They don't call him Apocalypse for nothing.
Last time on X-Men: Evolution,
Kitty had a very weird day. After having a very slight near-death experience,
Kitty meets Danielle Moonstar, a Native American girl with Mutant powers. Danielle is brought to the X-Mansion and
begins training with the New Mutants. Danielle’s powers, a form of telepathy
that causes people to live through incredibly realistic nightmares, are
incredibly powerful but unstable. After causing the staff to have vivid
nightmares… Danielle disappeared, and to Kitty’s shock, she’s the only one that
remembers her. After bullying Kurt into helping her get back to Dark Hollow,
Kitty discovered Danielle’s Grandpa, Black Eagle, who told her that Danielle
has been missing for two years. Kitty and Kurt returned to the sight of Kitty’s
accident, and Kitty phases through the ground. She find’s Danielle buried in
the canyon; her power caused her to be in special coma that kept her alive for
two years. Kitty and Danielle escape the flooding canyon with help from the New
Mutants, Kurt, and Logan, and Danielle is brought to the X-Mansion to recover.
Enough recap. Let’s get to it. Apocalypse is raising.
We open in Egypt, where Apocalypse’
ship appears and unburies a long-forgotten pyramid. It breaks the rock encasing
the metal pyramid beneath and merges with it. Apocalypse creates another
mysterious dome around the pyramid. We cut to Mesmero, whom is reading about
Apocalypse’ exploit in the newspaper about .5 seconds before Wolverine slices
his way into the tent. Mesmero runs from Logan but is captured by Jean via
telekinesis. Mesmero announces that they’re too late and that Evolution is upon
them. Ha, nice title reference.
Later, Mesmero is being held by the
X-Men. Jean reveals that she scanned Mesmero’s mind and discovered that
Apocalypse has abandoned him. Mesmero is in denial about no longer being useful
to the master he spent who knows how long trying to free, but Charles won’t let
him live in delusion. He asks Mesmero to just tell them and points out that
Charles could just rip the knowledge from Mesmero if he wanted to. Motivated,
Mesmero explains Apocalypse’ big plan. Apocalypse is going to use his pyramids
and the ship to activate the dormant X-Genes in the human populace. The
transformation will turn most into Mutants, but will kill some and kill anyone
that doesn’t have an X-Gene to activate. Mesmero tries to cut It off there, but
Charles grabs him and rips the remaining knowledge from him. He knows that the
machine is powered by the Sphinx and that the other three pyramids will act as
relays to what Apocalypse is planning.
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It's never good when they leave a prized student
behind.
Charles and Storm prep to head to
Egypt. Jean confronts the Professor and asks him what the plan is. Charles
hopes that because he’s going to just talk, he’ll have a chance to not be
horribly murdered like Magneto. Charles, ever the pacifist, believes that
starting a dialogue will help. Jean wants to go with but Charles is insistent
that he needs her there with the X-Men. She knows he’s not planning to come
back, to which he tells her that she needs to be strong.
Apocalypse returns to the Sphinx
and raises the fourth and final pyramid from beneath the sand. Storm and
Charles make their approach, Storm telling Charles that they can find another
way, but Charles knows they’re racing against the clock here. Inside the
pyramid, Apocalypse places himself on a device that fully transforms him into a
blue cybernetic form. When Charles and Storm arrive, Charles heads out alone,
much to Storms irritation. Charles puts on an external link to Cerebro. The
headgear allows him to receive Cerebro’s full amplification from halfway across
the world. Charles tries to get Hank, who is running Cerebro back home, to keep
the students from the chamber, but they were already there and want to give
their teacher moral support. Charles calls out telepathically to Apocalypse.
Apocalypse floats out of the
Pyramid. I should note, that both Charles Xavier and Apocalypse are played by veteran
voice actor David Kaye. They just distort Kaye’s voice ever so slightly when he
speaks as Apocalypse to differentiate the two. Charles tries to speak with
Apocalypse, but the ancient Mutant already knows who Charles is, why he is here
and is uninterested in negotiating. Apocalypse believes that he an instrument
of destiny to usher the evolution of humanity. Charles tells him that he will
be stopped. Apocalypse counters by saying what he knows is that he won’t
be stopped by him. He then begins obliterating Charles like he did to Magneto;
Storm tries to help but she gets caught in an attack too and is annihilated.
Jean begins immediately beating herself up for not trying to stop him, but
Scott comforts her by saying there’s literally nothing they could have done to
stop the professor.
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Oh, the Sentinels are back.
Fury arrives on the scene and tells
Logan that he knows what happened to Charles and is there to convince Logan to
not retaliate immediately. Why? Because SHIELD is taking measures. Fury is
brought into Cerebro’s viewing room and tells them to bring up the Sphinx.
We’re shown three Sentinels flying in to attack the pyramid. Logan is rightly
pissed that the Sentinels are back, but Fury does point out that they’re
sensors and weapons are the best bet against apocalypse. The Sentinels put up a
solid fight against Apocalypse for a few seconds… until he merges with one and
uses its weapons to attack the other two. When Hank scoffs at their “best
defense” Fury reveals that that teams is actually a diversion. Nine more
sentinels in groups of three are out to attack the other pyramids. Fury reveals
the new Sentinels have atomic subdividers that should let them cut through the
domes protecting the pyramids and destroy them.
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Oh... he's pissed.
Apocalypse sense what is happening
to his Pyramids and activates his counter to the attack. He opens the four
pillars around his ship and unleashes his Four Horsemen… Charles Xavier, Storm,
Mystique and Magneto. They’re all sporting some sort of cybernetic
enhancements, things to control their minds and allow Charles to walk. He sends
Charles, Magneto and Storm to defend the pyramids astride energy horses and
keeps Mystique behind to defend the Sphinx. Charles, now able to summon energy
scythes, destroys his Sentinels easily, as do Storm and Magneto. Fury, realizing
that he is out of options, asks the X-Men to help. Logan spells out the
situation. They need four teams of Mutants to attack the pyramids and stop
Apocalypse. He sends Kitty to the Brotherhood, Kurt to get Spyke, Scott and
Jean to gather anyone else they can think of, and takes Rogue to help him with
a special assignment.
Kitty’s recruiting goes… poorly.
Lance and the other Brotherhood Boys have zero interest in risking their lives
fighting Mystique or Magneto. But Kitty does get Wanda to go with her, so
that’s something.
Four helijets take off from the
X-Mansion.
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A pretty impressive group of Horsemen this go round.
In Mexico, the last Sentinel seems
to be able to break the shield around the Pyramid, but then Magneto crushes it
like a soda can. In China, Storm destroys hers with a tornado and lightning
strike, but they’re also able to disable the shield. Xavier destroys his last
Sentinel in Egypt, but once again the shield is brought down. Beast, over the
radio, explains that everyone they’re about to face have had their powers
greatly enhanced, the fight will be hard, but they must win.
As Apocalypse prepares his attack,
the teams arrive. We have Jean, Piotr (Colossus), Jaime (Multiple), Tabitha
(Boom-Boom) and Amara (Magma) vs. Charles; Logan, Scott, and Kurt vs. Mystique;
Hank, Ray (Berserker), Bobby (Iceman) and Spyke vs. Storm, and Kitty, Roberto
(Sunspot), Alex (Havok), Warren (Angel), and Wanda (Scarlet Witch) vs. Magneto.
Some… lopsided teams there but it’s the best they’ve got. Surely Juggernaut,
Gambit, and Sabretooth aren’t doing anything, right?
This one was an excellent
penultimate episode. We got to see Apocalypse’ plan be unveiled in all of it’s
insane glory. The whole “turn as many people into Mutants as he can and screw
anyone who doesn’t survive it” is one of his go to plays and this plan is a
great version of that. I especially liked his redesign after upgrading himself
with the ship’s technology. It’s reminiscent of his classic look without being
a knock off of his comic book design. I think using David Kaye as his voice was
also rather brilliant. Kaye, while playing Charles beautifully throughout this
series, is actually better known for playing villains. He’s been Megatron in
several Transformers series, Sesshomaru in Inuyasha and was the
voice of Arishem the Judge in The Eternals, to name a few. The man has a
gravitas when playing a villain that you can just feel in your bones. The
distortion they used fits with the cybernetic redesign and helps to not make
him sound too like Charles. The reveal that the four major deaths of the franchise
were in fact turned into Horsemen was also extremely well done. Turning four of
the series main mentors into the final bosses for the various characters is brilliant.
Plus, they represent some of the most destructive and or dangerous powers in
the franchise, so each fight is going to be difficult. Using the Sentinels as a
first attack wave was also a good choice, as the machines have enough firepower
to be dangerous to Apocalypse but lack any sort of tactical thinking or
flexibility to be a real threat. Giving them the win of disabling the shields
was a nice touch too. The final battle is going to be intense, with most of our
favorite characters going up against the most dangerous Mutants to date. I hope
you’re as excited to read about it as I am to type it out. See you tomorrow.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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