Unlike the first three episodes of season two of X-Men ’97, this fourth one is going to spend all of its time in one era. And as you could probably guess, that era is 3,000 BCE since that is where we left off last week. I consider these reviews that I do spoiler free, but even so, I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that Rama-Tut’s (John de Lancie) attack at the end of last week’s episode was not very successful. The show wanted us to believe that our beloved X-Men were in real danger, but that was pretty hard to believe considering it was just the third episode. As expected, Magneto (Matthew Waterson) was able to put up a forcefield just in time to spare our heroes. Also surviving, to no one’s surprise, is En Sabah Nur (Adetokumboh M’Cormack) who is basically some kind of super man and I think he just shrugged it off. As for the rest, they’re all dead and Nur’s fortress is in ruins. Among the dead is Baal, Nur’s adopted father, and it’s unlikely he’ll react well to that.
Much of last week’s episode featured Magneto trying to get En Sabah Nur to buy into Xavier’s (Ross Marquand) dream of human and mutant coexistence. Mercy was a big part of that lesson, but when Nur discovered that Magneto and the X-Men were sneaking around behind his back and working on a time machine, he grew pretty angry. He felt this was a betrayal, which seemed extreme to me at the time, but it’s hard to get a read on just how Magneto sold himself to Nur. Clearly, he doesn’t look like someone born in Egypt so he should have known that he was from somewhere far off (we’ll ignore the whole language thing, everyone speaks English because it’s just easier that way). Then again, Nur doesn’t really look like a typical Egyptian either thanks to his mutation and I suppose he may have assumed the same of Magneto. Either way, that door was shut by episode’s end, but now it’s Xavier’s turn to try to appeal to the would-be mass murderer. Since Xavier and pals survived Tut’s attack, Nur is forced to look upon him with respect since he does buy into that whole survival of the fittest mantra. Xavier is then able to convince Nur to allow him to probe his mind to find out just what it is they are both seeking.
Xavier doesn’t really learn anything new, at least not to the audience. The temple they, and Rama-Tut, are seeking is quite literally calling out to En Sabah Nur. It’s clearly not of this world, but it’s a destination they all seek. It’s also made even more important for the X-Men to find this thing because Magneto is very much committed to his idea of reform for Nur so much so that he disables Bishop’s (Isaac Robinson-Smith) time traveling bracelet. He seems to think they’ll be able to repair it with the tech waiting for them at this temple, but that’s one Hell of a gamble. The rest of the episode is fairly straight-forward. We do get some character moments of which the most intriguing is between Rogue (Lenore Zann) and Nur while camping for the night. Xavier also receives a communication from Rama-Tut himself during which viewers not familiar with the character get the Cliff’s Notes version of just who he is. The most interesting aspect of the meeting is finding out that Tut is attempting to prevent the rise of Apocalypse (Marquand), though he seems to view it as inevitable. I mostly find it interesting because we know that he, as Immortus, will assist Bishop in doing just that some 5,000 years in the future during the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc. He had to wait an awful long time for that sort of satisfaction.
And inevitable is certainly a theme with this one. What we’re seeing is a fatalistic approach to time travel on display where everything occurs in a loop. We saw that in episode two with Nathan obtaining the power of Apocalypse’s celestial ship, which was referred to simply as Ship in the X-Men episode “Obsession.” That entity manifests itself as Cable’s computer, a device which allows him to travel through time and a power Apocalypse seeks in “Beyond Good and Evil.” It first rested with Apocalypse until Cable essentially stole it before he reacquired it to embark on that particular quest. With the X-Men in the past attempting to prevent his rise, they have inadvertently become a part of it. Apocalypse is inevitable, and like Bishop trying to alter time to improve upon his future, it seems like there is little mere mortals can do about it. Everything has happened for a reason and for longtime viewers of X-Men and now X-Men ’97, it’s rewarding to see how everything intertwines.
This episode does feature an action-packed climax and a resolution designed to land with a wallop. It is, unfortunately, undermined by the show up to this point as we have had numerous fake outs and lasting consequences seem to be in short supply when it comes to X-Men ’97. That is not unique to the show as it’s something of a failing for comics as a whole. Perhaps the fallout will land better in a future episode, but for me when this one was over I didn’t feel much of anything other than appreciation for how well everything was animated. To my surprise, the episode also didn’t really toy with the idea of the X-Men taking out En Sabah Nur before he becomes Apocalypse, assuming they could. There is a brief moment where it seems like Bishop is willing to do so, but he’s stopped and no discussion ensues. A pedantic complaint I also have is we see Xavier and Magneto secretly communicating via telepathy, but the whole time Magneto is wearing his helmet. This would not have been an issue in the original series because at that point it had not been established that Magneto’s helmet blocked psychic attacks. Unfortunately for the show, that retcon was adopted for the first season of the show so it should still be in effect now. It further annoys me because we didn’t need Magneto to put his helmet on. He didn’t have it in the previous episode and I don’t even know how he managed to recover it during all that happened on Asteroid M, so why even stick it back on his head now? The design is slightly different so maybe it’s not the exact same helmet and instead one he created during their time in Egypt. Even so, it sure looks to be largely the same so there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t possess the same benefits as his old one.
It’s not important, just something a very invested fan like myself needs to call out. “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 2” lives up to its name and it will likely prove to be a necessary step for the greater conflict with Apocalypse this season. Nothing is resolved here as far as that conflict goes, though other aspects of this early season are. For instance, we do learn who was calling out to Xavier in that vision he had in the prior episode, though the individual is never given a name (you’ll have to…search…that information out yourself). I should also point out that there is a stinger scene at the end of this one during the credits so don’t bail on it while the X-Men are spinning on their pedestals. It’s just a tease for next week’s episode and if you looked ahead at the episode titles then you can probably guess where we’re heading. I’m expecting it to be kind of a time out episode before we get back to the Apocalypse plot, but I obviously could be wrong. This is an episode of X-Men ’97 that largely keeps the train rolling and serves to be an exciting half hour of television with some time travel quirks, albeit one with an ending that doesn’t land as forcefully as the writing staff probably intended.
Previously…on X-Men ’97:
X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 1”
The premiere episode for season two of X-Men ’97 took us to the far off future where Apocalypse reigns supreme. The second followed that one up with a story set in the present time of the series: 1997 (Duh!). Now, for the third episode of this three-part premiere we head to ancient Egypt to meet…
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The title of this post says X-Men ’97, but in some respects it should read X-Force ’97 because that’s what the opening title presents. Yes, boys and girls, we have ourselves an X-Force on television. Cable made numerous appearances in the original series, but never as the leader of X-Force. This surprised me as a…
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X-Men ’97 – “Days of Past Future”
At last, X-Men ’97 has made its return to airwaves with not one, not two, but three episodes for the premiere which means there’s a lot to talk about. Truthfully, too much for one post which is why we need to keep things to one episode per entry as is the style of the time.…
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The Nostalgia Spot 