And now there's aliens.
Last time on X-Men: The Animated
Series, the X-Men came face to face with a monster from beyond the stars.
The creature is called a Spirit Drinker and seems to suck the minds and
lifeforce out of anyone that touches it’s tentacles. Jubilee, the Reavers, and
Morlocks are all dropped fairly quickly and Deathstrike not long after. Thankfully,
Charles gathered some of the team and joined Wolverine and Gambit along with Beast,
Cyclops and Jean. Charles and Beast examine the alien spaceship and Charles
seems to gain a weird insight into the people that sent the alien after
touching a sign. The zap he received seemed to teach him the alien’s language
and he’s able to get info on it. The team faces off against the Spirit Drinker
as it attempts to leave the sewers via the subway. Their powers seem to slow it
down but can’t stop it. After trying to slash it with his claws again, Wolverine
is knocked aside and notices the creatures body disintegrates if electrified. Gambit
hurls his staff through the monster, striking the electrified third rail and destroys
it. The spirits are all returned to their bodies. Deathstrike decides to let Logan
go this time but swears vengeance. After checking to see that the rest of the
victims recovered, Charles confirms that he isn’t sure this is over yet. He had
a vision of an alien culture with massive warships and a galaxy spanning empire
when he touched the sign and fears this is only the beginning. The episode
outright stating in the end the Phoenix Saga is about to begin. Enough recap.
Let’s get to it.
The episode opens in space. We’re
shown a brightly burning sun and then several spaceships fleeing giant
warships. A voice calls out to Charles, begging for his help. We’re shown that Charles
is asleep, so this is a very intense dream. He demands to know how he could possibly
know the woman asking for help as we’re showing the alien ships battling. He
demands answers but the woman won’t respond. Several of the fleeing ships are
captured and the rest destroyed. One ship remains, it’s pilot seems to be the
one calling out to Charles. She tells him, for the sake of the future, to help
me. Oh, and her armor looks like a giant bug for some reason. Charles wakes
with a start. He announces that ‘they’ are coming.
Charles wakes his team and calls
them to the War Room. Nearly everyone arrives in their pajamas, save Rogue who
is on a mission, and Gambit, who is clearly just getting in. Charles explains that
a space shuttle called Starcore is scheduled to launch the next morning. Beast
actually knows one of the astronauts, Dr. Corbeau, who says he’s headed into
space to examine a solar vortex phenomenon. Charles gets another flash of his
vision, seeing several aliens, including a dude who looks like king and a man
in a red mask. He tells the X-Men that they NEED to get on that ship and go to
Eagle One Space station. Gambit points out that breaking into government instillations
isn’t usually their style. Scott and Logan also object. Charles says that all he
knows is “something” astronomically big is going to happen and if they aren’t
there for it, the world is doomed. Logan shrugs and says that it makes about as
much sense as some of their other missions. Charles calls Storm back and tells
her that she’ll help the others get on the shuttle, but she should stay planet
side.
Later, Charles stares out to the
night sky and sees a star twinkling. Cyclops comes into his room in full gear
and asks Charles what is going on. Is he not saying more because he doubts
Cyclops as leader or something. Charles says he does trust Scott, but he doesn’t
have more info to give. He feels like he’s losing control but knows this is the
right thing to do.
The team took off. They land just
outside of the launch pad. Storm calls up a fog bank to hide their break in.
Beast helps everyone leap over the fence and they had for the base. Wolverine cuts
through the door and gets them inside. The team says by to Rogue, who they
leave behind to get caught. She’s the scapegoat to explain the alarms going
off. Cyclops promises that the Professor and Storm will free her later. The
team finds the astronauts suiting up. Cyclops knocks them all out with an optic
beam. They lock the unconscious crew in the isolation chamber and suit up. Dr.
Corbeau walks in on them, but before he can react, Jean hits him with a mental
blast that has him see the team as his crew. They get aboard the shuttle, and
it takes off. As they fly off, Charles and Storm watch, Charles saying that he
just wished he knew what they were facing. Storm says they just need to trust
them like they trust Charles. He and Storm then break Jubilee out of custody in
a cyclone.
The shuttle heads towards Eagle One
base. Beast examines the equipment they’re transporting, a solar probe designed
to withstand solar radiation. Cyclops tells him and Wolverine to strap in as
they’re approaching the base. The crew disembarks, as they reach mission
control, Jean senses something off and realizes it’s a trap just before knockout
gas gets pumped into the chamber. All the X-men try to bust down the door to
escape but pass out before they can do anything. The door opens and a man in
red armor and mask comes out. He introduces him as the emissary of the Shi’ar
empire, Eric the Red, and welcomes them to the station. It’s a pity they won’t
be staying long. He radios to his leader and says that he’s captured the team…
but then realizes that the crew are stowaways. His boss thinks they’re here to
meddle with his plans for the ‘crystal’ asks how Erik didn’t prepare for this,
and Eric says he’ll handle it. He orders Corbeau to be brought to the control
room. It looks like the other astronauts have some kind of disk on their necks controlling
them. He orders them to open the airlock and vent the X-Men into space. He says
it’s to show the galaxy what happens if they side with Lilandra. The crew open
the hatch, but an exhausted Jean is able to stop them. The crew then try to
kill them, but the others wake up and put a stop to them. Cyclops orders the
team to rescue Corbeau without injuring the crew.
Inside mission control, Eric the
Red explains the anomaly that Corbeau came to study is a wormhole. He says the
Shi’ar can make them when needed. He’s here to intercept a Shi’ar criminal, a rebel
named Lilandra. He says he mounted an energy cannon onto the space station that’ll
stop her cruiser. He pontificates when probed that he’s the Shi’ar agent for
this part of the galaxy and how badly he’s hoped for something to happen so he
can impress the Shi’ar emperor and get assigned to a more important part of space.
The X-Men come in and battle with Eric. He gets an alert that the ship is coming
through the wormhole, and he prepares to fire the cannon. Corbeau lets the X-Men
know what is going to happen and Cyclops blasts the controls, destroying them. The
shot misses and Lilandra’s ship keeps flying. Eric the Red falls back to his
own ship, bringing his mind-controlled minions with him. Wolverine frees Corbeau,
who says the ship is breaking up. The X-Men fall back to the shuttle, grabbing
the other crew as they go.
Eric’s ship takes off. The emperor
calls and demands to know if the deed is done. Eric says no but her ‘agents’
will soon be dealt with. Eric shoots at them and Lilandra’s ship but can’t stop
them. The shuttle is damaged in the exchange. Their course is locked in and
they end up stuck headed for the Shi’ar ship’s chemtrail. It’s giving off a ton
of radiation and other warning signs. Beast
suggests that they could be protected in the probe, which Corbeau agrees but
says the autopilot is shot so he’ll have to stay out and fly manually. Jean
says that she can do it, as she mentally absorbed Corbeau’s flight training and
can put up a barrier to protect herself. Cyclops refuses to consider that, saying
he can fly the ship and he’s in charge of the mission. Jean knocks him out with
a psychic blast and the team moves to the probe. Jean straps Cyclops in and caresses
his face. Logan tries to talk to her; she tells him to not to try to stop her.
Logan says he just wants to wish her good luck. She kisses his cheek and heads out.
Jean flies them through the chemtrail and gets hit hard by the radiation. The
episode ends with Jean screaming in pain and a giant phoenix forming around them.
Well, this was a great start to one
of the best multipart series of television. It’s mostly set up, introducing us
to the Shi’ar Empire, a few of their key players like Emperor D’Ken, Erik the
Red and Lilandra. They’ll be important going forward. Charles’ visions are clearly
important and they’re suitably cryptic. All they know is something BIG is
coming and they’ll be screwed if they don’t head into space. I do love the
designs of the Shi’ar’s technology. There’s a lot of bug theming for their tech,
which is somewhat ironic as if I recall correctly the Shi’ar are Bird people. It’s
funny that this is the most Jean has had to do in an episode and yet she still
was knocked out in the course of events. Sure, everyone else got knocked out
too, but Jean passes out a lot. Her powers were pushed to the limit trying to
break through Erik the Red’s mind control and then forcing the radiation away
from her. And all that psychic power being thrown around is bound to draw…
something. (Phoenix shriek) But we’ll see more of what’s going on here next
time. Have a good night.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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