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.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103129847
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
No comments:
Post a Comment