First Things First…
Is “bright eyes” referring to Mister Sinister? Cable? Cyclops? Someone else?
I don’t know, and I also don’t want to gloss over this episode. Hopefully it’s great. But I’m so excited that the last three episodes of the season make up a full arc, and we’re just about there!
5 Things I Like
5. Relief Efforts
“’Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ The ever-affable Mister Rogers.”
Beast
It’s heartening seeing all the mutants pitching in on Genosha following the devastating attack. When the X-Men join them to help, there are a bevy of mutants still searching for survivors, clearing rubble, and aiding the injured. Even villains like Blob are helping.
Considering we keep hearing about mutant riots breaking out worldwide, and President Kelly refuses Cyclops’ plea for more help searching for survivors because it’s “unfortunate optics,” seeing mutants helping and honoring other mutants is a beautiful thing.
4. Funeral for a Friend
“How could Remy, so tuned to potential, fail to see how his sins had made him into a hero?”
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler’s eulogy is spot on. He talks about Gambit being born into crime, and how he never believed he was good enough. Yet, not only did he die a hero, but he’d been a hero long before Genosha.
It’s also poignant seeing the rest of the team—minus Rogue—in the cemetery, mourning their friend.
Jubilee, young as she is, doesn’t understand how Rogue, of all people, would be the one to skip the funeral. But Wolverine hugs her and beautifully tells her…
“Grief’s a lonely war. Rogue’s gotta figure it out on her own.”
This is a strong opening scene that brings some closure to the most emotional loss we’ve ever experienced in either animated series.
3. Beyond Mutants
“Gentlemen, need I remind you that we’re standing in the same place built to hold the Hulk?”
Thunderbolt Ross
I think this is the first time this series branches out beyond typical X-Men fare.
Rogue has a whole scene with Captain America. And, granted, Cap is actually in the original series in an episode called “Old Soldiers.” But that’s entirely in a flashback to a World War II-era mission he ran alongside Wolverine. Now, we get him in the present-day world of this series as a by-the-book hero who won’t help Rogue track down Gyrich until he gets the thumbs up from his superiors.
Before she meets Cap, Rogue also encounters good ol’ Thunderbolt Ross. She attacks the facility he’s at, looking for Gyrich and Trask. A facility, mind you, that he says is designed to contain the Hulk.
I love knowing the wider Marvel Universe exists in this world, even if we don’t see much of it. And it makes sense, especially as mutant-human relations are top of mind in this world, that the X-Men would cross paths with other heroes and villains once in a while.
2. Rogue Unleashed
“That maniac killed Remy and thousands of people on Genosha. That rotten piece of scum put a good man, my man…”
Rogue
I debated whether to use unleashed or unhinged for this title. Unleashed sounds more badass and less insulting, so I went with it. And it fits. Rogue breaks into the facility designed to contain the Hulk. She hurls Cap’s shield way into the distance when he won’t help her.
She’s also more willing to use her powers against people, as she does to Gyrich, who she knocks out cold when she touches him.
But “unhinged,” which Ross calls her, might be more appropriate when she drops Trask from the window of a building after he says he doesn’t have any more useful information for them.
Even if killing him is justified, and even though he comes back right away in a new, undead form, this is still a stone-cold murder. The team has him in their custody. Killing him in cold blood is definitely not what Professor X would want or taught them. Knowing actions like this are no longer off the table, at least for one team member, makes the story even more unpredictable.
1. War Brewing
“Normal people won’t accept mutants if they feel threatened. That fear is the whole issue.”
Trish Tilby
I’m amazed that the attack on Genosha hasn’t already instigated an all-out war between mutants and humans. But war is bubbling just beneath the surface. And everyone is talking about it.
When the team arrives on Genosha, Strong Guy randomly says to Roberto…
“Start bulking up, kid. War is comin’.”
Jubilee and Roberto then talk about whether there’s really gonna be a war. Jubilee says her foster parents called her that morning for the first time in months, asking the same thing.
Roberto, meanwhile, is more scared than anything. He says to Jubilee…
“Look what happens when we don’t hide. When we shove it in their face.”
Sounds an awful lot like the rhetoric we hear in the real world today about some marginalized groups and the people who claim to tolerate them as long as what makes them different isn’t being shoved in their faces.
Most telling is the conversation between Beast and the reporter, Trish Tilby.
She points out, rightly but perhaps indelicately, that the fear people feel when mutants riot will cause hostilities to continue. And if humans won’t accept mutants if they feel threatened—well, some of them will always feel threatened…
This means tolerance is just a pipe dream.
It’s also what sours Beast on a woman who he was starting to get a bit cozy with. He responds to her in vaguely threatening terms, saying…
“Perhaps the Professor’s vision for the future was too nearsighted and begging for your tolerance was our first mistake.”
2 Things I’m Mixed On
2. Roberto Comes Clean
“Honey, shareholders are rattled by anything mutant-related, especially after this awfulness in Genosha. They can’t know we have a mutant in the family. So, we’ll have to discuss some new rules concerning your associations and how to be more discreet.”
Mrs. Da Costa
Roberto’s mother is relieved when he tells her he’s a mutant. And Roberto is even more relieved when he realizes his parents figured it out a long time ago and were just waiting for him to tell them when he was ready. At this point, I felt like all the drama was instantly sucked out of this storyline…
… until she tells him they have to keep it quiet, for the sake of their stockholders and public image.
Ahhhh, so here’s where the drama will come from. Now there’s an even more nuanced question about acceptance. His mother accepts him privately, but if she won’t accept him publicly, is that really acceptance?
It’s a thorny question that I’m glad they’re tackling. I just wish I cared more about Roberto.
1. Sinister’s Boss
“Oh, Sinister, you and the villains of old have been failing since ’92 to squash these pests. What you would do is my roadmap for what not to do.”
Bastion
Just when it looked like Mister Sinister was the Big Bad who commanded Trask to carry out the attack on Genosha, we find out that Sinister is also answering to someone else.
Okay… but who?
His name is Bastion. I don’t know anything about him, but that’s how he’s identified in the subtitles.
He seems like a cool enough villain. He has a calm, playful demeanor that I enjoyed.
But he also clearly means business. He’s behind a genocide, after all. He’s somehow keeping Magneto prisoner. And he kills Gyrich with his bare hands.
My only hangup is that I’m not sure we need him. Sinister made perfect sense to me as the Big Bad. His brilliance lets him create the advanced tech… his obsession with Scott and Jean ties into their storyline… and he’d want to instigate a war in which mutants most likely whoop humans.
I don’t know why we’re going beyond that to another villain. But I’m certainly willing to give it a chance.
2 Things I Don’t Like
2. Point A to Point B
Some of the team’s travel confused me. It feels like the attention to detail is lacking.
Like, Cyclops gathers up the team after they hear from Trask and says they’re headed to Madripoor. But next thing you know, Jubilee and Roberto are in New York at his home, talking with his mom. Then they’re all in Mexico, grabbing Rogue outside the compound where she found Gyrich. How do they even know to go there? Yet all that happens before they ever make it to Madripoor.
1. Deadliest Sentinels Yet
There was just a genocide on Genosha with the tri-headed Sentinel that laid waste to everything before Gambit sacrificed his life to destroy it. Yet now, we’re already getting even deadlier Sentinels? Why?
The living Sentinel Trask turns into isn’t bad, but I really don’t like how we’re already moving beyond what we just saw work so effectively
Tim Matassa
