5 Things I Like
5. Picking Up Apocalypse’s Threads
“The Fifth Horseman” picks up not one but two threads from Season 4…
After the four-part “Beyond Good and Evil” arc that closed the season, Apocalypse was seemingly destroyed. Here, we find out he’s actually stuck in the Astral Plane, without a physical body, trying to reemerge on Earth.
He uses Fabian Cortez, who we hadn’t seen since Apocalypse took him at the end of the Asteroid M arc earlier in Season 4, to help achieve his goal.
I’m glad we revisited both these stories at once, and especially that we got to see Apocalypse one final time in the series.
4. The Phalanx Overdeliver
I want to give the Phalanx their due, because I thought this two-parter that kicked off the season was gonna suck. As it turned out, the first part is pretty good, and the second part is even better.
Plus, the Phalanx are a scary enemy. They’re probably one of the biggest threats the X-Men face in the series, even if it doesn’t feel that way because they’re only in this two-parter. They nearly conquer Earth in a few days.
Also, Warlock is the one good guy who’s part of the Phalanx. He’s a weirdo, but very likeable.
Oh, and with so many heroes knocked out of commission by the Phalanx, this story sees one of the oddest but coolest team-ups I can imagine—Beast, Forge, Magneto, and Mister Sinister!
3. Gaslight Origins
Speaking of Mister Sinister, he was ripe for an origin story, and they finally gave it to us this season.
Of course, the second-to-last episode of the series is a little late to amount to anything. I mentioned in that review that I wish it had come toward the end of Season 2, when Sinister was the Big Bad. But I’m still glad to finally have met Dr. Nathaniel Essex—not to mention THE Charles Darwin AND Jack the Ripper!
This is a fun, horror-adjacent episode that helped close the season—and series—on an upswing.
2. Skeleton Key
I mentioned in one of my Phalanx reviews that Magneto might just be a Skeleton Key—plug him into any story or episode and it’s instantly better.
When the ragtag group recruits him to battle the Phalanx and save Earth, he’s secluded in his fortress in Antarctica, bearded and weary of life. It’s a great look for our guy, and it makes sense after the disappointment of Asteroid M’s failure.
He returns—kind of—in “Jubilee’s Fairytale Theatre,” and though I questioned whether it made sense for her to have made him the villain—Magnus the Malevolent—it’s a fun appearance.
And, of course, the series finale is all about Magneto—if he’ll take up the mantle of leadership for the legions of mutants who want to finally fight back against humanity, and then if he’ll abandon them before the war even starts to save Professor X. This is Magneto at his most important and compelling.
1. Goodbye… Hello?
I still can’t believe I liked the series finale as much as I did. Magneto is a huge part of that, as I said, but there’s also Professor X’s emotional goodbyes to the entire team.
And, knowing X-Men ’97 is waiting for me to start, there’s the added element of the open-ended finale maybe paying off in this new series. Could we be getting a war between mutants and humans? I can’t wait to find out if the new series picks up where this leaves off.
2 Things I’m Mixed On
2. Bringing in a Big Gun
It’s hard to be mad about a Captain America/Logan team-up, but I wanted more.
Don’t get me wrong—I enjoyed it well enough. But it still left me a little cold. Maybe that’s because their whole story was in the past. And though that makes sense—we know they were both alive and active during WWII, and that Cap fought the Nazis—I also would’ve liked to see them link up in the present. That also would’ve made sense.
1. Jubilee in Focus
I’m glad Jubilee gets more to do this season. There have been extended periods in prior seasons when she disappeared. But her biggest spotlight is in “Jubilee’s Fairytale Theatre.” And though that episode has its charms, and I enjoyed it more than I expected, I wish they gave her a better spotlight. Her most heroic exploits come in the series’ most “kiddie” episode.
4 Things I Don’t Like
4. “Hidden Agendas” at the End
I gave this episode a 47, which is almost as close to average as you can get. So I wouldn’t have included it in the full-season review except for one thing…
A standalone episode like this, centered not only on a new hero, but a whole town of new characters, doesn’t belong anywhere near the end of the series.
We didn’t get any Bishop—my favorite X-Man—in Season 5. Nor did we get Nightcrawler… Cable… Archangel…
Now, maybe some of this is because of the episodes airing out of order. But still, “Hidden Agendas” was intended as the third-to-last episode, and that’s how I reviewed it, but in reality, it was the second-to-last episode to air!
An episode like this should’ve happened way sooner. Ideally, it wouldn’t take place in the final season at all. But if they must, then at least make it early in the season. The end should be reserved for wrapping up with plotlines and characters fans are excited to see.
3. Throwing Away a Classic
I got a taste of the new intro prior to this season with the out-of-order episodes that aired during Season 5 but were intended for earlier in the story, and I never mentioned it. But now that I heard the new intro all season, I have to comment…
Even though it doesn’t affect the quality of the episodes, why the hell would you replace one of the all-time great theme songs and intros with a knockoff version? This is like when WWE replaces a banger of a theme song (like Roman Reigns’ “Head of the Table” or Johnny Gargano’s “Rebel Heart”) with a knockoff version.
Ugh… just stupid. I can’t see any reason to make this change.
2. A New Look
Hand in hand with the new intro is a new look. And, again, I refrained from saying anything about the art throughout the season, mainly because I don’t know exactly how to talk about it. I’m much more comfortable analyzing story and characters than artwork. So I’ll just say this…
There are noticeable differences, particularly in the way some characters are drawn. I don’t mind when it’s an intentional update to their look—like Jubilee getting a new hairstyle now that she’s older. But in some cases, it just looks weird. The two I always noticed were Professor X and Rogue. And the differences in how they’re drawn would take me out of the story just a little.
Maybe this was a cost-saving measure as the show was nearing its end, and hey, I can’t blame anyone for how they spend their money. It’s just a shame they didn’t keep the same quality all the way to the end.
1. Storm Front
This is the final multipart arc in the series and, sadly, it’s a dud.
I hate the way Storm comes off in these episodes. She’s so smitten with Arkon that she can’t see he’s literally enslaving hundreds, if not thousands, of citizens from their neighboring planet. She’s also ready to leave the team and her entire world behind for a guy she just met.
And Arkon, for his part, is a shitty, one-dimensional villain.
The saving grace of these episodes—if there is one—is that Wolverine, Cyclops, Beast, and Jubilee have enough common sense to dig a little deeper into what’s going on with Arkon. They discover his tyranny and save Storm from the worst mistake of her life.
One thing I’d really like to know—and I felt this way other times, too, like with “Proteus”—is how did they decide which stories to turn into multi-episode arcs?
I wouldn’t like this story either way, but it really doesn’t feel like it needs two episodes. I’d much rather if they gave the finale two episodes, so we could’ve spent more time with Magneto being sought out for his leadership and then wrestling with his decision to stay or help Charles.
Tim Matassa
