First Things First…
This episode originally aired as Episode 4.16.
I’m curious where we’re going after Sanctuary. Apparently, this episode centers around Professor X getting a concussion. That can’t be good for a telepath.
4 Things I Like
4. Old Foes Return
I got excited when I saw Sabretooth. It feels like he hasn’t been in the show in ages. Then I realized he’s not really there. He’s just part of Xavier’s nightmare.
We also get a look at Mister Sinister and a Sentinel, though they aren’t really there either.
But you know what?
It’s still fun to see them. And they all battle their archnemesis.
Sabretooth takes on Wolverine, Sinister dukes it out with Cyclops, and the Sentinel—well, they don’t have one nemesis, but they’ve been targeting Jubilee since the series’ opening scenes, so it makes sense for it to target her here, too.
3. X-Men Origins
“I was young. I had never met a mutant who possessed such merciless cruelty as the Shadow King. I knew the human race must be protected from such creatures. So, I formed the X-Men. My X-Men.”
Professor X
Apparently a run-in with the Shadow King in Cairo is what caused Xavier to form the X-Men.
I have no idea if this is comics accurate. I doubt it—the Shadow King seems like too minor of a villain to be the catalyst of something so foundational. But I like how it plays out here. Xavier realizes there are some mutants who are so terrible and powerful that the world needs protection from them.
2. Loosen Up
Xavier’s concussion plays a key role in this episode. It causes him to loosen the psychic grip he’s been keeping on the Shadow King to imprison him all these years.
I wasn’t expecting this to be a Shadow King episode. And if I knew going in that it was, I wouldn’t have looked forward to it. I don’t like his one other episode. But the logic tracks for me, and it’s a good, sensible way to revisit a past villain.
1. Locked in a Pleasant Prison
“Yes, my darling boy. I’ve missed you as well. But now we can be together, forever.”
Sharon Xavier
One of my favorite episodes of Batman: The Animated Series starts with Bruce in a reality he doesn’t recognize: he’s not Batman, his parents are alive, and he’s engaged to Selina Kyle. It’s too good to be true—and, of course, it’s not true, he’s trapped inside his own mind by the Mad Hatter—but he could choose to stay there and it would all feel real.
Supernatural has a similar episode where Dean has been captured by a djinn and is trapped in a fantasy in his own mind.
That’s basically what happens here, too. It’s a little strange because first Xavier is trapped in a nightmare where the team is under siege. But then it switches to a pleasant delusion where his mother is still alive and the team is all there, hanging out in bathing suits, not having to fight anymore. Even Lilandra and all of X-Factor are there.
Jean eventually connects with him psychically to pull him out of it. But I love the idea that someone as powerful and idealistic as Professor X is so greatly tempted to just let go and exist in bliss, free of pain, suffering, and fighting, even though it isn’t real.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Not Enough Action for Storm
The Shadow King is primarily Storm’s villain. They at least revisit that fact in Xavier’s memory, so she’s not totally shut out of the episode. They show her working as a thief for the Shadow King as a little girl.
But I wish there was more for her to do. Instead, it’s mainly a Professor X episode, and Jean is the one who helps him defeat the Shadow King.
Tim Matassa
I didn’t like concussion out of blue, and astral fight as it was just delineation of characters
I agree about the concussion. I don’t know why I didn’t catch that. I don’t think they explained how the Professor got concussed. That’s the sort of detail that usually bothers me.