X-Men '97: Episode 3 Review/Spoilers

[wlfking]

They adapted Inferno and Endgame and it was very well done!

I dont like how uncertain they kept the switcheroo. Jean for most of the orginal series could have been a clone for all we know and i dont like that

ETA:
Did anyone else think that Maddie was going to go to the future with Nathan to raise him? I did not expect Bishop to actually leave. Within the first 3 episodes, the 2 black characters are written off the team

Yeah. I thought they might have her go with the baby after Bishop said there was only enough juice for two. Thought she might snatch the watch at the last second. Would have removed her from the story for a little bit and kept Bishop around.

[Havok83]

Great episode. Lot of fun. But by god does it move fast. I'm familiar with some of the stories it tossed in the blender here but I think I've only read the New Mutants portion of Inferno.

And Bishop just walking off with baby Cable into the time portal? Uh . . . I'm not saying him raising Nathan couldn't be a good story but . . . I'm guessing they might separate so that doesn't happen and Bishop gets back in time to remain part of the opening credits? ^^;

Forge, eh? Wonder if he's still leading X-Factor by this point.

My theory? Sunspot replaced him next week

[Confuzzled]

I don't see why some folks think Maddie was the one who became Phoenix.

Yeah, I don't know why Maddie was like, "I guess we'll never know". Maybe for her as she's the clone with fake implanted memories but real deal Jean just needs to rely on her own memories to remember when the swap took place and all her experiences prior (no pun).

[yogaflame]

forge sounds really cool but they kinda aged him down in this he seemed older in his appearances in the present time on TAS

We first met Forge in the future timeline with Bishop in season 1, where he was greying a good bit, and depicted as old or older than Logan(who had not yet been given the extreme backstory yet, and he ages somewhat similar to his peers on the team, as we see by his appearance relative to them in DOFP to begin with), compared to the young and strong Bishop. I think they just kept the same VA when they introduced Forge in the present timeline, in that Iceman/X-Force episode.



So their modern day Forge was being voiced by a guy they cast for sounding like an older guy to begin with. Mark Strange, evidently, who was about 50/51 when they recorded season 1, looks like the Iceman episode came out in 1995.

Forge's age in the comics has always been somewhat unclear. I mean, he was introduced in 1984 as a Vietnam War vet, so he'd have been a decade after his war, let's say he was in his teens or early 20's when he enlisted, deployed a few years later, at best, we're talking maybe 35 years old, a few years younger than Xavier(who was really only like 35/40 then in a brand new cloned body) who was a Korean War vet(back when these dates almost kinda made sense).

So Forge/Banshee/Xavier/Emma were all the same age of 35/40 or so, but the X-Men were like 25ish for Scott/Jean/Angel/Beast/Storm, or younger 20's like Nightcrawler, Iceman, Havok, Polaris, and then there were tons of the teens Piotr/Rogue/Kitty/Rachel/the New Mutants/Jubilee/etc. By the time the 90's were wrapping up, Xavier, Forge and Banshee got interpreted as even older men, while Emma shifted even younger, so much so that by the time the Morrison(who ages Charles precisely at 41) era wraps up, somehow Emma is actually younger than Scott and Jean?! But especially after 60 year old Patrick Steward was cast as Xavier in '99/2000, who now is more "grandfatherly", not, "fathered a 17 year old(Legion) right out of college during my gap year" old, like he was in the canon.

Anyways, I'm glad to hear a new voice for Forge.... Gil Birmingham, who appears to be an actual native American from Texas, who also has a degree in engineering before getting into acting, so By the Goddess, he's basically Forge incarnate!



Interestingly he's about the same age as Alison, only a few years older than her, which should give their characters good chemistry, and I like that his age is not too drastically greater than Ororo's in this series(despite both voice actors being quite older than their characters are depicted, and actually older than Forge's VA in TAS, relatively, based on recording date).

(Also interesting to note that Magneto's new VA is much younger than Rogue's).

Anyways, I'm very curious to see how LifeDeath(and LifeDeathII, even though M'Jnari is already in the TAS canon?) is adapted. I mean, they kinda have to do some version of the Adversary's Fall of the Mutants storyline to give her her powers back in a faithful or at least referential manner, which they have been doing so far with other canon. After how they handled all the Inferno/X-Factor stuff in one episode, I'm confident they found a way, but I look forward to seeing the precise composition they go with.

[Arthas]

My two biggest complaints were I wish Scott was more sympathetic/supportive of Maddy and of regardless I wish he would have at least said good-bye to his son. However, I didn't see that as Scott abandoning his son, he was mad BECAUSE he did not want to abandon him but at the end he knew it was the only way.

My view, while it would be nice for Scott to be supportive to Maddy keep in mind that Maddy is not the only one who would be shocked/traumatised/mentally f**ked by what was going down.

Scott was too.

It's like asking a doctor to heal someone else when they themselves are wounded.

[Silvermoth]

Yeah, hooray for great voice acting because Scott’s actor really nailed just how devastated he is at abandoning his kid

[Psy-lock]

I wonder if we'll see Maddie next as a member of the Hellfire...sorry, of the Inner Circle

[Jackraow21]

Now I’m super hype to see the adult Nathan Summers, aka Cable aka “The Wild Man of Borneo”, show back up knowing what we now know about his origin. I feel like newer audiences who don’t know much about the X-men are going to be super invested in Cable as a character now, which pleases me.

[Mantis-Ray]

I can understand why no one would support Maddie at the start. As Scott put it with all the batshit insane stuff has been stuff, Xavier leaving, Magneto taking over, Storm's depower, they are going through a lot and now this happens, its too much. Everyone is emotionally exhausted with basically no time to breathe, and are vulnerable enough that an added problem is just too much.

Also I get why Maddie chose to leave Scott, its not his fault but its just the relationship is tainted. Sinister completely violated it, Scott wasn't even sleeping with the woman he thought was his wife which technically counts probably as rape by proxy (through no fault of Maddie of course), and Maddie most likely feels her love for Scott was manufactured by Sinister as apart of his machinations. Even while they don't hate each other, its too much of a mess for them to continue onwards so Maddie makes the decision to leave feeling its the best for both of them.

This is a straight-up disaster, its rather impressive even though Sinister failed at his goal of taking Nathan he still effectively ruined Scott and Jean's lives. Dude is a hardcore villain.

[FlawedCoil82]

Well that was something. It was good but (while I am not super familiar with the “Inferno” storyline), I feel like it was resolved rather quickly. I quite enjoyed Goblin Queen in action.

As someone who LOVES the music from the original series (music played within the actual episodes), I will say that, so far, not much music-wise from this new series has caught my ear. The music score I have liked the most was when Magneto was speaking to the X-Cutioner telling him how he could smite him and the judges in the air.

So I was pretty happy to hear a familiar music theme (briefly) in this “Fire Made Flesh” episode that starts at about the 14:08 mark when Goblin Queen is introducing herself to the team. The music being played here is the same theme that played in the scene of “The Dark Phoenix Saga Part 2: The Inner Circle” when Cyclops is trapped in Mastermind’s illusion inside Jean’s mind when he is speaking with Jean, as she then starts telling him about how Jason Wyngarde has “shown me the way…can’t you see it all around you?”. It’s brief but I definitely recognized it (and I wonder if that music is giving us a hint that Mr. Sinister found Jean first when she returned to Earth and cloned her while she was still possessed by Phoenix, and then planted the clone in that cove for the X-Men to find and that “sinister” corruption is what made the Phoenix force being more susceptible to The Inner Circle’s influence?!?) I don’t know for sure, but that was my initial thought I had…

I also noticed in the first episode when the FOH were interrogating Roberto, a few notes paying homage to the somber theme I love (played numerous times in the original series, most notably in “The Final Decision” when Jubilee is telling the team what the X-Men mean to her before going to fight the Sentinels) were very briefly played before the tune quickly changed (unfortunately).

Anyway, my other thought about when Jean was possibly switched with Madelyne was from when The Nasty Boys captured Jean in “Beyond Good And Evil: Part 1” and threw her into the portal….perhaps Sinister switched her with the clone before she was put into Apocalypse’s psychic container? Again, just a theory going by what points in the original series Sinister could have had a chance to make a switch.

Overall, it was a good episode, but I think it was my least favorite so far for a few different reasons. Regardless, the scene of Magneto against Goblin Queen was pretty sweet! I also felt like Mr. Sinister’s voice sounded a bit more “electronic” here than it used to (which already had a creepy effect on his voice). He definitely seemed more menacing in this episode than he has been in the past though.

I am also not a fan of Mojo so I wouldn’t be surprised if next week’s episode sets the season low mark for me, but we shall see!

[Jackraow21]

The Logan “power simping” (as someone so accurately put it) for Jean is my only complaint about the series thus far. They really need to chill on that, as it’s ham-fisted and annoying. A more talented group of writers should be able to show that he cares for Jean, as a friend, and also has attraction to her without making him look so pathetic and lovelorn. My hope is that dies down a bit as the series goes on, and also that Logan gets some better characterization and moments to shine. I loved the episodes dedicated to him in the old series, where he fought Sabretooth in ‘Cold Comfort’ and explored his past with Alpha Flight/Dept H in ‘Weapon X, Lies and Videotape’.

[Exodus]

The Logan “power simping” (as someone so accurately put it) for Jean is my only complaint about the series thus far. They really need to chill on that, as it’s ham-fisted and annoying. A more talented group of writers should be able to show that he cares for Jean, as a friend, and also has attraction to her without making him look so pathetic and lovelorn. My hope is that dies down a bit as the series goes on, and also that Logan gets some better characterization and moments to shine. I loved the episodes dedicated to him in the old series, where he fought Sabretooth in ‘Cold Comfort’ and explored his past with Alpha Flight/Dept H in ‘Weapon X, Lies and Videotape’.

with all due respect for your Wolverine fandom, after the last 25 years, I think it is absolutely ok for Wolverine to sit one appearance out. Just for once. Let all other characters shine for once.

[Jackraow21]

I’m fine with him sitting one appearance out. Or two or three. Just said I hope he gets some moments to shine. Doesn’t have be every episode.

[xfire2k13]

I just wanna see Logan actually STAB people in the cartoon. I'm surprised he hasn't bled yet!

[Jackraow21]

Ha. It’s a cartoon. Unfortunately I’m not sure you’re gonna see that.

Check out the more mature Wolverine vs. Hulk cartoon though. I think you’ll like it.