First Things First…
We’re up to the final arc, and I really want to know more about Bastion. Plus, when does Magneto get free? And what does he do?
4 Things I Like
4. Leaking the Shi’ar Footage
What a conniving move from Bastion! He’d be right at home in our politics today. He leaks the hidden satellite footage of Professor X with Lilandra, proclaiming “To the might and glory of the Imperium,” and the public now suspects the X-Men faked Charles’ death to gain sympathy from humans.
That’s actually pretty accurate.
Couple this revelation with the discovery that Henry Gyrich was murdered and mutant support is probably at an all-time low.
This move makes Bastion look like he really is light years ahead of Mister Sinister and the other villains he criticized for having failed to eliminate the X-Men since 1992.
3. Summers’ Family Reunion
“A couple centuries late on the overprotective dad bit, huh?”
Cable
At least Scott doesn’t have to spend years wallowing in misery after being forced to send Nathan away to the future. I think it’s only been a month or two, and Nathan is back, fully grown and weathered, as Cable.
They still haven’t gotten to hash out their issues. And something tells me Cable is less open to that conversation than Scott. Scott tells Jean…
“Apparently, his mutant power includes vanishing from any room I enter.”
Scott even rues the fact that he never talked with the Professor about how to be a good dad.
But it’s still interesting to see father and son work together, for Cable to have to put his anger and resentment aside because he knows he—and the future—need the X-Men.
Jean throws a monkey wrench into the dynamic because she’s not Cable’s mother. Yet, as she tells Nightcrawler, she still has Madelyne’s memories—including being pregnant, giving birth, and holding baby Nathan.
Cable also knows Jean isn’t his mother, but he struggles to internalize that. He probably knows better than most that Jean IS Madelyne, in a manner of speaking.
There are certainly bigger things happening in their world, and in the show, right now, which is why they’ve put their drama on the back burner. But I hope they get more time together to talk things out, though it’ll probably have to wait until Season 2.
2. Slashing Side by Side
I love Wolverine’s friendship with Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is so influential on Wolverine’s life from the first episode they met. And that makes it extra cool to see them fight side by side here while protecting Rogue.
It actually starts with just Wolverine. He slices and dices his way through Prime Sentinels as he plummets down to the mansion after Prime Trish flew him way up into the sky. It seems that every time he slices through another one, it helps him decelerate. I’m not sure about the physics there, but it looks damn cool.
And speaking of looking damn cool, the rest of this scene is an even sicker action sequence. Nightcrawlers makes a badass entrance wielding not one… not two… but THREE swords—one in each hand and a third using his tail!
1. Magneto Was Right
“Thing is, Magneto knows us better than Charles ever did. Knows we know better. That most of us experience tragedies like Genosha as a bit of déjà vu before getting on with our day. But the scariest thing about Genosha wasn’t the death or the chaos. It was a thought. The only sane thought you can have when being chased by giant robots that were built to crush you. Magneto was right.”
Val Cooper
The Prime Sentinels go from the biggest threat the X-Men, and maybe the world, have ever faced to being completely wiped off the Earth in a matter of moments when Magneto sends out an EMP from the North Pole. It shuts them all down… and I think turns off all electronics worldwide…
It’s a declaration of war, according to Wolverine. If I’m right about it turning off all electronics, it will have massive ramifications worldwide and will likely cause thousands of deaths, maybe more.
As awful as that sounds, Magneto tried things Charles’ way, and look what it got them all. Look at the future that was in store for them. It was practically extinction for mutants.
Val Cooper recognizes this. That’s why she frees him behind Bastion’s back. She’s always believed he was a terrorist, and yet this is the conclusion Bastion has forced her to reach.
There’s an amazing philosophical discussion to be had, especially as Professor X returns to Earth at the end of this episode.
It seems the message is that humans are too scared to ever accept mutants and try to coexist peacefully. They’ll always try to eradicate mutants. Which is why mutants must become everything humans already fear they are and wipe them out first.
3 Things I’m Mixed On
3. Val Cooper
As for Val, I haven’t found reason to mention her at all, even though she’s a fairly prominent new character this season. I guess it’s because I didn’t know what to say about her.
For the most part, I still don’t.
The thing is, releasing Magneto so he can thwart Bastion’s plan is a major action to take. And I don’t quite understand how much Val ever knew about Bastion. She claims she didn’t know what he was planning for Genosha, but she must’ve known he was going to do something, right? If not genocide, what did she think was in store? And does that mean she was secretly working against the mutants, even as she was on the committee to run Genosha?
2. Sunspot and Jubilee Handed Over
Roberto finally goes full Sunspot… just in time to crash land into his mother’s party and give up the game—that he’s a mutant—in front of a bunch of rich, influential people.
I can’t decide if I like that his mother seems like an even worse person now that she hands her own son, along with Jubilee, over to the Prime Sentinels.
I have to give them credit for continuing to move this storyline forward. And it’s not bad. But I still just don’t care as much about Roberto and Jubilee as I care about the rest of the team.
1. Prime Sentinels EVERYWHERE
“Did your butler just turn into a Sentinel zombie?”
I got more on board here with the Prime Sentinels than I did when they were introduced last episode. But seriously, this turns into a post-apocalyptic zombie story when they just keep coming. How did so many people get turned, or infected, or whatever?
I don’t mind that Bastion’s mother is a Prime Sentinel, along with everyone in town. They mention that he must’ve turned his whole hometown.
And it’s a cool moment when Trish Tilby is activated while she’s with Beast, trying to apologize.
But there’s also Ford, Roberto’s butler—and everyone else at the mall besides Roberto and Jubilee.
And, looking at Beast’s map, it seems like they’re already worldwide.
So how are they everywhere? Who was responsible for infecting the whole world this quickly? Santa?
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. The Story of Bastion
Bastion’s backstory is more convoluted than seems necessary. And while isn’t out of place in comic book storytelling, it doesn’t work for me here.
I mean, he’s got DNA from Master Mold, Nimrod, and every Sentinel ever? We haven’t even seen Nimrod this season, except a few times in the opening credits. And where does that DNA even come from? Nimrod’s DNA just traveled back in time and infected a random school janitor?
Tim Matassa
