Storm is against fighting at first, but they have no choice. They hold off the soldiers and their mech suits for a short time, before everyone gets caught… in a Sentinel’s capture cable. Oh no.

 

This is a fun introduction to Wolverine and Sabretooth’s whole deal. The two have hated each other for years and at this point it really doesn’t matter why or who started their feud. It also highlights Wolverine’s desire to find inner peace, but the fact life seems to never want him to have it.  He’s a man deeply connected to nature and truly just wants to live in the woods somewhere. He tends to have a connection with native tribes, particularly the Innuits up in Canada and Alaska. They have matching respect for nature and all that jazz. We also get a lot of Sabretooth in this one. We learn he’s powerful, cunning and despite constantly calling Wolverine a coward and a weakling is perfectly all right using bombs and ambushes to try to defeat him. You know, traditionally thought to be cowardly tactics. He doesn’t care who gets hurt in his pursuit of his vengeance and will kill innocent bystanders to get it. He’s probably physically stronger than Wolverine but still loses whenever they go head-to-head as Wolverine is faster and smarter. Real David and Goliath story. X-Men: The Animated Series was also really good about setting up the next episode’s plot as the B-plot in the preceding one. Storm, Gambit, and Jubilee going to the island of Genosha just to get kidnapped? Solid set up. You might recognize the name, as Genosha is a major location in the X-Men mythos. It’s usually portrayed as the Island nation that Magneto rules over as the safe haven for Mutants. This is, obviously, before his take over. While I don’t think Magneto is above trapping Mutants as a high-pressure sales tactic, he’d never use Sentinels. Hopefully they can figure a way out of this. But we’ll see, next time. Have a good night. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 5

 Going underground.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, old friends and old enemies faced off. Magneto lured Charles Xavier, Cyclops, Storm, and Rogue to a chemical plant to fight. He quickly dispatched the other X-Men, leaving him and Charles to do their favorite thing, debate. The two try to sway each other’s way of thinking but get no traction. Magneto decides to finish Charles off now, flipping his hoverchair and attempting to crush him. Charles fires a mental blast at Magneto, making him relive the night his parents died in that vague war that was definitely WW2. Meanwhile, Sabretooth was held at the X-Mansion with Jubilee guarding him. He tricks her into freeing his hands and he escapes. He reveals he’d been working with Magneto and had been sent to wreck the place when he saw an opportunity. Wolverine had been waiting around for this exact situation and the two brawl. Wolverine holds Sabretooth off long enough for the other X-Men to arrive but gets rocked when he’s distracted by Xavier scolding him. He saw Wolverine over an unconscious body and made some assumptions. Sabretooth goes to finish him off but Jubilee blasts him through a wall and drives him off. Charles apologizes for assuming the worst of Wolverine and Magneto vows to gather a Mutant army to destroy the humans and the X-Men.

 

We open with Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee and Jean in a Danger Room training room. Charles and Cyclops are watching from the control room, Charles explaining how important training is to their mission and their own safety. Storm takes command and orders the others around the dangers, right up until Charles hits a button and locks them in a shrinking room. She has the others push the walls back and she tries to hold up the ceiling, but as things get tighter her claustrophobia kicks into high gear and she panics. She summons a huge whirlwind and batters the others about as she remembers being buried alive as a child. Charles turns off the simulation and mentally projects himself by Storm. She says she doesn’t wish to lead right now, as her claustrophobia puts the others at risk, but Charles points out that when the time comes it might not matter what she wants.

 

Wolverine, meanwhile, is doing some martial arts training. It should be noted that while he has his healing factor, The Animated Series takes place in an era where he heals faster than normal but not ‘bones reset after being broke in a few minutes’ fast. It allows for Logan to get badly hurt and recover within an episode but slow enough to add drama. Jean comes in and says that he should be resting, but Logan ignores her and keeps working. He buckles with pain, Jean helping him right himself and they have a tense moment. Jean says that Cyclops is waiting for her, and Wolverine says that he is too. Smooth, hairy man.

 

Jean and Scott leave their date, a showing of Phantom of the Opera, with Jean noticing that Scott is kind of out of it tonight. Scott reveals that he’s feeling stressed out by trying to live up to the professors example, particularly with Mutant hate on the rise. A little background detail they show is a Magneto wanted poster at the local newsstand. Jean says he won’t do anyone good like this, so he promises to focus on her tonight. Behind them, a green skinned boy uses his powers to steal some fruit, causing a small mob to start chasing the Mutant. Scott and Jean chase after all of them to try to help. They enter a subway and meet more Mutants with obvious physical abnormalities. These are the Morlocks, a group of Mutants that can’t blend into society as easily as other Mutants so live under the streets of New York. The Morlocks throws some people into the way of the subway, but Jean pulls them out of the way at the last second.  Cyclops optic blasts the Morlock’s strongman, mentioning he can’t do that again as he can’t control the blasts without his visor. An old woman, Annalee, comes out and uses her powers to put every non-Morlock to sleep. Another Morlock joins them and orders the strong man, Sunder, to take them below.

 

Back at the Mansion, Logan is in his full costume for some reason while laying on his bed. He’s caressing the Jean half of a picture of Jean and Scott in a fairly creepy manner, when he hears Rogue and Gambit walking by. Rogue mentions the ‘lovebirds’ have been out all night but Gambit tells her not to worry too much about it. Logan gets pisses and cuts Scott’s picture.

 

Back in the tunnels, Cyclops wakes up and discovers he’s without his glasses… but he’s not blasting anything. Weird. Also, he’s locked to a bed. The green boy from earlier thanks him for helping earlier. Scott asks what happened to his power, the boy, Leech, says that Scott helped him so he’s helping Scott. Leech can, as his name implies, drain powers. So, in his presence Scott is just a normal dude. Sunder comes in and grabs Scott by the shirt, drags him to and throws him in front of his boss, Callisto. She explains the Morlocks deal, they are obvious Mutants that can’t hide amongst the humans. She says that ever since she saw his leadership and combat skills, she knew it was his destiny to rule the Morlocks beside her. Weird tactic, hitting on someone in front of all your subjects, but whatever. She reveals she sent Leech topside to draw him in. Scott says he’s not interested and wants to know where Jean is. Callisto says that wasn’t a question he can say no to. Scott points out that he’s solar powered, literally. He needs to absorb sunlight to fuel his optic blasts. Callisto says she’s not interested in a protector, but a companion that can provide her with an heir. Again, super weird to be hitting on Scott like this in front of her subjects. Jean’s revealed to be suspended from the ceiling. Callisto orders Jean killed for Scott refusing her. Jean, once she knew where Scott was, frees herself and starts blasting. She puts out a mental SOS to Charles, who gets it, but she’s knocked out before she can give him many details.

 

In the War Room, Charles tells the others what he knows and the general area he was able to track Jean to. Storm, Wolverine, Gambit, and Rogue head out. Storm is obviously not jazzed going underground but she muscles through it for the good of the team. A flat Morlock woman that can camouflage herself begins to follow them. Wolverine leads them with his nose. They get jumped, Rogue gets grabbed by Sunder, and Wolverine and Gambit get stuck to a wall. They quickly free themselves, though and drive off the Morlocks. As they go deeper, Storm’s panic grows more obvious. Gambit tells Wolverine to do something, but Wolverine says that he should let her ask before he does anything. They find Jean with Annalee; she’s got Jean hypnotized into thinking she’s Annalee’s daughter. Wolverine goes to confront her; Annalee hypnotizes him into thinking he’s covered in scorpions. He freaks out for a second, but then powers through and nearly stabs her in the face with his claws, scaring her off. Jean, once freed, asks where’s Scott, and Callisto comes out to say he’s dead, showing his body at her feet.

 

Jean mourns over Scott’s body, Callisto saying that the Morlocks will lead them to safety in honor of their fallen leader. Wolverine, being Wolverine, draws his claws and says maybe they’ll bring the ‘great warrior’ home in pieces, driving his claws into the concrete on either side of Scott’s head. This causes the Morlock shapeshifter to revert to his normal form and run off. Wolverine says that he has his problems, but Cyke don’t smell like a Morlock. The X-men and Morlocks fight. Wolverine chases after Calisto when she runs. They drive most of the Morlock’s off, but Gambit gets touched by an old woman with an infectious touch. He starts passing out from fever so Storm orders Rogue to take him back to the mansion. She and Jean hold off the remaining Morlocks. Wolverine, meanwhile, sniffs out Cyclops. He mentions to himself that he could make a couple women real sad right now if he wanted to, but that he hates seeing Jean cry so he won’t. Callisto, Annalee and the flat lady heard this remark and Callisto tells them they know what to do.

 

Wolverine rejoins the others, but Annalee uses her hypnosis on them. She makes Storm start to think she’s trapped in a confined space and drive’s Wolverine into a jealous rage to attack Scott. Jean blasts him to keep him back, but then blasts Annalee when she realizes what’s going on. Callisto says that the Morlocks will execute the X-Men one at a time until Cyclops agrees, Storm, though, challenges her to a duel. Winner gets to be Queen of the Morlocks. Callisto agrees, on the proviso they can’t use powers. They start dueling with glowing staffs. Callisto is a strong fighter, but Storm knocks her to the ground and claims victory. She tells the Morlocks that they can join them at the Mansion. The Morlocks don’t want to go, though, as they can’t live normal lives on the surface. They’ll go to the surface when Mutants have equality. So they’re going to be down there a while. Storm says that she’ll come for them when that day comes and until that time Callisto will rule in her place. Jean and Scott have a moment and Wolverine looks on, looking pissed.

 

The X-Men return to the mansion. Gambit is unconscious but recovering nicely. Scott jokes that he and Jean will need a vacation after that date. Charles congradulates Storm on her leadership, Storm says that the team nearly perished because of her, but Charles says they didn’t because of her. Jean and Scott go to talk to Wolverine to thank him for his help, but he’s apparently run off, the last shot we see is that picture of Scott and Jean sliced in half. Damn dude.

 

This was an okay episode, not as good as the previous four, but it hard for the Morlocks to compare to Sentinels and Magneto. The Morlocks as a group are fairly sad, a collection of social outcasts that can’t blend into the normal world, forced to live in the tunnels and sewers to avoid persecution, it’s just depressing. Callisto comes across as completely psychotic with her insistence that Cyclops be her… consort? I guess. Like, imagining telling a someone they’ve got to bang you in front of everyone you know. That’s just odd. This was the first episode to put the Jean-Scott-Logan love triangle front and center. The other episodes hinted at Logan having feelings for Jean and for her feeling something towards him too, but this is the first one to like to linger on it. Their love-triangle is a pretty well-established trope by now, Jean having to choose between her childhood best friend and lifelong companion, and the mysterious loner that seems to hold a soft spot in his heart for her. These three kick that Twilight’s triangles ass, and I’m not just saying that because Scott, Jean, and Logan have apparently tried being a Trouple in recent stories. I do give Logan credit for always doing what makes Jean happy even if it makes him sad. Like, does he get a bit creepy with his affection? Yes, but her happiness matters a lot to him. I liked the focus on Storm’s claustrophobia. The literal storm goddess being left paralyzed by the thought of confined spaces is fairly obvious, but it’s always satisfying to see her finally power through her fear and get that W. So yeah, Morlocks met, and Wolverine ran off. We’ll see where next time. Have a good night. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 4

 Wolverine Fumes and Magneto broods. 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, we were introduced to their greatest antagonist, Magneto. The Master of Magnetism arrived to try to free Beast from prison, but the hairy X-Man refused believing that he can win his trial and that will be a huge win for Mutants. Magneto leaves but destroys several tanks as he goes. Beast is refused bail the next day, in part due to Magneto’s shenanigans. Wolverine’s nemesis Sabretooth suddenly throws a fit in the courthouse and is injured. Wolverine wants him to die, but Cyclops takes him back to the mansion for medical treatment. Wolverine tries to remove him from the mansion’s grounds but is stopped by Xavier. They almost have a fight, but they get an alert that Magneto is attacking a military base. Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine head out to face him. Magneto tries to convince them to join him, but they refuse. He uses his powers to fire off several missiles. Storm is able to stop them, with help from Xavier’s mental coaching to disable the warheads and then drive the missiles into the sea. The X-Men leave, but Magneto makes it clear that he’s not done yet. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Charles digging around in Sabretooth’s mind, attempting to help the violent Mutant get some clarity. We see flashes of some people clearly important to Sabretooth, for good or ill, including Wolverine, Deadpool Omega Red and others. Charles tries to coach him through his rage, mentally combining with Sabretooth to try to help him find the cause of his torment. We see something that might represent his inner rage, it looks suspiciously like Logan, but Sabretooth breaks the link and hides deeper in his own mind. Sorry if I’m being vague about this scene, it’s extremely trippy. Charles concludes that with this much rage in Sabretooth from how he’d been treated that it’s no wonder Magneto thinks there can’t be peace between Humans and Mutants.

 

Later, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine report in. Charles explains Magneto’s whole Mutant Superiority belief, that they’re “Homo Superior” to the Homo Sapiens and that they’re destined to rule a Mutant world, under him.  Storm concludes that fighting for peace has gotten that much harder. Charles says that he has good news for them and leads them to the War Room. Inside we see Sabretooth strapped down to a floating chair. Rogue and Jubilee are in there as well. Wolverine wants him gone, now, but Charles ignores his outburst. He says he’s been working with Sabretooth and trying to get him to control his rage, much as he did for Wolverine. Wolverine threatens to kill him now, but Cyclops tells him to stand down. Sabretooth taunts him, saying “no kiss and make up?”  Sabretooth reveals that they used to work together, and Wolverine roars that he killed friends of his for no reason. Charles says that he needs Wolverine’s help with the next stage of Sabretooth’s therapy, Wolverine tells him to stuff it and storms off. Jubilee tries to stop him, but Rogue tells her that he just needs to cool off. Charles says that while they wait for that they can’t be distracted from their more urgent problem, Magneto.

 

From his own lair, Magneto is trying to find the target of his next attack. Interestingly, he wants Charles to find him. He decides on a “Metro Chemical” plant, saying that there will be plenty of humans there to use as bait. He attacks, using his power to rupture containers and start fires. Cerebro detects his attack just as Charles was explaining it would do just that. Charles orders Jubilee to stay behind and look after Sabretooth. I feel like he should leave maybe one more guard than the teenager, but that’s me. They load up into the Blackbird and take off.  

 

Magneto muses how Charles will look after all this time, perhaps he got a toupee. Storm, Rogue and Cyclops enter the building to fight him. He’s able to block Storm and Cyclops’ attacks with his electromagnetic barrier and knocks Rogue aside when she tries to drain him. He says they’ve wasted enough of his time and that he’ll make Charles regret his cowardice at refusing to face him. He unleashes some toxic gas to disorientate Cyclops and buries Storm and Rogue under some rubble. Before she goes under, Storm starts panicking, letting this audience know about her intense claustrophobia. He blows up another chemical container, but Charles arrives, telling him to stop this carnage. Reminder, Magneto’s helmet does not protect him from Charles in this iteration. Rogue breaks herself and Storm free, and then grabs Cyclops, having to give him CPR to get him breathing again. It works, but unfortunately the two to three second touches she gives him to get him going again is enough for her to drain some of his power away and she starts optic blasting uncontrollably. Cyclops wakes up and tells her to shut her eyes to turn off his power. So we have the issue that Cyclops is awake but drained from smoke inhalation and power drain, Storm is knocked out from a combination of panic attack and rubble, and Rogue is effectively blind until Cyclops’ power wears off. Fun.

 

Magneto and Charles face off. Magneto gives Charles a final chance to work with him. Charles refuses, saying that after all the violence they’d seen in their lives, how could Magneto ask him to cause more. Magneto counters by saying that his people used words while others used tanks and they were destroyed. By Nazis, but the show doesn’t use that word. He won’t stand by to let that destruction happen again, to prove his resolve he flips Charles’ hoverchair and drops him on the ground. As Charles tries to crawl away, Magneto says that he wishes it hadn’t come to this. Magneto prepares to finish him off, but Charles hits him with a mental blast, forcing his friend to relieve the Nazi attack on his home and the apparent death of his parents as a boy. This is probably the darkest use of Charles’ powers, not going to lie. Magneto flies off in horror. Rogue flies toward him while carrying Storm and Cyclops and lets him know about her temporary blindness. He asks if there is anyone still in the plant. She says no. Charles sends a mental command to his hoverchair, getting it to right itself and get close enough for him to get back in. He leads Rogue out telepathically.

 

After, Senator Robert Kelly holds a press conference, Henry Gyrich watching with the reporters. The anti-Mutant Senator disparages the President’s choice to rescind the Mutant Registration Act and announces that he’s running for President on said Anti-Mutant platform. He straight up says that he’ll see every Mutant in the US put into internment camps and “help” them. Jubilee is watching his speech from the War Room and Kelly’s rhetoric seems to be driving Sabretooth into a rage. He says he just wants to get his claws on Kelly’s throat. Jubilee turns it off and goes to talk to him. Sabretooth says that he’s still trying to control that. Jubilee notices that his wrist looks bad from his struggling against his shackles. They look fine, but I imagine without censorship he’d at least have some blood on them. Jubilee asks if he’ll keep his cool while she fixes it and he promises he will. I’m not sure if this is just me because I know Sabretooth but it’s astounding how sarcastic he sounds while making this promise. Jubilee frees him and he immediately grabs her. He reveals he’d been faking getting ‘better’ from Charles’ treatment and that he was sent by Magneto to infiltrate the mansion. Which makes sense, as I really couldn’t see Sabretooth attending a court hearing just for shits and giggles. He announces that he’s going to enjoy wrecking the place. He gets Jubilee to release his other arm. He says that he wishes Wolverine was here so he could finish him off. Thankfully, Wolverine was there, having only gone a little way away to cool off. Sabretooth tosses Jubilee aside, smacking her head against a wall and knocking her out. Sabretooth admits to Wolverine that he’s working with Magneto mostly because he heard Wolverine had gone soft and wanted to see for himself. Wolverine draws his claws and says that Sabretooth always liked picking on those smaller than him, and as a short guy he takes offense to that. They start brawling, Wolverine does well but Sabretooth gets him pinned and starts pushing his claws toward Wolverine’s throat.

 

The other X-Men arrive home and get coffee, Cyclops mentioning that he feels much better now and that his powers have returned. Rogue returns his shades and teases that they need to do that again sometime, right as the whole room starts shaking… for some reason. Sabretooth is strong but he isn’t like Juggernaut strong, nor doing something that would make a room shake. Whatever, Charles comes in right after Wolverine threatens to kill Sabretooth and misunderstands the situation. He shouts at Wolverine about the poison of revenge and of endangering the team to get it, just before Jubilee wakes up and says Sabretooth nearly killed her. Wolverine says the professor is out of line, but the distraction was enough for Sabretooth to attack him and knock him aside. He goes to attack Charles but Jubilee blasts him back with her firework blasts. She knocks him through a wall to the outside and he runs off.

 

They rush Wolverine to the infirmary; his chest and arms are heavily bandaged but he’s stable. Charles apologizes to him. He admits he should have listened to Wolverine but let his dream of Mutant-brotherhood cloud his judgement of an objectively evil Mutant in their midst. He says that he’s failed twice today. Storm comforts him, saying they all failed. Charles says that he won’t let that happen again. He drove Magneto off this time but he’ll be back. We cut out to Magneto standing on a hill overlooking New York. He says that Charles has cast his lot with the humans, but the other Mutants will rally to him. He says that thousands will flock to him, and they will destroy Charles and the Humans. Dun dun dahhhh.

 

I always find it funny in the 90s when shows would routinely use the word destroy in place of kill, despite both words being about the same level of violent.

 

This was a good follow up to the previous episode. I would say that going from attacking a military base to a chemical plant is de-escalation of Magneto’s plans, as destroying a chemical plant will screw up at best a few blocks verses the miles missiles can destroy, but that’s just me. Seeing Charles and Magneto face off was fascinating from a modern, post-Helmet shield perspective. In all their meetings in all media post that change, the power dynamic is squarely in Magneto’s favor. I wouldn’t say that it makes Charles’ speeches more pleading, but it does add a bit more tension to them as they’re literally the only thing stopping Magneto from pushing the ‘end the world’ button on his latest scheme. In this confrontation they’re much more evenly matched, and you can feel it by how quickly Magneto acts once he knows Charles won’t side with him. He was about 5 seconds from burying Charles in metal before he got hit with Charles’ trauma beam. And like, yeah, Charles was desperate and needed to drive Magneto off… but maybe try any other memory besides the destruction of his small Polish town next time Chuck. We got more of Wolverine and Sabretooth’s history in this episode too. For as long as I’ve seen the characters, this dynamic of the big bully and the little guy who isn’t taking that shit anymore has been standard. Sabretooth is an apex predator; big, mean, likes to play with his food, and is almost irate with how often he loses to the short king that is Logan. While most Sabretooth’s go for the deep, powerful roar of a voice, I like Don Franck’s slightly higher pitched version. It gives Sabretooth this sneering quality to everything he says that I think fits really well with the giant bully. The only real issue with this episode was the stupid censorship back then, which made it impossible to even include a drop of blood on Sabretooth’s arm. Like, Jubilee looks so incredibly stupid here when there is literally no difference in how Sabretooth’s right arm normally looks and her being like “oh that looks bad.” Just dumb. So yeah, good conclusion to this second two parter. Next time, we’ll get introduced to the Morlocks. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 3

 Enter Magneto.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, the X-Men suffered heavy losses. After successfully infiltrating the Mutant Control Agency’s headquarters and destroying their files on Mutants registered with the group, their escape was complicated by Sentinels. The giant robots seemingly killed Morph and captured Beast while the other X-Men fled. Jubilee, meanwhile, was kidnapped by Henry Gyrich, one of the men in charge of the Sentinel program and taken to their assembly line in Detroit for questioning. After shifting blame around a bit, the X-Men regrouped and chased after a damaged Sentinel to find their base. The X-Men scare off Gyrich and Bolivar Trask but the two evade capture. They free Jubilee, who ends up moving to the Mansion full time. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

The episode opens at the prison that is currently holding Beast. He’s doing as well as one can, catching up on his reading as guards jeer at him. They’re stopped by all the lights in the facility blowing out. One is left to watch Beast while the others go to investigate. Holes are blown in their perimeter fence. The guard orders Beast to call his ‘Friend.’  Beast assumes its Wolverine until a hole is ripped into his wall and all the metal is pulled towards the hole. We’re introduced to Magneto. Beast acts like this is his first-time meeting Magneto, but I believe this is retconned later on when showing the original team in flashbacks. But more on that some other time. Magneto tells Beast to move quickly, but Beast refuses. He and Charles decided it would be better for him to wait for his day in court and pitch his case. Magneto is baffled by this, saying that Charles will leave him to rot in prison. Beast is confident that they’ll win and get a victory for Mutant rights. The guards start shooting at them, Magneto throwing up an electromagnetic barrier to stop them. Beast insists the trial is necessary. Magento says that the humans must be crushed and he has the power to do it. He uses his magnetism to throw up another barrier around himself and then to obliterate their tanks.

 

We cut out to Charles and Jubilee watching the attack, as it’s going to be played on the nightly news. Jubilee asks who he is. Charles gives him a brief (edited) version of their history. After a (vague, but definitely WWII) war, Charles and a man named Magnus worked at a hospital working to help the civilian survivors of the conflict. Charles covertly used his mental powers to help patients with PTSD. Remnants of the rebel army (Nazis) survived and attacked the hospital in an attempt to retake his small country (Poland). They saved the patients they could and revealed their powers to each other. Magnus didn’t stop at helping the civilians, he aimed to kill the soldiers (Nazis) because he lost his family in the conflict (WWII, the Holocaust). Magnus calls Charles a fool for looking into peaceful coexistence, he says they can’t even peacefully coexist with other humans. He redubbed himself Magneto and began waging a war on mankind. Charles drove him back, but it seems like now he’s returned. You’ll notice that Charles freely uses his powers against Magneto. Like the Xavier School not being an actual School until after the 2000 movie, Magneto’s helmet was a fashion choice at this time, only becoming a shield against Charles’ mental attacks after the movie. Jubilee says that the X-Men are here now and will stand against him.

 

At the courthouse, Beast is brought in, Scott and Logan watching from the crowd. The District Attorney pushes to deny Beast bail, but his attorney insists that they are only asking for that because he’s a Mutant. Beast pleads his own case, saying that Mutants only want to live in peace and quotes Shakespeare to prove his point. “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” The judge tells him to get to the point. Beast says that two days before the “incident” at the MCA building, eleven Mutants were captured after registering with them. He doesn’t say this was in retaliation for those kidnappings, but the implication is there. The District Attorney says that Beast is just trying to justify his actions. The Judge orders Beast to be held without bail, given the violence of his original offense and then the escape attempt. The bailiff begins to take Beast out of the courtroom, Scott stopping Logan from causing a scene when a scene is in fact caused by another angry Mutant, Sabretooth. Sabretooth demands they let Beast go but he’s blasted by guards. Scott goes to stop him, saying they’ll kill him. Logan just says “good,” and crosses his arms. Scott saves Sabretooth with his optic beams.

 

At the X-Mansion, Charles is using Cerebro to find Magneto but comes up dry when Storm and Jubilee join him.  They get Scott’s alert that they’re coming in with an injured Mutant. They bring Sabretooth in, and Cyclops gives Charles what he knows, just that he started rampaging when Beast was denied bail, and that Wolverine hates him. They see Wolverine head for the infirmary and go to talk with him. He tries to remove Sabretooth, but the others stop him, saying they need to help any injured Mutant. Logan keeps insisting that Sabretooth can’t be trusted and that he needs to be taken out of the mansion. Storm comes in and points out that some of the others thought that about him too when he first arrived. She points out his rage is like Wolverine’s. They get an alert that someone is attacking a missile base. He orders them to go after Magneto, saying he knows Magnus, and this is his MO. Wolverine leaves Sabretooth, but asks Charles why they have to trash his enemy but spare Wolverine’s.

 

At the base, Magneto is wrecking shop, saying that he’ll use Mankind’s greatest weapons against them. He heads to the launch control and announces that Mutant Liberation begins. He hits the facility with his magnetic waves and triggers the launch procedure. The X-Men, Storm, Cyclops and Wolverine, arrive to wreck shop. The soldiers are ordered to abandon the base when it’s revealed that Magneto is keeping the circuits connected. He confronts the X-Men and says that he’s happy they’ve come to join him. They refuse and the fight breaks out. He announces that it’s better for them to die on their feet than to die on their knees. He tells them to tell Charles he’s stronger than before and to warn Charles that his dream of peaceful coexistence will become a nightmare. They rush to stop the missiles, but they go off. Storm flies off, intending to blow up the missiles with her lightning. Charles reaches out to her telepathically and tells her where to strike that will stop them without killing herself. She uses a cyclone to redirect them to the water and then shorts out the warheads with lighting. That much precise control seems to overwhelm her, and she passes out. Wolverine catches her. They fall back. As they fly away, Magneto watches and asks why Charles turned against their own kind like this.

 

This was a great introductory episode to two of the most well-known X-Men villains, more so for Magneto than Sabretooth, but having the big furball throw a courthouse hissy fit is memorable. Fun fact, Sabretooth in X-Men: The Animated Series is played by Don “Iron Buffalo” Francks. He was the first person to voice Boba Fett for some of the early 80s Star Wars animated projects and is the father of voice acting super star Cree Summer. Trust me, if you don’t recognize the name, look it up, because she’s probably played a memorable character from your childhood. We don’t get a lot of him here, but we’ll see more of him later. The small dip into Wolverine’s past. Granted, a lot of Wolverine’s history is a mystery even to him but knowing that there’s this one guy that he wants dead enough he almost went against Charles’ decision says a lot, me thinks. Onto Magneto. I loved Magneto in this series. He’s the perfect representation of the character, intelligent, eloquent, filled with justifiable hatred, all the stuff needed to make a great antagonist. He’s played by David Hemblen, who gives all the right charisma vibes when Magneto is making impassioned speeches. I also like the choice to add a visual element to his powers for this series. See, every other version of Magneto I’ve seen usually does just a sound cue or the visual of metal moving to show when Magneto is using his powers. X-Men: The Animated Series is the only one that I know of that will show the magnetic waves coming from Magneto’s hands when he uses his powers, or the electromagnetic barrier he throws up around himself for protection or flight. Is that true to life? No, but I think it’s a good visual reminder that what he’s doing is different from telekinesis. The show also captures the moral grey area that Magneto thrives in. Is he the villain of the episode? Without question. But he only revealed himself to free, whom he sees, as an unjustly imprisoned Mutant, and it’s only after another demonstration of his people being subjugated that he decides to retaliate. He’s a shade of, let’s say black-gray in their world. He’ll often stray to the more negative side but the logic of ‘we need to get them before they get us,’ does make a lot of sense, particularly for a Holocaust survivor. He’s a powerful foe and it’ll be fun to see how the X-Men stop him in part two. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men TAS ep 2

 Wolverine is pissed and I feel sorry for anyone he turns that rage on.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, we met the team. Teen foster child Jubilation “Jubilee” Lee was outed by her foster father to the Mutant Control Agency (MCA) believing that it was an outreach program to help Mutant teens. It was, instead, a means of developing a database of Mutants to sic their new Sentinel security robots at. Jubilee is hunted by a Sentinel to the local mall. She would have been captured there but is saved by the X-Men, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, and Cyclops. She’s taken to the X-Mansion after being knocked out and introduced to the rest of the team, Beast, Morph, Jean Gray, Wolverine and Charles Xavier. She’s taken to the roof by Storm and gets the standard spiel about Mutants, no one knows where they come from or what causes them, they have fantastic powers, and the X-Men do their best to protect Mutants and encourage human/Mutant relations. The X-Men prepare to attack the MCA facility and destroy their database to protect Mutants from the Sentinels. Jubilee runs off to check on her foster parents but is captured by Sentinels and their handler, Henry Gyrich. The X-Men reach the facility, Storm, Morph, Beast and Wolverine doing the main infiltration and the other’s hanging back for backup. Things go well, but Cyclops is anxious. A feeling proven correct when an armored troop transport rolls up and we see a battalion of guards waiting to ambush the X-Men. Oh no. Enough Recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open on the Mutant Control Agency Building in DC. Cyclops repeats his worry as the transport rolls up and the others walk up to the trap. Wolverine, though, smells the gun oil and keeps Storm from opening the door. She instead throws a cyclone at it, blasting the guards back. Beast mentions that he used to wonder how she got her nickname. Outside, the troop transports open up and dozens of guards come out. Looks like this was a set up. Cyclops blasts one of them, ordering the others to stop them but not to hurt anyone. Gambit says he should really tell them that before getting to work.

 

Inside, Morph tricks the guards into leaving the station by shapeshifting into their commander and saying they need to report to duty and then locking them out of the file room. Beast hacks the computer to destroy the data and Storm and Wolverine break into hard files filing cabinet to get the rest.

 

We flash to Detroit, Michigan, where Jubilee is being held at a Black site. Gyrich is holding her hostage and wants to know about the people who helped her at the mall. He wants her to give him whatever information she has on the X-Men. He’s interrupted in his interrogation by Bolivar Trask, the scientist developing the Sentinels. He yells at Gyrich for acting too soon, saying that their plan was to wait until they had 100 Sentinels prepared to strike at the Mutants. Gyrich says he’s working too slow and needed a test case to show how easy it will be to capture Mutants. They’re interrupted by Gyrich getting a call about the attack.

 

The outer team holds off the guards, Rogue dumping a ton of them into a nearby river and Gambit and Cyclops blasting others, when Cyclops radios into Storm to get a move on. Inside, they’ve destroyed the hard copies of the files and are just waiting on Beast to finish the computer files. He has a virus prepped, but Storm just blows it to pieces, saying they don’t have time. She radios Cyclops and he calls for a retreat.

 

They make for the Blackbird. They break a few guard towers and shatter a fence on their way out. Morph, rather stupidly, says that it’ll be clear sailing all the way. Just before a Sentinel jumps them. Weird how often these 2-Story robots keep doing that. Wolverine goes to tackle one,  and doesn’t notice two others creeping up on him. Morph shouts for Wolverine to pull back and jumps in the way-. We cut over to Jean and Charles, Jean is using the X-Men’s supercomputer Cerebro to monitor the team when she screams in pain. Charles asks her what’s wrong and she says it’s Morph. He grabs the helmet that connects to Cerebro and puts it on, saying he can’t sense… anything.

 

That’s right, they killed off a character despite the limitations of Fox Kids censorship. It’s wild.

 

The rest of the team return to the X-Mansion. Storm ends up crying right away and Wolverine follows after Cyclops to sock him in the gut. He says that next time he will use the claws. They nearly fight but Jean comes in and stops them. He accuses Cyclops of leaving Morph and Beast behind when they could be alive. She says that Beast is, but Morph isn’t. Wolverine storms off in a rage as Jean hugs Cyclops. He goes to his jeep and nearly drives off but gets out to slice the top off Cyclops’ car. Jean goes to talk to him, and he says that he made Cyclops a convertible. She tells him it's not Cyclops’ fault, or his but Logan storms off. He drives off and has a flashback.

 

We see Morph knocking him out of the way of a Sentinel blast. Another one hits Beast and knocks him into an electric fence. Rogue tries to go after Beast but is shot down, and Wolverine gets thrown back by more Sentinels. They get swarmed by Sentinels, Cyclops ordering the group to pull back. Wolverine tries to refuse but Rogue knocks him out with a touch to stop him. He has enough time to groan that they shouldn’t leave the others before passing out. In the present, Wolverine finds a rock and vows vengeance.

 

Back at the facility, the Sentinel tries to take Beast into custody, but the guards refuse to turn him over, saying the Sentinels were sent in to help not take over. Beast sobs at the death of his friend. He’s taken into custody. Gyrich tries to interrogate him but Beast refuses, hanging from the ceiling and crying over Morph’s death.

 

We cut to a news report from the lady president, weird how that still hasn’t been a thing, reporting that renegade Mutants attacked the MCA last night but were thwarted by “experimental robot policemen” the Sentinels.

 

Meanwhile, Logan (Wolverine without his costume) is playing pool at a bar when Robert Kelly comes on TV to comment on the Sentinel attack. He tells the bartender to turn that stuff off, two locals stop him from playing. He does the Wolverine thing of extending his claws to threaten them. Before a fight can break out, Scott (Cyclops sans costume) arrives and says they need to talk. The patrons go to fight him too, knock off his glasses and Scott obliterates a pool table before they give them back. Outside, Wolverine tells him to buzz off. Scott says that he doesn’t apologize for command decisions, and instead asks if he’d be willing to find the Sentinel Base. Logan says when and where.

 

At the White House, Gyrich goes into a meeting with Madam President. She congratulates him and Trask for their work on the Sentinels, but that he must suspend all work with the MCA for the time being. When he asks why, she says the Mutants were willing to die to stop him and asks if he thinks they had a reason for that. Gyrich storms out calling her a fool and throwing his folder aside. He gets a call from someone, revealed to be Jubilee’s foster dad, who is ordered to keep “him” there as long as possible.

 

“Him” turns out to be Scott, having stopped by to inform them of what has happened to Jubilee. He’s shocked to hear that his daughter might have been kidnapped by the Sentinels and tells Scott that he called Gyrich, as he was told to do that if anyone came asking about Jubilee. Scott tells him he did nothing wrong since he was looking after Jubilee. Scott leaves the house and is immediately jumped by a Sentinel. It orders him to surrender, Scott says “Of Course… NOT!” and then blasts off its arm before running. The Sentinel loudly announces it’s falling back for repairs and the X-Men follow it on the Blackbird’s radar. The Sentinel falls back to Detroit, apparently never looking behind it the entire flight back.

 

We see Trask assembling another Sentinel on the assembly line when Gyrich comes in. He tells Trask to shut it down, as the President might be gunning for the Sentinels soon, they’re falling back to an overseas assembly facility. He says this right as the damaged Sentinel flies in for repairs, but it’s power cuts out and it slams into the reactor. That shuts down the system holding Jubilee, allowing her to free herself. She makes a break for it but gets cornered by Sentinels. Cyclops tells her to duck and takes out a Sentinel. The X-Men all start attacking Sentinels, their powers overwhelming the bulky machines. Wolverine stabs one to death, shouting that this one is for Morph. They take out the rest of the Sentinels and fall back.

 

We see Jubilee saying goodbye to her foster parents. She loves them, saying they’re the best fosters she had but the Xavier school is a better fit for her right now. She promises to visit them though. At the mansion, Cyclops asks if he did the right thing leaving Morph and Beast and Jean says he did what he had to do. The episode ends with Jubilee arriving at the Mansion.

 

So, this is perhaps the first death of my television viewing experience. The fact that Morph was killed, almost on screen, was a big deal back in the 90s where Fox Kids once censored the Sinister Six from Spider-Man: The Animated Series. This just wasn’t something that was done back in the day. And before anyone points out that Morph is clearly alive now in X-Men ’97, here’s a bit of history for ya. Kevin Sydney aka Morph aka Changeling was a minor X-Men antagonist turned ally that was killed in the comics shortly after his introduction. The entire reason he was brought into this show was to kill him off to show that the show was edgy or more ‘mature’ than other kids cartoon. But Morph proved to be such a popular character despite his limited screentime that he was revived for season 2, but we’ll get to that when we get to it. So yeah, Morph, so popular he resurrected himself, twice, in two different media. Speaking of, Wolverine having basically a fit that his friends were left behind is a good character moment for him. It feels like other adaptations of the character prefer the grumpy loner look and take much longer to get to the ‘reveal’ that he actually cares deeply about the X-Men and gets upset when his friends are hurt. Beast’s arrest was something of a surprise as well. Like, you don’t expect that kind of real-world consequences to being a vigilante superhero in superhero shows. Beast will be in prison for most of the first season, with his trial for the raid on the MCA building being a major plot point. The Sentinels, while not defeated, have been taken off the board for now and I think they tied the plot point up nicely. Sure, Trask can and will just keep making more of the giant machines, but the assembly process for those things seems to be a very labor-intensive process. Why, one would need a designated factory or… some sort of… supreme… copier? No, a Master Mold, who’s sole purpose was to churn out Sentinels to make as many robots as they need. Also, referring to the Sentinels as “robot police” in the year of our lord 2024 feels… prescient, now doesn’t it? Okay, so the Sentinels are in retreat, Jubilee has been recruited, Morph mourned, now all we need is to get Beast out of prison. Easy peasy. Or is it? We’ll find out next time.

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 1

 The Sentinels are coming.

Okay, so X-Men ’97 came out March 20, 2024, and was amazing. So much so that I’d like to talk about it… but the completionist in me refuses to do so until I get at least some of the classic show on metaphorical paper. So, let’s get on that. I give you X-Men: The Animated Series

 

We open with the single greatest title sequence of all time. Go watch it right now, I can’t do everything for you.

 

After that, we open with a news story about a large hairy Mutant rampaging through town. The large hairy Mutant is Sabretooth, a beast of a man with a healing factor and razor-sharp claws. A man turns off the tv and he and his wife start arguing. About what? Their foster daughter, Jubilation “Jubilee” Lee, is a Mutant. The wife is angry that he registered her with the Mutant Control Agency. He insists it’s like an outreach program to help Mutants. An obvious lie when “Control” is right in the name, but I suppose if you’re desperate to help your kid you’re willing to believe anything. Though he ruins that thought of mine when he says that he hopes the neighbors never find out. Focus on what matters, bro! Jubilee overhears and starts beating herself up, saying that she just wants to be a normal kid.

 

As her foster parents continue to fight over whether she’s a Mutant or not, a Sentinel touches down in their neighborhood. Sentinels, for those who don’t know, are large robotic humanoids that were designed by Mutant hating scientist Bolivar Trask to track and “subdue” Mutants. I put “subdue” in quotes because they seem to switch over to kill on sight with about zero warning. Jubilee’s foster father unknowingly put her on essentially a hit list, as the Sentinel is tracking Jubilee based on the data he gave her. As her foster father says that he in no way regrets taking her in, the Sentinel rams its hands into Jubilee’s room to grab her. Thankfully, Jubilee had snuck out sometime before it arrived. The Sentinel activates its tracking program and begins to search.  Really hope the US government is prepared to pay them for the damages.

 

Jubilee, being a 90s kid, snuck out to an arcade in the local mall. As she plays a video game, the Sentinel follows her tracks… somehow… and causes a real ruckus as it’s a two-story tall robot that gives exactly zero shits about what gets under its foot as it walks. Jubilee’s powers go off in the arcade and she destroys the game she was using.  She gets run out by the manager and runs into two women out shopping. The women are a southern belle with a white streak in her auburn hair and a Black woman with now white hair. They do their best to grab their packages while wondering what’s up with that kid.

 

The Sentinel bursts into the mall, loudly announcing that humans should not be alarmed, it’s here to serve and protect. As Jubilee heads to the exit, the Sentinel finds her and announces it’s going to capture its target. It wraps her in a metal cable and prepares to leave, but it roused the attention of the two women from earlier. They are, in fact, Storm “Mistress of the Elements” and Rogue of the X-Men. The Sentinel’s program doesn’t recognize the Mutants and elects to ignore them for some reason. You’d think it’d want to capture unidentified targets more. Storm, for this time and this time only, somehow uses her powers to shift from her casual outfit to her white X-Men uniform, lightning blasts Jubilee free and flies off with her. Rogue rips the escalator off it’s track to block it’s energy blast before flying at the Sentinel and starting to beat the crap out of it. She knocks it over and ends up nearly crushing her teammate, Gambit, that had been buying packages of playing cards and flirting with a saleswoman. The Sentinel blasts Storm and Rogue out of the sky and tries to capture Jubilee again. It destroys the floor she was walking on and she lands in Gambit’s arms. He uses his power, transferring explosive kinetic energy, on some of the playing cards he bought and launches them at the Sentinel, knocking it back. Jubilee runs off, saying life has turned into a crazy video game. The Sentinel throws Gambit through a billboard and into a car. It goes to terminate him, but Jubilee comes out and blasts it with her powers. Gambit tells her to run.

 

Jubilee runs outside but the Sentinel follows her. It hits her with a knockout gas grenade. She starts to pass out but not before being caught by another X-Man, Cyclops. He introduces himself and helps her to the ground. The Sentinel fires an energy blast at him, just barely missing them. Cyclops then decides to show it one from a pro. He fires his optic beam at the Sentinel, cleaving its head from its torso.

 

Jubilee wakes up in a hospital room hooked up to a device monitoring her vitals. She fries it and then uses her power to break free of the room. She starts sneaking around the place, seeing a blue hairy man mixing chemicals while hanging from pipes on the ceiling. Beast maybe don’t say the chemicals you’re mixing with might explode in the future. She then comes across Morph, a mutant shapeshifter, as he watches and then takes on the form to mock Senator Robert Kelly, an Anti-Mutant politician. He then takes on the shape of a model advertising cologne and then Jubilee herself when a news report postulating if she’d been kidnaped starts playing. Jubilee backs away and runs into the war room. She sees news stories playing about various Mutants, turning them off when Senator Kelly appears again. She sees the giant Sentinel’s head and then tries to hide when she hears voices. The voices, owned by Jean Grey and Charles Xavier, come into view. Charles is worried, as he always knew that the X-Men would one day be public knowledge, but he’d hoped it’d be less… violent. Jean notices the monitors were turned off and Xavier does a mental scan for intruders. He finds Jubilee and she runs off. Jubilee enters the “Danger Room” trying to escape, as it’s running a training simulation for Gambit and Wolverine. Whoops.

 

Gambit and Wolverine, as it turns out, are playing a game of high stakes tag while dodging heavy machinery. Wolverine tackles Gambit and suggests that Gambit surrenders with his Wolverine claws extended, causing Jubilee to blast him as she thought he was going to hurt Gambit. Storm, Beast and Morph join them, and everyone has a good laugh at Wolverine getting his blasted. Beast explains that the Danger Room is part gymnasium part survival course. Storm leads her out, saying she’ll explain what the X-Men are.

 

Storm explains that they’re all Mutants, that they’re led by Charles Xavier (hence X-Men) and that no one knows that much about Mutants or who will become one. You know, standard stuff. She says they’re at Xavier’s School for the Gifted, and that this is a place where Mutants learn to control their powers. Fun fact, at the time of this show’s release, the “School for the Gifted” thing was 100% a front. They didn’t pivot to an actual school to teach children until that was a plot point in the 2000 movies.  To demonstrate her power, Storm calls up a gale force wind and some lightning. Jubilee asks why humans hate Mutants so much when they’re doing this for them, and Storm says that it’s because humans fear what they don’t understand.

 

Later, the X-Men gather to discuss the giant robot. Wolverine joins late and asks if anyone called Jubilee’s parents, Rogue says they called but no one called back. Xavier says that the ID photo in the Sentinel’s visual memory was from the MCA. Cyclops asks if the Government is plotting against Mutants. Xavier says no, as it’s a “private” group that’s occasionally supported by the government (got to love that 90s censorship). He announces that someone at the agency has a hidden agenda.

 

We cut over to Jubilee’s parents. They’re having a meeting with Henry Gyrich, a liaison between the government and the MCA. He asks if they recognize Storm and Rogue as some of Jubilee’s friends. They admit to not knowing much about her friend group, saying she kept that stuff to herself, and they’ve only fostered her for about a year. Jubilee races home to check on her parents and somehow misses the giant robot hiding between apartment buildings. She tries to blast the Sentinel when it attacks her, but it easily blocks her blast. Another Sentinel joins and knocks her out.

 

At the X-Mansion, Charles assigns the team a mission. He’s sending Storm along with Beast, Wolverine and Morph to break into the MCA facility and destroy all the files they have on the Mutants that unwittingly made themselves targets of the group. The other X-Men will serve as a distraction. He says that Cyclops will direct the mission overall. Cyclops follows Charles and asks if maybe this isn’t crossing a line with the idea of Mutant/Human coexistence. Wolverine asks if the teacher’s pet got cold feet and Cyclops tells him to back off. Before e they can fight, Jean runs in and says that Jubilee is gone. Wolverine announces that he’s going after her. Cyclops tells him to wait as they have a job to do, but Wolverine extends his claws in Cyclops’ face and says he goes where he wants to go. He shoves Gambit as he walks by, and Cyclops just barely stops the Cajun from blowing a card up in Wolverine’s back.

 

The X-Men land their Blackbird just on the outskirts of the MCA facility. Cyclops tells them to stay close, but Rogue uses that as an opportunity to explain her whole thing about how she absorbs life force, memories, and powers from anyone she touches. They arrive at the facility and Rogue asks Beast what makes Mutants. Beast lists off some factors, Gamma rays, Depleting ozone layer, television to say, “no one knows.” Wolverine, sitting in a tree, tells the others they make a lot of noise. He joins Storm and Cyclops and lets them know Jubilee’s train ran cold by her house. Cyclops orders Storm to start. Storm calls up a Thunderstorm as Beast, Morph, and Wolverine slip up to the fence. They throw Morph over the fence, and he knocks out the guard. They all head towards the main building, Storm shocking a guard and Wolverine slicing them into the building. He then stops the group, saying he smells infrared beams. He smells the sharp ozone smell they give off. Storm calls up a mist to make them see it. Beast leaps onto a pipe and gorilla crawls around to the control panel and shuts off the beams.

 

Outside, Cyclops is anxious to know what’s happening inside. And gets a tip off something isn’t right when an armored troop transport rolls up. We see that behind a door Storm is about to open that a squad off guards are ready with guns. Oh no. And the episode ends. Damn two partners.

 

So, this series is a classic and one of the most beloved Marvel franchises ever. It’s one of the most perfectly executed adaptations ever. The theme song is amazing, I can guarantee you that you could play those opening few seconds and you’d get most 90s kids humming along to that beat. I also like the in medias res style of story telling here. In this universe, the X-Men have indeed been a team for years and been doing missions to protect people for a while. It’s just the Sentinels marks the first time they have a threat that they have to risk being exposed publicly to fight them. The team they have on hand is great too. You’ve got Beast, Wolverine and Rogue to handle up close brawls, Jean, Scott, Gambit and Storm for distance and Morph for distraction tactics and causing chaos. Plus, Rogue and Storm have unique passive skills with Rogue’s lifeforce and skill draining touch and Storm’s weather manipulation. The weak link is Jubilee, but it’s not completely her fault. She’s a very well and accurately written 90s teenager… it’s just teens of any era can be grating especially as written by adults. And her powers are weirdly inconsistent. Sometimes her blasts are just bright colors, other times they’re as dangerous as the fireworks display that she’s named after. Pick a lane! Some of the exhibitions are a little clunky as well from a modern view. Like, in the 90s, as the first real adaptation for the X-Men, I totally get having to explain Mutants occur randomly and naturally and Rogue’s life force draining touch… but the touch specifically comes across like something that the whole team knows, so why is Rogue saying it. We’re she talking to Jubilee it’d make sense, to warn her not to touch Rogue skin to skin but not to her team that she’s worked with for years. I love the look of the Sentinels of this era as well. The attempt to give them a human-like face with an articulate mouth just increases the uncanny valley creep factor. Plus, their loud, thundering steps and public service warning type announcements are just so iconic. I’m just shocked that the two-story robots with literal rockets for legs can sneak up on people so often. So yeah, it was fun revisiting this show.  Have a good night everyone. 

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