User blog:Hawkeye2701/Review4U: X-Men TAS Episode 10

Well, once more into the breach dear friends, as we rapidly approach the end of the X-Men Animated Series Season 1 finale. So let's not dawdle and continue Xemnas-Spidey's reviews with episode 10, Come the Apocalypse.

Story
We open on Muir Island, where Dr. Adler and Warren discuss his 'cure' and Warren is put through the process, Mystique revealing herself just as he's about to be changed. Apocalypse appears out of nowhere to oversee as Warren is transformed.

Back at the bar on the island, two mutants (Plague the Morlock and a dude with a horrendous bowl cut) argue about when they'll get their cure as the X-Men (Once again in full uniform) sit down to lunch. As Xavier explains the psychology behind those who hate their powers, we also see a thin woman wither a flower just by touching it. It's then that Warren bursts in, seemingly no worse for wear, crying out happily that he is cured and that Adler's treatment works.

At the lab, we see Apocalypse viewing Warren on a monitor, claiming that Mystique impersonates him well as the real Warren makes his entrance, his skin blue, his wings small and metal and declaring that Worthington is no more, that he is Archangel. As Apocalypse monologues, we see thee three mutants from the bar go through the same process, each of them in turn transformed into Apocalypse's Horsemen.

Back home at last, in the rec room, Rogue and Gambit play pool, and after a crass comment from the Cajun, Rogue complains about his flippant attitude towards her mutation. Storm meanwhile throws on the television where the news reports on a disarmament conference in Paris. The chairmen of the conference steps forward, questioning whether or not disarmament is an option while mutants walk among people. Above him, a gargoyle on the roof transforms to reveal Apocalypse (Never mind walking among us, mutants are coming out of the bloody masonry!) Declaring himself, he soon sics the Horsemen on the people below. In an interesting note, Plague (Now Pestilence) previously looked and sounded like an old woman, now she merely sounds it as the process apparently took about 40 years off her age, and yet couldn't do jack about War's bowl cut.

Meanwhile at Xavier's, he worries about the inability to reason with Apocalypse, insisting he must be stopped. Sending one team to confront the horsemen, he also sends Rogue back to Muir Island to look into Adler's supposed cure, having recognized the Horsemen as those who demanded the cure.

We see the Horsemen commit various atrocities before Rogue lands back in Scotland, finding Adler's lab with a new hole in the roof (As opposed to the old one they installed last episode) Confronting Adler, she locks him into the machine before Mystique reveals herself at last. Explaining the machine and Apocalypse, she reveals the location of his hidden command centre under Stonehenge, cause, you know, a minor wonder of the world that's been repeatedly studied and is visited by photographing tourists on a regular basis is totally inconspicuous. Turning Mystique loose, Rogue tells her that Apocalypse won't like that she helped them, Mystique, of course, shoots Rogue in the back, blasting her into the machine, destroying it before making her escape.

With the other X-Men team, they arrive to the theme music to battle Pestilence. After a quick victory, the other horsemen appear and rescue their defeated comrade before leaving, seemingly leading the X-Men back to their base.

At Stonehenge, Rogue arrives and confronts Apocalypse, but proves no match for him. Before Apocalypse finishes her however, the Horsemen arrive with the X-Men in hot pursuit, starting a brawl in the middle of Stonehenge. Rogue takes the opportunity to drain Warren of his powers, only to seemingly drain the mental programming Apocalypse had implanted. Warren, now thinking clearly, uses his wing projectiles to break up the fighting. The other Horsemen scatter as Apocalypse's ship rises from beneath the Henge, thus destroying one of the great landmarks of England. Lamenting what he had done, Warren takes off into the night.

The Review
Okay, as always, let's start with the bad.

There is none.

Honestly, I sat trying to think what I would consider bad about this episode, and really, I can't think of anything beyond a single line of dialogue, and that's it, one line in the entire episode struck me as bad and that's when the Horsemen return after saving Pestilence and Warren declares to Apocalypse that they aren't worthy because they were defeated. Which considering only one was defeated and when they were leaving they left Nelson's column about to flatten Wolverine, I can't really call that a defeat. So yeah, one line in an episode and that's that. I guess the uniform thing from the previous episode, but if they hadn't left the island from last time, it's not like I expect the Blackbird to come with a change of clothes, so whatever.

Onto the good and we open with Apocalypse! I don't care if he sounds like a Sh*tfaced Winston Churchill, I love this guy. His voice is dramatic, his speeches epic and he just radiates pure awesome. He's everything you could want from a villain and the only complaint I could make about him is that he got used too soon. In X-Men: Evolution, a series I will no doubt review in time, they saved this bad boy for a good couple of seasons in, and it made it epic. For a series that still has four seasons to go, opening with Apocalypse might have been premature. His minions are pretty impressive, even if they do look pretty goofy by modern standards and at the end of the day, he is one of the X-Men's premier villains.

As for the moral of the story, in something of a reverse on the last episode, I think this one sits more on the side of not judging those who do want to change, that people who aren't happy with their lives have the right to want to be different and shouldn't be judged for it and in another reversal from previous episodes, this one isn't handled horribly, as the blame for their becoming horsemen is firmly placed on Mystique and Apocalypse, and the choice itself is never damned, just the result. Admittedly presenting this to children, it might come across as a bit of a confused message "It's okay to be different, just make sure you won't end up accidentally consenting to being an Supremacist's mind slave", but that in itself isn't a bad message.

In summary, this is probably the best composed episode of the series thus far, if not necessarily the most enjoyable, but if from here on out I have less to complain about in episodes, it can only be better, right? Anyway, this is Hawkeye2701 on behalf of Xemnas-Spidey, about to ride off into the sunset.