User blog:Hawkeye2701/Review4U: X-Men TAS Episode 5

Alrighty, cause of the long delay since the last X-Men review, I'm going to follow my latest one with another before doing my Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions review. So here it is, on behalf of FoolishJester Should probably fix that, Xemnas-Spidey, this is Captive Hearts.

Story
We start off with a panning shot showing us several of the X-Men standing back to back in the Danger Room. As the program start, we begin to see just how suck some of them are, with Gambit for some reason dropping his cards immediately and Jean Grey, one of the world's most powerful, flailing at a spinning blade she saw coming. Making it through, we hear Xavier giving a lovely motivational, pointing out that as long as mutants fear them, they are in danger and that they should remember what happened to Morph. Cheery fellow, isn't he? He then promptly starts it up again without warning, what a do*che. Storm co-ordinates the others in taking out the threats, but the walls and ceiling start to close in on them, bringing about an episode of Claustrophobia for her. Creating a localized hurricane, Xavier eventually turns it off. When Storm objects to leading because her condition puts the others at risk, Xavier states that she may not have a choice.

The scene shifts to Wolverine, still bandaged up, but training in his room. Jean walks in and chides him for it, pointing out that even he can't heal that fast (Debatable, but I'll accept it for this series) He strains his injury, prompting Jean to rush over to him and creating a rather awkward moment before Jean says she has to go.

Fast forwarding somewhat, we see Jean and Scott leaving a performance of Phantom of the Opera, another clever one for those who know the material as it is essentially the story of two men fighting over the one woman, one a monster, the other a childhood love. She starts asking why he's so distracted and he brings up his feelings towards being an X-Man and not wanting to disappoint the Professor. A mutant kid (Later revealed to be the Morlock Leech) uses telekinetic power to steal some fruit, causing several people to advance on the boy before he separates them with the same power and run past. Scott and Jean follow the angry group into the subway in pursuit of Leech only to find the humans being attacked by the Morlocks (None of whom seem to have the right powers bar maybe Sunder) Attempting to quell the riot, Scott blasts Sunder, halting the Morlocks, but the appearance of another named Annalee, who uses her powers to cause the humans and X-Men to fall asleep, ends the conflict all together. Callisto appears, ordering Sunder to take Scott and Jean with them.

Back at the school, Wolverine lays on his bed, looking at a photo of Scott and Jean (Why does he even own a photo with both of them?) Comments by Rogue and Gambit prompt him to carve a line through Scott, so at least we know he's taking it well.

Waking up, we get a close up of Scott's brown eyes (Makes a change) His powers being nullified by Leech. Being carried out and thrown at the feet of Callisto, she welcomes him. Explaining that the Morlocks are mutants too unsightly to pass for humans above, she notes that having seen Cyclops' ability, she wanted him to rule the Morlocks alongside her and that she sent Leech above to lure him down there. When Scott refuses, she blows a gasket, and he points out that sunlight fuels his power and that he isn't much use underground (The Accepted Theory at the time so I'll not complain about it, just question why he never figured to hang out on the lower level of the mansion for a while so he could see things normally from time to time) It's at this point she brings up that she doesn't need him for his fighting ability, but to provide her an heir, not only providing another parallel with the Phantom of the Opera, but also pushin' that cartoon envelope a bit more as it's not every day you hear someone subtly state their need for a sex slave.

In a wonderful turnabout, Callisto brings out Jean and calls for her to be killed for Scott's refusal. Jean then busts herself out and scatters the Morlocks before calling the Professor on the ol' Psychic hotline for reinforcements. Score one for Jean, zero for the Fearless Leader (Whether I'm referring to Scott or Callisto, take your pick) Unfortunately, Jean maintains the upper hand only shortly before being knocked out.

Sending more X-Men into the underground, they track the pair some ways in before the Morlocks jump them. The subterranean mutants prove no match however and the X-Men pursue them into the sewers with Storm becoming more uncomfortable as they go. Coming across a brainwashed Jean and Annalee, she tries to convince Wolverine he's covered with scorpions. As with all things Wolverine, this only serves to make him angrier. Forcing Annalee to retreat, they're soon confronted by Callisto standing over a supposedly dead Cyclops. Wolverine comes to the rescue once again, stabbing a little too close for the Morlock disguised as a dead Cyke to handle. Exposing the ruse, the two groups do battle to the theme song, during which, if anything, Wolverine starts looking like a better match for Callisto than Cyclops. The battle ends with Gambit out of commission thanks to an old woman who makes people sick and being sent back with Rogue while Wolverine pursues Callisto.

Finding Scott, he rescues him, but as the X-Men meet up, Annalee uses her powers to cripple Storm and drive Wolverine to attempt to kill Scott. Jean soon deals with the problem. Storm pulls herself together and challenges Callisto to a one-to-one duel for leadership of the Morlocks. Agreeing, the two start to fight using giant glow sticks. Storm wins and offers the Morlocks safe haven at the school, but they refuse, saying they'll go above when humanity is ready to accept them. Storm agrees and says she will return for them, but until then, Callisto will rule in her stead. Scott wakes up in Jeans arms and the two kiss.

Back at the mansion, Gambit is recovering and Xavier commends Storm for her leadership in the field. When Scott and Jean go to thank Logan for his help, they find his room empty, the photo of them torn in half.

The Review
Starting with the negatives, I'm once again unsure how much research the writers put into finding out what the Morlocks can actually do. Most of their powers seem close, but not quite what they actually do and Leech, while still possessing his nullification power, also has telekinesis for some reason. In some cases it's not a bad thing, Tar Baby certainly seems more useful than his power would normally be and Erg's is pretty much right with the exception of looking like Scott's eye blast instead of electrical discharge, but someone like Annalee was seemingly given a form of Telepathy instead of Empathy, and then they relied on it the entire episode to make the Morlocks even half a credible threat to the X-Men. Other than that, I question where the Morlocks got footage of Cyclops fighting Sentinels, but that's really neither here nor there in the long run.

My other problem was Xavier early in the episode. I know I was praising his flaws in the last episode, but here he just seemed overly harsh and while it might have paid off in Storm facing her failings and leading the X-Men, it certainly didn't feel like constructive criticism.

Onto the positives, the parallels with Phantom of the Opera are quite nice as is Storm's coming into her own as leader of the X-Men, if only temporarily. As I'm sure Xemnas-Spidey will appreciate, there's so little Jubilee in this episode I don't even need to comment on her, but we do get a decent showing by the rest of the X-Men which is great. It actually shows what a difference training makes to the odds in a fight between mutants. The story itself is good and while having some loose ends due to the less episodic nature of the series, it does work as a stand alone story and works out in the end. In a really good turn, this episode actually provides story lines and foundations for future events in the series, such as the Christmas episode and even the first appearance of one of Apocalypse's Horsemen, but I'll get to those later.

For now, I'm Hawkeye2701 and on behalf of Xemnas-Spidey, and I'm going to the year 802,701 for a breather.