Last time on X-Men: Evolution, a
girls day out turned into a vigilante pseudo-X team. As they tend to do. Jean, New
Mutant Amara, Ex-New Mutant Tabitha, and later Rogue and Kitty, form a team of
vigilante superheroes called the Bayville Sirens to battle crime in the area.
They do well at their job, ultimately stopping a chop shopping ring. With only
a minor assist from Scott and Kurt to keep the leader from being roasted. They
get told to hang up the biker leather by a police officer, who is revealed to
be Mystique in disguise. Well, that was an odd way to hit the reset button.
But, whatever. Enough recap, let’s get to it, shall we?
Oh, hey Nick.
This episode opens with Logan on
his motorcycle being tracked by someone in a copter. Sidenote, good on Logan
for driving with a helmet, even though he 1000% doesn’t need one. He notices
the tail and swerves into a forest to lose then. They send Hummers after him,
but Logan causes them to crash with minimal effort. He gets cornered by the
copter, who’s side opens to reveal Colonel Nick Fury. Logan tries to leave,
telling Fury he doesn’t work for SHIELD anymore, but Nick is rather insistent
that he stay, having his gunship target Logan’s bike to ensure he doesn’t go. Logan
finally agrees to listen and Fury gives him the bad news. Turns out, Project
Rebirth has been stolen. Logan is livid and confused hearing this, saying that he
and Rogers destroyed it years ago. Well… crap. Nick tells him that there was a
backup that SHIELD found 17 years ago, but they kept it under lock and key
knowing that Logan would… object to any more experiments with it. Nick reveals
that whoever stole it smashed through steel doors and magnetically fried
security cameras. So yeah, Magneto isn’t being subtle this time.
We cut back to the Bayville High,
where Rogue is complaining about failing a WW2 test to Kurt. How relevant. An
asshole in a Captain America shirt bump into them, and Rogue and he almost
start a fight. Kurt gets in the way, but the dude cracks his image inducer. The
dude is about to run off to blab about what he saw, but thankfully Jean was
walking by and she mindwipe him. They ask if he’s doing okay, and Kurt says
that he’s used to it, but looks real sad when he teleports away.
Back at the Mansion, Logan gives Xavier
the background on Project Rebirth. He explains how the project was an early
form of Genetic Engineering. Xavier asks if this was an attempt at a Master
Race, to which Logan denies, saying they were the good guys and they didn’t
mean it like that, while Xavier points out that they never do. Logan says there
was only one test subject, Steven Rogers. We get a flashback to Rogers
Transformation, Rebirth this time seems to be an entirely gas based process.
Rogers gets transformed into the captain, and we see him kick ass by saving a solider
who’s jeep was hit by a Nazi plane. He takes the plane down, slicing off one of
it’s wings with his shield, before helping the young soldier up. Xavier points
out that Logan is talking like he knows Steve, to which Logan says he does, with
another flashback scene of Cap returning the soldier to a Canadian army jeep
and meeting Logan. Xavier points out that Logan’s powers of regeneration are
impressive, with Logan saying that while he remembers WW2, things get a bit hazy
after that. Xavier asks why Logan claims the project was a failure when it
obviously worked if it made Captain America, but Logan says it actually
destroyed him. And now Magneto has it.
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| And instant best friends. |
Later, Rogue and Kurt see the
lights dimming in the mansion and realize that Cerebro is being used at full
power. In Cerebro, Logan notes that there are a lot of Mutant signatures are
popping up. Xavier says their numbers are growing exponentially, and both agree
that Mutant’s being hidden are numbered, and Xavier postulates that might be
the reason behind Magneto’s increasing activity. Unfortunately, while Cerebro
has been upgraded, Magneto’s cloaking tech has increased in turn. Logan then
notices Rogue and Kurt watching and asks if she has something to contribute. Rogue
says that she got some memories from Magneto back in New York and, while most
are jumbled, she remembers a big dome partially covered in rocks, somewhere in
the Sahara. While that’s a big area, she’s pretty sure she could find it via
landmarks, and to get inside they’ll either need magnetism or teleportation.
While Logan is against it, he really has no other options so they get to tag
along.
While in flight, Kurt is super excited
to be on a team with Rogue, who sarcastically says they’re a team of two. This
triggers a flashback for Logan, who remembers his mission with Cap. They, a
team of Two, were sent into a concentration camp that they needed to liberate
fast. So, fast they were just dropped without parachutes. The two pretty easily
obliterate the Nazi forces, even with Logan’s claws. Yeah, this is another universe
that seemed to think Logan got his claws during the Weapon X treatment. Cap
frees the prisoners, grabbing a young man and hoisting over his shoulder to
help them run. Some Nazis throw grenades at the retreating prisoners, but the
boy is able to throw them off course with that distinctive Magneto “whoosh”
noise. They drop the kid and the others off at a transport car, and the boy
says he’s Erik Lehnsherr and he thanks them for saving everyone. I should point
out that his name right now should be Max Eisenhardt, but the movies made this
alias Magneto’s canon name, I guess.
In the present, Rogue asks why
Magneto would want Rebirth. Logan thinks he must have read up about the project
after the fact and might want it to make some super soldiers. Rogue sees some
landmark rocks and leads them to the dome. On the way, Kurt asks why there was
only ever one super soldier. Logan explains that because power like that
shouldn’t be easy, and there was a tradeoff to enhancing the Captain like that.
The process gave him a cellular degenerative disease that was slowly killing
him They land the Velocity and get on the XTVs, with Rogue grabbing a bomb to destroy
the device. Yes, they are just ATVs. They drive toward the dome, with Rogue asking
if they ever solved the problems with Rebirth. Logan says they didn’t get the
chance to, as Cap and “Another guy” (him) blew the chamber to pieces to prevent
anyone else having to go through the painful death Rogers was going through. As
they approach the Dome, Magneto’s defense system kicks on and starts bombarding
them. They’re able to dodge around the missiles, jump off a dune and Kurt
teleports them into the building. Not a graceful landing, but points for style.
Inside the building, they see
someone is already in the Rebirth Chamber. Logan runs to stop him, but get’s
attacked by Sabretooth. He focuses on fighting Creed and has his sidekicks go
for the actual chamber. They run for it, but Magneto uses his powers to pin
them both to the wall with girders. Rogue passes Kurt the bomb and he teleports
to the chamber. He sets and preps the bomb, telling the person inside that they’re
doing him a favor as the chamber is bad for ones hell. Magneto is revealed to
be inside and he says that on the contrary, the pod is his last hope. He’s
looking incredibly old. When Kurt asks what happened, Magneto says that he is
just old. Which checks out, if he were a mid-teen in the 40s he’d be at least
70 by 2000. His genetic enhancements kept him going for a long while, but he
now needs the more drastic measure of Rebirth to get him back into fighting
shape. Kurt says the project is dangerous and will kill him, but Magneto claims
the cell degeneration is a human issue. For Mutants, Project Rebirth
regenerates them, extending life spans. He tells Kurt that destroying the controls
is as good as killing him, and asks if he’s really that much like his mother.
Kurt can’t do it, and so let’s Magneto complete the process. Rebirth regenerates
him to his physical prime again.
Logan is finally able to stop Sabretooth
by throwing him into a transformer, runs up to and slices Magneto out of the
pod. He pulls the timer on the bomb and blows Project Rebirth to kingdom come.
Magneto is obviously pissed at Logan breaking his chance at an infinite refresh
button, and attacks them, making a metal contraption from the various girders
and scrap to fight them. He pins them all and knocks Kurt out. Magneto clearly contemplates
killing them all, but decides that one good turn deserves another. Kurt saved
him, so he owes the boy that much, and a young man in Poland owes Logan much
the same. He lets them leave. On the way out, Rogue asks what Magneto meant,
but Logan isn’t talking. He tells the kids that he has to visit an old friend
before closing this case.
Logan visits Captain America,
currently in a cryogenic pod in an undisclosed location. Logan promises his
friend that they’ll find a cure for him, and that he’ll be there when Steve
wakes up. Fury tells him it’s time to go and reminds him that this never
happened. Logan agrees. The episode ends on Captain Steven Grant Rogers “America”
in his pod, waiting.
I really enjoy this episode. While
the legal complexities of live action film made it impossible for use to see
theses two in the MCU, I do so love Cap and Logan war stories. X-Men: The
Animated Series had one as well. So yeah, if that’s your only source off Marvel
knowledge you might not know these two have very much a Batman and Superman,
Flash and Green Arrow, Spider-Man and Daredevil type friendship. The dark and light
pals. That said, it was a pretty convoluted tie in to make Project Rebirth
regenerate an aged Magneto. Just kind of weird. Oh, and the initial appearance of
Rogue and Kurt, with the failed test and a reminder that Kurt is blue, was 100%
pointless. We could have just had them notice the lights flash and join the
story there. Maybe then Cap could have had a line in one of the flashbacks.
Just saying. Oh, and saving Magneto from the concentration camp is canon too. That
might feel like a coincidence, but when you live as long as Logan you’re bound
to meet a lot of people. I think it’s a shame that we never got to see them
defrost Cap, I assume that was an idea for a later season, but they never got
back to that story. And if was fun to see Nick Fury again. I like when these
shows make it clear that while we’re focused on a specific group, there’s a
larger world going on that we aren’t always seeing. SHIELD is always great for that.
So yeah, a fun story about one of the best odd couples in Marvel. Next time, we’ve
met the speed, now it’s time to meet the magic half of Marvel’s famous twins.
Yep, 00s Wanda is coming on stage right.
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