"Magneto Was Right."
Following the amazing fifth episode of X-Men ’97, I was a little disappointed when the sixth didn’t immediately pick up in that episode’s aftermath. Instead, we were treated to the reveal that Xavier was still alive and kicking with the Shi’ar Empire in what proved to be a fun and well-written episode. I was itching to get back to Earth, though.
There’ve been a few diversions from the main story of the political divisions between mutants and humans on Earth throughout the series, but it looks like we’re done with that now. Episodes seven and eight pick up where five left off, and the fact the last three episodes share a title has me confident that we’re strapped in until the end of the line.
Episode 7 – Bright Eyes
Rogue is on a rampage, and can you blame her? She’s always walked on the wild side and after what happened to Gambit, she’s done playing nice. I initially thought that this was going to be the kind of story where some of the more level-headed X-Men have to reel her in before she gets her revenge on some humans and makes everything worse, but the episode didn’t really lean into that.
Rogue uses her powers on one awful human—the guy who ‘killed’ Xavier—to extract some information, but after that, Rogue just kind of rejoins the X-Men for their mission to Madripoor to hear from the guy who invented the mutant-killing Sentinels, Trask, who apparently has switched sides.
It’s fun to watch Rogue get angry. In a scene where she meets Captain America of all people, she throws his shield into a nearby mountain range because she’s pissed at him asking her to stand down. Mean, petty Rogue is my favourite Rogue. We get to see a bit more of her towards the end of the episode, but I wish we got more.
The Captain America scene makes reference to his ‘team,’ and I hope this was more than a mere reference. There are countless Avengers comics and cartoons, but I really do want to see how they’d integrate into the weighty political narrative of X-Men ’97, because I’m not sure they’d come across as the good guys, and that’s an enticing notion.
There’s a B-story throughout the episode following Jubilee and Roberto, the latter of whom is ‘coming out’ to his mother. It’s fine. It’s nice to have a more grounded storyline to cut away to for pacing and character development, and it does have a nice little bait-and-switch moment regarding Roberto’s mother’s reaction, but it’s not too gripping. Thankfully, the episode doesn’t spend too long on it.
There’s a bit of an exposition dump towards the end of the episode where we start to learn about who’s behind the attack on Genosha, but it kept my attention. It pieces together seemingly disparate plot elements of the show up until now in a way that perhaps raises more questions than it answers, but the fact that I wanted those questions answered is proof of the show’s hooks in me.
Episode 8 – Tolerance is Extinction: Part 1
This is the beginning of the end, and I’m happy to report that this episode conveys all of the weight that the climax of an X-Men story should. The stakes are huge, the threat is global, and the action is heart-pounding, all while finding worthwhile character beats.
Cable’s return adds a fun new dynamic to the team, and Jean’s decision to treat him like a son despite not being the one to give birth to him is satisfying and not belaboured.
The real meat of the episode is the onslaught of the ‘Prime Sentinels’—cybernetically augmented human sleeper cells that Bastion, our Big Bad, activates. We’re treated to a bevy of action set pieces as mutants and X-Men across the globe are attacked by these new human-shaped mutant-killing machines.
Honestly, these Prime Sentinels are pretty spooky—like a cross between the children from Village of the Damned and Transformers. The stand-out action scene for me was the Nightcrawler/Wolverine team-up. The animation is explosive and tactile and watching the writers invent new ways for the pair to get slashy is lots of fun.
We also get a bit of backstory about our new villain, Bastion, which nicely mirrors that of many mutants but with a technologic twist (and if you’re a real X-freak like me, you’ll know that his presence is setting up another prominent X-villain down the line). He feels scary but not unhinged or overly cartoonish, which really strikes a chord.
Magneto’s imprisonment feels cruel—as it should—and his unplanned release at the hands of Dr. Cooper of the U.N. doesn’t feel cheap, either. I was honestly a little surprised when Magneto managed to shut down all of the Prime Sentinels using his powers because where do the writers go from here? There’s two episodes left, but Bastion’s plan seems to have been thwarted.
Final Thoughts
The wait between episodes is the hardest it’s ever been. I’m overjoyed at the quality of this series, and these two episodes have been an absolute blast. I can’t wait to see what the series has up its sleeve for the final two episodes of the season.
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