Tag Archives: mr. sinister

X-Men ’97 – “Bright Eyes”

Written by Charley Feldman and JB Ballard.

When we last saw our beloved X-Men, their world had just been destroyed. An idyllic place set to the soundtrack of the very on-the-nose choice of “Happy Nation” by Ace of Base in Genosha was laid to waste. Mutants of all backgrounds were slaughtered including our beloved Gambit and less beloved Magneto. In the aftermath of the episode’s airing, series creator Beau DeMayo took to social media to explain his reasoning for writing such a destructive story. In his view, the first four episodes were the nostalgia episodes. Things weren’t perfect, but a lot of what the X-Men had fought for in the original series had come to pass. Genosha was now their place where they belonged. It was a safe haven, but it was all so fragile.

DeMayo likened the attack on Genosha to both September 11th and the Pulse nightclub shooting. As a gay man himself, DeMayo designed much of the atmosphere of Genosha to mimic that of a gay club. Both are places where individuals who may normally feel pressured to hide who they really are can be themselves. And who they are is what also makes them a target. The world is not a safe place and we’re reminded of that constantly. In that, the world these characters inhabit is not unlike our own.

Rogue gets to do some ass kicking in this one.

This week’s episode doesn’t just have the events of “Remember It” to dwell on, but also those of last week’s episode, “Lifedeath – Part 2.” In that one, Storm regained her powers and also seemingly rediscovered some classic threads while Xavier had a vision of what transpired on Earth and was compelled to give up his life with the woman he loves. And in the closing moments, we saw who orchestrated the attack on Genosha. Mr. Sinister, with an assist from the DNA of Bolivar Trask, has seemingly assumed the role of catalyst for what could be a war between humans and mutants. It’s not surprising that a man who literally named himself Sinister is the one behind such a thing, but what does it mean for the character? Did he find another way to synthesize his perfect mutant from the DNA of Scott Summers and Jean Grey and is now ready to unleash his creation upon the world? Or is he acting on behalf of another? Perhaps someone who has always desired to bring about the apocalypse itself?

The opening “Previously…” for “Bright Eyes” is delivered by Rogue. In the scenes to follow, we mostly bare witness to what took place in episode 5 with the only piece from last week’s episode being Xavier’s voice over as he received his vision of what transpired. The opening title appears to be completely unchanged from last week. Storm has not been added back in and Nightcrawler gets to go two weeks in a row in a prominent spot. When the episode does begin, it gets right to the aftermath we have been waiting for. It’s Gambit’s funeral, and in attendance aren’t just X-Men, but Gambit’s former allies and would-be wife from the Thieves Guild. They’re just window dressing and it falls on Nightcrawler to lead the service since he’s a man of the cloth. It’s an understandably somber scene, but once absence garners much attention.

Perhaps Nightcrawler’s role will be like a team chaplain going forward?

Rogue, apparently not yet willing to deal with her grief, is on a one woman mission to find the man she believes is responsible for the loss of Gambit and so many others on Genosha: Bolivar Trask. Her mission will take her all over the globe and include in some interesting cameos from the greater Marvel Universe. She’ll eventually be forced to deal with her grief, but there’s a lot of anger in the woman and it’s fun to see Lenore Zann get to play Rogue in a different manner from what we’re used to. Elsewhere, the X-Men have decided their place is on Genosha helping out with the clean-up. Scott and Jean are still in a bad place, but this isn’t an episode with much room for the soapy drama we’re used to. Sunspot is also left to ponder if keeping the fact that he’s a mutant a secret the right way to go about things. After all, what if he was on Genosha that day and his parents found out he’s a mutant by IDing his corpse?

Eventually, anger gives way to sorrow when confronted by a great loss.

The last act of the episode is what pushes the narrative forward. We’ll learn more about how the attack on Genosha came about and the show is clearly setting the stage for the three-part finale that’s to follow. The X-Men will have a new enemy, and if there is a theme to this enemy it’s probably escalation which has been building since the start of the season. Whenever humanity scores a win over bigotry, be it in the real world or a fantasy like this one, the bigots always fine a new way to attach the marginalized. When the Emancipation Proclamation was put in place, the country went to war to actually free those from the bondages of slavery. When the war ended, Jim Crow surfaced followed by segregation, Tulsa, the Voting Rights Act, etc. Victory is often temporary, and the X-Men learned that the hard way. The end of the episode contains a pair of reveals as well. One we, the audience, were already in on and another we technically weren’t, but the show basically telegraphed. As such, I don’t think the final scene lands with the impact the show may have wanted, but people are sure to remember the song for the scene, at least. If you thought Ace of Base was an interesting pull, just wait until you hear this one.

“Bright Eyes” is another slow episode, one that is clearly building towards something. The show is clearly setting up for something spectacular, and now we get to see if it can stick the landing. I’m a bit sad there are only three episodes of X-Men ’97 left before the first season comes to a close, but I am very excited to see how it ends.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Lifedeath – Part 2”

Last week’s episode of X-Men ’97 ended in spectacular and heartbreaking fashion. If you were hoping to experience the fallout of that one, you’re going to be disappointed by this week’s episode. Like the week before which saw an episode end with Forge and Storm in a precarious situation, this week’s episode is willing to…

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X-Men ’97 – “Remember It”

Last week’s episode of X-Men ’97 saw the show take a breather with a fairly low stakes plot involving Jubilee and Roberto getting sucked into a video game. The last 7 or 8 minutes of the episode concluded with a more serious tone as Storm and Forge found themselves at odds in the wildlands of…

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X-Men ’97 – “Motendo/Lifedeath Part 1”

X-Men ’97 continues on into it’s fourth episode with a bit of a change-up. The first three episodes were rather weighty dealing with the fallout of Xavier’s death, Storm losing her powers, and the whole clone situation of the third episode. And that third episode did reveal a few cracks in the foundation of the…

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X-Men ’97 – “Fire Made Flesh”

Well, that was a long wait! After the two episode premiere of X-Men ’97 on March 20th I was ready for that third episode. The week long wait felt both excruciating and exhilarating. It’s been a long time since we’ve had an X-Men show to get excited about, or really an X-Men anything, and it’s been a lot of fun to see the early reception the new show has received over the past week. And it doesn’t hurt that the second episode, like the first, ended on a pretty major cliffhanger.

“Mutant Liberation Begins” was an episode that thrust Magneto into the spotlight. What are his goals now that he’s been handed the keys to the mansion? Turns out, he seems to want to give this whole unity thing a try, but humanity is making it difficult. He orchestrated a trip to Genosha for The Morlocks (and asked in doing so why Xavier and the X-Men never did this to begin with to which I agree) and submitted himself for judgement before the United Nations. There, Magneto’s politics were on full display and the show pulled no punches in highlighting who the enemy is, in both the real world and the fantasy one occupied by the characters of this show. It also proved costly for Storm was wounded by the F.O.H. aligned enemy, X-Cutioner, and rendered powerless. This lead to her departure at the conclusion of the episode in an emotionally charged scene, but the sadness wasn’t allowed to linger long for knocking at the door was a mysterious woman in some distress. Oh, and she looks exactly like Jean Grey.

Episode 2 ended on quite the cliffhanger.

Fans of the comics, or those who have just read up on X-Men lore, know a bit of where this should be going. And the show hasn’t hid the fact that Madelyne Pryor, The Goblin Queen, is to play a role in the show this season. Just how it will unravel remains a mystery. Who is the real Jean? Where did this other one come from? And what of the baby born to Scott and Jean in the previous episode? Many questions, and I’m sure all will be answered eventually, but they can’t all be tidied up in just one episode, though “Fire Made Flesh” is sure going to try.

Seeing what gets swapped into and out of the opening title is going to be fun.

The opening title has been updated to, sadly, remove Storm (aside from the group shots). We are treated to multiple cuts of recreated scenes from The Dark Phoenix Saga, and some were present last week, and I’m guessing this swappable scenes approach is going to come in and out in a way to spotlight what’s to follow. And it’s actually Jean (Jennifer Hale) who gets to deliver the “Previously, on X-Men…” line. Last week it was Magneto, who will get a turn next week?

This episode does find time to address why Bishop is present with the team, though don’t expect any real details on how he ended up here.

The episode begins right where the previous one left off. There are two Jeans, and only of them can be real. To my surprise, that question is answered almost immediately. I try to refrain from spoilers as much as possible, and if you couldn’t tell based on my introductory paragraphs, I’ll use the following week’s episode review to kind of react to the prior episode in a more spoiler fashion. In other words, make sure you’re up-to-date before reading one of these reviews, but you should be okay to read the current week’s before actually watching it, if you so desire. Anyway, I will refrain from outing who the Goblin Queen is, but obviously she has to be one of the two Jeans and she is not going to take kindly to finding out she isn’t the real Jean.

We knew the Goblin Queen was coming and she does not disappoint.

The act structure of the episode is basically as follows. The first part deals with the aftermath of the previous episode while the second act is The Mansion vs the X-Men. The Goblin Queen uses her powers to distort reality and force the X-Men to see their greatest fears, or just demons. For Morph, they’re going to see Mr. Sinister and a returning Roberto gets taunted by images of his mother, who doesn’t know he’s a mutant and he suspects will not take that news well. The rest are treated to their own version of Dante’s Inferno and it’s a visual delight. Rarely do the X-Men get to go full horror, and we get to see more creative team-up maneuvers from characters here as the action continues to be a highlight of the show.

There are some horror elements present in this one which is pretty unique for X-Men.

The third act is all about the X-Men vs the Goblin Queen, and the fun part of that battle is seeing her telekinetic powers fully unleashed in a showdown with Magneto. I had concerns that adding Magneto to the regular roster might throw things off. He is, after all, an extremely powerful mutant and there aren’t a lot of foes who pose a true threat to him. Goblin Queen is one such foe though and the battle is brief, but pretty damn cool. The fourth act is the resolution and we do get some setup for the episode to come. It’s not the cliffhanger either of the first two episodes were, but for comic readers it’s definitely enough.

Poor Morph just can’t escape this guy.

X-Men ’97 is credited to Beau DeMayo as the writer, but it’s pretty clear that this show is going to owe a whole lot to the writers who came before him. In particular, this is Chris Claremont’s story on the screen and he, along with many other writers, gets an acknowledgement in the credits. Does that mean he actually gets paid for the series? I don’t know. All of those guys were under work-for-hire agreements and it’s been a longstanding issue in the comics industry. I know Disney has made it a point to pay these guys something for their stories and characters when it comes to the MCU, but it’s probably not as much as they deserve considering how big some of those movies are. Also of note to me through these first three episodes is how the opening theme is credited to Haim Saban and Shuki Levy. I’m guessing that’s another mostly work-for-hire issue as it’s pretty well known that composer Ron Wasserman (working off a baseline provided by Ron Cannon) came up with the intro theme. It’s chronicled really well in the book “Previously…on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series” by Eric Lewald which I strongly recommend to all fans of the shows, both old and new. I don’t point the writer thing out as a way to diminish DeMayo’s contribution to the show, but merely as an acknowledgement that a lot of great writers have contributed to this show so far.

“Fire Made Flesh” is another good episode of television. I think episode two is still the champion, but that’s no slight on this third episode. I think my only criticisms up to this point concerned some of Rogue’s dialogue, but a new criticism is forming in that the show is moving at a very brisk pace. The plot of this episode could have been stretched across multiple ones. I don’t know if we had enough time with the current status quo of the series before getting to this one. The resolution would have been able to land with more impact if we did. One of the last scenes occurring outside the mansion between Jean and her newborn son should have hit harder, but we’ve been with these characters for too short of a time. We’ll see how the fallout is addressed as there is a lot of emotions to sort out and the lasting image we have of Scott and Jean does at least acknowledge that. I just worry that in adapting something that has so rich a history, DeMayo is trying to hit on too much too fast. Perhaps the next episode will calm my fears somewhat. I do think it’s something we won’t truly have a grasp of until the first season is in the books, but so far, the ride is fun and exhilarating and after the wait for this one I’m kind of glad we get a less suspenseful ending this week to hang onto.

For more reviews of X-Men ’97, or my write-up on the book I recommended, check out the below:

Previously on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series

A lot of cartoons made an impact on me as a child. My first love was The Real Ghostbusters. Its goofy cast of characters and excitement were plenty of fun and there were interesting toys to supplement the series with, which was pretty much the goal of all cartoons in the 80s. The Teenage Mutant…

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X-Men ’97 – “To Me, My X-Men”

It used to be that when a show got cancelled that was it. It simply ceased to exist as a new product. If there were enough episodes it could last in syndication on both broadcast and cable for a good while, but rarely was it accessible to the point where a fan could have the…

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X-Men ’97 – “Mutant Liberation Begins”

The first episode of X-Men ’97 left me grinning from ear to ear and eager to see what would happen next. I’m happy to say, the show’s second episode left me feeling very much the same. “Mutant Liberation Begins” starts off right where the previous episode ended. Magneto, has revealed that it was the wishes…

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Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Mr. Sinister

“My name is Sinister, Mr. Sinister.”

This week, the long wait for an in-person San Diego Comic Con comes to an end. For the first time since 2019, attendees, creators, and the like will be invited back into the city of San Diego for a celebration of all things comics, movies, and general “nerd” culture. One of the many panels this week will even focus on the 30th anniversary of X-Men, the animated series that capitalized on the rising popularity of a comic book and helped make a generation of kids lifelong X-Men fans. Because of that, the timing could not be better for the delivery of some new toys in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends subline of figures based on X-Men. And today, we have the first villain of the line: Mr. Sinister.

A lot of fans were probably a little surprised that the first villain in this line went to Sinister. I’m guessing most expected that honor to go to Magneto, who has always been thought of as the X-Men’s main villain. He even has the honor of being the true, first, mutant adversary introduced in the show with the third episode, “Enter Magneto.” Perhaps Hasbro is holding him back for something a little more special, and if you’re going to go to a number two villain it’s hard to do worse than Mr. Sinister. Sinister was the main villain of season two of the show. He’s teased at the end of the first season, something that was added in after the show’s late renewal, and has a presence all throughout that second season as he resurrects Morph, strands Xavier and Magneto in the Savage Land, encourages Mystique to go after Rogue, and the like. He’s just a general pain in the ass for the X-Men during that time, and while he does basically drift away following that, he did show up here and there following that season. As such, his original action figure and the show were how I, and I assume many others, were first introduced to the character and I always associate him with the cartoon.

He sure is a happy guy.

The obvious other reason why Hasbro went with Sinister in this spot is because he has a fairly recent action figure that can be reused and repainted for this line. If you read my reviews of Wolverine and Jubilee, then you know I’ve had a very mixed reaction to this line. Wolverine is largely fine, there are some errors and shortcuts that are inexcusable with him, but overall I like the figure well enough. The Jubilee figure was one I was far more harsh on that resulted in me going off on the concept of “value” when it comes to an action figure line. And a lot of those value criticisms I had with Jubilee will apply to Sinister, even more so. This figure is a bit of an odd thing to review as I’ll tell you right up front that I like this figure, but it’s also a terrible value.

This probably comes as no surprise, but Sinister is the tallest in the line so far.

Mr. Sinister stands at around 7″ to the top of his head and is depicted in his show accurate blue and red costume. The body has sculpted lines, or grooves, on it as the character is often featured with such a detail and he’s sporting a rather wicked grin. Sinister’s cape is basically impossible to do100% accurately given its unusual design, but Hasbro did a decent enough job with it here. It’s a very dark blue on the back and black on the inside. There’s an effort made to make it appear that all of the strands of the cape originate from around the collar, with some going straight up from there and cresting well over the figure’s head with others curling more at chin level. Some of the strands are molded together, which is odd, but maybe they were concerned about the durability. It’s a weird cape, so whatever, it’s fine. The only exposed skin on the character is on the head and neck and it’s bone white. He has the red diamond on his chest with red around the wrists and waist via the belt. His legs are a bit odd as he almost looks like he’s wearing thigh-high boots, but he also has boot cuffs down around the ankles, but that’s not a shortcoming with the figure as that’s how the character looks.

We really need a Cyclops to pair Sinister with, but Wolverine will have to do for now.

Sinister has a pretty wacky design that must have been a chore to bring to animation, especially with the budget X-Men had. The figure is fairly accurate to the source material, but it does differ in places. There’s a sculpting bit around the neck area where the cape is intended to “attach” to the costume proper. It adds a bit of realism to the look, but is something that isn’t captured in the animation. The thigh seams, or parts that looked like thigh-high boot cuffs, are angled when in the show they just cut straight across the thigh and were kept fairly simple. Sometimes they were given more of a diamond shape, but it was inconsistent as the character was a nightmare to animate. The figure also just plain looks chunkier than the character in the show. Sinister isn’t what I’d call skinny in the show, but he basically had typical super hero/villain proportions while this figure looks like it’s a bit beyond that. I’ll be interested to see how the figure scales with a future Cyclops as comparing it to Wolverine and Jubilee doesn’t really tell me much since those characters are among the shortest in the show.

The spine on the boxes can be arranged in such a fashion that it looks like the good guys are staring down the bad guys. Also of note, Sinister’s box is way chunkier than either Wolverine or Jubilee.

This being the animated line, the thing that’s going to stand out the most is the paint. To Sinister’s credit, this is the best paint job in the line so far. Sinister is fairly easy to shade as he’s just dark blue and black and Hasbro did a solid job of following the rules of the source material when applying the shading to this figure. It’s even fairly easy to find images from the show that appeared to give them a guide as to how to shade with the dark parts. The only odd part is that Hasbro opted not to use black, but a dark, almost slate, gray. It looks okay, but in some pictures and in certain lighting it gives the character a washed out look, like a poor quality digital image that didn’t capture the fullness of the colors. It’s weird, but does look better in person than in pictures. Like Wolverine and Jubilee, there’s no shading on the skin which is a bummer, but at least this character has paint details on the face in the form of the black around the eyes and on the chin, though the chin looks off-center on mine. There’s also some shading on the belt and inside the collar and it’s pretty striking. Hasbro even painted the inside of the boot cuff which I wasn’t expecting since it’s only noticeable from the rear. And speaking of the rear, there’s no shading on the back of the figure nor is there on any joints so you do get instances where blue plastic is poking through a shaded area like the ankle hinge. And that blue plastic is quite shiny, which normally is turn-off for me, but it’s not really bothering me much here. Maybe because I just like this shade of blue? This guy looks rather nice on the shelf and hopefully the figures that follow can match this paint job because I think few will complain about it.

This foot is ugly. There’s so much empty space between the heel and ankle. Yeah, it does let the foot pivot backwards very far, but why would Sinister ever need that much range in his ankle joint?

The thing I haven’t touched on yet is where this figure comes from. If you’re a Legends collector you may even be screaming at me because this figure is 100% reused from an earlier Mr. Sinister figure released about 3 years ago. Everything is the same except the neck. On the first release of this figure, the costume went all the way up the neck and even featured the same linework so Hasbro had to ditch that and replace it with a neck they could cast in white. That’s it though, that’s the only new piece and I doubt they had to actually re-tool a neck for this guy, they probably could source that from somewhere else. That first figure came with zero accessories and this figure does too. That means no extra head, no extra hands, and no effects parts even though the box art features him creating an energy DNA strand of some kind that would have been awesome to have. You’re basically paying a premium price for the VHS box and some extra paint. This is where I bring up the concept of value again as this figure is objectively a pretty terrible value, especially if you already have the old figure. A figure that is 100% reuse should have some room in the budget for at least some extra hands or a fireball. Even Jubilee, another 100% reuse character, got an extra head and some additional accessories, you mean to tell me there wasn’t some blast effect hanging around that couldn’t be tossed into the box? That’s the type of thing that literally adds pennies to the cost as opposed to whole dollars. I can only assume this line has a budget, not the individual figure, and the Legends team is forced to take from some figures to fund others, but that’s still not the problem of the consumer. If we’re being asked to pay more for this figure versus a standard Legends release, we need to see that reflected in the product and it’s just not here.

What do you do with a character that lacks accessories? Steal them from another figure! This is from a Lightning Collection Yellow Power Ranger.

Okay, rant over, so let’s talk about articulation. Again, if you have that old Sinister you’ve been here before. If you’re like me and you do not, then this is pretty new, but it’s also pretty familiar as Sinister doesn’t do anything other Legends don’t do. He’s got the same hinged ball joint on the head that lets him look up, down, and rotate, but it’s going to feel more locked down because of the collar. The shoulders are hinged and can go out to the side while the shoulder pads affect his ability to rotate all the way around, but it can be worked around and they are soft. There’s a biceps swivel, double-jointed elbows, and the hands rotate and feature horizontal hinges. One is a closed fist and one is open. The torso features an ab crunch that works okay. There doesn’t appear to be much parts rub so I don’t have any fears about the paint and the figure can crunch forward and back an acceptable amount. The waist features a twist and the hips allow for the character to spread its legs beyond what a Mr. Sinister figure really needs. There’s a thigh twist hidden by the way the legs are sculpted and the knees are double-jointed and work fine. There’s a boot cut above ankles which appear to be attached via ball pegs. They can rock side-to-side and bend very far forward and back and that’s because there’s a ton of plastic cut out on the back of the feet. It’s great for range, but the feet basically look like they’ve been mis-matched and don’t fit the figure when viewing it from the side. It’s pretty ugly and I would even go so far as to call it inexcusable. There’s nothing impressive going on here with the articulation, but there’s really nothing to complain about as this is a guy who doesn’t really do much in the show beside stand around and occasionally raises its arms to fire off some energy blasts.

Or if you prefer, the Black Ranger’s blast effect which kind of looks like an exploding pumpkin.

Mr. Sinister is one of those figures that I like, but I can’t fully recommend because the value is so terrible. If you’re collecting this line then you’re probably getting the figure since he did play a significant role in the show, but if you have that old Sinister you’ll probably feel a bit conflicted. They didn’t even fix the feet which were an apparent issue with the old figure. I at least do not have that original release so this figure is all new to me. Even ignoring that, it’s still absurd to see a Marvel Legends figure at this price point come packaged without any accessories at all. It would be one thing if Sinister was a figure that didn’t call for any, but even the box art depicts an energy effect. And if Hasbro wanted to do a show specific accessory (and I really wish they would make that a priority for every release) they could have given Sinister his Morph controller or that weird, little, robot bug he stuck in Morph’s head. I’d still rather a simple blast effect to those, and some alternative hands (I’m guessing the fist and open hand are a nod to the old Toy Biz figure, but a fist on Sinister is kind of useless), but I also would have appreciated little details like those. The VHS boxes are cool, but Hasbro seems to think they’re all the fan service this line needs and the result is that this line feels less like a celebration of the TV show and more like a cash grab.

If you want to add Mr. Sinister to your collection, he’s currently available at both Hasbro Pulse and Shop Disney. If you time it right, you may be able to get the figure with free shipping from the Disney website, or if you’re ordering the figure alongside 50 bucks in other Disney merch (free shipping can be triggered at $75). Shipping is free on the Pulse storefront only with a Pulse Premium membership. Those are your only options though.