Sunday, June 29, 2025

Viewer Log: X-Men: TAS ep 58

 Sudden Wanda Maximoff! 

Last time on X-Men: The Animated Series, the hunt for Proteus concluded. The X-Men chased the body snatcher across Edinburgh as the boy tried to find his father Joseph MacTaggert. They eventually just try to warn Joe, who is largely uninterested as despite being a ‘family values’ politician, he could not give two shits about his Mutant son and assumed his guards could protect him. Proteus proved him wrong by interrupting a rally, but Joe ran off. Logan’s terrified of Proteus and has trouble approaching the reality warper. They all face off again at Scottish Parliament where Charles has the bright idea to just let Kevin talk to his father. After seeing the man terrified by Kevin’s presence, Charles reached out one last time and helped Kevin channel his power enough to revert to his human form. Seeing the real Kevin, Joe apologizes to his boy and seems to be trying to reconcile their relationship. The episode ends with Logan being upset that Proteus freaked him out so badly, a plot point that will never be brought up again. How odd. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The story begins with Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver, making a report to Forge about a security sweep. Quicksilver is one of the X-Factor members, a government sponsored Mutant team if you forgot who he was. His report was interrupted by an emergency call from his sister Wanda. He chastises her for using an X-Factor override, as he warned her to only use it in an emergency. Wanda tells him it is an emergency, as their father has taken ill and he is asking to see the twins. Pietro agrees to meet her in one of X-Factor’s hummingbird jets and go see him. I assume this is mostly for Wanda’s benefit as Pietro runs faster than that thing flies. They arrive in Romania and see their father in the hospital. The dying Romani informs them that they were in fact adopted. Folks don’t do this; the drama of the moment doesn’t outweigh your kids right to know about the circumstances of their lives. Besides, they might not give a shit, like my Grandpa J did.  Anyway, Django Maximoff tells them that he’d sworn never to reveal their history to them but was released from that vow. He explains how a midwife named Bova, who we see is clearly a cow person in the flashback, brought the twins to him and their mother shortly after their birth. Wanda asks who her bio-parents are, but Django doesn’t know. He tells them to find Bova in Wundargore. Pietro is skeptical but Wanda says they have to check it out, if only for their father.

 

Back at the X-Mansion, Charles is up late reading when Magneto sneaks into his study. Charles senses his presence and asks how he got in, Magneto basically saying “master of magnetism” with a shrug. Charles asks what Magneto did to Logan, who was on security tonight. He turns on the camera to the surveillance room and finds Logan magnetically trapped to a chair. Charles asks why Magneto felt the need to break in like this. Magneto says he’s headed to the Balkans, as his long missing wife Magda may have been found there. Magneto is fully able to admit he knows that it’s a trap, but because it’s his Magda he begs Charles to use Cerebro to scan the area and tell him if there’s any unusual Mutant activity. Charles agrees to help him. Magneto leaves but makes Charles promise him that no matter what happens he won’t interfere. Logan bursts in a second later and demands to know where Magneto is. The man loves to try to fight the one dude who can stop him with virtually no effort. Charles asks Logan to follow Magneto and watch out for trouble.

 

We cut to Wundargore, where Pietro is princess-carrying Wanda up the mountain. They find a research facility at the top of the mount, a being in purple armor floats down and demands to know who trespasses on his facility. They introduce themselves as the Maximoffs. He was shocked to see them. He introduces himself as the High Evolutionary. Yes, he looks wildly different in the comics from the MCU. They want to see Bova, and while the High Evolutionary is willing to help the Maximoffs, he says they need to prove themselves first. He takes them into his citadel and uses a DNA scanner to prove themselves. He had their DNA on file. They do the scan and it’s a match. He promises to notify Bova at once.

 

They find Bova, the cow lady, in her room. They ask about their history. Bova tells them that she only knew their mother, having met her half frozen outside of Wundargore several months pregnant. She claims their mother was running from a Mutant that slaughtered her village and wanted to find her. She birthed her twins before running into the wilderness, sure the Mutant was still tracking her. Bova says she died in the bitter winter. Pietro demands to know the name of the Mutant, and Bova gives it, Magneto. Both Bova and the High Evolutionary try to dissuade them from more bloodshed, but Pietro wants to fight. The High Evolutionary says that he’ll find Magneto just outside the facility. Every year he goes there to a loved one’s grave marker. Okay, I’m not good at subtlety, but… their mom died just outside the facility, the grave marker for Magneto’s loved one is outside the facility, surely one of them is smart enough to get the pieces into place here? But no. The High Evolutionary offers to help them, summoning his animal-human soldiers to help him. As they leave, the High Evolutionary begins working on something on his computer, saying the world will soon see the peace and joy he can give it.

 

We find Magneto wandering through a graveyard. Logan follows at a discrete distance, telling Beast over the radio that maybe Magneto was telling the truth about why he came. Magneto looks at the note that says to meet at Magda’s grave at ten that night. A woman calls out to Magnus; she’s totally hooded but claims to be Magda. Magneto begs her forgiveness, saying that he was so full of hate those (twentyish) years ago, and had no room in his heart for love. She claims to still be frightened of him and asks him to stay back. Magneto can’t though and finds out that this is a goat lady in disguise, who calls him a fool. Pietro and Wanda reveal themselves and demand to fight. They tell him they’re here to avenge their mother. Logan tells Beast what’s happening. Magneto blasts them back with his powers and demands to know why they’re here. The animal men attack and disable Magneto, but Pietro says that he is theirs. They are immediately captured by the animal men, because obvious double cross. Logan warns Beast what’s happening before rushing in to help. He knocks an animal-man into a grave marker, infuriating Magneto who breaks free and helps disable some of the animal-men. Before they can talk, they’re gassed and captured.

 

Back at the mansion, Charles asks Beast why Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch would attack Magneto. Beast wonders if maybe all of X-Factor is involved, as the twins should have known they couldn’t match Magneto. I feel that’s debatable with Wanda but whatever. Charles tells him to scramble the Blackbird.

 

We return to Wundargore, the heroes trapped in goo. Logan asks Magento what is going on. Magneto says that according to Baltic legend, there’s a mystical valley called Wundargore. If it’s true, he knows who is behind this. Shock of shocks, he and the High Evolutionary met before. The High Evolutionary says that Magneto once searched for his valley but never found it. Magneto demands to know if he was involved in Magda’s death. The High Evolutionary promises to explain everything in due course. He explains that while he has power over life and accelerated evolution, he’s had to work for decades to make this small community of animal-human hybrids. Because of how slow this project has been, he’s found a way to… accelerate things. He has Wanda and Pietro awoke, revealing he wants to use Wanda’s power over probability to increase his chances of finding good genetic matches and Pietro’s to accelerate the development of his experiments. But Magneto is necessary as his immense power for his plan. He took DNA samples from Magneto and injected them into the twins to enhance their own powers, as the blood of the father strengthens his children. Yep, their mom is Magda and Magneto is their dad. No one likes hearing this even though Pietro is literally Magneto but with shorter hair. The High Evolutionary isn’t interested in talking, though. He takes Wolverine and puts him into one of his DNA pods and uses it to transform Wolverine into a literal Wolverine-man. The High Evolutionary says that his work will soon bring enlightenment to the world. They’re interrupted by Beast and Charles’ arrival. Beast is fascinated by these animal-human hybrids, but they need to avoid getting shot at.

 

Magneto tells the twins about their mother, saying she was a gentle and loving woman that feared his plans for the future and the conflict they’d create. She ran away without telling him she was pregnant. Pietro just fixates on the “so it’s true you killed her’ part of Magneto’s statement. Pietro sarcastically asks if Magneto’s pain makes everything all right. Magneto says nothing will be alright. He says that now that he knows everything, he won’t hold back anymore. He uses his full power to shatter their bonds, and the trio go out to join the battle. Magneto and Wanda’s powers make short work of most of the beast-men, but Wolverine proves harder to stop. The High Evolutionary attempts to flee, Magneto and Pietro attempt to chase after them. Pietro gets blasted on the run up, but Magneto stops to catch him, shouting “son!” as he does. They fell back. The High Evolutionary’s fortress takes off, flying into the sky. Magneto swears there’s nowhere on Earth the High Evolutionary can escape him. As soon as the fortress has moved away, the climate around them shifts, the plants dying and rotting around them. And Wolverine reverts to normal.

 

Magneto apologizes to the twins, saying that losing their mother was the greatest loss of his life. And he swore he would have come for them had he known about them. They’re not interested in talking, though and prepare to go. Magneto tells them that he’ll be waiting if they ever decide they want to talk. After they leave, Magneto is in agony, admitting that this feels like he’s lost Magda twice now. Beast tries to give him comfort by saying time heals all wounds, but Magneto doesn’t believe it. He says that none of them can understand this pain and flies off. I beg to differ; Logan’s lost like three times the amount of loved ones as you Maggy. Anyway, he leaves, and Charles bids his Frienemis goodbye.

 

This episode probably could have been a two-parter, if they decided to play up the mystery of the twins bio-parents and Magneto’s missing wife. But then maybe the story would have felt too long… This seems to be a weird spot where this episode could have used another 10ish minutes but not the full 20 of a second episode, ya know? I think it’s funny that everyone treats the reveal of the twins parentage as a shock when, again, Magneto and Pietro are literally the same man at different points of their life. This is more forgivable in the comics where the twin’s current canon bio-dad is the Whizzer, who is also a white-haired gentleman. The fact he’s also a speedster helps too. I say current because I’m one of those people that is sure that someday they’ll be retconned back to being Magneto’s kids. They were changed from that mostly to separate them from the X-Men canon so the MCU could use them without referencing Mutants when 20th Century Fox was a thing. Their anger at Magneto for contributing to their mother’s death is totally understandable given the situation. I do like the fact that the show included Magneto leaving the door open for them to talk to them if they ever want to talk to him. Children do not owe an absentee parent a talk, but I prefer it if the door is open even if no one takes it. Especially when it seems that Magneto genuinely loved his late wife and would have been there for the twins if he could have. Maybe he’d have ended up going the X-Men: Evolution route and abandon them to pursuit his Mutant agenda, but maybe not. I kind of would have liked more on the High Evolutionary, but there’s really only so much you can do with an insane biologist and side characters. Next time, we learn more about another family tree, Raven Darkholm’s aka Mystique. 

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