User blog:Hawkeye2701/Review4U: X-Men TAS Episode 7

It's that time again. Review4U is proud to present the seventh installment of Xemnas-Spidey's requested X-Men TAS reviews. Now I was given the request for the Complete Ultimate Spider-Man, but unfortunately, my inability to find even a decently complete collection of either Peter or Miles' run as the web-slinging wonder leaves that one in a state of limbo, so I must ask the requestee to be patient, but in the meantime, I am still accepting requests for other material, as otherwise the future is just a long,, tireless run of X-Men episodes. Now then, to the topic at hand, I'm Hawkeye2701, and this is Slave Island.

Story
Right off the bat, we get the sound of an alarm repeatedly beeping as Jubilee wakes up in a cell. The close up on her face as she awakes gives us a very unnerving look at her brown eyes. Seriously, that expression, wow, it's... Frightening.

Being called out of her cell with numerous other mutants, all wearing flashing yellow collars, they are informed that they're being used by the Leader of Genosha to help build a dam.

After being led outside, the collars, which are suppressing their powers are turned off. Storm instantly jumps into action, but Gambit holds back Jubilee. The collars are quickly turned back on and Storm plummets into the river where a Sentinel captures her.

When Bolivar Trask, having moved to Genosha after the MCA's failure in the U.S., orders Storm be disposed of. Gambit jumps in, telling Trask what she can do, making the scientist reconsider. Instead, he orders her confined to a small box like cell on top of the dam, causing her to panic due to her claustrophobia.

As the work continues, the captured mutants see Sentinels fly off towards an explosion in the forest, Trask mentioning "It's Him." before the mutants are sent back to their cells.

With the remaining X-Men, Cyclops tries to contact the others, only to be cut off. Jean assures him Storm will be alright as Wolverine walks in, remarking he's been somewhere cold when the others question him.

Back on Genosha, Jubilee, having stolen a piece of wire earlier in the day, escapes her cell when the power starts to short out. She goes to confide her escape plan in Gambit, but he shows little interest, as do the other mutants when she tells them.

At the School, Scott and the others prepare to leave. Offering the Professor the chance to go with them, he refuses, bringing up that he has other business. We see him calling Muir Island and asking for Moira McTaggart before the others leave.

A new day on Genosha and Jubilee finds Gambit gone. Sunfire tells her he was taken away in the night, and that the others are willing to work with her. Jumping the guard and stealing the collar controls, the mutants quickly find it doesn't work before they're blasted by guards and Sentinels, the Leader announcing they were forewarned by one of the mutants themselves. Jubilee, as the leader of the rebellion, is thrown in a cell next to Storm.

Swapping to the Sentinel factory on Genosha, we see Trask and Gyrich admiring Master Mold, a giant Sentinel that builds other Sentinels. Talking with the leader and a man named Cameron Hodge (Important for later), we find that the reason for the dam is to power Master Mold's sentinel production. They then reveal it was indeed Gambit who sold out the other mutants rebellion to the Genoshans. After a brief and fruitless interrogation, they send Gambit back to the prison.

Along the way, he escapes the transport, only for his pursuers the be blasted by the Mysterious Cable. Asking for help, Cable throws Gambit a key to the restraint collars before disappearing.

At the factory, Hodge explains that Cable was once a Mercenary for the Leader, but once he found out about the Leader's true nature, took off to wage his own personal war from the hills.

At the dam, the theme tune starts kicking in as Gambit busts Jubilee and Storm out of their hot boxes. The trio make a break for it.

Meanwhile, Cable attacks the Factory and the leader, cutting off power to Master Mold.

Back at the dam, the X-Men make their move, releasing the other mutants. Together they overrun the guards and the majority of them escape. Storm starts using her powers to manipulate the weather, bringing down the half finished dam.

Back at the factory, Cable storms the place, only to be confronted by a half-finished sentinel.

After tiring herself out destroying the dam, Storm is rescued from her fall by Rogue, the other X-Men arriving in the nick of time.

With Cable, he hunts down the leader at last, holding him hostage until the water from the dam floods down, seemingly sweeping him, the leader and Hodge away. Inside the Factory, Master Mold attempts to escape, only to pathetically comment that it's still plugged in before the flood brings down the wall and washes it away as well.

Collecting their missing members, the X-Men return to the mansion only to find it in ruins. Thus ending the episode.

The Review
Sorry if the synopsis was a bit dry this week, but I promise I'll make up for it now, as there's a lot to pick a apart.

Starting with the negatives, I'm gonna be honest, I think the Genoshans somehow managed to pick only minority mutants. After the Cajun, Chinese American and African, they then managed to capture Japanese Sunfire, French Canadians the Beaubier twins, Native American James Proudstar and even Blob, whilst not a minority, morbidly obese doesn't quite cut it. Now I'm not saying don't represent minorities or that I think the majority characters are somehow superior, but it's pretty much fact that the older, more recognized characters in comics, tend to be the WASPs, the more equal representation only coming later, and I don't know, not seeing a single of these more recognizable, forefront characters in the line up, makes it feel like the animators didn't want to waste the popular characters on this plot. The most recognizable person after the X-men in the lineup was Mystique, who not only didn't get a speaking role, wasn't seen anywhere but walking to and from the cells. This is the woman who ran the Brotherhood at several points and is one of Marvel's greatest infiltrators, and she doesn't even say anything!

Aside from that, I won't lie, I find Cable completely superfluous and kind of dumb here. Don't get me wrong, Cable is a badass, but including him here makes him seem like a stupid badass. Just to be clear for those who don't know, Cable is not only a time traveler, but has a data bank of near limitless info built into his arm. How did this man not know Genosha was Anti-Mutant until after he already signed up? Not to mention, everything he does is superfluous. Master Mold would have still been drowned, Gambit was still escaping, and if Cable can take a key from them, there's no reason an expert thief couldn't. The only thing he 'did' was hold up the leader, which considering Genosha is still anti-mutant and Hodge, the other guy, is still alive after this, that too was pointless. It seems the only reason Cable is in this episode was to introduce him before the big plots involving him, which isn't a bad idea, it's just poorly executed. The Batman animated series did a good job of this by introducing Harvey Dent a good while before his transformation into Two-Face as Bruce's friend, but here, Cable is just out of place and if you think on it, really not needed.

Onto the positives. The biggest compliment I can give this episode, is that not a single main character was stupid. Now just to be clear, just because they weren't stupid, doesn't mean they didn't make poor decisions in places, but they weren't stupid stupid. Cyclops was checking up on the team, and when they didn't respond, he loaded up the X-Men for action. Gambit held off and played the long game for getting everyone out of there and Jubilee, as I'm sure Xemnas-Spidey will object, actually had some good ideas, like picking up the wire, and jumping the guard, they just weren't 'Gambit-I'm-A-Freakin-Master-Thief' level plans. Even Trask and Gyrich weren't as dumb as before. They set up shop in a place that sympathized with their goals, brokered deals, and were using the mutants to build a dam that would power the mutant killing robots. Not only is it pretty smart, it's brutally poetic. The closest one to being stupid in all of this was Storm, who jumped at the chance to escape, but let's look at her credentials here. She can fly, she can control the weather, and in a few seconds of take off, she blasted what appeared to be the only control panel to the collars at the time. It may have ended in disaster, but I tend not to start by underestimating the power of someone who can create hurricanes.

The story, with the exception of Cable's inclusion, is straight forward and enjoyable. it may not be packed with super powered fights, but it was still a good showcase of both Gambit and Jubilee's more cunning sides, and the sheer power Storm can conjure. it even answers what became of Gyrich and Trask, not that anyone really cared, but at least it's not a loose end.

Well, that just about covers it I think. There's probably more nitpicking things I could bring up as either good or bad, but honestly it doesn't add much to the review. So from Xemnas-Spidey to Hawkeye2701, this is Review4U X-Men TAS. Have a good night, I'm off to stalk the jungle with a laser cannon.