Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 20

 A ghost from Storm's past is stalking her.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Scott’s relaxing visit with his little brother Alex turns soggy. Alex is swept out to sea by a riptide after falling off his surfboard. The two Summers struggle to survive the storm. Thankfully, the X-Men were watching the news, and rocket out on the X-Jet to save them. They’re almost lost in a funnel, but Storm holds it off long enough for Jean to pull them into the jet. Oh, and Kurt played with his image inducer, broke it, and the episode ends on gender-bent Kurt being flustered. Charles set that up as a prank. Oy. Enough recap, let’s get to it.

 

Ya'll choose to follow a man that paints a skull on
his face, and whatever happens is on you.

We open on an African tribal dance. I believe it’s in Kenya, but it’s never addressed. A Hungan, a witch doctor, with a skull painted on his face comes out of his tent. He tells his people that after ten years he’s tracked down the Windrider. He plans to capture her and use her powers for the Bakunto people. He ignites a statue of this Windrider, and they helpfully superimpose Storm’s image over the statue, as if there was some other weather manipulating woman that this could be about…

 

We cut over to Bayville High at Lunch.  Jean sees and tries to hide from Scott and Taryn, who seem to either be officially a thing now or just on the cusp of it. They call her over, and it gets SUPER awkward SUPER fast. God, I don’t miss high school. She starts to bail, but as she does, Evan skates by and steals her milk. Not having that today, she tosses him telekinetically, causing him to crash through some other lunch eaters and has him land in front of the principal. Whoops.

You know, if her in series background is the same
as the comics, this is actually a fairly tame reaction.

 

At the Mansion, fog has rolled in and its ominous. Storm is waiting in the Danger Room and is looking miffed. Spyke comes in, running late as usual. Their training session is called Stormcatcher, Spyke has to protect his aunt through the course. They make it maybe ten steps before Storm is grabbed by a bunch of robot arms. Spyke breaks her free, but falls into a pit trap. He makes himself some spike handholds to climb out. But then a smokescreen activates, obscuring everything. Spyke freezes up as he’s unsure of how to handle smokescreens. Storm tells him to use his ears, but then gets shut up in a box. Now… this is the WORST situation for Storm to be in. Ororo Munroe suffers from a pretty severe case of claustrophobia, a side effect of being buried alive after plane attack that killed her parents. Not said in the episode, but it’s her canon backstory in the comics, so since they don’t disprove it here, I still consider it canon for this timeline too. She blasts herself free of the box with lightning, shorting out the simulation. She rather angrily tells Spyke to leave, which he grumbles that he didn’t activate the box, and Storm is clearly freaked out because she didn’t either.

 

Ororo leaves the training area a little while later. The lights won’t come on, and she feels like she’s being stalked up to when she gets to the elevator. She jumps about a foot when it opens, but it’s just Beast inside. He’s a good sport about it, though. She comments that she’s a bit on edge due in part to Evan, which Beast makes a bit worse when he reveals he’d found Evan’s progress report and it’s not good. We don’t get details, but it’s implied he’s doing poorly in school.  

 

Later that night, Rogue is dropped off at the mansion by Mysti… I mean Risty. It’s foggy as hell and still ominous. She goes inside and arms the security system. Up in her own room, the fog rolls into Ororo’s room. Silhouettes are shown in the fog as it surrounds her. She wakes up screaming for them to stay back. The room is empty. Logan comes in, draws his claws and immediately goes to check the balcony. Charles and Kitty come in to check on her as well. Logan can’t find anything, but Charles tells him to check the security feeds, just in case. Charles chats with Ororo, and she admits that she might be a bit frazzled with Evan. Charles thinks that maybe they took him from home a bit too early, and they agree it might be best to send him back to his parents. Evan, of course, was listening from the hallway.

 

To try to clear her head, Ororo goes to take a bath. She starts filling the tub, goes for some bubble mix, but when she recloses the cabinet a skull had been drawn in steam in the mirror. We’re shown Charles rolling down the hallway when he notices the water dripping from the ceiling. Kitty checks on Ororo, and sees that the tub has overflown and she’s sitting in the steam. She claims to be fine and walks off, but Kitty finds and shows Charles the mirror Ororo saw the skull on, she shattered the glass. Ororo finds Evan packing his things. She tries to talk to him, but he’s angry and trying to act like he isn/t

 

At Bayville High, Rogue is explaining an edited version of the Ororo/Evan situation to Risty. The faux-British girl accidentally mentions Storm’s claustrophobia. She plays it off like gossip she’d heard from one of the Institute kids, but we know that she got it from the data that Mystique stole from the Mansion a couple episode’s ago. Outside, Jean and Scott are talking about Ororo’s freak out, but is distracted by Kitty running up and telling them that Evan’s being sent home and he’s angrily emptying his locker. At the locker, Kurt is trying to convince Evan to try to fight to stay, but he’s not having it, he asks Kurt why he even cares as they’re not friends. Which you can see broke Kurt’s heart, as he thought they were. The others try to talk to them, but he blows them off.

 

Hank, your first mistake was asking teenagers
to NOT use superpowers.

Back at the Mansion, Hank goes onto the misty grounds and is hit by Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball. He finds out that the New Mutants had improvised a training session in the mists when Storm didn’t show up. Hank decides to act as substitute, brings the students into the mansion, and gives them a special training goal, play volleyball without using their powers.  His goal is to have on training session that doesn’t lead to someone going to the infirmary. They get One serve in before it devolves into a power brawl, much to Hank’s chagrin.  

 

Meanwhile, Ororo is on her balcony. She flashes back to when she was a teenager, being worshipped as a Goddess by the Bakunto. She summons up a storm and lets the rain fall. We’re shown the Hungan watching angrily. When Ororo comes out of the flashback, she’s completely surrounded by cobras. She lifts off, and sees Evan skate off. She chases after her nephew and calls for him to come back. She chases after him, but runs into Nerombo. He’s a member of the Bakunto that we saw earlier, but he’s here to help. He tries to warn her, but she’s too focused on Evan. She brushes passed him, as he yells that the Hungan is after her. Bakunto warriors start tailing her. Evan scales the fence, but is still in time to see Ororo getting chased by men in warpaint. She tries to keep them back with lightning, but they hit her with a poison dart and she’s knocked out. Evan runs back to the mansion and tells the professor Ororo’s been kidnapped.

 

Ororo wakes up in a box. She, obviously, freaks out and tries to break free with lightning. It doesn’t work on the metal box. She struggles for an unspecified time, passing out. The Hungan opens the top of the box and gloats that he broke her spirit, so he can take it. He somehow pulls her spirit from her body and into his staff. He smugly asks “Where is your power now, goddess?” as he closes the lid on her.

 

Run as you like, Hungan, you will not out run the
winds. You're no Fleet.
(Stormlight Archive reference for the win!)

Wolverine is able to track Ororo to the docks. He radios it in but goes in on his own. He grabs a random guard, who just so happens to be Nerombo. He threatens Nerombo, but Charles and the X-Men roll up, keeping him from goring Nerombo. He tells them that the Hungan has Ororo on the anchored boat, but he broke and stole her spirit and is going to use it to rule Africa. Charles tell his team to break into pairs and find Storm. The team runs through a gauntlet of Bakunto warriors throwing spears, swords, darts and other weapons at them. Wolverine and Spyke it to the ship. They find the box Storm was kept in, but it’s empty. The Hungan comes in and tells them they’re too late, he sends a mind-controlled Storm to lightning blast them. Spyke remembers Storm’s line about her being in his hands. He uses the advice about listening to target the Hungan and launches spikes at him, shattering the Hungan’s staff. Storm’s spirit returns to her and she. Is. Pissed. She blows the Hungan away in a tornado, and he takes the mists with him. Storm drops with exhaustion, but Spyke catches her. The others join them, and Charles mentions that the Bakunto warriors vanished with the mists. How spooky.

 

The next day, Ororo has a chat with her sister, and they agree that they think that if Evan is given one more chance, he’ll turn things around. Evan agrees, saying he’ll be the best student. He tells the other X-Men and they’re all overjoyed that he’s sticking around. He skates off happily as the credits roll.

 

This is a good episode. I like the background on Storm’s past. Her background as an ex-goddess to a small African tribe is her most consistent backstory. The reveal about her claustrophobia was also really well done. She seems to last only seconds in tight spaces before they start to overwhelm her senses and mentally fries her. It’s a fitting weakness for a woman that rides the winds. I just kind of wish there was more to it. We know that she was a goddess, that the Hungan was jealous of her power and influence, but not what straw broke Storm’s metaphorical back and cause her to leave the Bakunto. It’s a big question mark. Also want to know what happened with Nerombo. Like, why does he stay with an obviously psychotic witch doctor? Odd. Evan’s continued scholastic problems feels less tacked on with this one, as his poor performance is causing problems both for him and for his relationship with Ororo and the others. As I said, it clearly hurt Kurt to hear Evan angrily say they’re not friends, which makes it a great scene. I’m getting used to the little Hank and the New Mutant mini-stories. I laughed hard at the bit where the students didn’t last more than a single serve before all hell breaks loose. Don’t worry, this is building to a bigger story later on. So yeah, this was a good Storm story. Have a good night everybody, and have a Happy New Year!

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 19

While not jumping the shark, they definitely rode the funnel into the sky. Which feels crazier. 

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Hank McCoy was having some trouble. We learn that the kindly chemistry/phys ed teacher is in fact a Mutant that had been repressing a part of his power for years. The rage of his internal monster grew from being repressed until it finally exploded forth, forcing him into a blue ape form. Evan, whom had bonded with the teacher earlier, used lines of Shakespeare to keep Hank calm enough for Charles to pull his conscious mind out. His new look and the damage he caused mean that Hank’s career at Bayville is over. Thankfully, the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters was in need of a larger teaching staff. The episode ends with the Xavier students welcoming Mr. McCoy, aka Beast, to the family. That’s a heartwarming recap, but let’s get to the new content, shall we? 

 

This WiFi signal is way stronger than it has any
right to be.

We open with a quick news blurb that a massive storm is going to hit the Hawaiian Islands. The storm is dangerous, but also leads to massive waves, so naturally Alexander Masters aka Alex Summers is out on the water. Scott is on the beach, recording his brother’s run via a web cam that Alex has in his surfboard. Scott tells his brother that this will be the last one, so naturally this is one where Alex wipes out bad and disappears. Scott frantically calls out to Alex, having lost sight of him in the storm. Alex, thankfully, is still on his board and can broadcast to Scott’s laptop. Alex got sucked out by a riptide and is being pulled out to sea. Scott wants to call the harbor patrol, but Alex is worried how that’ll effect his surfer rep and just wants Scott to come get him. Scott, clearly frantic, decides to go along with Alex’s idea and steals a boat from a rental place to save him. He tells Alex to fire off plasma flares to help Scott find him, which helps, but he’s only able to shoot off a few before he exhausts himself. Scott calls the harbor patrol, but his radio keeps cutting out.

 

Back at the mansion, Kitty gets a call from Lance and the two get flirty. Guess Kitty really likes a bad boy… She’s interrupted by Kurt coming in, showing off that he somehow got freakishly ripped. Turn out he was playing with his image inducer. It starts malfunctioning as he walks out, showing us what Kurt would look like if he fused with Fred Dukes. He goes to the kitchen where Jean is watching the news about the storm that’s hitting Hawaii. Kurt is also concerned, but ends up freaking Jean out when his malfunctioning inducer gives him a massive head.

 

Kurt shouldn't play with his image inducer. That's 
the joke. Do we really have time for this, guys?

Scott is able to get through to the Harbor Patrol, but his signal keeps cutting out. Alex digs deep and fires off one more blast for Scott, but then goes under. A helicopter is in the area looking for them, they can’t find the boys. Alex makes it to Scott’s boat, and Scott pulls him onto the boat. The boat gets buffeted by a massive wave, but thankfully they aren’t capsized.

 

Back at the mansion, the New Mutants are having a snowball fight. It looks like it’s the energy blasters v Bobby. Hank joins in, wanting to show them what a real snowball fight is like, using his hands and feet to barrage them with snowballs. Evan calls Jean in, and she’s able to hear the report about Scott and Alex being lost at sea. Charles tells Storm to prep the X-Jet.

 

Okay, despite my complaints, this moment is nice.

Out on the water, the Summers’ engine cuts out. Alex thinks he heard a chopper, but Scott is doubtful. He tells Alex to look for a gas to get the engine going again. He finds one, just before a big wave can crest. Scott optic blasts the wave, breaking it, saving them for the moment, and giving a flare for the chopper to find them. The X-Jet is burning sky toward them. Another big wave hits, capsizing the boat. Scott and Alex are able to find each other and grab a floatie. Alex is feeling pretty depressed about their odds, and thinks it figures that this happens just when he filed to change his name back to Summers. Scott tells him to keep his spirits up, just as the chopper finds them. Scott hooks Alex up to the winch when it drops, and he’s pulled skyward, just as a lightning bolt hits the tail rotor and the chopper goes down. Scott optic blasts the chopper to keep it from falling directly onto Alex. The chopper goes under, and Alex is, unfortunately still hooked up to the winch. He gets dragged under, and doesn’t have the energy to slice the line. Scott is able to swim down to him, thought, get’s him loose and they bob to the surface. The search-and-rescue guys have locator and a ship is en route to pick them up, but they lost sight of the Summers.

 

The X-Jet makes it into the area, but funnel clouds are forming which isn’t bad now, but will be bad if it touches down, so you know what is going to happen in the next five minutes. The Rescue guys are pulled out of the water by the boat, but they have no idea where the Summers boys go to. The X-Jet locks on them, though and dives to them.

 

So... like... Alex is definitely dead in this situation.
Right?

The funnel clouds touch down by the Summers’ and are pulled in. They try to swim out, but, come on, it’s a force of nature. They get pulled up high into the funnel, thankfully it’s high enough for the X-Jet to find them. Storm goes out to keep the funnel cloud back and Jean goes down to try to lift them up telepathically. It’s close, but they’re pulled inn. Scott and Alex are given a blanket to warm up. Alex thanks Scott for saving him, and Scott assures the younger Summers that he’s sure that Alex will return the favor some days.

 

Back at the mansion, the grounds are trashed and the New Mutants are exhausted. Hank sighs and figures that he’ll need to pick some new skills to teach Mutants. Kurt waits to see Scott, when Charles rolls in and gives him a repaired image inducer. Kurt apologizes for messing with it, and promises not to again, to which Charles is sure Kurt won’t. Kurt goes in to see Scott, whom is receiving some bedside aid from Jean, and instantly causes them to giggle. Why? Because as a sort of “this is what you get for goofing off” punishment, Charles set the image inducer to show what Kurt would look like as a girl. The episode ends on the laughing.

 

So, this is the first truly meh episode in a while. The situation is interesting, I’ll give them that. Putting Scott and Alex in a situation where they can’t use their powers to fix everything was an excellent use of this setting. There’s no Mutant to fight, no force they can really overcome, it’s just them verses the Storm. But that said, there are only so many times that someone’s head can be dunked underwater and the situation remain suspenseful. The “helicopter goes under and drags Alex down” was a sort of jump the shark moment for me. I did like the sibling bonding that was going on before and after the terrifying stuff was done though. And that stuff at the mansion was pretty much pointless. The two scenes of Kurt messing with the inducer really didn’t make that last sight gag worth it. Also, if I have anyone who is more read up on the topic of Transphobia, making a cis man look like a woman, Transphobic or not? It feels like it might be, but I might be making a mountain out of a mole hill. But the super powered snowball fight was a neat concept even if we only got like 15 seconds of it. And I’m glad to see Beast adjusting well. And that’s all I have to say about that.

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 18

And Lo, a Beast is born.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, a party got out of hand, as they so often do. While Xavier was away to make repairs on his half-brother’s prison tank, and Logan and Ororo were out; Kitty, Kurt, Evan and Rogue threw a party at the Mansion. They stranded Scott and Jean to make it happened. But, things got complicated when Webber Torque, aka Arcade, was lead into Cerebro’s mainframe and caused the mansion’s defenses to run amok. He thought it was a computer game. He was stopped and the party broken up. Charles realizes at the end that this was all a set up, but doesn’t know by whom. We do, though. It’s revealed that Rogue’s friend Risty is Mystique in disguise, and this was all for her to get data on Mutant’s Xavier had compiled. That’s so not good.

 

Nice metaphor for Hank McCoy's reputation at
Bayville High going up in flames in the next
few days.

This time we open on Evan not paying attention to a chemistry lecture by McCoy. Not sure how I feel about both of his focus episodes after being introduced are about him being a lackluster student, but what are ya gonna do? Anyway, he sees his skateboard friends out the window, asks for the hallpass and blows off the class. McCoy, who was showing off how potassium ignites even in water, spies Evan skating off out the window as he went to close the blinds. He looks disappointed, right before he’s struck by some kind of fit. He smashes beakers, because that’s what you do when you’re having a fit in a chem lad, tells the students to read chapter four and he’ll be back later. He runs to a nearby bathroom, splashes water on his face and quotes lines of Shakespeare to himself, but that doesn’t seem to work and he ends up ripping a sink off the wall in fury.

 

After the credits roll, we see Principal Kelly cordoning off the bathroom. Myst-er, Risty asks if he knew what happened, but Kelly is completely unaware. Kurt, on the other hand, believes it was Hank. He was in the class with Evan. Kitty doesn’t believe him, though, even when Kurt points out Hank has been MIA since leaving the class.   

 

Evan takes finding his teacher reciting classics
with murder in his eyes WAY better than I would
have in that position.

Outside, Evan is skateboarding with his friends, when he hears Hank speaking in the nearby amphitheater. He goes to check it out, finding Hank in the midst of a Shakespeare recitation. I’m not sure of the exact quote, too lazy to search it out, but it’s either from Macbeth or Hamlet. Anyway, he’s wrapped up in reciting and clearly fighting to keep control of something. When he notices Evan, he literally shatters the concrete around Evan’s head before he can completely master himself again. Once he does, he apologizes to Evan and tells him that he’ll see him tomorrow.

 

Evan returns to the mansion and brings in a package that had been delivered for Kitty. We’re then shown the Danger Room, where the others are in a training session. Looks like it’s a get to the goal type thing. They’re running up a stone pathway to a pillar of some kind, while dodging attacks from explosive balls. Rogue gets taken out, but Cyclops almost gets her to the finish before the buzzer. The session ends, and Rogue complains that Evan was supposed to have her back when he rolls in. The others are angry with him, and Ororo chastises him for not being dependable. Oh, and Kitty’s package turns out to be a blue pyramid hat, central American style, something to stimulate her brain for a test. Kay.

 

The hat is stupid. That's the whole joke.

The next day, Evan runs into Hank, who apologizes for that little scene at the amphitheater. He got “lost in the words” and says he often goes there to clear his head. He turns the conversation into a speech about Evan not using his potential, using an old trophy of his from when he played football at Bayville as part of it. I’m insulted by this. Henry ‘Hank’ McCoy is a Midwest boy, I won’t have New York try to steal him like this! Well, whatever, he said he goofed off as a freshman and didn’t realize his potential until he became part of a team. He gives Evan a Shakespeare passage to memorize as a punishment for missing chemistry… not sure how those jive together, but whatever. Hank goes to coach a girl’s roller-hockey practice that Jean’s in. Things start out fine, until he has another fit and almost attacks a student that ran into him. Evan and Jean are able to talk him down and play it off like he was surprised. This is very much getting out of hand.

 

That night, Evan tries to memorize the lines but is having difficulties. Kitty offers him her pyramid hat, which he takes while being skeptical. At that moment, Hank arrives at the mansion, asking to see the professor. In a private interview, we learn that Hank was a potential student that Xavier tried to recruit years ago, but Hank brushed him off, as he didn’t want to admit what he was back then. He regrets it, and says that the “beast within” is getting harder and harder to control. He explains that he’d been taking a serum to repress it, but it’s not working like it used to. Charles tries read Hank’s mind, but when he does, he gets an impression of a blue gorilla charging him. He tells Hank that there’s nothing that he, Charles, can do. The “beast” is apart of him and the only one who can control it is Hank. Charles advices Hank take some time off until he can get control back, but teaching is Hank’s life and he can’t picture life without it. Hank says that he’s trying to control it, but Charles points out that he USED to try, but got too reliant on his serum. Hank says he’s just too tired,

 

Later, Hank goes to the chemistry lab to whip up a new batch of his serum. After mixing it up, he takes a sip and immediately turns blue and furry. Wow, I can’t imagine a formula failing harder than that. Principal Kelly, who’d been working late too, hears Hank’s screams and goes to investigate. He sees the trashed lab and is immediately charged by the Blue beast formally known as Hank McCoy. Kelly is able to escape the beast, pulling a fire alarm to scare him off. He finds Hank’s lab coat and reports the “beast” to the police. The X-Men hear, suit up and roll out.

This jumpscare feels like it's 45% the beast, 55%
Hank getting Kelly back for something.

 

Shadowcat and Jean find him first, prowling a scrap yard. He almost gets Shadowcat, but Jean hurls a car at him and pins him to a wall with it for a few seconds. He breaks free, but Wolverine arrives and the two of them end up tussling. Wolverine is the more experienced combatant, but the beast proves stronger and he tosses Wolverine aside before running off. They note that he’s still going north, and Spyke realizes that Hank is in there and is going somewhere to clear his head.

 

The other team, composed of Nightcrawler, Rogue and Storm find him next. Storm blows him back with a whirlwind, but he almost gets Nightcrawler when the other blue beast tries to investigate where he landed. Nightcrawler is able to bamf away, but loses the beast in a warehouse. The others join in, and they’re almost attacked when the beast breaks through a crate to grab them. Thankfully Cyclops arrives and optic blasts the beast through a wall. The beast, though, is able to get up and slink away.

 

Spyke makes it to the amphitheater and is also almost immediately attacked by the beast. Apparently, part of his mutation involves ninja levels of stealth. Wolverine rushes in, though, grapples the beast and crushes him with a concrete pillar he sliced off. But the beast gets back up and throws Wolverine. Jean arrives and telekinetically pins the beast to a wall, but the beast is struggling too much for her to hold him long. Spyke starts quoting Shakespeare again, which calms the beast enough for Nightcrawler to bamf the professor in. Charles gets a hand on the beast and helps pull Hank McCoy out of the recesses of his own mind.

 

Hank takes turning into a blue gorilla/troll thing
significantly better than I would.

The next day, on the tv at the mansion, we learn the police are still searching for Hank McCoy but have no leads as of yet. We’re then reintroduced to Hank McCoy, who is still blue and furry but is now wearing sweats and speaking again. He laments the fact that he’s still trapped as a beast, but Charles tries to help him see the silver lining of having control again. Hank says he can still feel the beast, but the worst part is that his nightmare still came to pass, as he can’t teach anymore. Evan suggests getting him an image inducer, but Hank doesn’t want to be a different person and Hank McCoy is still wanted by the police. Charles offers him a solution. We learn Kitty threw out the hat because it looks stupid, what a pointless plot, before Charles introduces the Institute’s newest instructor, Hank McCoy. He smiles as he tells them that they can also call him Beast.

 

This is an episode that I have mixed feelings about. The Hank McCoy stuff I loved. The reveal that he was an early, perhaps even THE first, recruit attempt by Xavier was great. The idea that he didn’t sign on either due to youthful pride or a belief that his power didn’t need training to control is a different spin on the character. Other adaptations suggest that Hank usually leaps to be apart of the X-men. I also liked the change that turning blue and furry was either a natural progression of his power or a side effect of trying to repress it as much as he had. In the comics, Beast originally just had simian looking hands and feet, but he augmented himself into his blue furry form in an attempt to stop a robbery at a lab he was working at but also hide his identity. He lost track of time, didn’t take the counter drug and thus was stuck in beast mode. So, it feels similar to the original story but is its own thing. And the use of Shakespeare to help him keep a grip on sanity felt fitting. Hank McCoy is a big reader and lover of the arts, so using it to keep him grounded is just perfect. Now, on the other, I felt that the Evan subplot was really unnecessary. Like, did we need a repeat of his academic issues from last season for him to bond with a teacher? It would have worked just as well for Evan to be the one student to see Hank in the bathroom, see him at the amphitheater, ask him why he liked the quotes and Hank giving him the passage to see if it helped Evan focus as well, and the rest of the episode continues as is. The way it is just feels… unnecessary. Just saying. And Kitty’s plot was pointless. Can’t really look at it any other way. So, a good Beast story, not a great story for anyone else. Next time, we’ll see a bonding story between the brother’s Summers. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 17

While Xavier is away, the kids will play. 

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Jean’s powers started going haywire. For reasons unknown, could be stress, could be psychic connection to an elemental avatar of destruction in the shape of an ancient Greek monster, who can say, her powers grew out of control. This took the form of constantly hearing people’s thoughts and throwing objects telepathically at random. Things came to a head when she nearly destroyed the X-Mansion. She’s stopped by Rogue taking some of the pressure off by absorbing a bit of her power, and Scott talking her back to reality. The episode ends with Jean repeating a line Scott said to her during her more manic episode, signaling hope for his crush or so it seemed. Oh, and the students were introduced to Mr. Hank McCoy, a beefy new chem/phys ed teacher at Bayville. Wonder if he’ll be important? Whatever, let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open at Stokes County Maximum Security Prison, the abode of one Cain Marko aka Juggernaut. A prison guard doesn’t notice until it’s almost too late that the system is warning that Juggernaut is waking up. They’re able to keep things contained for now, but the system needs repairs and there’s only one person who can do it, Cain’s half-brother, Charles Xavier.

 

Back at the Mansion, Charles awakens his senior class of X-Men to let them know the situation, that he got a call from Warden Stone that the system is malfunctioning and he needs to repair it. While Scott says he can get the team suited up in five minutes, Xavier forestalls him, having elected to go on this mission alone. That said, he’s in a bit of a pickle as Ororo is out of the country visiting friends in Kenya (She and her in universe sister are Kenyan Natives), and Logan has just sort of bikered off somewhere. With not real other option, he offers Scott and Jean the chance to co-captain things while he’s away, which they agree to. He heads out. Scott asks if anyone is up for an early Danger Room session, but no one is, not really even him. They head back to bed.

 

Later that Day, Xavier arrives at Stokes County, and consults the Warden on what to do. Apparently, the only way to fix the system is to completely reboot it while Charles makes some adjustments. There’d be twenty second delay as the system reboots, the warden is afraid Cain could break free in that time, but Charles thinks his paralysis should hold that long. And they really have no other option, so they prepare, putting the prison on high alert.

 

The Juggernaut stirs...

At Bayville high, Jean stumbles upon an interesting sight, her friend Taryn hitting on Scott, asking to see… his eyes. Oh, hunny, very poor physical trait to focus on. She persists for a few minutes, much to Jean’s clear annoyance before leaving, telling Scott she will learn all his secrets someday. Scott walks around the bulletin board Jean was crouched behind. She tries to play if off like she wasn’t spying… but like come on, she totally was. And storms off when he points this out.

 

Kitty, meanwhile, accidentally crashes three different computers in a programing class. Nearby, Risty is cheering on Webber Torque a he plays through an online game instead of programming. Webber, preferring to go by his gamertag Arcade, gets caught much to his chagrin. After class, Risty asks Kitty if she knows about any parties that weekend. Kitty hadn’t, but Risty puts it into her head to throw a party at the mansion. She tells the other three younger X-Men, Evan and Kurt are down, but Rogue points out that Scott and Jean are less than party animals. Thankfully for their evening plans, X-Men are problem solvers.

 

How many guards lives flashed before their eyes
when Juggy started moving?

Back at Stokes county, Charles begins the reboot and repair of the system holding Cain. While completely surrounded by armed guards, aka meat-shields, I might add. As Charles works, Cain starts waking up. The colossal brother is only able to lift his arms and break the chains holding his arms before the system reboots and he gets put under again. Warden Stone lets out a sigh of relief, but Charles isn’t relaxing, he believes the system was sabotaged.

 

Meanwhile, Jean meets Scott at a secluded cliffside. Scott had been told by Kitty, and Jean by Kurt, that one of them wanted to talk the other about something. Scott, rather smugly, thinks it has to do with Taryn flirting with him, but Jean scoffs at that. While they’re talking, Kurt bamfs him and Kitty in. Kurt takes something from under the dashboard and Kitty steal’s Jean’s phone. Jean assumes Scott’s car not starting is him trying to keep her secluded for that mysterious talk, much to his chagrin.

 

Back at the mansion, the party is in full swing, with Risty arriving with Webber. Everyone seems to be having a good time, eating, dancing, and all that jazz. Risty shows Webber around, they find a suspiciously open elevator. Risty mentions that it probably leads to the big computer Rogue told her about, and Webber couldn’t go down faster if someone mentioned alcohol and scantily clad girls. They reach a biometric scanner, but Webber is able to hack it… who brings a hacking device to a party? Whatever, he’s able to crack the door open and the two of them walk into Cerebro.

 

Back at the cliff, Jean and Scott are both miffed at each other. Scott tries to lead the way to a payphone at the base of the cliff. Jean, not wanting to follow, pulls him all the way back to her telekinetically and then trudges passed him.

 

I lived in the 2000s, and Arcade must be some kind
of idiot to think any game could look as realistic as
the Danger Room Footage would be.

Arcade is able to hack Cerebro, because electronics genius, and starts perusing programs. Thank god he doesn’t have the telepathic powers to fully utilize Cerebro, just saying. Risty asks if the computer has any games, and that revs Arcade up. He finds bios on the new X-Men, but assumes they’re game characters. Risty, claiming she could use them for her game in the programming class, asks him to make a copy of the data. He burns her a DVD and then tells her to leave so he can concentrate. He finds the Danger Room program and boots it up.

 

Jean and Scott have gotten towed and are on their way back to the Mansion.

 

The X-Mansion party has hit the “people starting to break stuff” phase, but the X-Men really can’t deal with that right now, as Rogue got an alert that the Danger Room is active. She and the other four suit up to check it out, finding that the door won’t open. Nightcrawler bamf’s in to shut it down, but is almost immediately overwhelmed by weaponry, being knocked to the ground and knocked out. Shadowcat phases in, see’s Nightcrawler and then pulls the other two in to save them. Arcade, thinking this is a game and not questioning why the characters look like three of his classmates and one looks like a blue Kurt, is excited to see new players and turns up the difficulty.

 

He basically overwhelms them using the Danger Room’s weapons, laser turrets, grasping claws, buzzsaws, etc. Shadowcat gets knocked out after either misjudging how many walls of steel popped in front of her or from overusing her power. Psyched he knocked out two of them, Arcade lowers them all into a crevice and nearly crushes them between to giant balls, but Nightcrawler wakes up enough to bamf them out. Arcade, annoyed at such obvious cheating, accidentally activates “Defcon 4,” whatever that means.

 

Outside, Jean and Scott arrived at the mansion to find the party still in full swing. They apologize to each other, sort of, just as the mansion seals itself down behind heavy blast shields and weaponry starts coming out of every object. Scott switches shades for his visor while they try to figure out how to get into the mansion.

 

Inside, Risty is trying to find an exit, when she’s blasted by one of the newly activated lasers. She hits the ground, knocked out… and then slowly turns blue… Yep, Risty Wilde is in fact Mystique, Now sporting a darker blue, yellow eyed look. That can’t be good.

 

Cyclops and Jean, (I guess they both had costumes in his car?) dodge and blast through the yards defenses to get to the hanger and into the mansion. They’re immediately confronted by a big drone that tries to blast them, but they break it to pieces instead. Mystique wakes up just before they enter the room, and avoids notice. She slips around then and gets out how they got in.

 

While Rogue, Shadowcat, Spyke and Nightcrawler dodge through fireballs in a hallway, Cyclops and Jean make it to a security terminal. They can’t shut anything down, but Cyc is able to get a visual on Cerebro and see’s Arcade using the system. The other four drop in, with Kitty explaining who Arcade aka Webber is. Just before he finds them on the security feed. He tries to knock them out with an electric blast, but they escape, and as a group get into Cerebro, Rogue draining Arcade just enough to knock him out.

 

She's baaaacccckkkk.

The kids are sent home, and the four party organizers are set to cleaning. Rogue, Scott and Jean ‘debrief’ Arcade. He apologizes for hacking the system, but that game was too entrancing to pass up. They’re initially shocked that Webber still thinks that was all a game, but Charles comes in and telepathically confirms. He sends Webber home in a taxi. Afterward, Scott tries to apologize for what happened, but Charles has deeper concerns. Namely, he believes his trip, the party and even Arcade’s shenanigans were all part of a greater master plan. The episode ends with Mystique leaving the mansion grounds, shapeshifting back into Risty and walking off into the night. Oo, ominous.

 

This was a very interesting episode. Mystique’s plan was relatively simple but brilliant. Remove Charles while the other adults are away, use teens to throw a party because teens, have Webber get her the data she wanted and then leave him to cover her escape. And to think it ALMOST didn’t work due to getting knocked out. I liked the callback to Cain and his prison, it was a solid reason for Charles to be gone, and to see him legit start sweating as his half-brother ALMOST broke free was tense to say the least. And the use of Arcade was inspired. Arcade is a mercenary villain from the Marvel universe, often trapping his targets in his amusement park of traps and tortures he calls Murderworld. This slightly toned down, civilian ID of Webber Torque was a show original, although his design does look like a teen version of the adult assassin. The subplot about Jean getting jealous that her friend is attracted to Scott is kinda basic, but I know the execs thought they needed to inject teen angst into this show to make it marketable. I’d have just fast forwarded to Jean and Scott being a thing in season one, but I tend to rush like that. Mystique getting her hands on not only the X-Men, but assumedly all other Mutants that Charles has detected over the years is something that will come back to bite the crew in the ass later, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 16

 Jean's dealing with growing pains, psychically speaking.

Want to say two things before we get started. One, sorry, I got the episode count wrong and thought the Christmas episode was in the next five, not the next seven, my bad. Will probably do X-Men: Evolution in January too, otherwise once I restart My Hero Academia the next time I’ll get back to X-Men will be in July. And, on a more somber note, have to let you know that Scott Summer’s voice actor Kirby Morrow passed away last month. He died November 18^th 2020 due to complications from a substance abuse issue, just eight days after his father. His notable roles include Scott Summers, Miroku the priest from Inuyasha, Teru Mikami from Death Note, and Hot Shot from Transformers: Cybetron, to name some of the highlights. He’s the third X-Men related voice actor to die in 2020, along with X-Men: TAS’s Cyclops Norm Spencer and David Hemblen whom portrayed Magneto in the same series. Not a great year all round, but these just made things worse.  

 

Okay, enough downer talk, let’s focus on the show.

 

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Kurt got involved with an explosive girl named Tabitha, aka Boom Boom. Their possible romance was interrupted by Tabitha’s father, whom wanted to use his daughter’s explosive power to help him steal money from a charity event at the school. The Brotherhood boys tried to steal the money, but the X-Men hold them off. Tabitha’s father was arrested, but Tabitha decided she wasn’t good enough for the X-Men and left. She decided to crash at the Brotherhood house in Mystique’s old room. She doesn’t officially join that group, though, she’s basically neutral from this point on. Shame, but thems the breaks. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

I'll take worst locations to be struck with out of
control telepathy for 800, Ghost of Alex.

We open with a school assembly where Jean is getting an MVP trophy for soccer. Most of the group are excited for her, even Rogue’s new friend Risty, but Rogue herself is lukewarm on the subject. She’s a bit tired of perky Jean, as she puts it. Jean starts to give a speech, but is interrupted when she hears Rogue’s judgy thoughts about her, that opens the floodgates, overwhelming her with thoughts from her classmates. She’s overwhelmed by the mental noise and screams for them to stop and let her think. She knocks over the trophies, but is able to right her thoughts and claims to have “lost her head” for a second. Afterwards, she and Scott have a chat. He tries to lead her into talking to him about her freak out, but she deflects and dodges, asking if he’ll be at Duncan’s party for her. He wasn’t invited, but she asks him to go for her. Getting some mixed signals about this relationship, just saying.

 

Meanwhile, Kitty and Lance are flirting before their Chemistry class. Who’d have thought she’d be into bad boys, (shrug). A beefy man walks in, quoting Lewis Carrol of all things. “The time has come the Walrus said, to talk of many things,” as a means of apologizing for being late. This is Henry “Hank” McCoy, the new Chemistry teacher that is running double duty as the gym teacher. He opens class with a lesson on creating a stink bomb. Way to go, Hank, winning them over with awesome.  

 

Let's see, Books, check; Muscles, check;
Chipper Attitude, Check. We got ourselves a
McCoy here.

Later that day, Scott rushes out to make it to the party he wasn’t originally invited to. He passes a bunch of students, stumbling along the way, and almost eating it after slipping on Bobby Drake’s ice getting to his car. At the party, Duncan is being a dick and ends up throwing a soccer ball football style out a window. SOMEHOW, it hits Scott as he pulled up. What are the odds? Scott marches in and somehow knew Duncan hit him… now you’re just being paranoid, Summers. He passes Rogue as he comes in, not noticing her and Risty. After seeing Scott, Rogue tries to storm out, claiming that she’s bored celebrating Jean. Risty, on the other hand thinks she’s got a thing for Scott and is annoyed he didn’t notice her. The two leave, Risty hoping they won’t miss anything.

 

Scott and Duncan have a pissing contest in the form of ping-pong match. Jean lets them battle for a few minutes before “catching” the ball and calling the game herself. She grabs Duncan and drags him off for a chewing out. She begins the chewing out but is distracted by her telepathy going crazy again. It quickly becomes too much and she shoves passed him to try to get some air. Scott, who’d also been on the balcony, goes to talk to her, but she lashes out and telekinetically shoves him off. She’s able to grab him before he hits the pool, but gets dunked when Duncan surprises Jean.

I'll take worst locations to be struck with out of
control Telepathy for 600, Ghost of Alex.

 

Scott and Jean apparently argue about what’s happening to her all the way back to the mansion. She keeps trying to brush it off, even when Kurt and Xavier ask how she’s doing. Rogue, who’d been showing Risty around, comes in at just the worst time as they almost catch Kurt while in blue, Kitty phases through, and Logan stabs an apple with his claws. Thankfully, Risty doesn’t notice, somehow. Risty is sent home, and Rogue get’s told off about not following the rule about scheduling visits. She storms off, thinking that Xavier wouldn’t treat Jean that way. Jean disagrees, but obviously Rogue is upset at Jean reading her mind. She hadn’t noticed Rogue was thinking, not talking. Jean and Xavier have a chat, he’s concerned that her powers are growing out of control. She, on the other hand, waves it off and claims it’s just stress from her incredibly active schedule. Xavier seems unsure, but she insists she’ll be fine after some rest.

 

The next day is track practice, with Scott and Duncan still duking it out for supremacy. Scott wins with the Javelin toss, Duncan wins with the pole-vault, and Duncan knocks Scott, knocking his glasses off, during a foot race. McCoy sees that last one and benches Duncan before going to help Scott up and then tells him to take five. Jean’s powers start going haywire again, and she starts telepathically lobing things all over. Lance causes a minor quake to save Kitty from a javelin, McCoy is able to grab two hurled shotputs lobed at him, and Scott saves Duncan from getting brained by a third… though it hits Kelly’s desk… oh well. Jean passes out.

 

Scott and Kitty rush Jean back to the mansion. Xavier and Logan meet them and rush Jean to an exam room. Logan forces Scott from the room as Xavier begins the examination. Jean starts moving objects in her sleep as Xavier begins delving her mind. Her mind is tumultuous at best, roiling with the thoughts she’d been hearing lately. Her powers go farther out of control, and she causes a small explosion, wrecking the exam room and almost injuring Scott and Xavier. They make it top side and inform the others about what’s going on. Xavier thinks Jean’s powers are evolving too rapidly for her to control. Rogue offers to drain Jean’s powers, hoping that would take enough of the metaphorical pressure off for her to get control, but Xavier doesn’t think it’ll work. She needs something to focus on, to ground her. Scott thinks that if Rogue can drain her, he can ground her. Xavier isn’t certain, but they’re dealing with limited options.

 

I know there's not a Phoenix cry here, but it feels
like there should be.

The team makes it to the lower levels, with most of them blowing debris out of the air while Nightcrawler get’s Rogue close to try and go for the drain. She’s able to get a hand on Jean for a second, but Jean’s powers are still raging. Scott tries to talk her down, but it doesn’t seem to work right away. Then she starts speaking through Rogue… kay, and saying she can’t do it. Scott won’t have any of that, though, telling her he knows her limits because he knows her better than anyone else ever has or ever will. That’s able to get Rogue to focus enough to settle her down.

 

Later, Scott tells Rogue that the professor thinks Jean will be okay. He asks why she’d risked so much to help Jean. I guess he’d sensed the tension between them lately. Rogue admits while the two of them are worlds apart, she knew Jean would do it for her, so obviously she had to help. Scott thanks her. Outside, he gives Jean roses… curtesy of Duncan… guess they told him she was having stress issues or something. Scott asks Jean if she remembers anything from last night. She claims to not have, but then says that line about Scott knowing her better than anyone, which seems to give the bespectacled man hope just before the credits roll.

 

Overall, a solid episode. The series unfortunately ended before they really did anything with the tremendous power that Jean is barely able to constrain, but this is a nice nod to how strong she is and the potential danger of the Phoenix Force locked within her. Also, a nice example of how much telepathy would suck if you didn’t have an on/off switch. Imagine being inundated with all that constant noise. A book series I enjoy called “Super Powereds” by Drew Hayes had a character with that exact issue, telepathy that she couldn’t turn off, and that gal ended up living alone in the woods to escape the noise. I shudder to think how bad that could have gotten. That all said, I wonder how they glossed over all that damage Jean caused at the Track and Field practice. Like, I don’t see someone yada yading over shotputs and javelins flying around and a localized tremor. Just saying. This was also a nice intro to Hank McCoy. Obviously not a spoiler because of all the other material he’s appeared in, Hank McCoy is the civilian identity of Beast, the blue apelike X-Man with a genius IQ. This was sort of a backdoor pilot intro to him. Despite only being in two scenes they nail that he’s intelligent as well as strong, a compassionate man and a talented educator. And he doesn’t put up with sport stars, which earns him a special place in my heart. This isn’t the last we’ll see of him; I promise you that. Scott’s development was nice in this one. While he’s still insecure enough to compete with Duncan whenever they meet face to face, he’s still hands down the closest person to Jean. If they weren’t a confirmed romantic couple in literally everything and Duncan not a total asshole, I’d say that they’d have a great heterosexual opposite gender best friendship. Which there does need to be more of, just saying. And that’s all I have to say about that. Have a good night, everybody!

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 67

Let's meet Eri. By the end of this, you'll want to kill Overhaul for what he does to her. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, Izuku met with All Might’s former sidekick Sir Nighteye. The pro hero is unimpressed with Izuku Midoriya, despite their mutual love of All Might. But he is willing to deal. He challenges Izuku to take his stamp and stamp his contract for the Work Study himself to prove his worthiness. This is somewhat difficult, as Nighteye’s power lets him predict the future of a target for one. Izuku makes a valiant effort, but can’t get the stamp in the three minutes time limit. This isn’t completely on him, though, as it is revealed that leaping around all the All Might memorabilia in Nighteye’s office is what screwed up his timing. Nighteye agrees to take him, but Izuku believes that it’s a convoluted attempted to convince Izuku that Mirio Togeta is more worthy of One For All than he is, and surrender the power to Togeta. On his first patrol with Togeta, Izuku runs into a little girl with a horn named Eri, and her germophobic father, Kai Chiski aka Overhaul. This can’t be good. Let’s get to it.

 

Deku and Lemillion, what a pair. 

We begin a few minutes before with Izuku and Togeta on their patrol. It’s revealed that Sir Nighteye and Bubble Girl are doing the actual surveillance of the Shia Hassaikai base, Mirio is going to focus on showing Izuku the basics of patrol. The boys also exchange hero names, Deku formally shakes hand with Lemillion. The name is based on Togeta’s desire to save a million people… not sure why he needed the French Le with it, but there you go. It’s just after this that little Eri ran into Izuku and her Padre Chiski walked up. The dude wears a plague doctor mask out in public? Like… why not just go with a surgical mask when you’re not actively plotting villainy? Whatever. Overhaul tries to act like he’s a attentive dad following after a willful daughter, but obviously Izuku is immediately wary of him. Togeta, without missing much of a beat, pulls Izuku’s mask up to hide his face and tries to keep Overhaul talking, to pump him for information.

Anyone who willingly follows this guy into a dark
alley is just asking for trouble.

 

Overhaul starts closing up almost immediately, though, and insists he and his daughter head home. Izuku almost gets up to leave, but Eri grabs more tightly onto him and begs him not to go. Izuku notes to Overhaul that she’s shaking, he says that she’s reacting to being scolded. Izuku notes that she’s got bandages all over her limbs, Overhaul says she’s always playing rough. The two heroes-in-training are in a pickle. Togeta wants to leave, because he knows Overhaul is going to close up and will be less likely to leave his compound and mess up. Izuku, on the other hand, thinks they need to stay, because if they leave now it’ll tip off Overhaul there’s something up as heroes wouldn’t just walk away from a child in that state. Overhaul claims that he’ll tell them what Eri’s issue is, but they should discuss it in the alley, as it’s a private family matter. They go to follow… oh jeeze. As they walk, Overhaul talks about the woes of raising a willful child. He goes to take off one of his gloves and looks directly at Eri as he says it. She freaks out, leaping from Izuku’s arms and follows pops. Izuku wants to follow, but Togeta advises they call up Sir Nighteye and trade info.

 

Back at the base, Overhaul orders that a chemical bath be made up for himself and his minion bring Eri to the lab. He also brutally murders the subordinate who let Eri slip away. IN FRONT OF THE SCARED CHILD! Jackass.

 

So... is the rash from being outside, or from possibly
getting subordinate blood on him?

The heroes meet up. Izuku and Togeta apologize for messing up with Overhaul, but Sir Nighteye says it’s his fault for not using his Foresight on them earlier in the day. He explains why they’ve been looking into Overhaul. It was the incident last season when Twice walked on the horrible car wreck where they mutilated the criminals that stole a counter. As it turns out, when the cops arrived, everyone was fine… better even than they were before, as chronic issues like cavities and such were removed as well. The money seemingly burnt in the crash. It’s a very odd situation. They tell Nighteye about Eri’s bandaged wrapped arms and expresses his desire to save Eri. Sir Nighteye tells Izuku to not be arrogant and risk the operation by rushing in to save her. He is going to bring in other heroes to take care of the Hassaikai.

 

In the compound, Eri is brought down into a secret laboratory. Overhaul tells her that he can’t have her running off like that, as she is the corner stone of his plans. That’s not creepy at all… Before they can do something horrible to the child, Overhaul is informed Shigaraki is calling. That can’t be good.

 

Back at UA, the students are getting into a routine. Bakugo and Todoroki are covered in bruises from their Provisional License make up class. Uraraka, Kirishima, and Tsu are out for their work studies. And Izuku is feeling melancholy for abandoning Eri. It affects his school work for the rest of the day. He decides that he needs advice for his mentor, so looks up All Might. Midnight tells him that he’s out jogging, and Izuku is able to find him along his route.

 

Even withered, All Might can strike a hell of a pose.

Izuku tells All Might that he learned all about Mirio Togeta and that he was going to succeed All Might. He wants to know why All Might chose him over Togeta and why All Might kept the info from him. All Might admits that it was because he thought the info wouldn’t help Izuku with his training, so he didn’t want to burden him unnecessarily. He gives Izuku the brief background of his time with Nighteye. Eleven years ago, the two started working together despite All Might’s long-standing rule about not taking sidekicks. They worked well together for five years, but things changed after All Might’s battle with All For One. From the look of things, Gran Torino was also injured during the fight as he too is in scrubs. Nighteye advised All Might to retire now, as a legend, and look for a successor. All Might isn’t willing to give up now, though, as in the time between his retirement and choosing a successor, people would get hurt, something he can’t abide by. Nighteye saw his future, tells him someone will fill the gap while he’s training his successor. But if he doesn’t stop, he’ll die a gruesome death facing off against a terrible villain. All Might takes a somewhat fatalistic approach to this, believing that because Nighteye’s visions have never been wrong, why fight it? All Might isn’t willing to stop, and he and Nighteye terminate their partnership. All Might admits that Nezu suggested Togeta to him, but he met Izuku before the meeting and the rest is history.

 

It’s at this moment that Izuku realized what should have been fairly obvious, that All Might is dying. What? In the first two episodes, he tells us that his respiratory system is shot and he doesn’t have a stomach. The fact he’s lived this long is a mother loving miracle.

 

He told Nighteye about his plan, which only made things worse between the two. Nighteye rejected his plan and began training a true successor in Mirio Togeta. Izuku asks how much time he has left. When Nighteye made the prediction, he had six or seven years. Izuku is freaked out to realize All Might is going to die this year or next, if the timeline follows. Izuku won’t accept it, says he needs All Might to survive long enough for Izuku to announce “I Am Here.”

 

All Might admits that he accepted his death when he first heard it. And that he assumed he was going to die when he fought AFO. But Izuku was there, and he realized that his student changed him. Izuku gave him the drive to keep going, and that he’ll keep leaving to see Izuku make his announcement. He’s so motivated he’s able to bulk up for a few seconds. Izuku refuse to let the prediction happen to him. He suggests that All Might make up with Nighteye and get him to see his future again. All Might isn’t certain it’ll work.

 

Oh, this can't possibly be good.

In a post credit scene, ugh, we see Shigaraki getting brought in to meet Overhaul. He agreed to join the yakuza, under the right conditions… that can’t possibly be good.

 

This was a solid continuation to last episode, and introduction to the center of the next arc. Eri, the sad little girl that is clearly being tortured by Chisaki for some nefarious purpose. I don’t like seeing kids in pain, hell, there’s an episode of another series, Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood and Classic) that I refuse to watch because it involves a child being experimented on and turned into a monster. So, nothing really could have set me against Overhaul faster than seeing his daughter in such a state. And we got a fairly good view of the sort of person that Overhaul is beyond his child abuse. I mean, he violently executed a subordinate. Sure, the dude lost his precious Eri, but liquifying him seems a tad extreme. I also forgotten that Overhaul has a violent reaction to being exposed to dirt and germs. I mean, the skin rash he seemed to spontaneously develop was grotesque, and I see no other reason for it besides him going outside. I also liked the background on All Might and Nighteye. The fact that their schism occurred largely because Nighteye respected him so much that he could standby and watch him destroy himself. I think he probably took it too far with Togeta and potentially convincing Izuku to give up his powers, but his heart is in the right place. The next episode will feature one of Kirishima’s most badass moments to date, and I’m excited to talk about it, next year. Next time, we’ll be covering a few episodes of X-Men: Evolution. Have a goodnight, everybody.

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 66

If you thought Izuku Midoriya was the biggest All Might fanboy, allow me to introduce Mirai Sasaki aka Sir Nighteye.

Last time on My Hero Academia the Shigaraki and his crew met up with Overhaul, leader of the Shie Hassaikai. What Twice thought was going to be a recruitment meeting turned into a standoff, as Overhaul was more interested in folding the League of Villains into his Yakuza crew than joining up. Shigaraki took exception to this and tried to throw him out. Magne tried to follow orders, but she was brutally executed when Overhaul brushed against her arm. And Compress lost an arm trying to avenge her. Overhaul was able to leave thanks in part to the arrival of his bodyguards, but he left a card with the League in case they wanted to do business. With the heroes, Izuku and his crew got the go ahead to try to apply for Work Studies, provided they picked someone that the school gives approval to. He spoke with All Might about meeting with his former sidekick, Sir Nighteye, but the falling out the two had made All Might hesitant to approach him. Instead, they called up Mirio Togeta, Nighteye’s work study student and asked him to do it. Togeta enthusiastically agreed. Izuku and Togeta went to meet Nighteye at his agency, where Izuku was advised to make him laugh. Despite a no-nonsense persona, Nighteye is apparently a big believer in humor. Izuku tried to make the hero laugh with his disturbingly accurate All Might impression, but Nighteye seemed less than impressed. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with a quick summary of what a Work Study is by Izuku. Basically, it’s becoming a parttime sidekick. Like the internship, they work under an existing hero, but now are empowered to use their Quirks to save people and battle villains. So, it’s an Internship on hard mode.

 

Not sure who's more uncomfortable, young
Midoriya or me...

Picking up at Nighteye’s office, he’s most displeased with Izuku’s impression of All Might’s face…. Because he didn’t get the wrinkles of All Might’s face right. No seriously, Izuku didn’t make them the right angle or length for Nighteye’s taste. It’s only at this point that Izuku see’s all the All Might merch around the office, including a special 10^th anniversary poster, and concludes that Nighteye is a massive fan boy. It’s like looking into the future… unless Uraraka is in charge of office decorating. He tells Izuku to leave. Izuku, instead, explains that he was doing a very specific face, from the time All Might saved a kid who could turn other liquids into vinegar from drowning in the vinegar river he made. The stinging liquid in his eyes made him make a very distinctive face, I guess. Nighteye and Izuku spend a few minutes fanboying out about All Might. While this is happening, Togeta releases Bubble Girl from the tickle trap.

 

Nighteye and Izuku sit down to finally discuss the Work Study. Izuku brought along the contract that Nighteye needs to sign to accept Izuku as a student. We get a few more details about the Work Study, it’s a minimum four-month stint, paid, and Izuku needs to be prepared for his grades to suffer as the Work Study will cut into his school work. Izuku is ready for that, but Nighteye isn’t ready to stamp the paper work. No, he wants to hear Izuku could bring to the table, when his agency works fine with him, two side kicks and Togeta. He says that while incessantly tapping the desk, which would drive me bonkers. He wants to see Izuku’s skills and proposes a challenge. Izuku has 3 minutes to take Nighteye’s stamp and stamp the paperwork himself. In that time, Nighteye won’t fight back, only dodge, and Izuku shouldn’t worry about the room. He sends Togeta and Bubble Girl on a coffee break while they run this test. As they walk out, Bubble Girl asks if Togeta had to jump through these hoops to work for Nighteye, which Togeta says he didn’t as Nighteye sought him out specifically.

 

Yeah, I would not have guessed he's a big humor
guy either...

Now, this is a very difficult task, as proven when he dodges around Izuku’s charges and narrates the whole damn thing. It’s at this point where we learn that his power is called Foresight. If he touches someone and looks them in the eye, for one hour he can see their future. The activation requirement is a secret. So Izuku needs to somehow get around someone who can literally see his every move before he makes it. Tall order. Nighteye isn’t impressed with Izuku, he had high hopes for the kid but he clearly is only mediocre with his great power. He tells Izuku that he can’t acknowledge All Might’s choosing him, and that Togeta should have gotten the power.

 

Izuku, actually spurred on by these comments activates his full cowling and starts leaping around at high speed. He plans to leap around so fast that it won’t matter if Nighteye sees him coming. He declares he’ll make Nighteye acknowledge him. Izuku makes a grab for it, but is just a titch too slow. Nighteye noticed Izuku using Gran Torino’s style, but it’s a pale imitation of the original. Nighteye tells Izuku that in two minutes he’ll be slumped on the floor without the contract or seal. He’s noticed that Izuku is hesitant and fearful, two things that a Hero can’t be. Izuku, wanting to prove All Might right for choosing him, grabs a bookshelf and throws it, scattering books and papers. He wants to see if Nighteye just sees everything about Izuku or if he just see’s Izuku. He makes a grab, misses, and slams his face into a wall. Izuku slides to the floor, three minutes pass and Nighteye ends the contest. He chastises Izuku for putting all of his efforts into a single attack, exhausting himself and missing the target. Izuku then informs him that he didn’t miss because he was exhausted, but because he changed trajectory midflight to dodge the 10^th anniversary poster. Its at that moment that Nighteye looks around and notices that Izuku, despite the time constraint and Nighteye’s unnecessarily cruel smack talk, managed to dodge every single bit of All Might Memorabilia in the office. Togeta and Bubble Girl join them, and Nighteye says he’ll take Izuku.

 

Okay, so Sir Nighteye might not just be a 
super random name.

He pulls the whole “I said do x, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t take you if you failed,” excuse. In fact, he claims that he planned to take Izuku from the moment he heard from Togeta he’s coming. Izuku realizes that, even if that’s true, it’s not so much a vote of confidence. He thinks that Nighteye is taking him on specifically to work him with Mirio Togeta, see that Togeta is clearly superior to himself, and convince Izuku to hand off One for All to him. It’s a dastardly plan.

 

Back at the dorm, Izuku tells his classmates that he got the position. His classmates are impressed, you know, except Bakugo whom is angry and Todoroki whom says that they both need to work hard to keep up with the others. The other students are having issues finding Work Study’s, Uraraka and Tsu’s Internship mentors are too inexperienced to meet UA’s standards, and Kirishima’s mentor Fourth Kind doesn’t take Work Study students. Aizawa comes in and explains that it’s due in part to how much more responsibility the students are given. They’re at much greater risk, so a hero has to be pretty damned confident in their abilities. Nothing would kill a career quite like a dead seventeen-year-old Work Study student. He tells that Tokoyami that he got a request from Hawks, Japan’s #3 hero. He’s got big angel wings. He also tells Kirishima that Amajiki and Uraraka and Tsu that Hado want to speak with them respectively. Care to guess who is going to be important this arc? All three are too excited to wait and go to speak with them. 

 

The next day, Izuku starts his Work Study. His first mission is to patrol and survey the area with Togeta. The group explain that Nighteye has been monitoring the actions of Kai Chisaki aka Overhaul, the number two of the Shia Hassaikai. They don’t know what he’s doing, besides that he seems to be gathering the remnants of organized crime together and he made contact with Shigaraki.

 

Grab the girl and run. Grab the girl and run. 
Grab the girl and RUN!

In a post credit scene, Damn it Studio Bones, we’re shown a little girl with a horn running from Overhaul. She runs headlong into a hero inn green with bunny ears. The hero called Deku helps her up, noting that her arms are completely covered in bandages. Overhaul steps out of the shadows, and chastises the girl, Eri, for running off and bothering the heroes. Well... that’s a hell of a place to stop.

 

This was a solid introduction to Sir Nighteye. I read that while All Might was designed as a parody of US superhero comics, Sir Nighteye’s design is based off of Japanese stereotypes. He’s an uptight business man in a white suit, so I can kind of see it. I give Izuku credit for not giving up despite going up against a man who literally sees the future. I’m impressed with how quickly he’s grown from getting a handle on his powers last season. In a few in universe weeks, he’s been able to master leaping around at high speed and dodging in the air. If he had more time, I’m reasonably certain he could have gotten that damned seal. The fact he got the job because Nighteye wants to break him is pretty dark, not going to lie. But seems to be in character for this guy we’ve been told is both a massive fanboy but is also incredibly exacting. This is going to be a rough job for Izuku Midoriya me thinks. As I may have spoiled earlier, Kirishima, Tsu and Uraraka are going to important in this arc. One thing I’ve liked about this show is that they’ve done their best to highlight as many of the 1A students as they can. And sidelining Bakugo and Todoroki so that Kirishima and Tsu can get some more screen time is something I 100% approve of. Finally, if the post credit scene that involves a terrified little girl in a ragged dress and covered in bandages isn’t a solid indicator of what you should feel toward Overhaul, I can assure you you’re gonna hate this SOB by the end of this ride. And that’s all I have to say about that. Have a good night!

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