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.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103067327
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
No comments:
Post a Comment