The Nostalgia Spot

In the previous entry I said I was in no rush to finish these, but I’m feeling inspired today so I’m posting this just one day after the last.  This also is the final entry for season 2.  After this season, the show becomes a little less focused and some production delays screw up the continuity, but that’s all stuff reserved for future posts.

Beauty and The Beast

Beast with his beloved Carly.

This is the last episode for season 2 that deals specifically with one character.  While the other episodes in this format mostly gave us origin tales, this one chooses to focus on how difficult it is to be a mutant with a physical abnormality.  This one, as the titles alludes, is about Beast.  At this time in the series, Beast was still kind of an unknown character for a lot of viewers due to his incarceration for the majority of season 1.  He had some lines in previous season 2 episodes but was always more of a background character.  This episode shows that Beast is more than just the smart, fuzzy one.  His mutant powers made him one of the more boring X-Men, but this episode proves there’s a lot of depth hidden under that blue exterior.

Beast is also the only member of the team who has a job beyond being a member of the X-Men.  He’s a doctor, and a surgeon apparently, and he’s been working on a cure for a type of blindness at a local hospital.  The patient about to undergo his experimental procedure is a woman by the name of Carly.  The show is not so subtle in showing us that there’s a mutual affection shared between the two characters and we worry for Beast and how Carly may receive him once her vision is restored.

The Friends of Humanity, finding out a mutant works at the hospital, stage a violent protest outside forcing Beast to intervene and save Carly.  This gets the attention of the X-Men and Wolverine, in particular.  He lets Cyclops know that he’ll handle the FoH “delicately” and takes off.  Meanwhile, back at the hospital, we find out Carly’s father is a bigot and demands Beast be kept away from his daughter.  Beast reluctantly agrees though Carly is heart-broken.  If the episode has one fault, it’s that Carly’s father is portrayed a little too over the top.  We could empathize with him since Beast’s mere presence does put Carly in danger, but his complaints to the hospital staff are more of the “he’s a filthy mutant” variety.

Following Beast’s removal from the surgery, we get a look at him in a vulnerable state.  Jean tries to console him, but he can’t be reached.  Throughout the series Beast is portrayed as a good-natured and easy-going individual.  The insults his appearance attracts are always brushed aside and even in combat he appears rather gentle.  Here he’s down and laments the unfairness his appearance brings and is even moved to tears.  He confirms his love for Carly to Jean and the viewing audience, and vows to protect her by staying away, to which Jean responds “Maybe you should let her decide.”

After his self-confidence returns, Beast shows up at the hospital to see the results of Carly’s surgery.  It was a success, and she is delighted to finally see her beloved Hank but her father soon ruins everything.  As Beast takes his leave, the FoH strike and abduct Carly sending Beast into a rage.  He leaves, not before scolding Carly’s father, and tells him he’s going after her and he better come with him if he wants to see her alive again.

Creed's a jerk.

Meanwhile, Wolverine has gone undercover as John Logan to infiltrate the FoH base we saw back in the first episode of season 2.  Sporting an A’s cap (I’m not sure if this means Wolverine is a fan of the A’s or that A’s fans hate mutants), Wolverine makes it look like a mutant beat him up and left him for dead outside the building.  The FoH, naturally, take him in where he plays up his hatred of mutants for their leader, Graydon Creed.  Wolverine apparently feels like he knows Creed, and says he may have worked with his old man mining in Kentucky, to which Creed responds by informing him his family all lived in Canada.  “So was I, bub,” is Wolverine’s remark to himself as the scene changes.

The X-Men have been summoned by Beast to help him deal with the FoH, Wolverine also requests they bring the portable Cerebro projector.  Wolverine reveals himself to Creed and frees Carly, while Beast arrives and goes on a rampage that leaves him in a sad state, forcing Wolverine to haul him out in a visually amusing way.  Just as things look bleak, Cyclops, Jean, and Jubilee arrive with the projector that projects a holographic image of Sabretooth with a narrated biography.  Creed loses it, as everyone is informed of Sabretooth’s birth name; Graydon Creed Senior (I can forgive the writers for changing Sabretooth’s name from Victor to Graydon for the ease of simplicity).  Upon hearing this stunning news, the FoH back off and leave Creed to his own madness.

Beast and Carly then have a teary farewell.  Despite Jean’s suggestion to let Carly decide what to do, Beast takes it upon himself to inform her it’s too dangerous for them to be together, and reluctantly, she goes along with it.  Her father shows up again but this time to shake Beast’s hand and thank him for all that he’s done for his daughter.  This, in a way, closes the book on the mutants rights angle of the show as the FoH would only reappear one more time in a much later season.  It’s too bad, because I always felt that was a strength of the program but maybe the writers felt they could never top this episode, and there’s a good chance they were right.  “Beauty and The Beast” may be a bit melodramatic, but it’s very good at what it does.  One of the show’s best.

Mojovision

Perhaps the writers felt the last two episodes were a bit too weighty and needed to lighten the mood.  Enter Mojo, the X-Men’s outer-dimensional slapstick villain.  Mojo is a television producer from another world with a grotesque appearance and a thirst for ratings.  Feeling his current show starring Longshot (with an odd cameo from Psylocke) is slipping, Mojo seeks new stars which leads him to earth and the X-Men.

The bulbous one himself, Mojo.

While shopping for a new TV, the X-Men are soon graced by Mojo’s appearance who offers them a show on his network.  The X-Men are appropriately confused and uninterested, which just pisses Mojo off and he sends the six-armed Spiral to retrieve the mutants.  Six X-Men are brought to Mojo’s universe:  Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine, Beast, Rogue, and Storm.  Jubilee is shown in at least one shot but that appears to be just a continuity error.  The X-Men are then inserted into Mojo’s television products where they battle with some androids in a danger room like arena.  Cyclops and Storm are up first as they find themselves in a Miami Vice type setting, only without the pastels.  They get overwhelmed and then Beast and Rogue are tossed into a spaceship that ends up getting sent into the sun.  Jean and Wolverine are thrown into a city battling with more droids where Jean uses her telekinetic powers to overtake the controls and free the X-Men.  Mojo throws a tantrum, and the X-Men escape.  We get a couple of lessons about how violence should not be a form of entertainment, but it sounds rather hollow coming from a super hero action cartoon that certainly makes use of some violence to stay popular.

I’ve never liked Mojo, so I’m biased going into this episode.  I prefer the real world setting for the X-Men, and this is anything but that.  I’m just glad it was only a one-shot, but it does derail some of season 2’s momentum, even though another Xavier/Magneto snippet is included at the end as the two witness the power of Sauron.  At least it’s more entertaining than “Whatever It Takes.”

Reunion (Parts 1 and 2)

After giving us bits and pieces of Xavier and Magneto in the Savage Land and teasing more encounters with Sinister, everything comes to a head in this two-part season finale.  Magneto and Xavier did well to avoid the mutates for this long, but eventually find themselves captured when they team up with a local named Ka-Zar to free his people.  Ka-Zar does not have any love for Magneto, and blames him for the Savage Land’s state as we learn he created the mutates long ago.  They raid his former citadel, but Xavier and Magneto get captured and Ka-Zar is forced to flee.

Meet Ka-Zar, he's anything but bashful.

Meanwhile, the Cyclops, Jean, and Wolverine are off looking for Morph following a distressful sounding voice message from the shape-shifter.  Wolverine vows to bring him home and hurt whomever is after Morph.  They find him working in a one-man play of Jekyll and Hyde where his mutant powers create a stirring performance.  The X-Men confront him after the show, and after playing dumb a moment, he warns them to stay away because “He” is always watching.  Morph’s warnings end up being not without merit, as Sinister and the Nasty Boys strike leading to the capture of Jean Grey.  Morph slips into his evil Morph persona and departs with Sinister.

Back at the Savage Land, it’s revealed that Sinister is whom the mutates have been referring to as Master.  This comes as something less than a shock but it’s appropriate.  He reveals his machine that enhances mutant powers by taking from others.  He uses the machine to amplify Vertigo’s powers via Magneto.  Sauron then shows up and uses his hypnotic powers to coerce Xavier into sending a false distress call to the X-Men to lure them into a trap.  The X-Men aren’t dumb though, and can tell something is wrong, but they head off anyway, all except Jubilee.

As part 2 begins, the X-Men arrive in the Savage Land and find that they’re without powers.  The mutates attack almost immediately along with the Nasty Boys and are able to overwhelm the powerless X-Men rather easily.  Only Wolverine is able to escape, as he is quick to point out there’s nothing mutant about his adamantium claws, though how he survives a tumble down a waterfall is anyone’s guess.

Much to no one's surprise, it turns out that the Master is actually Mr. Sinister.

As a result of the confrontation, it falls on Wolverine to same his comrades and he soon comes in contact with Ka-Zar.  The two decide to team up, after fighting a little, and head for the citadel.  The predictable happens and in a way it mirrors the conclusion of “Till Death Do Us Part 2” in that the X-Men tangle with the bad guys, and Morph overcomes Sinister’s control when someone tells him he’s still a member of the X-Men.  Sinister gets blown into a million pieces and tossed into the sea.  This isn’t enough to kill him, but it should keep him out of commission for a while.

Magneto and Charles bid farewell, and we find out that Xavier intends to remove the device Sinister implanted within Morph though he warns that the psychological damage could take years to undo.  This is code for “don’t expect to see Morph a member of the team going forward” much to everyone’s chagrin.

In the end, it’s a satisfying way to wrap up a season-long plot, though some of it did feel a little too similar to the previous season finale and the events of the season’s opening plot.  It’s a good action packed finale though, and following it we would see very little of both Magneto and Mr. Sinister going forward.  This makes sense with Magneto considering the human/mutant conflict would be de-emphasized making his character unnecessary as a villain.  The writers must have just felt burnt out with Sinister, as his future appearances are mostly of the henchman variety.

I’ve said it a few times now, but I’ll say it once more:  season 2 is either the best season for the show or the runner-up to season 1.  It’s quite good as a character study.  It’s less action oriented than other seasons but there’s a lot of depth here that’s uncommon for a kid’s show.  Even today when I watch these episodes I’m left with a sense of satisfaction at their conclusion.  Since the show was so limited in what it could in regards to fight scenes, it made a lot of sense for the writers to focus on character development over intense battles.  There’s a lot of good stuff in later seasons, but this was undeniably the show’s peak and one of the best comic to TV adaptations ever.

Hopefully there aren’t people out there eagerly anticipating my reviews for the X-Men animated series because I’m sure taking my time in making these entries.  It’s been almost a month since my last entry on the subject, but I’m in no rush.  This entry continues on with the next few episodes of season 2, one of the shows strongest seasons it would have.  The further into the season the show travels, the more character specific the episodes get.  This next one deals with everyone’s favorite Canadian:

Repo Man

Vindicator (also known as Guardian in the comics) and Alpha Flight make their first and only appearance of the series in "Repo Man."

Wolverine’s past catches up with him a lot, as it did in the previous episode “Red Dawn,” but here the show gives the viewers its first glimpse into Wolverine’s origin.  Early in the episode, Wolverine is set up in the Canadian wilderness into thinking he’s to meet a friend named Heather only to be ambushed by Alpha Flight.  Alpha Flight was never a popular comic for Marvel, so to put it simply, Alpha Flight is the Canadian version of the Avengers.  We find out Wolverine was once a member and that the team seeks to bring him back.  Lead by Vindicator, the team attacks Wolverine only to find him a more than formidable match.  Once the word “lab” is mentioned, a flashback is triggered showing us how Wolverine came to possess his adamantium skeleton.

The flashback gives us as much detail as can be permitted on a Saturday morning cartoon.  Anyone who read the “Weapon X” one-shot knows that it was originally filled with a brutal and bloody rampage by Wolverine that obviously can’t be depicted here.  Wolverine was also naked and feral and here he’s shown a little more aware of what’s going on, though still pretty pissed off.  It accomplishes the same goal.

Wolverine is eventually subdued by Alpha Flight (not even Wolverine can take on a whole squad of super heroes) and we find out Department H (the organization behind Alpha Flight) is after Wolverine’s skeleton.  We then get introduced to the Heather character, wife of Vindicator (James), and treated to another flashback from when Wolverine came upon the couple after escaping the lab.  While the two tag a deer, Wolverine attacks but gets a couple of rounds of tranquilizers (Fox wasn’t going to permit shotguns for obvious reasons) imbedded in his shoulder and as he goes down we get a montage of Wolverine gaining his sanity.  We then see him putting on the yellow and blue for the first time and taking the name Wolverine.

Apparently everyone at Department H is still sore about Wolverine’s defection.  The rest of the team is well-meaning and was lead to believe Wolverine was going to re-join the team.  The man in charge though, Jason,  intends to extract his skeleton by any means necessary in order to find out how the procedure could be duplicated.  Obviously, this would mean the end for old Wolverine and most everyone comes to their senses and helps Wolverine off the carving station.  Vindicator never comes around, but when Wolverine has him pinned and readies a killing blow he relents as a favor to Heather.  He closes by letting everyone else know they’re not friends and that he’s never coming back.  Hard to blame the guy for being rubbed the wrong way.

Overall, this is an effective way to tell Wolverine’s tale.  It also keeps the other X-Men out of the story so that they continue to remain in the dark about what he’s been through in his past.  As a result, we don’t see much of the others save for one brief scene and a little snippet of Magneto and Xavier as they escape from the mutate Vertigo.  This is also a good Wolverine episode as he’s portrayed in a manner I think most people prefer.  That is as a gruff and tough fighter with a couple of good one-liners.  This would also be Alpha Flight’s only appearance on the show, which is probably a good thing.

X-Ternally Yours

It’s kind of surprising that the creators of the show would give the two biggest fan favorites back to back episodes.  I’m of course referring to Wolverine and Gambit, and after getting Wolverine’s back story in the previous episode we’re treated to Gambit’s here.  Though I’m not sure treated is the right word.

The inspiration for this episode undoubtedly came from the plot contained in this book but was altered severely to fit the Saturday morning guidelines.

The episode begins well enough with Gambit getting a cryptic phone call that spooks him so much he accidentally lets Cyclops get wasted in the Danger Room.  He informs the team he has to leave because someone is going to kill his brother.  Rogue, Jean, and Wolverine end up giving chase and Gambit’s trail leads them down into the Louisiana bayou.  Here a battle has been waging for years between the Thieves and Assassins guilds.  Apparently, Gambit is a former member of the Thieves Guild and at one time was engaged to the assassin, Bella Donna.  Bella Donna trades Gambit’s brother Bobby for Gambit’s hand in marriage, which of course is not what it seems.  When Gambit places the wedding band on his finger, he finds that Bella Donna holds some power over it that’s able to subdue him.  The members of the X-Men that went after him arrive and tangle with some thieves and we get a cool shot of Wolverine wedging a thief’s head between two claws in a threatening manner.

Unfortunately, from here things get kind of silly.  The assassins and thieves pay tribute to some god-like entity by presenting it with a tithe every ten years.  This being bestows powers on the guild that honors it in the most appropriate way.  Break the covenant, and lose your life.  Bella Donna sets up the thieves with a fake tithe and intends to get the thieves exterminated.  The X-Men are able to foil the plot when Jean reveals the double cross to the External using her telepathic powers and Bella Donna is stripped of her powers, her life spared at the request of Gambit.

I rarely like it when the X-Men goes too sci-fi with its plots, and this is a case of that.  This plot with the being the External, to my knowledge, has no basis in the comic canon and I’m not certain where the idea sprung from.  The writers clearly felt the guild wars as they appeared in the comic were too violent for Saturday morning and needed a new plot device, but I think they could have done better.  It’s not season two’s worst episode, but it’s in the conversation.

Time Fugitives (Parts 1 and 2)

“Time Fugitives” brings back everyone’s favorite time traveling mutant from season one, Bishop, and also gives us a more comic accurate depiction of the mutant Cable.  It’s a two-parter (come to think of it, I don’t think Bishop has any one-shots) where the first part is Cable watching the events of the first episode, and in the second he tries to rectify it.

The basic plot is that Bishop returned to the future following “Days of Future Past” to find it unchanged.  The Sentinels were no longer in power, but a mutant plague is affecting the population and killing millions.  Forge sends Bishop back to find out its origins and put a stop to it.

The plague is depicted in a similar visual fashion to Apocalypse's techno-organic virus from the comics, though its properties are different.

In the present, the plague is just starting to show itself and the Friends of Humanity are claiming mutants carry the plague and must be quarantined.  The X-Men’s resident chemist Beast, is asked to speak on the subject at a hearing where Graydon Creed intends to infect Beast with the plague, only to get stopped by Bishop.  In order to put on a spectacle for the television cameras, Creed infects himself and flees the scene.  The X-Men are able to pick up on this while watching a taping of the event, and follow Creed to a hideout where the true cause of the plague is revealed:  Apocalypse.

His motives are not entirely clear, but Apocalypse has long sought the destruction of all humankind so a fatal disease is within the realm of plausibility for the character.  Creed is disheartened to learn he was duped by a mutant, to which Apocalypse gives us this great quote, “I am as far beyond mutants, as they are beyond you!”

The X-Men destroy his plague, but an angry Apocalypse ends up destroying the X-Men.  This causes a temporal storm, which is displayed as a bunch of tornadoes in Cable’s time that will re-write history.  Cable possesses some kind of omniscient computer that looks like a piece of quartz that tells him all of this, and episode one ends with him struggling with the notion that in order to save his world, he has to help Apocalypse destroy a past one.

"The name's Cable - remember it!"

Episode two takes Cable and inserts him into the events of episode one.  Initially, it is suggested by his computer that killing Bishop will accomplish his goal, but Cable is reluctant to kill someone he considers a good man.  He tries reasoning, but Bishop isn’t buying it, and soon shows up at the hearing where Beast is attacked.  Before this, he’s shown going through some files on the X-Men (he notes that he’s familiar with Cyclops and Jean Grey), and has the computer stop on Wolverine for an unannounced reason.  At the hearing, he makes a B-line for Wolverine and teleports the two out of there.  The same events unfold as the previous episode with the X-Men stumbling upon Apocalypse’s lab.  This time Cable and Wolverine show up and Cable allows Wolverine to get infected with the plague virus.  Bishop is shown enraged, thinking Cable just killed him, but Wolverine’s healing powers soon cure him.  Cable informs Apocalypse that they now have the anti-bodies to cure his plague, frustrated, Apocalypse leaves as the X-Men destroy the lab.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I like that this episode gives us a more comic accurate portrait of Cable.  He’s first shown fighting Apocalypse in the distant future, and while in the past it’s revealed the Cable is the son of Cyclops and Jean.  The show never explains how Cable came to exist, in this episode or any future ones, but at least it is no longer ignoring the character’s back story like it did in season one.  Bishop proves once again to be a fun character, he’s a well-meaning hot head whose a little bit of a screw up.  I’m in favor of any episode that works in the Friends of Humanity, and the writers prove once again that they have a good grasp on the Apocalypse character.  If I have one complaint, it’s that Apocalypse just kind of gives up and leaves at the end of part 2 with no explanation put forth as to why he wouldn’t simply take out the X-Men as he had in part 1.  Regardless, this is another good time travel tale that rivals the first.

A Rogue’s Tale

After taking a few episodes off, Sinister once again makes his presence felt by setting up the events in "A Rogue's Tale."

After taking a bit of a diversion with the “Time Fugitives” two-parter, season 2 returns to the character study format and gives us this episode which details Rogue’s back story.  Mystique is seen early on meeting with a shadowed Mr. Sinister who reveals to her Xavier’s absence allowing her an opening to take back her daughter.  This leads to a confrontation between the X-Men and Mystique’s New Brotherhood, where a chance encounter with a blond girl sends Rogue into a frenzy.

Tormented by visions of this girl, Rogue goes berserk back at the mansion.  The specter claims she took her life and informs Rogue where she can find her and silence her.  Rogue soon ends up at a hospital and finds the girl in a coma.  No one knows her identity.  Mystique is there to torment Rogue further, and at her encouragement, Rogue absorbs her powers and memories triggering a flashback.

Poor Ms. Marvel...

In the flashback, we find out how Rogue came to know Mystique.  After taking in the runaway, Mystique exploited Rogue’s powers in a confrontation with the heroine Ms. Marvel.  The flying and seemingly indestructible Ms. Marvel found herself locked in Rogue’s energy draining grasp.  At Mystique’s command, Rogue was ordered not to let go despite her pleas to do otherwise, and the end result left Ms. Marvel in a coma and Rogue with her powers permanently.  Ms. Marvel’s persona was also trapped in Rogue’s mind, and seeing that Mystique could not help her, she fled and soon found Charles Xavier who would help seal away Ms. Marvel and put an end to Rogue’s torment.

Now, as a result of Mystique’s mind games, Ms. Marvel’s persona was free and with Mystique’s shape-changing powers now absorbed by Rogue, her persona is able to take full control of body and mind.  Jean intervenes, and together the two battle in Rogue’s mind.  The viewer is left with a series of conflicted emotions.  The heroine Ms. Marvel was only doing her duty when she first encountered a young Rogue, and the fate that befell her was unfortunate and unjust.  However, we’ve come to know Rogue to be a hero herself and it’s tough to root against her.  Ms. Marvel (revealed to be Carol Danvers), is shown as both angry and sad as she screams at Rogue “You stole my life!” with tears streaming down her face.  She wants revenge, and justifiably so, and when Jean’s attempts to calm her spirit prove ineffective, she and Rogue find a way to seal her away once again.

Rogue is understandably torn up, and tells Mystique she’ll never be her daughter again.  Despite her villainous ways, it’s hard not to feel some sympathy for Mystique as Rogue flies off and leaves her behind once more.  In the end, Rogue is shown visiting the still comatose Ms. Marvel at the hospital and informs a nurse that her name is Carol Danvers.  As Rogue departs, a tiny smile creases the face of Ms. Danvers just before the credits roll on an extremely satisfying episode of X-Men.

Season one of the animated series X-Men was a great success for both Marvel and Fox Kids.  It was the highest rated program on Saturday Morning in its target demographic and thus was renewed for a second season.  Its reign as a rating’s top dog would be short-lived, thanks to a new kid’s show called Power Rangers, but its new-found status of second place had nothing to do with a dip in quality.  Far from it, actually, as season 2 would prove to be every bit as good as season 1, if not better.

Season 1 had a narrative structure that involved linking all of the episodes together, rather than having them all be stand-alone in nature.  This may have made it a little challenging for viewers to jump right in mid-season, but was rewarding for those who latched on from episode one.  Season 2 kept this format, but augmented it slightly.  Season 1 chose to introduce villains every few episodes, where as season 2 opts to focus more on the X-Men individually.  Most of the characters get their own episode that details their back story.  In Rogue’s episode we learn how she joined the X-Men, with Gambit we learn about his involvement with the thieves’ guild, and so on.  Cyclops and Jean are the only two who do not get this treatment.  Jean ends up being a big player in subsequent seasons while Cyclops will have a few episodes dedicated to him down the road.

The one narrative piece linking all of the episodes together involves Xavier and Magneto’s trials in the Savage Land, a place time forgot located in Antarctica.  They would receive a few minutes either at the end or beginning of an episode as they tangle with dinosaurs and try to avoid the Savage Land’s mutates, all while trying to uncover who the mysterious Leader is.  The villain Mr. Sinister would also play a large role in season 2 as he shows up in several episodes.  Sinister was still a some-what new villain for the comics and his inclusion would really benefit the character.  The other major villain would be the Friends of Humanity.  With Senator Kelly now president, the mutants needed a new human villain.  This organization would prove to be the KKK of mutant hating.  Lead by the merciless Graydon Creed, the FoH made life miserable for the X-Men in season 2 and were a big part of several episodes.  Their inclusion helped keep the civil rights aspect of the show in the forefront.

Till Death Do Us Part (Parts 1 and 2)

Evil Morph

For weeks before season 2 began airing, Fox teased fans with commercials featuring the big return of Morph, and this two-part story did not disappoint.  Morph was back and revealed right away to the viewing audience, but not to the X-Men.  The once cheerful mutant was now bitter.  It was soon revealed that Morph had developed two personalities; the happy-go-lucky persona we saw in “Night of the Sentinels” and a new, evil one.  This new one was depicted as having yellowish skin and black circles around his eyes.  He looked a little more gaunt as well, making him a sort-of zombie Morph.  He’s angry with the X-Men for leaving him to die at the Mutant Registration Compound, and he’s going to use his shape-shifting powers to get back at each member of the X-Men.  He first tricks Cyclops and Jean into thinking they’ve been married by a legitimate priest before sending them off on a honeymoon.  He sends Xavier to Antarctica by posing as a dying Magneto.  Jubilee is sent off to the Friends of Humanity headquarters (“That’s for thinking you could replace me!”), Gambit is duped into kissing Rogue (and being knocked unconscious by her energy draining powers), Storm ends up getting shot by police, and Rogue is pissed at Beast (they got off easy) for thinking he was going to back Storm up.

All the while the Friends of Humanity try to make life bad for mutants.  Creed hires someone to pose as a mutant and wreck up the place where President Kelly is giving a speech.  They’re able to provoke Wolverine, Gambit, and Beast into a fight and capture some unflattering images of the recently pardoned Beast for inclusion on the evening news.  This results in Wolverine storming off to take care of them on his own, which leads him to the FoH headquarters where Jubilee is being held and the two bust out.

The main baddie of season 2, Mr. Sinister.

Morph, of course, is eventually outed as the perpetrator of all of this mischief when Wolverine’s nose picks up his scent while he’s masquerading as Xavier.  He escapes the mansion and the X-Men follow him to a secluded island, a base for Mr. Sinister, and we see just what happened the night Morph died.  Cyclops and Jean are being held prisoner, and the X-Men show up to tangle with Sinister’s Nasty Boys.  We get some good action here, as the Nasty Boys possess some unique powers (and some not unique) that give the X-Men some trouble.  Of course, Morph comes to his senses and ends up saving the day by (inadvertently) freeing Cyclops from his restraints, who takes care of the rest.

The episode ends with the bad guys getting away and Morph taking off as well, much to Wolverine’s disappointment.  The episode does a good job of introducing Sinister as a puppet master who is both formidable in combat and behind the scenes.  The inclusion of Morph is pulled off in a respectable way as well.  Most of the time I despise it when writers bring characters back from the dead, but this one works, especially when one considers it was always kind of odd that a Sentinel blast could kill an X-Man.  The episode also concludes with Xavier and Magneto’s reunion and the two, thinking each had been invited by the other, are soon caught in an avalanche.  Xavier’s premonition of “I sense something sinister,” kind of ruins the whole mystery of who’s behind the Savage Land mutates that the writers try to perpetuate throughout the season, but it’s easily forgiven.  As a kid, I was disappointed Morph did not rejoin the X-Men at the episode’s conclusion.  As an adult,  I’m disappointed he was, more or less, freed from Sinister’s control as evil Morph was a very entertaining villain throughout the two episodes.

Whatever It Takes

The Shadow King, quite possibly the worse X-Men villain to appear in the animated series.

The first character to get their own special episode is Storm.  We learn that Storm has a foster son in Africa, and a disturbance in the astral plane discovered by Cerebro sends Storm and Rogue off to investigate.  The episode also introduces the Savage Land, a tropical oasis in Antarctica where many prehistoric creatures still roam.  Magneto and Xavier find themselves trapped here and strangely their mutant powers have vanished.  Along with that, Xavier is also able to walk again.  Magneto informs Xavier he is familiar with this land, but it never had such properties before.  They tangle with some dinosaurs and basically set the stage for what will end up being a season’s long adventure.

Wolverine has a side-story where he’s chasing after Morph through the jungles of South America.  He finds Morph, who has used his shape-shifting powers to assimilate himself with the locals, and the two tangle in a mine shaft.  Morph delights the audience with a couple of cameo transformations including Maverick and Deadpool as he attempts to harm Wolverine psychologically.  Eventually, Morph backs off and slips into his “good Morph” persona pleading with Wolverine to let him get through this by himself.  Wolverine, begrudgingly, acquiesces  to his friend’s wishes.

Sadly, the minor side story is the most compelling, as Storm and Rogue’s exploits in Africa are not.  The Shadow King is the one behind the rip in the astral plane, and he has targeted Storm’s surrogate son Mjnari in order to lure her back to Africa.  It is revealed that Storm once served the Shadow King in her youth as a pick pocket.  Xavier sealed the Shadow King away in the astral plane, a realm the most powerful psychics are able to access, destroying his physical body.  He possesses Mjnari, and then eventually Storm as she offers herself to him in order to spare her son.  Rogue is kind of just along for the ride as her brawn is not able to touch the Shadow King’s corporeal form.  Mjanri ends up finding a way to lure the Shadow King back into the astral plane, and the portal between the two worlds closes, sealing him away once more.  The whole thing is kind of silly and predictable, the end result being season 2’s worst episode.  At least they got it out of the way early.

Red Dawn

A new villain for the '90's: Omega Red

Season 2’s fourth episode is one of the few not to feature significant back-story or character details about one of the X-Men, and that’s because it chooses to introduce a new villain:  Omega Red.  Omega Red was a very new villain to the comics and one that caught on with audiences pretty quickly, mostly because of his look and because he was a new villain for Wolverine.  Red was born from the Soviet equivalent of the Weapon X project.  His back-story isn’t explained in great detail, just that he was the Soviet’s ultimate weapon and Wolverine lead a team that helped, in his words, put Omega Red back on ice.  Armed with retractable carbonadium coils (an indestructible metal similar to adamantium) that drain the life from his victims, Red is unfrozen by a corrupt Soviet regime looking to take back the country.

Naturally, this presents an opportunity to bring Colossus back into the fold.  Colossus helps Jubilee deal with some Friends of Humanity goons who are harassing a convenience store owner.  He tells Jubilee he has come seeking the X-Men’s help in dealing with Omega Red.  The X-Men aren’t home, so Jubilee leaves a note and the two head off to Russia to combat Omega Red.  Wolverine arrives home soon after from his exploits in South America, and promptly crushes the note while growling “Omega Red” and bad ass music plays as he stalks off to the hangar.

Back in Russia, Colossus and Omega Red face-off, with Wolverine soon joining the party.  We learn about their back-story, while Omega Red handles the threat effortlessly.  The battle is broken up, and the rest of the X-Men soon arrive.  Together, they battle Red and Storm’s mastery of the cold freezes Omega Red once more.  The character Dark Star, once an ally of the old regime, assists in taking down Red and she also apprehends those responsible for bringing him back.  Colossus once again is offered a place with the team, but he declines saying his place is with his family.  Unfortunately, this episode is the last to feature the brawny metal mutant.  A good almost one-shot for Omega Red (I say almost because he does get a return episode) and a way to keep the series topical with the comic books.