Inferno WAS a mess.
This episode hit all the important story beats from that event, while moving this story forward. They just pulled Scott back to popularity and attention in the social zeitgeist. To undo all of that in this story by honoring the Inferno story all season long and potentially displaying his infamously shitty behavior in dealing with Jean and Maddie would have been a huge misstep. Glad they didn't do it and told their own tale.
It felt like a stand alone story, a comic solo adventure. There was a start, middle, climax and resolution. It felt much longer than it actually was, and I think some people forget that Madelyne Pryor and Inferno has always been a relative blip in the entire X-Men history. There's better crafted stories to adapt and give more time and attention to. Not to mention, telling afew new ones of their own.
The whole episode was a blast. From visuals, to story telling, they fit so much in, I never felt any of the moments rushed as others may have. While Goblin Queen was only here for a brief moment, it was a shining moment. She got some of the best animations and lines of the episode, which were numerous.
"Mommy's busy..."
I think I'm feeling a lot more negatively toward the most recent episode than most people here, but for basically the same reasons everyone has already given; mostly just that the episode was a microcosm of every complaint I already had about the show, amped up to 11. They basically crammed an entire miniseries of content into a single 20 minute episode and, frankly, I think it sucked.
The dialogue was, again, kind of terrible in a lot of places specifically because they're just hosing exposition all over the place. They rushed to introduce as much stuff as possible while tying up as much other stuff as possible. It was like getting whiplash while watching TV.
Also, Scott's whole 'I can't support this because I won't abandon my son like my father did' and then immediately abandoning his son? That was fucking dumb. Just incredibly poor writing and absolutely the fault of how much they tried to cram into this episode.
The whole thing is just very bizarre. I don't understand why they needed to get through ALL of that story so quickly. That probably could have been minimally 2-3 episodes and still would have felt a tiny bit rushed. I still absolutely love the show, but this episode was quite disappointing and I hope there's some ultimate reason why they wanted to basically hit the 'skip' button on that entire story and move on and that the breakneck pace will slow down from here on out. Because it's severely damaging and otherwise perfect show.
The longer I sit with it, the more bothered I am by Magik's exclusion. I get that the show focuses on a specific team from a specific era, but as a huge Illyana stan, I can't let it go. She's one of my three favorite X-Men (the other two being Kitty and Magneto, for those curious).
Her exclusion? She just had a shining moment with two merchandisable looks! I thought she's been the most random cameo yet - was she in the original show? Don't remember if she even was or where her story was left off, but her bit was a weird beat in this one to me.
Her exclusion? She just had a shining moment with two merchandisable looks! I thought she's been the most random cameo yet - was she in the original show? Don't remember if she even was or where her story was left off, but her bit was a weird beat in this one to me.
She was in the original show, in the episode where Jubilee goes with Colossus to fight Omega Red.
More to the point; MAGIK did not appear in the original show. Illyana appeared as a non-powered child. Which makes Morph's transformation problematic. This show seems to take up pretty closely after Prof's death. In the first (second?) episode they finally get his death certificate - which doesn't take a very long time (can take about a year). Jean was not visibly pregnant at the end of the original show, and is 7-9 months along at the start of this show.
That gives us a pretty clear timeline that this show takes place -sometime- 5 months to 1 year after the original show. Which means in that time Magik has grown up, joined the New Mutants (which don't seem to exist yet in this narrative), developed her powers, and done her Darkchylde shtick as well - which Morph was apparently present for because, you know, he mimicked both those looks.
In other words, it seems like this was just a poorly-planned bit of fan service not meant to be examined too closely. And I certainly wouldn't call it a 'shining moment' for the character to be shown for ten seconds as a different character pretending to be her. By that logic Shatterstar got a shining moment in Deadpool 2, in that he was technically shown on screen.
More to the point; MAGIK did not appear in the original show. Illyana appeared as a non-powered child. Which makes Morph's transformation problematic. This show seems to take up pretty closely after Prof's death. In the first (second?) episode they finally get his death certificate - which doesn't take a very long time (can take about a year). Jean was not visibly pregnant at the end of the original show, and is 7-9 months along at the start of this show.
That gives us a pretty clear timeline that this show takes place -sometime- 5 months to 1 year after the original show. Which means in that time Magik has grown up, joined the New Mutants (which don't seem to exist yet in this narrative), developed her powers, and done her Darkchylde shtick as well - which Morph was apparently present for because, you know, he mimicked both those looks.In other words, it seems like this was just a poorly-planned bit of fan service not meant to be examined too closely. And I certainly wouldn't call it a 'shining moment' for the character to be shown for ten seconds as a different character pretending to be her. By that logic Shatterstar got a shining moment in Deadpool 2, in that he was technically shown on screen.
The show is set no less than a year after Xavier's "death", that is mentioned in the first episode. It's possible that Magik came to the school for a time during that year and has since left the school. It would make perfect sense for Morph to be there during that time since Morph rejoined the team in the finale of the original series.
I'm not counting Morph's fan-servicey cameo as a shining moment. Let's not forget that through her horrific time in Limbo, Magik aged "instantaneously" to the 616 X-Men. It probably would've taken a stand-alone episode, but they could've included her if they took the time to do so. I don't fault them for it because it would've been a diversion that the writers seem uninterested in, but I would've liked to have seen her on the show.
It makes Sunspot's presence all the more conspicuous, though.
Today's episode was the first one that I thought was just really not good. I always thought of Jubilee as a watered down Dazzler replacement and throwing her into Mojoworld for half an episode did nothing to change that in my mind. At least they recognized that it wasn't worth devoting a full episode to because then we switched gears for the second half of the episode (complete with new title) for Storm and Forge, which was definitely the stronger part.
I don't think today's episode will be anyone's favorite when all is said and done (well, maybe hardcore Jubilee fans will love it), but I don't think it was a bad episode. The first half (actually more like 2/3rds) is mostly fan service for all of the middle aged fans watching the show who grew up playing X-Men video games. I loved the presentation as it pivoted from the usual visuals to the pixelized ones. It was stuffed with fan service, but I do wish they went one extra by having the final boss utter a certain quote from the arcade game. It was fine, and it did further the Jubilee and Roberto relationship, plus we got some sassy Mags at the beginning. Not every episode needs have a ton of high stakes and heightened drama. Plus, we got a little of that in the last third with Storm and Forge. I was a little concerned they might rush this plot like they did the Goblin Queen, so I was a bit relieved in how it went. A lot of horror stuff in these past two episodes is pretty interesting for X-Men. I felt like I was watching Devil Man.
Overall, a fine chunk of entertainment for my Wednesday morning, but I'm not on the same high I was following the first three. Episode 2 is still the high water mark, so far. I'm assuming this was sort of like a cool down episode and we'll get back to the soapy X-drama we all relish next week.
Loved both parts of this episode.
Jubilee deserved her coming of age moment which we technically got in the OG show's Season 6, but nonetheless it was great character development for her and Roberto. All those X-Men Arcade eye candy scenes.
Just hit after hit!
Loved both parts of this episode.
Jubilee deserved her coming of age moment which we technically got in the OG show's Season 6, but nonetheless it was great character development for her and Roberto. All those X-Men Arcade eye candy scenes.
Just hit after hit!
At least going by the Disney+ order, X-Men 97 is season 6 :p the original series only went 5 seasons
I found the Jubilee half of the episode somewhat rushed, but at least the Storm/Forge stuff slowed it down a little. It's still going too quickly for my tastes.
It was stuffed with fan service, but I do wish they went one extra by having the final boss utter a certain quote from the arcade game.
I was waiting for the line for the whole episode. I thought they were going to do it and then have Mojo wave it off as a bad translation or poor writing.
Today's episode was the first one that I thought was just really not good. I always thought of Jubilee as a watered down Dazzler replacement and throwing her into Mojoworld for half an episode did nothing to change that in my mind. At least they recognized that it wasn't worth devoting a full episode to because then we switched gears for the second half of the episode (complete with new title) for Storm and Forge, which was definitely the stronger part.
Come on, Jubilee is clearly a watered-down Kitty replacement. 😉
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