Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 14

 He's back from the past and looking for payback. 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, the battle with the Sentinels came to a head. Magneto kidnapped and attempted to execute Senator Robert Kelly to kick off the Human-Mutant War. Magneto believed that he needed to strike now, while Mutants were powerful, and Humans were divided on how to handle them. Kelly is saved by a group of Sentinels, who overwhelmed Magneto due to their new plastic construction. The Sentinels took Kelly to Dr. Bolivar Trask, who set up shot in an old mine for his Mastermold. While Kelly was grateful to Trask and willing to put the Sentinels in charge of Mutant policing if/when Kelly was elected president, the Mastermold decided that wasn’t going to work for it. It ordered Trask to remove Kelly’s brain and replace it with a computer that the Mastermold could then control. Mastermold also plans to expand this procedure to all world leaders. The X-Men find Magneto and recover him, and then use Cerebro to scan Gambit’s mind to find Henry Gyrich. He met Gyrich in Genosha and he’s the last connection to Trask. They jump Gyrich just as he gets in contact with Trask and Trask tells him about the Sentinel revolt. The X-Men learn where to go and head out. The team battles the Sentinels. Storm, Rogue, Jubilee and Xavier in the Blackbird keep the Sentinels distracted in the sky, while Wolverine, Gambit, Jean and Cyclops take out the ones in the mines. They’re able to free Kelly, and Trask, horrified by Mastermold’s plan, sets off the Propane gas to destroy the mine. Mastermold survives the explosion, but Charles and Magneto team up to ram the Blackbird through Mastermold’s chest to destroy it. The X-Men celebrate their victory, Beast is released from prison, Kelly decides to pull back on the anti-Mutant rhetoric, and Scott and Jean get engaged. The season ended with Mr. Sinister watching Scott and Jean and saying their future is in his hands. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open in a misty cavern. Cyclops is in full gear, while Wolverine is dressed in a suit and tie. He announces that Scott Summers is his and the two of them start fighting. We then cut to a church where the rest of the team are watching Scott and Jean getting married. AH, so Logan is letting out some aggression on a Danger Room robot and not the real Scott… That’s… not healthy but better than the alternative, I guess. As they say their “I Do’s,” Wolveirne drops a pillar on Robot Scott and then decapitates it. Wolverine announces he’s feeling much better now, but then another Scott-bot blasts him. It transforms into a Cyc-Sentinel and blasts him. Wolverine decapitates the Cyc-Sentinel, but gets blasted one more time, and passes out calling out to Jean.

 

At the wedding, things are going well. Gambit hits on Rogue but she tells him to buzz off, the reverend congradulates Scott, but says he’ll be missing the reception. He makes a weird look before quoting Robert Frost, “I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.” Jean tells Scott how happy she is and they share a kiss. Outside, the reverend almost immediately shapeshifts into… Morph! He isn’t looking well; his skin is Jaundice Yellow, and he has thick dark purple circles under his eyes. He laughs evilly to himself about the “promises” he must keep.

 

We cut to the televised swearing in off Robert Jefferson Kelly as the President of the United States. Guess pivoting on his platform didn’t hurt his polls too much. We pull back to see a man dress in blue clawed gloves and wig. How ominous.

Back at the wedding Jean throws the Bouquet and Beast catches it as he’s walking by with their gift. Charles asks him if he has news from President Kelly to which Beast says he has very rosy news. We cut to Kelly making his first Presidential decree, to grant Dr. Henry McCoy a full pardon from his crimes. I’m pretty sure this is the first time the show has said his full name. Neat. As he speaks, we cut over to a man in a dark red suit with a Friends of Humanity Button on his lapel. Oy, this guy. The man orders ‘something’ to happen into a collar mic. The man in Mutant garb runs in and causes a ruckus. Kelly shouts that he’s just trying to help, and the Man in Red says that he was elected to protect people from Mutants. The “Mutant” escapes out a window. The man in Red, Creed, announces stage one of their plan was a success and that they should begin stage two.

 

Wolverine pulls himself from the wreckage of the Cyc-Sentinel. The simulation ends as Jean comes in. She says they missed him at the wedding. He says he must have lost track of time and apologizes for missing it. He tries to tell her something, but she says she has a plane to catch.

 

We cut to a motel room where Morph is sitting up. He’s muttering to himself that he can’t hurt them, they were his friends, and that he doesn’t want to hurt them. I should point out that right now his skin is it’s normal color and there are no bags under his eyes. He flashes back to the Sentinel attack. He pulls Wolverine out of the way before being blasted. We see the blast rips his jacket to pieces and leaves a huge hole in his uniform but he’s otherwise okay. He keeps asking himself why his friends left him to die. Mr. Sinister, a man in black, finds him and says that Morph will destroy them all. In the present, Morph agrees, and he’s back to the sickly look. He shapeshifts into Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine, vowing to destroy them, before reverting to his healthy form and screaming to know what is making him do this. 

 

 

We cut to a fight out on the streets. Several men in Friends of Humanity gear are harassing a Mutant man. The Mutant tells them that he doesn’t have special powers, he just is… visibly different than normal. The FOH chant no more Mutants while Creed watches from above. We see the FOH chasing Morlocks into the sewers and destroying public property.  News reports have the FOH saying they’re defending themselves from Mutant attacks. In the War Room, Jubilee asks why things are getting worse. Charles explains that after Kelly realized not all Mutants are evil and changed his platform, his anti-Mutant followers felt betrayed and are now lashing out. Storm insists that if they stand up to these people, they can stop them. Charles gets a call on his private video line and goes to check it out.

 

He enters his office and watches a video message from Magneto. He says something about terrible violence before screaming, the background burning. He begs Xavier to hurry to his coordinates at the bottom of the screen. Charles says that’s in Antarctica. As the video cuts out, we see that Magneto was just Morph in disguise. He wishes Charles Bon Voyage before cackling.

 

Wolverine, Beast, and Gambit are playing pool and Wolverine is losing badly. A serving girl recognizes Beast and starts chatting him up. The bar is attacked b y FOH members. They chant no more Mutants. The X-Men retaliate, defending themselves. We see Creed with a camera man, he’s clearly taking very specific video of these events. They scare off the FOH members and Beast suggests they depart.

 

In the War Room, Charles sends a video message to the X-Men, saying that he had to make an abrupt departure, and that until Cyclops returns from his honeymoon, Storm is in charge. Jubilee runs in and tells the others to check out the news. The new is reporting that Beast was seen at a near riot, but the footage we’re shown was clearly doctored to make it look like Beast was attacking unarmed civilians. Wolverine is pissed and tries to storm off, but Storm stops him, saying they need to unmask this new conspiracy, not add to the violence. He storms off anyway. Morph watches him leave before announcing he’ll see if he can’t make everyone as angry. He takes on Wolverine’s form and slips in.

 

Morph crosses paths with Rogue as Wolverine, lying that he forgot something to explain why he’s back. Rogue says she’s going to go take a nap in the rec room, and Morph says he’ll be as quiet as a corpse before assuming her form. He enters the War Room where Gambit and Jubilee are watching the news. Morph tells Jubilee to skedaddle so she can talk to Gambit. He gives Gambit a flirty wink to make sure he goes along with it. When alone, Morph says that Rogue has been lying about not being able to touch people, and that Gambit should meet Rogue in the rec room in five minutes to see what that means. Morph takes off a glove and touches Gambit’s face to really sell the lie. Once alone, he switches to Storm’s form.

 

Morph finds Jubilee and says that there’s been a report a riot will break out at a Mutant halfway house. Morph tells Jubilee to go check it out and report back what she sees. Jubilee agrees, excited to prove she’s not a kid. After leaving, Morph reverts to his normal form and says, “that’s for thinking you could take my place.”  Damn dude.

 

In the rec room, Gambit comes in to see Rogue past out on the couch. Still thinking Morph’s lie was the truth, he goes in and kisses her, and immediately drops because she drained his powers. Rogue gets up and accidentally blows up the couch.

 

Jubilee ends up at the halfway house, the Veteran’s club, rings the doorbell and is greeted by Creed and the FOH. Oh crap.

 

In the War Room, Storm is watching news footage as Rogue comes in carrying a comatose Gambit. She says it serves him right for being a fool, and the worse part is she keeps charging items up by mistake. Storm says that Gambit couldn’t have chosen a worse time to be a fool. Storm calls for Jubilee, but her room is empty. They look for Beast but he’s thankfully in the Danger Room about to start a workout. He tells them to fly ahead to the disturbance and he’ll catch up soon. And when the call cuts out, it turns out Beast was Morph. The real Beast was already in the Danger Room working out, swinging from wires. Morph shifts the difficulty to high and the auto cannons start firing at Beast. Beast is knocked around by the weapons but thankfully he’s agile enough to dodge. Unfortunately, the door is locked. Crap.

 

The FOH march on the Mutant Counseling Center. They throw a grenade into the center, but Storm and Rogue arrive a minute later to stop them. Storm summons a thunderstorm to put out the fire and he and rogue fight off the FOH. More bombs start going off, Storm tells Rogue to go handle the additional bombings and not to worry as Beast will soon join her. Morph is at the scene, egging them on. A police car crashes, and Morph takes on the officer’s form and orders the others to shoot her down. They do. Storm is taken away on a stretcher to a hospital.

 

We cut to Mr. Sinister, a pale skinned man in black with a metallic voice. He’s watching these events from his computer monitors. He tells Morph to enjoy his revenge, as he sure is.

 

This was a great start to the new season. Morph is back by popular demand, and he’s pissed. As I believe I said in the second episode write up, he was supposed to be dead by the end of that episode. He was just there to set the stakes for the rest of the show. But test audiences loved him, and the show runners couldn’t just leave him dead, so he came back. Using his powers to sow discord among the X-Men was brilliant. It shows his tactical thinking as he keeps finding ways to use the X-Men’s weaknesses against them, Gambit’s romantic interest in Rogue clouding his judgement, Jubilee’s desire to be seen as really part of the team clouding hers and using Charles’ friendship with Magneto to draw him away, all brilliant. I also liked using his shapeshifting to show how he’s not completely in control of his actions right now. When he looks more like himself, he questions why he’s doing this, why he’s hurting his friends, but when the dark circles are there, he’s in full rage mode. A bit simple but when you have a shapeshifter, you use shapeshifting. And knowing that he’s working for Sinister is troubling. Nathaniel Essex plays for high stakes. And I liked the introduction to the Friends of Humanity and Graydon Creed. In many ways this group is a much lower stakes threat than, say, the Sentinels, but the damage they can do is more nebulous. The Sentinels are big loud machines, they thunder around and cause damage, it’s easy to drum up evidence they’re using excessive force on Mutants. The FOH is more subtle, using propaganda and video edits to make the Mutant’s seem like the real threat. And using video of Beast defending himself against attackers out of context will be incredibly damaging on someone that just got pardoned by the President. It’s good this story is happening in 1993, because in the modern era they’d be huge on Facebook.  So that’s the status of the X-Men. Scott and Jean are on their Honeymoon, Xavier is headed toward the Antarctic on a lie, and the X-Men are being terrorized by a friend they thought dead and new threat in the court of public opinion. Next time, things will continue to escalate. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 13

 The Sentinels shall bring order, by any means necessary.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Gambit is accused of being an assassin. He’s left behind with Bishop and Wolverine as the rest of the team tries to figure out who is going to be assassinated and how to stop it. We learn that the actual assassin is Mystique, the shapeshifting Mutant. She’d been ordered by Apocalypse to kill Senator Robert Kelly, aka Senator I Hate Mutants, and frame Gambit to kick off a war between humans and Mutants. Her boys Blob, Avalanche and Pyro keep the main team distracted long enough that she almost gets away with it, but thankfully Gambit intervenes. He escaped Wolverine and Bishop’s watchful gaze to stop the assassin and clear his name. He and Mystique are almost both taken out by Bishop, but Rogue flies in and breaks his time band and sends him back to the future. She lets Kelly leave and interrogates Mystique, only to discover that she was Rogue’s adopted mother. Mystique uses her emotional leverage on Rogue to make the southern belle free her, and she claims she’s helping Apocalypse and nearly brainwashed Rogue because she thought it was the only way to get her back. In the aftermath of the fight, Kelly wants to speak with Xavier, but he, Cyclops and Jean arrive in his office to find it ransacked and Kelly missing, Charles noting his watch had been magnetized. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open on a news report of protests and riots breaking out after Robert Kelly’s kidnapping. In the War Room with the X-Men, Wolverine in particular is disgusted that they’re getting this much hate when they just saved Kelly’s life. Chrles says they need to find Kelly and quickly or a new wave of Anti-Mutant sentiment could sweep the nation. Cyclops points out that’s a tall order, but Charles says they know Magneto did it, so he can use Cerebro to find Magneto.

 

Meanwhile, Kelly is being held on a rusted old warship by Magneto. Kelly is clearly terrified at being at Magneto’s mercy and asks what he wants. Magneto explains he’s the Mutant version of Kelly, the one with power who has decided that Humans and Mutants can’t survive together. He claims the war between them has to begin now while Mutants are strong, and humans are still divided. Magneto had somehow been tipped off that Kelly was to be assassinated and flew to DC to watch. Imagine his disgust when the X-Men prevailed. Because of their interference, Kelly’s death falls to Magneto. He prepares to crush Kelly under some machine parts. Kelly begs for his life, and Magneto says that as a boy during the “not-said-out-loud-but-totally-was” the Holocaust that he witnessed women and children executed nightly and every night he swore never again. Just before dropping the metal on Kelly, a Sentinel arm tears into the ship. Magneto isn’t impressed and tries to us his powers on the Sentinels, but the lead machine says that this series are made of plastics, not metals, and are thus immune to his powers. They blast Magneto, knocking off his helmet and knocking him unconscious. Kelly thanks the Sentinels, but they grab him. Magneto wakes up and says the ship is his weapon. He throws metal through one of them, destroying it, but the other Sentinel flies off. More Sentinels arrive, Magneto does his best to beat them back as they start to overwhelm him.

 

The X-Men fly towards Magneto’s signal in the Blackbird. They see a fire burning in the distance and go investigate. By the time they arrive the ship is ripped to shreds with Sentinel parts scattered about. Rogue and Cyclops hear Magneto’s groans and uncover him in some rubble. He’s badly beaten up, with his skin bleeding so heavily I almost didn’t realize the stomach of his armored shirt had been ripped open. Damn.

 

The Sentinels fly Kelly to their secret base, hidden in an old mining town. Kelly meets with Dr. Bolivar Trask and thanks him and his Sentinels for saving him. Trask says that he wants a presidential order that the Sentinels will be put in charge of policing Mutants, and Kelly agrees. Trask orders a freshly built Sentinel to return Kelly to his Campaign headquarters, but it refuses. Trask yells at Mastermold that this Sentinel is defective, but Mastermold reveals IT is giving the orders now. It orders Trask to remove Kelly’s brain and replace it with a computer. It also reveals that Kelly is but the first to get this treatment, as we’re shown a montage of Sentinels kidnapping world leaders to undergo this treatment, Mastermold saying this will be a vast improvement to world governments.

 

Magneto is brought back to the X-Mansion to recover. Jean is sitting with him and will be on hand to interrogate him as to what happened, once he’s recovered his strength a little. Wolverine insists they start tracking the Sentinels, but Rogue asks how. Storm proposes an idea, Gambit saw Trask in Genosha, maybe Xavier can see Trask in Gambit’s memories and then track him from there. Gambit agrees to having his mind scanned. He puts on Cerebro’s helmet to help focus his minds eye. On the computer screen we see several faces: Bishop, a blonde woman, Rogue, Ghost Rider for some reason, and then finally Henry Gyrich. Guess they’re targeting him over Trask. They identified him from public records and had out.

 

In New York, Gyrich is attempting to get in contact with Trask but his phone won’t connect. He knows something is up. Storm summons a blizzard to cause Gyrich’s car to crash. Rogue grabs Gyrich’s driver, but Gyrich runs off, firing a blaster at Cyclops when he tries to intervene. They chase him to the Lincoln Memorial, Gyrich calling Trask for back up, when Wolverine leaps onto him from the Lincoln statue. Cyclops stops him from gutting Gyrich, and they hear over Gyrich’s phone from Trask about the brain replacement plan. Right before Trask is cut off by his Sentinels. Cyclops demands to know where Trask is, but Gyrich insists that there’s nothing they can do, as Trask has mass produced thousands of Sentinels at this point.

 

In the War Room, Gambit is not happy at the thought of throwing all their lives away to save Kelly.  Charles insists they need to save him or risk civil war. Magneto limps in, saying that Charles’ dream is a foolish one and they’ll all die if they try to save Kelly. Charles asks the X-Men if he’s right. The whole team except Gambit agreed to go help. Jubilee is almost forced to stay behind by Wolverine, but she gives an impassioned speech about being an X-Man and how much that means to her, which convinces Gambit to go along as well. As they fly off, Magneto stands on their lawn and calls them all fools, heroic fools, but fools. He says to himself that ‘The brave are always the first to die.”

 

The Blackbird flies into the mining camp. Mastermold senses their approach and orders the Sentinels to be made ready. The bulk of the group, Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, and Jean take the coal elevator down into the mine while Rogue, Storm and Jubilee wait up top. The elevator touches down, though, with nothing but a flashing Ace of Spades. This causes the Sentinels to scramble, flying out into the sky to find the X-Men. Outside they meet Storm and Rogue, who show off why they’re considered the cavalry. Rogue decapitates two Sentinels by hurling another train car at their heads and Storm summons up a gale to knock them into some The others had escaped into another shaft part way down. Jubilee helps buy drowning a Sentinel in an exploded water tower, and Charles pilots the Blackbird, using it’s weapons to keep some more Sentinel’s attention.

 

In the mine, the group splits up, Jean and Cyclops, Jean and Scott, to try to cover more ground.

 

The Sentinels start to overwhelm the heroes topside, as there are hundreds, maybe thousands of the damn things. The Blackbird gets shot down and almost crashes, but Magneto arrives and uses his powers to let it land safely, asking Charles if he really thought he’d let him die alone. More Sentinels fly in, and I hope these aren’t the plastic models.

 

Wolverine and Gambit find a group of Sentinels. Wolverine tells Gambit to fall back, locking him out of that shaft so he can take a few of them out. Gambit eventually busts the door down and then lobs some exploding cards at the remaining Sentinels. I think they both forgot what the other’s power was for a second, as Gambit would have known not to worry about Wolverine due to his regeneration, and Wolverine would have remembered Gambit’s exploding cards.

 

In the heart of the mind, Trask says this isn’t right, as he built the Sentinels to protect mankind from Mutants. The Mastermold points out the logical fallacy here, that Mutants ARE humans, and thus to protect Humans they need to be protected from themselves. Cyclops and Jean run in, Cyclops tells Jean to pull Kelly out using telekinesis, but the Mastermold sees, and so they need to try more drastic measures. Namely grabbing Kelly and running. They’re helped along by Trask, who at least accepts this version of Sentinel is a failed project. He turns a laser drill on a propane tank. The resulting explosion chases Cyclops, Jean, and Kelly from the room but they outrun it. Cyclops tells Jean to get Kelly topside and he’ll get Gambit and Wolverine, saying he won’t leave anyone behind again.

 

Topside, the others are rallying, but it’s a good thing the Mastermold has sent out a distress signal and the Sentinels go to save it. The propane gas lines explode just as the last one flies in. Magneto throws up an electromagnetic barrier to protect them from the shockwave.

 

In the mine, Gambit and Wolverine have torn through a lot of Sentinels. Wolverine’s costume has been completely shredded in the fighting. He tells Gambit to let him save him next time. Cyclops blows a hole into their shaft and asks if Wolverine is going to get moving or if this is his day off. Cyclops blows a tunnel in the rock for them. Jean reaches the surface with Kelly and tells Rogue that Cyclops is looking for Gambit and Wolverine. Rogue says she’s going down after them, but Cyclops’ eyebeam opens a path for them right there. Gambit teases that he thinks she missed him. Rogue hugs him, puts her gloved hand over his mouth so she can symbolically kiss him and then says she hates him. Gambit says he’ll never understand this woman. The top of the Mountain suddenly explodes and Mastermold rises out of it, saying it cannot be destroyed. The Blackbird flies in, we see inside that Charles has loads the ship with as much TNT and explosives as he can. He says “You are the living embodiment of all that is Evil and unjust in mankind. You MUST be destroyed.”  Magneto flies along side the Blackbird, throwing up a barrier around it to protect it from Mastermold long enough to hit. Charles ejects at the last second and we see everyone run from the explosion. As Charles parachutes down, Magneto flies along side him. He says they’re even now that Magneto has saved him, but they will meet again.

 

We cut to Senator Kelly giving an address to the nation. He says that he knows Mutants can be dangerous, but that in humanities attempts to control dangerous Mutants, they shouldn’t oppress those that would use their powers to help others. In the spirit of that, Kelly put in a good word for Beast and has gotten him a full pardon. How nice.

 

Meanwhile, Scott and Jean have a picnic and Scott asks her to marry him. She says yes and that there’s nothing more hopeful than the beginning of a new day. The uncertainty gives hope for the future. We pull out to see the two of them are on camera, the mysterious Mr. Sinister cackling to himself that he knows what their future holds.

 

And that’s season one done. Overall, a solid season finale. We got to see some character highlights, the team working together to stop the Sentinels for now, Magneto returning to complicate and then save the situation, and lots of explosions. I’m glad that the writers knew that the Sentinels and Mastermold had to be the end boss of the first season. Magneto is always attractive to close out an X-Men season, but when a quarter of the other episodes this season either directly or indirectly include the mechanized stormtroopers, ya gotta close out that plotline. I do question the Mastermold’s logic that it thought it could kidnap dozens if not hundreds of world leaders, replace their brains with computers, and put them back without anyone noticing… but it was Mastermold’s first evil plan. I’m glad they included the line that Humans and Mutants are interconnected and that to protect humans from Mutants, they have to be protected from Humans as well. Is that a robot cliché, that they need to rule us to save us from themselves? Yes, but it works better here because of the whole “are Mutant’s human?” argument. And I give them props for Softening Kelly’s stance without having him outright flip his message entirely. Does he think Mutants are still a threat? Absolutely. But he now knows and accepts they aren’t an outside force coming into this country to ruin it, and that there are good people mixed in with the costume criminals. It’s a good logical progression for the character. But it also leaves him with enough suspicions about Mutants that he could be persuaded back into thinking they’re all monsters out to get him. Letting Charles be the one to take Mastermold out, to let him kill this manifestation of the rhetoric and fear he so despises was a good one. Nice symbolic victory for him. Like Gambit getting the sort of kiss from Rogue. Just a nice little win for him above and beyond the big win of defeating the Sentinels. And the Mr. Sinister tease was a nice one. For those who don’t know, Mr. Sinister is a major antagonist for this series and will be a major headache for Scott, Jean and the X-Men going forward. So just having him come on and cackle evilly to himself as Scott and Jean make plans for their future is just a nice nod that he’s going to be a pain soon. Next time, we’ll see how. Have a good night. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 12

Gambit is on the hunt?

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Bishop started partying like it was 1992. In the far future of 2055, Sentinels rule the world and are hunting down Mutants for extermination. Wolverine, the last surviving X-Man, is captured by the Mutant bounty hunter, in this case meaning both a bounty hunter of Mutants and a bounty hunter that is a Mutant, Bishop. Bishop, smug and initially confident in his usefulness to the Sentinels, gets a wake-up call when its discovered he’s captured enough Mutants to hit his quote and is thus being retired. Yes, to be retired is to be executed. Wolverine frees himself and Bishop, leaving two teammates behind, and we learn they were stealing a piece for a time machine designed by Forge. Wolverine was going to go back but Bishop forced him to bow out to the younger Bishop. Both because Bishop isn’t over 200 and because he will be able to stop “him,” the man that assassinated someone and kicked off this timeline. Bishop travels back in time but is pursued by Nimrod, the Sentinel’s top hunting model. He arrives in 1992 but gets a concussion and forgets many of the details of his mission. He heads to the X-Mansion and fights most of the team before being captured. He’s interrogated by Xavier who learns about his future just in time for Nimrod to come through the breach.  The entire team fights Nimrod, breaking his body into pieces but he starts regenerating. Bishop destroys Nimrod’s time band, sending him back to the future. Just at things are winding down, Rogue and Gambit return, and Bishop pulls his gun on Gambit, remembering the Cajun is the assassin. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open on Rogue and Gambit driving her convertible driving back to the Mansion. Rogue is something of a reckless driver, but Gambit likes it given his shameless flirting. Dude is trying hard to earn the favor of a woman whose kiss will literally suck the life out of him. Rogue parks the car and flies off when he makes another pass at her. Later, they go down into the sublevels and reach the War Room as the others are discussing who the assassin is. Rogue comes in first, stopping the conversation, and then Gambit follows, at which point Bishop pulls the gun. He fires at Gambit, but Rogue jumps in the way. He keeps firing and knocks Gambit on his ass. The other’s stop him, and Rogue and Gambit demand to know what’s going on. Charles explains Bishop’s deal, Gambit saying that the time travel story must be bullshit. Bishop starts screaming that Gambit is the traitor and that he’ll turn everything the X-Men love and stand for into ashes. He says that it starts with a single death in DC that snowballs into a full-scale war. A Mastermold is commissioned, and it produces thousands of Sentinels. They capture Mutants like animals and take them to detention centers. We see some Mutants fighting back, Cyclops with his brother Havok, and Sunfire (the Asian Mutant from Genosha) but they’re all taken out. But, like all ethnic cleansing attempts, it doesn’t stop with just wiping out the Mutants and eventually the Sentinels take over the government. Bishop comes out of his flashback saying that he’s hated Gambit his whole life for what he did. Charles asks if stopping the assassination would alter the timeline. Bishop says that was Forge’s theory. They don’t know who the victim is that kicks this off, speculating that it could be the President or Charles Xavier himself. Gambit asks if they’re really going to trust Bishop, but Wolverine points out they know about as much about Bishop as they do about Gambit. Gambit, feeling threatened, pulls out a card and says they should take out Bishop. Wolverine says that if he tries, he’s proving Bishop right. Storm says that she knows Gambit better than the rest of them, but even if Bishop accused her, she couldn’t be sure it would be a lie. She points out they’re all capable of committing such an act of evil. Gambit complains that no one trusts him and storms off.

 

Later, Gambit enters the hanger. Bishop flips on a light and demands to know where he’s going. The others also come in and Gambit admits to them that he’s going to Washington to stop the assassin. They obviously don’t think this is a good idea, saying keeping Gambit from Washington is the only way to guarantee it doesn’t happen. Bishop is told to stay behind as well and Wolverine volunteers to stay with them to babysit. The others load up into the Blackbird and take off.

 

That evening, Gambit, Bishop, and Wolverine are playing poker. Bishop calls Gambit a traitor one too many times and Gambit throws a card at him. Bishop shows off his power, energy absorption, to take in Gambit’s bioenergy, and throws it back at him, Wolverine sarcastically saying that Bishop is ready to raise Gambit. Wolverine draws his claws, telling them to shut up and play.

 

The next morning, Storm and Rogue are in position to monitor what’s happening at the Capital building. Jubilee is with Rogue, though she’s still asleep and having a nightmare about Gambit betraying them. We cut over to a hotel room occupied by Mystique and her brotherhood of Mutants. This incarnation consists of Mystique, Avalanche, Pyro and Blob. Blob and Pyro agree it’s a lovely day for an assassination, Mystique coming in to say if they screw this up, they’ll be the ones to die. On the TV both in their room, and the X-Mansion, a news report is talking about this Senate Subcommittee on Mutant Affairs that everyone is interested in, highlighting Senator Robert Kelly. Wolverine yells at Gambit to get back to the table so they can keep playing. Gambit does so… but only to set off some explosions so he can run off. Wolverine shouts at him to stop but he obviously doesn’t. They ran after Gambit just in time to see him fly off in a small jet. Bishop is furious at this, saying that this is why Wolverine let him go back, because he keeps screwing things up. Wolverine, interestingly, says he still doesn’t believe this.

 

In DC an anti-Mutant protest is going on. Pyro, Avalanche and Blob are plants in the crowd and are about to start a distraction. Inside, Charles is answering Senator Kelly’s questions when a quake starts. An aide looks at her watch and mutters right on time as the Senators run out of the room. Pyro and Avalanche burst into the hall and start wrecking the place. Jean and Scott disable the two of them and Charles puts out a mental call to the others to assemble at the hall. As they do, Gambit touches down and infiltrates the building.

 

The main team chase after Pyro and Avalanche. Blob leaps out to join them and the fight is on. Pyro fires a flame bird at Storm and Rogue. They let it chase them into the upper atmosphere until it dissipates. Blob is tough enough that Cyclops’ eyebeam can’t hurt him, and he announces how powerful he is… as Wolverine’s ship lands in the background, he gets out and dives on Blob’s face, distracting him long enough to knock him into the reflecting pool. Storm flies in and freezes the water, trapping him. Cyclops runs over and asks where Gambit and Bishop are. Bishop blasts Pyro, answering that question. Avalanche starts churning up the ground, but Bishop absorbs his vibrational energy and throws it back at him. He misses, though and knocks over a building. Jean slows the building’s fall, enough so everyone save a little girl can get clear, but Rogue flies in and grabs the kid. She drops the kid off with the others before flying up again. Storm wants to chase Pyro and Avalanche but Cyclops asks where Bishop is. Rogue spots him entering the Senate build and follows him, but he ducks behind her.

 

Inside, the mysterious Aide from earlier leads Senator Kelly into a back room. Inside, we see the aide tied up on the floor. Yep, the lady that led Kelly here is Mystique. She shifts into Gambit’s form, saying that Kelly is about to make history here. Mystique takes the aide’s blindfold off, saying that she’ll be a witness to what happens to people that cross Mutants, but especially Gambit and the X-Men. The actual Gambit comes in then, asking if she’s surprised to see him. Mystique shoots at Gambit, Gambit knocks the gun from her hand and the two wrestle around. They’re interrupted by Bishop, who shoots the real Gambit. It’s only then that he realizes that there’s two of them. Mystique accuses Gambit of being a shapeshifter. Bishop elects to side with caution and just shoot them both, but Rogue flies in and smashes his time band to send him back to his era. She tells Kelly and the Aide to leave the rest to her. When alone, Mystique returns to normal and says that Rogue is going to help her escape. Rogue asks why she’d do that. Mystique then takes on the form of an older blonde woman that Rogue immediately calls Mama. As I’m sure you’re aware, Mystique is Rogue’s foster mother and she looked after Rogue for years before she joined the X-Men. In this continuity I guess she just never showed Rogue her usual blue form.

 

Cyclops and Wolverine arrive in time to see Kelly and the Aide leaving. They explain what happened here, the Mutant hating Kelly clearly befuddled by the Mutants that helped him, and the Aide explains about the shapeshifter. Cyclops realizes this is why everyone thought Gambit did it and they go check it out. They find Gambit laid out on the ground without his coat and they wonder what happened. Rogue, meanwhile, drops Mystique off by the reflecting pool. Mystique says she’s in trouble now, as her Master Apocalypse wants Kelly dead in order to cause chaos. Rogue tells Mystique to leave Apocalypse, but Mystique is loyal to Apocalypse. Rogue asks why she’s working for Apocalypse and why she tried to turn Rogue into his slave. Mystique says it seemed like the only way to get her back. She leaves and Rogue starts crying.

 

Bishop returns to the Future. It’s still a shattered, ruined hellscape. Forge comes in, saying that he can try again, and again, until they find a way to fix the future. Once the time machine is rebuilt. Bishop tells Forge that he didn’t fail, he stopped the assassination. Forge says that something else must have happened to keep the timeline on this track. We see Wolverine’s skeleton, complete with claws, floating in a tank of some kind, which tells us that Nimrod’s attack didn’t go well.

 

Back in 1992, Cyclops asks Xavier why Kelly wants to speak with him. Xavier is hopeful this means Kelly will be willing to listen to his proposal for Mutant-Human cooperation. Jean sense something is wrong in Kelly’s office and they burst in to find the office a wreck and a huge hole in the wall. Cyclops thinks it’s due to the same gang, but Charle’s isn’t so sure. Why? His watch has stopped… due to it being magnetized. Damn it Magneto!

 

One thing that I’ve been reminded of during this rewatch that X-Men: The Animated Series did better than anyone else back in the day was the interconnected story telling. Every episode of this first season either connects directly with the next one, like this Days of Future Past multiparter or calls back to previous episodes, like Mystique operating for Apocalypse. It’s all woven together so elegantly, I love it. Sure, it made things harder to watch back in the 90s when your options were to watch the episodes as they play in their timeslot or just be okay with the recap at the start off the episodes to inform you what is happening. People today are so spoiled by streaming, I swear. I also got to give props to Apocalypse for this relatively simple plan. Use his shapeshifter to take on the form of one of the more mysterious X-Men and use his image to trigger a war. Way less convoluted than to kidnap Mutants to turn into his Horsemen and then just attacking countries at random. I do wonder if the X-Men from the unaltered timeline realized that Gambit wasn’t really to blame or if he was ousted from the group once the Sentinels started touching down on Xavier’s front lawn. And like I said last time, this probably worked really well in 92 as Gambit was such a new character that no one watching could be sure if he’d kill Kelly or not. Less so today, because, again, Scoundrel with a heart of gold. I imagine he’ll have questions for Rogue when he wakes up from his little nap time, but we’ll see. The reveal that Mystique is Rogue’s adopted mother was fine, too. At this point, the fact that Mystique is Rogue’s foster/adoptive mother as well as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler and Graydon Creed’s biological parent is fairly well known. But I imagine a lot of kid’s jaws dropped right here in 92 when her identity was revealed. ... I say ‘parent’ because, if you haven’t kept up with Marvel comics buzz, it was revealed/retconned earlier this year that Mystique is Kurt’s father. She… shapeshifted the required anatomy to impregnate her longtime lover Irene Adler aka Destiny. Yes, Comics are weird. It’s disheartening for Bishop to return to the Future just to learn that nothing that he did make demonstrable change to the future. I could imagine just feeling defeated to return to the future to learn that nothing you did worked. But from a storytelling perspective it does give Bishop some additional reasons to keep hopping back to the past. So, yeah, this isn’t the last we’ll see of Bishop. And ending the episode with Kelly being kidnapped and heavily implying Magneto did it was an excellent hook for the season finale. Magneto’s back and he’s going to make sure people respect Mutants. Or is he? We’ll see next time. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 11

Bishop to Queen Four, Queen Four being 1992.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Apocalypse revealed himself.  The Ancient Mutant used his machine and the shapeshifting Mystique to recruit three additional Mutants to work with Archangel to serve as his Horsemen. He unleashed his Horsemen to attack a UN Disarmament Peace Summit and ended up really killing the mood. The X-Men fight back the Horsemen in Paris while Rogue goes back to Dr.  Adler, Mystique’s assumed identity that was touting a Mutant “cure.” She forced Mystique to reveal herself and Apocalypse’ base of operations, a bunker under Stonehenge. The ret of the team found the location by following Archangel and the Horsemen when they retreated. The X-Men fought Apocalypse and his minions to a standstill, Rogue grabbing Archangel and draining the evil out of him with her touch. With Archangel’s help, they drove Apocalypse and his Horsemen back. Archangel wished Rogue good luck carrying that darkness she drew out of him. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

The episode opens in New York in the year 2055. The city is burnt out ruin with Sentinels patrolling the skies. We see a group of Morlocks leaving the sewers scrounging for supplies, led by a very old and half crazed Wolverine. The group is ambushed by a pair of Sentinels, but the two new Mutants take them out in a few seconds, a third nearly gets them but old Logan leaps at the last one and takes it out. Wolverine complains that he’s finally getting old just as a Mutant Tracker arrives. This is Bishop, a Mutant currently working for the Sentinel occupation force. It’ll make sense later. He’s got an M branded over his right eye to show off his Mutant status. He attacks the group, using his energy rifle to take the two kids out and then Logan. He announces that he’s “scratched three rebels” as Wolverine passes out.

 

We cut to Bishop driving his captured bounties to an internment camp. Wolverine wakes up and asks if he knows Bishop from somewhere. Bishop has no idea what he’s talking about and tells him to not try to butter Bishop up for special treatment at the camp. Wolverine tries to tell Bishop that he’s just accelerating the inevitable, that the Sentinels will start wiping out the Mutant collaborators once they have the rebels taken care of. Bishop says that the Sentinels treat everyone else just fine, they just want to wipe out the rebel. Bishop gets his ID card out and demands he get his payment. The Sentinels on guard announce that Bishop has hit his Mutant capture quota and is now going to be executed with the others. Damn, that was a quick turnaround.

 

Bishop and Wolverine are forced to carry the unconscious kids along with them. Wolverine asks Bishop what he thinks about the retirement policy and Bishop tells him to shut up. Wolverine’s teen starts waking up, but he tells her to play possum. They reach a row of headstones for the X-Men. Most of the team made it to the 2020s and beyond, except Jubilee who died in 2010. Wolverine growls, and Bishop shakes hiss head at the Legendary X-Men. The Sentinels order that they get moving and Wolverine and company attack. They fight the Sentinel’s back, Wolverine shouting at Bishop to help them. Wolverine is nearly crushed to death, but Bishop unleashes his power, redirecting energy blasts to free him. Wolverine thanks Bishop, but things go from bad to worse as Nimrod arrives. The advanced Sentinel hunter is bad news. Wolverine wants to stay and fight but is told to complete their mission by his team. He and Bishop fall back while the other two hold Nimrod off.

 

FYI, Nimrod is a biblical legendary hunter. His name only became synonymous with stupidity in the Looney Tunes when Bugs Bunney would use the word to describe Elmer Fudd. The more you know.

 

Bishop and Wolverine fall back to another part of the ruined city. They reach Forge, an old Native scientist. Forge has the Mutant ability to build any sort of machine that he can imagine. Apparently in the Sentinel ridden post-apocalypse, he turned his sights onto building a time machine. The part that Wolverine got for him was the last piece he needed to finish it. Forge gives him a wristband that will anchor him in the point in time he needs to go to, the early 90s, otherwise he’ll be pulled back to the correct time. Why the 90s? Because that’s when the show takes place. But more specifically there’s an assassination that takes place then that the Rebels believe was the big domino that set this timeline in motion. Wolverine tells Bishop to make sure Forge pulls the plug on the machine when he’s gone, to make sure no one follows. Bishop really grills Wolverine on whether he thinks he can do this, saying that stopping the assassin means killing “him.” Wolverine says he’ll do it, just as an alarm starts blaring, warning of Sentinel. Bishop stops Wolverine, taking the wrist band and saying he’s going. He’s younger and stronger than the currently 200+ year old Wolverine, and he and Forge think that will help. Wolverine is obviously pissed but that’s his usual factory setting. Forge and Wolverine try to hold off the Sentinels as Bishop jumps through the portal. He is nearly through when Nimrod arrives and nearly grabs him. He falls through a rift in time and crashes into an abandoned building. He initially thinks the portal didn’t work, until he sees people just living their lives in the daylight. Neat, time travel works. Unfortunately, he took a nasty hit to the head as he traveled, and the resulting concussion has him unable to remember why he’s in the past. He sees a newspaper talking about a speech Professor Charles Xavier is going to give and thinks he needs to talk to Charles.

 

We cut to Rogue and Gambit vising Beast in prison. They’re bringing him books to keep him entertained while he awaits his trial. Rogue seems pretty chill with the situation, but Gambit starts getting antsy, offering to blow a hole in the bars to get Beast out. Beast, sensing Gambit’s nerves, bends the bars for Gambit so he can run out real fast. Turns out the Cajun is uncomfortable in prisons, interesting. Rogue wonders what that was about, but Beast intuits Gambit’s probably been in prison before.

 

We shift over to Bishop hiding out in a ruined building. He’s watching videos on his wristband about the X-Men and trying to remember his mission. He hears some kids running by saying they’re going to play their new “Assassin” “Cartridge,” which tickles something in Bishop’s brain. And includes a fun little Easter Egg of the Punisher on the cover of the Assassin game. The wristband tells him he needs to take out the Assassin. Bishop thinks that the entire X-Men team are the assassins, and he needs to take them out. He grabs his future blaster and heads out. He boards a bus, clears it out and drives to stop the assassin. Totally inconspicuous mode of Transport, B.

 

Bishop drives into the X-Mansion, bursting through the door with the bus. He starts attacking X-Men, shouting that he’s doing this for the future. He’s able to hold off Cyclops and Storm. Jubilee nearly knocks the gun from his hands, but he keeps a hand on it and knocks them all down. Wolverine tackles him and says he’ll remember the ‘rookie’s’ face before going to cut his throat. Bishop remembers old Logan tries to stop him. That doesn’t work, but Xavier rolls up and does stop Wolverine, saying a dead Bishop won’t answer his questions. Xavier orders Cyclops to check for injuries and to get Bishop to the War Room. He’s sure they’ll need Cerebro to figure this out.

 

They strap Bishop down and try to figure him out. Jubilee can’t figure out how to connect his wristband with their computers, and Jean and Scott say his weapons are super advanced. A reading of one of the cartridges of his gun is right off the scale, it’s good it was set to stun. Xavier goes over to Bishop and puts o Cerebro to read his mind. He gets jumbles of images, and we see a brief outline of Bishop’s timeline. It looks like, Anti-Mutant sentiment hits a fever pitch, the government mass produces Sentinels and captures all the Mutants. The Sentinels then turn on the Government, killing them and beginning to exterminate all sapient life on Earth. Xavier is obviously most freaked out by the gravestones. Everyone is skeptical of the situation. Wolverine is the hardest to convince, saying that this is all very convenient.  A Terminator from the Future has come back to kill an X-Man to stop the apocalypse, yeah, I could see not buying that. Bishop’s wristband starts flashing and he tells them that means someone followed him through the portal. Xavier orders Bishop be released and that the team help him put together what is happening.

 

The head back to the ruin that Bishop appeared in. Cyclops uses Bishop’s blaster to look at the doorframe and it does detect something. Bishop says it’s detecting the residual energy of temporal displacement. Bishop realizes that Nimrod came through, just as the machine blasts them. Nimrod is extremely powerful and can detect the weaknesses in his opponents. He drops a wall on Storm to make use of her Claustrophobia and shoots Jean before she can throw up a psychic barrier. Cyclops uncovers Storm and she whips up a blizzard to try to stop Nimrod, Bishop encouraging her, saying that maybe they can freeze Nimrod’s super structure. She freezes Nimrod, and Bishop and Cyclops blast it to pieces. The robot starts to reassemble itself almost immediately, but Bishop runs over and shoots it’s temporal transceiver, sending it back to the Future.  He explains how the transceiver is keeping him in this time, and the others all agree he’s telling the truth now.

 

Back at the War Room, Wolverine asks who the assassin is, then. Bishop still can’t remember, concussions suck, so the others start to try to figure out who might do it. Before they can get into arguing about it, Rogue and Gambit arrive, and Bishop says that Gambit is the assassin. He shouts “Traitor! Your future ends now!” and shoots him. Damn.

 

This was a fine introduction to Bishop, the Time Traveling X-man. He’s one of my little brother’s favorite X-Men. His future is one of the bleakest in the MCU, right up there with the Age of Apocalypse, the Age of Ultron, and the countless future’s where Galactus has eaten the lifeforce of Earth and left it a baren husk. Not great. Using him to be the time traveler to stop the Days of Future Past timeline is smart, as Kitty Pryde was cut from this show entirely and two Wolverine’s can be too much. Love his 90s look too, by the way, it takes a real man to rock a mullet. Him getting a concussion the moment he arrived and forgetting the details of his mission is a little cliché but it lead to a fun fight scene between him and the X-Men. Nimrod was a little bit of a letdown. He’s an extremely powerful X-Men villain (and is tied to the X-Men ’97 story line) so to have him appear for like 3 minutes before being taken out is a bit lame. He could easily have appeared at the same time as Bishop and Bishop could have spent the episode alternating between fighting Nimrod and X-Men at the same time is all I’m saying. The reveal the X-Man he’s hunting is Gambit is a good one, too, but was probably better back in the day. Why? Because Gambit as a character was only introduced in the comics in 1990, and this episode premiered in 1992. Two years in not a long time to set up a character as part of a large ensemble cast. Gambit was still largely a mystery, so Bishop accusing him of being an assassin seems way more plausible. With the hindsight of nearly 35 years of Gambit being a scoundrel with a heart of gold, it’s just hard to believe he’d kill someone. All I’m saying. So yeah, a good start to the Days of Future Past. Next time, we’ll see how the future shifts. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 10

 The Four Horsemen ride out for Apocalypse. 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, everyone wanted Dr. Adler. The scientist was employed by Warren Worthington III to try to find cure for Mutations. Cable faced off against Warren to try to find him, learning from Warren’s girlfriend he’s in Scotland. Xavier is also there investigating Adler and visiting his friend Moira MacTaggart. Adler refuses to see him, and when Xavier tries to read his mind, he sees a giant purple monster man that broke his connection to him. Xavier let his team know that Adler was working on a cure and Rogue rushed off in the hope of being able to get to touch someone again. She beats up two Mutants that hit on her in Scotland, Pyro and Avalanche, and then goes to see Adler. She convinces Adler to consider her for the procedure. It’s revealed that Adler is in fact Mystique, a Mutant shapeshifter, and she’s working for the Mutant despot and self-proclaimed God-King Apocalypse.  The machine they’re using in fact brainwashes Mutants to serve Apocalypse. Before Rogue can undergo the procedure, Pyro and Avalanche kidnap Adler. Rogue and Cable both try to get Adler back, Rogue wanting his cure, and Cable wanting to execute him for developing the Mutant suppression collars. In the scuffle, Scott and Jean arrive, and Jean and Cable are knocked from a cliff. Rogue saves Jean and realizes that her powers are important and necessary. She refuses Adler’s procedure. But unfortunately, Warren arrives and asks for the procedure. Apocalypse announces that Warren will be useful and that he will destroy the world. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open on Miur Island, where Mystique in her Adler disguise is giving Warren Worthington III the hype speech before putting him through the procedure. Warren is locked in and the machine powers on. Adler reveals herself to be Mystique just as the machine powers up. Apocalypse joins her and says that her loyalty will be rewarded. He then orders the power on the machine to be increased, saying he wants “to hear the screams of a future being born!” Apocalypse is played by John Colicos in the first two seasons and James Blendick for the rest and these men just give banger after banger with Apocalypse lines. We hear Warren scream as he’s forcibly transformed from Angel to Archangel.

 

Back at the bar near the facility, two Mutants argue about how badly they want to get a cure for their mutations. One throws a stool, but Jean, sitting with Charles, Cyclops, and Rogue to one side catches it. Charles tells his X-Men to not judge the Mutants here, as they haven’t learned to live with their gifts and are desperate to rid themselves of it, and that makes many bitter. We’re shown a frail looking woman touch a flower and cause it to die as he speaks. Suddenly, Warren bursts in, showing his lack of wings and announcing Adler’s cure works! Jean, Cyclops, and Xavier don’t react, which is so freaking weird as they’ve known Warren for years.

 

Okay, briefly touching on retcons in this series. Season one acts like this version of the X-Men is the only team that has existed. Season 2 onwards back peddles a bit, fleshing out the universe more and including that there was at least one previous incarnation of the team that consisted of Jean, Cyclops, Beast and their friends Iceman and Angel. They did some heroics, battled Magneto, and other things that make this first season weird in retrospect. Oh, this also includes Rogue not reacting to Avalanche and Pyro last time, as a future episode will show she worked with them for years while living with her adopted mother Mystique.

 

Anyway, Warren announces they don’t have to be Mutant’s anymore. Cyclops cuts in front and tries to convince the other Mutants to not get the procedure, saying being a Mutant is who they are. Warren tells him to look him in the eye and say that. Cyclops almost does but Xavier tells him to back off. Rogue says that if the cure works everyone will need to search their own hearts if they’ll do it. Charles says they need to head out. Several Mutants push forward to get the cure.

 

We cut over to Apocalypse’ base, Apocalypse watching the bar scene on a computer. It’s revealed that “Warren” is Mystique in disguise. We’re then introduced to Archangel, the altered form of Warren Worthington. His feathered wings have been replaced by large metal ones and his skin is now a sickly blue. He launches bladed feathers and destroys the computer. Apocalypse pontificates about creating a new world order from the blood of the old as three Mutants are transformed. They become the Horsemen of Apocalypse: Famine, Pestilence, War, and Archangel serves as Death. The other horsemen mount up on demon horses and Archangel leads them out to bring chaos.

 

Meanwhile, Gambit, Rogue and Jean are playing pool. Gambit once again flirts with Rogue, suggesting that the winner get a kiss from the loser to throw her off her game. In retaliation, Jean psychically moves the ball out of the way of his cue to mess up his shot. Storm turns on a TV, to a news story covering a disarmament meeting of world leaders in Paris. Suddenly Apocalypse arrives and announces he’ll give these mewling sheep the future they want now. He and his Horsemen attack, Apocalypse announcing himself to the world. The X-Men agree they need to do something about it. War and Archangel destroy tanks and helicopters, and Pestilence spreads a disease amongst the bystanders.

 

In the War Room, Charles says this has been his greatest fear, a powerful Mutant driven made by that power. Someone they can’t reason with. He announces they need to stop him now or there will be no future for anyone. The team heads out, sans Rogue and Jubilee. Charles had Rogue stay back because he was sending her back to Scotland. He recognized the Horsemen as people waiting for Adler’s procedure and thinks that’s a lead. She agrees and flies off.

 

Apocalypse pontificates about how he’ll purge the world of weakness and humans to form a new world order. He has his horseman fly out from his base near Stonehenge. Famine uses her powers to rapidly starve people into hunger zombies, War destroys military bases, and Archangel smashes a dam. He announces they shall be purified by fire and water.

 

Rogue arrives at Miur Island and notices that Adler seems to be doing some remodeling. Mystique come out and puts on her Adler disguise, but Rogue isn’t buying it this time. She grabs Adler and straps her into the machine, threatening to use it on her until Mystique drops the disguise and tells her that it’s a brainwashing machine. She claims she had to serve Apocalypse or die, and that he’s got a base in Stonehenge. Rogue lets her mom who she’s not reacting to go, but Mystique pulls a blaster on her, shooting Rogue into the machine, destroying it and saying no one can stop Apocalypse. She escapes and Rogue announces that she’ll try.

 

The main team lands in Paris and go to fight Pestilence. Storm summons a fog to confuse Pestilence and keep her at a distance. Cyclops shoots her horse and she crashes. Before they can grab her, the other Horsemen arrive and grab her. Wolverine stabs on War’s robot horse and gets dragged along before being thrown off. War tries to crush him, but Gambit blows the monolith before it can. Storm announces that they’re getting away, and Cyclops says they’ll lead them to Apocalypse.

 

Rogue lands in Stonehenge and faces off against Apocalypse. The Ancient mutant easily dodges her attacks before blasting her with energy, vaporizing her jacket in the process. Guess her bodysuit is made of tougher stuff. Before he can finish them off, the Horsemen arrive and tell him of their failure. Apocalypse shouts his creatures and him cannot be defeated. Cyclops blasts him, saying he begs to differ. They battle the horsemen, Rogue losing her gloves before grabbing Archangel by the face. She seems to drain the mind control from Archangel, clearing his mind. He announces that there’s been enough destruction and launches his feathers at the Horsemen to stop them. Apocalypse announces they aren’t fit or worthy to serve and that the X-Men are only delaying the inevitable. Wolverine goes to slash him, but Apocalypse drops into the ground. The other Horsemen fly off as well. Archangel helps Rogue to her feet. Apocalypse escapes in a ship that raises from the ground, destroying Stonehenge. Once things calm down, Archangel laments what he’s done, saying he just wanted to be normal but proved he’s capable of great evil. Rogue says it wasn’t his fault and he took that evil out of him and into her. He wishes her luck, saying that he hopes she’s strong enough to contain it before flying off. Poor Archangel.

 

Overall, this is a good first showing of Apocalypse acting instead of plotting. He’s extremely powerful, with delusions of grandeur and a desire to destroy human society to build a superior Mutant one. He’s only worse than say, Magneto, because he’s willing to cull weak Mutants from the gene pool as well. He loves grandiose speeches and poetic imagery to really drive home the crazy. He’s great. The weakness of it for me is Archangel’s rushed story line. Angel’s transformation into his dark form is a staple of the X-Men franchise, but like every adaptation other than Wolverine and the X-Men this one does it wrong. Both here and in the X-Men films, Angel is introduced to become Archangel. On paper, that makes no sense. Apocalypse is after powerful Mutants, to make the strong stronger and all that jazz. Does that sound like man with bird wings and an inconsistent healing power? No? Then why Archangel? Because in the comics and Wolverine and the X-Men, Warren is a close friend and ally. Changing him is a psychological tactic as much as anything else. “Your friend now serves me!” is what it shouts. And that really doesn’t work when Angel is just introduced now. I know, the creators and writers had a lot of balls in the air and at this point we haven’t even heard the majority of the X-Men’s real names, but still, could have had Angel in a few more episodes before making him Archangel. Heck, his transformation would have been more impactful in X-Men: Evolution, even though he wasn’t a major character, because he had a few more episodes to appear in.  Okay, Archangel rant done. If you’re wondering why I’m not complaining more about the other Horsemen, it’s because these guys were all generic Mutants and not legacy characters with greatly reduced roles. Anyway, Apocalypse has appeared and he’s going to be causing trouble on the regular going forward. Next time, we will see an adaptation of a classic tale, Days of Future Past. We’ll see you there. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 9

Rogue's looking for a cure.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Serie, the X-Men investigated who broke their house while they were away. Wolverine and Jubilee found Colossus, a large foreign Mutant with the ability to transform into a giant steel form. While the duo tried to take Colossus down for questioning, he quickly disabled both, and was befuddled why they were attacking him. He is arrested for breaking into a bank, but he insists he was framed. It’s revealed that the real robber is Juggernaut, Charles’ angry step-brother with magically enhanced strength. Rogue and Storm broke Colossus out of jail to help take him down. The team worked together to get Juggernaut’s helmet off, and Rogue’s touch and Jean’s mental blast dropped him. He wandered off after, his mind wiped by the combined attack. After, Colossus helped them start rebuilding the mansion and Wolverine and Jubilee resolved to find the missing Professor Xavier. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

The episode opens with Cable in the mountains. He’s marching toward a cabin. Inside the cabin we see Warren Worthington III with his girlfriend, Gisela, enjoying a fire together. She teases him about a rumor that he’s keeping a mad scientist in up there. And boy is she not far off. Warren says his scientist is Gottfried Adler, a geneticist, but he’s been sent to Scotland to do research. Gisela tries to get cozy, but Warren pushes her away, saying that he should take her home and that she wouldn’t like the ‘real’ him. Cable breaks inside Warren’s cabin and starts looking around just before Warren comes into the lab area. Cable reaches through a bookshelf and grabs him. He asks if Warren is Adler, Warren introduces himself and then pulls a blaster on Cable, firing into the bookshelf. He misses, Cable telling him to make sure he hits a man he pulls a gun on. He tries to Cable again, Cable retaliates and knocks him into the snow outside the cabin. Warren, pissed off, has his wings rip out the back of his coat and says Cable messed with the wrong guy. Gisela comes in and Cable grabs her. She tells him Adler is in Scotland when asked, and Cable intuits he’s on Muir Island. Warren flies in and tries to tackle Cable, knocking him to the ground. Cable blinds him with a flash grenade before running off. Gisela grabs Warren’s gun and, half blinded, shoots him. Warren flies off with Gisela saying she’s sorry.

 

We shift focus to Muir Island, Scotland, and Charles Xavier. He’s meeting with an old friend, Dr. Moira MacTaggart. He mentions that she created the Center for Mutant Research and wonders if she can’t just demand to see Adler’s research. She says she can’t, but he’s not really working for her. He’s basically just renting research space from her, and she only knows what he tells her. So, she had no idea if his claim for a ‘cure’ for Mutation was true or not. She hits the intercom to speak with Adler, saying she wants to introduce him to Charles, but Adler says no visitors. Charles tries to read Adler’s mind, but only gets a flash of Mystique, a Mutant Shapeshifter, and a giant mechanical purple man. Yes, it’s Apocalypse.

 

Later, Charles is icing his head. He says something (Apocalypse) kept him from reading Adler’s mind. He asks if Adler might be a Mutant himself, but Moira isn’t sure. She does say that would explain why he wants to find a cure. Charles says not to call it a cure being a Mutant isn’t a disease. Moira isn’t sure all Mutants would agree and asks what the X-Men think. Charles admits that he hasn’t told them yet, but it’s time he did.

 

Back at the Mansion, The X-Men had the Mansion like 65% of the way up. Wolverine is being a bit bossy, directing the others in how to do construction work. Shock of shocks, the man from the 1800s knows a lot about building houses. He mouths off to Gambit, saying he’s only bossy to make up for Gambit’s screw ups. As payback, Gambit charges a brick that Wolverine is about to lay, but Cyclops fires it out of the way before it can explode. They almost get into a fight, but Rogue drops a gazebo on Gambit to separate them and she tells Wolverine to back off. Jubilee runs in and defuses the situation by saying someone wants to talk to them. The X-Men gather in the War Room and Charles over video call tells them about Dr. Adler’s process. Rogue is super curious about this, Wolverine dismissive about something that can take their powers away, and Cyclops sees both sides.  That it could be used as a weapon… but some Mutants might like to, I don’t know, touch someone without risking killing them. Xavier says that there’s no judgement for anyone that might want to give up their powers and Rogue looks… pensive.

 

Later, Rogue heads out to her car. While Jean and Scott cuddle in the construction site, Jean says she’s worried about Rogue because she knows all about how Rogue feels whenever she sees people touching. Gambit hops into Rogue’s car and sees she had a travel book about Scotland. He tries to convince her to go to Paris with him instead, but she throws him out of her car and drives off. Gambit follows her and hops back into the car, saying how about a kiss before she goes.  She’s real pissed at that suggestion, saying that’ll send Gambit into the Hospital. Gambit teases that maybe that’s worth it. Rogue flies off.

 

We cut over to Rogue riding on the wing of a plane, and freaking out a passenger, out to Muir Island. She leaps off when close enough. We cut over to a bar where Dominic “Avalanche” Petros and St. John “Pyro” Allerdyce are hanging out. Avalanche is complaining there isn’t anything to do on the island as Rogue comes in. Avalanche says Pyro’s contact better come to them soon or he’ll go back to Jail just for something to do. Pyro sees Rogue and thinks she might be his contact, Mystique. This comment and interaction will be weird later, just an FYI. Pyro asks if Rogue is looking for him. Rogue, interpreting that as a come on, tells him to piss off unless he’s Adler. Pyro shows off his power, to show off, but Rogue isn’t interested and throws him and then Avalanche through a wall. Avalanche goes all the way through and lands in the water below just in time to see Cable boating by. Weird. He calls out to Pyro to help him, but Pyro is already gone.

 

Rogue reaches the lab and rips the door open when Adler tries to tell her no visitors. She asks to have her powers taken away. Pyro watches the conversation from the door. Adler says that she has such great strength that it would be a shame to take that away, and Rogue says she really wants to be able to touch another human being. Adler tells her to give him an hour while he thinks it over. He ushers her out, closes the damaged door and on the other side is Apocalypse. Adler is revealed to indeed be Mystique. Apocalypse tells her to use their machine for it’s real purpose. To not take Mutant Powers away but to turn whomever they use it on into Apocalypse’s slave. Oh damn.

 

Rogue sits by the waters edge and bonders things. She remembers Storm saying their powers were something to value, not just for their own sake but for what they can bring the world. She flashes back to when she was with her boyfriend Cody, whom she drained when she kissed him for the firsts time. She gets up and walks off. Down by the water, Pyro is looking for Avalanche but finds Cable instead. He demands to know where Adler is and when Pyro attacks him, Cable shoots him and knocks him into the water. Avalanche pulls him from the and Pyro reveals he’s come up with a plan. They’re going to kidnap Adler and hold him for ransom, and Pyro’s friend Mystique need never know. The amount of egg this plan is going to put on their faces…

 

At the lab, Adler warns Rogue that this will change her. Gotta love when villains speak vaguely so they aren’t *technically* lying. He powers up the machine, but a quake hits as Avalanche and Pyro bust in. Rogue tries tot stop them, but Avalanche uses his seismic powers to bury her under the machine and they grab Adler. They run off, Cabel in hot pursuit. Rogue digs herself out and looks pissed. She flies after them. And only then do Moira and Xavier come up to see what happened. Whoops.

 

Avalanche puts Adler down and says Pyro should carry Adler now. Mystique reveals herself, calls them both idiots and says that Pyro screwed up his chances. She invited Pyro here because she thought he might be useful to Apocalypse but now she doubts it. They realize the machine doesn’t take away power, but brainwashes people. Avalanche asks if she just made up this Adler guy, but Mystique says he was real enough before meeting Apocalypse. Rogue flies in just as Mystique turns back into Adler. While Rogue fought the meatheads, Adler tries to sneak off but Cable corners them.

 

Back at the lab, Charles deduces that Adler was kidnapped. At that moment Jean and Cyclops join him and reveal that Rogue came here to do Adler’s treatment.

 

Rogue quickly dispatches Pyro and Avalanche before flying after Adler. Cable accuses Adler of developing the power suppressing collars on Genosha and says that he’s too dangerous to let live because of it. Rogue flies in and says she needs Adler to be alive. They duke it out, Cable taking her down with a plasma grenade. Mystique reveals herself, saying Adler is already dead. The Blackbird lands and Jean and Cyclops go out to stop him. Cable and Jean get thrown off the cliffside by an exploding rock, Rogue flies after them and grabs Jean but Cable disappears. Cyclops thanks her for saving Jean, and Rogue tears up as she knows what she has to do now.

 

At the lab, Adler is confused as to why Rogue changed her mind. Rogue helps him set the machine back up, dumb, and says she just has to learn to live with her powers. They are a part of her and the good she can do with them is important. She flies off and immediately runs into Warren, who is in his full Angel costume. He asks how she can fly without wings. She just says she can and he calls her lucky before flying off. Warren lands and says that he’d come to warn Adler someone was going to attack him, but he was obviously too late. Adler just now learns Warren is a Mutant. Mystique goes out to meet with Apocalypse and tells him he found a new Mutant to be his slave. Apocalypse already knows who Warren is, saying that he knows much of this world and that’s why he has to destroy it. Smug bastard.

 

This was a solid episode to introduce Apocalypse. If, somehow, you’ve missed the name, he’s one of the X-Men’s most powerful villains and arguably one of the top 10 most dangerous villains in the Marvel Universe. He’s in the episode just enough to tease us about his whole deal. He’s powerful enough to fight off Charles’ mental powers, has a device that can control someone’s mind, and is actively searching for Mutant minions. This was also a good intro to Mystique. We don’t get much about her motivation beyond serving Apocalypse, but this blue shapeshifter is an expert impersonator and infiltrator, so her involvement is usually dangerous. And this was a solid introduction to Rogue and her personal issue of not being able to touch another person without hurting them. I did a character profile for her several years ago and pointed out how important touch is. It’s how we form personal bonds, it gives us comfort in troubled times, and strength when we’re weak. And Rogue can’t do it. That’s a personal hell that I wouldn’t wish on my worse enemy. So, I get her desperation to be able to do that again. And thank goodness she had her epiphany when she did. Just because Rogue would be a devastating Horseman of Apocalypse. Oh, and Cable was badass here. The Mutant mercenary was very interested in removing Adler. That’s probably a big deal, but we’ll get more on that later. Next time, Apocalypse begins his first attack. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 8

 Unstoppable Force meets Immovable Object.

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, Gambit, Storm, and Jubilee had a bad trip. … not a drug trip, they went on a vacation to Genosha but were captured to serve as slave labor. Genosha had advertised itself as a Mutant supporting tropical paradise but that was just to get a superpowered slave labor force. Genosha’s Leader, the Leader (Not the Hulk villain, he’s just a guy) has the captured Mutants build a dam. Why? Because he’d aligned himself with Bolivar Trask and Henry Gyrich and they needed the dam to power their next project. This project being the Mastermold, a supersized Sentinel that served as a factory and main control module of the Sentinels. Storm tried to escape but was taken down by the inhibitor collar that took awawy her powers. She would have been executed but Gambit told them about her weather control powers and how she could fill the damn in hours instead of years. She was thrown into solitary confinement, which kind of sucks for her. Jubilee tried to institute a revolt, but Gambit sold her out. This turns out to be a fact-finding mission on Gambit’s part, acting the traitor to get close to Genoshian leadership. He’s taken to the Leader and shown the Mastermold, he offers Gyrich the X-Men, to which Gyrich agrees to the deal but orders Gambit returned to the prison for now. He attempts to escape, is almost recaptured but is ultimately saved by Cable, a Mutant soldier with heavy weaponry. He wants to kill the Leader, as he helped him take control of Genosha, having been promised the Leader would make it safer. Gambit returns to the prison, freeing everyone and giving Storm the chance to destroy the dam with her powers. The Mastermold, Leader, his aide and Cable are all hit with the wave. The other X-Men arrive in the Blackbird and the team returned to base… only to discover it had been destroyed in their absence. Oh no. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open on the X-Men approaching the Mansion. Cyclops can’t get in contact with Xavier, which is worrying, a fear proven justified when they find the ruins. Jean, Rogue, Storm, and Wolverine get out to search through the debris but are unable to find him. Jean even calls out to him telepathically but can’t get an answer, meaning he’s either not nearby, unconscious or dead. Cyclops and Jubilee entered via the hanger and found it in perfect shape. He then radios the others to join them in the War Room, as he found something. Inside there’s a recording from Xavier, telling them he’s left on a trip and will be back in a few days. He says the results of his journey may change their lives forever.

 

On the top side, Wolverine is still searching the rubble. He finds some supersized tracks as Cyclops joins him. Cyclops says they need to come up with a plan, but Wolverine says Cyclops can do what he likes and storms off. Cyclops, while still miffed, tells Storm, Rogue, and Jubilee to follow him, as whatever made that track will be a lot even for Wolverine.

 

The ladies take Rogue’s car, Storm lamenting that Wolverine always rushes headlong into things. Jubilee says that it’s because he’s worried about the professor, but Rogue thinks he’s just out to kick butt. They find his jeep, but he’s not in it. They split up, saying to keep in contact with each other. Jubilee finds a group of men muttering at a construction site. She asks what’s up and one tells her that the workers are upset they’ve been replaced by a foreigner, who they think is a Mutant. Jubilee asks if the Mutant is really big. We see the Mutant enter a dilapidated building, there’s a flash of light, and then the building comes tumbling down. Jubilee is almost crushed but is saved by Wolverine. The Russian Mutant comes back out, returning to his human form and says the building has been crushed. He introduces himself as Colossus (real name Piotr) and asks if there’s any more buildings that need crushing today. The rest of the construction crew are pissed that the Mutant scab stole their work, which… I mean… point, but the guy who tries to hit him with a truck might be going a little too far. Colossus steels up and isn’t phased by the truck. He’s extremely befuddled by their reaction and asks what he did wrong. Wolverine says the first thing he did wrong was wrecking the mansion before landing on him. Colossus tosses him off into the rubble, saying these Americans are all crazy. Jubilee throws blasts at his face but he’s unphased. He picks her up and wraps a steel beam around her to keep her in place, saying Americans are very strange. Wolverine leaps on him again, Colossus pulls him off and says he doesn’t know anything about a mansion. Wolverine sniffs him and agrees, before Colossus throws him aside. Jubilee frees herself and is shocked when Wolverine says it wasn’t him. He says that Colossus doesn’t smell like the thing he smelled at the mansion, and he could have wasted them if he wanted to but didn’t. Rogue then radios in and tells them to get to the First National bank. It’s being robbed by a big guy.

 

Wolverine and Jubilee pull up to the ruined bank. Rogue tells them the police caught the guy who did it. Turns out, the guy they’re arresting is Colossus, who insists he was there to open an account and that he tried to stop the robber. I just have to ask, did the dude superman jump to the bank? Because there’s no way he arrived there soon enough to be a suspect from leaving Wolverine and Jubilee. Wolverine says that he’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time and tells the others he didn’t do it.  Rogue and Storm follow the police van to talk to Colossus and Jubilee and Wolverine follow his nose to find the culprit.

 

Storm and Rogue break into prison, Rogue tricking a guard into touching her skin to drain him, and Storm blowing out some cameras with lightning to let them pass through. They find Colossus in his cell, as it turns out he was next to and chatting with Beast. He tells the ladies that Colossus says he didn’t do it, and they say they believe him. They offer to take Beast with them, but he wants to stay for his day in court. He says for them to come back during visiting hours and to thank Jean for sending him cookies. Storm slows some guards with a tornado, letting Colossus break them free of the building and Storm freezing the hole he made.

 

At another bank, we see the thief, Juggernaut. Which should have been fairly obvious with an episode title like ‘The Unstoppable Juggernaut.’ Cain Marko rips off the bank vault and starts nabbing cash. Wolverine and Jubilee watch from a rooftop waiting for backup. Juggernaut breaks through the side of the building, Wolverine telling her who he is.  Juggernaut easily walks through police cars and tanks. They sneak around behind Juggernaut, Wolverine slicing the bags he filled with cash. Jubilee quickly grabs an arm full, runs it back to the bank, says the rest off the money is in the alley and goes to follow Wolverine.

 

Wolverine confronts Juggernaut. The big bruiser asks where Xavier is, as he knocked on his door but no one was home. He tosses Wolverine aside, saying he was breaking into banks to try to get his attention. Jubilee keeps him from knocking Wolverine’s head off, blasting him from a roof top and then shattering the pavement beneath him, but Juggernaut says she’s acting too big for her britches. He lifts the building and shakes he down. Before he can take her head off, Rogue flies in and knocks him into a wall. Colossus runs up and asks why Juggernaut would frame a fellow Mutant for his crimes. Juggy reveals that he’s not a Mutant, his powers are Magic based and they’re too much for them to handle. Colossus says we’ll see about that.

 

Colossus and Juggernaut throw cars and tanks at each other for a minute before Juggernaut crushes Colossus by throwing a tank back at him. Cyclops, Jean and Storm arrive, Cyc blasting him to distract Jugs and Storm dropping a building on him to stop him for a few minutes. Jean says she’s trying to stop him with mental blasts but can’t get through. Cyclops says they’ll need to work together to stop him.

 

They use their combined skills to slow Juggernaut down and peel his helmet off. Rogue grabs him and tries to drain him, unfortunately, Juggernaut seems to have more power than she can handle. She starts screaming that Charles had it easy and that now she (he) is the strongest, she (he) will crush the X-Men. She flies off, but Storm grabs her and tells her to let the power go. Juggernaut, despite his bravado, is drained by the experience. Jean flies in and uses Cerebro to overwhelm Juggernaut’s mind, forcing him to drop. Rogue seems to be overloading from the power she took in, but is finally able to release it, blasting it out into space. She drops but is caught by Colossus. Jubilee checks on Juggernaut, who is confused, clearly not remembering what happened here. He stumbles off. Cyclops cradles Jean and asks if she’s alright. She says she’s as well as she can be. She says she hypnotized him into forgetting who he is and what he was doing. He stumbles off, Jean saying that the downside is they don’t know when it’ll wear off. Wolverine tells Cyclops there might be something to the teamwork idea.

 

At the Mansion, Colossus and a construction crew are helping to rebuild it. Wolverine tells Colossus he’s always welcome at the Mansion. The metal titan thanks them, but says he needs to find his little sister and explore America a little before he’s willing to settle down. They thank him and Wolverine and agree that they feel like the mansion is their first real home. Wolverine says that he bets the professor would like to hear her say that, and Jubilee tells him they’ll find the ol’ prof.

 

I think this episode is just okay. It feels like a really weak introduction to two of the X-Men Franchises heaviest hitters. Colossus working in construction is good, he’s always wants to be helpful, but he comes across as very dumb in most of this. Plus the really weak mystery just makes it feels like we’re wasting time with Colossus when we the audience know the episode is called “The Unstoppable Juggernaut.” And robbing banks is so… simple, for Cain Marko. Dude could just walk across town breaking things as he does if he wants Charles’ attention. And using Colossus as a scapegoat would make Charles finding him less likely. It’s silly. It was fun to see the whole team come together to take him out. Sans Gambit, who must have been hung over from the Genosha trip or something. I will say, I did laugh out loud when they just had Juggernaut flat out explain that he’s not a Mutant and his powers are magic. It’s just… such awkward exposition. I did like the bit where it’s clear his power was enough to overwhelm Rogue’s draining touch, even if it still almost took him out on it’s own. The idea that there are Mutants too powerful for Rogue to drain will be important later. So… yeah, a simple episode, okay not great. Next time, we’re gonna meet a real monster. See you then. 

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