 |
| Well, this feels like the start of an alien abduction movie. Way to set the tone, fellas. |
We open on Scott
and Jean arriving back at the mansion. Scott rushes into the mansion for… some
reason, but Jean dawdles a bit and notes something watching her from the trees.
She goes to investigate and finds Toad spying on her. The furious amphibian attacks
her, claiming that he’s “getting a jump on the competition, yo.” Toad, you’re
picking a fight with the most powerful X-Man. And you are Toad. This does not
end well for you. Jean, not being evil, fights Toad off and throws him into a
well to get rid of him. Moments later, a large metal sphere land before her.
Several metal tentacles grab her and pulls her into the pod before it takes
off. Well, that’s dark. Toad pulls himself out of the well and shouts that there
was some sort of mistake and that “it should have been me!” Huh.
After the opening
credits, we cut over to a blonde boy named Alex surfing in Hawaii. He relaxes
on his surfboard for a few moments, just before a shark attacks him. Things
look bad for Alex, until his Mutant powers manifest and he blasts the shark
with plasma blasts from his hands. He surfaces, his hand still glowing red.
 |
| How much extra do you think guys like Xavier and Wayne have to pay to keep the construction crews quite on set ups like this. 100K? More? |
Back at the X-Mansion,
Logan joins Xavier in the new Cerebro. The wall computer that was smashed when
his half-brother Cain came to visit has since been upgraded into the spherical
room most folks would recognize from other media. Xavier reveals that Cerebro
has detected a new Mutant, Alex Masters. While a new Mutant is exciting, this one
is even more shocking as Alex Masters birth name was Alex Summers. Xavier tells
Logan to prep the Blackbird and be prepared for trouble.
It’s only hinted at
here, but, Scott and Alex were orphaned as young children when their parents
plane crashed. The two were separated in the wreckage, both believing the other
killed. In the comics, their separation was part of a plan to isolate Scott by
the villainous Mr. Sinister in a bid to use Scott as part of gene experiment to
make a perfect Mutant. In the show, it seems to be just due to bad luck.
Alex, meanwhile,
has gotten back to the beach and seems to be still freaked out by his powers.
Magneto arrives, introducing himself and offering to help Alex. The young
Summers tries to blow him off, but is drawn back when the master of magnetism
promises to take the pain of his ability away and offer him sanctuary.
Back at the
mansion, Logan has the jet prepped while Xavier tells Scott about his little
brother. Scott is incredibly distraught at learning that his little brother was
alive and disgusted with himself for not looking for Alex over these years. Xavier
tells Scott that Alex had been living with foster parents in Hawaii. After ten
years apart, Scott is hellbent on getting to his brother, and insists they take
off the moment Xavier is loaded into the jet. Unfortunately for the other
X-Men, they take off seconds before the other young heroes arrive. Kurt, still
wanting a beach trip, suggest that they take the X-Van out of town for their
own beach day. I don’t see how this could backfire. As they drive off, we see a
cat slink around. It turns into Mystique, whom radios her team and tells them
that the other X-Men are on the move. There it is.
 |
| Reunited and it feels so good. |
The team lands on
the Beach in Hawaii. Not sure which Island, though. Logan and Scott go out to search
while the wheelchair bound Xavier searches the area telepathically. They find
tracks which abruptly stop, which leads Logan to believe Magneto is involved. He’s
able to tell Scott a little bit about Xavier’s old friend and rival before
being cut off. At the same time, the Blackbird is stolen by Magneto, who uses
his power over metal to draw it to him. Logan rushes over and gets on the landing
gear before the Jet goes too far off the ground. Moments later, Alex and Scott
reunite. The two brothers hug it out, the joy of seeing Alex briefly making
Scott forget about the kidnapping of his mentors. Alex tells him Scott that he’d
met Magneto and that he’d told the younger Summers that the older would be
arriving. He reveals that Magneto claims that he just wants to show Xavier
something, and that the master of magnatism left a sphere for them to follow
along with. Scott is skeptical but goes along to protect his little brother and
find his friends.
Logan meanwhile is
clinging to the Blackbird for dear life as Xavier has a reasonably calm chat
with Magneto. He’s not there, just somehow projecting his voice and image to
Xavier. No idea if this is tech or some other Mutant’s power. He tells Xavier
that he’s taking him to Sanctuary for free, but that all other Mutants must
fight and battle for salvation. “We are the Future.” To prove this point, he
uses Magnetism to throw Logan about before dropping the old Canadian into the
Atlantic. Logan spots an island nearby and swims to it.
Ororo makes it back
to the mansion and is clearly shocked to find no one around. Did no one even
leave her a sticky note as to what was happening today? Or called her? Some
people. She bets a cat as she walks in, only to discover that cat is none other
than Mystique. The weather witch asks where everyone is, to which Mystique
complains that Xavier got a free pass while they’re forced to fight it out, a
fact she’s clearly furious about.
With the other
four X-Men, the team is almost at the beach when the road starts getting
churned up by Avalanche whom then rams into them with his jeep. He, Quicksilver
and Toad are able to run the X-Men off the road and into Blob, who announces that
it’s time to party. At the same time, Logan washes up on the island. He smells
Sabretooth, whom reveals himself and the two begin brawling.
 |
| And in our final act, our villain appears! |
Xavier finally
lands on Asteroid M, aka Sanctuary, Magneto’s floating metallic fortress. It’s floating
in the upper atmosphere above the North Pole. The master of Magnetism is shown
in the light fully for the first time as he shows, and by that, I mean drags,
Xavier in. Magneto explains that he’s pitting their two teams against each other
to prove who is the strongest. Only the fittest will join them on Asteroid M.
Xavier tries to convince his friend to go down another path, but Magneto isn’t
listening. He claims a Dark future is rushing towards them and they need to be
prepared.
The X-Men battle
the Brotherhood at the beach. Kitty gets nearly crushed by Blob, but is able to
phase through the ton of blubber. Unfortunately, the ride was so disgusting it
causes her to pass out. Kurt gets knocked out by rubble Avalanche throws at him
mid-teleport. Quicksilver buries Evan in sand up to his neck. The only X-Man to
come out ahead is Rogue, who knocked Toad out with a door but was thankfully
stopped by Avalanche before she drained his powers to keep him out. Four pods
descend for the victors.
Meanwhile, Storm
and a clearly pissed off Mystique are still brawling. Having grown tired of
Mystique’s cryptic comments and decided to take her out now, Storm calls up mist
to hide herself and then delivers a powerful punch to the shapeshifter’s face,
knocking her out cold. A pod bursts in and grabs her. At the same time, Logan wrestles
with Sabretooth. Logan gets the burly beast to spill a little more about Sanctuary
before the two charge each other one last time.
At Asteroid M, Magneto
reveals that Logan and Sabretooth’s fight is the only outstanding battle left. When
Xavier asks what Magento does with the victors that don’t want to go, Magneto
reveals his solution. Jean, Storm, and Rogue are all being kept in some kind of
stasis pods. Xavier tells Magneto he’s not saving anyone, just kidnapping
people. To which Magneto reveals that for every forceful extraction there is a
new convert, revealing Scott and Alex in matching uniforms, implying the
Summers brothers are working for him now. Dun Dun, dahhhh. Hell of a
cliffhanger to end on.
Overall, I like
this episode. This was an excellent full introduction to Magneto and gives us a
hint at his survival of the fittest, meaning Mutants, mentality. I will say sending
your own goons to battle another force to prove who’s strongest WITHOUT telling
the other side really slants the victories in your own favor, but otherwise this
sort of battle strategy does jive with Magneto’s usual giving every Mutant a
chance mentality. Side note, I kind of wish that they’d kept Magneto’s face
shrouded while wearing his helmet. It’s just… odd to see his face and eyebrows
after nearly a dozen episodes of just seeing his eyes. Just saying. I will say
making both of your top two lieutenants fight feels like a receipt for
disaster, especially when one is fighting such a lopsided battle as the one between
the shapeshifter and the weather manipulator. Experiment on her son, keep her
from reuniting with him, and now putting her in an impossible battle to prove
herself? Seriously, Magnus, do you want to be betrayed at a critical moment? Because
that’s how you get betrayed at a critical moment. I did like the reunion
between Alex and Scott, as brother coming together for the first time in a decade
really should make you so happy you forget about the little things… like kidnapping.
The only part I wasn’t so jazzed about was how the X-Men kids matches shook
out. Really? After ten episodes of beating the Brotherhood solo or as a group,
this is the one time the baddies come out on top? I suppose that this
highlights how important Scott and Jean are to team unity or something, but
still, feels odd. Also… why did Toad get two chances? Did Magneto really
believe he could win against someone, or was this just a lopsided bracket so he
decided to guarantee two X-Men? No idea. So yeah, an enjoyable start up to a
thrilling conclusion, with a nitpick or two sprinkled in. Fun times! I’ll see
you all tomorrow for the season finale.
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