angelophile | Catching up with Wolverine and the X-men (Reply)

I missed a week as I was away for a few days, so I'm trying to catch up today on my reviews.

Time to catch up with Kurt, apparently, who's no doubt enjoying his sea cruise, pretending to be a pirate. I'm sure he's got the eyepatch made all ready and brings it out on special occasions.

*squee!* Pixie's adorable. BUT STILL DOESN'T SOUND WELSH, BOYO!

Welcome to Genosha! Look out for that first step. It's a doozy! Seriously, Magneto, the whole welcome wagon bit is appreciated but COULD YOU TRY NOT TO KILL US ALL?

The guy channeling Ian McKellen as Magneto is almost as good as the chap who emulates Patrick Stewart. I approve.

Hey, Cessily. B) I recognise the spiky mutant green guy as an Acolyte, but forget his name. And Mr Whippy.

"I'd like to introduce you to the Scarlet Witch." Judging by the look on Kurt's face he's contemplating how to go about bringing Nocturne into continuity.

And Bobby and Kitty seem to be contemplating a similar problem from a different angle. It has to be said, they've been adorable together so far and I smelt chemistry from the first, so the little crackle of electricity her makes me chuckle. It's the kind of new pairing that just clicks and I wish the X-men would do more often, instead of returning to the same old.

Warren, you cock blocker!

And it's cameo time! Is that Hydro as a mutant? probably someone more obscure. Big Bertha? ust again! Scanner!

"Magneto's your father? Awwwkward." It appears Kurt's prospective new father in law might be less than ideal.

"Wolverine leading the X-men. I still can't believe it." You and us both, Kurt. However, the willingness of the writers to point out that Wolverine's constantly screwing up in the leadership role, still, although he's growing into it, and the questioning of it by the central characters, as in this case, is what's really sold it to me. It's been very well handled, with story and marketing scratching each other's backs without it coming across as too forced.

Oh for... Three words Logan. "That's not Angel." Would it kill you to say them so as to avoid all this confusion? If this isn't the debut of Mystique I shall be shocked.

I'm not shocked.

Does Scott sound kinda resentful there? Like he'd quite happily kill Logan where he stands? Surely not.

It takes a flair for the theatrical and a desire to be James Bond to wear a tux to a Dazzler concern. Well done Kurt. And I'm starting to get used to his voice. Even though I still think it's more stoner than Kraut.

Fever Pitch! Apparently continuing his role as go-to man for random, nondescript villainy, when you need an A-hole to smack down no one cares about. And his skull face is amusingly expressive.

Nice to see Cess again too, even if she's just there to get sucker punched.

Nice to see Kurt using the tried and tested technique of beating your enemy by punching them really hard in the face until they fall over. Sometimes the classics are the best. I say it's nice to see, because we've already had plenty of chances to see Kurt be more creative with his powers. Now good old fashioned fisticuffs is rather fun.

Sauron! Is that Wolfcub? Or Quill? Or someone else entirely who's spiky and has a big sack? Ooer missus.

And again Kurt has that "let's make Nocturne" look on his face.

Hey there Dust. Being all enigmatic and stuff. And hanging about in strange men's bedrooms. That's not like you.

And, of course, Magneto's Genosha hide a nasty secret. As far as nasty secrets go, it's quite a lame one. Kurt didn't seem bothered by aggressive or troublesome mutants being incarcerated before, but on discovering the cells aren't quite so nice as he first thought, he gets indignant. Huh. Cess doesn't seem too bothered about it, it has to be said.

Sorry to see Pyro here as I was hoping that he and Boom Boom had run off together to have all kinds of hot sexings, but maybe that's what he does on his time off from being a henchman.

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Cyclops gets kicked in the nuts by Emma Frost. Get used to it Scotty.

Oh wait, that's not Emma really. It's Mystique in disguise. Who knew?

*cackles* Oh Bobby. Don't ever change. And Forge, you continue to be utterly lovable.

Hmm. Curious. Now, given that the X-men have presumably been going some time prior to the beginning of this series, it comes as some surprise for them to introduce Mystique as if she's a character none of the X-men have encountered before. Since they jumped straight in with most interpersonal relationships, to cut one of the X-men's major villains from their past continuity would seem to be a very odd decision to me.

Ho hum.

Back to Genosha and Kurt's discovering that cartoon Cessily isn't really her old self. Someone replaced her with a T-3000 while we weren't looking. Pyro's still got a great voice. And the chance of Nocturne coming into being just drastically dropped. Although Wanda looks particularly heartbroken, considering she's just spent the last few minutes trying to hex Kurt into little pieces.

And Kurt appears to be spending the latter part of this episode once again trying to prove how goddam awesome he is. And with this mammoth use of his powers against all odds, he succeeds. Although he should be able to teleport further, but I guess it would be less dramatic that way.

Tsk, pagers. They always go off at the most inopportune times, don't they? Like mid way through a climactic battle.

And poor Kurt. That was a wasted effort, wasn't it. Mystique must have been pretty confident that no one would do something crazy like following her out the door or looking out the window.

And with that, we're done. Another great episode, showcasing Kurt once more, although I am aware now that he's had two practically solo episodes, while many other characters have been neglected (I'm looking at you Scott). However, forgivable as both episodes are building towards a greater plot. One thing I'm less enamored with is how horrific Kurt seemed to find incarcerated mutants on Genosha when a few minutes before he was fine with it. And he seems to consider that horrific, without first taking time to discover what, if anything, these mutants have done to deserve being locked up. Given the rest of Magneto's achievements, you'd think the reasonable thing to do would be to ask what the hell was going on before getting on the high horse, but I recognize that there being something nasty in the woodshed is likely to be the least of Magneto's sins. however, I would have though some emphasis on why the bad so heavily outweighed the good would be welcome.

However, the chance to see Kurt be aweome in lots of ways, some Bobby and Kitty interaction and the intro of Mystique were worth the price of admission. I wonder whether they're going to touch of Kurt and Mystique's relationship or whether they'll leave it to the comics to have them related. We shall see.

But an enjoyable, layered story throughout.

Rating - ****