It's search and rescue time.
Last time on X-Men: Evolution, the
X-Men and their new Brotherhood boys plus Wanda faced off against Magneto and
his Acolytes. They were able to hold their own against Colossus, Gambit, Pyro
and Sabretooth, but were no prepared for Magneto’s masterstroke. He forced them
down into the lab of Bolivar Trask, and when the human supremacist unleashed
his Sentinel, pulled both X-Men and Machine into the light. News copters and
the military are brought in, and Mutants are revealed to the world. Unfortunately
for Magneto, Scarlet Witch catches up to him and in their struggle, he’s crushed
by the destroyed Sentinel. At the same time, Mystique set the X-Mansion to blow.
While the building did come down, Scott was able to get the New Mutants into
the Cerebro core, saving them. He is rightly pissed and starts attacking the
culprit… Charles Xavier? No, not really, Mystique has been playing him for the
last few weeks. Enough recap, let’s get to it, shall we?
Seems like a heavy response to, for all they know,
just a blown up building.
Cyclops reveals to the group what
he saw on the security tape, Mystique setting DefCon4 and then shapeshifting back
into Charles as he walks away. The X-Men demand to know where the Prof is, but
Mystique’s not talking. Worse, she’s somehow blocking Jean’s attempt at reading
her thoughts, so they can’t pull the answer from her. Their exchange of
information is interrupted by the arrival of the police and military. The X-Men,
New Mutants and Brotherhood scatter. Berserker fries some cars with electricity,
Multiple gets grabbed, but clones himself and gets away, Bobby freezes, and so
on. They actually get Jean into a cop car, but Kurt teleports into the driver
seat, driving off, but grabbing Kitty and Bobby on the way out. They almost run
into a roadblock, but Jean lifts them up and over. Scott almost gets grabbed, but
Storm flies down and gets him. They scatter, but Scott tells Jean
telepathically to meet up at the lookout.
We’re shown a quick flash of news
reports. Kitty, Jean and Evan have been identified, people are in a panic about
the “Mutant menace” and tensions are running high as people deal with the idea
that they’re sharing the world with Homo Superior. … Is that the actual
classification of Mutants in the Marvel universe, or is Magneto being a dick?
Whatever. Meanwhile, the New Mutants make for manhole cover, Berserker telling
them that he knows a place they can hide.
Oh, hey Nick.
Storm, Scott, Kurt, Kitty, Jean, and Bobby meet up at the lookout, with Mystique, Wanda, Toad and Lance joining a moment later. They want to know why the Brotherhood followed them, to which Mystique says is obvious, Blob was taken and she wants him back. She also reveals she had no idea what Magneto had been planning, and didn’t have a hand in outing all of them. They don’t have any leads on where the Mutants are being held. Thankfully, Fury shows up and has an idea. Mystique threatens him to leave or die, but Fury brought a firing squad, just to ensure everyone plays nice. He gives the X-Men a PDA with the schematics and maps of the facility where the Mutants are being held. He can’t get involved officially, but is willing to help them this much. He says it’s for his own reasons, but I think he owes Logan a solid. Storm tries to coordinate the teams, but Mystique is a control freak. The two Matriarchs of Mutants butt heads, but Storm backs down because Mystique still has the Professor X card. Mystique wants to confirm Magneto is definitely dead, so sends Toad to confirm, Wanda coming along as well to confirm her father’s demise. Everyone else is going to free their teammates. They steal back the Velocity from military custody by using Jean’s telekinesis and head out. As they fly out, they realize they’re headed to Area 51. I wonder if they’ll run into any Shi’ar or Phalanx there… They don’t, but it’d have been neat.
In New York, Toad and Wanda see
police removing the Sentinel’s body from the roof. There aren’t any bloody
remains, so Wanda is reasonably certain her father is alive, and is furious
they have no leads. Toad notices a news trucks and suggests getting info from
there. They break into the van and look over yesterday’s news. The national news
got some great shots of the fight. They find the moment when the Sentinel
dropped, and Toad is pretty convinced he was squished… squashed? Splattered.
Wanda has him slow it way down, and they see that Pietro recovered and super-speeded
pops out of there before the robot hit. Wanda is obviously pissed that he got
away again.
Meanwhile, Berserker leads the New
Mutants through the sewars. They’re met by a tall albino Mutant. He goes
unnamed here, but he’s Caliban, member of the Morlocks. For those who haven’t
heard that name before, they’re a group of Mutant’s whose X-Genes cause them to
have physical abnormalities that make it impossible for them to pass for
humans. Berserker introduces himself and the others to Caliban, who offers them
sanctuary.
At Area 51, Mystique flies into the
building in bird form, takes on the form of a guard and take over the security
cameras. She deactivates the electric fencing and letting the X-Men and
Brotherhood into the facility. Everyone but Storm who is manning the Velocity.
Deep in the lab of Area 51, most of
the Mutants have been broken free of the goo and in holding cells. They’re
still working on Blob. They have Logan strapped to a lab table and are interrogating
him. Logan is as helpful as you’d imagine.
The team split in two, with Bobby
and Kitty splitting off to shut down the alarms. Their plan is slightly derailed
when the guard Mystique mislead to get him out of the security office comes
back. She has to handle him and can’t disable the motion sensors. Bobby uses
his most iconic trick, making an Ice bridge, over the floor to get them to the
circuit breaker. Bobby cuts the right wire, but gets cocky, spins his wire
cutters a bit too haphazardly and sets off the motion sensors. Well, that ends
the stealth portion. Jean, Lance, Scott and Kurt get cornered but escape thanks
to Jean’s marvelous mind. They run into Mystique, who grabs Kurt to free the
others, and has the other three hold off the guards.
 |
| Did Mystique forget she can shapeshift into a snake? |
As alarms are blaring in the lab,
the guards stop paying attention to Logan. He signals Evan, who launches a
spike through an airhole in his cell, breaking Logan’s cuff and allowing him to
get free. He quickly starts wrecking the place, freeing Evan and telling our young
Spyke to free the others while Logan holds off the army. Evan does so, but Blob
frees himself after they chip off enough of the goo. They get all the guards
into the cell that was holding Blob and lock it down tight. Kurt and Mystique
arrive, much to Logan’s fury, but Mystique tells them its time to run. The
teams reconnect, with Lance told to bury the guards when they keep coming. Thankfully, Jean is fast enough with telekinesis
to move them aside before he does. The exits start getting sealed, but Bobby
and Kitty find a roof hatch that’s still open. Everyone is able to climb up,
even Blob who gets a phasing assist from Kitty, except Mystique. Scott, seeing
an opportunity, drops the security gate and tells her he’ll free her when she
reveals where Xavier is. Mystique calls his bluff, stalling for time until, in
a surprisingly cold blooded move, Scott seals the exit, leaving her there. Damn,
Summers, didn’t think you had it in you. Lance and Scott almost get into a fist
fight, I sometimes forget how loyal Lance is to Mystique, but Jean has them
break it up as their ride is leaving. They get on the Velocity, are chased by
helicopters and stealth bombers, but are able to hold them off long enough to
get away.
After, both the Brotherhood house
and X-Mansion remains are under surveillance. Toad breaks into the house to
steal supplies, but only ends up stealing clothes for Wanda. If there are any
young men reading my work… don’t ever try the forceful flirting tactic, it
never works.
The X-Men are still in hiding at
the lookout. They don’t have many options and are in general depressed. Scott
is beating himself up for leaving Mystique, as his attempt to play hardball cost
them their only chance at finding Xavier swiftly. Logan tells him not to sweat
it, as he’d have done it if Scott hadn’t. Storm sums up their situation best,
their secret is out and they have to both find the Professor and convince humanity
at large that they’re not the enemy. Before it’s too late. Well, that’s an ominous
not to end on.
This was a solid start to the third
season. The Mutants are still on the run, having to work with their enemies to
free their friends. We’re just seeing the hints of the social issues they’ll be
dealing with in this and the fourth season, with Humanity still reeling at the
reveal of the Mutant species. Things will continue to simmer for a bit before
they start boiling over, but suffice to say, there’s no reset button for them. Scott
actually trying to play hardball with Mystique sure was a surprise. Mr. Summers
was, at the time, not known for using threats to get his way. And it bit him on
the ass, which was also surprising. I also gotta give the show props for how
they decided to remove the New Mutants from the story. Obviously, the larger
cast would have complicated this plot more than was necessary, so they used the
opportunity to introduce one of the most famous X-Men adjacent groups, the Morlocks.
As I said before, they’re a group of Mutants who have obvious physical abnormalities
that make hiding impossible. Caliban is one of the more human appearing members,
and his bald head, pale skin and, in this version, hissing way of speaking heavily
imply his non-human status. They’ll play a big role in this season, so be
prepared. It was, again, a solid start to the season. Next time, is a surprise,
but I’ll be talking about one of my most anticipated upcoming projects. See you
then.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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