X-Men
Today we just happen to have two episodes that tell the story of up until now unknown parentage. It's honestly crazy how themes like this can just line right up. Let's get back to it.
"Family Ties"
Charles Xavier: "Magneto."
Magneto: "Very good, Charles. I see that old age hasn't dulled your powers."
Charles Xavier: "Nor your flair for the dramatic."
Quicksilver is contacted by his twin sister, the Scarlet Witch, and told their adoptive father, Django's, health has taken a turn. They go to visit him and he tells them a story about how a humanoid bovine midwife named Bova brought the twins to them and that their biological mother was driven from her village by a mad mutant. A mutant she was so terrified off she continued to run from until she died. The twins head to Wundagore Mountain to meet the High Evolutionary and whose quest dovetails with Magneto who believes his wife, Magda, might still be alive.
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| This is maybe too literal. |
There is something about episodes like this that really speak to me. I'm sure a lot of it is nostalgia. I will probably read "X-Men" comics until I die, but there is something about this era that I will really always think is the best. And when "X-Men: The Animated Series" references that era explicitly it really releases all the endorphins. So, when I saw Quicksilver at X-Factor HQ getting a call from his twin sister, the Scarlet Witch, I knew that I was really going to enjoy this.
This is an instance where the show remains pretty faithful to the comics (at least of the time) and it works really well. The story of the twins and how they came to be in the care of the Maximoff's is pretty much lockstep. A humanoid cow named Bova brings them to them to raise after their mother is killed by a mutant who turns out to be their father. Little doe the twins know that their father is actually the mutant terrorist called Magneto.
The show can be hit or miss when it comes to the relationship between Xavier and Magneto. Sometimes they do it really horrendously like they did in the two-part "Sanctuary" and then sometimes they do it really well like they do in this episode. Xavier and Magneto may have completely different ideologies, but they are still friends and I like when the show acknowledges this. One of my favorite moments of this particular episodes is when Magneto infiltrates the mansion and he and Xavier have a bitchy little back and forth. And the visual of the electromagnetic trap or whatever that Magneto put Wolverine made me laugh out loud. Xavier sending Wolverine to keep an eye on Magneto is very on brand but I did think it was funny that Magneto said not to interfere if things go south. He has to absolutely know that Xavier would interfere.
With "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3" having just come out recently, the High Evolutionary is still fresh on my mind so it was fun to see him as the villain in this episode. It's been so long since I've seen him as a villain in anything that I don't think I realized how well done his characterization was in James Gunn's movie. He's very similar here. A mad scientist who is hellbent on creating his own perfect civilization and wants to use Magneto's family to make that happen. It's interesting how as a kid, I was like Magneto is just as bad, but as an adult, I'm more like, yeah, Magneto maybe had the right idea here.
There's a lot of solid action in this episode. From the High Evolutionary's Animen vs Magneto and then throwing in the twins and Wolverine to the big battle that ends the episode featuring Wolverine becoming an actual wolverine. It's all very good and features some nice character moments, like Wolverine putting aside his general disdain for Magneto because he's being ganged up on. And there are some moments that are maybe unintentionally funny like when the Scarlet Witch ends up landing awkwardly in that tree branch.
There are a couple of moments that bring the episode down a little bit. Magneto's role in Magda's death is never really fleshed out so its hard to reconcile that with the twins being so upset. The gist is that Magda found out that Magneto was a mutant as did the villagers where they lived, they turned on him and he went full on Master of Magnetism on them which terrified her so she ran off not telling him she was pregnant. I know this because of the comics not because it was made clear in the episode. The other thing that didn't sit well with me was Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch being so gung ho about killing Magneto. This is a member of X-Factor and the Avengers ready to commit murder. It didn't really ring true.
But overall, a fun episode that reveals an important bit of X-Men lore in an entertaining way.
Grade: B+
"Bloodlines"
Wolverine: "What's Mystique doing here?"
Rogue: "She's Nightcrawler's mother... and Creed's mother, too!"
Jubilee: "Boy, talk about your soap operas!"
Graydon Creed returns to the Friends of Humanity, but the new leadership doesn't love that his parents are both mutants. He vows to destroy his mutant relatives. This leads Nightcrawler to the X-Men's door. It seems his biological mother is being threatened and he asks for the X-Men's help. Can they stop whatever is going to happen even after they learn his true parentage?
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| Trick or treat, smell my feet... |
Nightcrawler's first appearance during this season of "X-Men: The Animated Series" is one of my favorite of the fourth season so I had high hopes for his return. This is an OK episode, but definitely doesn't meet the bar set by the first Nightcrawler episode.
There are some fun things about this episode. I really laughed when Wolverine answered the door as wearing a Beast mask to try and scare the trick or treaters. And I never thought that Wolverine would hate Halloween, but it makes sense. Wolverine explains that during Halloween, kids are able to dress up like demons, monsters and mutants, but then they can go back the next day to being normal, something the actual mutants don't have the luxury of doing. This is actually a pretty nuanced view coming from Wolverine.
I like when the show references itself and acknowledges that there is a continuity so event though he is a giant piece of shit, I appreciate Graydon Creed showing back up. The Friends of Humanity have always been an extremely thinly veiled parody of the KKK and if you weren't picking up on that in their numerous other appearances, the show makes it pretty explicit in this episode when they introduce the new ruling council of the FoH and they are all wearing these hood like masks. It's giving very grand wizard. Sometimes subtlety is necessary, but I definitely don't think that it is, in this case.
Much like the previous episode, I enjoy that they keep the origin of Nightcrawler's parentage pretty faithful to what it was in the comics. Mystique had Nighcrawler whens he was in disguise and when his father saw he was a mutant he wasn't pleased, so she decided to toss him over a waterfall. There are some minor alterations to the comics story, but this is basically how it happened so I appreciate that.
The main issue I have with this episode is that it feels extremely similar to the first episode with Nightcrawler. Sure, they are throwing the parentage issue in the mix, but a lot of it is still very faith based. Whereas in the original episode, Nightcrawler and Wolverine were having a lot of these faith arguments now it's Nightcrawler and Jubilee. A lot of it feels like a re-hashing of the debates that have already had but instead of Wolverine asking Kurt how he can care for villagers that shun him and think he's a demon, it's Jubilee asking how he can care about a woman that basically threw him away. And just like the last episode, it's all God this and the power of prayer and forgiveness that. It's not adding anything new to the conversation.
I feel like this show doesn't know what to do with Mystique. In some ways, they get her right. It's very in character that Mystique would sell Nightcrawler out to save her own skin. But a lot of the rest of her characterization in this episode doesn't really make sense. The whole Mystique is moved to put herself in harm's way to save Nightcrawler because she's moved by his faith etc doesn't feel earned. It feels like the writer's wanted this to happen and they didn't care if it made sense or not and it definitely doesn't here. They don't want to commit to making Mystique a villain and she for sure is in this context. They want to have this emotional moment and there's not enough that happens before this to make the payoff make sense. Nightcrawler proselytizing to her is not going to cause this major shift in her attitude.
I wish there had been more moments between Rogue and Nightcrawler after the revelation that they are basically brother and sister. This is a nitpicking thing, but at the beginning of the episode, the news is talking about how there is this upswing in anti-mutant sentiment, but when is there ever a downswing. I did like the ending with Graydon being dropped at Sabretooth's feet for a little father/son bonding. That being said, of all this, I'm really more interested in how Sabretooth and Mystique ended up hooking up.
Grade: C-
Next up a trio of episodes where Wolverine takes center stage. He's heading to Japan, dealing with fallout from his time as a Weapon X operative and learning the true meaning of Christmas with Jubilee.
What did you all think of these episodes? Were you happy to see the Maximoff twins? Get more of the High Evolutionary? Did you think Nightcrawler's second appearance was a bit of a let down? Let me know in the comments.
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