angelophile | Wolverine and the X-men Episode 6

As usual, written whilst watching the episode, so spoilers lie beneath the cut.

These "Previously on Wolverine and the X-men!" sections keep getting longer and longer, don't they? I fully expect the final episode to only actually be two minutes long, as the rest of the episode is telling you what happened previously.

Avast ye scurvy sea dogs! Yes, it's a life on the ocean waves where the captain wears a ridiculous hat and there's ominious weather conditions. Cue thumber in three... two... one...

Is that Artie? or is Caliban just seasick?

"Something's out there and it's massive!" It's Fred Dukes isn't it?

It's the good ship Ellis! Clearly something dastardly happened to it. A lethal cocktail of red bull and alien sodomy perhaps?

Danger Room hijinks. "Level Ten is not authorized." What, not even to the people that set the authorization? I say crank this baby up to eleven. That's one louder.

Hahahaha! (Those who watch it will know what part set me giggling like a loon.)

Sammy the Squid Boy! Does he even need a boat? He is a squid boy, after all. I guess swimming to Genosha might run the risk of you being added to Namor's harem, thought.

Yay, Kurt! boo to Kurt's voice once again sounding like the VA couldn't decide between German and Bill and Ted. Now there even seems to be a bit of stray Irish in there (or at least, Doyle from Angel. It may not equate to the same thing.)

Who was that that just got chucked overboard anyway?

Aharghhh! It was pirates after all! Clearly they're hear to check out Kurt's booty. However, What's the point in Kurt fighting pirates if he's not dressed as one as well? Alas.

hmm, okay, this seems to be a bit of a villain mashup which I'm not sure I see the point of. Mojo - check. Spiral - Check. But then we get into them being pirates. and I assume the other guys are the Reavers, in which case I'm starting to think the villains this week are a case of rather too many eggs in one basket. That said, Mojo's VA is cool.

Also, it's nice to see Kurt kicking ass once in a while and actually using his skills and abilities together. the rapidfire telportations and general ass kickery is something I could watch all day.

Ricochet? New character? Now sure about this whole BDSM with a submarine thing, but she seems to like it.

Yay, Pixie! ~~Yay emo girl who can talk to machines who may be someone too obscure even for me!~~Yay Network from Nunzio DeFillippis and Christina Weir's New Mutants! (Just one of those characters people were apparently distraught about being killed off, even though she got more development in her 30 second appearance here than in the entirety of N&C's run). But I think the real hero of this episode may be sticky goop hands guy. Yay sticky goop hands guy!

Although Pixie doesn't sound Welsh to me.

"A very great man once taught me no one is worthless. What can you do?"
"I talk to myself!"
"I have pretty wings!"
"I'm sticky goop hands guy!
"I break things!"
"Okay, I stand corrected."

I do question the point of having cameos if the cameos are people who've been invented just for cameos, which it seems some of these characters have been.

Oh, now Kurt starts really enjoying himself. He's got the sword and the stance. Surely someone could have made him a hat and an eyepatch so he could really milk it some more.

"Prepare to be b... RUN AWAY!"

Is that Dazzler and maybe Feral too in non-speaking roles?

"Call that a sword? THIS is a sword!"
"Sorry, what was that? i was distracted by your cleavage."

There's a hell of a lot of cleavage going on in this show, usually from villains and reformed villains. Do you think that's how you can tell a villainess in Sniktbub and the X-men land? Look to the boobies.

Please tell me Kurt's not gonna be able to resist making a crack about "dis-arming" his opponent?

Holy crap, he did? Shocking!

And Kurt saves the day and there's ominous foreshadowing and that's a wrap.

In conclusion, a generally entertaining episode but certaininly not one of the best of the series. It was nice to have an episode focusing on one of the X-men oher than Sniktbub but I'm actually surprised to find myself admitting to liking last week's Gambit episode a little more. But only marginally. Perhaps it's a sense of disappointment - with a plot that sees Kurt taking to the high seas and fighting pirates, with cameos by Sammy the Squidboy and Pixie, I was hoping for more. There was only a brief glimpse of Kurt really getting into the Errol Flynn role and apart from a couple of moments, there was a lack of playfulness which the episode deserved. Mojo's involvement was just enough to be enjoyable - I know he's an acquired taste and he can either be great fun or an irritation depending on how he's used. His brief cameo here seemed fine, however.

Generally speaking a solid enough episode, I just felt they didn't make of it what they could have.

Rating - ***