Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Jean
Grey and Prof. Xavier flew out to try and recruit the phase shifting Kitty
Pryde onto their team. Their efforts were hampered by the Pryde’s discomfort
with talking about the subject, Kitty’s fear of her own abilities and the
interference of another young Mutant named Lance Alvers. Lance was manipulating
Kitty to use her powers to help him steal midterm test answers for him to sell.
This all lead to a confrontation where Lance caused a massive earthquake that
destroyed the building they were in, but Kitty used her phase shifting to save
her parents and Jean from the falling rubble. Kitty was ultimately recruited by
the X-Men as Shadowcat, and Lance was nabbed by Mystique to join her Brotherhood
as Avalanche. Oh, and Scott and Kurt followed Logan as the Wolverine faced off
against Sabertooth for the first time in a while. They’re able to scare off
Sabertooth by attacking as a group, but Logan isn’t thankful for their help. So,
it was kind of a hectic day for everyone. Now, let’s see what new troubles arise
in Mississippi, shall we?
We open on a school dance, where a football
player named Cody works up the courage to ask a pretty goth girl to dance. This
may come as a shock to you, if you know her only from X-Men: TAS or the comics,
but this girl in black is in fact Rogue. Yeah, the southern belle with a big
smile and sunny disposition has gone through a makeover for this series. Anyway,
she at first looks like she’s going to turn him down, but then agrees, saying “one
dance couldn’t hurt.” Oh, sweet summer child, how wrong you are.
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| While her look isn't exactly comic accurate, her issues are, so she's still very Rogue. |
Back at her home, her guardian Irene
Adler, not to be confused with the Sherlock Holmes character, has a vision of
her charge being grabbed and some of the events that are about to occur. In summation,
the one dance hurts, a lot. At the party, things are going reasonably well with
the dance, until Cody stumbles and knocks Rogue to the ground. He tries to help
her to her feet, but unfortunately, his hand touches her bare arm and her
powers kick in at this most inopportune time. She absorbs Cody’s memories,
strength, and other physical skills, knocking Cody out and leaving Rogue addled.
Turns out, suddenly having a second lifetime’s worth of memories really confused
Rogue, causing her to seemingly forget her own name and not know what is or isn’t
her actual identity. Rogue, I’m fairly confident your name in this universe is
Anna Marie Adler. Focus on that, and maybe things will go better for you. Oh right,
she can’t hear me. Moving on. Cody’s friend tries to stop Rogue when she tries
to run out, but Cody’s memories and strength allow her to shove him out of the
way and she sprints down the street.
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| The face you make when you're certain "It" has hit the fan. |
Returning to her house, Irene calls Mystique
to report. They treat this like it’s some kind of reveal later in the episode, but
come on, there are two groups recruiting Mutants in this series and Xavier
would’ve brought Rogue in before her powers manifested if he knew what sort of
power she’d have. Irene explained that while her foresight let her know what
Rogue’s power ultimately would be, it wasn’t precise enough to know when and where
it would manifest, so she didn’t try to keep Rogue locked down. She’d assumed telling
Rogue she had a skin condition and encouraging her goth look would keep her
from touching folks. Parenting fail. Mystique is coming in, and Irene warns
that Xavier’s team will be close behind.
At the X-Mansion, Logan is infiltrating
the mansion in a ninja gi for some reason. Storm attempts to stop him, but he’s
able to make it to the Danger Room through the vents and trashes some of their defenses
before Xavier tells him to stop. Turns out the exercise was to show the
fledgling X-Men how to test the Mansion’s security system for weaknesses. They
workshop a few changes to make to the system before being interrupted by Xavier
rolling in. He lets them know thar Cerebro had detected a Mutant with an
unstable mind and powers, a “Rogue” if you will, running around Mississippi.
The whole team is being dispatched this time as it’s a weekend night to collect
her. Also, did Cerebro not know her name was Anna Marie Adler? Feels like something
Cerebro would be able to pull up.
The team gets into the Blackbird
and fly out, with Scott piloting and Kurt copiloting. There’s a mild kerfuffle
as Kurt, attempting to impress Kitty after hearing her complimenting Scott,
teleports out onto the nose of the Blackbird, nearly gets knocked off,
teleports back in and slams into Kitty. Oo, sorry Kurt, that sort of failure
hurts the pride as well as the body. Logan snorts and says “Kids” and I’ve
never identified with this Canuck more.
Meanwhile, Mystique lands in Mississippi
and gets into a limo with Irene. She makes a veiled reference to her group’s “founder”
providing her with resources… but I don’t know why she doesn’t just say
Magneto. Like, who else would be buying you stuff, Mystique, besides the master
of Magnetism? Anyway, she’s furious that Irene lost track of Rogue, and vows to
reclaim her. Because of Irene’s visions, they know Rogue is going to be a powerhouse,
so Mystique isn’t willing to let her go easily. She asks Irene where Rogue will
go, and she responds with “She’s going home. Or what she thinks is home.”
Meaning Cody’s house. Rogue uses Cody’s memories to get inside the house and
tries to refocus her thoughts.
The X-Men, not being able to track
Rogue’s mind due to how her power addled her psyche, go to the hospital that
Cody is staying. Jean infiltrates the room disguised as a nurse, touching Cody
to provide a link for Xavier. Apparently, a comatose mind requires a bit more
effort to connect with… or something. Anyway, Xavier gets an impression of Cody’s
mind and starts tracking Rogue.
At Cody’s house, Mystique and Irene
pull up. Irene is apprehensive about what will come next, as she’s shocked at
the thought of Mystique harming Rogue… because reasons… but Mystique promises that
Rogue will come running to them given the right incentive. She shapeshifts into
Wolverine as she does so. Inside, Rogue is trying to organize her thoughts but
is having difficulty. Her eyes tell her she’s obviously not a six-foot blonde
football playing male, but her memories insist otherwise. “Wolverine” attacks,
claiming that the “he’s” one of the X-Men and they’re hunting Rogue. Rogue
dodges “his” claws and runs off. Mystique shifts from Wolverine to Storm before
following. A few streets over, Wolverine (Logan), Nightcrawler (Kurt) and Shadowcat
(Kitty) are on the trail. Wolverine picks up a fear scent and runs towards it.
Outside, “Storm” uses a flashbang
to simulate lightning and “nearly” hits Rogue. Rogue jumps over a fence and
runs into Irene. Her guardian lies that the X-Men are Mutant hunters and they’re
after her. Fortunately for Mystique, it’s at that moment that Wolverine’s trio
runs up. Rogue pretty instantly freaks out at seeing Wolverine and runs off. Nightcrawler
noticed that she reacted to Wolverine specifically, and offers to talk to her
while Wolverine reports back to Xavier and the others. Wolverine agrees, but
points out he should probably go in under his Kurt Wagner hologram. A little easier
to process than the blue demon.
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| It really should have been a rule after this that Kurt is the one to make the initial sales pitch. He's really good at it. |
Kurt makes his approach, showing
off his teleportation and trying to approach Rogue as calmly as possible. His
tactic seems to be working, but then Kitty walks up. She decides it’s a good
idea to try for a grapple, but only ends up ruining Kurt’s approach and gets
the blue elf drained by Rogue in the scuffle. Rogue teleports away while Kitty
cradles an unconscious Kurt. Whoops.
Rogue bamf’s to a graveyard and
processes the new information. She now can teleport, speak German, and is
reasonably certain she’s not Cody. Apparently, her level of control has
increased significantly after draining Kurt as she teleports incredibly fast and
doesn’t seem as addled as she did with just Cody’s mind. Weird.
Back in the backyard, Kitty is kind
of freaking out that she might have accidentally helped kill Kurt. She’s able
to focus, though, and bases her next actions on what Logan would do, and calls
out to the Professor with her mind. At the same time, Xavier is with the others
and is perplexed that Rogue’s mind is getting harder to track, as if Cody’s mental
patterns have faded. He theorizes that the transfer must wear off on its own. Wolverine
arrives and gives them a status update. A moment later Kitty’s thoughts reach
him and he learns about what happened to Kurt. He sends the team ahead, with
Wolverine running back to help Kitty and Kurt, and tells them he’ll guide the
group to her telepathically.
Mystique watches from the shadows
as Jean arrives and makes an approach on Rogue. Rogue is still skittish, but I
guess Kurt’s memories of Jean keeps her from running immediately. Jean offers
Rogue a communicator, as a no commitment offer to talk with the X-Men whenever
she feels ready. Rogue takes it, but then sees Storm walking up with Cyclops (Scott)
and freaks out again and bolts. Mystique, smiling evilly, follows. In a mausoleum,
Rogue is hiding when “Cyclops” comes in. “He” attacks her, but Rogue runs,
running into the real Cyclops and shoving him out of her way. He falls, his optic
beam goes off and he hits some power lines, damaging them. Mystique quickly switches
to Jean’s form and attacks Rogue again, who teleports away.
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| This would probably be so much cooler if she knew what the off switch was! |
She bamf’s in front of Storm, and
Rogue grabs her. So… in about a… we’ll say three- or four-hour time period,
Rogue has absorbed the mind and abilities of a football player, a Mutant teleporter,
and now a Mutant weather manipulator. Talk about power spikes. Rogue is somewhat overwhelmed by Storm’s
immense power and starts creating a massive thunderstorm without trying. Jean
protects her and Cyclops long enough for them to save Storm from the falling
powerlines that Cyclops damaged earlier. Rogue is clearly losing whatever
little control she has, but is able to teleport away before she causes too much
more damage. The team reconvenes. Now that all the excitement has died down,
Xavier theorizes someone else was complicating this mission, and Wolverine confirms
Mystique’s presence. While her shapeshifting fools the eye or ear, her scent
doesn’t change, so it’s kind of easy for Wolverine to uncover when he’s not
worried about his charges. Kurt’s up and about again, and seems to have earned
points with Kitty… so I’ll give this mission a D-. It might have gotten a higher
grade if this Kitty-Kurt thing went anywhere at all. As the Blackbird flies by,
we get confirmation that Cody woke up, so that’s good.
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| Two things: 1. How does he keep getting in here unnoticed? 2. Why is he always playing with those paper clips? |
At Bayville High, Ms. Darkholme
welcomes Rogue to the school. I guess she didn’t remind Rogue what her real
name is? How odd. Once Anna Marie (dammit) leaves, Magneto reveals himself and
he congratulates his lieutenant for collecting her. Mystique assures him that
the confusion of absorbing all those minds coupled with Mystique’s shapeshifting
ensured that Rogue won’t ever trust the X-Men… But we’re shown that she still
has the communicator Jean gave her, so there’s still hope.
This is a great introduction to
this series's iteration of Rogue. I like the goth look, I loved the background of
how it was encouraged to keep her more isolated than normal, and how she
reacted to her powers manifesting. Most shows and stories I’ve read have had
Rogue more or less established right from the get go, she knows her powers,
their effects and has some level of control, so seeing her first reaction is a
bit of a different spin on her story. And I think they did it better here than,
say, in X-Men (2000) as that seemed to imply that after sucking the life out of
her boyfriend, Rogue stuck around for a few weeks to confirm he was okay before
running off. Granted, the movies seemed to have dropped the memory absorbing aspect,
so her lack of confusion works fine there, but it makes for a more interesting
chase plot here. I also thought it was cool how they showed off Mystique’s
tactics. Since her transformations are only skin deep, we saw her utilizing gadgets
to simulate more impressive powers or just rushed Rogue when she couldn’t to
keep Rogue off balanced. Plus, while she didn’t know how the teams would be
broken up, she initially focused on mimicking the mentors Storm and Wolverine,
expecting one or the other to be apart of the team to first discover Rogue. Thus,
guaranteeing that she’d have a bad reaction to whomever found her first. While
it isn’t said outright in the episode, it does highlight that Mystique is a
very skilled manipulator and tactician. And the ending about Rogue going with
The Brotherhood, but her loyalty not being as iron hard as Mystique assumes was
a nice touch. In fact, my only complaint about this episode is the Kurt trying
to impress Kitty subplot, because it feels unnecessary during the story, and I
know for a fact it goes nowhere. Why waste my time like that writers? Oh, and
while I harped on the name thing, it doesn’t bug me that much. I don’t think
Rogue’s name was confirmed when this show aired, I just always found it odd
that no one questioned her about the name or what she remembered about herself
once her mind settled. You think she’d want to be called her legal name out of
habit if nothing else, but I guess that’s just me speculating. In short, a very
good episode. Let’s see if they can keep the ball rolling with Blob’s intro
next time. Have a good night.
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