Last time on X-Men: Evolution, we were
given a glimpse into the… complex relationship between Mystique, Magneto and
Kurt Wagner. Rogue has a nightmare based on memories she took from Mystique
when she took the shapeshifters powers a few episodes ago. It’s revealed the
Kurt is the son of Raven Darkholme, aka Mystique, and that he underwent some kind
of experiment performed by Magneto that caused his more demonic appearance.
Mystique attempted to reach out to her son, but Magneto was tipped off by his own
progeny, Quicksilver, and the Brotherhood boys were sent to intercept. The
X-Men arrived and drove them back, but Mystique also rabbited, so Kurt wasn’t
able to learn more about what had happened to him. Well, that was a depressing
episode. Let’s focus on something more fun… what, this episode is about Logan’s
past? Well, crap. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open on Logan having a
nightmare. He’s in some sort of holding tank filled with a greenish liquid. Or
maybe it’s clear and the light is green, I don’t really know. Logan wakes up, unsheathes
his claws and escapes his tank. He remembers running through the woods before
being charged by Sabretooth, and a scientist in goggles. Logan wakes up on the floor
of his room, clearly distressed and disturbed.
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| How you force a man to become an animal. |
After the opening credits roll, we
switch perspectives to Kitty. Ms. Pryde is composing an email to her parents which
also serves as the narration for the episode. She’s lamenting a lack of privacy
in the MANSION that she lives in. Sorry, didn’t mean to shout that. But yeah,
Kitty’s having personal space issues this episode. She remarks that she can
occasionally find total privacy or at least the next best thing to it if the
only other person in the room is Logan. The combat instructor at the institute is
one of those guys who likes to sit in the background if he’s not actively
teaching. Go figure. The quite is interrupted when the other X-Men arrive for
breakfast, but that bit of noise is cut off by a news report about a “Bigfoot”
sighting and a wrecked car at Mt. McKenna in Canada. Logan turns up the volume
and seems transfixed by the report before storming off. Kitty continues her
narration about how if the X-Men are a family, then Logan is probably the black
sheep. She muses that he can be rude and often isolates himself which she finds
odd, how could he be dealing with problems worse than the rest of theirs? This
soundbite is played over Logan having some kind of fit and smashing up most of
his furniture in a blind rage. Kitty walks by as he slices through his door,
which seems to pull Logan out of it for a minute. He tells her he was just redecorating
and storms off.
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| Oh hi, Doc. You can kiss your ass goodbye. He remembers you now... |
Kitty tries a few more locals to do
some writing but is constantly being interrupted by her fellow students. I just
can’t imagine that a Mansion is this small, ya know? While she’s typing in a
tree, she spies on Logan and Charles having a convo in Charles’ garden. Logan
feels like something is lodged in his head and asks the prof to try and pull it
free. Charles agrees and goes memory-dumpster-diving. He dredges up more images
of the lab, the doctor, and Sabretooth before they break the connection. Charles’
confirms that this is a memory, not a nightmare, that he either forgot or was
purposefully hidden. He goes in for another look. They see another shot of Logan
battling Sabretooth and the Doctor overseeing Logan’s as he’s floating in the
tank. Logan is furious and says he’s going to McKenna for answers. When Charles
asks if he want’s back up, he replies with “Do I ever?” and storms off again.
In her latest attempt to find privacy,
Kitty snuck into the Blackbird to finish her email. There’s a fairly good joke
about her needing to wrap up before Kurt Bamf’s in and surprises her about two
seconds before he does just that. He’s collecting her so they can get a ride
from Scott to school, but that plan is dashed when the Blackbird takes off. Whoops.
Kurt and Kitty go to the cockpit and see Logan at the controls. Kurt goes to
speak to him, despite Kitty’s objections. Logan reflexively tries to skewer
Kurt, who dodges and bamfs back to Kitty. Logan engages the auto pilot and gets
up to confront his stowaways. He’s clearly not well, clutching his head and groaning
in pain. He shuts the door and slashes the controls. Kitty assumes he was effectively
locking himself in the cockpit. Obviously, with his claws this is a minor
obstacle, but it seemed to be enough of one to keep him from continuing the
pursuit. Kitty asks Kurt to bamf them away, but apparently the speed and height
of the jet’s flight makes that a less than ideal plan. They’re in for a long
flight.
Combat’s approaching, so we’re
switching to codenames.
Sometime later, the Blackbird lands
and Wolverine departs. And a few seconds after that Shadowcat and Nightcrawler
follow. Nightcrawler mentions that something out here is jamming the jet’s
transponder and radio, preventing them from getting backup.
In his secret lab, the Doctor is
watching Wolverine’s progress. The character goes unnamed through the episode,
but I’ll be referring to him as Malcolm Colcord. He was the director of the
Weapon X project in the comics and thus someone that would be very interested in
retrieving their precious prototype. Why? Because typing the Doctor over and
over again is boring. Colcord reveals that there is an implant in Wolverine’s brain
that’s causing him the pain he’s suffering, and that that plus the news story
he and Sabretooth formulated drew Wolverine to this spot. Colcord sends his “Big
Foot” as he calls Sabretooth to capture his rival and turns up the dial on Wolverine’s
implant.
Out in the woods, Sabretooth and
Wolverine face off. While Sabretooth puts in a good fight, Wolverine is able to
pin him to the ground. He demands answers. Colcord arrives and announces “You’ll
get your answers, Wolverine. But you’ll wish you hadn’t.” He turns up the dial
on the implant even more, and Sabretooth is able to knock him out. They take Wolverine
back to the lab and I guess get his implant working fully? It’s kind of vague
as if anything happened. Wolverine does have enough presence of mind to ask who
ordered his full skeletal overhaul, but Colcord is vague to that as well. Just responds
that he’s surprised Wolverine never figured it out. It doesn’t matter to him though,
as he’s going to use Weapon X as it was meant to be used. The ultimate Mutant Slayer.
He’s going to test out his Big Foot and Weapon X on Wolverine’s stowaways.
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| Hm... maybe I should have called him Dr. Creepygoggles. |
Wolverine and Sabretooth track down
Shadowcat and Nightcrawler. Now, obviously these two are outclassed pretty
heavily in the physicality department. Sabretooth alone could pretty easily rip
most non-physically enhanced Mutant’s to shreds with minimal effort.
Thankfully, our two stowaways represent the two most evasive members of the
X-Men. While it’s close, Nightcrawler is able to stay just out of Sabretooth’s
reach with teleportation and his impressive parkour skills. Shadowcat is
stalked by Wolverine, her phasing power making her untouchable, but Wolverine
won’t stop slashing. She keeps trying to talk the surly X-Man down. Wolverine has
enough control to slow down his movements, but he won’t stop. Colcord turns up
the wattage on the implant to keep him moving. Shadowcat is forced to phase
through a cliffside to escape him. She almost runs straight over the edge into
a river, but she got away from him.
Wolverine climbs the cliff and sees
a river cutting across the landscape. He remembers Kitty and is clearly
distraught when he thinks he killed the half-pint. Shadowcat circles behind him
and Nightcrawler joins her. She tries to talk him down again, pulling his mask
back to reveal his face. He struggles a bit but is seemingly able to break free
after Shadowcat asks the very simple question “Do you really want to hurt me, Mr.
Logan?” Sabretooth leaps at Logan, tackling him. Wolverine is able to throw him
off and the group retreats to go for the lab. Colcord keeps turning up the
wattage but Wolverine is able to fight through the pain this time. Sabretooth
follows, but Nightcrawler elects to distract him. Wolverine runs on ahead to
confront the not-so-good doctor. Colcord turns up the volume to dangerous
levels and activates several drones to contain him. Shadowcat runs in and
phases through the computer system, overloading it. It causes an explosive chain
reaction. Nightcrawler runs in and bamfs him and Shadowcat away. The lab explodes
with Wolverine, Sabretooth and Colcord inside.
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| Kitty is a real wiz with electronics. |
Outside, the kids wait for a while
and are clearly distraught, but they are rewarded with Wolverine stumbling
toward them. His costume is shredded, and he’s clearly exhausted but alive. He
passes out as Nightcrawler and Shadowcat grab him.
Logan wakes up sometime later, his
head bandaged. Xavier rolls in and lets Logan know that he’s okay and that the
other two are fine. He reveals that they somehow got the chip out of his head
that Colcord was using to control him. What? Logan has an adamantium skull, how
could they get in there to remove something from his brain? Whatever. He’s
fine. We close out on Kurt keeping the rest of the X-Men out of the dinning
room. He’s playing defense so that Kitty can finish her email to her parents.
Ain’t that sweet?
I liked this episode. In my
opinion, one of the hardest things to get right in X-Men is Wolverine’s
background. You need to find the sweet spot of keeping enough things back that
he remains a mysterious loner, but not so much that he’s a complete enigma. And
this episode seems to hit that point nicely. We know that Logan was
experimented on, that he was redesigned to be a Mutant hunter, and who
personally did the deed. But we still have no idea who ordered it, or any details
about the Doctor that performed the procedure. Again, his name isn’t Colcord, that
was the name of the director of Weapon X program in the comics. I just used it
to not have to repeat the Doctor ad nauseam. The unfortunate part, I have to
say, is that we never really get more details on the Weapon X program. Colcord’s
comments made me think that this was a plot point that they might have returned
to in later seasons, but that never happened. Instead, they focused on Logan’s
time fighting alongside a certain star-spangled hero in world war 2, and a
project HYDRA created from the original Weapon X project, one that required 23
attempts. Certainly, they are interesting stories, but I would have liked to
know who ordered a Mutant Slayer. Side note, I don’t know why X-Men: Evolution
and X-Men: TAS insist that Weapon X project gave Logan his claws. Those were
natural, just coated in metal. I really can’t imagine how or why someone would
implant blades into his forearms. Just odd. Oh, and the framing device of Kitty
looking for space was kind of weak. Again, she lives in a MANSION. I just don’t
see how you could ever be so crowded that you couldn’t find a personal area.
Just saying. So, yeah, this was a solid episode on Logan. Next time, Magneto
reveals himself.
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