Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 10

The worst nightmares are the ones based on memory.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Mystique decided to orchestrate a reunion between brothers. Unfortunately, this involved breaking Cain Marko aka the Juggernaut, out of prison. She wanted to use Cain to get access to Cerebro and offered to let him do as he pleases with his half-brother as payment. Meanwhile, the X-Men and Brotherhood spent some time on a wilderness survival retreat. Things got heated during a team race up a mountain, but Jean kept Scott from going too far in his desire to beat the Brotherhood. The two groups were brought together to save Mystique and Xavier after Cain decided to ax them both. Cain was recaptured, much to Charles’ distress. Enough recap, let’s get to it, shall we?

 

This episode opens with Rogue and Kitty as the girls hit the hay. Fun fact, Kitty sleeps with a stuffed dragon toy, a reference to Kitty’s actual pet dragon Lockheed. Yes, she has an actual tiny dragon, and I couldn’t be more jealous. A few hours pass, and Rogue starts having a bizarre nightmare. She sees a castle and hears a woman screaming “Monster, what have you done to him!” The cloaked woman runs out of the castle, clutching a baby to her chest, as she’s being chased by Magneto who shouts at her to “Come back at once!” The woman runs through the forest, trying to escape Magneto and a pack of wolves. Side note, no, I don’t know how Magneto is controlling these wolves, but he clearly is. Magneto chases her to a rope bridge. She tries to cross, but is attacked by the wolves and her baby is thrown from the bridge. Rogue wakes up screaming.

 

A mother's anguish in one frame of animation. 
Saddening.

The rest of the team come in to check on her, as Rogue’s screams could be heard all through the mansion. Rogue says that she’s been having these dreams off and on since she moved into the institute. While Rogue is still disorientated from her dream, but somehow knows that the baby in it was Kurt. Jean suggest that they speak with the professor in the morning, but Xavier is already up. He calls Jean, Kurt and Rogue to his office via Telepathy. Once there, Kurt explained that he obviously knew he was adopted, but his parents neglected to mention that they pulled him from the river. Since the dream was Rogue’s, Xavier starts by examining her.

 

Xavier goes through the dream with Rogue via telepathy. We see the highlights of the dream again, Magneto with his wolf posse, dropping the baby, with the first bit of new information being the cloaked woman is revealed to be Mystique. 100% certainty, I’ve never seen another blue woman in this series. She breaks down and sobs at the lose of her son and demands to know why. Magneto just floats up and back to the castle. The dream continues for a few more minutes, showing that Mystique confirmed someone fished her son out of the river. Xavier and Rogue end the trance. I assume that Rogue didn’t see things as clearly, as she doesn’t seem to freak out upon learning that her teammate shares 50% of his DNA with Mystique. Xavier clearly knows and is doing his best to obfuscate what he’d learned from the dream. Kurt wants to know more, but Xavier claims he’s tired and that they’ll continue after classes the next day.

 

The next morning, Xavier has a meeting with Ms. Darkholme. He asks about what happened with Kurt and why she stayed with Magneto even after, but she plays dumb. Xavier, in perhaps his cruelest move to date, continues to push Mystique’s buttons until she has a flashback and demands that he get out. As Xavier rolls out, he looks back at her and tells her that “in case you’re curious, he turned out to be a very fine lad.” Salt in the wound, Charles, salt in the wound. Outside, Xavier calls Logan. Apparently, while I like to think he was sincere with his offers of help, Xavier made the meeting in part to get the location of the Castle from Mystique’s mind. He pulled the coordinates of it from her mind during her flash back and sends the information to Logan. Logan jets off in the Blackbird.

 

How could anyone raise their torches and pitchforks
at this face?

Meanwhile, Kurt leaves class with a spring in his step. He meets up with Rogue, to whom he admits he’s excited to know more about his past. Rogue isn’t as enthused. She also doesn’t know anything about her bio-parents, but isn’t as interested in who here parents were. Interesting… Kurt get’s frustrated that she’s not as stoked as him, turns off his inducer and bamfs away. Jean and Scott meet up with Rogue and they head for the mansion. One of the background students walk off, and shapeshifts back into Darkholme, who is clearly distraught. A short time later, Mystique calls up Pietro. She gives her minion an envelope with instructions to give it to Kurt.

 

Logan reaches the castle and let’s Xavier know he’s going to touch down and starts examining the castle.

 

At the mansion, Xavier senses Pietro’s approach, but there’s little one could do to stop Mr. Maximoff when he’s running. Kurt is in his room looking at a photo of him and his parents. He hears a knock at his door and bamf’s out to investigate. Obviously, his few seconds of hesitation meant that Pietro was miles away by that point. He finds the envelope. It has a note that tells him that if he wants answers, he needs to go to a construction site at sundown along. Kurt hides the note in a drawer before doing just that. Scott enters a moment later and notes his friend’s disappearance.

 

Think this is the 5th or 6th castle explosion that Logan
has had to dodge? After 200 years, it can't be the first.

Meanwhile, Pietro calls up his dad to report. Wow, the thought of Magneto having a cell phone feels way more insane than anything else in this episode. Also, again, I don’t count saying Magneto is Pietro’s father is a spoiler. It was a well-established fact for decades before that recent retcon. He lets the big man know what the note said, and that the Blackbird and Wolverine were missing from the mansion. Magneto is annoyed by this turn of events and tells Pietro to gather the Brotherhood and intercept Kurt. Kurt can’t know the truth about what happened to him. Magneto, meanwhile, is going to take care of a visitor.

 

Logan lands the Blackbird and starts climbing up and into the castle. He makes it a few yards into the castle before the ancient castle is revealed to have laser cannons, electric fencing, and other X-Mansion level defenses. He fights through it to the lab. The lab had recently been trashed, but Logan is able to tell it’s some sort of genetic research lab. I’d question how Wolverine knows that, but if anyone knows what Mutant experimentation looks like, it’s James “Logan” Howlett. It’s a shame that he didn’t get there before Magneto trashed the place, but fortunately Wolverine is able to spot the bomb Magneto planted to torch the place. He leaps out a window just before it goes up in smoke and fire.

 

Back in Bayville, Jean and Scott look for Kurt. They find the note hidden in his drawer and they rush to gather the others.

 

Kurt arrives at the construction site. He meets the cloaked woman who reveals herself to be Mystique. He pulls a Skywalker ‘It’s not true, that’s impossible!” but, come on Kurt. You’re really shocked one of your parents is the only other blue person you’ve ever met? Seriously? Before they can get too into exchanging info, the Brotherhood boys arrive. Mystique tries to call her minions off, but they’ve got “higher orders” as Pietro puts it. The Brotherhood knock Kurt around for a few moments before the X-Men arrive. The two teams start brawling, and all I can say is that they better be glad cell phone cameras weren’t a thing yet. Shadowcat tricks Blob into getting stuck in a cement mixer. Spyke beats up Toad. Jean and Scott take out Quicksilver. And Rogue grabs Avalanche and steals his powers. Mystique tries to run, but Rogue goes after her. She demands answers for Kurt, but Mystique claims it’s too late for that. Rogue tries to stop Mystique by causing a quake, but Mystique shapeshifts into a raven and flies away. Damn.

 

I'm starting to see a resemblance beyond the blue skin.

Logan, Xavier, Scott and Jean discuss what happened. Lab was trashed, obviously, but Logan is confident it was a genetic testing facility. Xavier is surprised that Magneto would be willing to go so far in his Mutant research, but honestly, it falls in line with Magneto’s agenda for me. Xavier wonders about how much to tell Kurt, but Logan advises keeping things back. Some of what they know could mess him up. Meanwhile, Rogue and Kurt are talking. Again, Kurt is shocked that he was birthed by the only Blue woman he’s ever seen, which is just odd. Kurt’s also fairly certain that the Professor is holding things back. Rogue advises that he’s probably got a good reason for it. She encourages Kurt to keep learning about his past and that she’ll support him. A good pseudo-sibling moment. We fade over to Mystique. She’s in her office and looking heartbroken at the parent-child interactions she can view from her window.

 

I’m going to break it to you now, no, we’re never told exactly what happened to Kurt or what Magneto was trying to do with his experiments in universe. But, head writer and producer Greg Johnson (no relation) has explained in interviews that the idea they went with going forward was that Magneto had been experimenting on Kurt to try to force the activation of an X-Gene, and he succeeded. So, this is probably how it went down. Magneto’s #2 gets pregnant and has a baby. Magneto, having an infant that he knows either has an X-Gene that will one day manifest or at minimum he’s a recessive carrier decides to see if Mutations can be artificially induced. He puts the baby, who looked like a normal human up to that point, through some sort of chemical or radiation treatment that forcibly activates his X-Gene. A side effect of process being that he grew blue fur and his hands and feet into their three fingered variation and grew a tail. Pretty twisted, not going to lie. Part of me wonders why she stuck with Magneto after that.

 

Overall, this was a solid episode. I liked the reveals about Kurt’s heritage and the circumstances of how he ended up being separated from Mystique. From the flashbacks, it seems like Mystique did love him dearly, as she was clearly distraught at losing him both times. The idea that his more devilish appearance might be the result of Magneto’s inhuman experiments is an interesting twist on why Kurt looks the way he does. In the comics, his appearance is due to the fact his biological father Azazal was a demonic looking Mutant and he passed those traits onto all of his children. The episode also characterized Kurt very well. He knows he was abandoned as an infant, learns that it was under much more intense circumstances than he’d assumed, but still is excited about the prospect of finding out about his past. Kurt’s an optimist, through and through, and it’s good that they show showed that off. I will say that I wished they’d foreshadowed this a bit better. Not anything too crazy, maybe just like have Mystique be noticeably disturbed when she saw Kurt’s true-blue form for the first time, or something. Just a little bit to hint that there’s more than meets the eye here, or something. But that’s my only real complaint. Next time, Wolverine is haunted by memories of the man that made him a beast. Sounds like fun!

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 9

How do you stop the unstoppable? 

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Evan’s extracurricular homework assignment got a bit complicated. He inadvertently leaked Logan’s location to his archnemesis Sabertooth. The burly biker attacked the mansion, but was driven off by the X-Men and mansion security. Wanting to make up for it, Evan got Kitty and Rogue to help him set Sabertooth up. With a little help from Logan, they were able to beat the beast back and drop him somewhere up north to cool off. And no, we never find out what grade Evan got on that assignment. Shucks. Ah well, that’s enough recap, let’s get to it, shall we?

Raven, I think you really need to reconsider your plan
to unleash the UNSTOPPABLE JUGGERNAUT if you
don't actually have a method of stopping him. Just sayin'.

 

We open on Stokes County Maximum Security Prison. It’s a heavily fortified facility with safeguards on top of safeguards. We’re shown as a guard goes through several barred doors, one heavy vault door, a laser array, and several other defenses before getting to a control panel. He hits a few buttons and causes a tank of green liquid to rise up from the ground. In it, there’s a man chained to the ground and floating in the goo. The guard decants the man, shapeshifting back into Mystique. She tells the prisoner to “Wake up Cain. It’s time you had a long overdue family reunion with your brother, Charles Xavier.” Oh no… she’s waking up Juggernaut.

 

We then cut over to the X-Men. They along with the Brotherhood and several normie students from Bayville High are on a wilderness retreat at Ironback Survival Camp under the tutelage of Sgt. Hawk. Apparently, the X-Men were given a choice, a wilderness retreat with an intense former Sgt, or a retreat with Logan. Yeah, I’d have gone with the army man too. Scott’s put in charge of the group as a team leader, much to the Brotherhood’s annoyance. Toad and Fred are up for killing them, but Lance wants to beat them on the court and in public.

 

Mystique fully releases Cain, taking the time to stoke Cain’s anger at his brother for locking him up in what amounts to suspended animation. She offers him a deal along with his helmet, break her into the X-Mansion and give her access to Cerebro, and she’ll let him do as he wishes with Charles. Mystique must not know that Cerebro requires a telepath to use it effectively. Whoops. Cain takes his helmet and starts busting through walls. He doesn’t want to take the stealth approach, or follow orders. He’s going home.

 

Back at Camp, the kids are doing a short obstacle course. It’s almost immediately broken by Fred. Who in their right minds asks the kid that clearly weighs a metric ton to try to climb a rope? Scott and Lance pull out ahead and make it to a pair of rafts. Lance knocks Scott into the river with a seismic blast and pulls out ahead. Evan sees and is all for popping Lance’s boat with some spikes, but Jean stops him, pointing out they agreed to trying to not use their powers for this thing. She says that Scott will handle this like a leader. He immediately proves that prediction wrong by optic blasting Lance into the water and paddling to victory. The Brotherhood boys and X-Men start arguing about who cheated the most, but Hawk shuts that right down with pushups. After the students exercised a bit, he offers them an alternative solution to fighting. He tells the students that they’ll be split into their two teams and race to the top of Mt. Humiliation. He put a flag up there, and the winner is the group that gets up there first and snaps a picture of the entire group with the flag. So, no Kurt or Pietro just zooming to the end.  To make it more interesting, Lance and Scott both agree their groups won’t use powers on the race up.  

 

Really glad this was a freight train, and not a passenger
car. Little victories.

Back at the Mansion, Logan finds Charles using Cerebro. He asks if the prof is detecting new mutants, but Charles explains he’s just keeping a telepathic eye on the students. Logan is clearly a little miffed that his students are getting survival training from someone other than him. Before they can get to much into that discussion, though, Cerebro starts alerting Charles to a new Mutant. He’s excited at first, until Cerebro reveals it’s an Enhanced Mutant signature that had been detected before. Cain is on his way home. Charles explains that Cain Marko is his half-brother, they share a father, and that his brother had been born with an X gene, but his was dormant for most of his life. He used “mysticism” to unlock his power, turning him into an unstoppable Juggernaut. We’re shown an example of this as on the road, Cain easily tosses aside a pair of cop cars that try to stop him.

 

The X-Men, meanwhile, are jogging toward the mountain summit. They’re doing fairly well, but the “city kid” Evan is lagging a bit behind. The Brotherhood seems to have gotten ahead, as Toad leads the way up the mountain, while Fred climbs up behind, pulling Pietro and Lance up behind him. Pietro’s a bit nervous about Blob slipping and turning the two of them into paste, but Lance wants to win too badly to avoid the risk.

 

Meanwhile, Storm takes the Blackbird out. She flies around the area of Bayville, summoning intense fog. The hope is that if Cain is too hard to find, no normies will get killed trying to stop the Juggernaut. Wolverine moves Xavier into the Danger Room, as that is the most heavily guarded part of their facility. Wolverine asks if Charles has any ace in the hole that he can use against Cain, to which Charles says he does. He can basically mentally blast his brother into unconsciousness, provided he’s not wearing his helmet which shields him from Charles’ attacks. We’re then shown Cain walking through a train as it thunders by, causing a massive pileup.

 

Back at Mt. Humiliation, the Brotherhood boys have reached a plateau. Toad and Fred had spotted an abandoned mineshaft, Toad had gone ahead to scout as Fred pulled Pietro and Lance the rest of the way up. Toad rejoins them and tells them that there’s a shaft that leads almost all the way to the top. The boys go in, assuming they’d just assured victory, and totally ignoring the DANGER signs they rip down to get through. The X-Men are slightly farther back. Scott, who clearly wants to win bad, has Kurt bamf up to check on the flag despite the earlier promise of no powers. After confirming the flag is still there, he has Evan spike launch a line up the mountain and starts climbing the rope. He stops and offers it to a clearly angry Jean, who brushes past and starts free climbing up.

Do you think the metal bones help with pain management
at all, or do they just make impacts much, much worse for his organs?

 

The Brotherhood reach Toad’s shaft, but find that It’s mostly blocked by rubble. Lance throws Toad up against a pillar and starts yelling at him for costing them the win, but Toad and Pietro encourage Lance to shake things up a bit with his powers. Unfortunately, he shakes it a bit too well and causes a cave in. The quake causes the whole mountain to shake and Evan almost falls to his death. Jean grabs him with Telekinesis and pulls him back up. Scott wants Jean to levitate them all to the top, but she calls him out for wanting to cheat and not getting there’s a difference between saving a life in an extreme situation and winning a stupid contest. This seems to shake something loose in Scott. They find the shaft and hear Toad calling for help. Scott assures the slimeball that they won’t leave the Brotherhood to die.

 

Back at the mansion, Xavier explains a bit more about his brother to Wolverine. Apparently, Cain had a very bad relationship with his and Charles’ father, which left him incredibly angry. It’s not said outright, but if we assume Xavier is their father’s surname, which seems likely, then some of that resentment might stem from being an illegitimate son. Just saying. His anger turned all the more violent when he awakened his power and became nigh invulnerable. Charles eventually elected to stop his brother and lock him up to protect everyone else. He had no choice, or so he claimed. They’re interrupted by Cain’s arrival.

Yeah, your mentors are about to be murdered, but
we can take a few minutes for a group shot. No Rush.

 

Wolverine rushes Juggernaut, but has little success cutting through his armor or skin. Juggernaut throws him through several object and finally down into the subbasement. Mystique, following behind, is irate at discovering that Cerebro had been smashed as a Wolverine shaped object was thrown through it. Juggernaut slams Logan into the Danger Room, leaving the little Canadian dazed. Mystique rushes in behind and starts screaming at Cain for going back on their deal. He instead backhands her, says that he doesn’t make deals and he’s going to end both Xavier and Mystique. Well, this plan royally backfired.

 

Back at the Mountain, the X-Men help the Brotherhood out of the hole. Once out, Pietro and Kurt race to the top, both getting there are about the same time and start struggling over the flag. They’re interrupted by the Blackbird pulls up. Storm tells the students that both Mystique and Xavier are in danger and that they need to come with her to save them. Both teams agree, but they take a moment to retrieve the flag and return it to Hawk along with a group photo of everyone with the flag. Woo, little victories.

 

Okay, not going to lie, this is a pretty cool group shot.

Charles tries to talk his brother down, convince him that the institute is about new beginnings and starting over, but Cain’s not interest in talking. Charles activates the Logan’s Run X-13 training sim to slow his brother down. It works, slowing Cain just long enough for the X-Men and Brotherhood to arrive. A still recovering Logan tells them to get the helmet off Cain.

 

Jean keeps Cain from reaching his brother, lifting him up but clearly draining most of her strength doing it. Blob hip checks Juggernaut to the side, allowing Kurt to Bamf onto Juggernaut’s back and undo a latch on the helmet. Juggernaut grabs him and tosses the elf aside. Cyclops and Avalanche disorientate Juggernaut with their powers, which lets Pietro run up and undo another latch. He stumbles near a wall, allowing Shadowcat and a copying Rogue to phase through it and get the last two latches. Toad leaps above him and rips the helmet off with his tongue. Juggernaut tries to rush Charles again, but Xavier with a sad look on his face is able to mentally blast his brother into submission. Mystique and her Brotherhood leave, promising that they won’t see this sort of team up again any time soon. But Scott and Lance have a friendly bit of banter before they depart.

 

Charles, Logan, Scott and Jean ship Cain back into lock up. Charles seems to be deeply saddened to see his brother reincarcerated, but he accepted a long time ago that he couldn’t change Cain. As they leave, Scott muses what it’d be like to work with the Brotherhood more often, if the boys could get out of their own way and join them. He suggests Jean could nudge them along in that regard, and gives her permission to keep nudging him if he ever acts like he did on the mountain again. A solid ending.

 

I really enjoyed this episode. They modified the backstory about Cain Marko quite a bit, but the end result was the same. I liked that they kept the point that Cain’s powers are relatively new. In the comics, he’s Charles’ 100% human step-brother who discovered a magic ruby that turned him into the avatar of a dark god called Cyttorak. So, while they made him a Mutant like in X-Men 3, he’s still truer to his origins here as his power had to be artificially activated. And I liked that, while we didn’t dive too deeply into it, it seems clear that Charles is deeply saddened by Cain’s unwillingness to change. Again, this is probably speculation on my part, but I can’t help but feel that a backstory episode would have revealed that there was a time when they got along fairly well, before Cain’s anger and power consumed him. Fun fact, both men are played by David Kaye. He was able to changed his voice and cadence just enough that it really sells the idea that these are two brothers instead of one man doing two voices. The X-Men and Brotherhoods wilderness survival arc felt a bit rushed in comparison. I don’t know, maybe this episode would have worked better as a two parter. They could have stretch out the race a bit, include a few more instances of both sides almost using their powers but electing not to, with Scott and Lance getting more and more desperate to win the race. End with the kids making it to the mountain and Charles becoming aware of Cain, then part two could have been the actual climb and a slightly deeper dive into Charles and Cain’s relationship. Would that have made for a rather dull part 1? Yes, but I think if they got the pacing right, they could have kept people interested and on the hook for part 2. Oh, and the fight with Juggernaut could have been longer that way. What could have been. That all said, I did like the team fight against Juggernaut even if it felt a bit rushed. Juggernaut is probably the most powerful character that has been in combat thus far, and it really would take a group effort on this scale to subdue him. So yeah, this was a good one. Next time, we’ll delve a bit deeper into the past of our favorite blue German Elf, and what might have caused him to… look like he does. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 8

Extra credit assignment turns into a smackdown with an extinct apex predator. So typical high school.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Scott went on a field trip with Rogue. Blizzard conditions and the manipulations of a certain blue femme fatale lead to Scott being alone with Rogue and said blue femme fatale, Mystique. She reveals that she’s Ms. Raven Darkholme and that Xavier knew and kept it from Scott before shoving him off a ledge. This proves to be the final straw for Rogue, who grabs her boss and learns what really happened the night her powers manifested. She and Scott regroup and try to escape Mystique, but she hounds them. Quite literally when she shapeshifts into a wolf. Rogue is able to hold her off long enough for help to arrive in the form of the Blackbird and Wolverine. On the flight back, Rogue officially changes groups, becoming an X-Man and being welcomed with open, but completely covered arms. Enough recapping, let’s get to it, shall we.

 

No good has ever come from Victor Creed's smile

This episode opens with Victor Creed aka Sabertooth, Wolverine’s age-old nemesis, breaking into a restricted area and climbing the Bayville water tower. Well, that’s ominous.

 

We then jump over to Evan Daniels, who just got a bad grade on a history report. Apparently, he mixed up Regan’s Star Wars defense program with the hit film franchise, as I think we have all done at least once. His teacher decides to give him a chance to make up his grade with an extra credit assignment. He gives Evan a video camera and tells him to do a report on current events important to him. Evan’s stoked to use a camera that is so beyond obsolete at this point it’s silly. Evan plays with the camera a bit, and sees that the zoom is good enough to see Logan pull up to the Mansion several miles away.

 

So we have a preppy girl, goth girl, and sports guy together?
The Cliques at Bayville high must be so confused by the Institute
kids.

He’s spooked by Kurt, who is hanging from the window sill. After nearly spiking Kurt, he gets told that Kurt’s bouncing early to his image inducer checked out. Unbeknownst to them, Sabertoot is watching them both from the water tower via a set of binocular and smiling evilly. It’s NEVER good when that beast smiles.  

 

Still oblivious to Sabertooth’s presence, Evan goes about his day and plays with the camera a bit. He spies to two of his fellow Xavier kids, Kitty and Rogue, arguing about a book. It’s Kitty’s, Rogue has it, it’s this whole non-important thing. They’re interrupted by Kitty bumping into a dude, and starting to flirt relentlessly, to Rogue’s disgust. The dude, who we will never see again, get’s Kitty interested in trying out for “Dracula The Rock Musical.” Is this a thing? I’ll look it up later. Rogue makes fun of Kitty for wanting to try out for a play just to impress a dude, and Kitty thinks Rogue is jealous for not having the moves. They’re interrupted by noticing Evan and start yelling at him for recording them without their permission. He deflects by asking about the musical and defuses the situation. We sure Evan’s an only child? Because he can play de facto siblings incredibly well.

 

Oh no, he's figured out our technology!

After school, Evan goes to skateboard and get some footage of him in motion. At the same time, Sabertooth lands on the rooftops and starts following him from above. Which I’m so confused by. Victor Creed is a six-and-a-half-foot tall behemoth biker in a trench coat, how could anyone NOT notice him? But Evan doesn’t until the beast tackles him and swipes the camera. Sabertooth scampers off, and is able to switch on the camera. Oh no, he’s discovered technology! He finds the video of Logan and the mansion and smiles evilly again. Okay, how did he know Evan had footage of Logan?

 

Evan recovers from the fall, tracks down the camera and reclaims it. There’s a brief interaction with an attention seeking Toad, but Evan blows him off. That’s just rude. Sabertooth continues to watching Evan from a distance and smiles evilly while licking his teeth. That is somehow creepier than just smiling.

 

The next day, Evan gets up and accidentally launches a pair of spikes, shattering one of his lights and his mirror, not for the first time. Ororo comes to check in on her nephew, when she sees the camera and hears the premise of Evan’s project is quite adamant that she and the other X-Instructors review it to ensure Evan’s not showing any Mutant funny business.

 

He spies on Jean for a bit, before being caught and tossed aside, and then decides to record something more interesting. At that moment, Scott and Logan start running an obstacle course in the Mansion’s front yard. They basically run along the sidewalk and dodge projectiles. Evan records while skateboarding behind them. Yeah, that’s getting cut in editing. Logan saves Evan from a buzzsaw launcher and starts yelling at him for being stupid and careless. He erases that scene, and then looks over the rest of Evan’s recordings. Turns out, Victor recorded a thank you message to Evan for showing him where Logan is. It’s at that moment that Sabertooth attacks.

 

Okay. Wait one second here. Sabertooth, whom has all the same powers as Logan, (IE can track by SCENT), works for Magneto and with Mystique, had no idea that Logan worked for Charles Xavier at his lavish estate? Da hell?

 

Whatever, Sabertooth attacks. The X-Men are scrambled by Xavier, who was watching via cameras and telepathy, and also activates the mansion defenses. Logan wants to fight alone, but Storm isn’t having that. She lightnings blasts Sabertooth, Cyclops eyebeams him, and Jean throws objects telepathically. They, plus the defenses, drive Sabertooth off who roars that this isn’t over! Logan chases after him, but loses him in the woods near the mansion. Logan returns to the mansion and gives Charles a status report. They know Sabertooth won’t attack the mansion again since he knows it’s too well defended, but Logan believes he’ll take a hostage to draw him out. Dark. Evan overhears this and decides to do something about it.

 

He runs into Kitty and Rogue, who are arguing again, this time about the Dracula soundtrack to help with their auditions. Evan again inserts him into the conversation, and offers to help them with their situation, if they’re willing to improvise with him. Evan and the girls leave the mansion, with Sabertooth watching from a distance. He smiles evilly and says that this is too easy. Yes, it’s almost like they’re luring you out. Ya dumb extinct cat.

 

Scott tries to leave the mansion for dinner as Logan comes down. He shuts that idea down and tells Scott the mansion is on lock down until Sabertooth is handled. He asks were everyone is, and is annoyed to hear that Evan, Kitty and Rogue slipped out.

 

So with this takedown, Rogue has officially taken out
more baddies than anyone. You go girl.

The three escapees set up in a park just a way away from the mansion. When Rogue looks like she can’t get into the groove, he suggests tapping a finger against Kitty and absorbing her dance moves to better coordinate. Rogue does, and the two actually start moving in sink. Just in time for Sabertooth to charge and try to grab one of them. He goes for Evan first, but the kid pulls his porcupine routine. He throws Evan aside at Rogue, and charges at Kitty. She just phases past him, but gets grabbed and thrown when she tries to check on Rogue and Evan. He goes after Rogue, who’d recovered. She tries to get a hand on him, but can’t get her hand on him. Logan arrives and starts wrestling with Sabertooth. They clash and toss each other around, but Rogue is able to sneak up on Sabertooth and grab him. She drains him and knocks him out. This causes her to transform into a beasty, hairy form, and delivers one of her best one liners, “And I just shaved my legs last night!” Logan figured out that Evan set this all up, and grounds him for putting himself in danger and both girls for going along with it. When they ask what they’ll do with Sabertooth, Logan says they’ll put him somewhere to cool off. They fly Sabertooth out to Alaska or Canada and drop him off. He’s clearly disorientated, so I guess it’ll be a while before he can make his way back to New York.

Fun sight gag, but begs the question why Rogues BMI
doesn't increase when she drains Blob. Someone else ask
her that question, though. I'll monitor from a safe distance.
The Moon.

 

The episode ends with Evan’s video, which he dedicated to his new family, showing the X-Men doing some of their less insane activities. It ends with Kitty and Rogue dancing along with Dracula in the play. I’ll call bs on that musical being ready to go in a week, but otherwise that was a sweet way to end it.

 

While it’s not in my top tier list for X-Men: Evolution episodes, this was on the better side. I liked the focus on Evan, it’s been a while since he got much attention. He’s about as much of an early 2000s kid as you’d expect, so many of his phrases and interests feel a bit dated, but not in a bad way. Just in a very familiar way for those of us that grew up at the turn of the last millennium. I especially liked his final plan. He’s largely untouchable with his spikes, Kitty can’t be grabbed if she knows it’s coming, and touching Rogue is about as dangerous for the grabber as the grabbie. I’m sure his plan would be to force Sabertooth to try to get Rogue, who can disable him. But it was a good thing Logan showed up to help, as the plan clearly wasn’t going great. My only real complaint was the logical inconsistency of Sabertooth somehow not knowing where Logan lives. Again, given his own abilities to track and his connections, I just don’t see how there’s any way that he couldn’t know where Logan is. Other than somehow Logan blocking his scent and Magneto deliberately keeping the info from him. But I just don’t see that happening. So yeah, a solid episode. Next time, though, we get to see a family reunion of sorts. Charles’ favorite brother Cain is stopping by to see him. Note* Charles only has one brother, so that’s not saying much. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 7

Field trips really are the perfect place... for Murder!

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Kurt got sent to the Shadow Realm. Okay, it’s actually called the Middleverse, but Shadow Realm sounds cooler. Rogue accidentally blasted him with a machine from the late 70s that sent him into a pocket dimension. With some help from the Projector’s inventor, the similarly stranded Forge (no last name), and his team, Kurt was able to escape. Rather than join up with the X-Men fulltime, Forge decided to see how cruel time can be after 20 years and left to track down his parents. What? A LOT changes in 20 years. Just sayin’. He takes a card, though, so I’m sure he’ll pop up again someday. Enough rehashing, onto the new. Let’s get to it!

 

This one is on you, Summers. The moment you saw
that hand you should have known something was up.

 We open on some sort of warehouse. They try to play this like an actual mission, but when the two guards they take out are clearly Ororo and Logan in jumpsuits and caps, it’s kind of hard to not lose emersion. Still, it’s a kind of mission, so best go with combat callsigns. Spyke and Shadowcat take out the guards with gas. Meanwhile, Cyclops and Nightcrawler bamf into the building, while Jean (they really need to give her a combat callsign) holds them up with telekinesis. Their goal is to free “Storm” who is unconscious and chained to the concrete floor, surrounded by laser tripwires. Cyclops blasts the chains, just before Jean is grabbed by a recovered guard, dropping Cyclops and Nightcrawler into the laser tripwires. Cyclops runs over to grab “Storm,” only for not-Storm to reveal that she’s Rogue and grab him. She hits Nightcrawler with an optic blast just before Cyclops calls to end the simulation. The simulation ends and Xavier and the rest of the crew roll in. He chastises Cyclops for ending the mission early, but Cyclops has qualms with Rogue being in the mission. I assume this Rogue is an LMD, a Life Model Decoy, an incredibly realistic robotic copies of people. Fury uses them to avoid face to face meetings all the time. Xavier says that he included her to add an element of surprise to the mission.  Xavier rolls out, leaving Cyclops annoyed. He and Jean leave to prep for a field trip.

 

Scott and Jean make it to their geology field trip bus. On the walk over, Scott explains that he’s not comfortable trying to befriend and recruit Rogue while at the same time prepping to fight her. I’d argue that’s just a logical precaution when you’re trying to make Rogue go Rogue, but that’s just me. Jean encourages him to not stop trying to get through to Rogue. Good gal, Jean. As they walk by, Mystique as Darkholme comes out of the shadows and smiling evilly.

 

Meanwhile, Rogue is practicing martial arts in the school gym. Or maybe she’s just punching the air in frustration. You do you, Anne Marie. Anyway, she looks out the window to see Jean and Scott helping get things prepped for the fieldtrip. She’s clearly annoyed by the sight, but her glares are interrupted by Darkholme walking in. She reminds her young charge about how the “X-Men” attacked her, and that she overheard the discussion about the combat simulation starring her. The queen of manipulation tells Rogue to never trust the X-Men, and that she should have fun on her trip.

 

We then jump outside, where the one-off teacher, no I didn’t bother to learn his name, tells Jean that she’s been cut from the trip. Apparently, miss overachiever has too many absences to go. While they might have been able to clear this up, but Darkholme had already filled the spot. Shocking. So, Jean is left behind while Scott has to go out into the wilderness with someone that can steal his powers, that doesn’t sound dangerous at all.

 

Back at the Mansion, Xavier is reading in his office. Things seem fine, until he’s shoved to the wall by a burst of repulsive magnetism. Magneto decided to stop by and chat with his best frenemy. He compliments Xavier for how he’s trained his students, but chastises him for keeping secrets. He pulls Xavier back to the window, shattering the glass, as he departs.

 

A blizzard has started, which has the geology teacher nervous. He skids on a patch of ice and nearly careens the bus off the side of the mountain. Scott is able to get his head out and blasts a furrow into the ground, giving the bus something to slam against instead of the falling to their deaths. The teacher wants to turn back, but Rogue suggests taking the snowmobiles they brought to ride to the cave they were going to check out. What high school can afford multiple snowmobiles? No, not going off on that tangent. The class use the snowmobiles.

 

Rogue and Scott race to the cave, much to the terror of their respective passengers. Part way through the race, Rogue nearly murders Scott and his friend Paul by knocking them down a ledge. They make it to the cave, with Rogue telling Scott “No trophies for second place.” Scott wonders where the anger is coming from. Oh, I don’t know Scott, maybe the shapeshifting sociopath you know gives Rogue orders heard something she shouldn’t? Oo, been a bit since Sarcasm hurt like that.

Wait, did none of the X-Men wonder why all the bad
Mutants they didn't recruit ended up at Bayville? 
Evil Shapeshifter is principal seems obvious.

 

Back at the mansion, Logan and Charles are having a discussion in his office. Logan is suggesting that Charles finally tell the students that Ms. Darkholme is Mystique. I don’t know, I think having your charges know any calls to the principal’s office might lead to an assassination attempt can only make their days go smoother, just sayin’. Jean and Ororo come in, much to Xavier’s surprise. Jean explains what happened with losing her spot to Darkholme’s Rogue, and Ororo mentions the big blizzard rolling in. These two things do not make for a fun time for Scott Summers.

 

The students all made it to the cave, and the teacher begins giving a lecture on metamorphic rocks. You know, the ones that MUTATE from one state to another? That’s a pretty on the nose joke, not going to lie. Rogue slips off from the group, Scott sees and follows. Once they’re a way out, Rogue sneaks up on Scott and confronts him about the training simulation. Again, were I Scott, I would point out that I objected to it immediately upon discovery, and that training to handle an opponent that can literally steal my powers is really just a necessary precaution. But that’s nearly 30-year-old me, not 17ish year old Scott dealing with 16ish year old Rogue. He does try to talk to her about it, but she starts storming off. They’re interrupted by Scott’s friend Paul walking up. “He” shapeshifts first into Principal Darkholme and then into her true-blue Mystique form, much to Scott’s shock. She explains that she took Paul’s place by lying about when the bus left, to make it clear Mystique hasn’t murdered an uninvolved student. Mystique has a pretty bad ass moment as she gloats about how she got to this point. She calls Scott a puppet for Xavier and says she’s the blade cutting the strings, before shoving Scott backwards over a cliff, seemingly to his death. Rogue runs to try and see if she could save him and demands to know why Mystique did that.

 

Rogue has learned that it's best not to blindly trust
the words that come out of Mystique's mouth.

 

Mystique tries to brush it off as she did it for Rogue’s own good and goes to tell the other teacher the bad news. Rogue, having had it up to here (my arm up fully extended, we’ll call it seven feet in the air) with Mystiques bs and decides to get real answers. She slips off her glove and grabs Mystique’s arm. She absorbs Mystique’s powers and memories, seemingly focusing on the night she went Rogue and learning about how Mystique played her. She lets her boss drop and goes back to the cliff edge, this time spotting Scott hanging on by his fingertips. She jumps down to him in Mystique’s form… for some reason, before shifting back and pulling him up. The real Mystique then rolls a boulder down on them, knocking the two down into an underground river below.

 

They’re able to get out of the river onto a ledge but then fall to a natural bridge of ice or stone below. Scott hits his head pretty bad and gets a visible bruise. Rogue cradles him in her lap, tries to be reassuring but when she looks around the landscape, sees the storm and the fact Scott’s clearly got a concussion, can’t help from blurting out “Oh man, we’re gonna die!” Real optimist, that Anne Marie Adler, real optimist. Scott, clearly out of whack but lucid, apologizes to Rogue for the simulation and getting them into this mess, and Rogue apologizes for not trusting Scott and the others. She mentions that she really thought Mystique cared about her, knowing now that she was just an attractive prize to Mystique’s team. But Scott does believe that maybe Mystique does care, but has a weird way of showing it, as adults have trouble telling the truth sometime. Oh, Xavier there will be words with your de facto son if he gets home, I tell you what. Mystique watches this exchange from above.

 

Meanwhile, Wolverine, Xavier and Storm are racing to the field trip site in the Blackbird. They’re being slowed down by the blizzard; which Storm is attempting to handle but apparently this episode she can’t just change weather patterns with a thought and a wave of her hands. (eye roll)

 

Mystique decides to be done with this whole Scott Summers situation, and shapeshifts into a wolf to finish the job. So, you’re going to rip his throat out personally, Mystique? That’s pretty Metal. Xavier reaches out to Scott telepathically, warns him that they’re having trouble locating him in the blizzard, and noting his head injury. Scott tells Rogue what’s up. Thinking fast, Rogue takes off Scott’s sunglasses and tells him to open his eyes. He does, giving the Blackbird their approximate location. Wolverine hands the controls to Xavier and gets up.

 

Rogue absorbs just a bit of Scott’s power and uses the optic beam to knock Mystique off the bridge they’re on. While she falls a good way, Mystique shapeshifts into an eagle and flies up for another attack. The Blackbird descends at that point, and through an open hatch Wolverine tells her to beat it or tangle with him. Mystique elects to retreat. Wolverine leaps over, there’s a slight moment of tension between him and Rogue before the he just grabs her and Scott and leaps back into the jet. Inside, Storm administers emergency aid to Scott. Wolverine goes over to a terrified Rogue and asks if her allegiance is with the X-Men or Brotherhood. Rogue asks what happens if she says Brotherhood, will she be thrown out of the plane? Wolverine laughs at that and tells her, either they have her trust now or they don’t. Either way, she’ll get the ride home at least. Rogue says that she’s with the X-Men now. Gee, I hope she didn’t have much stuff at the Brotherhood house… that’ll be an awkward move.

 

Good to see the whole team finally together.

After they get Scott’s head patched up, Xavier has the students gather and he reveals to them that Ms. Raven Darkholme is Mystique. The kids are rather upset that this info was kept from them, with good reason, and wonders why he didn’t trust them. Evan, I think, puts it best, saying that if Mystique is playing it straight at the school, then so will they. When Rogue is asked her opinion, she’s hesitant but says that honesty is important to her. Xavier apologizes for lying to them about this. He makes it clear he keeps secrets for a reason, and there are more, but promises to be better about what information he gives them.

 

I think this is a very solid episode. I’m finding that I like Rogue’s story arc in this first season way more than I remember doing when I saw this show as a teenager. She’s introduced as a power Mutant that gets hoodwinked into joining the villains by Mystique. She puts on a strong front, but from basically her second appearance onward clearly has doubts about which group she signed on with. Things come to a head when Mystique sees an opportunity to remove Scott from the equation, and when push came to shove, Rogue would rather have the truth than Mystique’s version of it. I liked the battle through the cave, I like that Scott was kind of the moral compass that helped bring Rogue to her new home, and I liked that final exchange with Wolverine before Rogue made her choice official. Really, my only complaint was the inconsistency with Storm’s weather powers, and Magneto’s appearance. Like… why did he come to the mansion to yell at Charles for NOT exposing his lieutenant. I’d think he’d be more like “That’s a good call not telling your students their principal is my #2. It keeps them from attacking her office. Good call Charles.” He really gains nothing by telling Charles to do otherwise, other than getting the moral high ground for once. But that’s never really mattered to Magneto, now has it? It was weird. Also, did anyone tell the Geology class about what happened, or did that teacher spend the whole rest of the day thinking three students were lost and died? I hope someone told him something. Anyway, good character episode. Next time, Evan has to get a little artsy while Sabertooth is on the prowl. It’s less idiotic than it sounds. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 6

Kurt get's lost between dimensions and meets a Native American from the 70s... It only makes slightly more sense in context.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, the team recruited Storm’s nephew Evan Daniels into their team.  Yes, in this universe Storm has a sister and nephew, I guess her parents either weren’t killed in a horrible accident or were but had time to have one more daughter before it. Evan, codenamed Spyke, has a beef with his former childhood best friend and current nemesis (for the season) Pietro Maximoff. Pietro framed Evan for trashing lockers at their school. After some training, Spyke and Quicksilver, as Pietro dubbed himself, face off. Jean and Cyclops are able to help, capturing Quicksilver and clearing Evan’s name. Unfortunately, Pietro is almost immediately freed by Magneto, his father (no I don’t consider that a spoiler) who recruits him for the Brotherhood of Mutants. So, it’s a bit of a wash episode wise. Enough rehashing. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Stick-in-the-mud and party animal. Sounds like a bad
sitcom premise.

We open on a pretty average lunchbreak at Bayville High. The X-Men are dealing with a fairly mundane problem, should they go to a party or not? Well, technically just about everyone is pro-party except for Scott. He’s got some legit reasons not to, what if someone touches a non-covered part of Kurt and feels his fur, what if the Brotherhood boys show up and cause trouble, that sort of thing. While it’s not stated, there’s also the not so legit reason that it’s being thrown by Duncan Matthews. Well, the fact he’s an asshole is legit, but the reason Scott wouldn’t be interested in going is due to the Duncan-Jean situation. Oy, teenagers. Kurt tries to get Scott to lighten up a little by acting like a clown and dancing on the table. This plan royally fails when his movements cause his tail to pop out, which Scott yanks on to get him to sit down and shut up. Kurt is offended by Scott’s stick in the mud attitude and tail grabbing, and he Bamf’s away in a huff. Scott asks if he blew it, to which the other X-Men agree.

 

Does that watch even tell time?

A few yards away, Rogue is by herself reading Dracula and hears a loud thud and smells the brimstone smell that happens when Kurt Bamf’s in or out. Kurt had Bamfed into some sort of storeroom in the basement of the school. He’d hit the ground hard, breaking his image inducer, revealing his natural blue form. He hears someone coming down to investigate, panics (for some reason, how many southern girls go to this school?) and Bamf’s into a room marked Restricted. Inside the room, there are some 70s era computers and a lot of dust. Kurt walks through an obvious laser trip wire, triggering a self-destruct protocol. A Native American man appears on a computer screen, mentions that he’d recorded this in 1978, and warns Kurt he’s got 10 seconds to get out of there. Kurt tries to turn off the self-destruct by pressing random buttons. It obviously doesn’t work, and he’s launched out of the room in the blast. He’s fine, though, and just barely misses Rogue as he was thrown from the room. After checking that he’s alive, she goes to investigate the room. The tech is all trashed, except one laser cannon looking thing. She grabs the device and looks it over. Kurt walks in and sees her, tries to take it from her. This may come as a shock, but the goth girl on the evil Mutant team doesn’t like being told what to do and won’t let go. In the struggle, Rogue sets off the device and blast’s Kurt. He vanishes into a weird bubble. He reappears in the main school building, but the area is kind of weirdly smokey and the people walking through are ghostly and insubstantial.

 

Kurt, that thing clearly has a barrel. WHY WOULD
YOU PUT YOURSELF IN FRONT OF IT!

Back in the real world, Toad is doing Toad stuff and is yelled at by Mystique in her Darkholme disguise. She’s somewhat adamant that he not mess-up her car with his slime. I wonder if this will come back around? Toad is clearly annoyed, but is distracted by Rogue. She’s carrying the device out on a pole and tries to throw it into a dumpster. Toad wants to have a look at it, but Rogue tells him it’s dangerous. She mentions possibly killing an X-Man with it… somehow assuming that it’d scare Toad off? Toad grabs the device and blasts the dumpster, vanishing it. Toad likey what he sees.

 

Back with Scott and Jean, our favorite stick-in-the-mud is wondering if he was too in-the-mud with Kurt. Jean pretty much gives him a “Yes, But I want you to come to the conclusion yourself,” type answer. They’re interrupted by some student’s running out of the boy’s room, screaming about seeing a furry blue ghost. Scott goes into the bathroom to tear his friend a new one, no one is in the room. He asks Jean to contact him telepathically and tell Kurt to knock it off. She tries, scanning the school and X-Mansion with her mind but can’t find him, much to the horror of Rogue who was eavesdropping just out of sight. Lance and Fred walk up, prompting Scott to believe that the Brotherhood boys did something to him. He tries to fight Fred and Jean and Lance begin a face off, but are cut off by Darkholme, who pulls the two X-Men into her office to hear an explanation.

 

Meanwhile, Kurt is trying to teleport out of this space, but can’t even get off campus. His efforts get interrupted when he’s almost crushed by a desk falling from the ceiling. Turns out, in Toad is in Darkholme’s office, blasting her furniture as a sort of “screw you, boss,” moment. He scampers when Jean, Scott and Darkholme arrive, but the two X-Men see him blast Darkholme’s car as he runs away. Oh see, it did come back around to the car thing. Wherever Kurt is, the car drops and Kurt leaps out of the way. In the office, Jean and Scott see a spectral image of Kurt pass through the air. They think it might be a trick, but Jean picked up his thoughts for a second, so they know he’s alive.

 

Kurt flees to the gym, where someone tries to walk up behind him. Kurt bamf’s out of the way, but then drops down from the ceiling to converse with the mysterious figure when he realizes it’s just a guy. This guy is Forge, no last name, a Cheyenne Native and a fellow Mutant. He’s also the dude from the earlier video message, so the fact he hasn’t aged since 1978 and ISN’T Logan is a bit troubling. Forge reveals himself to be a Mutant as well. Usually he’s just an impossibly skilled engineer, but this version is also able to transform his arm into a robotic multitool. Neat.

 

In the real world, Cyclops, Jean, Shadowcat and Spyke have suited up and are chasing after Toad. He forces the group to keep their distance by randomly firing behind him and teleporting objects to Forge’s “Middleverse.”

 

Not going to lie, being trapped forever with just
one other person sounds more horrible to me than
just being trapped alone forever.

 In the Middleverse, Forge explains the basic premise. He was building a dimensional projector for the science fair circa 1978 (I think he may have overshot the goal a little) and got stuck in the Middleverse after a lab accident. He doesn’t need to eat or age there, which is a bonus, but being stuck alone for 20+ years kind sucks. I’m kind of amazed that he didn’t go full Castaway and befriend a volleyball to keep his sanity. The pocket dimension ends just outside the girls locker room, as Forge points out, much to Kurt’s disappointment. Guys, we really need to end this “dudes want to peep” thing, just sayin’. Forge is whipping up a gizmo using some of the stuff Kurt brought with him, looks like some sort of cassette player, extra batteries and random wires, to make a device that should allow Kurt to Bamf back to reality for a few seconds. The plan is to tell Kurt’s team to just switch the projector to reset and that should get them home. Wow, to think he’s been trapped out of time for 20 years and he was just a button press to returning to the real world. That alone would drive me nuts.

 

The X-Men are able to get the device away from Toad, much to his annoyance. He tries to scamper, but Spyke stops him. A very angry Cyclops looks like he might start using enhanced interrogation methods to find out what happened to Kurt, but is stopped by Rogue. She admits that she’s the one that got Kurt blasted and that she’ll only help them if they lay off Toad. The X-Men agree. She leads them to the busted-out lab, where they find Kurt’s broken image inducer, confirming Rogue’s story. Spyke and Shadowcat look over the machine and are able to somehow figure out it’s putting out a massive energy pulse that seems to just dissipate after a few seconds. This seems to cause the massive leap in logic that the machine creates an alt reality that has Kurt trapped (just roll with it). Cyclops makes another massive leap in logic and assumes breaking the device will free Kurt. This scares the piss out of Forge, who believes smashing the projector will just leave them trapped. Crap.

 

Cyclops puts the projector on a table and prepares to hit it with a full power eye beam. Shadowcat points out she could just phase her hand through it and short it out, but Cyclops and Spyke seem positively offended that she’d suggest such a non-explody option. Forge quickly gets Kurt fitted with his new device, telling him he’ll have only a few seconds to teleport in and tell them to reset, don’t destroy. Kurt Bamf’s and gets two words out. While there’s at first a little confusion as to if he meant “Reset, Don’t,” meaning don’t reset, or “Reset. Don’t” meaning Reset Don’t destroy, but Cyclops has faith that Kurt would be serious in a serious situation and not comically switch words around. Or something. I personally don’t see the comedic value in switching words around, but I’m over the halfway point to 30, I’m getting old. He hits the reset button, and another pinkish dimensional bubble opens up. Kurt and Forge try to teleport through, but can’t pierce the barrier, as the device Kurt just used is out of juice. Which is bad. But Kurt knows of an alternate power source. Which is good.

 

Things get a little more complicated for those out of the Middleverse, as the Brotherhood shows up. Well, three of them did, Toad, Avalanche and Blob. I guess Pietro went home early? (shrug) They were sent by Mystique to get the projector and Rogue. Everyone’s favorite Southern Goth pretty much shrugs and leaves, basically claiming she’s all kinds of done with this projector thing. While the teams face off against each other, Kurt and Forge are in Darkholme’s car and have hot wired it. They tie it into Forge’s teleportation booster and they’re able to Bamf their way out of the Middleverse. They ALMOST run over the Brotherhood, but Blob was out front and stops the car. Seeing the projector is trashed, the Brotherhood boys storm off. The X-Men walk out with Forge, much to Rogue’s relief, who’d been watching from the shadows. Guess she was more invested than she let on. Scott offers Forge a spot on the X-Men, but Forge says he’s going to track down his parents. Huh, who wants to tell Forge how much things change after 20 years… Not it! They still give him a card with the X-Mansion’s contact info. Scott and Kurt apologize to each other, and the group drive off to go to Duncan’s party, showing that he’s going to try to be a little less of a stick in the mud. Or something.

 

This episode was another n the Okay category. On the plus side, they introduced Forge. He’s a fairly kickass Mutant, being a competent fighter as well as the single greatest engineer on Earth. His Mutation lets him design and build advanced technology intuitively. They added his ability to turn his arm into a multitool to add a visual element to his power. I also enjoyed this versions 70s-isms. But on the negative, it seems to take forever to actually get him on screen. Like, Forge physically doesn’t show up until about the last third of the episode. Lame! And, they were hoping to make more diverse X-Man team, and yet you don’t make one of the two most well known Native American (the other being James Proudstar aka Warpath) a series regular? Come on! Now that I think about it, why haven’t they done more with Warpath? He’s literally Captain Native America, surely there’s a ton of stuff he could do. I’m digressing too much. I’m not even going to touch on the fact he’s voiced by Sam Vincent, who I’m fairly certain is white. Beyond pointing it out. I mean no offense to Sam Vincent, as he’s a fine voice actor, and I’m sure he’s a good dude, but white guy playing a non-white guy is kind of a hot button issue. I also wasn’t super psyched about Kurt and Scott’s “lesson” this episode. Don’t get me wrong, I’m 100% behind character development, I just know that this is an example of growth without growth. Scott should learn to be less of a stick-in-the-mud and Kurt could be more serious, but I know that as soon as the next episode starts Scott is going back to being a stick in the mud and Kurt is going to be is back to being a jokester. If you’re going to develop your characters, commit, damn it. And then there’s the fact that they didn’t include Pietro in the finale, most than likely because playing keep-away with a speedster is kind off hard to do. It’s just kind of silly. Oh, and I feel the need to point out that Blob referred to Scott as Slim a couple times this episode, which was his nickname when he was initially introduced. What? I like little factoids like that. So yeah, it’s just an Okay episode. Next time Rogue’s gotta make a choice, we’ll see if she can make the right call. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 5

A speed demon vs a living spike strip, should be an interesting fight. 

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, Fred “the Blob” Dukes was introduced and almost immediately formed an unhealthy attachment to one Jean Grey. Her attempts at being nice to help him adjust to his new environment and potentially get another Mutant to the Institute were misinterpreted as romantic interest. When she attempted to spurn his advances, he ends up kidnapping her and tried to force her to date him. The massive Mutant ended up beating Wolverine and Cyclops when they arrived to try to help, but was ultimately defeated by Rogue. While technically on the same team, Rogue doesn’t condone kidnapping a date. She used a combination of Scott’s optic blast and Blob’s own strength to send the tub of lard flying. She still doesn’t feel comfortable with swapping teams, but the X-Men agree they owe at least one member of the Brotherhood a favor.  Next, we’ll see what happens when a speedster crosses paths with a living spike strip. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open, much like the first episode, with a sporting event. Though this time it’s basketball. We’re shown our two new characters, Evan Daniels and Pietro Maximoff playing a very close game of basketball. Evan’s aunt, Ororo Monroe, is watching with her sister and brother-in-law. The game ends with Pietro making a pass to Evan who makes the winning basket. He’s shoved while making the shot and as he tumbles spikes sprout from his forearms. He covers the spikes up, with only his aunt noticing. Evan is taken off by the team with cheers, with Pietro looking on angrily.

Imagine walking in on this scene!

 

After the game, Pietro confronts his friend about hogging the glory and says he should have taken the shot himself. Evan shakes his head at his friend and points out that there was no way Pietro could have made it to the other end of the court in time. Hm… He claims that he’s not going to “hold up” guys like Evan anymore and storms off. Ororo comes in to congratulate her nephew, drop some exposition that he and Pietro have been competing for most of their lives, and to ask about his spikes. It’s implied that they’ve had this conversation a few times, but Ororo must have dropped the subject to respect her nephew’s privacy. Evan tries to convince her the reactionary spikes was a one off, but then he sneezes and covers the locker room in spikes. He asks if he’s busted, to which Ororo simply says “Big time.”

 

At the Daniel’s house, Ororo and Evan discuss transferring him to the Xavier Institute. Evan isn’t completely on board with the idea, doing his best to derail the idea before it can begin. He convinces Ororo to let it go until the next day, so his parents can enjoy the night after his big win. Ororo contacts Xavier telepathically, tells him what happened and they prep Plan B, sending Scott and Jean to help Ororo sell the school to her sister and brother-in-law. Not sure why Ororo would need help convincing her own sister, but there you go. Xavier also tells Ororo about another Mutant Cerebro detected but couldn’t get a lock on. She clearly believes it to be Pietro, but is vague about it.

 

The next day, Evan goes to his locker to find that his cash had been stolen from his wallet. Pietro zooms over and informs us that this is the second time in a month that it’s happened to Evan. He wants to catch the thief, and Pietro loans him some money to use as “bait.” Evan tells Pietro he’ll catch him later, to which Pietro claims he won’t ever do, not even on his best day. Sinister.

This is where the story falls apart for me. Teenagers
get superpowers, you know what's the first thing they'd do?
Tell their Frenemies! No way this is how they'd found out.

 

In the evening, Scott and Jean arrive and they discuss the institute with the Daniels. Both of Evan’s parents are on board with the idea, but he’s still firmly against it. He goes to his room while the others discuss. That is until Jean senses his thoughts and they find out he’s making a break for it. Evan hops out of a window on his skateboard and zooms off. He makes it to his school with the intention of catching the locker thief and showing the thief his prickly side. The flaw in this plan is made readily apparent when a gale force wind blows through, causing the lockers to burst open and random objects to fly around. Evan creates a spike barrier around himself, and the wind dies down, revealing Pietro. He shows off Evan his new threads and claims that he’s Quicksilver now. Evan asks why he’d trashed the lockers, to which Pietro basically says, “Was bored, seemed like it’d be fun for a bit.” Evan is furious at Pietro, but not as much as when the speedster zooms off and leaves Evan to be caught in his place. He’s put in lock up, where his family and Scott and Jean arrives. Scott proposes he join the Institute and that then Xavier would handle bail and such, to which Evan reluctantly agrees.

 

The next day at the Institute, the majority of the students have breakfast and discuss Evan’s situation. Scott and Xavier suspect he knows more about the locker incident than he’s letting on, but Xavier isn’t going to “pry” on the subject. Logan suspects the kid is going to look to get personal payback. Xavier agrees and decides that they’ll try to give Evan other means of getting his anger off, such as getting him on Bayville High’s basketball team and training in the danger room. Evan hears all of this and seems miffed. And by miffed, I mean his spikes start extending.

They're like the Breakfast Club, but with a Toad.

 

Meanwhile, the Brotherhood kids, in their first group shot, are shown waiting outside Darkholme’s office for a team meeting. Inside, Mystique is getting the lowdown on a new recruit that Magneto is very interested in acquiring, his son Pietro. Okay, he doesn’t flat out say that but 1. Mentions his special interest in getting Pietro, 2. He knows an awful lot about Pietro’s thought process, motivations, and desire to run solo, and 3. Anyone who knows the comics knows the family connection. It was retconned out of existence a few years ago but for the vast majority of Pietro’s existence it’s been known that he’s the son of Magneto. Magneto suggests that they use Evan as bait to lure Pietro into a situation where he’ll need help to succeed, in order to get him on board with the team, and Mystique already has an idea on how to do it.

 

Evan meanwhile is doing training sessions in the Danger Room. He’s basically racing around a crazy skateboard obstacle course, trying to move and throw his spikes as quickly as possible. He wipes out on the last run, but Logan compliments him on his already marked improvement. Kitty comes on the intercom and tells him that he’s got a last-minute basketball game that Principle Darkholme through together. The fact it’s against his former school feels like it should be a massive clue to these kids that Darkholme might not be on the up-and-up but no one seems to question it.

 

The away team’s bus pulls up and Pietro steps out. Evan runs up and starts threatening his frenemy, but Pietro doesn’t seem worried in the slightest. Jean and Scott join Evan and pretty quickly key into the fact that Pietro is the one that trashed the lockers. Pietro freely admits it, as he feels like there’s nothing that they can do about it. He runs off at high speed, with Evan following on his skateboard and Jean and Scott following after a moment later. I guess we’re not going to the basketball game. Shucks.

 

Everyone switches to their uniforms, so we’re switching to combat codenames. Evan is Spyke, Pietro is Quicksilver, Scott is Cyclops, and Jean is… Jean. Yes, they still haven’t given her a new codename since she dropped Marvel Girl back in the day.

 

Call me crazy, but I don't think those spikes are
actually restraining him. Like at all. Just sayin'.

Quicksilver runs through downtown, with Spyke more or less on his trail. To show off, Quicksilver runs even faster, causing a sonic boom that wrecks a bunch of cars and store fronts. Jean and Cyclops join them, and the more experienced X-Men come up with a simple plan. Basically, Jean lifts Quicksilver into the air telepathically. It works, for a few seconds, but Pietro is free enough to spin himself around, causing a massive twister. The X-Men are blown around a bit, but Cyclops is able to hit Quicksilver with an optic blast and Spyke pins him to the side of the building with some spikes. Quicksilver is still rather smug, though, as while he was caught they still can’t prove he was the one that trashed the lockers. You know, like they don’t have him trapped at the scene of a much bigger case of property damage. But, he’s actually wrong about that, as Spyke reveals he recorded Quicksilver’s confession before the chase began. The X-Men scamper as they hear sirens approach.

 

In lockup, Pietro is already going stir crazy and demanding to be free. Lucky for him, Daddy arrives to bail him out. Again, not revealed but it’s heavily implied with how much extra effort Magneto is going through to get Pietro. The speedster agrees to join his team if he’ll let him out, which the master of magnetism does.

 

The episode closes on the young X-Men enjoying an afternoon in their pool, celebrating Evan getting the charges against him in the school vandalism case dropped. Xavier tells Ororo that her nephew should fit in well here, with Ororo jokingly musing if that’s a good thing or not. All’s well that ends well.

 

Again, this is a fine episode but I think it’s a bit weaker than the last two. That’s probably because it’s pulling double duty trying to showcase enough of Quicksilver and Spyke in a very short runtime. It feels like we’re running at breakneck speed from plot point to plot point from the moment Pietro and Evan talk at his locker onward. That being said, I do like what we saw of both Evan and Pietro. Fun fact, Evan is an original character created for the show to add a bit more diversity to the cast. He replaced original X-Man Iceman as the eighth member of the team (once Rogue switches sides). His spikes are a fairly useful and versatile, giving him both ranged and melee options. I liked his characterization as a stubborn, headstrong kid that needs to learn the value of teamwork and all that jazz. Makes him a nice foil to Pietro. Interestingly, while Pietro has appeared in a few X-Men shows, this is the only one to my knowledge that brought up one of the key aspects of his personality, namely that he’s too fast for the world. While he can force his body to move at normal speeds, his brain operates on a much faster level than most peoples. This is how the comics and X-Men: Evolution explain his habit of cutting people off verbally, why he’s always impatient and causing mischief. From his perspective, he’s being very patient waiting for everyone else to catch up to where he’s at. The other shows where he’s appeared, X-Men: TAS and Wolverine and the X-Men never seem to mention this problem of his. How odd. I also really liked how they stopped Pietro in the last encounter, combining skills to overwhelm someone that was proving too difficult for even the team’s heaviest hitter to disable on her own. It makes for neat visuals. With the introductions of Evan and Pietro, I believe that’s all the totally new characters that will be added to the roster this season. Well… there’s one more, but he’s a guest character at best. But we’ll talk about Forge next time. Have a good night everyone. 

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Viewer Log: X-Men: Evolution ep 4

Nothing is quite as dangerous as unwanted advances. Especially from someone who hits like a truck.

Last time on X-Men: Evolution, a young woman’s powers manifest and she drains the strength and memories out of a hapless football player. The young woman runs from the scene and is dubbed Rogue from this point on. She’s chased by the X-Men, whom want to help her, and Mystique, who is using her powers to convince the X-Men are out to get her. Rogue ends up snatching the powers of Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) and Ororo Monroe (Storm) during the extended chase. She’s almost overwhelmed by the power she took in, but teleports away before she causes irreparable damage. After the chase concludes, Rogue transfers to Bayville High, Mystique believing she’d created enough doubt in Rogue’s mind to ensure her loyalty. But it’s revealed she kept a communicator that Jean Gray had given her, implying she’s not completely on the Brotherhood’s side. That was an emotional rollercoaster, let’s see what happens when the Blob appears, shall we?

While the added BMI still makes this power undesirable,
I can't deny that his strength is impressive.

 

We open on a Texas Monster Truck Rally. One of the evening’s entertainment is a performance by Fred “The Blob” Dukes, an enormous rotund young man. He’s able to hold and pull together two speeding monster trucks, to the crowd’s applause. But he ends up stumbling and hitting his face in the dirt, causing everyone to burst out laughing, to his fury. Logan and Jean are watching from the crowd, looking concerned, while Mystique looks delighted. After the rally, Fred smashes up his dressing room in a fury, hating the fact he was laughed at. Mystique in her guise as Raven Darkholme, approaches Fred with an offer to join her team and attend Bayville high. Fred is initially skeptical, but agrees to listen, about 5 seconds before Logan and Jean make it back stage. Looks like the X-Men lost another one.

 

A few days later, Mystique welcomes Fred to Bayville, giving him a schedule and assuring him that as Principle, she’ll protect him from any… issues that may pop up. Outside her office, Fred is almost immediately confused by his schedule and grabs a random kid to demand to know where he’s supposed to go. Said kid is Jean’s scummy boyfriend Duncan whom immediately makes a fat joke. Fred freaks out and nearly crushes Duncan with a locker but Jean runs in to stop him from murdering the git. Jean does her best to help friend and be nice to him, but even a complete social idiot like myself could tell she’s really uncomfortable around him. Fred doesn’t notice this and seems instantly smitten. Or the stalker equivalent.

 

We cut over to a Drama course that Scott is apart. He’s randomly assigned a play that he’ll read a scene from, King Henry V by Shakespeare, opposite Rogue. Well, isn’t that inconvenient, what are the odds? Scott does his best to play it cool, and Rogue agrees to a truce, so long as Scott keeps the other Xavier kids away from her. Sounds reasonable… though I wonder why they aren’t trying harder to convince Rogue that her shapeshifting boss is the reason why it looked like they were attacking her. Ah well.

 

At lunch, the Xavier kids, Kurt specifically, are poking fun at Scott for having to work opposite someone that’s convinced they tried to kill her last week. It’s not that funny, but you do have to find humor where you can. Fred walks in with an extremely overladen food tray and is immediately put on edge by Kurt’s laughter. How sad. He accidentally launches his tray when he sits down at a lunch table too hard, dosing asshole Duncan in food. Everyone starts laughing, other than Duncan who looks murderous, which set’s Fred off. He triggers a massive food fight with most of the kids bailing. Most of the X-Men bail too, but Jean tries to calm Fred down. In his anger, he almost smashes Jean, but Scott blasts the table he was holding to rubble before hitting her. Jean asks for time to talk to Fred, which Scott gives though he promises to be nearby if things get heated again. Outside the lunchroom, Rogue is clearly impressed by the X-Men’s camaraderie, and dare I say, the chivalrous actions of one Scott Summers? Mystique arrives in her Darkholme guise and breaks things up before Scott can try to mend the bridge between Rogue and the X-Men. In the lunchroom, Jean does her best to try to convince Fred to work on his anger issues. She goes so far as to show off her powers and mention the Xavier Institute as a place where Fred could learn control, if he wanted to. Fred seems open to the idea, well, specifically Jean talking to him about the idea. Dude has one thing clearly on his mind and it’s not training. She leaves with Scott, which Fred isn’t super happy with. He steals a photo of her and Scott from her backpack, rips the Scott half off and keeps the Jean half. Yeah, that’s not a good sign at all.

I'm not sure I can think of a scarier place to be than to
be looking directly into the shaded eyes of a distraught Scott Summers.

 

After class, Fred approaches Jean and tries to ask her out. Jean does her best to disengage, claiming she has stuff to do without slowing down. Fred doesn’t like being told no and starts yelling at her to go out with him. When she continues to try to talk him down, he grabs her and tries to force her go. I think that officially makes this a kidnapping. Jean eventually decides talking isn’t helping, so she tries to make Fred drop her by throwing some concrete bricks and scaffolding from a construction project they passed at him. He’s got too tight a grip, though, and all she does is cause a bunch of the scaffolding to fall on them. She’s knocked out and Fred takes this as a sign he can take her. Yep, 100% kidnapping. He takes her to an abandoned foundry that he’d tried to spruce up with candles and seems to be under the delusion that he’s taking her on a date. The fact she’s strapped to a chair with iron bars holding her in place doesn’t affect the delusion at all. Not being able to bend her restraints herself, Jean calls out to the Professor telepathically.

 

Back at the Mansion, Logan is running a training exercise for Kurt and Kitty. They’re basically playing keep away with their powers, to help them hone reflexes and strategic thinking, I assume. Xavier is watching happily, but then get’s Jean’s call. He tells Logan, who suits up and drives off to get the trail almost before Xavier finishes speaking. The prof says he’ll gather the others to follow.

 

At a park, Scott and Rogue are running lines. Rogue is clearly enjoying the lines “You are like an angle, Kate” from Scott. How interesting. Their rehearsal is interrupted by Kurt Bamfing in. Rogue observes that Kurt is “like an annoying little brother” before Kurt tells Scott the news. Hearing that his friend and not-at-all-secret-except-to-her crush has been kidnapped clearly pisses off Scott. He rather angrily asks if Rogue knows anything, but she claims ignorance of the new Brotherhood boy’s antics. Scott and Kurt make time to make a Star Trek teleportation joke before bamfing away.

 

Guys like this could probably save construction companies
millions, me thinks. Forget supervillainy, start building.

Logan makes it to the school, finds the scene of the scuffle and seems to have no trouble picking up the trail. Xavier is having a slightly harder time, as Jean doesn’t know where she is and he can’t lock onto Fred’s mind, so he can only find a general location for where they might be. Scott takes his car, which they seemed to have done an amazing job fixing after Sabertooth’s bike was dropped on it a few weeks back, while Kitty and Kurt take one of the X-Men’s vans.

 

Jean keeps trying to reason with Fred, to make him see that this creepy, kidnapping behavior is no way to “make friends,” but the big guy is fairly lost in his delusion. He walks off to get her a “surprise.” It turns out to be a record player instead of something bizarre.

 

Logan makes it to the dilapidated foundry and calls it in. Not waiting for backup, he bursts in and immediately attacks the Blob. Unfortunately, Blob’s superhuman strength combined with his nearly uncuttable skin mean that Wolverine is at a severe disadvantage. Blob tries to smash him with an old furnace, but misses. He ultimately stops Wolverine by, I kid you not, falling onto him and causing the raging Canadian to suffocate under the Blob’s blubber. Probably the Wolverine’s single most embarrassing defeat. Cyclops bursts and blasts Blob off Wolverine. Unfortunately, it seems like the force of Cyclops’ optic beam is more irritating than debilitating to Blob. He picks up Wolverine and throws him at Cyclops, knocking him out and causing both to fly out of the foundry. We then see Rogue walk up and absorbs Cyclops’ power.

 

I do declare, Miss Rogue seems to have had it up
to here with your Bull#%^@, Mr. Dukes

Blob goes to try to restart his date, but Jean instead hurls a filing cabinet she’d mentally removed from the it’s place screwed into the wall. This, again, really only annoys Blob and he starts screaming at Jean about being “the worst” because she only tried to pretend to be his “friend.” Oy, this guy. He goes to crush Jean, but is stopped by an optic blast from Rogue. She pretty much tells him he either leaves quietly or violently. Blob isn’t too concerned. Rogue asks him if he knows what her power is. He doesn’t. She runs to grapple him while shouting “Yer power is mah power, and I can take more ‘en one!” I hope I was able to copy her southern accent in an understandable way here. She hurls Blob aside with her stolen strength and optic blasts him into some rubble. Blob gets up and announces that he’s too powerful to have his abilities completely stolen. He’s “The Blob!” To which Rogue scoffs and say, “Nah, yer just garbage that wanted a date.” She hits him hard again, launching into the air and optic blasting him up and out of the building. He slams into a pile of literal garbage a ways off and screams at the seagulls there to stop laughing at him.

 

Folks, show of hands, how many of you have had or know someone
who's had an, I'll be nice since my mom and sister follow me
an overly aggressive suitor that they'd like seen literally taken out with the
garbage? I'm assuming it's most of ya'll

Back at the foundry, the other X-Men have arrived and are helping Cyclops and Wolverine recover. Rogue returns Cyclops his visor, it having fallen off when he hit the ground earlier and he repeats the ‘You’re an Angel, Kate,” line. When they asked why she helped them against Blob, Rogue says she doesn’t know and runs off before they can ask more questions. Jean looks like she was going to follow, but Wolverine stops her, advising that he doesn’t think Rogue is ready yet. The team though collectively agrees they owe her one.

 

This was an interesting episode to watch. In some ways, I do find myself feeling bad for Fred, as he’s a big dude with anger problems, few social skills and is in an entirely new and kind of scary environment. I, at least, can kind of understand why he’d form a strong attachment to Jean, who is a very pretty young woman who is probably one of the few people who tries to be nice to him. And yet, even from their first interaction, it’s clear that Jean is very uncomfortable around Fred. Either from telepathy or by gut instinct she senses that he’s dangerous, is interested in her in a non-friendly capacity, and does her best to keep him at a distance once he gets more aggressive with her. I found it very interesting to see someone as powerful as Jean be bested by someone whom simply is too heavy and durable for her to hurt. While she never flaunts it, you do get the sense even by this point that Jean knows she’s strong and is confident in her strength, so seeing her strapped to a chair and largely powerless was an odd experience. And, not going to lie, I give the show major points that it was Rogue to come in and save Jean when her two usual “heroes” were bested. Feels like a very feminist message, where even a woman that is technically Jean’s enemy isn’t going to let her “ally” force himself on Jean. Strong character moment. I did also like see that Rogue is observing the X-Men from a distance and seems to get that her “first impression” as it was wasn’t completely accurate. She seems to like the groups closeness and the general family vibe. And it’s pretty obvious that she’s got a soft spot for Scott, something that will be explored a bit as the series continues. She still doesn’t trust the group, after Mystique’s antics, but you definitely see the cracks in her defenses already. Her character growth over the course of the show is one of the best I’ve seen, and I’m looking forward to experiencing it a little more. Also, while it’s a minor plot point, I loved seeing Logan’s reaction to Jean’s kidnapping. Seeing him rush to try to save Jean, not because of any romantic interest in her, but because someone F-ed with one of his kids and he won’t stand for that, was really refreshing after many, many, many stories that seem to push Logan and Jean together over Scott and Jean. It’s good to see his guardian side is all I’m saying. Alright, so now that we’ve gotten some solo Mutant recruiting episodes out of the way, we’ll return to double features with the introduction of Quicksilver and Spyke. Woo. 

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