Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 48

 Evan returns, and he's spikier than ever.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Charles Xavier learns that he has a son, David, by his ex-wife Gabrielle Haller who has been kidnapped. He, Jean, Scott and Ororo fly to Scotland to try to save him. There, they meet the mysterious mute boy Ian that is living with the Hallers, as well as the angry and aggressive Mutant Lucas. Lucas is the kidnapper and has a big beef with Charles. It’s eventually revealed both other boys are David, different personas of him. Charles tries to help his son by forcing the other two personalities back and drawing David into the forefront. Unfortunately, Lucas pulls a fast one and gets himself pulled out and into the primary persona. This was his plan all along, as he knew Charles was the only Mutant strong enough to do it. He flies off, leaving his distraught parents behind. Later, Ororo says advises Charles that David isn’t gone for good, and he’ll find his way home. That’s a sweet way to end that debacle. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Damn, huge nose. Snout. Thing.

We open with a young, green skinned boy named Dorian watching the news. It’s revealed Apocalypse has made another dome around a Pyramid in China and that tensions with Mutants are continuing to escalate. Dorian’s mother doesn’t want him watching the news and turns it off, but Dorian turns the tube back on the moment she’s out of the room. We jump over to a restaurant worker throwing out some food. One of the Morlocks, Lucin, climbs out of the sewers and uses his X-Ray vision to open the lock on the dumpster to get fresh-ish food. Some yokels show up and start chasing Lucin, cornering him in a back alley, when he’s saved by Evan. Evan’s gone through a lot of changes since we last saw him. Change 1. He’s almost entirely covered in armor made from his spike calcium, change 2. His Spikes now burn when launched. Neat. He fights off the yokels and he and Lucin return to the sewers.

 

Remember, Morlocks are Mutants with obvious physical differences that makes them blend into day to day life difficult if not impossible.

 

Evan looks good.

Back at the Morlock Camp, their leader Calisto goes to speak with Evan. Calisto tells him that he needs to back off, as his aggressive actions against people have tensions running high. Evan, still extremely angry, says that it’s unfair that they are living in the sewers and eat garbage but are still hunted. Calisto warns Evan that bad things could happen if he keeps pushing things, to which he asks what sort of bad things will happen if he doesn’t?

 

At the X-Mansion, Hank McCoy has done some additional research on the Pyramid situation for Charles. The Pyramids are encased in spheres, not domes. The domes reflect any energy hit against it. Research indicates that both the Pyramid in Mexico and China date back to Apocalypse’s reign in Egypt and that can’t be good. They’re both concerned as the Chinese Government is building up an army around their pyramid, as the inevitable destruction caused there will not look good for Mutants.

 

Meanwhile, two of the New Mutant’s Sam and Amara are leaving the library talking about an assignment they’re doing. Sam stumbles and accidentally cannonballs into a wall, breaking it. They’re then accosted by Duncan, Jean’s ex, who are looking to cause trouble for Mutants. Amara holds them back by threatening to burn their car. Duncan and his gang seem to be willing to risk Amara’s wrath, but the situation is taken out of their hands when Evan arrives and throws burning spikes at the Mutant haters. It destroys their car. He tells them to get home and that he’ll handle things. Evan scares the crap out of them, and tells Duncan to spread the word that the Mutants of Bayville are off hate crime list.

 

Later, Xavier uses Cerebro to track down Evan. The adults agree that Evan’s heart was in the right place but he’s not dealing with the consequences of his actions. Charles finds Evan in the sewers. Ororo wants to rush out and talk to him, but Charles cautions that pissed off aunty might not be the best tactic for this. He suggests sending Logan in to talk to him. He begrudgingly agrees. Hank calls Charles in to see a news report. The Chinese government pulled everyone out of the province to drop bombs on the Pyramid. It goes about as well as they predicted, the dome is fine but everything else is destroyed. Unbeknownst to them, after this fiasco, Fury pulls Bolivar Trask from his cell. Why? Because the president authorized the restart of the Sentinel program. It’s their best option against Mutants like Apocalypse.

Yeah... Mrs. Leech, no one is buying that he's
sick.

 

Logan goes to the sewer. The Morlocks send a scout, but Logan sense him and tells him that he wants to keep things civil. Evan comes to Logan and the two debate for a minute. Logan admits that he agrees with a lot of Evan believes, but as an adult looking at the big picture, things are too tense for Evan to be stirring up additional trouble. Evan says that he’s just doing what needs to be done and storms off. Later, he enters a grocery store and freaks everyone out by just… buying things like a normal person! Dorian and his mother are there as well, the kid has a headache as things get more tense. Evan is refused service and told to get out. He begrudgingly goes, the crowd demanding that Evan take Dorian with him. His mother insists that Dorian is just sick, but they don’t believe her. They try to force Dorian out, he’s almost crushed by some shelves in the scuffle, but Evan saves him and makes an exit in the wall for them to leave. Dorian’s mother yells that the crowd are a bunch of monsters as she run out. Evan takes his bag of groceries, but still leaves the money on the table as he leaves.

 

Jean dodged a cannonball with this guy.

After the destruction in China, tensions are high. Duncan is calling for attacks on Mutants. He calls out Spyke by name in his litter interview with the news. There are angry mobs forming outside the Xavier Institute and Brotherhood Boarding house. Duncan, not content with just talk, steals some dangerous mining equipment and he and his buddies start driving around town, melting sewer grates and dropping bombs down on the Morlocks. We’re shown a quick second at Dorian’s house, where his mom both denies Dorian is a Mutant but wants to keep him out of sight too. A bomb goes off near the Morlock’s base and Evan, righteously pissed off goes out and attacks the assailants. He beats up several before being lead to an abandoned building by a small mob. Dorian sees this happening on the News and goes out to help. The X-Men see the same report and go to give additional backup.

 

The Morlocks join Evan first, but the X-Men arrive a moment later and the two groups quickly overpower the mob with their minding lasers. Jean gets some catharsis by throwing Duncan aside telekinetically. He gets up, though and goes to shoot Evan and a newly arrived Dorian as the cops arrive. Evan protects Dorian who then shouts “STOP!” and causes everything to stop. His wave of energy shuts down all electronics and suppresses Mutant powers, turning Evan back to normal, causing Jean to drop and Scott’s eyes to stop blasting. The cops arrive and arrest Duncan and his crew for reckless endangerment. Dorian’s mother takes her son, Evan tries to apologize for everything that happened, but she’s not feeling like listening right now. Evan returns to the sewars with thee Morlocks. Ororo tries to convince him to come back but he feels like the Morlocks need him more. She lets him go with her blessing.

 

Just outside their apartment, Dorian and his mother, revealed to be named Mrs. Leech, are met with Charles Xavier. Charles gives them his no pressure sales pitch for the institute before leaving, the credits rolling a moment after.

 

I liked this episode. I’d missed Evan, so getting to see him again is neat. The big changes in his appearance were somewhat shocking but fit what was happening to him at the end of the last episode he was in. It looks like his spikes grew out of control until they encased him in armor. The new plated look means he fits in quite well with the Morlocks now. I liked seeing tensions rising in the world at large with Apocalypse’s actions. Obviously, X-Men and racism-based adversity go pretty much hand-in-hand, so seeing more of it as Apocalypse prepares for his big moment makes sense. I liked the moral quandary that this episode presented. Evan is right that he and the Morlocks deserve the right to be able to walk around town and not be persecuted or attacked because they are different. But Charles and the others are also right that attacking others to prove a point is just so not the publicity they need right now. Is it alright to turn the other cheek, or to slap back? Who knows? This introduction of Leech was interesting too. In the comics, Leech is a Mutant that can stop all powers in the area around himself. The field he emits stops all power use around him. This is the only version, I think, where he can repress his power to an extent before the energy gets too much and blows outward. Usually, he blocks powers by just being around. And it was really nice to see Duncan deal with the consequences of his actions. That asshole should have been arrest for something ages ago. So yeah, good to see Evan, good to see tensions rising, and good to know Apocalypse is gearing up for his showstopper. Next time, Rogue bonds with a certain Cajun with charm. See you then. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/75346831?pr=true

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 47

 Is three still a crowd when they're all the same guy?

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Logan went on a bit of a trip. Everyone’s favorite X-Man was kidnapped by HYDRA to use as bait to lure out his clone/daughter X-23 (dubbed Laura by me as it’s her comic name.) Logan and Laura traveled the wilderness for a bit before they get nabbed by HYDRA goons Gauntlet and Omega Red. Madam Hydra, aka Viper, arrives to witness Laura’s reprogramming, only for everyone to learn that Laura got grabbed intentionally and she plans to blow HYDRA sky high. Logan attempts to save her, but she shoves him to safety before executing her plan. HYDRA’s top brass is all seemingly killed in the explosion, as is Laura, but it’s quickly revealed that the woman with healing powers somehow survived a big explosion. Color me shocked. At the same time, Jean and Scott taught a Mutant class and earned the New Mutant’s respect.  Pretty simple. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

Smug Scottish Scoundrel.

 

We open with a party of some kind being thrown in an old Scottish castle. The party is run by an angry looking blonde named Lucas. He travels through his party and then into the dungeon, showing off his telekinesis as he opens doors and trapdoors with his mind. He meets with someone called “David” and tells him that if he wants to end this, he needs to call “him.” A phone rings and is answered by Charles Xavier. The young man, David, begs for his Father’s help. Oh my.

 

Later, we join the X-Men as they fly the X-Jet to Scotland. It’s looking like Ororo, Scott and Jean are running point on this one. Charles is in the middle of a clearly awkward conversation with his ex-wife, Gabrielle, and explaining that no, Cerebro didn’t just tell him this random Mutant in Scotland was his kid.

 

Back at the mansion, Hank supervises his as they make a hasty exit for school. Jean and Scott call in and it’s revealed that Kitty and Kurt are both down with the flu. It’s revealed that a weird side effect of the flu is that Kurt randomly teleports when he sneezes. Kitty is fine but miserable, so hers is a much more normal illness.

 

On the flight, Charles explains the situation a little more to Scott and Jean. Yes, he was briefly married to a Gabrielle Haller about 17 years ago, and he had no idea about his son until today and that he’s been kidnapped. We’re shown a brief shot of David in prison below the castle as the scene transitions. They arrive at Gabrielle’s home and Charles is all business from the get-go. His ex-wife doesn’t even get a hi before he’s asking if the police have been contacted. Ororo is more cordial and introduces herself and the other two. Charles asks for a list of David’s friends and favorite locations, but Gabrielle reveals that they’d just moved to the area and he barely left the house since.

 

Strong resemblance in the Xavier family.

We cut to David. David is able to escape from the dungeon he was being held in and runs up to the upper floor where the party is happening. Either Charles made record time flying to Scotland or this is quite the rager of the party. David runs from the party guests but ends up stuck between them and a cliff side drop to the ocean below. Not good.

 

Jumping back to Charles, he’s admonishing his ex for keeping David from him. Gabrielle tells him it wasn’t about punishing Charles, it was about not having her son grow up with a father that didn’t have time for him. Okay, analyzing, Charles was a workaholic with little to no work/life balance, Gabrielle wanted him more present in the relationship and he wasn’t willing to do that. Got it. She admits that not telling David about Charles may have been a mistake. Outside, the angry blonde, Lucas, is watching. He spies Jean on the upper level.

 

Going down, down, down in a burning ring of fire.

In the room, Scott and Jean are examining David’s things, looking for clues. Scott feels weird poking through someone’s things. Jean teases him about it for a second, but then spies a little boy watching them. They go after the boy, but he disappears. Gabrielle joins them and explains that that’s Ian, an orphan David found a few weeks ago that they took in. He’s been living with them ever since. He’s mute, so he can’t help with David. Jean, being a literal mind reader, wonders if she might have some luck. She runs out to find Ian. She get’s cornered by Lucas instead, who traps her in a ring of fire before knocking her out.

 

Back at the Mansion, Kitty goes to Kurt looking for tissues. She tries to shake him awake but is instead teleported by him by sneeze. First to just outside the school, to in the middle of a class (living everyone’s worst nightmare of being at school in their pjs) and then to the middle of downtown, where she gets splashed by a passing car. Not a great day for Kitty.

 

Jean is taken back to Lucas’ castle. When she wakes up, she’s chained but Lucas releases her a moment later. He introduces himself and tries to convince her to have some fun with him. She throws him aside telekinetically and tries to leave. Lucas hits her with a mental blast and she collapses. He tells her that she’s going to stick around as it’s the only way she’ll find David.

 

Back at Gabrielle’s, Ororo lands as Scott busts out a motorcycle as part of their search for David and now Jean and Ian. She hadn’t seen any sign of them in the air but noticed fires in the distance. Gabrielle says that’s McFadden Castle and teens party there. Scott heads out, promising to be cautious. While Scott is gone, Charles says they should look for Ian, as he thinks the boy knows more than he’s letting on.

 

Scott makes it to the castle, walks through the party and immediately meets Jean. She wants him about Lucas, and Scott immediately goes to challenge him. Lucas quickly overpowers them botoh, using telekinesis and some kind of force field to protect him from Scott’s optic blast. Jean tries to throw him but Lucas is just too strong telekinetically. Scott is put in a helmet and chained to a wall and Jean is locked in the heart of the castle. Lucas warns her she’s not strong enough to break herself free so there’s really no point in trying.

 

The adults are driving the X-Van, looking for Ian. It’s foggy, Ororo tries to do something about that, but before she can, she almost runs over Ian. They get out and grab the child. Charles tries to read his mind but is being blocked somehow. He tries harder and gets flashes of Lucas and McFadden Castle. Ian runs off. They try to follow, but Ian causes a ring of fire to encircle them. Gabrielle is shocked to learn he’s a Mutant, and Charles is more troubled to learn that Ian is working with David’s kidnapper.

 

Jean, meanwhile, throws her telekinetic force around, breaking her out of her cell and into David’s. She introduces herself to David and tells him that his dad is on the way. Jean frees them and flies them out of their prison. They run but get turned around quickly. David says they’ll just need to walk until they hear music. David is obviously bitter about his absentee father, Jean tries to hype her mentor but David doesn’t believe her. He reveals that Lucas told him about Charles and that this whole thing is about Lucas going head-to-head, or brain to brain, against the great Charles Xavier. Kid has got moxie, I’ll give him that.

 

Charles, Gabrielle and Ororo arrive and find Scott. They free him and Jean and David arrive a moment later. Charles’ shakes his son’s hand… and David starts transforming. He shifts from himself into Ian, who throws up a wall of fire. Jean announces that David is Ian, and Ian shifts to Lucas. Lucas explains that he is Ian sometimes and sometimes not and it’s quite vexing. Yeah, for those who haven’t seen David Haller aka Legion, he’s an incredibly powerful Mutant with an intense form of DID. His unstable mind has several alt personas and each has a power all their own. He throws everyone out of the flaming ring, saying he wants a little quality time with his dad. Charles tells the others to stay back while he handles this.

 

Dude loves his fire.

Lucas is clearly David’s anger and abandonment personified, as he yells at Charles for not giving him the time of day before now. He causes a massive quake to show off his powers. Lucas shifts to David and David tells Charles’ to run. Charles wants to help his son and puts his hands to David’s head. Charles enters his mind and is confronted with manifestations of David, Lucas, and Ian. Charles throws Lucas and Ian back with his powers, engulfing them in light. David begins to glow, too, and Charles tells him to grab his hand. A hand grab’s Charles and he pulls hard. In the physical realm, David shifts into Lucas. Lucas, high on his freedom, reveals this was his plan all along. He wanted to be the only personality in his head and he knew that Charles was the only person strong enough to do it. He gleefully announces that he’s free as he flies off. Both Gabrielle and Charles start to cry at the loss.

 

The team returns to the Mansion. Hank welcomes them home, and tries to give Charles’ moral support but the professor just moves past him. They realize that he needs time to process what happened. Jean asks about Kitty and Kurt, and Hank is pretty sure they’re well rested by now. We cut to Kurt’s room where he finally teleports himself and Kitty back to. Kitty, dirty and extremely angry, starts hitting Kurt with his pillow and listing off all the places he teleported them to.

 

The last scene is of Charles and Ororo together. Charles points out that the real tragedy in this is that he lost his son before he even really got to know him. Ororo tells him not to give up hope, as David can find his way back, and he’ll be waiting when he does. That’s a happy thought to end on.

 

This episode is good in concept but is a bit lacking in substance. We only get a little bit of David, Lucas, and Ian each and while the episode acts like it’s being mysterious and spooky, I think it’s pretty clear what’s happening from the get-go. Granted, I knew all three boys were the same person, but I think even someone who hadn’t heard of Legion would have noted that it’s weird we didn’t see any of the boys together at the same time. Hell, even in the opening shot, we just see Lucas talking at David, not the two of them together. It’s a spooky mystery only in the sense that the characters don’t know what’s going on. Plus, we get so little of Ian that I honestly wonder why he was included. Like, I know a two person personality split would be kind of dull, but a mute boy that appear twice before the big reveal makes it like a 2.5 split personality instead of a real 3 person one. I’d have just liked to know what Ian’s stake in this was. Like, why was he cool with being purged? Surely he wanted to live as the one-and-only too. I will say, I like Lucas as a version of David’s dark side. He’s had a few evil personalities in the past, while Lucas is original to Evolution, he checks all the boxes for a dark alt. He’s David’s explosive anger, his resentment and feelings of abandonment personified. They did a good job exemplifying how powerful Lucas is, mostly by him easily overpowering Jean, one of the strongest characters in the series. His plan too is solid. Inconsistently swapping between two other personas can be damned inconvenient, I’m sure, and who better to purge one’s mind that Charles Xavier? It’s simple but elegant. Unfortunately, the series ended before they could expand more on their version of Legion. I’d like to think that if there’d been a season 5, we’d have learned that Charles’ purge wasn’t perfect, or that over time David recovered in the back of Lucas’ mind and he started to manifest again or something. The Kitty-Kurt plot was silly but harmless. I’d have used the time for more time with Lucas and David or something but that’s just me. So yeah, this was a fun concept, it was just a bit light on details for me. Next time, the return of Spyke. See you then. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/75291584?pr=true

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 46

 Who's ready for a good old fashion game of cat and mouse? 

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, the Brotherhood boys did something stupid. Yes, I know that sums up pretty much all of season one, but this stupid thing had greater than average consequences. Wanda, emotional after her father’s death and Pietro being a dick, caused a slight subway car accident. The Brotherhood accidentally helped save several people from the crash, were rewarded for it, and immediately turned to faking accidents for cash and publicity. Things spiraled out from there, with Pietro convincing Wanda to use her powers to force the X-Men to cause some property damage and be thrown in jail. When the Brotherhood decides to quit their con, Pietro convinces them to go out with one last job, stopping a runaway train. But Mr. Does Everything Fast forgot to check the train schedule and sent the train they were going to “save” hurtling toward another. The X-Men are released and stop it, with a little help from Lance who is the only Brotherhood boy with a conscience these days. The Brotherhood lose all their fame and credibility and things go back to normal. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it.

 

Wolvy is not gonna have a good day.

The episode opens with Logan reading the newspaper with Bobby, Ray and Jamie begging him to come in and teach their Mutant class today. They’re dreading this new one as it’s the first class being taught by Scott and Jean, and it sounds insanely boring. “The Application of Physics within the strategic use of Mutant Powers” is a very dumb name, not going to lie. Logan isn’t interested as he’s busy and he thinks that his old pupils might have something to teach the new ones. He goes to his motorcycle but smells something is off. Someone is watching him from a distance and seeing to his metallic skeleton. He follows the scent to a back alley where someone is watching from above. He then gets jumped as metal whips break through a wall, grab him, and slap a disk that shocks him on his forehead. Oh, hey, Omega Red is in this one!

 

We cut to Jean and Scott as they head to the classroom to teach their class. Jean is excited, Scott apprehensive. Scott is ultimately proven right as the door opens and he’s hit by a cannonballing Sam as he rockets around, and the rest of the room is in chaos.

 

A very odd couple indeed.

Logan, meanwhile, wakes up in a cell, handcuffed to the ground. He slices himself free of the chains and makes an exit out the side of the room he’s in, only to realize at the last second that he’s in a low flying plane. Two HYDRA goons come in and shoot him. You can tell they’re HYDRA goons thanks to the obvious HYDRA logos on their uniforms. Logan is launched from the side of the plane and has a comedic over the top fall that would kill anyone without healing powers. Two HYDRA goons land a short time later, they’re Omega Red, a large blonde Russian man with extendable whips in his arms, and Gauntlet, a bald man with either a cybernetic eye or monocle goggle over a normal eye. They start tracking Logan.

 

Logan drags himself from the river he ended up in. His healing powers kept him alive, but he’s so badly beaten up that his recovery speed is substantially lower than normal. Gauntlet takes a shot at him and Logan stumbles away. He tries to hide in a hollowed-out tree, but Omega Red finds him via his cables and drags him out. He says he’s ‘Been waiting for this a long time, Weapon X.” When Logan doesn’t recognize him, this pisses Red off. He says he won’t fall for Logan’s “games” this time and this time he’ll leave Logan broken and suffering. What an intense backstory we’re being fed here. Gauntlet keeps Red from killing Logan, saying they have a job to do. Suddenly, X-23 leaps in and kicks both their asses before pulling her sort-of-Dad up and running with him. Gauntlet and Red get up, Gauntlet radioing to HYDRA command that X-23 is in play.

 

X-23… okay, I’m just going to call her Laura, because saying X-23 repeatedly is awkward. She isn’t named this in Evolution, but it’s her comic canon name so I’m using it. Laura pulls Logan along, throws him to the ground and then demands to know what he’s doing here. Logan says he’s just as surprised to see her and asks what’s going on. Laura tells him to get out of here and starts storming off. Logan follows his progeny. A short walk later, Laura points out he should be healed already, but Logan’s body has taken a severe beating, so it’s not surprising it’s taking a while. As they walk, Gauntlet and Red are still tracking them. Logan asks Laura why she left the institute that night and reveals he looked for her all night. She says she left to protect him, to keep him safe from HYDRA, and SHIELD. She knows they want to use her, and she doesn’t want her sort-of dad and his friends getting hurt. They smell their pursuers on the wind and Laura finds the tracker they left on Logan’s boot. She tells him to run, but he’s not leaving her again.

 

Meanwhile, Scott and Jean try to teach their lesson, but they have trouble teaching kids that are just barely younger than them. The plight of all student teachers. The kids cause a ruckus, the tip of the iceberg being Jean discovering that Bobby left an ice sculpture in his place, and everyone runs off to “find him.”

Father-daughter relationships are complicated 
at the best times, and this is certainly not that.

 

Logan and Laura do their best to outsmart Red and Gauntlet, staying just ahead of them. There’s a funny bit where Red grapples with something in the bushes, which turns out to be A wolverine not THE Wolverine. Logan realizes that they’re being led into a trap. Laura doesn’t believe it. Logan tries to convince her to trust his instincts and experience if she wants to stay free. Laura admits she knows she can only be free if she’s dead. Logan tells her that he’s living proof that you can get passed the kind of messed up stuff being a living weapon does to people, but Laura doesn’t have much hope. They walk a while longer, and into a trap. The trail they followed had led to a small canyon of some kind. Laura apologizes for not listening to Logan and Gauntlet takes a shot at them. They get forced into a canyon as HYDRA soldiers arrive. They’re surrounded. Laura tries to go for Gauntlet, but he hits them with a sonic blaster that knocks them both out.

 

Later, they’re brought via flying fortress to the HYDRA base. Logan is kept separate from Laura by Omega Red as he’s introduced to the leader of this branch of HYDRA. She’s called Madam Hydra here, but most Marvel fans will probably know her better as Viper. Madam Hydra tells Logan that Laura is back where she belongs, with HYDRA the people that own her. Logan asks why they can’t leave her alone. Madam Hydra reveals that Laura is the one that wouldn’t leave them alone. Our favorite little assassin has been on a campaign to destroy their bases. That’s daddy’s girl! She’s been dodging all their traps and methods of tracking until they used Logan as bait. They’re going to wipe her mind and reset her to killer setting. We see a video of her being wheeled to a lab with one of the shock disks on her forehead. Madam Hydra leaves to check on her project, leaving Logan to Omega Red per their agreement. In the lab, the scientist that is going to do that wipe notices that she has the shock disk on her forehead and complains that he told Gauntlet not to use that on her as it could interfere with the wipe. Omega Red, once alone with Logan, tells him that he deserves what’s about to happen to him. Him and all his Weapon X comrades. He lists off Logan’s old team, Sabretooth, Maverick, and Wraith, and that he’s going to kill them all. Logan goads him into attack, Red throws his chair around, allowing Logan to get free and knock him out. He escapes and stabs the door, locking Red inside.

 

The scientist calls Gauntlet to yell at him for using the disk on Laura, finds out Gauntlet did not, in fact, use the disk and Laura snaps her eyes open. Oh, she’s as dramatic as her old man. Alarms blare as Logan runs down the hall, following Laura’s trail of destruction. He finds her and tells her they need to run, but she reveals that she’d been trying to get in here the whole time. She wants to kill Madam Hydra for the whole coating her bones in metal thing. She tells him to leave, and they’re interrupted by Omega Red arriving to attack Logan again. She tells Logan to run, as he doesn’t have much time as she throws timed explosives everywhere. Madam Hydra is advised to leave as they see her rampage. Logan fights Omega Red for a few minutes, knocking him out by stabbing one of his carbonatium coils into a junction box, electrocuting him.

 

Oh, I hate her face.

Madam Hydra takes off in her floating fortress as Logan runs out. He sees Laura climbing up the side and goes after her. She asks him to let her go, he says it doesn’t have to be like this, and she says it has to and she kicks him free. Laura goes to confront Madam Hydra. She accuses Madam Hydra of making her into a weapon and that she’s going to get payback. Gauntlet comes in to try to stop her, but Laura throws a whole bunch of the bombs around and smirks at Madam Hydra as their timer clicks down. Logan, back on the ground, see the explosion going off and the ship crash.

 

…

 

They treat this like a tragic death thing… even though Laura is, for all intents and purposes, a clone of James Logan “I regenerated once from my skeleton” Howlett.

 

SHIELD Agents arrive. They take Omega Red into custody as Fury goes to speak with Logan. Fury asks where Laura went, and Logan says she didn’t make it. As he goes onto the copter to return home, though, he gets her scent on the breeze and smiles. We see Laura smile at the copter as it leaves and run off into the wilderness. See, that death fake out was kind of a pointless moment.

 

We cut back to the Scott and Jean teaching the New Mutants. Bobby points out that he’s practically an X-Man already, so why does he need this stuff? Jean and Scott demonstrate how knowing some physics might help with power use… by Jean levitating everyone and Scott using a focused optic blast that bounce off stuff and around the kids to slice an apple in half. That is impressive. Logan, watching from the door, smiles and walks off.  

 

I really enjoy X-23 episodes. Shame this is the last one. Laura does have a cameo appearance but this the last story about Logan’s female clone. The bonding a little while on a survival chase thing is a solid story for two characters that are living embodiments of wild people. Laura is as short tempered, angry, and generally pissed off as her old man, and it’s nice to have an episode where she can talk a little more. This episode also did a nice big of worldbuilding with the introduction of Omega Red and his ties to Logan’s past. Briefest of summaries, Omega Red is another Mutant enhanced to be a living weapon, the product of the Weapon X program of the former USSR. He and Logan have faced off and on for years and in this continuity, they battled while Logan was the Weapon X. Sabretooth is an established character, obviously, but Maverick and Wraith are other former members of that group. Red feeds us just information to know that 1. Logan has a colorful past, 2. He pissed off someone really powerful like Omega Red, and 3. He and Sabretooth used to get along. At least well enough to work together. We don’t get much more than that, unfortunately, but I’d like to think that if this season had had a higher episode count or they’d gotten a season 5 that more of Logan’s former team would have shown up. Oh, and the Scott and Jean teach a lesson story is just such a B plot. Like the worst one since Kitty and her pyramid hat thing. Just kind of a waste of time that might have been better served showing more of Logan and Laura together. It feels like it’s there because X-Men: Evolution isn’t allowed to have an episode focused solely on one of the adult heroes without it connecting to a teen X-Man. Or something. And that’s all I really have to say about that. Next time, the gang heads to Ireland to meet someone they’re not prepared to handle… David Haller… aka David Xavier… AKA Legion. Oh no. Have a good night. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/viewer-log-x-men-75245344

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 45

Brotherhood boys being Brotherhood boys.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, everyone was still reeling from the revival of Apocalypse. Magneto, having for the first time faced a Mutant that outclassed him as much as he outclasses 90% of other Mutants, took it especially hard. Things came to a head when everyone discovered that Apocalypse had encased the Mayan Pyramid in Mexico in an energy dome. The X-Men went to examine it. Magneto, on the other hand, went to settle the score. The Master of Magnetism pulled out his full power against the Pyramid, raining debris made up from the Mexican Army’s tanks and weaponry on them, and dropping satellites as artificial meteors on it. Apocalypse just floated out of the Pyramid and destroyed Magneto with a flick of his wrists. Damn. Meanwhile, Rogue was still dealing with the PTSD of being mind-controlled and used for evil for like the fifth time. Kurt kind of complicated matters by trying to work out her, and some of his own, issues with Mystique. He retrieved her petrified form from the Brotherhood and asked Wanda to get him in contact with Agatha Harkness to see if Magic could help. Agatha couldn’t help, but said that Rogue could, as a moments touch would drain Mystique just enough to kickstart her powers again and let her free herself. Kurt asked her to do it, to both save their mom and to help Rogue deal with the anger and pain she felt towards Mystique by proving she wasn’t like dear ol’ Mom. Rogue, not ready to deal with this, screams, shoves the statue over the side of the cliff they were standing on and shattering the statue into pieces. Damn, hell of a way to end an episode. Enough recap, though. Let’s get to it.

 

The episode opens on a subway track. Wanda and the Brotherhood boys are riding the rails to somewhere. Pietro notices that Wanda is depressed and locates the source being the frontpage story of a Newspaper the one other passenger is reading about Apocalypse’s attack and their father’s untimely death. Remember, Wanda’s memories have been scrambled so she remembers Magneto as a kind loving father and not the asshole that abandoned her at an asylum because he couldn’t handle her. He zooms over and crushes the Newspaper. He tells her that Magneto was a bully that went after a bigger bully, and to just get over it. Pietro… no, wrong impulse. Pietro tries to tell her the truth about the memory alternations, causing Wanda’s powers to go out of control and cause a major subway crash. She bends the tracks and cause the subway train to jump onto the platform.

 

Lance, the only good one.

Outside, the X-Men see the smoke and head over in Scott’s car to see if they can help. In the busted-up subway, the Brotherhood kids realize that the car is going to blow as Lance spies exposed electrical wires near a gas main. They freak out for a second, before Pietro tell Blob to make a door. Fred rams his way through the subway cars, creating a path for the others to follow. Lance, being the only member of their group that is at least occasionally a good person, slows down to help escort the other passengers from the cars. Toad tries to grab a dropped wallet; an old man grabs onto him asking for help and he frog hops them both out of there. Lance also stops to help an old lady. The X-Men arrive as the Brotherhood boys and the others make it out. Lance carries out the last passenger as the cars go up. The Brotherhood boys love the attention they’re getting from this good PR, but Wanda walks off with a huff.

 

Pietro and Toad are happy, they should be concerned.

We cut over to Principal Kelly, who is reviewing his campaign ad for Mayor of Bayville. Eddy is running on the “Mutant’s Are Bad” platform. He wants to register Mutants and monitor them and doesn’t for a second see how he’s literally advocating for Nazi tactics being used on American citizen. The ad ends and it cuts to a news story about the heroic Brotherhood Mutants. Kelly’s campaign manager immediately wants to drop the anti-Mutant platform, but Kelly thinks they just need to change the public’s thinking.

 

Later, Kitty and Scott are both annoyed at the Brotherhood’s good press. Xavier isn’t too concerned when Scott brings the paper with the story to him, as he thinks any good press for Mutants is good for them all. Scott points out that good press will end the moment the Brotherhood does something stupid. Xavier still is calm, because Xavier, and hopes that the Brotherhood boys can see the benefits of being good guys for once and stay out of trouble.

 

The Brotherhood, meanwhile, has a bunch of reporters on their front lawn and Pietro is scheming about how to make the good press last longer. Pietro wants Wanda to talk to the press, but Wanda (the only one with an active conscience in the group) doesn’t want to take credit for saving people from a wreck she caused. Pietro tells her to not think about it and step out and enjoy the ride for once. Wanda does go out but runs back in when she gets asked a question. The old lady that Lance saved gives them a check for $10,000 for saving her, and because her family has a big construction company, they’re going to fix up the boarding house for them. Rather that learn a lesson here about the rewards of good deeds, Pietro immediately decides to turn this into a scam and rake in some cash. How a schemer as smart as Magneto raised an idiot like Pietro… wait… no, Magneto was not an active parent, never mind.

 

Later, the Brotherhood head out in their costumes. Lance doesn’t want to do Pietro’s plan, until he points out that it’s a gold mine and that the best part is the X-Men are going to hate this. Lance, I’m sure still sore over the breakup with Kitty, knocks a big gargoyle off the roof of a building which Blob catches. We get a montage of the Brotherhood causing major and minor accidents before jumping in to save the day. Pietro tosses a beehive at some kids, Toad eats them; Lance causes a bus to careen out of control, Pietro and Fred save the bystanders, etc. Their house gets fixed up with all the money they’re earning, and Scott is getting extremely frustrated about this.

 

Angry Scott.

At the X-Mansion, Kurt teleports in to show a new poll says the Brotherhood has a higher approval rating than the police chief. Kitty bemoans the situation. Charles comes in and puts the obvious situation together, that the Brotherhood are causing the accidents that they save people from. Scott points out that something is going to go wrong, and Charles suggest that they need to make sure that doesn’t happen.

 

Kurt tracks them that night, following the Brotherhood to Kelly’s campaign office. He trashed them in an interview, so they trashed his campaign office. The four boys tell Kelly to back off or else, but before they can deliver the threat, the X-Men and New Mutant’s come in. Realizing it’s like 3 to 1 odds against them, Pietro has the group retreat. Kelly, being an asshole, yells at Scott, saying he’ll drive Mutants out of Bayville, one way or another. He storms out.

 

Back at the house, Lance causes a quake, breaking up their redone living room, because he’s angry at the X-Men. Pietro draws his attention to bigger news, that they’ve been bumped to the third page of the newspaper. … Okay, I grew up in the 00s when this show was coming out, and the Newspaper was definitely not this important anymore. Pietro, not wanting the gravy train to end, goes to manipulate Wanda into helping them with their next event, a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new zoo. He uses the whole “the X-Men didn’t help dad and now their coming after us” idea on her.

 

At the ribbon cutting, the X-Men arrive to make sure the Brotherhood don’t mess things up while Pietro gives a scathing speech about them. When he says “X-Men,” it’s a cue to Wanda to start using her powers on the X-Men to causes their powers to go out of control. She steals Scott’s glasses so he optic blasts everything, cause Bobby to freeze the ground and that sort of thing. The situation caps off with several tigers getting loose and the X-Men getting locked up for public endangerment or something. Charles tells them to stay in their cells while he works this out.

 

The. Only. Good. One.

Fred and Lance think that it’s probably time to call it quits, but Pietro wants them to pull one last job first. It’s going to be another wreck, this time a train. Pietro runs along side the train and fries the controls. Their plan was to run and stop the runaway train… but I guess Pietro didn’t check the railway timetables or whatever, and so they’re all completely shocked when they hear they set the passenger train on a collision course with a second train carrying 8 tankers of gasoline. Whoops. Pietro, Fred, and Toad bail, but Lance stays. The X-Men are freed, and Charles let his people know that, yes, the Brotherhood messed up and now the Mayor needs them to fix it. Swell.

 

Scott, Kitty and Kurt phase into the passenger train. They lead the driver to the back car and Scott optic blasts them free of the engine. Kitty stays on the engine to help. Jean personally stops the cargo train with her telekinesis. She tries to stop the other one but doesn’t have enough time. So, Kitty Phases the engine, trying to phase it through the whole train. She can only get through about 3/4ths of the way, though and the train re-solidifies and causes an explosion. Jean is able to force the explosion back for a bit, but it’s too much energy to contain. Thankfully, Lance arrives and buries the whole thing in a sinkhole he makes. He tells the X-Men that is the last of the heroics and walks off.

 

The Brotherhood lose all their fancy stuff and we learn via a news report an investigation is opening to determine if they’re the cause of all the recent accidents. Pietro, still being a dick and an idiot, suggests they take the new subway into the city. Everyone gets mad a t him and start trying to kill him with their powers. “A simple no would suffice!” he screams as the credits roll.

 

This is a fine filler episode. It showed us how tensions are raising between Humans and Mutants and how Charles is looking for any kind of win to help tip the balance in their favor. I like that the show tried to remain consistent that Lance, overall, is a good person with an attitude and a bad support system, so he genuinely helped the lady that rewarded him, that he needed to be coaxed into doing these attacks consistently, that he wanted out before things escalated too much and that he stayed behind to help when Pietro screwed up royally. It’s a little thing, but I like that he hasn’t gone full asshole. I also like that Wanda is 100% not into this either. It seems to be a side effect of her mind getting reprogramed that she isn’t as aggressive as she used to be and genuinely doesn’t want to use her powers to hurt people or take credit for helping people she endangered. I have to say, after the first three seasons, it’s weird seeing Pietro be the one to completely drop any loyalty and love for his father the second he’s gone and Wanda being the one in mourning. Yeah, I know, families are complicated, and Wanda literally had her brain rewired, but I don’t know, I expect some tears or something from Pietro. It was also interesting to see the start of Kelly’s political campaign. It’s a long road from high school principal to US Senator, but you can see the start. He’s a human supremist and is constantly lashing out at the one group of Mutants that hasn’t actively tried to kill him because they won’t kill him. Asshole. So yeh, a fun little minor consequence episode. Next time, the return of Wolverine’s… rambunctious little clone, X-23. Have a good night. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/75198142?pr=true

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 44

Something wicked this way comes...

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, we took some time away from the plot to go on a cruise. The X-Men and New Mutants enjoyed anonymity for a bit but ruined it after an incident in the dining area. Their ship stops off the cost of an island and the kids sneak off to get away from the glares. Well, Scott and Jean do, and Kitty and Kurt follow to spy on them. Bobby, Tabitha, and Amara also headed there because Amara was feeling ill due to not being on the ground for too long. A hot spring trip and Amara’s proximity to it leads to a volcanic eruption. The X-Men stop the eruption, and everyone high fives. What a fun filler story. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We begin with a scene in the Yucatan Peninsula. Apocalypse’s ship appears at the top of the pyramid there. Once in place, the stone around the pyramid breaks off, revealing a metal pyramid underneath. The ship seems to merge with the Pyramid, revealing Apocalypse. His arms have gotten covered in some sort of bionic metal since he left the Himalayas. He unleashes his power, and the Pyramid become covered in black energy. Whatever he’s doing, he doesn’t want to be interrupted, it seems.

 

Jumping to Egypt, we see a man travel to the sphinx and get on his knees to pray. The ground opens and Gambit comes out. When the man says Apocalypse, Gambit says “nah, but that is the magic word.” He captures the man and brings him into the cavern. It looks like Magneto and his team have set up shop in the underground complex. Pyro and Colossus are exploring the area when Gambit brings the man to Magneto. Magneto demands to know about Apocalypse, when the man doesn’t answer, he has Mastermind read his mind. The man doesn’t know anything new. Gambit sums up what the locals know, that Apocalypse is a prophesied ancient warrior that will return one day to conquer the world. Magneto is furious at this statement and swears that Apocalypse will never rule so long as he is alive.

 

Back at that X-Mansion, Xavier and Hank are also searching. Xavier says Cerebro is detecting a lot of new Mutants, but not Nur, and Hank has been scouring for news articles and hasn’t found anything either. Hank thinks that after 5000 years, Apocalypse is gearing up for something big, and Xavier thinks it has to do with the ship, the Eye of Ages. Xavier is clearly frustrated by this, so tries to distract himself by asking how the kids are doing. Hank says that kids always find ways to let off steam.

 

There's enough PTSD between these two to fill
a pair of books. 

We’re shown a quick shot of the kids playing Mutant basketball and wrecking stuff before cutting over to Rogue. She’s clearly still depressed about her latest bit of mind control-based kidnapping. Logan come up to her and tells her to not let it get to her, but she just shrugs and says nothing does. He tells her that what the villains did to her isn’t her fault, causing her to snap that she’s fine. As he goes to leave, she asks why the Professor is keeping the Mystique statue around. That is, obviously, the focus of her frustration. Logan says not to worry, as Xavier has already exhausted his ability to try to help Mystique. Every test shows she’s solid stone now. So, he gave the statue to the Brotherhood. Mystique says good riddance to her adoptive mother being gone and wanders off.

 

At the Brotherhood Boarding House, the boys are fighting over what to do with Mystique. Toad’s using her as a dance practice dummy, Fred wants to use her as a Gargoyle, and Pietro stuffs her into the closet to scare Lance. Such love and respect for their fallen boss.

 

Meanwhile, some hikers find that the now dome covered Pyramid. Not good. 

 

Rogue goes out to a gazebo to be alone, when Kurt bamfs in and complains about the Professor giving their mother to the Brotherhood. Rogue angrily tells him to leave her alone. He wants the statue back with them. Rogue yells at him asking why it matters to him so much, to which he just says having the statue made him feel better. She storms off and he teleports away.

 

He sneaks into the Brotherhood house and is horrified to see how they’re using his mom. Blob and Toad are dragging her around and using her as a prop. Wanda comes in, calls them stupid, and suggests they get in touch with her magic teacher Agatha Harkness to see if magic could fix her. The two boys walk off. Wanda pretends to but comes back in to fight Kurt a second later. He just says that “She’s my mother,” and Wanda backs off, letting him take her.

 

Colossus has had enough of his shit.

Back at the Pyramid, Magneto and Colossus have a spat. Colossus is trying to get information, but he’s not meeting Magneto’s “update every 30 minutes” rule. Magneto, frustrated and ego still bruised, tries to threaten Colossus. He tells the metal giant that if he ever wants to see his family again, he’ll follow orders. Fed up with this, Colossus shoves his keeper against a pillar and tells him that “Your wounded pride drives you to madness!” Magneto shoves him back with his powers, saying he’ll crush Colossus like a can. Colossus, not dealing with this, turns off his powers and attack’s Magneto as just a six-foot tall, burly pissed off Russian. He’s stopped by Gambit, who reminds Colossus that Magneto is their best chance at stopping Apocalypse.

 

Back at the X-Mansion, Rogue passes Kurt’s room as he asks Mystique’s statue “Why were you so full of anger?” She’s pretty full of anger at seeing the statue, she comes in and yells at Kurt for bring it back. Kurt, trying to help, tells her that Mystique can’t hurt her anymore, but Rogue is still super pissed. He preaches trying to move passed the anger, but Rogue isn’t willing to, telling him to get rid of the statue or she will. Kurt tells her that anger and hate destroyed Mystique, and that if she’s not careful it’ll destroy her. Rogue says it already has and storms off. Kurt notices something odd, then, the statue seemed to be crying.

 

The Professor and Hank run more tests but don’t notice any changes. Hank’s tech isn’t picking up any changes, and the Professor isn’t sensing her mind. Kurt says that maybe her enhanced powers are keeping her thoughts from him. They try to tell Kurt that there’s nothing they can do, Kurt screams he’s not giving up and teleports away. Jean comes in and tells the profs that Apocalypse has made a move.

 

Magneto is done playing.

The X-Men head out to investigate the Pyramid. The core team minus Kurt are headed out. Scott asks if maybe they should bring Storm or Bobby along as back up, but Xavier is insistent that this is a fact finding mission only. He’s certain Apocalypse is too powerful for them. Meanwhile, Magneto prepares to fly out on his own. He warps a bunch of metal into one of his spheres. When Gambit asks why they aren’t being brought along, he says this fight is between higher evolutionaries and only one will survive.

 

The X-Men prepare to start investigating with the leering blessing of the Mexican government as Magneto’s pod picks up speed and turns into a bullet shape. The X-Men try to scan the dome, telepathically and technologically. Telepathically doesn’t work as Apocalypse seems to be actively blocking them, and technologically doesn’t work because Hank’s particle beam generators are destroyed. Whoops.

 

Meanwhile, Kurt goes back to the Brotherhood house and begs Wanda to set up a meeting with Agatha Harkness for him.

 

Back at the Pyramid, Kitty is given gloves and a probe. She’s told to try to phase the probe in and pull back, the gloves are supposed to protect her from any sort of energy discharge. She pushes it in, but the probe blasts her back almost immediately and starts glowing. Hank lobs it into the air before it can explode. Scott asks if he should try eyebeaming it, but Xavier tells him they need to avoid any act of aggression… Just as Jean points to the Magneto’s pod rocketing towards them. Magneto exits the pod and uses it to pummel the pyramid. He pulls all the metal he can towards him, from the tanks and weapons of the Mexican army and the satellites above and rains metal onto it. The X-Men try to protect people from the debris. The satellite attacks are finally enough to draw Apocalypse out. He knocks away Magneto’s last volley, and, with a wave of his hand, obliterates Magneto in a flash of light. He then floats back into his pyramid. Damn.

So... safe to say Rogue hasn't forgiven Mystique.

 

At the mansion, Agatha arrives to the meeting with Kurt. She feels the statue, saying that she can’t do anything to help, but Rogue can. Rogue had been walking up behind her, it seems. Agatha says that if Rogue just touches the statue for a second, she can absorb the petrification and free Mystique. Kurt tries to convince Rogue to help, saying that she should prove she’s not like Mystique. Rogue looks like she might do it, screams in frustration and shoves the statue over the side. Kurt teleports after her, but only sees her shatter into pieces. He sobs over the pieces, and Rogue runs off crying as well. Ooof.

 

Okay, let’s talk about the Apocalypse plot first. It was very interesting to see how Magneto handled the big loss against the biggest of big bads. Up to this point, while he has lost on several occasions, it was never quite to the same degree with Apocalypse. With both the Asteroid M incident and his plot to use the Sentinel to reveal Mutants to the world, while he was still beaten, the first required a lot of effort on the X-Men’s hands, and the other he got what he wanted even if Wanda humbled him in the process. Apocalypse, on the other hand, barely had to wave his hand to shut him down. A pride like Magneto’s doesn’t take kindly to being a nuisance, at best. I liked the confrontation with Colossus, as it not only explained why Piotr was following Magneto, but also let us finally see what he looks like when not metal. His family, particularly his little sister, are a big deal to Piotr, so Magneto threatening them would keep him in line far beyond most any other method. Oh, and that final attack on Magneto was beautifully done. It high lighted how incredibly powerful Magneto is, as he manipulates metric tons of steel, iron, and other metals, pulling freaking satellites from the sky to use as meteors and Apocalypse was annoyed. At best! Also, it’s a simple thing, but it’s real easy to establish that the new big bad is badder than the old big bad by having them obliterate the old one like that. Damn. Okay, over to the Kurt story. Evolution’s Kurt hasn’t been bad, but they have focused on the goofball character more than the religious side. For those who don’t know, Kurt Wagner is a staunch Catholic and one of the best examples of a religious man in fiction. He’s pious, kind, thoughtful and knows the difference between preaching and being preachy. The version of him from the 90s Animated Series was such a good, kind man that he convinced Logan to crack open the Bible and read scripture. I bring this up to just underline the fact that all what Kurt is doing here is in the spirit of that faith. Even if Fox Kids wasn’t willing to let them use religious iconography or text. He’s trying to understand his mother, trying to give her a chance to make up for what she’s done, and above all, find a way to help Rogue let go of her anger towards her. Not for Mystique’s sake, either. I think his speech in the end makes it clear that he knows that Mystique made her bed with Rogue and now must lie in it, but because he knows that anger like Rogue is carrying is toxic to the one holding it. All of this was out of a genuine effort to help everyone involved. Did he go about it clumsily and far, far too soon? 100% He really should have left Rogue to simmer a little longer and let go of her anger just that little bit more before trying this. If Mystique survived 2 weeks as a statue, she could have survived a little while longer to let Rogue cool off. All I’m saying. So yeah, this was a good start to the seasons, a nice showcase of the power the X-Men are facing off against and of the high emotions that they’ll be dealing with here in the final season. Have a good night, everyone. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/75157862?pr=true

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 43

Some R and R and a Volcano.  

Well, no more Marvel shows for the year or movies, and I’m really strapped for free time with my day job being in insane mode, so I need to do a few short and sweet posts. So, let’s do a few more X-Men: Evolution. We’re on to the home stretch for the show, so let’s tie this one off.

 

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, we learned the History of En Saba Nur. The first recorded Mutant was born in ancient Egypt at the time of Rama Tut (Kang the Conqueror in disguise) whom tried to kill him. Nur’s forces and his immense power overwhelmed Tut, who vanished into the time stream. Nur conquered Egypt and had attempted a plan to make the whole world into Mutants using Tut’s technology, but the process greatly weakened him, and his scared priesthood sealed him up to keep him from completing his plan. Intermixed with this information, the X-Men. Brotherhood and Acolytes battled giant robotic guardians. At the same time, Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Gambit tracked Mystique, Mesmero and a brainwashed Rogue to the Himalayan mountains. They enter the tomb, and Mystique is turned to stone in opening the final lock. Mesmero holds off the three Mutants long enough for Rogue to travel down the path to Apocalypse’s resting place. He awakens as Mesmero is taken out and grab’s Rogue’s hand. Rather than having his power drained, he drains her instead, taking the amassed abilities of all the Mutants she’d drained. He is rejuvenated in the process and begins to glow. The other Mutants arrive in Apocalypse’s ship, and he knocks them all down with one blast and take back his ship. Well, damn. Enough of this high-stake stuff, let’s do a beach episode. Well, a cruise episode. Let’s get to it.

 

I should point out, that despite airing after the finale with Apocalypse rising, the episode takes place between episode 38 and 40. The short stint where Rogue is incapacitated if you don’t recall.

 

Never trust Cruise ships. 

We open on the X-Men and New Mutants on a Cruise, Tabitha is doing the limbo with Bobby and Sam, but Amara is off on her own feeling seasick. Ororo tries to see if she wants to see the ship doctor, but she claims she’s fine, and Tabitha comes over and drags her off to try to have fun and forget her seasickness. Meanwhile, Jean and Scott are trying to have a romantic moment and enjoy not being the target of people’s ire, while Kitty and Kurt do the younger sibling “follow them around and snicker at them being so cutesy” thing. They go try to find a private spot, but then see a whole bunch of weird ice sculpture’s floating by, and immediately realize Bobby is being an idiot.

 

Bobby, at the bow of the ship, is making ice sculptures. He climbs on the rail and makes an iceberg, in reference to the Titanic. He slips when he hears Scott coming up to yell at him, and the ship takes evasive action to dodge the iceberg that just appeared out of nowhere. Bobby, the hell did you THINK was going to happen? Jean catches him when he almost falls and pulls him up. Amara tries to fire up and melt the berg but can’t power up for some reason. Scott eyebeams it and then yells t bobby for being an obvious idiot. Jean tells him to not take it too personally, but to think before acting. Zero chance of that happening in this or most other universes. The helmsman gets checked out for delusions, as he saw an iceberg in the Caribbean, and everyone knows that’s insane.

 

The next day, Amara is still feeling icky. She’s pretty sure that she isn’t seasick, having realized she felt this way before on the plane ride from Brazil, and deduces that being away from solid ground makes her ill after too long. She thinks she’ll feel better when the land, and Tabitha leaves her alone to wallow. Ororo goes to check in on Amara as she passes, and she warns Tabitha to keep a low profile.

 

This goes about as well one can imagine with a group of Mutants. Bobby stops Jaime from using his clones to scarf down waffles due to Scott being on pins and needles, and the others are still laughing at Scott and Jean being lovey-dovey. Tabitha, tired of a whinner one table over, throws a little boom-boom at her plate, causing the food to go everywhere and leads to a small fire. Jean uses her powers to lift a lobster tank to put it out, outing them all as Mutants. Jean, hun, there was a fire extinguisher not ten feet away, there were other ways to handle this. Lobsters get everywhere, Jaime accidentally clones himself and Kurt’s imagine inducer gets broken. The whole ship runs out of the dining area just as Ororo arrives. Whoops.

 

Later, the kids deal with return to pariah status and dealing with an angry Ororo. Tabitha is almost baited into attacking a dude who yells at them for daring to come out of their rooms, Bobby talks her down, she goes to check on Amara, and Bobby does a tiny cold snap into the pool, chilling everyone out. I must appreciate Bobby’s subtlety with that one. Jean and Scott get stink eyes as they walk about the lower decks. They get a message that there’s rough weather coming up, so they’ll be docking near an island to wait it out. Amara is super stressed by this, as she feels like she’s going to keel over and die if she’s not on ground soon. Meanwhile, Scott and Jean are getting the stick eye, and wish they could get away from the looks. Jean gets a bright idea, and suggests to Scott they take a trip on their trip. She flies them out to the island. Kitty and Kurt follow them because they like teasing their upperclassmen. And Amara, Tabitha and Bobby also decide to go to the Island to get Amara some ground time. They all run into each other, much to Scott and Jean’s frustration, and the oldest students suggest all the younger ones go and do something away from them.

 

Still an above average vacation for the X-Men.

Kurt, Kitty, Amara, and Tabitha hit up a hot spring to get Tabitha some healing water, Bobby is there for moral support. He makes a lounger out of ice and kicks back while the others soak in hot goodness. Amara swims down, transforms into her flamed up form, and seems to accidentally trigger something in the open fissure to the active volcano that heats the spring. Uh ho. The kids get out before they’re broiled and use Bobby’s ice to get down the slope. A massive quake triggers, causing destruction in the town. The X-Men and New Mutants use their powers to keep everyone from getting hurt and saving people trapped by the rumble. Afterward, the locals gather and start cheering their heroes. I guess Caribbeans get the whole “we should celebrate people that save other’s” thing WAY better than the US seems to. The locals are all impressed by the Mutant’s powers, and Kurt’s looks, and everyone has a grand old time being local celebrities.

 

Back on the ship, Jaime and his clones searched the ship for everyone on Ororo’s orders, and she’s rather annoyed to realize her charges on the island.

 

Base Jumpers wish they could do this. lol

The volcano starts rumbling again as everyone sits down to a banquet. Amara reveals to Scott that she thinks she might have triggered the quakes. But before he can react, the kids notice a Thunderhead flying toward them, realizing a pissed off Ororo is on the way. Thankfully, weird to say that here, the volcano erupts, giving everyone bigger fish to fry. A fissure opens near Amara, but she’s able to will it closed again. She goes to handle the volcano itself while the rest of the team handles the lava flow.

 

The X-Men use their various powers to save the Caribbeans, most impressively being Storm summoning rain to cool the lava and Jean psionically pushing the lava back, as Amara climbs the volcano. Ororo flies to get her. At the top, Amara transforms into her Magma form and realizes she can control the volcano’s magma to an impressive degree. Ororo arrives in time to see Amara dive into the volcano, to her horror. Amara is able to stop the eruption, cooling off the top layer of magma in the caldera. She doesn’t know what she did, but she was able to stop the volcano. Ororo scolds the kids for going off on their own, and they’ll talk about it on the ship. She flies off and it’s kind of an alls well that ends well moment.

 

While I think everyone can see why I chose to stop at the actual finale than do this episode, this was a fine filler episode. I’m all for episodes that expand on minor characters a bit. Its interesting to see some other character relationships outside the main cast. I like Amara and Tabitha as close friends, it’s a classic extrovert-introvert pairing that’s just fun to see. The fact that this was a bit of plot cul-de-sac, Amara was both the cause of and solution to the volcano plot, it is nice to have a comparatively low stakes episode for them to relax in. It’s short, sweet, and to the point. I kind of wish we could have gotten a few more episodes like this with the other New Mutants, would have loved to see Jaime be more than just a cloning sight gag, or what Roberto’s whole deal is. But it is what it is, next time, we’ll see how Kurt handle’s the death of his mother. Just a head’s up, not well. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/75123369?pr=true

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero