Saturday, June 28, 2025

Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 57

Proteus hunts his father while the X-Men hunt him. 


Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, we met Proteus. Son of Moira MacTaggert and her ex-husband Joe, Kevin aka Proteus was born with immense power. He can manipulate reality in a fixed area around himself, functionally warping space and time around him, though things reset when he moves too far away. His powers are unstable, though, causing him to exist in a monstrous energy form. He is obsessed with seeing his father, believing Moira is keeping them apart so she can run these experiments on him. He escapes containment and Moira reluctantly calls Charles for help. We learn that Joe was the man that Moira left Charles for, though the two divorced very shortly after the birth of their son. She keeps her connection to Kevin a secret at first, telling Charles he’s just a patient. They track Proteus across the Scottish countryside as he makes his way to the capital, knowing his father is a politician in Edinburgh. He runs from most of their fights, though this is clearly more from impatience than fear of fighting them. They finally face off just outside the city where he singlehandedly defeats the X-Men and Moira finally admits that he’s her son. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We pick up the story again right after Kevin MacTaggert kicked the X-Men’s asses. Wolverine seems really shaken up from being swallowed by the ground itself and having his claws turned into snakes but is trying to play it tough because that’s what Logan does. Moira is terrified her son is going to do something that he can’t undo, but Charles assures her that they’ll stop him before that happens. Beast suggests tracking down Joseph MacTaggert, as he’s Kevin’s target. Charles is obviously disgusted by this, as Joe was not only the man that Moira left him for, but now he knows Joe left her AND their son. He suggests that they could even offer him some protection if needs be. Moira says that he won’t accept their help, but Charles thinks that Joe is the least of their worries.

 

Proteus arrives in Edinburgh and sees photos of Joe MacTaggert running for Secretary of State. He’s infuriated to see Joe with a wife and other children. He finds and possesses a man named Thomas that just struck out with a woman he’d been pursuing, Maeve. The street over the X-Men arrive, Beast saying that Joe’s campaign headquarters is just a block over. Wolverine senses Proteus, not with his nose but his whole body shuttering at his presence. As the street is deserted, Kevin is easy to spot even in a new skin suit. They chase him to a nearby castle and confront him. Kevin drops Thomas and tells them to leave him alone. Moira begs him to come home, saying Joe can’t help him. Like a lot of children who’ve grown up with an absentee parent, he refuses to accept Joe doesn’t care about him and clings to this idea that Moira kept them apart. The X-Men try to talk him down, but Proteus causes an Earthquake and tries to bury everyone. The X-Men stop him from hurting some civilians, demolishing the castle around him. Though it once again completely resets the moment he leaves. Moira is heartbroken her son is causing so much damage and that he won’t listen. And she’s terrified what he’ll do when he realizes Joe is a deadbeat dad, he divorced Moira after learning their son was a Mutant. She’s worried there will be nothing they could do to stop him other than kill him. Charles promises they’ll find another way.

 

The next day, Proteus grabs a constable figuring he’ll know where Joe is. The X-Men arrived at Joe’s office, who promptly show’s Mr. Family Man is a hypocrite as he say Kevin isn’t his problem. He asks if they want him to put Kevin on TV. Charles, clearly barely holding in rage, says that he just needs to talk to the boy. Joe says he can’t as the election is tomorrow and he doesn’t want folks remembering he’s divorced, let alone learn that he is the father of a Mutant. Moira begs him to talk to Kevin as he needs his father. Joe says to just tell him Charles is Kevin’s father, as that’s the way she always wanted it. DICK! Charles calls him an idiot and says that Kevin is coming for him whether he likes it or not. Joe tells them to get out as he has his own protection… in the form of two goons. Two goons… instead of Four X-Men… Okay, whatever.

 

Kevin arrives that the MacTaggert Estate and lets himself in, using his powers to melt the gate and then the door to the house. He finds a lavishly set up mansion, with many photos of Joe’s second wife and two children. Kevin hears laughing and hides, seeing his half siblings running around the house playing a game of tag. He manipulates the ground, turning it into a sort of puddy and using that to lift himself to the second floor. He enters his father’s office and sees the campaign poster saying Joe will be at Union Hall that night. He leaves, his stepmother just barely catching a cop seeming to melt her walls and floor as he leaves.

 

Later that night, Joe meets with his head of security, telling him to make sure Kevin is kept out of sight until after the election if they catch him. The guy asks if Kevin is dangerous, and Joe admits he’s got no idea as he hasn’t seen Kevin since he could crawl. Rogue, watching from a vent and wonders if they couldn’t just like Proteus have this one. The guard is confident they can contain Proteus, because he has no idea what he’s up against, but Joe warns him to not get careless. The guard goes to check on the team. Rogue exits the vent and radios the team, saying that they need to do a guard change as she needs a shower after being around Joe this long.

 

We shift to the rally at Union Hall. Joe is shaking hands and being a smarmy politician, fully expecting to win the vote. Rogue is extremely disgusted to be here, shock of shocks, she’s not big on folks that abandon their kids. Beast quotes some lines from James Harvey Robinson about how Politics is inherently a nasty endeavor. Charles tells them to report the least sign of any disturbance over the radio. Logan is guarding the basement, and is extremely jumpy. A rat scurrying around makes him almost lunge at it. Charles asks if he’s okay and Logan deflects by saying he should be worried about what he’ll do if he catches Kevin. Joe goes to make his big speech, confident in his coming victory and saying that he’s working for Scotland and their children. Outside, Proteus hops into one of the security guards. Rogue muses that he likes kids when they’re not his and how she’s seen that before. We flashback to when she was a teenage and her father disowned her for being a Mutant, despite her begging her daddy to not leave her. Beast radios Charles and wonders if Proteus might not be avoiding the rally for how crowded it is. Charles starts to sense Proteus and tries to warn everyone. Joe brags about how important his children are, perfectly setting up Proteus to arrive and reveal himself. Rogue and Beast try to stop him, telling Proteus that Joe might not recognize him in this form. He screams at them to leave him alone as a panic breaks out. Charles tells Logan to meet up with them, but Logan remembers how Proteus warped him and flees in a panic.

 

Proteus mucks around with reality, disabling Beast and Rogue as his father runs away like a coward. Charles tries to talk Proteus down, begging him to just talk and Charles will listen. Proteus wants to know where his father is, and when Charles tells him the truth that Proteus frightened him away, Proteus freaks out again and rips reality asunder. Charles and Beast are nearly dropped into a flaming pit but are saved by Rogue and Logan, who unlike Joe faced his fears. Charles reached out to Kevin telepathically and calms him for a moment. He offers to help Kevin, but Kevin is fixated on his father, believing somehow that Joe wants him. He melts the hall and escapes out the door, everything resetting once he’s gone. Beast is fascinated by this power, realizing that Kevin is only limited by his imagination, and Rogue adding that his temper is a factor too. Charles admits that Kevin is too powerful for them to stop, all they can do is keep trying to reason with. Moira tells him that they’ve tried, she’s the only one who can stop him. The group leave the hall, trying to figure out what to do. Wolverine suggests they may need to take Proteus down, causing Rogue to yell at him for thinking of hurting a child and demanding to know where HE was during the fighting. Logan tries to threaten her… but like Rogue’s one of a handful of people that he can’t do that to. Beast says that Logan couldn’t help how he reacted to Proteus. Logan demands to know what he means by that, and Beast simply states that no emotion is more difficult to control than paralyzing fear. Logan accuses Beast of calling him a coward, but Charles buts in, saying that they don’t have time for this. He’s worried that Moira will try to do something drastic to stop Kevin.

 

Later we see that Joe has spun the meeting with Proteus as some kind of attack on his person by his opponent, Bill Wallace. Not sure how you cold make that pitch without evidence, but what are ya gonna do. We see a storm cloud come in that Proteus is riding in. Joe begins a speech to the Scottish Parliament, once again claiming that he’s the big family man that loves his children above all else. Rogue says he’s as greasy as hog fat. Charles is clearly frustrated by all this, as the only solution to their problem is Joe, but the man chose his career over Kevin years ago. Proteus arrives, telling Joe that everyone keeps telling him Joe doesn’t want to see him. He refuses to believe that’s true and comes down to see him. Logan immediately flees, his fear of Proteus that strong. Proteus confront his father, Joe saying that he’s not real, he’s here to ruin Joe’s life. The X-Men try to get in the way, but Charles tells them to stop and let them talk. Proteus is able to reduce his energy form down enough that Joe can see his human form inside it. He begs his father to just talk to him, but Joe refuses, calling for someone to protect him and runs away. Charles tries to help Kevin process this but he’s in a fury and starts destroying the building in earnest. Logan is able to suck it up and try to talk to Kevin via his usual bravado and threats but Kevin sweeps him away in a gust on wind. Of all the missions to not bring Storm. Moira and Sean Cassidy arrive with the machine she’d used to repress Proteus’s powers. She says that it weakened him at low power but might be able to stop him on a higher setting. Charles begs for one last chance. He reaches out to Kevin telepathically and offers his body to Kevin, saying that if they merge, he can show Kevin that he truly understands his pain and can help him through it. Kevin accepts and the two unite. In the mindscape, Charles tells Kevin that he’ll be able to control his powers one day, but he’ll need to learn to control his anger and to trust both those that love him, both his father and mother. Kevin leaves Charles’ body and fully reverts to human form. He and Moira hug. Joe, now fully seeing Kevin, speaks with him and hugs his son, saying that he has no right to the name ‘father’ to Kevin but he wants to earn it. They head out with Joe carrying Kevin, which clearly hurts Charles a little.

 

Later we see Sean helping Kevin train with his powers, using them to shape and manipulate blocks of energy. They compliment his progress, though he’s clearly struggling slightly to keep his focus. Moira is just happy that he’s working through his anger. Outside, Logan tells Rogue he’s impressed by Charles, as the professor never loses his cool despite the fear. Rogue tells him that everyone gets shaken up sometimes, but Logan angrily says that he doesn’t before the credits roll.

 

As far as two-parter stories go, this one isn’t my favorite. It feels like it was a lot of repeating things. Kevin arrives somewhere, the X-Men catch him, “Arrgh, leave me alone!” Kevin bends reality and does weird stuff, Kevin flees, the X-Men recover, rinse and repeat. They honestly could have covered the whole story in one episode if they wanted to in my opinion. They’d just have to drop a few encounters, and the subplot about Logan being afraid. Don’t get me wrong, after what he experienced, fear is a natural response, but it feels tacked on here to just increase the run time. Especially when Logan just kind of gets over it when the plot needs him to not be scared anymore. And I think the story kind of wimps out at the end by Joe actually talking to and accepting Kevin. Like… seeing the real him undoubtedly helped… but the man cut his son out of his life as an infant, was a massive hypocrite about family values, and even tries to deflect his son’s rampage onto his political opponent. He shouldn’t get to apologize to Kevin, Kevin should have told him to screw off. But that’s just me. The power on display was impressive, I liked the message that says Charles can fix even the most angry and broken people with a dialogue and effort, and Proteus is just such a fun concept for a villain of the week. So ya, not my favorite episode but there aren’t really bad X-Men: The Animated Series episodes. Next time, we catch up with Magneto. See you then.

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬


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