An Angel descends from on high.
Last time on X-Men: Evolution,
Lance tried to turn over a new leaf… kinda. He joined up with the X-Men in a
fairly transparent attempt at getting closer to Kitty. He does fine with the training,
but quickly gets blamed for vehicles getting trashed. It’s revealed that three New
Mutants, Bobby, Sam and Jubilee, are the real culprits, but Lance gets blamed
because, well, reforming supervillain. After the three take the X-Jet out and
almost get themselves and Kitty and Lance killed, Lance quits, claiming the X-Men
are too high maintenance for him. Well, at least he tried. Let’s get to it,
shall we?
One of the most populated cities in the world, I'm
sure no one is looking up to see the Birdman. lol
We open with NYC at Christmas Time.
Lots of Christmas decorations, snow and all that jazz. We cut over to
Worthington Tower and up to it’s penthouse. In it, Warren Worthington III is sitting
alone in the dark watching the news. From a voicemail his mother leaves, he’s
been doing that a lot lately. Warren sees a news report about a disabled woman
being stuck on the top floor of a burning building, gets up, takes off his trench
coat to reveal his magnificent wings and flies off toward the blaze. We’re shown
the woman’s daughter sobbing as the firefighters keep her back, as Warren flies
in. He grabs the woman and drops her off at a park bench just outside her
building. She calls her daughter over and says an Angel saved her. And there we
have his new nickname.
We cut over to the X-Mansion where
they’re having a holiday party. Everyone’s laughing and having a good time. We
learn that most of the students and staff are going to be clearing out from
conversations between Scott and Rogue, and Charles and Logan. The most of the
students and Ororo are going to visit family, and Logan is going to go do Logan
stuff. That leaves Scott, Rogue, Hank and Charles at the mansion… I guess Rogue
doesn’t want to visit Irene? Odd. The party seems to end with Kurt, whom had
been playfully chasing Kitty with mistletoe, accidentally kissing Bobby’s cheek.
Oops.
The next day, the majority of the
staff and students head out. Jean seems to take a lingering glance at Rogue and
Scott standing together, but drives off regardless. Hank goes in asking who wants
to help him upgrade Cerebro, to a groan from Scott.
Back in NYC, Warren is in Central
Park reading about his exploits. He hears a mugging take place, takes off his
trench coat and flies to help. A mysterious figure watches him from a distance
as he flies off. He grabs the mugger and leaves him on top of a flagpole before
returning the stolen goods. When he goes back for his coat, we’re shown the
face of his stalker, and it’s none other than Magneto. That can’t be good.
News about the Angel spreads fast,
and makes it to the X-Mansion. Hank quotes the bible, making it seem like maybe
he thinks it’s an actual Angel, but Charles thinks that he’s a Mutant. Worried
that his honest efforts to be helpful could bring people to learn about Mutant’s
before they’re ready, Charles thinks they might need to send a team to see if
they can recruit Angel. Rogue volunteers herself and Scott to go looking.
Clearly with no ulterior motive (eye roll).
It's really just a nice, quite moment between friends.
The next day they head to NYC and
start interviewing those that Angel saved, but don’t get any leads on finding
him. The two searchers stop at a diner to warm up. Both know finding the Angel
is a long shot, but Rogue is pretty upbeat about it. She suggests they do something
fun in the city before heading back, specifically checking out a record shop so
Scott can get her a present. Oh, right, she gave him a sweater at the party and
Jean saw and didn’t look super stoked about it. Sorry, skipped that before.
Scott agrees but then asks if maybe this was a real Angel. Rogue scoffs without
thinking, but apologizes when she realizes Scott wasn’t joking. He explained
that after the plane crash that seemingly killed his whole family, he held onto
the belief that Alex might be alive thanks to a Guardian Angel until he grew up.
But then meeting Alex again makes him wonder if maybe there are real Angels out
there.
Max, what was your plan here? You're a very
distinctive man, that disguise wouldn't fool
anyone for long.
We cut over to the Brooklyn Bridge
where Magneto is standing atop one of the struts. That’s what you call the big
pillars right? Whatever, he’s standing up there, and when he sees Angel fly in,
uses his powers to cause a car accident. Oh, and Angel has upgraded to one of
those masks that covers his eyes but leaves him mouth and hair open to the air.
Angel swoops in an is able to save a family of three from falling into the
river. After setting them down, Angel get’s mobbed by people who want to see him.
Magneto uses his powers to wrap Angel’s leg in a cable, and while he’s
struggling to free his leg, accidentally knocks the little girl he saved over
the bridges edge. He swan dives after her, grabbing her and after a struggle to
take off from the water flies her up to her parents. Magneto then whips up a
mob, saying he saw Angel knock the girl in. People start hate chanting at Angel
but he takes off before the cops arrive.
At the record store, Scott and
Rogue hear gossip about the incident and head to the hospital where the girl
was sent to see if they can find a lead.
The girl is in pretty bad shape
after falling into the icy water. When her parents are taken out, Angel slips
in to check on her. He’s almost caught, but is able to avoid detection and throws
a lab coat on to slip away. He walks past the nurse’s station as Rogue and
Scott ask about the girl’s parents. The doctor mentions they left to go to
church to pray for their daughter. The two turn just in time for Rogue to spot
a feather falling from Angel’s coat and jumps to the conclusion he’s who they’re
looking for. They chase after him, but he slips off the coat and jumps out a
window.
Shock of shocks, Magneto isn't a fan of people
saying no to him.
At the cathedral, we see the girl’s
parents praying while Angel looks on from the upper floor. Magneto, this time
in his full costume, approaches him and tries to recruit Angel. He pulls the ‘do
you think they’ll ever accept you?” line, but Angel isn’t interested in his pitch.
Since the carrot didn’t work, Magneto tries the stick, literally, he attacks
Angel with a metal candlestick to try to force him to come with Magneto. Angel
dodges and almost flies away, but Magneto tangles him in the metal chain of a
chandelier and tries to fly off with him, only to be blasted through a stain glass
window by Cyclops as he and Rogue arrive. They free Angel, but Magneto quickly
returns for payback. Cyclops keeps firing at Magneto as he destroys parts of
the cathedral to get himself projectiles. Angel looks like he bails on the two
X-Men, but instead loops around to fly through the broken window and grab
Magneto. He holds him long enough for Cyclops to line up a shot. Cyc knocks Magneto
out of the air, and Rogue runs up and drains him a little. Magneto recovers and
throws her off, but she drained enough of his power to make him scared. He
flies off with Rogue in hot pursuit. They fly around downtown, with Rogue almost
losing Magneto around the Empire State Building. He rips off one of those eagle
gargoyle things and throws them at her, knocking Rogue back and out of the sky.
Angel swoops in and grabs her at the last moment. Rogue compliments him by
saying he might be a real Angel.
Scott, Rogue and Warren then return
to the hospital. Scott explains about the X-Men, and how their group takes no
for an answer, unlike Magneto. He advises that Warren lay low for a bit since
Magneto is still out there and that humans aren’t ready for Mutants just yet.
He suggests the institute, just as the doctor comes out to tell the girl’s parents
she’s awake. Warren goes to confirm with his own eyes. Rogue asks Scott if he
think’s Warren will come with them, but he doesn’t think so. We’re shown the
girl awake and saying she saw her angel again, which makes them all smile.
We’re shown a quick scene each of
the X-Men with their families over the break. Jean is Christmas tree shopping
with her folks. Kitty is celebrating Hanukkah with hers. Kurt arrives in
Germany in his normal man guise to see his adopted parents. Evan has a snowball
fight with his dad while Ororo and her sister chat. They try to get Ororo with
snowballs, but are… unsuccessful. Logan is having a quite evening playing pool
in a bar. And Charles and Hank toast the holiday back at the mansion. That’s a
happy holiday ending.
I liked this episode a lot. It was
nice to see Angel in something again. For whatever reason he seems to be the original
X-Man that has had the worst luck with adaptations of late. His parts in X-Men:
The Last Stand and X-Men: Apocalypse left a LOT to be desired. I like how they
characterize him as this lonely dude who is just trying to use his powers to
help but gets in a bit over his head when an actual Supervillain comes calling.
Sure, we didn’t get to see him as the wild party playboy like he is in the
comics, but I don’t know, I like this more somber, serious version of him a
lot. I also liked seeing Rogue and Scott working together. Her crush on Scott
is fairly obvious at this point, and while it’s clear he doesn’t reciprocate,
it was nice to see how they interact with one another one on one. They’re good
friends, I think. And the fight at the cathedral was pretty cool. It was nice
seeing the three use their powers to overwhelm Magneto, and the bit where Rogue
drains him, he knocks her away, she turns back toward him and her eyes are now
glowing yellow like his was a great bit. I’m a little disappointed that I know
Angel doesn’t sign on with the team, but this isn’t the last we’ll see of him,
I can promise you that. Next time, we’ll meet the mysterious Mesmero.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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