X-Men
We are all coming down from the high of "The Phoenix Saga." I wish that we would go right into "The Dark Phoenix Saga" but alas, we have a few episodes before that. Interesting little tidbit about "No Mutant Is an Island." It was originally meant to air in season 3, but wasn't finished in time, along with two other episodes. It originally didn't air until season 5, but Disney+ has the production order not the aired order, which is great.
"No Mutant Is an Island"
Cyclops: "Don't you get it? I'm sick of the responsibility! I'm sick of being den mother to a bunch of quibbling children! I can't do it anymore! Most of all, I'm sick of caring! I cared for Jean... look where that got me!"
The X-Men are still grieving the apparent death of Jean Grey during her time possessed by the Phoenix Force. Unsurprisingly, Cyclops is taking things the worst. He is tired of Xavier's platitudes and his responsibilities so he quits the team. He heads to the orphanage where he grew up and finds out that the mutant charges are being adopted by local business/philanthropist, Zebediah Killgrave. It seems as if he's doing a good thing, but when Scott meets Rusty Collins, who ran away from Killgrave, he isn't so sure.
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| David Tennant? |
Cyclops is kind of a tool. He's a douchebag. He's condescending. He's the epitome of white, male privilege. Frankly, if Cyclops is your favorite X-Man, I'm giving you some major side eye and I am judging you. So, an episode that focuses primarily on ole one-eye is not what I would call a good time. I freely admit that. That being said, if there was a time for a Cyclops focused episode, now is it. He's at his lowest point since the series began. He's lost the love of his life and he is questioning every decision he's made. There is a lot of compelling stuff to be explored here, but I'm not sure this episode really capitalizes on the potential there exists.
I liked the idea of seeing more of Cyclops' childhood particularly since we just learned that Corsair was his father. The flashbacks to his life in the orphanage are probably my favorite parts of the episode. Seeing people not want to adopt him because he's a mutant is super affecting particularly after we saw a kid play cops and mutants on the bus to the orphanage. But the episode doesn't really focus on Cyclops that much.
Instead, it's all about Zebediah Killgrave. If you watched Netflix's "Jessica Jones," then you're familiar with him and you're probably wondering what the fuck he is doing in a kids cartoon. Well, they remove a lot of the using his mind control powers to commit sexual violations. Here, he is using his brainwashing powers to use these mutant children to... take over the local government? I guess it is a start. Killgrave is a very nondescript villain in this episode. In fact, he reminds me a lot of Graydon Creed of the Friends of Humanity.
It was fun to see some lesser known mutants make appearances. There is of course Rusty Collins. A version of him was in "Deadpool 2," but this much closer to his classic incarnation. We get Skids and Boom Boom. I don't understand why Scott was surprised that his friend, Sarah, who now runs the orphanage knew that he was a mutant. Was he trying to hide it? I mean, it looked like he melted down a trike in full view of all the other children, and folks were declining to adopt him because of his being a mutant. I don't get it.
For an episode that takes place after the seeming death of a main character and is focused on the team's leader and her love, I really wanted more out of this.
Grade: B-
"Obsession"
Cyclops: "How do you hide something a mile long?"
Gambit: "Who knows? Deep pockets?"
Warren Worthington is still fanatically searching for Apocalypse to kill him after the seemingly immortal mutant turned him into his Horsemen of Death, Archangel. He finds him and attacks and the X-Men intercede. They want to help but he's not interested. The X-Men find Apocalypse's sentient ship, Ship, and work with it to put an end to the threat of Apocalypse. But will Archangel's single minded obsession ruin everything?
This is a monumental episode. Beast meets and loses the love of his life. It makes complete sense that Beast would fall head over heels in love with a sentient spaceship that is simply named, Ship. It's love at first... well, not sight so much, but love at first... meeting of the minds? It's like they are of one mind as soon as they start talking. Ship is familiar with Hank McCoy. She strokes his ego, which Hank loves. She is immediately willing to work with the team to stop Apocalypse. At first, you think that maybe Ship is just going to double cross them, but she doesn't. The connection that Hank and Ship have is so genuine and true. When, she sinks to the bottom of the ocean, you feel for them. I teared up as Hank clutched that piece of Ship and they said their goodbyes. Hank knows in that moment that he will never know love like this again and curses the fleeting nature of it. It's a real tragedy.
Warren Worthington is truly unhinged. He clearly has not come to terms with the changes that Apocalypse made to him and he's not even trying. He's employing lots of people to learn about En Sabah Nur and he's abusing them too. I am certain he is violating some labor laws here. When a man shows up with a scroll that details where you need to hit Apocalypse to kill him, Warren takes off without even asking questions. It's not a huge shock that this is actually Apocalypse in disguise tricking him. Something Warren probably would have figured out had he stopped for one second to think about. This leads to a fight on Liberty Island and another fight where the X-Men show a complete and utter disregard for the Statue of Liberty and I kind of love it.
Rogue has a connection with Warren since she absorbed a lot of his powers when they first met and part of his persona is still buried within her. It's a nice reminder of the toll that her powers take on her and it explains why Rogue is so gung ho to help Archangel even thought Gambit's completely correct that they should not be indulging Warren in this. But Rogue is unable to see that since she still can feel intimately how Warren feels about Apocalypse. It's a nice way for Rogue to sort of act out of character and help the plot but not have it feel like it's completely coming out of left field.
This episode really highlights how when the X-Men work as a team there really is no stopping them. They come up with a plan to stop Apocalypse and they implement it. It's working great until Archangel shows up. He's not satisfied that they are just going to imprison Apocalypse in his ship. He wants him to die. He is easily goaded and he basically ruins everything. The X-Men and Ship are able to imprison him again and jettison him into space, but it comes at the cost of Beast's new love, Ship. I do like that at the end of this, Archangel has learned zero lesson at all. He's still the same unhinged, murdering Apocalypse obsessed psycho he was at the beginning of the episode. Zero growth. You don't see that very often.
Grade: B+
Next up, Longshot returns and so does Iceman.
What did you all think of these episodes? I didn't mention it but hardly any Storm recently. What's up with that? Weird that there is no mention of Jean after she miraculously comes back from the dead? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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