X-Men '97: Episode 5 Review/Spoilers

[Kurolegacy]

Amazing how in the same day we had a Charles Xavier that represented the very idealist that he’s supposed to be and a Charles Xavier who basically spit on the dream by making a bargain that would throw away humanity.

[yogaflame]

My only suggestion was to have a flashback of Charles telling Ororo her people were wrong and she wasn't a goddess in a quick dramatic montage of flashbacks of the various lies she believed to hold herself back, just before her transformation. Otherwise no notes.

I'm also fine with the ambiguity of whether or not The Adversary is a physical manifestation of Storm's fears and insecurities, somehow come into the world when Ororo arrived at Forge's desert with its rich mystical energy. It really taps into Storm's divinity and showcases the might of her power in another way, as butterflykyss said in the other thread.

Personally, I also preferred the Xavier/Lilandra plotline to Jubilee's adventures in the Mojoverse as what Charles had to say about the great con that colonialists like the Shi'ar play on the people and cultures they exploit was a perfect thematic fit with Storm and Forge talking about their own heritages and the "white lies" told to subjugate their peoples. Of course, this was a bit rich coming from Xavier considering the pretenses under which he made Ororo leave Africa but can't argue that isn't in character for him.

In the original LifeDeath comic, we saw Forge look through Storm's history holographically. Something like that would have been good here(maybe they could have eaten peyote or something, and it could have been a mental trip instead of techno holograms), especially since this show's(and the OG TAS) canon and the comics never quite aligned precisely, so it would have been nice to get this audience all on the same page with that. And in terms of her being worshipped as a goddess in Kenya, the OG show barely ever mentioned that(other than one line in the Arkon arc), so it's unclear to what extend that happened in this timeline.

For me, it's quite clear that the Adversary was a real demon, since Forge was able to hear it too, and it bit him and poisoned him for real, so I don't understand how anyone could think it was simply a figment of her imagination. Right at the end, after Forge had banished it, that makes sense, but not before that. I interpreted that Forge's machine did cure her in part 1, but she was basically psychosomatically blocking herself. The mystical aspects of all this, particularly with regard to Storm's active or passive participation, seems to be complete headcanon. The story did not really indicate she is an actual magical/divine being. It was more a matter of her transcending 'the lie' she believed[that her powers were permanently gone(thanks Beast!)], and reclaiming her powers that had actually been scientifically/physically restored in part 1, now through a matter of willpower. I wish they would have shown us Storm's sight, you know, where she sees the world as colorful energy patterns she can manipulate 'as a sculptress sculpts her clay'. That is a visual that has SO MUCH potential, and it's actually how her powers work. Maybe they'll do it in live action one day....

I think the story would have benefited from more content with Ororo's mystical heritage/ancestry being explored(FotM's beautiful Bright Lady moment would have been great), and more exploration of her feelings for Forge, and his own mystical history(such as when he summoned the Adversary in the first place during his war experience). Basically, they butchered LifeDeath/Fall of the Mutants, and skipped the important part of Storm's powerless period, which covered YEARS of comics, and was more about her being a woman and a human, not so much about her 'holding herself back' or 'believing a white lie'. I'm not gonna nit pick too much more about this, but they kinda messed this up, but I'll allow it since they are moving so fast in this series, and I'm happy to have Storm back in her power, back in her Cockrum outfit, even if it doesn't make any sense.

As for the Xavier/Lilandra part, it was perfunctory. I actually enjoyed the Jubilee Mojoverse story much more. Xavier's new voiceactor just doesn't work correctly for me, and his take on colonialism and empire are kinda undercut by his own personal/familial history as a inter-generationally wealthy white American [colonizer] and as a soldier in the US Army.

I'm still down for this show, to be clear, but this episode was the weakest for me, personally. They can't ALL be fire, I guess.

[marhawkman]

To be fair, it was never "really" explained why he ordered the Mutant Massacre in the comics either.

Most sources one will find online state that there was an official explanation via the reveal that he found out the Morlocks were created using his genetic research and decided to protect his "IP" by having them all killed.

This coincided with the retcon that Dark Beast "created" the Morlocks. The explanation here was that when he escaped from the Age of Apocalypse, as it was "erased" via correcting the timeline, he ended up 20 years in the past and continued with his experiments resulting in the Morlocks.

Since he was one of Mister Sinister's underlings in that universe, it made sense that all his genetic experimentation would carry the same or similar "signature" as that of the 616 version's.

HOWEVER.

It seems said retcon/reveal only comes from a single issue of Cable's solo series in the 90's (#28 if memory serves) in form of a vague comment by Sinister.

Essentialy as part of the then ongoing retcon that Sugerman, a minor character from the Age of Apocalypse who also escaped to the past of the 616 universe like Dark Beast did, was behind the government of Genosha acquiring the knowledge on how to create mutates, Cable and Domino also wound up having an encounter with him on Genosha.

During said encounter they were secretly helped by Sinister, who at the end of the story muses how it benefited him since it destroyed more of his "stolen" research and how he had allready taken drastic measures to do so in the past. Essentialy carrying the implication that he MIGHT be refering to the mutant massacre.

But if memory serves it seems this was never furthered confirmed or made official anywhere else on pannel.

Meanwhile the idea that the entirety of the Morlocks were the direct creation of Dark Beast never seems to have taken root either and the whole idea of him being the Morlock's "First One" was increasingly ignored or even forgotten about.
Instead the history that Callisto and Caliban formed the Morlocks by gathering mutants who were shunned from society seems to have remained preferable.

As a result it seems no writer bothered to re-retcon his involvement with the Morlocks into having merely experimented on them either. Which means it's no longer maintained that the Morlocks had any trace of carrying Sinister's signature DNA manipulation or that he had them killed for that reason.

So while Sinister ordering the Mutant Massacre is still a fact, his reasons are also still vague and at this point it could be simply assumed that he was offended by them being "inferior samples" or something along that line.

HOWEVER HOWEVER.

It's possible that the creators of X-men '97 took a page from this whole kerfuffle and used it to streamline the entire events around Genosha and it's destruction.

Essentialy using the vaguely implied reason for him ordering the Mutant Massacre and making it official to Genosha, where he was directly involved in the creation of the "mutate" process.

Furtheremore since the majority of the genoshan mutants are said artifical created mutates, he might have considered them inferior products that should not be allowed to mix with natural ones. Perhaps out of concern they could genetically "pollute" the natural mutant population.

To add an additional dimension to this... Sinister has on multiple occasions been seen to capture and kill or torture Mutants as part of his genetic experiments. The original idea for an explanation might have been that he was simply collecting research samples. some of the Morlocks DO have rather potent abilities. And since they're "lost people" he doesn't need to worry about being neat and clean.