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.
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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.
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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.
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| 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.
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