The trap springs closed.
Last time on X-Men: Evolution, the
hunt for Magneto is on, but another plot seems to be in the works. While hunting
his archnemesis, Sabretooth, Wolverine is captured by a group of Mutant hating
extremists lead by Bolivar Trask. Xavier, feeling that the New Mutants weren’t
ready for the mission brings the Brotherhood Boys plus Wanda to bolster their ranks.
Scott, frustrated by Xavier’s single mindedness on Magneto and working the team
to the bone only to have their nemeses on, storms off. Logan is put up against the prototype of Trask’s
defender of humanity, the Sentinel. One man, even the Wolverine, vs one of
those things is not a receipt for a fun time… for him. The X-Men and
Brotherhood Boys plus Wanda, and Magneto and his new team the Acolytes, all
converge on the spot where Logan is being held. And, unbeknownst to them, the X-Mansion
is put into DefCon4 mode and set to self-destruct. Amara is the only New Mutant
to get out of the mansion and with Tabitha’s help, they collect Scott and are going
to break into the Mansion. The plot thickens.
We start right where we left off,
with the Sentinel holding Wolverine in its hand, preparing to terminate him.
The robot is shut down before it can finish him, as Trask wants to run a full
diagnostic after this initial test run and plans to use Logan for a round 2
fight once the test and repairs are done. TEASES!
Back at the Mansion, Jubilee is almost
killed by a turret but is saved by Bobby. He and Berserker freeze and electrically
fry the turrets respectively. The New Mutants split up to find the others and agree
to meet in the computer lab to try and stop whatever’s happening. Meanwhile,
Scott tries to climb the cliff up to the X-Jet hanger, but the rocks are too
sheer. He decides they’ll have to go in on ground level. Tabitha is ready to make
with the Boom Boom, but Scott stops her, fearing rockslides. Amara instead flames
up and melts a way into the subbasement. The trio travel through the halls,
making for the computer lab, blasting turrets as they go. We’re shown that they’re
down to 7 minutes, 30 seconds left.
The more things change, the more they stay the
same.
The X-Men and Brotherhood have
found Magneto’s pods. Xavier, who is still on the Velocity, warns them to stay
alert. None of the teams are able to fid anything, but a musical sting over Quicksilver
suggests that he’s up to something. Nightcrawler examines the pods but finds
nothing. His group, comprised of Jean, Rogue, Shadowcat and Spyke, are then
attacked by a flaming playing card. Oh, dear. It explodes but everyone is able
to dodge around it. Hearing the commotion, Avalanche announces “Finally, some
action!” to which Quicksilver says evilly “You have no idea” and races off.
Scarlet Witch, having been watching her brother, announces “It’s a trap!”
Magneto reveals himself, ripping a building
to pieces to reveal his new team. The Acolytes show off their powers, which is
mostly jut Sabretooth and Colossus looking menacing, Gambit shuffling cards and
Pyro doing fire tricks. They attack. Beast takes Wolverine’s usual spot and
fights Sabretooth. Pyro holds off some X-Men for a minute or so, but then Storm
douses his flames and electrocutes his flamethrower pack. Beast throws Sabretooth
around and demands to know where Wolverine is, but Sabretooth just says he’s around.
While all the fighting is going on, Scarlet Witch searches the skyline for a
place her father could be.
The New Mutants have gathered in
the computer lab. Bobby Drake has had no luck deactivating DefCon 4. Berserker
(yes, that is his real name) tries to electrocute the panel but Scott arrives
tell them that’s a real bad idea. He can’t shut if off, either, but has somehow
figured out who is behind this. They’re down to a minute and can’t get out in
time. Scott leads them to someplace that he thinks will be safe. And a moment
later, the whole mansion explodes. Damn.
Wolverine is being held in a
holding area while he recovers. His healing factor is impressive to Trask, who
I’m sure is just looking forward to how rapidly they can get back to testing. He’s
alerted to the Mutant’s fighting above his lab, and orders the Sentinel be brought
back online.
Rogue creeps around the shipping
area, coming up on Gambit. There’s this kind of weird moment where they look
into each other’s eyes and she freezes. Gambit hands Rogue a king of hearts,
which he then ignites before falling back. Rogue comes out of it at the last second
and tosses the card aside before it blows. The scene makes more sense when you
remember that Gambit has pheromone powers and he was probably using them to
freeze her up.
Colossus is trying to crush Toad,
but the animal inspired Mutant is just too agile to hit. Toad, feeling cocky, leaps
at Colossus trying to knock him over, but is as effective as an actual Toad
landing on a statue. Thankfully for him, Blob stomps over wanting to see who
the superior Strongman is. He is able to knock back Colossus, whom is grabbed
by Shadowcat and pulled into a building. Avalanche then does his thing and causes
a quake that buries him. Beast gets his bell rung by Sabretooth, but Rogue is
able to sample his power and knock Creed back before he can finish off the
Hank.
Scarlet Witch finally locks her
eyes on Magneto and Quicksilver. Her anger sets off destructive waves of energy
that crack the walls around her. She marches toward them, with Storm watching to
warn the others what’s happening. Quicksilver warns pops the Wanda shaped storm
coming towards them, but Magneto isn’t concerned. “She will have to wait. It’s
time to move this along.” He rips open the ground under the X-Men, dropping
them into Trask’s lab. I guess the ground has a high iron content or something.
Trask has the Sentinel activated and sends it in. The robot comes stomping in
to face off against the teams. Quicksilver raced over to confirm what’s
happening and races back to Magneto to report the Sentinel has taken the field.
Magneto recalls his team to their pods and sends them off. He then announces “And
now the whole world will know of us!” He uses his powers to lift the Sentinel
and X-Men up to ground level. A passing news copter spies the people in
costumes fighting a mecha and announce the whole world has to see this.
The Sentinel disables Storm with a
hard hit. Spyke, is obviously pissed at this, launches a bunch of spikes at it,
destroying its chest cannon. The teams hurl their powers at the Sentinel,
slowing it down and damaging it’s weapons. As the news-copters film, we see all
of the non-X-Men side characters watching and reacting to seeing their friends,
students and significant others battling a giant robot. Scott’s friend Paul has
the best reaction, just staring at the screen with his mouth wide open and a spoon
halfway to his mouth. The Sentinel hits the Blob and Spyke with its freezing
gel. Storm gets sup and hits the damn thing with a tornado. It activates its
jets, leaping up and slamming into the ground near Rogue and Shadowcat. It hits
them both, but Kitty slips out. It globs Beast when it tries to tackle it, too.
Soldiers are brought in, but Magneto isn’t ready for them to interfere. He
holds back the copters. Nightcrawler and Toad see the copters, and Nightcrawler
teleports over, grabs a grenade and uses it on the Sentinel’s shoulder rig. The
robot is still going, though, and finally detects Magneto’s use of powers.
Scarlet Witch catches up to her
family. She disables Quicksilver with a magic blast, and then uses her powers
to somehow block Magneto’s, just as the Sentinel flies up. It fires on them but
the two dodge around. Xavier flies the Velocity up and shoots at them, but Scarlet
Witch throws her back, saying “Stay out of it!” The Sentinel launches missiles
at them, but Magneto is able to reflect them. The Sentinel explodes, finally
taken off line. Unfortunately, it’s still largely intact and its falling body
hits Magneto, the resulting explosion throws Scarlet Witch off the building. Thankfully,
Nightcrawler grabs her at the last minute. Xavier calls the teams back in,
saying they’ll have to come back for the teammates that have been captured. As
the Velocity flies off, we hear the reporters speculating on if the Mutants are
friend, foe, human, alien and all the usual jazz.
Not to be that guy, but if they're clothes are damaged
shouldn't they also be horribly burned?
The Velocity lands at the Mansion, Jean
and the rest horrified at the thought their friends were killed. Scott and the
others arrive, their clothes damage but otherwise unharmed. The New Mutants explaining
that Scott got them into Cerebro just before the explosion went off. Scott,
clearly pissed, pushes past everyone and grabs Xavier by the collar, accusing
him of what happened. The others grab Scott, who drops Xavier, whom then stands
back up, laughing. Xavier turns blue and reveals that he’s been Mystique for some
time. And that’s the finale. Damn!
As good as the Asteroid M finale
was, this one was better. We got to see a full-on Mutant brawl with over a
dozen Mutants fighting. The introduction of the Sentinel and finally seeing the
Mutants being forced into the spotlight sure was something. Magneto’s plan was
pretty damn good. He must have found out about Trask and his Sentinel around
when he stole Project Rebirth. This isn’t confirmed in episode, but feels like
a safe bet. He lured the X-Men to where the Sentinel was, kept them occupied
long enough for the Sentinel to be unleashed, and then pulled back his own
forces so the X-men have to fight it. Mutants get revealed, the level humans
are willing to unleash to destroy them are also revealed, and the X-Men are
either injured or captured battling the mech. Pretty much an unbeatable plan,
if his daughter hadn’t complicated things. But that’s what Wanda does. The reveal
that Mystique had stolen Charles identity, presumably since visiting Wanda a
few in universe weeks ago was really shocking when I saw it as a kid, but in hindsight
they dropped a lot of clues. From the much greater emphasis on finding Magneto,
to his constant riding of his team to fight harder and be more ruthless, to the
simple fact we don’t see him use his powers once since that incident, the clues
kind of pile up. Sure, I’m not sure how she was able to flip between the
Mansion and the Brotherhood house as quickly as she did, but that’s a minor
continuity problem. Much like Blobs disappearing, reappearing mohawk. And so,
with season 2 ends the time of the X-Men and Mutants living in the shadows.
From here on out, they’ll be tackling the usual prejudices, bigotry and all the
other crap all other adaptations deal with. Magneto has sowed the seeds to that
Dark Future he predicted at the end of season 1, but the X-Men are going to
fight tooth and nail to stop it from spiraling further. Next time, the X-Men need to free the rest of
their team, and deal with the fallout. Have a good night!
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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