Few things are as dangerous as a teen with immense power.
Last time of X-Men: The Animated
Series, the team needed another do-over. After failing to save Charles Xavier
from the time traveling assassin Fitzroy, Bishop and Shard took the Monroes to
the future to try to fix Charles again. They find a Sentinel rules world with Forge
having been completely overhauled into a cyborg working for the Master Mold.
They’re attacked by Sentinels and in the fighting find time to convince Forge to
help them go back to the past and fix all this. Fitzroy attempted to get his
reward from the Master Mold, but it told him he wasn’t getting anything until
the other time travelers were also dead as they’ll just reset the timeline. He
also overhears the Master Mold telling Nimrod to kill him once this was all
done because it is grown tired of dealing even with useful Mutants. Fitzroy
helps buy time for the others to escape by trapping Nimrod in a forcefield and
gives Bishop a data chip. Bishop, Logan and Ororo make it to the time portal,
but they’re forced to leave Shard as she was separated from them in the
fighting. In the past they intercept Charles after he ran off from the original
group in the coffee shop. Fitzroy gets the jump on them, but they show him the recording
that the future Fitzroy made, basically telling his past self that Master Mold
is going to double cross them. He lets the X-Men go and returns to the future,
and they finish off Nimrod by separating it from it’s time band and sending it
back to the Future. Bishop tells the Monroes they have until their bands turn
off before they’re reset along with everyone else and also goes home. Dystopian
Ororo and Logan hug and give each other a kiss goodbye before shutting their
bands off. They reset to the picnic they were having with Charles when all this
started, flirting slightly as if remembering their other selves. Enough recap.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
We start our story in Scotland, in
the famed Muir Island Mutant research center. We get a brief shot of Morph
getting some kind of brain scan before going deeper into the building, finding
a high security door protected behind a laser grid with the words No
Admittance: Mutant X placed over it. Whoever is in there is causing a hell of a
ruckus inside. We see Moira MacTaggert and Sean Cassidy overseeing a procedure
being done on the Mutant. The Mutant resembles a huge blob of energy in a
vaguely human shape. The Mutant is being blasted by an energy wave of some kind
that is hurting it, but Moira says is part of a treatment that will allow them
to live in the real world. She laments that it’s hurting them so much, but Sean
tries to keep her spirits up by reminding her that this will help him. The creature
screams that this is hurting him, and Moira shouts back that this is the only
way. We learn the being is named Kevin, but he’s also called Proteus. Sean says
they both need to be strong. Proteus takes on his human form, which excites
Moira to no end. But he raises his hand and destroys the wall keeping him in.
He morphs back into his Proteus form. Moira tells him the therapy is working,
and they just need to start over, but he refuses, demanding to see what’s
outside the walls. He attacks his mother, but Sean shoves her out of the way.
Proteus tackles him and engulfs him in Proteus’ energy body, which lets him
possess the older man. Moira asks him to let Sean go but he refuses. She tries
to talk him back into his room but he refuses. He drops out of Sean’s body and
things start warping around them.
We cut to the X-Mansion where they
get an emergency alert from Muir Island. The signal is badly scrambled but they’re
able to get Moira shouting that she needs help ASAP. Charles is always ready
and willing to drop things for Moira, so he tells the team to scramble the
Blackbird. Rogue, Beast and Wolverine are sent out with him. On the flight,
Rogue says that Moira looked extremely spooked in that video, like she saw a
ghost. Wolverine isn’t too phased by this, saying that if there is a ghost then
they’ll fight a ghost. Charles tells him that this situation is a big deal as
he’s known Moira for two decades and she’s never been that scared. He has a flashback
to when they’d been dating. He proposed to her, and she said yes. At the time
he was in the army and had been shipped out to fight somewhere. During his tour
of duty, she sent him a dear john letter and his ring back, saying she’d met
someone while he was away. We then get a sped-up timeline of their lives, with
Charles going through physical therapy and meeting his other longtime
girlfriend Amelia, forming the X-Men, but losing Amelia. Moira on the other
hand married this fella, a man named Joe, but they divorced sometime when their
son Kevin was in diapers. They land on Muir Island.
Inside Moira shows a video of what
happened, with Kevin reacting badly to the sonic therapy, breaking free,
possessing Banshee, and then starting to warp space around them. Rogue jokes
about someone whacking the camera but Moira explains that Proteus is a reality warper,
he was literally reshaping the physical world around them. She notes that his
effect on space is temporary, as the room reverts to normal when he leaves, but
the damage he does before that point will stick with ya. He’s also telepathic
because why not? Beast notes that he’s a teenager who can do whatever he wants,
which isn’t comforting. Moira lets them know that the main side effect of Kevin’s
possession is extreme weakness and lethargy once he leaves a body. Charles
sends the team out to search the island for him, Muir Island is small so he
might not have gotten far. As they leave, Wolverine notes that Charles seems to
be acting kind of weird. Rogue then points out they’re ex-fiancés, and when he
still doesn’t get it, she angrily tells him that if the love of his life ever
asks for his help, she’ll see how he functions. Charles tries to comfort Moira,
who admits that her research began with trying to help Proteus and now she’s
failed him and everyone he hurts while he’s loose. Charles does his best to comfort
her and both admit they miss seeing each other due to their distance. He asks
how Joe is doing, and Moira scoffs and says he’s doing well without her. She says
he’ a politician now and pops in one of his campaign videos into the VCR. He’s
a Scottish Conservative running on a family values platform. It’s always those
types that multi-divorced, just saying.
Meanwhile, Kevin possesses a sailor
and goes into a pub. He’s entranced by what he sees in the outside world. He
was extremely sheltered while living with Moira so doesn’t note some weirdness
happening around him like the pub suddenly resembling an alien cantina. Moira
tells Charles that Kevin is 17 but immature, he speaks almost exclusively via
telepathy and has a habit of having temper tantrums. Charles tries to reach out
to his mind, Moira telling him to be careful. Charles tries to but must get
through some weird psychic interference to do so, assumedly this is a side
effect of Kevin’s power. He finally touches Kevin’s mind, but he senses Charles
immediately and forces him back out, the psychic shockwave causing Charles’ chair
to freak out and crash. Proteus jumps into a new body and flees the island. Beast
radios into the facility while Moira looks after Sean. He tells Charles that
they found the dockworker Proteus had possessed. Beast gives the bad news that
he’s probably left the island by now.
We cut to mainland Scotland where
Proteus ditches his new body and starts wandering around. He comes across a boy
being chased by bullies. He scares them off by warping them into scarecrows.
Proteus possesses the boy and starts wandering around. The boy’s father finds
him and Proteus is overwhelmed by love he senses coming from this man for the
boy. The concept of a dad is weird to him, and he starts warping reality around
them. An SOS is sent out from the docks and the X-Men fly out to investigate.
When they confirm Proteus is molding the entire island, they head back to grab
Moira and Charles. Proteus is wandering around the island demanding to know
where his father is.
On the flight back, Beast asks
Moira the million dollar question, how are they going to get Proteus to go along
with them. She’s unsure because, ya know, reality warper with the temperament of
an unruly child. Charles reaches out to Proteus to try to soothe him. It doesn’t
work, though, as Proteus seems to reach through their psychic connection to
knock Charles out. The city starts molding back to normal, which is good and bad.
Proteus possess a bystander and tries to get in close to grab Charles. Rogue stops
him, grabbing his arm and drains just a little bit of his power. But that
amount is basically nothing to Proteus but overwhelms Rogue who starts warping
reality around her. Proteus runs off, saying that he needs to find his father,
who will protect him. Rogue tells the others what she got from when they touched,
about how Proteus is searching for a special man of some kind. Logan tells them
to take the Blackbird while he searches the ground, but then a storm starts
which kind of kills this plan.
They take the Blackbird and map Proteus’
movements across Scotland. His path is erratic but they’re sure he’s headed to Edinburgh.
Logan suggests that they need to consider being willing to take out Kevin with
how much damage he’s causing. Moira excuses herself to ‘call the lab’ but it’s
really to call Joe. She tells her ex that Kevin is out and on the way toward
him. Joe starts screaming at her to put the boy back and how could she let this
happen with the election being a week away. Moira tells him to just talk to
Kevin, Joe agrees to but says he’ll do it after the election. The family values
candidate, everyone.
They land to try to cut Kevin off. Charles
asks her what she’s keeping from him. Moira says it’s difficult to say. The
ground starts shaking and they realize he’s on the way. Moira runs out and
tries to talk him down, but he refuses to listen as he won’t go back into a
cage. Charles tries to telepathically talk him down but that doesn’t work
either. He asks Kevin to just tell him who he’s looking for. Kevin says he’s
looking for his father and tells Charles to ask Moira about him as she’s the
one keeping them apart. Moira finally reveals that Proteus is her son to Charles,
I guess she was keeping that from him. Moira says that Charles is the only one
she couldn’t tell as how could she face him with this information. Charles
tells her that she underestimated his feelings for her, but then she always
did. They try to overwhelm Proteus but he’s simply too powerful to stop. He disables
everyone with various environmental traps and heads for the city, saying that
his father is down there, and he will find him.
It's funny that both Moira and
Charles have an extremely powerful, reality warping son, but neither has a
parent in common. Like, if Charles was the father of both Proteus and Legion it’d
be one thing but imagine that your ex-lover and one of your few real friends also
had Omega level X-genes within. Weird. I can say with confidence nothing is
more terrifying sounding to me that someone with the powers of a god but the
mind of a teenager. I totally understand why Kevin is obsessed with being free
and finding his father now that he’s out. Being confined to a small place just
isn’t something that most humans take well to, even if it’s objectively for his
own good like with Kevin. A power like his absolutely needs to be controlled to
whatever degree that they can get. Him running loose is just all kinds of
dangerous. I’d say the weakest part of this episode is simply Moira keeping the
info that Kevin is her son from Charles and the others. 1. How did you think
you could keep it from him, Moira, and 2. It’s a miracle that didn’t give up
the ghost at any point by referring to her as Mom. So we’ve got a rampaging child
looking for a father that couldn’t care less about him. I’m sure this’ll go
well (sarcasm is as heavy as the core of a neutron star.) But more on this
later. See you next time, folks.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/130390815/
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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