First Things First…
This episode originally aired as Episode 5.12.
Now here’s a good choice to write an episode about as we near the end of the series. This shows Mister Sinister’s origins! I don’t know this story, but I’m excited to find out.
Of course, there’s no guarantee it’ll be good, just because it’s a topic I want to see. But here’s hoping…
4 Things I Like
4. Discovering Mutants
“I have discovered the mechanisms of heredity! In time, I shall bring an end to hereditary disorders, to all disease! Man shall at last possess complete mastery over his own body! We shall become more than men! We shall be gods!”
Dr. Nathaniel Essex
It seems Mister Sinister is responsible for “discovering” mutants, so to speak.
They’ve existed since ancient times with Apocalypse, but Dr. Essex is the one who studied mutations. And I admit, I found this a little confusing. His test subjects appear to be mutants already, but I guess he enhanced their powers?
Even though I didn’t find this aspect of the episode fully clear, I enjoyed this part of Sinister’s origin enough to put it in this category.
3. Obsession Leads to Darkness
Dr. Nathaniel Essex’s obsession takes him down a dark path.
His experiments and research seem well intentioned at first, but as his wife’s health deteriorates and he gets run out of the scientific world for “quackery,” he goes dark. He starts keeping test subjects locked in cages in the abandoned asylum he works out of.
And in the later years, he has his most famous creation seemingly getting him mutant body parts for further experiments.
2. Cat and Mouse
“Essex isn’t human, Inspector! Not anymore. And after tracking him round the world for half my life, I begin to think he never was.”
Dr. James Xavier
The cat and mouse game between James Xavier and Sinister feels similar to Van Helsing and Dracula. Xavier becomes borderline obsessed with stopping him and says early in the episode that he’s spent half his life chasing this guy. He even calls Sinister…
“… the most diabolical madman the world has ever known!”
The fact that they were once friends, and that Xavier treated Sinister’s wife but failed to help her, causing Sinister’s descent, adds intrigue to the story.
1. Marvel by Gaslight
“He has altered nature itself. I believe the creature responsible for this outrage to be the result of this man’s sinister experiments.”
Dr. James Xavier
The beginning of the episode reminds me of the beginning of “Nightcrawler.” Instantly, it feels like we’re in a horror story. The darkness, the music, and, in this case, Jack the Ripper himself terrorizing 19th Century London on a foggy night.
In the X-Men stories I’m familiar with, they rarely go this dark, and rightly so. This team is all about lifting people up and making room for everyone to live in the light. But when they do go in this direction, I usually love it.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Another Xavier
As much as I enjoy their cat and mouse game, does it have to be an Xavier doing the hunting?
I’m conflicted about how I feel about one of Professor X’s ancestors being part of this. It seems a little random.
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. Sinister Transformation
Essex drinks one vial of a substance he’s concocted and it immediately drains all the pigment from his skin, giving him the pearly white skin we know Mister Sinister to have.
This is another part of the episode that’s unclear to me, but it bothers me a bit more. I don’t understand what he just did. And did he give himself mutant powers, or was he born a mutant. I’m confused about what the research actually bears out.
Tim Matassa
