"Hated and Feared" Re-Watch: "Whatever It Takes" & "Red Dawn"

 X-Men

The Shadow King is also known as Amahl Farouk. He made his first appearance in "Uncanny X-Men" #117 back in January of 1979. Farouk became a crime lord in Cairo, Egypt where he employed young Ororo Munroe as a pickpocket. When she pickpocketed a young Charles Xavier, Xavier got his wallet back but was hit by a psionic bolt. Farouk and Xavier meet and battle on the astral plane. Xavier defeats him, the first "evil" mutant he's ever encountered. This meet is what inspires Xavier to create the X-Men.

Omega Red also known as Arkady Gregorivich Rossivich made his comics debut in "X-Men" #2 in January 1992. Omega Red has a colored past. There isn't a lot known about it. He was a serial killer who as chosen to undergo experiments to turn him into a Soviet super soldier a la Captain America. The Soviets implanted him with tentacles made of carbonadium, a metal that is similar to adamantium but more malleable. The implants slowly poisoned him but he was able to use them to drain the life force of people. Omega Red needed something called a carbonadium synthesizer to stay alive but it was stolen by Wolverine, Maverick and Sabretooth, which began a lifelong adversarial relationship between Wolverine and Omega Red.

"Whatever It Takes"

Wolverine: [after falling into a pit chasing Morph] "Who took away the jungle?"

Morph: "Looks like I hit a nerve."

Wolverine: "So you made me mad. Happens all the time. You should see me in line at the post office."

Storm is called back to her village in Africa when her godson and fellow mutant, Mjnari, is possessed by the X-Men's old enemy, the Shadow King. He convinces Storm to be his vessel. Can Rogue and Mjnari save Storm and stop the Shadow King? At the same time, Wolverine is tracking down Morph and Magneto and Xavier are trying to survive the Savage Land.

He's got the whole Storm in his hand...

For a children's cartoon that was made in the early '90's, "X-Men" does a great job with its serialized storytelling and juggling multiple plot points within the same episode. But, this episode shows that while it is very adept at this, three separate storylines in one episode may be one too many. Let's take a look at each three.

We will start with the one that takes up the least amount of time in the episode, the misadventures of Charles Xavier and his frenemy, Magneto. When we last left them, the mutants were the victims of an avalanche that strands them in the Savage Land, a prehistoric rainforest that is in Antarctica. This section is pretty fast paced and is the through line of this second season. The brief check ins do what they need to do. In this case, introduce a strange new world, put Xavier and Magneto in danger that they get out of before something worse happens. In this case, the two tumbling over a waterfall.

Next up, Wolverine's pursuit of Morph. Logan tracks his former teammate to a bar in Brazil where he's not doing a great job. It's always great to see this side of Wolverine. The side that will do anything for the people he loves. I'm a little surprised that Morph changing into Jean Grey unnerved Logan so much that he let him escape. Wolverine catches up to him and Morph does some more changing including into Deadpool, Maverick and Omega Red (foreshadowing) but Wolverine eventually gets the message. He might have to let Morph figure out things for himself and be there for him when he needs him. Wolverine should not have taken this long to figure that out. This is a dude that fled at the first sign of trouble like 10 episodes ago. 

The story that gets kind of the short end of the stick is the one that should have been the main focus. I'm all for a Storm focused episode, but we don't learn too much about the wind rider. She has a godson. Great. I do love that the show doesn't act like the X-Men didn't just being when the show did. They had other encounters with villains including the Shadow King. Mjanri is kind of a non character. It's never fully explained why he can see the astral plane rift and only him. For a feared enemy, Shadow King makes some dopey moves. He had to know that following Mjanri into the astral plane would be a trap. Why not try to just re-possess Storm or someone else. It just feels too convenient.

So maybe the lesson here is sometimes more isn't more.

Grade: B

"Red Dawn"

Jubilee: [writing note] "Hi, gone to Black Sea with Colossus to fight some guy named Omega Red. Dinner's in the fridge. Have a nice day. Jubilee."

With the majority the team gone, Jubilee heads in to town and meets up with Colossus. He helps her take down some Friends of Humanity who are harassing the gas station owner. He tells her that the evil Omega Red is terrorizing his country and is attempting to forcefully reunite the USSR. Jubilee decides to go ahead and help her Russian friend. Is the youngest X-Man able to do what needs to be done or will the rest of the X-Men show up to help her out?

Siblings.

Who would have thought that a kids tv show would have a plot that revolves around disgraced Soviet generals using super people to reunite the USSR? I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this point, but I can't believe that this was the plot of this episode. I had kind of forgotten. It's heavy and the show is really careful to not name any of the countries that are being attacked. Even Colossus only refer to where he comes from with the generic "my country."

Jubilee has sort of taken a backseat these past few episodes but she's back at the forefront here. The FoH continue to pop up and I am curious if the show isn't making them too like awful. Is it too over the top and too cartoony? I struggle with it because if you look at hate groups like the KKK or the Proud Boys, their actions seem ridiculous, over blown and like a caricature so maybe the Friends of Humanity are more realistic than I think they are.

The show pretty much portrays Omega Red just as he is in the comics. Omega Red was basically a brand new character at the time the show aired. Omega Red was probably introduced to a lot of people du to this episode. The show does a great job of showing Omega Red's origin without saying much. I'm sure there was probably agreements with Marvel at the time that they couldn't mention anything about super soldier serum etc, but in the flashback sequence where Red gets his powers, it's all there. The picture of Captain America on the wall. If you're familiar at all with Marvel history, then you get it right away. 

There's a lot to love here for X-Men fans. Aside from Omega Red, we get more Colossus here and it's great. Colossus is a classic X character and the show handles him exceptionally well. He's a gentle giant, who loves his family and loves complete strangers, and all of that is here in this episode. And did seeing cartoon Colossus shirtless in overalls help make me queer? Maybe.

Grade: A-

Next up, Wolverine teams back up with his old teammates in Alpha Flight and Gambit gets a message from his wife.

What do you all think of these? Was "Whatever It Takes" overstuffed or did you find it pretty well balanced? Are you an Omega Red fan? Let me know in the comments.