First Things First…
Maybe if Arkon turns out to be a villain, as I suspect, and we learn the reasons behind his manipulation, this will turn out better than Part I. I hope so, anyway, because I didn’t care much for Part I.
1 Thing I Like
1. Common Sense from Storm’s Friends
“Something ain’t right about this dump. I can smell it.”
Wolverine
At least Storm’s friends act like I expect them to act.
Wolverine is the most suspicious of Arkon, of course, and the readiest to stir up some shit to find out what’s really going on.
Beast agrees with Wolverine that things might not be all they appear to be on Polemachus, and that Storm is acting rashly, but he’s more pragmatic.
Cyclops is the most even keeled. Even though he, too, recognizes how unusual this is for Storm, and he doesn’t want to lose her, he believes they need to support their friend, no matter her decision.
And Jubilee is there by her side for all of it—not pushing anything, but definitely picking up on (and commenting on) the suspect vibes.
0 Things I’m Mixed On
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. Ham-Handed
“We attack tonight! Fill the worker ships until they burst. Show no mercy!”
Arkon
Aside from being on board with how her friends acted, I dislike just about everything else in this episode. And it can all pretty much be summed up in this one heading. Everything is so ham-handed. How? Let’s see…
- Storm in Love: Storm falling in love so quickly in Part I was bad enough. But here, she doubles down on her love for Arkon. She continues to defend his kindness and compassion, even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary. At one point, as things look more and more suspicious, Storm says to Jubilee, “Arkon is a kind and decent man! I love him! He asked me for my trust. Can’t you understand?” But honestly—when has she seen him display kindness and decency? Simply showering her with flowery words of love isn’t what I’d consider kindness. She comes off looking so dumb.
- Arkon’s Villainy: Speaking of Arkon, he’s a ridiculously one-dimensional villain. Throwing away a peace treaty with a neighboring planet, invading that planet and enslaving everyone they can get their hands on, torturing a servant because she doesn’t kneel in his presence… everything about the way he treats his people is awful. There’s no nuance, like there is with Magneto or even Apocalypse (or many other X-Men foes, for that matter). He just wants to conquer and dominate. I didn’t find anything remotely interesting about him in either part of this story.
- Slaves Cowering: I know—who can blame slaves for cowering in fear of their cruel master? But, again, there’s no subtlety. You’d think at least the slaves working directly for Arkon would be trained not to show such fear in front of Storm. You know, so they don’t make her suspicious that something is terribly wrong on their planet, and with her fiancée. For example, one servant breaks a glass because of Jubilee. Storm sees this and laughs lightheartedly, but the slave begs Storm not to report her to Arkon. This raises Storm’s suspicions a little.
- Storm’s Retaliation—and Jubilee’s Pleas: Once Storm finally accepts that Arkon is a cruel villain, she loses her mind and nearly destroys the planet—including all the innocents. No matter how irate and betrayed she feels, this isn’t a reasonable response. Yet, despite her nearly world-ending anger, all it takes is a few words from Jubilee to talk her down, at which point she hugs Jubilee and says thank you so much.
Tim Matassa
“Arkon is a kind and decent man! I love him! He asked me for my trust. Can’t you understand?”
But Jubilee makes it clear she thinks Storm’s just trying to convince herself. I also wondered at treatment of slaves in Storm’s presence, but ending makes it clear he’s so arrogant that he thinks everyone will agree with his position on slaves.
He does say he’s just paying back what was done to themselves, that’s explanation to his villainy, or rather his excuse, but such villains, such one-dimensionals exist. He’s so arrogant that he thinks of revenge enslaving despite existing peace agreement.
Jubilee is the youngest and IMHO thus the most good and optimistic one, hence she’s the one who calms Storm.
I feared they’d forget to destroy powering device, but at least Storm didn’t. But all of them leaving was a little strange in the sense of new device was said to be building, and where’s guarantee it won’t work and everything won’t repeat itself
That’s a very good point about Jubilee. She’s so pure that maybe she is the one most likely to be able to calm Storm down and get her to stop destroying things.