Mojo is gross looking... No I have nothing else to say.
Last time on X-Men: The Animated
Series, we saw what happens when you push a kind man too far. Beast had
been helping a doctor friend of his work on a treatment to restore the sight of
a blind young woman named Carly. He was quite taken with her, and she seemed to
like him, but Hank really couldn’t pursuit anything with her due to his
appearance and the fact her Father was a bigot. When Carly was kidnapped by the
Friends of Humanity for associating with him, Beast went berserk, hunting the
group down and attacking their base single handedly. Meanwhile, Logan
infiltrated the group. He’d wanted to stick it to the FoH for a while, but Jean
had insisted trying a light touch this time. So, he faked being attacked by a
Mutant, told Graydon how much he hated Mutants, and it was all to learn a
particular piece of information. Namely that Graydon Creed hails from Canada.
The other X-Men arrive, having been called by both teammates independently, and
activate the hologram projector Logan told them to bring. It played the image
and relevant data of one Sabretooth aka Graydon Creed, Sr. Finding out their
leader is the son of a Mutant caused the FoH to abandon him as Graydon shrieked
at the ghostly image of Sabretooth that he is NOT his father and shooting at
it. After things calmed down, Beast admitted his feelings for Carly but said
they couldn’t be together due to prejudice against Mutants. He told her to
carry his love and hope the world can change. Her bigot of a father showed that
was possible, as when they’re reunited, he thanked Dr. McCoy by name and the
two men shook hands. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
We open on a blonde man with a
mullet battling alien monsters in a futuristic city. He escapes them and then
out run some security robots and then does a bunch of other cool action stuff
before it’s revealed to be the title sequence for Longshot, a TV series.
We’re then introduced to Mojo, an obese alien monster that walks around on
cybernetic legs that resemble a scorpion.
He’s screaming in rage and calling for his assistant Domo. When Domo
asks what’s wrong, we learn that Mojo is a producer/director of Longshot
and their ratings are in the toilet. He screams at the titular Longshot that
his action figures aren’t sell and threatening with physical harm if he doesn’t
do something about it. Longshot tells Mojo he’s a disgusting monster and
there’s no way Mojo can replace him as he’s already abused every actor in the universe.
Longshot and his entourage stormed out. Domo gives Mojo some Pepto for his
indigestion and he asks if they have a replacement. Domo suggests a group from
a primitive, backwater dimension that they don’t usually bother with, the
X-Men. Mojo is instantly enamored with the idea, thinking that he’s making
money on them just standing there. He orders the X-Men brought to him.
We cut to Scott and Jean shopping
for a new TV for the mansion. Turns out Jubilee… broke the last one. Their
shopping experience is interrupted by Mojo appearing on every screen in the
store. Mojo tells them that he’s been following his career with great interest
and is willing to offer them a lifetime contract. Scott and Jean try to leave,
Mojo gets pissed and starts blasting them with electricity. Scott starts eyebeaming
TV’s, but Mojo keeps on electrocuting him. The commotion draws Wolverine,
Storm, Rogue, and Beast over as well. With most of the X-Men gathered, Mojo
decides that’s good enough and orders his assistant Spiral to grab them and get
them into wardrobe. Spiral, a six-armed warrior woman phases into their
dimension through the TV’s and teleports everyone away.
The team arrive in a stadium on
Mojoworld and are forcibly changed into their costumes. Mojo is already singing
the group’s praises, saying that they’re already putting Longshot to shame and
that he’ll never work in their dimension again.
Longshot, watching from just out of sight, is not happy to hear this. Cyclops
tells Mojo they have ten seconds to send them back. Mojo ignores that comment
and tells the X-Men are going to entertain his studio audience and the
trillions watching at home or die. Storm
and Cyclops try to tell him no, but Mojo tells them that they need to increase
his ratings or he’ll cancel the show and the actors permanently. He starts the
first series, teleporting Storm and Cyclops away.
They’re put on a speedboat and get
chased through a watery city by fighter copters. They’re able to dodge and
blast their pursuiters for a bit but the boat is heavily damaged in the chase
and Cyclops is nearly knocked out from the fumes. Cyclops and Storm are
defeated, it seemed and put into a glass display. Mojo’s ratings are going
through the roof, and he’s overjoyed. He tells Spiral in the control room to
cue up show 2. Longshot overhears Mojo’s scream and that seems to give him an
idea. The next show begins, Rogue Star, starring Rogue and Beast.
Rogue and Beast are placed in a
space fighter and are chased by a huge warship. Rogue dodges around the big
warship but it launches a missile at them that lodges in their hull. The
controls get stuck and put them on courses to hit a nearby star. And to make
matters worse a bunch of monster bugs. Beast and Rogue fight the things that
looks a little like Broodlings, but one open a hatch and Beast gets sucked out
into space just before the ship hits the star. Both Rogue and Beast are put on
display as well. Mojo calls for show three to begin.
Jean and Wolverine are put in “I
Dream of Jean.” No, it has nothing to do with I Dream of Jeannie,
besides the title. They’re teleported to a city and Wolverine is climbing the
side of a building. Jean calls out to him that Mojo is controlling all of this
and so long as they’re ‘entertaining’ he won’t hurt them. Her speech is
interrupted by a robot approaching her before transforming into the Punisher… I
mean a guy in a skull T-shirt, who shoots at her. Wolverine leaps into the
building to dodge some rubble and ends up fighting robot that take on the image
off Gladiator, (Shi’ar Warrior, frenemy of the X-Men), Berserker (friend of the
X-Men) and some grey alien guy. Logan fights and destroys two of them as Jean
keeps fighting the skull shirt guy... Freddie… Fortress. Jean realizes that
this whole thing is just super futuristic trash TV and that the electronics
involved in TV can be overloaded with psychic energy. She finds Spiral’s mind and starts ripping
the control room apart with her powers. Mojo starts screaming for her to do
something. Longshot slips into the control room and flips the switch to free
the X-Men from the stasis glass. Why? To get them out of his timeslot. The
X-Men are freed, and they do battle with Mojo, dropping control room on to him,
and freeing them.
The X-Men are teleported back to
the electronics store and Scott asks for someone to explain what the heck just
happened. Back on Mojoworld, it’s revealed that while the audience is gone and
the show is over, Mojo survived the crash. He immediately tries to get Longshot
to agree to start a new show with him but gets distracted by a “Jungle Picture”
playing on one of the monitors. We shift over to the Savage Land and see a
Pterosaur man flying around and fighting a blonde woman. We’re shown Xavier and
Magneto, who have just reached Magneto’s citadel. They hear the woman’s scream
and Charles wants to help. But Magneto stops him from going to her aid. He says
the Pterosaur man is Sauron, and that his powers would make him a powerful foe
even if they had their powers. They watch as Sauron hypnotizes the woman and
then flies off with her.
I don’t have that much to say about
this episode. It feels like filler, which it very much is. Mojo is just an
irritating show executive, screaming 90s television catchphrases and studio
lingo for 20 minutes. The episode is basically just three action set pieces and
then everyone is freed. Easy breezy. The concept of interdimensional TV is
neat, but they don’t really do anything with it. There’s just no meat on this
episode’s bone, which is ironic given how girthy Mojo is. Shame Jubilee had to
miss this episode; she’d have probably loved being on TV for a bit. The final
minutes with Charles and Magneto are short but it does hint that they’re nearly
finished with their journey. They’ve reached Magneto’s citadel, so if they can
get inside and get to the communications room, they can finally call for help. Sauron
being there is expected, he is a pterosaur and the Savage Land is where you’d
find one, but still serious complication. If he’s not the single most powerful
Mutate in the Savage Land while Magneto and Charles are de-powered, it’s
because his ‘boss’ is in the citadel. We’ve reached the penultimate episode
next time, we’ll see why Magneto and Charles were lured here by Mr. Sinister.
See you then.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/113036604
Twitter; @BasicsSuperhero
No comments:
Post a Comment