Things are getting... Malevolent. No wait, Baleful. No wait... Menacing... No! Wait! Sinister! Things are getting Sinister!
Last time on X-Men: The Animated
Series, season 2 kicked off with a bang. Scott and Jean got married, and
Logan sulked by fighting Sentinels in the Danger Room. The happiness of Scott
and Jean, though, almost immediately takes a sinister turn when it’s revealed
the priest that married them was in fact Morph in disguise. We also learn that
Beast got a pardon from now President Robert Kelly. Which is good. But we also
see the raise of a Mutant hating human supremacists group called the Friends of
Humanity lead by a fella named Creed. Morph causes chaos at the Mansion, luring
Charles to the Antarctic by pretending to be Magneto in distress, and then infiltrating
the mansion. He takes on Rogue’s form and tricks Gambit into thinking they can touch;
he then kisses the real Rogue and gets his power drained and is put into a coma;
he turns into Storm and sends Jubilee to the Friends Of Humanity; and just sneaks
into the Danger Room and turns the settings to high before locking Beast inside.
With Scott and Jean on their honeymoon, Wolverine is out venting his frustration
at life, Gambit comatose, Charles rushing to save “Magneto,” and Beast “going
to catch up” (Morph in disguise, it’s up to Storm and Rogue to save Jubilee
from the FoH. It doesn’t go well, as they’re able to stop a near riot, but
Storm is shot down by police being ordered by Morph. The final scene of the
episode is of a pale skinned man in black called Mr. Sinister saying that he
hopes Morph is enjoying his revenge as much as he is. Creepy. Enough recap. Let’s
get to it.
We open on a plane touching down
near a small island. Scott and Jean are on a sailboat and are looking forward
to reaching that island. Their idyllic moment is immediately ruined as we cut
to Beast racing around Danger Room traps. He knows that this is a much harder
work out than when he programmed into the computer. To escape, he uses the Danger
Rooms own heavy weaponry to blow the door, slipping out while panting.
Outside, a police car pulls up. The
cop inside gets out and is revealed to be Morph. He seems to be coming out of
whatever haze he’s been in, saying that this is Xavier’s School and he used to
belong here. He’s joined by Mr. Sinister, his new boss, who is here to make
sure Morph is still committed to the cause of destroying the X-Men. Morph says
that he doesn’t want to, shape shifting into Storm, Wolverine and Gambit as he
calls them his friends. Sinister tells him Friends don’t abandon Friends. This seems
to reactivate whatever he’s done to Morph, as he returns to the sickly, dark
eye circle form. Morph agrees but says two are missing. Sinister reminds him he
sent them somewhere very romantic but makes it clear Cyclops and Jean Grey
belong to him.
Scott and Jean are on their sailboat,
enjoying each other’s company and the solitude they’ll enjoy. Supposedly there’s
no other person for a hundred miles. They’re interrupted by a man with Pink
hair leaping from the island towards them over rocks. The man, Ruckus, says he
has a message for them. When Scott asks to hear it, Ruckus lets out a powerful scream
that causes a tidal wave that capsizes their boat. They wash up on shore and
are jumped by Hairbag, Slab, and Gorgeous George, all under the leadership of
Mr. Sinister. Ruckus, Gorgeous George, Hairbag and Slab are Mr. Sinister’s
personal strike force, the Nasty Boys. Ruckus has a super sonic scream, Hairbag
is basically Beast, Slab is a strong man and Gorgeous George has a body made of
a purple puddy like substance that he can stretch, shift or mold. Gorgeous
George and Hairbag snap inhibitor collars on Scott and Jean, disabling their powers.
Mr. Sinister tells them to just go along with what he wants, and it’ll be less
dangerous before introducing himself.
We jump over to Beast and Rogue
breaking into the hospital to see Storm, to avoid the media and police outside.
They get into her room and Beast looks at her chart, confirming that she’ll
recover but with time. Rogue is upset at herself, and then Beast at not being
there to help Storm. Beast says that he wasn’t told about a mission, but Rogue refuses
to believe that as he saw him when Storm called. Before they can discuss it
further, a doctor comes in and calls for the police. They bid a hasty retreat.
We cut across town to a FoH meeting.
The, mostly white, members of this hate group are chanting for their leader,
Graydon Creed. He tells his people that they’ve given a warning to Mutantkind
that the Future belongs to Humanity. They bring out Jubilee and he asks the
crowd what to do with her, and they order her execution. They start leading her
away, Jubilee promising they wouldn’t be talking so tough if her hands weren’t
tied, when a feral scream comes from above. Wolverine crashes down into their
midst and does his best to mess some stuff up. He’s the best at it, after all.
Wolverine frees her, Jubilee telling him that Storm sent her to one off the FoH
bases, and Wolverine complaining about how much bubblegum he had to sniff to find
her. They escape the theater and make a
run for it.
Back at the Mansion, Rogue is still
chastising Beast for missing the mission and he keeps telling her he doesn’t
know what she’s talking about. As they enter the War Room, Gambit wakes up,
saying they scream loud enough to wake the half dead. Rogue is happy to see him
awake, but he then accuses her of lying about the kiss not hurting. She tells
him he snuck a kiss on her and got what was coming to her, and Gambit angrily
counters by saying Gambit don’t never go where he’s not invited. Beast tries to
calm the situation, just as Charles floats in. He tells the group that they’re
under attack by a ‘neural disrupter’ that may cause it’s victims to behave in
unusual or irrational ways. This story might have worked, if Wolverine and
Jubilee hadn’t entered and Wolverine caught Morph’s scent. Morph, as Xavier,
tells the others to grab Wolverine as he’s being affected by the disrupter.
Beast grabs him, telling him to calm down, but Wolverine throws him off,
knocking Morph to the ground. Morph screams for the others to destroy Wolverine.
Gambit, not recalling the professor ever saying anything remotely like that,
charges a card and drops it in front of the splayed man. Morph leaps up and
covers his head, only for it to be revealed that Gambit just put enough energy
to make the card glow. Outed, Morph returns to his normal form and throws a
grenade before running. Beast activates the Mansions defensive perimeter to try
to keep him contained.
Morph makes for the Blackbird to
try to escape, but Wolverine and Jubilee cut him off. Wolverine tries to talk
Morph down, saying that he didn’t agree with Scott leaving him behind but that
he made the call to save everyone else. Morph asks if he’s trying to convince
Morph or himself and takes on Wolverine’s form. Jubilee, wanting to help, can’t
decide which Wolverine to blast. One tells her to shoot them both as it’s the
only way to be sure, so she shoots the other one. She went off on the ‘only the
real one would say shoot us both” logic but gets it wrong as Morph uses his own
voice to compliment her shot. She helps Wolverine up as Morph gets on the jet.
Morph takes off and just barely escapes Wolverine clawing the wing of the
Blackbird. The other’s join him as the Blackbird disappears into the horizon.
Jubilee asks where he’s going to go now, and Beast theorizes he’s going to go
after the X-Man he has the most reason to hate.
We shift back to the island. Scott
and Jean are hooked not some kind of machine, the inhibitor collars still on
their necks. Mr. Sinister reveals that he’s been stalking Scott and Jean since
they were children, using footage of them as kids, teens and adults to prove
his point. He says that the two of them are the precursors to the future of mankind,
a future Sinister will control via their offspring. Scott tries to make
Sinister let Jean go, but… like, his plans need both of them. Sinister uses his
power to make a blood sucking tentacle. He takes a blood sample from Scott,
saying that through the master race of Mutants he creates from their DNA, he
will rule the world.
Back at the hospital, the Jubilee
tells Storm about Morph attacking them. She’s happy about the news, focusing on
the friend not being dead part, not the friend actively trying to kill them
part. Jubilee says that it feels like everyone is against them lately. Storm
says to not give up hope, as for every person that hates Mutants there’s
another who’s willing to embrace them. Jubilee says that Morph used to believe
that but now all he wants is revenge.
Morph takes the Blackbird to the
island and touches down. He starts searching the island for Cyclops. He finds him
and Jean in the lab. Scott is obviously shocked at seeing Morph alive, but even
more so when Morph reveals he’s the one that married them. Morph holds Scott at
gunpoint and asks if he likes feeling his life tick away. Jean wakes up
and tries to convince Morph that Scott did what he had to for the good of the
team. Morph doesn’t want to believe it and goes to shoot Scott but is
interrupted by Sinister and the Nasty Boys. Morph can’t seem to remember who
Sinister is. Sinister uses whatever implant he put into Morph’s brain to make
him remember the Night of the Sentinels, how he was shot and left for dead. How
Sinister found him and repaired his body. He claims that Morph’s mind had been
broken by the experience, he became two people, the real Morph and the version
of him that wanted to kill his friends for revenge. We’re shown Sinister
implanting a literal bug into Morph’s brain before he first takes on his angry
form, so I’m not sure I believe this. They’re interrupted by the X-Men’s
arrival.
The X-Men and the Nasty Boys face
off. The Nasty Boys are tough combatants, with Ruckus keeping everyone off
balance with his screams, Hairbag and Slab being strong and agile, and Gorgeous
George being all but untouchable with his gooey body, but the X-Men are able to
take them down. Sinister then comes out and starts blasting, saying they won’t
interfere with his experiment. Cyclops tells Morph to help, as he’s still an
X-Man. This seems to rally Morph, who gets up and shoots Sinister’s side,
breaking a device at his hip. He turns to Morph, regenerating, and saying he
should have let Morph die. Scott is able to free himself and he starts blasting
Sinister. For some reason, Scott’s eye beam seems to do extra damage to
Sinister, making his body melt. Scott shouts at Sinister to stay away from his
friends. Sinister and the Nasty Boys fall back and escape on their plane. Jean
follows Scott and asks if he’s alright. He says he won’t be until Sinister
pays. Scott is disappointed that they won’t be married, but Jean says they’ll
be married in their hearts and by law again. The team sees Morph take off in a
jet. Beast tells Wolverine to stand down, as he’s sure Morph is worried about what
he’ll do right now. Wolverine says he’s not going to abandon Morph this time
and goes after him.
In the Antarctic, Charles meets with
Magneto and says that he looks well for a dying man. Magneto says that he could
say the same for Charles. Apparently Morph sent him a similar message, disguised
as Charles. Charles senses the lingering presence of something… sinister, just
as a bomb goes off and they get buried in an avalanche. Oh no!
This was a solid finale to this
opening two parter. We got more of Morph’s shenanigans and how an ability as
simple as shape shifting can cause a LOT of damage if applied properly. I
remember Morph’s PTSD/Mind Controlled state being particularly freaky when I
was a kid. Being forced to fight your friends just seems like a rough time.
This was also a solid intro to Mr. Sinister. If you haven’t come across him
before, this episode basically covers all the main points. He’s a Geneticist
obsessed with making the ultimate Mutant. He believes for a variety of convoluted
self-determining reasons that we might get into later that the key to his ultimate
Mutant lies in the potential progeny of Scott Summers and Jean Gray. And seeing
how many timelines have a Nathan Summers, the ultimate time traveling psychic
Mutant, he’s not exactly wrong with this assumption. It was also fun to see the
Nasty Boys. To my knowledge, this is the one series outside the comics that they
appear in. Their combination of super strength, sonic screams, and tar body
just make for interesting fights. Particularly Gorgeous George, who is just a
pain for physical fighters like Rogue, Wolverine and Beast to deal with. Morph
has freed himself from Mr. Sinister, but it’s not going to be smooth sailing for
him after this, just a fair warning. Oh, and Magneto and Charles have been
attacked. Yeah, this is going to be a long season for them as this is just the
first in a long line of bad days they’re going to have. Mr. Sinister is here and
he’s significantly more threatening than his name implies. But more on that
later. Have a good night!
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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