1
00:00:00,930 --> 00:00:02,957
This is a DynaMic Network podcast.

2
00:00:24,718 --> 00:00:29,600
Welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly
show where we review superhero films and debate

3
00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:35,682
the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing
their characters in stat-based battle simulations.

4
00:00:36,162 --> 00:00:42,025
I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous
Joe. And in this episode, we are reviewing

5
00:00:42,325 --> 00:00:49,048
X-Men 97. It's Marvel's first X-Men project
since acquiring the rights to the characters

6
00:00:49,108 --> 00:00:55,283
from Fox. I remember watching this show in the
mid-90s as a kid. Was this 25 years worth the

7
00:00:55,324 --> 00:00:59,888
wait? Yes it was and I can't wait to talk about
it later on this episode. Before that we're

8
00:00:59,908 --> 00:01:03,391
going to break down the comic book movie news
from the past week of which it was a pretty

9
00:01:03,491 --> 00:01:08,816
slow week. All we learned was that Vision Quest,
the upcoming television series for Disney+,

10
00:01:09,236 --> 00:01:15,562
has gotten a 2026 release window and a showrunner.
Well to be fair we are recording this episode

11
00:01:15,582 --> 00:01:20,870
a little bit early in lead up to the Memorial
Day holiday weekend. So there might be more

12
00:01:20,910 --> 00:01:24,992
news that drops that we'll get to in the next
episode, if that's the case. As always, we

13
00:01:25,012 --> 00:01:28,794
list our segment times in our episode description,
so feel free to check out the show notes if

14
00:01:28,814 --> 00:01:33,577
you want to skip ahead to a particular topic.
Our artificially intelligent duel simulator,

15
00:01:33,697 --> 00:01:39,620
AJ9K, has a quick message for our listeners,
so listen up. Why, hello there. Do you love

16
00:01:39,660 --> 00:01:44,543
listening and chatting about Marvel and DC?
Then become a part of the dynamic duel community

17
00:01:44,583 --> 00:01:49,818
on Patreon, where you can choose from three
tiers. The dynamic 2.0 tier, lets you listen

18
00:01:49,859 --> 00:01:54,847
to this podcast without ads and gives you access
to its Discord chat group where you can chat

19
00:01:54,867 --> 00:01:59,735
with Johnny DC and Marvelous Joe. The Fantastic
Four tier gives you that and more with two

20
00:01:59,775 --> 00:02:04,557
bonus episodes each month, including bloopers
and top ten shows where Johnny and Joe count

21
00:02:04,577 --> 00:02:09,419
down your favourite Marvel and DC subjects.
The X-Force tier makes you an executive producer

22
00:02:09,459 --> 00:02:14,161
of Dynamic Duel, where every month you help
the host choose what to review and who to fight

23
00:02:14,181 --> 00:02:20,004
against each other. And finally, the Dynamite
Podcast Network tier allows aspiring podcasters

24
00:02:20,044 --> 00:02:24,006
to create their own battle-focused show using
this Monte Carlo simulator.

25
00:02:43,700 --> 00:02:49,044
Thanks AJ9K, and thanks to everyone who supports
the podcast. Be sure to tune into the shows

26
00:02:49,104 --> 00:02:53,928
in the DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including
Max Destruction, which pitched your

27
00:02:56,994 --> 00:03:02,696
The show is currently on a season break, but
hosts Ken and Scott are releasing bonus episodes,

28
00:03:02,956 --> 00:03:08,159
and this Thursday they will be reviewing The
Matrix. On the Sendrow World podcast, host

29
00:03:08,259 --> 00:03:12,981
Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between
fan-favorite anime and manga characters. This

30
00:03:13,061 --> 00:03:19,084
Thursday, we'll find out who would win between
Jura Nikus from Fairy Tail and Diane from Seven

31
00:03:19,124 --> 00:03:25,056
Deadly Sins. On the Console Combat podcast,
Hosts John and Dean find out who would win

32
00:03:25,076 --> 00:03:29,920
in fights between popular video game characters.
In yesterday's episode, they found out who

33
00:03:29,940 --> 00:03:38,087
would win in a battle between Samanosuke Akechi
from Animusha against Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja

34
00:03:38,127 --> 00:03:43,992
Gaiden. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the
link in our show notes to listen to all of

35
00:03:44,012 --> 00:03:49,857
the shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network. But
with that out of the way, quick! To the no

36
00:03:49,897 --> 00:03:56,248
prize! A No Prize is an award Marvel used to
give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic

37
00:03:56,289 --> 00:04:01,052
duel No Prize, is a digital award we post on
Instagram for the person that we feel gave

38
00:04:01,092 --> 00:04:06,476
the best answer to our question of the week.
Last week, we asked you guys, what celebrity

39
00:04:06,516 --> 00:04:10,999
voice actor for a Marvel or DC animated film
would you like to see play the character in

40
00:04:11,039 --> 00:04:15,303
live action? And this was coming off of the
news that Nicolas Cage will be starring in

41
00:04:15,383 --> 00:04:22,820
a live action Spider-Man We got a lot of answers
for this question and they were all great But

42
00:04:22,900 --> 00:04:27,603
let's break down our three honorable mentions
as well as the no prize winner Our first honorable

43
00:04:27,644 --> 00:04:33,188
mention goes to Matt Estes who said Hey fellas,
Matt Estes here. Hey, this is probably the

44
00:04:33,328 --> 00:04:39,312
easiest question y'all have ever asked for question
of the week It's gotta be Dove Cameron with

45
00:04:39,352 --> 00:04:46,137
Spider-Gwen Yeah, Dove Cameron played the character
of Spider-Gwen in the animated Marvel Rising

46
00:04:46,277 --> 00:04:51,214
movies And the actress looks exactly like Spider-Gwen.
I don't know what else there is to say about

47
00:04:51,254 --> 00:04:55,217
that. She should definitely play the character
because she definitely has the look. But she's

48
00:04:55,277 --> 00:05:00,362
also a really good actress. Actually, my daughters
are a fan of her from her working descendants.

49
00:05:00,462 --> 00:05:05,206
She was on some Disney channel show where she
played like two different characters, twins,

50
00:05:05,286 --> 00:05:10,631
I think. She has the acting chops. I was actually
rooting for her for a while to play Supergirl.

51
00:05:10,772 --> 00:05:15,387
But yeah, Spider-Gwen would also work. She was
actually also in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

52
00:05:15,647 --> 00:05:20,252
television show for a while as well. No one
cares! She's no stranger to Marvel, that's

53
00:05:20,272 --> 00:05:24,976
all I'm saying. So this could definitely work.
Great answer Matt. Our next honorable mention

54
00:05:25,016 --> 00:05:29,580
goes to Miggy Matagian who said, Hey what's
up guys, this is Miggy and I would love to

55
00:05:29,620 --> 00:05:34,084
see Lou Diamond Phillips play Spectre in live
action. I mostly went with this because he's

56
00:05:34,104 --> 00:05:38,368
half Filipino and I got to represent. But I
think he also has a good look for Jim Corrigan,

57
00:05:38,428 --> 00:05:42,714
like a weathered, tired police detective. Some
other answers that I was leaning towards but

58
00:05:42,734 --> 00:05:50,717
didn't go with is Jason Isaacs as Sinestro,
Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon, John Noble as

59
00:05:50,757 --> 00:05:55,738
Brainiac, and Jamie Chung as Cheshire. Thanks
guys. Yeah, all of those were great answers.

60
00:05:55,918 --> 00:06:01,340
I especially loved Lou Diamond Phillips as the
Spectre for two reasons. One, Lou Diamond Phillips

61
00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:07,998
does not get enough work. The guy's a good actor.
And two, the Spectre... is an awesome character.

62
00:06:08,218 --> 00:06:12,800
Ever since I saw his DC showcase animated short,
I've always thought that the Spectre would

63
00:06:12,840 --> 00:06:18,102
make for a really good film. For sure, and I
remember hearing his voice as the Spectre and

64
00:06:18,142 --> 00:06:22,104
totally being blown away that it was even Lou
Diamond Phillips voicing him, because it doesn't

65
00:06:22,124 --> 00:06:25,985
really sound like him, but if he can pull off
that voice for the character of the Spectre

66
00:06:26,005 --> 00:06:30,427
as well, yeah, that's just great casting. Great
answer, Miggy. Our next honorable mention goes

67
00:06:30,467 --> 00:06:37,574
to Cyrus Moore, who said, Hi guys, Cyrus Moore
here, and my answer would be either Shamar

68
00:06:37,614 --> 00:06:42,995
Moore for Cyborg or Josh DeMoll from Batman
the Long Halloween. Those are two actors from

69
00:06:43,075 --> 00:06:49,177
animated movies I would love to see in live
action. Shamar Moore does a great Cyborg voice,

70
00:06:49,197 --> 00:06:55,099
but I do think he's a little too old to play
a Teen Titan personally. I do love Josh DeMoll

71
00:06:55,399 --> 00:07:00,480
as Harvey Dent Two-Face though, because honestly
I thought he nailed the voice performance for

72
00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:05,141
the character. And you know, he's a really good
actor in live action as well. So yeah, I think

73
00:07:05,181 --> 00:07:09,784
that would just be. almost perfection. I don't
know if he's like that great of an actor as

74
00:07:09,824 --> 00:07:15,087
you're claiming he is, but he's certainly solid
enough to pull off the role of Harvey Dent

75
00:07:15,447 --> 00:07:20,150
and Two-Face, I agree. You make him sound like
freaking the next Daniel Day-Lewis or something,

76
00:07:20,170 --> 00:07:22,972
the way you're describing him. Perfection, I
don't know. I don't think I implied that at

77
00:07:23,052 --> 00:07:28,115
all. I didn't imply that. I just said he's a
good actor. No, he could totally pull it off.

78
00:07:28,395 --> 00:07:33,518
I could totally see him in that role. And you're
right, his performance in... Batman the Long

79
00:07:33,538 --> 00:07:38,100
Halloween was pretty impressive. He was almost
unrecognizable voice wise. So great answer,

80
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:43,043
Cyrus. We want to give a quick shout out to
the other answers. Brandon Estregard, who said

81
00:07:43,103 --> 00:07:46,685
Matthew Gray Goobler should play the Riddler.
That's awesome. The twins, Travis Bailey and

82
00:07:46,725 --> 00:07:50,627
Travis Herndon both gave answers. Travis Herndon
said Keith David should play Tombstone and

83
00:07:50,647 --> 00:07:55,910
Travis Bailey said Hailey Steinfeld should play
Spider-Gwen. Gil Camacho chimed in and said

84
00:07:55,950 --> 00:08:02,273
that Naji Jeter should play Miles Morales. Daniel
Alonso said AJ Locasio should play Gambit.

85
00:08:02,890 --> 00:08:08,392
and Colby Hentges said that Laura Bailey should
play Lois Lane. Those are all great answers.

86
00:08:08,492 --> 00:08:13,014
A lot of them didn't get picked because maybe
the voice actor wasn't a big enough name to,

87
00:08:13,154 --> 00:08:17,976
we think, successfully pull the star power necessary
for that type of character in live action.

88
00:08:18,396 --> 00:08:23,979
Yeah, great answers, guys. But the winner of
this week's no prize is Christopher Minotti,

89
00:08:24,399 --> 00:08:28,561
who said, Hi, guys, Christopher Minotti. I know
a lot of people are probably going to say this,

90
00:08:28,621 --> 00:08:34,179
but I want Jen Snackles as Batman. He does a
great voice for the character in the Tomorrowverse,

91
00:08:34,779 --> 00:08:41,522
and he's a great actor as well, having starred
as Dean Winchester in Supernatural and Soldier

92
00:08:41,542 --> 00:08:48,405
Boy in The Boys. I think he could do a great
job, and yeah, I just think I'd love to see

93
00:08:48,425 --> 00:08:54,147
that. Not only do I think that Jensen Ackles
could pull off a convincing Batman and pull

94
00:08:54,207 --> 00:08:59,149
in the crowd necessary for that type of role,
I'd also like to see him perform against David

95
00:08:59,189 --> 00:09:04,404
Cornswat as Superman. Yeah, I mean, we've been
told that Robert Pattinson is not going to

96
00:09:04,444 --> 00:09:10,827
be the Batman in James Gunn's DC Universe. And
I hear the name Jensen Ackles a lot for who

97
00:09:10,867 --> 00:09:16,811
people want to see play Batman. And I would
not hate that at all. I think the Tomorrowverse

98
00:09:16,831 --> 00:09:22,994
has proven that he has a good grasp of the character.
Yeah, he also played Jason Todd in Batman Under

99
00:09:23,014 --> 00:09:26,676
the Red Hood. But now that he's a little bit
older, yeah, I think he's graduated into the

100
00:09:26,716 --> 00:09:31,419
role of Batman for sure. Absolutely. So great
answer, Christopher Menotti, you win this week's

101
00:09:31,459 --> 00:09:35,861
No Prize. If you, the listener, want a shot
at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to

102
00:09:35,901 --> 00:09:40,264
later on in this episode when we'll be asking
another Question of the Week. And now that

103
00:09:40,284 --> 00:09:42,285
that's done, onto the news.

104
00:09:47,618 --> 00:09:53,721
Alright this past week we learned that the Paul
Bettany Vision Quest series is still on and

105
00:09:53,741 --> 00:10:00,205
that it now has a release date set in 2026.
Marvel has signed Terry Metalis to serve as

106
00:10:00,245 --> 00:10:05,288
the showrunner for that series. Who has an impressive
resume, he's currently the executive producer

107
00:10:05,408 --> 00:10:12,652
on Star Trek Picard which has gotten great reviews.
Now the last time we saw Vision was in WandaVision

108
00:10:13,232 --> 00:10:19,289
and at the end of the series the vision manifestation
that Wanda created disappeared and the real

109
00:10:19,329 --> 00:10:24,034
Vision, which had been rebuilt by Sword and
he was all white in color, he just kind of

110
00:10:24,074 --> 00:10:29,479
disappeared to go, I don't know, figure shit
out. And this Vision series will allegedly

111
00:10:29,519 --> 00:10:34,764
take place as he kind of comes back into the
fold. Yeah, it's kind of in a way a sequel

112
00:10:34,844 --> 00:10:39,343
perhaps to Wanda Vision. Yeah, we don't know
what's going to happen, but one of the most

113
00:10:39,383 --> 00:10:45,026
celebrated story arcs from the comics was written
by Tom King and is about how Vision tries to

114
00:10:45,066 --> 00:10:50,869
create his own synthzoid family and try to live
the normal suburban lifestyle. And WandaVision

115
00:10:50,889 --> 00:10:55,032
kind of touched on those themes, but it would
be kind of interesting to see the Vision Quest

116
00:10:55,072 --> 00:11:01,155
series kind of continue that. If you guys haven't
read Tom King's run on Vision, I highly suggest

117
00:11:01,175 --> 00:11:06,318
it. Yeah, won a couple of Eisner Awards, I believe.
Yeah, it was really good. Really dark. We've

118
00:11:06,338 --> 00:11:10,060
been waiting for a release date for this show
for a while now, you know, ever since 2021,

119
00:11:10,681 --> 00:11:14,644
when WandaVision first came out in the middle
of the pandemic. So it's nice to kind of get

120
00:11:14,884 --> 00:11:20,228
that closure that the series is indeed happening
and it's happening relatively soon in terms

121
00:11:20,288 --> 00:11:24,491
of movie and TV production time. Yeah, it's
one of the MCU's current loose threads that

122
00:11:24,531 --> 00:11:28,834
people have definitely been interested in seeing
be picked up because he's an Avenger, not one

123
00:11:28,874 --> 00:11:35,566
of the original Avengers, but he plays an important
part on the team. Yeah. The first sequel to

124
00:11:35,626 --> 00:11:40,228
Wandavision that's coming out later on this
year though is Agatha All Along, which is the

125
00:11:40,268 --> 00:11:45,350
true title of that series. None of the House
of Harkness or Covenant of Chaos bullshit is

126
00:11:45,390 --> 00:11:49,772
just Agatha All Along. All those fake titles
were part of the marketing, I guess. Just kind

127
00:11:49,792 --> 00:11:53,534
of showing like, oh, Agatha's being wacky, she's
messing with the titles, it was Agatha All

128
00:11:53,574 --> 00:11:58,256
Along. Which I do think is a great name. I'm
hoping each of the episode titles actually

129
00:11:58,396 --> 00:12:03,070
are like Covenant of Chaos and House of Harkness
and stuff like that. I'm hoping Kevin Feige

130
00:12:03,150 --> 00:12:08,071
uses that show to explain all of the shittiness
that's been going on with MCU lately and all

131
00:12:08,091 --> 00:12:12,793
the stuff that fans haven't been liking. You'd
be like, oh, blame Agatha. It was her all along.

132
00:12:13,353 --> 00:12:16,814
First of all, you don't know what you're talking
about. But secondly, that would be funny. It's

133
00:12:16,854 --> 00:12:21,656
like, oh, you don't like Secret Invasion. Blame
Agatha. Oh, you didn't like Modok. Yeah, it

134
00:12:21,676 --> 00:12:27,197
was Agatha that did that one. Yep. Bow, the
god of dumplings. That was actually Agatha.

135
00:12:29,922 --> 00:12:35,586
So good. Yeah, Agatha All Along premieres this
September, and again we'll wait a couple years

136
00:12:35,646 --> 00:12:39,489
for Vision Quest. Actually, we don't even know
if the series is still called Vision Quest

137
00:12:39,509 --> 00:12:44,573
because according to Variety, the series is
still unnamed. So it'll probably be called

138
00:12:44,793 --> 00:12:48,976
Vision is what I'm guessing, but definitely
looking forward to it. And speaking of Vision,

139
00:12:49,096 --> 00:12:50,737
that brings us to our question of the week.

140
00:12:55,150 --> 00:13:02,353
Who is your favorite robot superhero or villain
from Marvel or DC and why? A lot of great robot

141
00:13:02,373 --> 00:13:07,036
characters out there guys, let's hear your favorite.
Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking

142
00:13:07,076 --> 00:13:10,098
on the red microphone button in the bottom right
hand corner of the screen which will prompt

143
00:13:10,118 --> 00:13:14,340
you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could
be up to 30 seconds long and don't forget to

144
00:13:14,380 --> 00:13:18,422
leave your name in case we include you on the
podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and

145
00:13:18,462 --> 00:13:22,685
award that person the Dynamic Duel No Prize
that will post to Instagram. Be sure to answer

146
00:13:22,705 --> 00:13:24,145
before June 1st.

147
00:13:31,502 --> 00:13:35,027
But I think that does it for all of the news
for this episode. Now let's move on to the

148
00:13:35,087 --> 00:13:41,377
main event, where we review the Marvel Studios
animated television series X-Men 97.

149
00:13:56,686 --> 00:14:02,691
Okay, X-Men 97 is a Marvel television animated
series created by Bo DeMaio, the continuation

150
00:14:02,731 --> 00:14:09,577
of the 1990s X-Men the animated series, which
ran from 1992 to 1997 and has long been celebrated

151
00:14:09,617 --> 00:14:15,181
by fans as one of the greatest superhero cartoons
ever made. The long awaited questions we all

152
00:14:15,221 --> 00:14:20,366
had, especially us 90s kids, was whether this
new effort could even hope to live up to the

153
00:14:20,406 --> 00:14:25,302
original, which was known for being incredibly
faithful to the source material. and not being

154
00:14:25,322 --> 00:14:30,164
afraid to tackle the more weighty themes of
prejudice and identity. Would this continuation

155
00:14:30,184 --> 00:14:35,006
series carry on that level of quality, or would
it fall short of the lofty standards set by

156
00:14:35,046 --> 00:14:41,429
its predecessor? Well, it brings me so much
unbridled joy to say that not only does X-Men

157
00:14:41,449 --> 00:14:47,491
97 rise to the challenge, it clears the bar,
I think, for animated superhero television.

158
00:14:48,012 --> 00:14:52,093
And here's your spoiler warning right up top,
this is a spoiler review for season 1, so don't

159
00:14:52,113 --> 00:14:56,496
even th- think about continuing to listen to
this episode without watching the show. You

160
00:14:56,556 --> 00:15:01,799
don't want to spoil all the greatness in store
for you, so I would suggest and even demand

161
00:15:01,879 --> 00:15:06,342
that you watch the series before continuing
on. You won't regret it. The show is kind of

162
00:15:06,362 --> 00:15:11,365
like the quintessential X-Men experience, I
think. Oh yeah, I wholeheartedly agree. I loved

163
00:15:11,465 --> 00:15:16,768
the show. I remember watching it as a kid in
the mid-90s, back when I was still a Marvel

164
00:15:16,808 --> 00:15:22,575
fan, and I don't remember... too much about
it. I definitely haven't seen all of the episodes,

165
00:15:23,075 --> 00:15:29,657
but just watching this new season, I felt like
it went way harder than it even needed to because

166
00:15:29,797 --> 00:15:35,038
I don't remember like any of the mature topics
back when I watched it as a kid. And I just

167
00:15:35,058 --> 00:15:41,780
have to say, if it was as good and mature and
relevant back then as it is today, I would

168
00:15:41,820 --> 00:15:46,358
not mind like going back and watching all of
those old seasons with my daughters. Yeah,

169
00:15:46,378 --> 00:15:50,681
the first couple of seasons of the 90s show
were solid. It kind of dropped off a little

170
00:15:50,701 --> 00:15:57,467
bit after that. In the series finale for the
90s show, Professor X gets shot by Henry Guyric

171
00:15:57,527 --> 00:16:01,670
and he goes up into space. So this X-Men 97
series continues right where that one left

172
00:16:01,730 --> 00:16:05,914
off, which was really nice. But yeah, you and
I were six years old when the X-Men animated

173
00:16:05,954 --> 00:16:11,738
series first debuted and it was a huge influence
on us as children, you know, inspiring our

174
00:16:11,799 --> 00:16:18,391
love of superheroes until the show ended when
we were 11. Like I remember turning on X-Men

175
00:16:18,471 --> 00:16:23,894
every Saturday morning on Fox Kids with our
breakfast cereal in our lap. All the kids back

176
00:16:23,934 --> 00:16:28,376
then watched the X-Men television show. And
I remember we used to play X-Men on the playground

177
00:16:28,396 --> 00:16:34,000
with the other boys. The kid with glasses was
always Cyclops. And I liked pretending to be

178
00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:39,062
Wolverine or Bishop or Gambit. And I think you
used to like to be Professor X because you

179
00:16:39,082 --> 00:16:44,145
could just say like, I shut down your mind to
everyone no matter what. No, I was Colossus,

180
00:16:44,185 --> 00:16:50,800
bro. I was classes. Okay. It's good times, though.
I completely tried to put aside all the nostalgia

181
00:16:50,940 --> 00:16:54,702
while reviewing this series, although I will
say there was something magical about hearing

182
00:16:54,722 --> 00:17:00,905
that opening theme once again for like a new
episode. It was just it was so bizarre, very

183
00:17:00,945 --> 00:17:05,927
surreal with that nostalgia kick. Oh, yeah.
I didn't skip a single intro. Like it gave

184
00:17:05,967 --> 00:17:12,194
me the option to skip intro and I was like,
no, I'm enjoying this. I will say that the

185
00:17:12,234 --> 00:17:15,877
nostalgia wasn't that heavy though. I mean,
like the show certainly evokes a sense of nostalgia,

186
00:17:15,897 --> 00:17:21,662
but like not as much as you'd think. Considering
this X-Men 97 series feels pretty modern and

187
00:17:21,742 --> 00:17:26,466
upgraded from the animation styles we had back
in the 90s. It feels like there were two different

188
00:17:26,506 --> 00:17:30,749
animation teams working on the show. You know,
one for the talking stuff and then one for

189
00:17:30,769 --> 00:17:36,594
the crazy awesome action stuff with the dynamic
camera work and the hyper flashy visualizations.

190
00:17:37,175 --> 00:17:45,742
I loved the action style of X-Men 97. This was
a perfect blend of both cerebral writing and

191
00:17:45,822 --> 00:17:51,026
kinetic action. It was perfection. Well, I do
think that the animation could have gone even

192
00:17:51,247 --> 00:17:55,791
further. They were largely constrained by the
animation style of the 90s show, but you could

193
00:17:55,811 --> 00:18:00,535
tell they really cut loose during the action.
Yeah, for sure. But more than the action, I

194
00:18:00,555 --> 00:18:05,079
really loved how the series seemed to be targeted
toward those that enjoyed the original show

195
00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:09,927
30 years ago and are now grown-ass adults, like
us. You know, like not to say that kids couldn't

196
00:18:09,947 --> 00:18:15,790
watch X-Men 97, but I would say that because
it doesn't really hold back in terms of violence

197
00:18:15,970 --> 00:18:20,734
and death and you know, even adult relationships
compared to what you and I were used to seeing

198
00:18:20,774 --> 00:18:25,296
back on the Fox Kids channel, I guess I would
be a little bit hesitant showing this to kids.

199
00:18:25,316 --> 00:18:30,900
Like it's not TVMA or anything, I would place
most of the episodes at probably TV14 and maybe

200
00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:35,935
some of the lighter ones at TVY7. I don't know
if people outside the US know what these ratings

201
00:18:35,995 --> 00:18:40,837
mean, but I think basically anyone younger than
teenagers aren't probably going to get much

202
00:18:40,877 --> 00:18:45,299
out of X-Men 97. It might even be put off by
parts of it. Yeah, again, I don't remember

203
00:18:45,319 --> 00:18:49,120
the old show too much, but this definitely felt
more mature, and I don't know if that's just

204
00:18:49,140 --> 00:18:55,023
because I understand more as an adult or not,
but I definitely do feel like this is the first

205
00:18:55,063 --> 00:19:01,266
time I ever saw Wolverine cut into someone human
and them showing blood as a result. Oh for

206
00:19:01,286 --> 00:19:05,809
sure, I mean, Wolverine was notoriously never
allowed to cut anybody in the 90s cartoon,

207
00:19:05,849 --> 00:19:10,112
you know, he always had to go up against robots
and shit, but never really human beings, because

208
00:19:10,172 --> 00:19:14,295
you just couldn't, it would be too violent.
You know, Stan Lee was famous for wanting to

209
00:19:14,315 --> 00:19:18,978
gear his stories for more mature minds and you
know, John Byrne and Chris Claremont, the famous

210
00:19:19,098 --> 00:19:23,661
X-Men writers, were right there with him. I
think the X-Men and Marvel in general, but

211
00:19:23,701 --> 00:19:28,765
the X-Men in particular, were always a little
more weighty and intense than your standard,

212
00:19:28,805 --> 00:19:35,307
you know, super friends fare. Oh, absolutely.
DC set the bar in terms of targeting children

213
00:19:35,427 --> 00:19:40,609
for their animated fare. I don't think it was
really until Batman the Animated Series and

214
00:19:40,629 --> 00:19:45,010
the X-Men Animated Series that things started
to get a little bit darker, I guess you could

215
00:19:45,050 --> 00:19:50,292
say. Yeah, the writing just got better. Comparing
the writing of the previous cartoons with the

216
00:19:50,312 --> 00:19:55,927
writing of an X-Men episode, both the 90s version
and this show, The X-Men episodes were always

217
00:19:56,107 --> 00:20:01,571
inherently weightier than the other cartoons
because of the heavy themes of prejudice, discrimination,

218
00:20:01,851 --> 00:20:07,396
identity, acceptance. You know, you have civil
rights in there, social justice, trauma. All

219
00:20:07,436 --> 00:20:12,440
those ideas are baked into the concept of the
superpower team that fights for those that

220
00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:17,044
hate and fear them. And that's on top of, you
know, other standard hero themes that you usually

221
00:20:17,084 --> 00:20:22,608
get of power and sacrifice. But the X-Men have
always been more than a power fantasy. They've

222
00:20:22,648 --> 00:20:28,251
always had this moral message. And that's what
makes the X-Men animated series and X-Men 97

223
00:20:28,311 --> 00:20:33,734
so great is that they understand that. They
get that there is a lesson here. Yeah, no,

224
00:20:33,915 --> 00:20:39,818
I absolutely appreciate that. I love stories
with messages. To me, that's what storytelling

225
00:20:39,958 --> 00:20:46,001
is all about. And when it comes to this X-Men
show, like it just feels incredibly relevant

226
00:20:46,261 --> 00:20:50,931
right now. As you know, like every day in the
news we're hearing about Russia and Ukraine

227
00:20:51,051 --> 00:20:56,453
or Israel and Hamas or even, you know, Republican
versus Democrat. Lines are drawn and enemies

228
00:20:56,473 --> 00:21:01,375
are declared. But the truth is that every group
in history has at one point or another been

229
00:21:01,415 --> 00:21:06,958
victimized by another group. And what's great
about the message of the X-Men is that its

230
00:21:06,998 --> 00:21:12,840
heroes inspire us not toward defeating those
we consider our enemies, but toward working

231
00:21:12,940 --> 00:21:18,335
with them to build a tolerant future together.
I think everyone can relate with the X-Men

232
00:21:18,375 --> 00:21:24,099
and that's why they're so incredibly popular
and relevant. Yeah, I mean, DC only wishes,

233
00:21:24,199 --> 00:21:30,423
right? I'm sorry, there's no prejudice and the
DC Universe are better than that. I really

234
00:21:30,463 --> 00:21:35,586
hope that however they tackle these X-Men stories
in the MCU in live action. I hope that the

235
00:21:35,606 --> 00:21:41,150
filmmakers remember that the X-Men are more
than just a power fantasy. And, you know, this

236
00:21:41,290 --> 00:21:45,274
X-Men 97 series gives me 100% faith that Marvel
knows what they're doing with the franchise

237
00:21:45,294 --> 00:21:51,699
down the line. Absolutely. Holy cow. If the
X-Men movie that they make is not as good as

238
00:21:51,779 --> 00:21:57,644
this show, I'm gonna kinda be disappointed because
they set a really, really high bar right out

239
00:21:57,684 --> 00:22:03,079
the gate. Beyond the themes though... The X-Men
97 show, like its predecessor, has some of

240
00:22:03,099 --> 00:22:08,202
the most badass, captivating dialogue I've ever
heard. Like usually the dialogue is the boring

241
00:22:08,242 --> 00:22:12,464
stuff in these superhero cartoons, right? But
like when almost every line is written like

242
00:22:12,484 --> 00:22:16,807
a profound piece of poetry, you yearn for the
boring stuff almost as much as the action.

243
00:22:17,227 --> 00:22:21,549
Dude, it's like Shakespeare level good, right?
Right. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration.

244
00:22:21,942 --> 00:22:27,604
But it's really, really damn good. I love the
drama of everything. My wife, you know, she

245
00:22:27,624 --> 00:22:33,247
caught snippets of this as I was watching it,
as I was just like riveted by it. And she actually

246
00:22:33,287 --> 00:22:37,269
got into it as well. She was like, this is kind
of like a soap opera. I was like, hell yeah,

247
00:22:37,289 --> 00:22:43,211
it is. Yeah. Like, yeah, I'll admit sometimes
the proceedings can get a little melodramatic,

248
00:22:43,491 --> 00:22:48,502
especially the romantic relationship stuff.
But like as an adult, I don't care. Maybe as

249
00:22:48,562 --> 00:22:51,743
a kid I would have cared, but as an adult I
don't. I'm like, give me that soap opera shit.

250
00:22:51,863 --> 00:22:57,886
I crave the drama. Like when Gene caught Scott
psychically kissing Madeline in his bedroom,

251
00:22:58,306 --> 00:23:02,148
I was like shoveling popcorn in my mouth. Like,
oh damn, I'm gonna be gossiping about this

252
00:23:02,208 --> 00:23:10,151
at tea time tomorrow. This is some juicy shit.
For real, for real. But regarding the dialogue,

253
00:23:10,451 --> 00:23:14,553
I just wanna go over some of my favorite lines
from the show. Kind of like a poetry reading.

254
00:23:16,938 --> 00:23:23,643
I am trying to be better, do not make me let
you down. There is no love without sin, for

255
00:23:23,703 --> 00:23:30,649
love is best measured in what we forgive. Every
moment is a new and shocking evaluation of

256
00:23:30,709 --> 00:23:39,156
all we have ever been. Blood is blood, family
is a choice. Make them mind your weather, sister,

257
00:23:39,696 --> 00:23:45,271
and them weather your mind. You best pray our
children read their textbooks more than their

258
00:23:45,291 --> 00:23:52,276
Bibles, for only history could be conned into
forgiving us. Like who writes this? That's

259
00:23:52,296 --> 00:23:57,220
all fantastic. And the best part is that somehow
it doesn't come across as overwritten either,

260
00:23:57,540 --> 00:24:02,183
which shouldn't work for a seeming adolescent
cartoon, but it does. I'm not gonna lie, as

261
00:24:02,243 --> 00:24:07,246
I was watching this, I was kinda hella jealous
about Marvel's animation.

262
00:24:12,150 --> 00:24:17,835
This was way better. I think the only thing
that could kind of be compared to the X-Men

263
00:24:17,875 --> 00:24:21,599
animated series that I know of, because I've
actually never seen the show, I might be talking

264
00:24:21,639 --> 00:24:25,442
out of my ass right now, but what I've heard
about Young Justice actually comes pretty close

265
00:24:25,482 --> 00:24:29,566
to this stuff. Like it also deals with like
weighty themes and stuff, right? Yeah, yeah,

266
00:24:29,606 --> 00:24:35,031
I've seen Young Justice. It is really good,
especially thematically. But I wouldn't say

267
00:24:35,051 --> 00:24:40,143
that the dialogue is as good because you're
right. It's written in a way that should feel

268
00:24:40,243 --> 00:24:45,906
overwritten, but the performances were just
so good that they totally sold me on every

269
00:24:45,946 --> 00:24:51,430
line that they said. There was not a single
line that I thought was delivered poorly. No,

270
00:24:51,510 --> 00:24:55,812
for sure, and we should talk more about the
actors and characters in our character breakdown.

271
00:24:55,952 --> 00:25:01,595
Starting with Cyclops, aka Scott Summers, played
by Ray Chase, who's not the original voice

272
00:25:01,635 --> 00:25:06,978
actor from the 90s. That was Norm Spencer, who
died in the year 2020. But I think Ray Chase's

273
00:25:07,018 --> 00:25:11,460
voice was spot on, I didn't even know it wasn't
the original voice actor when watching, so

274
00:25:11,500 --> 00:25:16,803
kudos to Ray Chase. I loved seeing Cyclops front
and center with like a whole lot of screen

275
00:25:16,843 --> 00:25:22,105
time as not only the team leader of the X-Men,
but as a character that was vital to the season's

276
00:25:22,165 --> 00:25:28,368
narrative. After so many years out of the spotlight
in the X-Men movies, where he was largely relegated

277
00:25:28,428 --> 00:25:33,546
as a side character, it was really nice to see
Cyclops have his time to shine. Yeah, Cyclops

278
00:25:33,686 --> 00:25:38,828
is my favorite X-Men character. I know everyone
loves Wolverine. I've always been about Cyclops.

279
00:25:39,048 --> 00:25:43,630
And yeah, it was really great to see Marvel
do the character justice in a way that they

280
00:25:43,730 --> 00:25:48,432
have never been able to in the movies. Yeah,
I mean, like a lot of people will say Cyclops

281
00:25:48,492 --> 00:25:54,375
is boring, but I think this season in particular
helped show how these Boy Scout characters

282
00:25:54,415 --> 00:25:58,917
like Cyclops, you know, like Captain America,
and even Superman, they can still be complex

283
00:25:58,937 --> 00:26:03,683
while adhering to a set of simple principles.
Cyclops, you know, he's not a brute like say

284
00:26:03,723 --> 00:26:09,286
Wolverine, but that doesn't make him a pushover.
You know, he's still strong and assertive and

285
00:26:09,446 --> 00:26:13,789
really his strength that is in his ability to
never waver in the face of adversity while

286
00:26:13,809 --> 00:26:19,912
convincing other people to do the same and follow
his lead. Absolutely. Yeah, he is a great example

287
00:26:20,013 --> 00:26:25,416
of leadership and a beacon for the rest of the
X-Men. What's also interesting is that he's

288
00:26:25,436 --> 00:26:29,870
still trying to be fully on board with Xavier's
ideals himself. You know, Cyclops went through

289
00:26:30,090 --> 00:26:34,351
a lot this season, dealing with the weight of
taking over the team, after the loss of his

290
00:26:34,411 --> 00:26:39,333
mentor, trying to lead the X-Men to follow Professor
X's dream, while dealing with his own personal

291
00:26:39,353 --> 00:26:45,135
beliefs, you know, his slight lack of idealism,
and his anger at humanity. You know, tie that

292
00:26:45,175 --> 00:26:50,796
into becoming a father, and the emotional hardships
regarding his infected son, and his cloned

293
00:26:50,876 --> 00:26:55,394
wife. Dude went through the emotional wringer
this season. But it was nice to see him come

294
00:26:55,414 --> 00:27:00,217
out the other end, having connected with his
adult son Cable, and choosing to believe in

295
00:27:00,317 --> 00:27:05,820
Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence by extending
an olive branch to Bastion in the very last

296
00:27:05,860 --> 00:27:12,303
episode. Yeah, what a fantastic arc. Really,
really solid. He's almost not a static character.

297
00:27:12,403 --> 00:27:18,106
I guess he is, but he definitely still has a
journey that he goes through. Yeah, he kind

298
00:27:18,146 --> 00:27:24,662
of discovers his own place amongst Xavier's
ideals and Magneto's realism, and The comics

299
00:27:24,682 --> 00:27:29,403
explores that so much more, especially Cyclops
within the last decade of X-Men comics. And

300
00:27:29,423 --> 00:27:33,884
it'll be interesting to see how the character
progresses with his arc in subsequent seasons

301
00:27:34,144 --> 00:27:39,466
of this animated show. Let's go ahead and move
on to Jean Grey, who is played by Jennifer

302
00:27:39,526 --> 00:27:45,548
Hale, who is new to the series. She replaces
the original actress, Katherine Disher, who

303
00:27:45,728 --> 00:27:50,769
actually voiced Valerie Cooper in this season.
Now, Jennifer Hale did a good job here. She

304
00:27:50,829 --> 00:27:55,063
did... previously voiced Jean in the Wolverine
and the X-Men cartoon, so she sounds pretty

305
00:27:55,083 --> 00:27:59,964
familiar. Jean played largely a supporting role
to Cyclops Arc, though she certainly went through

306
00:27:59,984 --> 00:28:05,186
a lot on her own, you know, discovering that
she was cloned and that clone bore a child

307
00:28:05,326 --> 00:28:09,847
with her husband. Now, you could base an entire
season on that emotional conflict, but, you

308
00:28:09,867 --> 00:28:14,969
know, as being part of an ensemble, surprisingly,
I still felt the weight of what Jean was going

309
00:28:14,989 --> 00:28:19,872
through to the show's credit. In the end, she
chose to accept her circumstances, you know,

310
00:28:19,952 --> 00:28:25,977
empathizing with Madeline Pryor and really embracing
Cable as her son, who in turn also embraced

311
00:28:26,077 --> 00:28:31,282
Jean as his mother. And that all really came
full circle when she manifested the Phoenix

312
00:28:31,302 --> 00:28:35,625
Force again when her son was about to be killed,
you know, reaching into the deepest part of

313
00:28:35,666 --> 00:28:40,730
herself to protect her family, even though he
wasn't technically her son. Yeah, she went

314
00:28:40,750 --> 00:28:46,730
through a really interesting dilemma. Her and
Scott and Madeline Pryor. It was a weird kind

315
00:28:46,770 --> 00:28:53,792
of love triangle because like she was jealous
of herself in a way because she retained all

316
00:28:53,832 --> 00:28:58,553
of the memories of Madeline Pryor even though
she didn't commit the actions that Madeline

317
00:28:58,593 --> 00:29:03,495
Pryor did like give birth to Nathan. It's a
profound circumstance and I thought they did

318
00:29:03,555 --> 00:29:08,916
a great job exploring it with the characters
of both Jean Grey and Madeline Pryor. Yeah,

319
00:29:08,936 --> 00:29:14,638
you really felt for them. Really good stuff.
Let's go to move on to Magneto. aka Eric Lencher

320
00:29:14,678 --> 00:29:19,999
played by Matthew Watterson who was also new
to the series. He takes over from original

321
00:29:20,039 --> 00:29:25,941
voice actor David Hamblin who unfortunately
also died in 2020. I think Matthew Watterson

322
00:29:25,961 --> 00:29:30,282
was spot on in terms of how he sounded. Like
again, I didn't even know this wasn't the original

323
00:29:30,362 --> 00:29:35,403
actor until I looked it up. But the character
of Magneto was a massive player here taking

324
00:29:35,464 --> 00:29:40,825
over the X-Men on behalf of Professor X, trying
to do things against his standard MO out of

325
00:29:40,865 --> 00:29:46,412
respect for his seemingly late friend. He had
to kind of adopt a new perspective for a time

326
00:29:46,712 --> 00:29:51,375
as mutants were starting to become more accepted
among humanity, only to have that illusion

327
00:29:51,815 --> 00:29:56,659
shattered by Genosha's destruction, proving
to himself that he was right all along, and

328
00:29:56,699 --> 00:30:02,963
having his initial belief system reinforced
that prejudice and otherism will always exist

329
00:30:02,983 --> 00:30:08,042
within humanity. I'm not entirely sure that
he was right. despite the fact that Operation

330
00:30:08,082 --> 00:30:13,026
Zero Tolerance was secretly backed by the UN,
because the UN had no real idea what Bastion

331
00:30:13,046 --> 00:30:18,929
was up to. But the problem, I think, with both
Professor X's and Magneto's viewpoints is that

332
00:30:18,969 --> 00:30:24,033
it's nearly impossible to describe humanity
in general terms. I would say that there were

333
00:30:24,073 --> 00:30:29,696
enough Prime Sentinel volunteers to prove Magneto's
standpoint, and probably enough shock at Bastion's

334
00:30:29,776 --> 00:30:35,980
actions to justify Xavier's hope. Yeah, Magneto
has always been one of the most interesting

335
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:41,785
Marvel villains. You know, people for a while
were saying Thanos was right in terms of what

336
00:30:41,825 --> 00:30:48,630
he did in the MCU films. I don't know about
that. To me, I think Magneto has always been

337
00:30:48,670 --> 00:30:53,454
a character whose actions are more, I don't
know about justified, but understandable for

338
00:30:53,494 --> 00:30:59,039
sure. Yeah, it's just one of the great thought
experiments that the X-Men poses as a concept.

339
00:30:59,239 --> 00:31:05,967
Everyone has the sense of justice within them.
And I think Magneto really speaks to that as

340
00:31:06,007 --> 00:31:14,030
compared to Professor X, who speaks to a sense
of grace, I would suppose, that's probably

341
00:31:14,190 --> 00:31:18,892
not as natural as the sense of justice. You
really have to fight for that and push for

342
00:31:18,932 --> 00:31:24,475
that. So in a way, you could say Magneto is
more relatable than Professor X, but it would

343
00:31:24,495 --> 00:31:30,017
be nice to be as idealistic as Professor X,
because it's just so much more hopeful. For

344
00:31:30,057 --> 00:31:35,503
sure. Yeah. I remember in the comics in the
90s when Magneto went good for a while and

345
00:31:35,543 --> 00:31:39,065
I think he went under the name Joseph. That
was a clone. Actually, I think that was a clone.

346
00:31:39,085 --> 00:31:45,468
Yeah. But I love how this show adapts storylines
from the X-Men comics and it's always done

347
00:31:45,488 --> 00:31:50,430
a great job at that. Yeah, there was definitely
a time when Magneto was in charge of the X-Men

348
00:31:50,610 --> 00:31:55,392
when Professor X was thought to be dead. He
came around to lead the New Mutants characters

349
00:31:55,532 --> 00:32:00,854
shortly after they were introduced. But let's
go ahead and move on to Bastion. aka Sebastian

350
00:32:00,894 --> 00:32:07,899
Gilberty, played by Theo James. Theo James crushed
it, man. His voice was so unique and terrifying,

351
00:32:07,959 --> 00:32:12,182
yet intelligent. I had no idea it was him. And
like with this performance, I could totally

352
00:32:12,242 --> 00:32:17,186
honestly see him playing the character in live
action if the MCU ever goes with Bastion as

353
00:32:17,226 --> 00:32:23,050
a villain. Dude, I didn't know this was Theo
James. I thought it was recognizable. Motivation-wise,

354
00:32:23,270 --> 00:32:28,786
Sebastian is not terribly complex. He wants
to destroy mutants because he was born. part

355
00:32:28,926 --> 00:32:33,388
sentinel, essentially, which is a change from
the source material where he's the techno-organic

356
00:32:33,468 --> 00:32:38,470
fusion of Nimrod and Mastermold, but I actually
liked his origin more here because it made

357
00:32:38,630 --> 00:32:44,172
more sense having him as a human-sentinel hybrid
than having him just manifest through a magical

358
00:32:44,212 --> 00:32:51,855
portal. Yeah, I agree with that. Having him
grow up different in the same way that mutants

359
00:32:51,875 --> 00:32:59,091
do, but also very much pro-humanities side was...
Very, very interesting. I think they did a

360
00:32:59,151 --> 00:33:03,835
great job adapting that. Yeah, it was a dichotomy
that existed with his own mind because he hated

361
00:33:03,915 --> 00:33:08,540
mutants, but he also struggled with humanity.
You know, he was seen as different by humans.

362
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:13,424
He had abilities. And he was even considered
for inclusion with the original X-Men, though

363
00:33:13,444 --> 00:33:18,228
his mother denied it. Ultimately, he belonged
with neither humans nor mutants. And by the

364
00:33:18,308 --> 00:33:23,873
end, he was content to destroy them all, given
that he probably already likely felt very alone.

365
00:33:24,310 --> 00:33:28,993
He rejected the X-Men's offer for mercy at the
end, being far too cynical that he and mutants

366
00:33:29,013 --> 00:33:33,636
would ever be accepted, essentially being proven
right in his last moments when the Magneto

367
00:33:33,676 --> 00:33:38,339
protocols were implemented. You know, his last
lines were, humanity would rather die than

368
00:33:38,379 --> 00:33:44,824
have kids like us. So he's just a tragic figure
who was just terribly fascinating. My major

369
00:33:44,884 --> 00:33:51,548
gripe with this show was that they introduced
Bastion way too late. That's true. That's true.

370
00:33:51,568 --> 00:33:55,271
I mean, he was like working behind the scenes.
but you're right, he wasn't introduced until

371
00:33:55,291 --> 00:33:59,295
the latter half of the season. But I also kind
of like that, you know, he kind of came out

372
00:33:59,335 --> 00:34:03,919
of nowhere to be this powerful influence. Yeah,
I mean, the show definitely didn't suffer from

373
00:34:03,999 --> 00:34:09,124
any kind of lack of conflict throughout the
whole season, but I think I would have liked

374
00:34:09,204 --> 00:34:14,829
to have felt Bastion's influence a little bit
earlier. Not just with the Sentinels, but him

375
00:34:14,909 --> 00:34:20,120
specifically. Let's go ahead and move on to
Storm, aka Aurora Monroe, who is played by

376
00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:25,364
Alice in Seelie Smith. Now she is the original
actress from the 90s show. And Alice in Seelie

377
00:34:25,404 --> 00:34:30,067
Smith's take on the character was always more
grandiose and operatic than I ever thought

378
00:34:30,087 --> 00:34:33,969
the character needed to be. And that's an issue
that I had with Storm's characterization even

379
00:34:33,989 --> 00:34:38,713
from the 90s. You know, they really leaned heavily
into the goddess perspective where she was

380
00:34:38,813 --> 00:34:43,556
once worshipped in Africa as a weather controlling
deity. But since her time with the X-Men, I

381
00:34:43,576 --> 00:34:48,520
always read Storm in the comics as a little
bit more approachable, I guess. I just imagine

382
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:54,525
it would be hard to communicate with Storm from
the cartoon because she's so theatrical. Yeah,

383
00:34:54,645 --> 00:35:00,631
I guess. Although I don't hate that interpretation
of her character, I think I certainly prefer

384
00:35:00,651 --> 00:35:06,476
it more than the movie versions that we've received.
Oh, for sure. And, you know, you could argue

385
00:35:06,536 --> 00:35:11,981
that she wasn't too hard to talk to considering
the relationship she had with Jean Grey, which-

386
00:35:12,330 --> 00:35:17,292
I thought was great. They definitely seemed
like really close friends. Yeah, I think the

387
00:35:17,352 --> 00:35:21,874
perfect storm lies somewhere in between this
cartoon version of Storm and the movie Storm.

388
00:35:22,814 --> 00:35:26,976
There's got to be a balance there, I think.
She was definitely humbled this season. Oh

389
00:35:27,016 --> 00:35:31,638
yeah, I liked Storm's arc here. It was basically
the life-death arc from the comics where she

390
00:35:31,718 --> 00:35:36,980
temporarily lost her powers due to a weapon
created by Forge and she had to re-examine

391
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:41,866
and redefine herself as a human for a time.
It's a quintessential arc for her character

392
00:35:41,906 --> 00:35:46,489
from the comics and you know it's an easy go-to
for character building. She basically learns

393
00:35:46,509 --> 00:35:51,212
that she doesn't have to fear being a human
or a mutant and she can overcome her fear to

394
00:35:51,252 --> 00:35:55,894
embrace who she is regardless. The scene right
after she lost her power when she's in her

395
00:35:55,934 --> 00:36:02,298
room and she's frightened by a lightning strike
outside was so profound to me. Like that's

396
00:36:02,338 --> 00:36:08,834
right she probably has never encountered weather
that she couldn't control. I don't know if

397
00:36:08,854 --> 00:36:13,558
that scene was from the comics, but I loved
it. I don't know if it's from the comics, but

398
00:36:14,158 --> 00:36:19,763
it was a quiet, profound moment that I really
loved for sure. And her letter to Jean was

399
00:36:19,803 --> 00:36:24,807
so well written, too. Like the X-Men are incredible
writers. Let me just say, like Nightcrawler's

400
00:36:24,867 --> 00:36:31,833
eulogy for Gambit. Oh, dude. Holy shit, man.
I just want a series of Nightcrawler performing

401
00:36:31,893 --> 00:36:36,417
at like living funerals or something like that,
just breaking down all these heroes to their

402
00:36:36,477 --> 00:36:42,133
core. and just explaining what makes them so
special and stuff like that. It was so touching

403
00:36:42,573 --> 00:36:48,257
and yet still managed to incorporate so many
gambling and card playing terms. But I was

404
00:36:48,277 --> 00:36:52,840
like, holy shit, get this guy a Pulitzer in
terms of like obituaries, because that was

405
00:36:52,860 --> 00:36:57,803
a masterpiece. For sure. Yeah. All the X-Men
need to quit their day jobs and become writers,

406
00:36:57,923 --> 00:37:01,946
I guess. See, if it was me, I would have just
been like, you got to know when to hold them.

407
00:37:02,446 --> 00:37:09,530
You got to know when to fold them. Not Nightcrawler.
He's above that. Yeah. Let's go ahead and move

408
00:37:09,590 --> 00:37:15,292
on to Rogue, AKA Anna Marie, played by Lenore
Zan. And she is the original actress here.

409
00:37:15,352 --> 00:37:19,893
And that was very clear. It was like, oh, this
is just, you know, the older version of Rogue.

410
00:37:20,053 --> 00:37:25,635
If anything, I think Lenore Zan's voice sounded
too old to me. I guess it didn't matter because

411
00:37:25,695 --> 00:37:30,036
I did become more accustomed to it as the show
went on. But for a long time there, I was like,

412
00:37:30,117 --> 00:37:36,139
Rogue really needs to stop smoking. Yeah. I
will agree with that. Although to be fair,

413
00:37:36,419 --> 00:37:42,202
maybe she's older than we thought she was, considering
the fact that she did have a relationship with

414
00:37:42,282 --> 00:37:49,727
Magneto, who also was like way too old to be
in the show if he was a Holocaust survivor.

415
00:37:50,227 --> 00:37:54,089
Yeah, well you would think that he was born
in the mid-30s and this show takes place in

416
00:37:54,289 --> 00:38:00,012
the year 1997, so he's got to be like mid-60s
here. And I'm guessing that when he and Rogue

417
00:38:00,032 --> 00:38:05,872
had their thing, she must have been really young.
18, 19, late teens, maybe early 20s. That all

418
00:38:05,912 --> 00:38:11,417
being said, Rogue had so much to do in this
season. You know, in the comics, like we said

419
00:38:11,477 --> 00:38:17,962
earlier, Magneto had a clone named Joseph and
she had a fling with him for a time in the

420
00:38:18,002 --> 00:38:22,346
books. I like how they brought elements of that
here, where she had the secret past with Magneto

421
00:38:22,506 --> 00:38:26,869
and that instantly brought attention to her
relationship with Gambit, whom she loves, but

422
00:38:26,990 --> 00:38:32,702
unlike Magneto, she can never touch. It just
drips with drama. And I'm here for it. especially

423
00:38:33,102 --> 00:38:38,704
as she weighed her options in ruling alongside
Magneto. In her heart, she longed to make a

424
00:38:38,744 --> 00:38:44,647
difference in that global way. But also in her
heart, she truly loved Gambit more. And in

425
00:38:44,667 --> 00:38:50,889
the end, she did choose to be with Gambit right
before his tragic death, which, holy shit,

426
00:38:50,909 --> 00:38:56,952
man, that was heartbreaking. I did not see that
coming. That really pumped up the stakes for

427
00:38:57,012 --> 00:39:02,274
this series. I was like, holy cow, if Gambit
could die, is anyone safe? Yeah, anybody could

428
00:39:02,294 --> 00:39:08,156
die. Yeah. Friggin' Leech! I know. How could
you kill Leech, man? He's such an innocent

429
00:39:08,196 --> 00:39:12,818
character. And that's just part of the whole
tragedy of the attack on Genosha. Yeah, yeah,

430
00:39:12,838 --> 00:39:19,381
that was super tragic. From that moment, Rogue's
arc was about revenge, which reaches its climax,

431
00:39:19,421 --> 00:39:24,984
I think, when she seemingly kills Bolliver Trask,
which was shocking, but I wouldn't say it's

432
00:39:25,184 --> 00:39:29,822
necessarily out of character for Rogue, considering
she used to be a villain. and she was acting

433
00:39:29,882 --> 00:39:34,066
out of tremendous grief, having lost two men
she loved. And also, you know, Bolivar Trask

434
00:39:34,086 --> 00:39:37,809
was about to commit suicide anyway. And also
he didn't really die because he was a prime

435
00:39:37,829 --> 00:39:44,135
sentinel. But it was a fascinating character
moment in the moment. I that felt very out

436
00:39:44,155 --> 00:39:51,021
of character to me. And I for a time was wondering
if she was being manipulated by Sinister or

437
00:39:51,101 --> 00:39:56,245
by Bastion, but I guess not. I mean, it was
interesting to also get the reactions of the

438
00:39:56,405 --> 00:40:02,096
X-Men. You had Nightcrawler who was completely
shocked and totally against what Rogue had

439
00:40:02,116 --> 00:40:05,839
just done. And then you have someone like Wolverine
who was like, she just did what we were all

440
00:40:05,979 --> 00:40:10,822
wanting to do, you know? Kind of ran the gamut
in terms of approval. But yeah, if you read

441
00:40:10,842 --> 00:40:14,164
the comics, I think you'd find that it wasn't
necessarily too out of character for Rogue.

442
00:40:14,424 --> 00:40:18,146
Again, she did used to be a villain. She was
raised by Mystique. She's no Boy Scout. We'll

443
00:40:18,166 --> 00:40:23,729
say that. Okay. Let's go ahead and move on to
Wolverine, aka Logan, who was played by Cal

444
00:40:23,789 --> 00:40:29,801
Dodd. the one and only Cal Dodd. He will always
be the voice in my head when I think of Wolverine.

445
00:40:30,201 --> 00:40:33,883
Although he didn't get a whole lot to do here.
Outside of some awesome action scenes, he really

446
00:40:34,003 --> 00:40:37,986
only served to add some additional drama to
the Gene and Scott situation. But you know

447
00:40:38,006 --> 00:40:42,408
what? I liked that he kind of took a backseat
to let the other X-Men shine. Yeah, I think

448
00:40:42,488 --> 00:40:48,992
fans of the character got what they wanted from
the character. It blew my mind that they incorporated

449
00:40:49,032 --> 00:40:53,846
the fatal attraction story arc from the comics.
where Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine's

450
00:40:53,886 --> 00:40:59,348
bones. Yeah. I did not see that coming. In the
comics in the aftermath of that event, Wolverine

451
00:40:59,368 --> 00:41:03,469
underwent this sort of physical trauma that
left him more feral looking. And of course,

452
00:41:03,509 --> 00:41:07,070
you know, he had the bone claws and stuff like
that. I wonder if they're going to go with

453
00:41:07,110 --> 00:41:12,691
that look for next season. I could see them
going with the bone claws. I'm not 100% sure

454
00:41:12,731 --> 00:41:18,133
about the whole feral look because he looked
a lot like a shaved beast to me during that

455
00:41:18,273 --> 00:41:23,483
era of the X-Men. Yeah. I didn't love it. Yeah,
it was an ass look. Let's be honest. It's like

456
00:41:23,663 --> 00:41:30,125
Superman with long hair. It just is not right.
Let's go ahead and move on to Jubilee, aka

457
00:41:30,165 --> 00:41:34,867
Jubilation Lee, who was played by Holly Chow,
who was a new actress taking over from Alice

458
00:41:34,887 --> 00:41:39,809
in Court, who voiced the character in the 90s
series. Though Alice in Court did play a role

459
00:41:39,849 --> 00:41:46,132
here. She played Epsisa, who is the future version
of Jubilee. I thought it was a spot on performance

460
00:41:46,172 --> 00:41:51,494
by Holly Chow. I think she sounded just like
Alice in Court Jubilee's arc largely dealt

461
00:41:51,554 --> 00:41:54,916
with her relationship with Sunspot. You know,
she spent most of the time trying to convince

462
00:41:54,956 --> 00:41:59,499
him to accept his mutant self and teach him
what it means to be an X-Man. Beyond that,

463
00:41:59,539 --> 00:42:04,221
she did get a nice half episode to herself in
Mojoverse, where she learned that life can't

464
00:42:04,241 --> 00:42:09,664
be all fun and games, which was a good moment
of growth for her, especially on her 18th birthday.

465
00:42:09,684 --> 00:42:15,047
I thought it was really cool how she saw like
the full potential of her power through her

466
00:42:15,087 --> 00:42:20,950
future self. I think that definitely helped
in the end fight. And yeah, for a character

467
00:42:20,970 --> 00:42:25,652
that's always seemed kind of weak with just,
you know, shooting fireworks this season definitely

468
00:42:25,692 --> 00:42:30,335
showed how powerful a character like her can
be. I mean, we've all been shot with a Roman

469
00:42:30,355 --> 00:42:34,797
candle, right? We've all had a firework go off
in our hands. Like Jubilee is not that powerful.

470
00:42:34,837 --> 00:42:39,919
But when she does shit like that spiraling,
whirling firework that cut through the sentinel

471
00:42:39,939 --> 00:42:43,401
and everything like that, that was pretty bad
ass. That was cool. She definitely got a power

472
00:42:43,441 --> 00:42:49,299
upgrade. Yeah. Let's move on to Beast aka Hank
McCoy who is played by George Buzza who is

473
00:42:49,499 --> 00:42:53,560
the one and only George Buzza. He's so good
in this role. He is the voice that I always

474
00:42:53,580 --> 00:42:57,582
hear when I think of the Beast character. He
was a minor character too this season but like

475
00:42:57,622 --> 00:43:01,343
everyone else he got his own moments in the
spotlight doing science stuff like determining

476
00:43:01,383 --> 00:43:06,224
which gene was real or developing the headband
that stopped the Prime Sentinels. Beast is

477
00:43:06,244 --> 00:43:12,812
a great character. Moving on to Gambit aka Remy
LeBeau. He was played by AJ Locascio, who is

478
00:43:12,892 --> 00:43:18,596
new in the role, taking over from Chris Potter,
who actually did the voice of Cable. And Chris

479
00:43:18,656 --> 00:43:22,299
Potter sounded exactly like Josh Brolin in the
role of Cable. So I thought that was pretty

480
00:43:22,500 --> 00:43:27,564
interesting. Yeah. AJ Locascio was a great replacement.
I think he sounded a lot like the version of

481
00:43:27,584 --> 00:43:32,888
the character in the 90s show. He also didn't
have a lot to do this season. But one could

482
00:43:32,948 --> 00:43:38,813
also say that he had the biggest moment of the
season when he died saving Genosha. Yeah, sacrificing

483
00:43:38,853 --> 00:43:46,228
himself. to destroy that giant three-headed
master mold was so unbelievably epic and touching.

484
00:43:46,548 --> 00:43:52,951
I don't know what else to say about it other
than one for me and one for my homie. I didn't

485
00:43:53,011 --> 00:43:57,213
actually spill something on the ground because
I don't want to ruin my floor. Well, that's

486
00:43:57,233 --> 00:44:00,974
just incredibly insincere then. I think you
should actually spill something on your floor.

487
00:44:00,994 --> 00:44:06,717
It's all right. It does look like Gambit's gonna
come back next season as Apocalypse's horseman

488
00:44:06,737 --> 00:44:12,576
of death, according to the mid-credits scene.
that we had. What? Which is- There was a mid-credits

489
00:44:12,596 --> 00:44:17,921
scene? Yeah. Fuck! You didn't see it? No. Yeah,
there was a mid-credits scene with Apocalypse

490
00:44:18,021 --> 00:44:22,645
and he's going through the ruins of Genosha
and he is talking about how there was so much

491
00:44:22,905 --> 00:44:29,811
death and he like emphasizes death as he's holding
one of Gambit's playing cards. Oh, dude. I

492
00:44:29,851 --> 00:44:33,594
wish I would have seen that. I need to go back
and watch that because that just sounds awesome.

493
00:44:34,074 --> 00:44:38,177
Yeah, it's great because Gambit actually was
the horseman of death in the comics for a time.

494
00:44:38,682 --> 00:44:43,766
And you know, he's too good of a character to
leave dead. So absolutely. I'm super happy

495
00:44:43,806 --> 00:44:50,192
he's coming back. Nice. Well done, Marvel. Holy
shit. Let's go to move on to Morph, AKA Kevin

496
00:44:50,252 --> 00:44:55,777
Sidney, played by J.P. Karliak, who is new in
the role. He was previously voiced by Robin

497
00:44:55,837 --> 00:45:01,150
Rubin in the 90s, who actually does the voice
of President Robert Kelly in the show. Morph

498
00:45:01,170 --> 00:45:05,811
was an entirely different character this season
from the 90s, but I like how they based his

499
00:45:05,911 --> 00:45:10,772
new look off of the Exiles comics version, which
was this more neutral looking figure. In the

500
00:45:10,812 --> 00:45:15,674
original 90s show, Morph was based off of the
character of Changeling, but Morph was never

501
00:45:15,734 --> 00:45:20,795
really in the mainstream Marvel universe until
the Exiles comic books. They made him non-binary

502
00:45:20,815 --> 00:45:24,417
in the show, which totally I think makes sense
for Morph. He actually stood out more to me

503
00:45:24,597 --> 00:45:29,787
in X-Men 97 than he ever did in the 90s show,
I think. He didn't have too much to do outside

504
00:45:29,987 --> 00:45:33,469
of his friendship with Wolverine, but they have
a great friendship and that goes back to the

505
00:45:33,509 --> 00:45:39,554
90s show. And I like how they gave a great moment
of closure with Morph and Mr. Sinister. I loved

506
00:45:39,614 --> 00:45:43,056
seeing all of the different transformations
that Morph had throughout this season, not

507
00:45:43,176 --> 00:45:49,460
only as different X-Men like Magic, but also
like the Hulk. That was wild. That was crazy.

508
00:45:49,621 --> 00:45:55,845
Yeah, he was kind of like a cameo machine. He
played Archangel, Blob, Lady Deathstrike, Colossus,

509
00:45:55,965 --> 00:46:02,522
Psylocke. Sabertooth, Quicksilver, Juggernaut,
like you said, the Hulk, Sauron. Oh, Mr. Fantastic

510
00:46:02,542 --> 00:46:07,086
was the other one. That was outside of the X-Men.
It was awesome. It was really cool. For some

511
00:46:07,106 --> 00:46:11,410
reason, I always forgot that he was able to
do that. So sometimes I would just randomly

512
00:46:11,430 --> 00:46:15,473
see a character and be like, oh, where did they
come from? Only to realize it was more, it

513
00:46:15,493 --> 00:46:20,298
was fun to watch. Let's go to move on to the
final character to discuss, of course, Professor

514
00:46:20,498 --> 00:46:28,363
X, aka Charles Xavier, played by Ross from John
Kolikos who was another voice actor that died

515
00:46:28,463 --> 00:46:35,126
in 2020. Dude, 2020 was a horrible year! Well,
for many reasons, but yeah, especially for

516
00:46:35,246 --> 00:46:40,608
the X-Men voice actors. Ross Marquand has now,
I think, cemented himself as the greatest impressionist

517
00:46:40,648 --> 00:46:44,550
of all time because holy shit, I didn't even
realize that was him. I thought it was the

518
00:46:44,570 --> 00:46:49,972
original voice actor. Not only can Ross mimic
voices to near perfection, but he also retains

519
00:46:50,012 --> 00:46:54,974
all the nuance and the depth of the voice through
his acting. It's incredible. Honestly, is this

520
00:46:54,994 --> 00:47:02,162
the same guy who replaced Hugo weaving as Red
Skull? Yes, in Avengers Endgame. Damn crazy.

521
00:47:02,582 --> 00:47:06,606
He's like a real life morph. Yeah, he is. He
probably could have done more of the voice,

522
00:47:06,626 --> 00:47:11,952
too. But Professor X shows up later in the season,
abandoning his life in space to be with his

523
00:47:12,132 --> 00:47:16,003
X-Men when they need him the most. I thought
it was nice that he was gone for a time because

524
00:47:16,023 --> 00:47:20,787
it let the team grow in an organic way, especially
with their former sworn enemy, Magneto as the

525
00:47:20,827 --> 00:47:25,451
new leader. But when he came back, I thought
it was just, it was epic. I often find Professor

526
00:47:25,591 --> 00:47:30,295
X a little bit too idealistic for his own good,
but I will say that he is always inspiring.

527
00:47:30,695 --> 00:47:36,220
You need someone like that, though. Yeah. I've
always loved the dichotomy between Professor

528
00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:41,484
X and Magneto. You know, they're often compared
to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, but I

529
00:47:41,524 --> 00:47:46,471
also love that they're like best friends. Like
despite their ideological differences, Charles

530
00:47:46,491 --> 00:47:51,473
will always fight for Magneto. They're just
iconic in that way. They're one of literature's

531
00:47:51,493 --> 00:47:56,195
great characters, honestly. Yeah, I will not
disagree with that. What was nice this season

532
00:47:56,375 --> 00:48:00,737
was that we finally got to see Professor X cut
loose with his powers. Like we did hear when

533
00:48:00,757 --> 00:48:05,018
he took over Magneto's mind, that moment where
they're like clashing against each other face

534
00:48:05,038 --> 00:48:10,181
to face, two Titans going head to head. I thought
that was just awesome. But that covers all

535
00:48:10,221 --> 00:48:13,800
the main characters. So let's go ahead and discuss.
the episode highlights.

536
00:48:21,166 --> 00:48:26,830
Our fantasies collide and heroes clash. One
Podcast Network rises above the rest. Prepare

537
00:48:26,850 --> 00:48:32,575
yourself for the ultimate showdowns in comic
books, video games, movies, and anime. The

538
00:48:32,635 --> 00:48:38,400
DynaMic Podcast Network presents Console Combat,
where video game legends brawl every Monday.

539
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:45,033
Dynamic Duel, where comic books clash. Smash
every Tuesday, Max Destruction, where TV and

540
00:48:45,114 --> 00:48:51,440
action heroes battle every Wednesday, and Sendro
World, where anime champions clash every Thursday.

541
00:48:51,941 --> 00:48:56,966
Join us as we speculate on the matches and,
armed with the power of mathematical simulations,

542
00:48:57,186 --> 00:49:04,093
discover who will emerge victorious. Visit dynamicpodcast.com
where we settle the debate and settle the score.

543
00:49:08,618 --> 00:49:14,262
Episode 1 was called To Me, My X-Men. A year
after Professor X's assumed death, the X-Men

544
00:49:14,282 --> 00:49:19,365
continue fighting for his dream of peaceful
mutant and human coexistence. Led by Cyclops,

545
00:49:19,385 --> 00:49:24,407
the team save Sunspot from the Friends of Humanity
anti-mutant group who have acquired sentinel

546
00:49:24,447 --> 00:49:29,470
technology. The team probes Henry Geirich's
mind to learn the location of Bolivar Trask,

547
00:49:29,590 --> 00:49:34,833
the creator of the Sentinels. The X-Men travel
there and destroy all the Sentinels and Mastermold

548
00:49:35,294 --> 00:49:40,235
and remit Trask into UN custody. Cyclops and
Jean Grey announce they're leaving the team

549
00:49:40,275 --> 00:49:45,236
due to Jean's pregnancy, but they're interrupted
by Magneto, who reveals that Professor X left

550
00:49:45,256 --> 00:49:51,078
him the Xavier Institute in his will. Uh, we
haven't talked about Roberto da Costa, but

551
00:49:51,358 --> 00:49:55,980
damn he was annoying. I think we've talked a
few times when doing reviews about characters

552
00:49:56,100 --> 00:50:00,241
who we know are heroes who spend a majority
of their runtime not wanting to be heroes.

553
00:50:00,581 --> 00:50:04,482
That was definitely the case with Sunspot. It
was nice in the end to see him come into his

554
00:50:04,602 --> 00:50:08,504
own in his battle against Bastion, but it took
a hell of a long time for him to get there.

555
00:50:08,704 --> 00:50:13,966
Yeah, to me, he was really just there as someone
for the character of Jubilee to play off of.

556
00:50:14,367 --> 00:50:19,869
I don't know if it needed to be Robert da Costa.
I think I would rather see him appear along

557
00:50:19,909 --> 00:50:24,591
with the other new mutants at some point. Yeah,
I really didn't care for any time he was on

558
00:50:24,651 --> 00:50:29,933
screen. I'll say, though, that his scene with
Jubilee dancing in the club was pretty surreal.

559
00:50:30,402 --> 00:50:35,623
There were a few dance scenes within the course
of this show that went on for a while. They

560
00:50:35,643 --> 00:50:40,225
were stylistic, but it felt very 90s, you know.
That being said, I always like when mutants

561
00:50:40,365 --> 00:50:45,187
use their abilities outside of fighting bad
guys and, you know, letting off sparks while

562
00:50:45,227 --> 00:50:50,168
dancing at a nightclub seems like a great use
of power for sure. Yeah, Jubilee could change

563
00:50:50,188 --> 00:50:56,283
her name to Raver and that'd be okay. Dude,
the action scene at the end of this episode

564
00:50:56,303 --> 00:51:00,425
when they're going up against the sentinels,
everything from when the blackbird gets destroyed

565
00:51:00,605 --> 00:51:04,647
and they're all finding ways to land safely
on the ground, including Cyclops who uses his

566
00:51:04,807 --> 00:51:10,730
optic blasts to cushion his landing and everything
like that. I squealed. I was so happy. It was

567
00:51:10,790 --> 00:51:16,472
everything I've ever wanted to see, ever. I
was so pumped. It was a great scene. The only

568
00:51:16,492 --> 00:51:21,143
thing that would have made it better is if it
was in live action. I still get the whole Cyclops

569
00:51:21,243 --> 00:51:28,086
using his power to land safely. He was falling
really fast. Well, if you were holding a fire

570
00:51:28,126 --> 00:51:32,729
hose and you were falling from the sky and you
shot the fire hose at the ground, would it

571
00:51:32,809 --> 00:51:38,732
not slow your descent? Not enough to not die.
I still have to fight against gravity. Except

572
00:51:38,752 --> 00:51:43,875
he can spread out his force blasts to cover
a wider area and it's more powerful than a

573
00:51:43,935 --> 00:51:49,030
fire hose. So yeah, it would totally work. I
mean, I know that ties into his origin. when

574
00:51:49,130 --> 00:51:54,231
his optic blasts first formed when he was falling
out of a plane and he used it to save him and

575
00:51:54,271 --> 00:51:59,532
his brother Havoc from dying when they hit the
ground. So I appreciated that, but still seeing

576
00:51:59,652 --> 00:52:05,654
it like in motion, I was like, I don't know.
It works. It works. It was cool. He had that

577
00:52:05,714 --> 00:52:10,415
superhero landing. Then it was like to me, my
X-Men. And right after that was Storm just

578
00:52:10,455 --> 00:52:15,557
like walking across the desert, just like turning
all the sand to glass. That was awesome, too.

579
00:52:15,657 --> 00:52:20,406
It was incredible, the whole scene and like
how Beast took over one of the Sentinels. That

580
00:52:20,426 --> 00:52:24,427
wouldn't be the last time that he does it this
season, but it was such a great way for the

581
00:52:24,487 --> 00:52:30,209
character to fight the Sentinels, you know?
Yeah, absolutely. At this point in their superhero

582
00:52:30,249 --> 00:52:35,490
careers, Sentinels are just like paper people,
and it's great to see superheroes just kick

583
00:52:35,550 --> 00:52:41,232
ass in that way. Episode 2 is called Mutant
Liberation Begins. Magneto begins saving humans

584
00:52:41,272 --> 00:52:45,413
as a way to prove to the X-Men that his intentions
are genuine. However, he is arrested by the

585
00:52:45,533 --> 00:52:50,735
UN to face trial for his past crimes. Magneto
surrenders, however the trial is ambushed by

586
00:52:50,795 --> 00:52:55,957
Friends of Humanity protesters led by Executioner
who tries to shoot Magneto with a power dampening

587
00:52:55,997 --> 00:53:01,339
blast. Storm gets in the way of the blast and
gets depowered. Magneto peacefully stops the

588
00:53:01,359 --> 00:53:07,081
assault by carrying Executioner and the UN Special
Committee into low orbit to help show his new

589
00:53:07,121 --> 00:53:12,663
perspective. Magneto is pardoned and the mutant
populated island of Genosha is considered for

590
00:53:12,703 --> 00:53:19,390
admission to the UN. Meanwhile, Jean Grey gives
birth to Nathan Summers. Storm leaves the team

591
00:53:19,550 --> 00:53:24,791
and the group is surprised by a visit by another
Jean Grey. Great episode. My favorite moment

592
00:53:25,071 --> 00:53:32,054
here was when Jean Grey was at the mansion and
she tells Wolverine he's here. And he's like,

593
00:53:32,194 --> 00:53:38,815
who? Apocalypse? And sheaths his claws, you
know, she's like, the baby. He's like, oh no.

594
00:53:38,835 --> 00:53:43,097
It's like a sitcom or something. Yeah. You'd
think in all of his years that Wolverine would

595
00:53:43,137 --> 00:53:48,299
have encountered a situation like that before.
Justin can drive on sidewalks and stuff like

596
00:53:48,339 --> 00:53:53,342
that. It was just comedy gold. Let's go ahead
and move on to episode number three, which

597
00:53:53,382 --> 00:53:58,785
was called Fire Made Flesh. Running experiments,
Beast deduces that the new visitor is the real

598
00:53:58,805 --> 00:54:04,009
Jean Grey, and the woman who just gave birth
to Nathan is a clone. To strut over the news,

599
00:54:04,129 --> 00:54:09,632
Jean's clone is visited by Mr. Sinister, who
reveals himself as her creator, manipulating

600
00:54:09,672 --> 00:54:14,562
her mind and turning her into the Goblin Queen.
She makes the X-Men experience frightening

601
00:54:14,622 --> 00:54:19,423
telepathic hallucinations based on their worst
fears before leaving the mansion to give her

602
00:54:19,483 --> 00:54:25,045
son to Mr. Sinister. Having been previously
manipulated by Sinister, Morph leads the team

603
00:54:25,065 --> 00:54:29,786
to the Villain's lab where Sinister infects
Baby Nathan with a modified techno-organic

604
00:54:29,826 --> 00:54:35,068
virus in an effort to make the child invincible.
The X-Men face off against the Goblin Queen,

605
00:54:35,428 --> 00:54:40,689
including Jean Grey who convinces her clone
to save the baby. Though Mr. Sinister escapes.

606
00:54:41,354 --> 00:54:46,777
Cyclops begrudgingly lets Bishop take the child
into the future to save his life from the techno-organic

607
00:54:46,817 --> 00:54:53,422
virus, and the gene clone, now going by Madeline
Pryor, leaves the mansion for Genosha. Meanwhile,

608
00:54:53,842 --> 00:55:00,667
Forge meets Storm at a bar. This was a fascinating
episode, how they merged the Inferno story

609
00:55:00,687 --> 00:55:06,511
with the Mother Iscani story, substituting Bishop
for Mother Iscani. It was just a great streamline

610
00:55:06,791 --> 00:55:12,435
of multiple story arcs in a way that completely
made sense. Oh yeah, I loved this episode.

611
00:55:12,455 --> 00:55:17,297
It was one of my favorites. And I think I definitely
appreciated it more as an adult than I would

612
00:55:17,337 --> 00:55:23,001
have watching it as a kid. As a father, I totally
related with Cyclops. Just, you know, that'd

613
00:55:23,021 --> 00:55:26,883
be really hard to give up your kid to go to
a place where you don't even know where they're

614
00:55:26,923 --> 00:55:32,106
going. And I loved all of the metal and prior
stuff, too. The battle scenes here with her

615
00:55:32,146 --> 00:55:38,322
purple and green flaming depictions of power
was just really well animated. For sure. Yeah,

616
00:55:38,362 --> 00:55:42,884
I agree how child endangerment stuff hits a
little bit different when once you become a

617
00:55:42,944 --> 00:55:47,227
parent, I just felt so bad for that baby. But,
you know, we know he's capable now, so we knew

618
00:55:47,267 --> 00:55:52,489
that he was in good hands anyway. The Goblin
Queen's visions that she induced in the X-Men

619
00:55:52,609 --> 00:55:57,352
were borderline TVMA. Like I was like, what
the fuck? I thought this was a kids show. Yeah,

620
00:55:57,372 --> 00:56:03,295
you know, you had Gambit's vision of rogue and
Magneto, like mostly nude fusing together.

621
00:56:03,655 --> 00:56:09,194
That was horrifying when Jubilee and Sunspot
were watching TV. and the girl crawls out from

622
00:56:09,214 --> 00:56:14,636
the TV and they slice her in half and like you
see her brain and shit. I was like, what is

623
00:56:14,656 --> 00:56:19,597
happening here? Yeah, this was the moment when
I was like, oh damn, this is not my childhood

624
00:56:19,777 --> 00:56:25,219
X-Men cartoon. And I'm here for it. Episode
4 was called Motendo. That was the first part

625
00:56:25,259 --> 00:56:29,560
of the episode. The second part of the episode
was called Life Death Part 1. In the first

626
00:56:29,600 --> 00:56:35,154
part, Jubilee wants to go to the arcade on her
18th birthday, but Magneto refuses. Sulk-ing

627
00:56:35,214 --> 00:56:39,756
in her room with Sunspot, the two get sucked
into a video game console called Montendo,

628
00:56:40,196 --> 00:56:44,959
which takes them to Mojo World, where Mojo forces
Jubilee and Sunspot to play out her previous

629
00:56:44,999 --> 00:56:49,862
adventures with the X-Men in front of the spineless
ones, providing Mojo with ratings to feed off

630
00:56:49,902 --> 00:56:55,725
of. The pair is saved repeatedly by a mysterious
hacker who turns out to be Epsisa, an older

631
00:56:55,825 --> 00:57:01,348
digital version of Jubilee created by Mojo for
the video game's initial testing. Epsisa convinces

632
00:57:01,408 --> 00:57:06,434
Jubilee that life is a grander adventure than
gaming. the two team up to take down Mojo.

633
00:57:06,875 --> 00:57:12,597
Returning to the real world, Jubilee kisses
Sunspot. Meanwhile, Forge takes Storm to his

634
00:57:12,657 --> 00:57:18,399
ranch and tests his power restoring machine
on her. It seemingly fails, and Forge reveals

635
00:57:18,419 --> 00:57:23,542
to Storm that he was behind the mutant power
dampening tech that stole her mutant abilities.

636
00:57:24,122 --> 00:57:29,784
Storm leaves in anger, but is brought back by
a demon known as the Adversary, which poisons

637
00:57:29,824 --> 00:57:36,592
Forge. So this was probably my least favorite
episode. As much as I appreciated the callbacks

638
00:57:36,632 --> 00:57:43,857
to the old X-Men arcade game, I did think Mojo
was pretty funny. I didn't really care for

639
00:57:43,877 --> 00:57:49,281
the whole Forge storm adversary thing though.
I wasn't expecting to see the adversary here,

640
00:57:49,461 --> 00:57:54,144
but I was totally blown away when I saw that
he made an appearance because he's always been

641
00:57:54,304 --> 00:57:59,997
Forge's greatest. adversary, as it were. You
know, the adversary was the demon that Forge

642
00:58:00,257 --> 00:58:04,260
summoned during his time in the military when
he thought he was going to die. He summoned

643
00:58:04,280 --> 00:58:09,304
the demon to attack the enemy and the demon
actually ended up killing everybody and had

644
00:58:09,324 --> 00:58:13,888
been haunting him ever since. I don't know if
you remember Forge's backstory in the duel

645
00:58:13,928 --> 00:58:18,552
episode against Mr. Terrific, but Forge was
actually somewhat of a studied shaman before

646
00:58:18,592 --> 00:58:23,035
he developed his mutant abilities which steered
him in the direction of science. And so, you

647
00:58:23,055 --> 00:58:29,028
know, he had that kind of conflict at an early
age. But Magic and science has always been

648
00:58:29,088 --> 00:58:34,392
an interesting mix for the character of Forge.
One thing I noticed about the voice actor for

649
00:58:34,452 --> 00:58:40,216
Forge, the sound quality of his voice was not
as good as the other characters. So much so

650
00:58:40,256 --> 00:58:45,079
that it was noticeable and distracting to me.
Yeah, it was a little bit more condensed, I

651
00:58:45,119 --> 00:58:49,403
think. And also, it didn't really sound like
Forge to me, or would I imagine Forge to sound

652
00:58:49,443 --> 00:58:53,405
like this voice actor sounded a little bit older
than I would think his voice sounded like.

653
00:58:53,846 --> 00:58:58,449
That said, I am glad we got to see Forge, because
he is an interesting character. I love Forge,

654
00:58:58,489 --> 00:59:03,532
yeah. Episode 5 is called Remember It. In it,
the UN formally admits the mutant nation of

655
00:59:03,592 --> 00:59:09,176
Genosha, which Rogue, Gambit, and Magneto visit.
There, Magneto is asked by the Council to lead

656
00:59:09,196 --> 00:59:13,579
the country as its Chancellor, and he agrees
on the condition that Rogue rules alongside

657
00:59:13,619 --> 00:59:18,603
him. Meanwhile, Cyclops has an angry outburst
during a television interview after being asked

658
00:59:18,643 --> 00:59:24,011
about his son, and telepathically confides in
Madeline Pryor, which Jean Grey finds out about

659
00:59:24,231 --> 00:59:29,316
escalating tensions between her and Cyclops.
Rogue admits to Gambit her past with Magneto,

660
00:59:29,776 --> 00:59:34,300
that his electromagnetic manipulation allows
her to touch him, and that she is considering

661
00:59:34,480 --> 00:59:39,925
his offer. Dancing with Magneto at a celebration
gala, Rogue ultimately decides that she loves

662
00:59:39,965 --> 00:59:45,129
Gambit too much to be with Magneto. Suddenly,
Cable appears and attempts to warn Genosha's

663
00:59:45,169 --> 00:59:50,690
citizens of an impending attack by a wild mastermold
before being pulled away through time. Everything

664
00:59:50,730 --> 00:59:56,333
turns to chaos as Magneto, Rogue, and Gambit
try to save as many people as they can. Enraged

665
00:59:56,353 --> 01:00:01,877
at the apparent death of Magneto, Rogue attempts
to take Master Mold head on. Gambit prevents

666
01:00:01,917 --> 01:00:07,960
her and saves her life. In the end, he is killed
when the Sentinel impales him, but he detonates

667
01:00:08,020 --> 01:00:13,303
it in his last act, saving the remaining survivors.
Rogue weeps as she holds his body.

668
01:00:17,046 --> 01:00:22,027
So the episodes from this season were released
week by week, correct? Yeah, I'm so glad I

669
01:00:22,047 --> 01:00:27,148
did not watch the show that way because I would
have been devastated all week if I couldn't

670
01:00:27,188 --> 01:00:31,129
immediately watch the next episode. I would
have been depressed. I would have been like,

671
01:00:31,149 --> 01:00:35,951
don't talk to me, anybody. I'm just I'm destroyed.
If this episode doesn't win an Emmy, I would

672
01:00:36,031 --> 01:00:42,493
actually be very surprised because the writing,
the drama, I thought was immensely palpable

673
01:00:42,573 --> 01:00:47,446
throughout this whole episode. It deserves every
award it's going to get. Did you notice that

674
01:00:47,486 --> 01:00:53,271
the Watcher was in the sky above Genosha right
before everything went down? No, I did not

675
01:00:53,331 --> 01:00:57,294
see that. That was pointed out to me by people
on the Discord. That was really cool because

676
01:00:57,334 --> 01:01:02,237
it insinuates, if you've seen the What If animated
television show, that Genosha's destruction

677
01:01:02,357 --> 01:01:07,641
was an absolute point in history, which is something
that Beasts references in a later episode.

678
01:01:08,062 --> 01:01:11,985
Basically something that couldn't be prevented.
Yeah, because Cable tried to prevent it 200

679
01:01:12,305 --> 01:01:17,708
times. Yeah. I like the cameos that were in
this episode of all the mutants that were at

680
01:01:17,728 --> 01:01:22,871
Genosha. You had Sebastian Shaw, you had the
White Queen, multiple man was there, Dazzler,

681
01:01:23,131 --> 01:01:27,673
Leech, Pixie, Glob Herman. It was great to see
all those Easter eggs basically. But let's

682
01:01:27,693 --> 01:01:33,377
go ahead and move on to episode 6, which is
called Life Death Part 2. Shiar Empress LeLondra

683
01:01:33,417 --> 01:01:37,919
announces to her people her engagement to Professor
X, who was healed from his wounds with alien

684
01:01:37,959 --> 01:01:43,770
technology. Meanwhile, Storm cares for Forge's
poisoned wound. when the adversary attacks

685
01:01:43,790 --> 01:01:48,912
her. Forge uses shaman magic to expel the demon
and Storm confesses her love for him. Back

686
01:01:48,952 --> 01:01:53,793
in space, Lelandra's sister Deathbird sees Professor
X as an unworthy consort due to his Terran

687
01:01:53,833 --> 01:01:59,375
heritage and invokes the Rite of Amdasha, which
challenges him to erase all of his Earthbound

688
01:01:59,435 --> 01:02:05,057
memories. Storm takes Forge to a cave to find
a cactus to heal his poison when she is confronted

689
01:02:05,097 --> 01:02:09,896
by the adversary once again. Admitting that
it was more than the executioner's neutralizer

690
01:02:09,936 --> 01:02:15,360
holding her powers back, but her fear of living
is a mutant once more, Storm abandons her fear,

691
01:02:15,681 --> 01:02:21,786
restoring her mutant powers, and she saves Forge.
Back in space, Professor X refuses to give

692
01:02:21,806 --> 01:02:26,950
up his memories of the X-Men and tries to teach
the Shi'ar about coexistence when he receives

693
01:02:26,990 --> 01:02:32,054
a psychic vision of the attack on Genosha and
decides to return to Earth. Meanwhile, Mr.

694
01:02:32,094 --> 01:02:36,630
Sinister tells Bolliver Trask that the attack
on Genosha was just the beginning. This one

695
01:02:36,670 --> 01:02:41,472
was actually my least favorite episode, not
because it was bad, but it was strange going

696
01:02:41,492 --> 01:02:46,295
through these plot detours after the devastating
previous episode. I wanted more answers about

697
01:02:46,315 --> 01:02:53,379
what happened at Genosha. So I guess just sequencing
it after episode five fell off to me. Well,

698
01:02:53,639 --> 01:02:58,902
I think they had to tie up some loose ends about
what was going on with these characters while

699
01:02:59,182 --> 01:03:03,704
what happened at Genosha happened, because you
see Storm's reaction to what happened, you

700
01:03:03,764 --> 01:03:10,136
see Professor X's reaction. And in a way, it
kind of made you relive the horror of what

701
01:03:10,156 --> 01:03:15,138
you saw in the previous episode. I didn't mind
this episode. It was kind of a nice break from

702
01:03:15,699 --> 01:03:20,661
the intensity that was the attack on Genosha,
I thought. Plus, it was just really interesting

703
01:03:20,701 --> 01:03:24,584
to see that Professor X was still alive. I didn't
know that he was going to be in this show.

704
01:03:25,064 --> 01:03:28,946
It was cool to see the Imperial Guard. It's
always cool to see the Shi'ar, I think. Eh,

705
01:03:29,046 --> 01:03:34,869
they're just Legion knockoffs. I was not impressed.
Legion is superheroes, right? Not Legion, Professor

706
01:03:34,949 --> 01:03:39,965
X's son. Yeah, no, you know what I meant. Episode
7 was called Bright Eyes. The X-Men hold a

707
01:03:40,005 --> 01:03:44,688
funeral for Gambit, but Rogue skips it as she
angrily seeks out Bolivar Trask. She comes

708
01:03:44,728 --> 01:03:49,372
into contact with Captain America, who helps
her find Henry Gyric in Mexico, but claims

709
01:03:49,412 --> 01:03:53,975
he can't help her bring him in without causing
an international crisis. Rogue absorbs Henry

710
01:03:53,995 --> 01:03:58,699
Gyric's memories to find Trask, but only gets
a glimpse, and Gyric is murdered later that

711
01:03:58,759 --> 01:04:03,771
night. The X-Men travel to Genosha to help search
for survivors. and they find the White Queen

712
01:04:03,831 --> 01:04:08,875
who is saved by her diamond skin secondary mutation.
The team gets a message from Bolliver Trask

713
01:04:08,895 --> 01:04:13,439
who tells them to go to Madripoor. They pick
up Rogue on the way and discover a suicidal

714
01:04:13,479 --> 01:04:19,124
Trask hiding at the UN secret Operation Zero
tolerance division. Rogue drops Trask off a

715
01:04:19,164 --> 01:04:23,989
building in revenge for the Sentinels killing
Gambit and thousands on Genosha, but he comes

716
01:04:24,029 --> 01:04:29,918
back as a Prime Sentinel. The team is rescued
by Cable who uses an EMP grenade and explains

717
01:04:29,938 --> 01:04:34,802
that Mr. Sinister was behind the Genosha attack
along with a greater threat which is revealed

718
01:04:34,862 --> 01:04:39,986
to be Bastion who has captured Magneto. My big
takeaway from here was that the Prime Sentinels

719
01:04:40,106 --> 01:04:44,129
are far more scary in motion than they ever
were in the comic books. The way they were

720
01:04:44,169 --> 01:04:50,554
presented in this show was almost like techno
zombies, which I absolutely love. In the comics,

721
01:04:50,694 --> 01:04:56,726
Prime Sentinels just felt more like human sized
Mark 2 Sentinels, you know? Yeah, it's always

722
01:04:57,026 --> 01:05:02,927
scary when a bad guy could be anybody. You know,
they did that with agents in The Matrix. They

723
01:05:02,947 --> 01:05:08,849
have that with OMAX in DC Comics. And I remember
you mentioning Prime Sentinels in the Bastion

724
01:05:08,889 --> 01:05:14,210
backstory from last week's episode. It was interesting
to actually see them. This show successfully

725
01:05:14,250 --> 01:05:19,772
pulled off what Secret Invasion could not, which
was a feeling of tension and paranoia. Absolutely.

726
01:05:19,912 --> 01:05:23,913
Especially in like a later episode when you
had people like the news reporter lady all

727
01:05:23,933 --> 01:05:28,171
of a sudden become a Prime Sentinel. Yeah. And
Sunspot's Butler and stuff like that. It was

728
01:05:28,191 --> 01:05:32,413
like, holy shit, who isn't a prime sentinel?
All these people are going to kill the X-Men.

729
01:05:32,753 --> 01:05:37,576
And they were really cutting into them and there
were humans. That was wild to me. Yeah. What

730
01:05:37,596 --> 01:05:42,499
did you think of the Captain America cameo?
I thought it was good. I loved Rogue's reaction

731
01:05:42,679 --> 01:05:48,802
to Captain America refusing to take official
action with her in Mexico. She just fucking

732
01:05:48,882 --> 01:05:53,745
yeeted his shield and it was like, fuck you.
And then peaced out. I think Captain America

733
01:05:53,765 --> 01:06:00,057
deserved it. I think. in general, Marvel's other
heroes don't do enough to stand beside their

734
01:06:00,077 --> 01:06:03,939
fellow heroes in the X-Men. That was something
the Avengers kind of came to terms with in

735
01:06:03,979 --> 01:06:09,043
the comics when they formed the Avengers Unity
Division, which was a team of both Avengers

736
01:06:09,143 --> 01:06:15,867
and X-Men. I'm just really hoping that Captain
America had like an apple tag on that shield.

737
01:06:15,887 --> 01:06:19,650
He's gonna have to go find it. That's his lesson.
Again, characters like the Avengers should

738
01:06:19,690 --> 01:06:24,373
be doing a whole lot more to stand alongside
the X-Men. Although, you know, this season

739
01:06:24,974 --> 01:06:30,858
planted the seeds for a second season to incorporate
Avengers vs X-Men if they decide to go the

740
01:06:30,938 --> 01:06:35,941
onslaught route for season 2. Oh that'd be sweet!
That'd be really cool. That'd be sick, yeah.

741
01:06:36,421 --> 01:06:41,965
Episode 8 is called Tolerance is Extinction,
Part 1. Cable explains to the X-Men that Bastion's

742
01:06:42,045 --> 01:06:46,568
Prime Sentinel program upgrades and evolves
humanity toward a future where mutants are

743
01:06:46,608 --> 01:06:51,452
enslaved in a seeming utopia. Going off of one
of Cable's leads from the future, Cyclops and

744
01:06:51,472 --> 01:06:57,884
Jean Grey visit Bastion's where they learn that
the time traveling sentinel Nimrod infected

745
01:06:57,924 --> 01:07:02,649
Bastion's father with nanotech that resulted
in his wife giving birth to a son with the

746
01:07:02,689 --> 01:07:07,653
powers of technopathy. After Valerie Cooper
and the rest of Operation Zero Tolerance express

747
01:07:07,673 --> 01:07:13,158
concern with the Genosha massacre, Bastion explains
to them that the attack was only to buy time

748
01:07:13,338 --> 01:07:18,602
and whittle the mutant population as he prepares
to activate the prime sentinels. Human volunteers

749
01:07:18,843 --> 01:07:24,287
outfitted with Mr. Sinister's modified techno-organic
virus. They are activated around the world

750
01:07:24,527 --> 01:07:30,473
and attack the X-Men and all mutants, burning
down the Xavier Institute. Valerie Cooper releases

751
01:07:30,533 --> 01:07:35,577
Magneto from Beshyn's imprisonment, admitting
that Magneto was right. He flies to the Magnetic

752
01:07:35,637 --> 01:07:40,542
North Pole where he causes a worldwide electrical
blackout that shuts down the Prime Sentinels.

753
01:07:40,682 --> 01:07:46,247
Professor X returns to Earth and telepathically
summons the X-Men. This was a fantastic episode,

754
01:07:46,647 --> 01:07:51,967
a great first act to the three part finale.
I thought it was really interesting how Operation

755
01:07:52,047 --> 01:07:56,570
Zero Tolerance included members such as Dr.
Doom and Baron Zemo. Those were some sweet

756
01:07:56,630 --> 01:08:01,133
ass cameos for sure. Yeah, that was interesting.
That I feel like even more so than like the

757
01:08:01,153 --> 01:08:06,236
cameos from Captain America and stuff really
opened up the world that this X-Men cartoon

758
01:08:06,276 --> 01:08:11,860
takes place in. I mean, I know they had like
a cameo with Spider-Man back in the 90s, but

759
01:08:12,020 --> 01:08:16,511
it was cool to see all these different characters
pop up. I liked the part with Jubilee when

760
01:08:16,531 --> 01:08:21,294
she was going shopping with Sunspot and she
got that like black wetsuit. Really that was

761
01:08:21,314 --> 01:08:26,077
just a way to get her into her more modern look
from the comics because up until that point

762
01:08:26,097 --> 01:08:30,760
she was still wearing her denim shorts and her
pink t-shirt. Yeah, they all went through look

763
01:08:30,860 --> 01:08:36,945
changes in these last three episodes. Did they
go back to their 80s costumes? Most of them?

764
01:08:37,465 --> 01:08:42,529
Yeah, they went back to the costumes they wore
when they had Muir Island as a base because

765
01:08:42,589 --> 01:08:46,879
the X-Mansion was destroyed. So they had to
go to Muir Island off the coast of Scotland,

766
01:08:47,300 --> 01:08:51,582
and they put on the costumes that they had stored
there. I like those costumes. Yeah, they're

767
01:08:51,602 --> 01:08:56,406
great. Marvel Girls, not so much. I don't like
the Marvel Girl outfit. I prefer Jean Grey's,

768
01:08:56,646 --> 01:09:01,429
actually I prefer the Phoenix outfit for Jean
Grey. Yeah, that's true. My favorite line from

769
01:09:01,469 --> 01:09:07,253
this episode was when the Prime Sentinels invaded
the Axe Mansion and were about to kill Rogue

770
01:09:07,273 --> 01:09:12,176
as she was comatose on the bed, and Wolverine
barges in, and the Prime Sentinel lady is like,

771
01:09:14,194 --> 01:09:18,477
And he's like, lady, I got six reasons why.
And then all of a sudden Nightcrawler showed

772
01:09:18,537 --> 01:09:24,783
up and he's like, no, my friend, nine. It was
like a great pun, great action scene, which

773
01:09:24,803 --> 01:09:28,346
was followed almost immediately by the let's
show them why you don't mess with the summers

774
01:09:28,546 --> 01:09:33,030
part where Cyclops blasts through the mountain
while Gene drives and Cable shoots the sentinels.

775
01:09:33,291 --> 01:09:37,715
Yeah, so good. So good. Good writing. Yeah,
it's probably my favorite episode, I think.

776
01:09:38,135 --> 01:09:43,298
Episode nine is called Tolerance's Extinction
Part Two. In it, the X-Men regroup in the destroyed

777
01:09:43,458 --> 01:09:48,499
X-Mansion where they decide to split into two
teams, Blue Team and Gold Team, to deal with

778
01:09:48,539 --> 01:09:53,961
both Bastion and Magneto. Beast and Forge develop
a headband to block Bastion's technopathy,

779
01:09:54,241 --> 01:10:00,063
while Magneto restores his old Asteroid M base.
Magneto confronts the X-Men, telling them to

780
01:10:00,143 --> 01:10:05,564
join him, which Rogue and Sunspot do. On their
old Muir Island base, the X-Men don their old

781
01:10:05,604 --> 01:10:10,185
costumes and set upon their missions, Gold Team
going to Bastion's headquarters on the Galapagos

782
01:10:10,265 --> 01:10:15,611
Islands, and Blue Team going into space. The
Gold Team fights Bastion-controlled Sentinels

783
01:10:15,691 --> 01:10:21,074
as Mr. Sinister takes over Cable's mind, forcing
him to attack Jean Grey. She psychically reaches

784
01:10:21,194 --> 01:10:26,816
out to Cyclops on Asteroid M, who prevents Professor
X from taking over Magneto's mind to restore

785
01:10:26,876 --> 01:10:32,738
Earth's power. Wolverine impales Magneto, who
subsequently rips the adamantium from Wolverine's

786
01:10:32,778 --> 01:10:38,661
body. There was a lot of buildup in this episode
until the big action-packed third act, but

787
01:10:38,701 --> 01:10:44,503
I thought it was worth it. Gene fighting Mr.
Sinister was epic. And I think the show had

788
01:10:44,523 --> 01:10:50,526
a lot of balls to go there with the Wolverine
versus Magneto stuff, where he got the adamantium

789
01:10:50,546 --> 01:10:54,487
ripped out. I did not think that they would
go there. I actually kind of saw it coming.

790
01:10:54,567 --> 01:10:59,690
Like right when he impaled Magneto, I was like,
OK, obviously Magneto is not going to die here.

791
01:10:59,930 --> 01:11:03,791
What's going to happen next? The obvious. It
was quite the image, though, that the episode

792
01:11:03,811 --> 01:11:09,614
finished on. Yeah, for sure. Episode 10 was
called Tolerance is Extinction Part 3. In it,

793
01:11:09,654 --> 01:11:14,296
Professor X controls Magneto's mind, forcing
him to restore Earth's power and its magnetic

794
01:11:14,336 --> 01:11:19,358
field. This reactivates the Prime Sentinels,
but Jean Grey, seeing Cable about to be killed

795
01:11:19,378 --> 01:11:23,680
by Bastion, reaches out to the Phoenix Force,
who temporarily gives her the power to free

796
01:11:23,700 --> 01:11:28,742
Cable. She places the headband that blocks Bastion's
connection to the Prime Sentinels on his head,

797
01:11:29,182 --> 01:11:34,585
disabling the Prime Sentinels, and she removes
Mr. Sinister's stolen mutant powers, reverting

798
01:11:34,625 --> 01:11:39,800
him to his centuries-old self. Bastion rips
off Cable's arm and technoforms it into a pair

799
01:11:39,820 --> 01:11:45,864
of wings to fly to Asteroid M and try to crash
it down to Earth. In space, Rogue and Sunspot

800
01:11:45,904 --> 01:11:50,387
intercept Bastion where they fight him in the
blue area of the moon, though Bastion fights

801
01:11:50,407 --> 01:11:55,310
his way into the asteroid. Blue Team pilots
a sentinel robot to join the fight in space,

802
01:11:55,790 --> 01:12:00,673
and the X-Men overpower Bastion, preventing
him from destroying the asteroid's gravity

803
01:12:00,713 --> 01:12:05,797
core. However, Earth's leaders activate the
Magneto protocols to blast the asteroid out

804
01:12:05,837 --> 01:12:11,402
of the sky and the missiles hit the gravity
core, creating a singularity that swallows

805
01:12:11,442 --> 01:12:16,786
Bastion. Cyclops and Jean Grey telepathically
say goodbye to Cable as they try and stop asteroid

806
01:12:16,966 --> 01:12:21,670
M from crashing into Earth, but Professor X
is able to restore Magneto's mind from his

807
01:12:21,750 --> 01:12:27,275
earlier psychic assault in enough time for Magneto
to reverse the asteroid's fall and send it

808
01:12:27,315 --> 01:12:32,551
back into space. At that moment, however, The
asteroid and the X-Men disappear through a

809
01:12:32,591 --> 01:12:37,775
time portal that sends Cyclops and Jean Grey
into the future to raise their son Cable, and

810
01:12:37,815 --> 01:12:43,779
the rest to ancient Egypt where they meet Apocalypse.
Bishop and Forge resolve to rescue the team.

811
01:12:44,160 --> 01:12:48,663
In a mid-credit scene, present-day Apocalypse
finds one of Gambit's playing cards in the

812
01:12:48,723 --> 01:12:52,646
ruins of Genosha. At the start of this episode
it seemed like they were totally setting up

813
01:12:52,766 --> 01:12:56,709
onslaught, but by the end of the episode it
seems like they're definitely setting up Age

814
01:12:56,749 --> 01:13:01,769
of Apocalypse. But either way, yeah, it's clear
that Gambit's coming back as the horseman of

815
01:13:01,809 --> 01:13:07,613
death. Yeah, that's really cool. I love the
climax between the X-Men and Bastion. Again,

816
01:13:07,653 --> 01:13:14,219
such a great message in how Cyclops decided
not to destroy his enemy, but to reason with

817
01:13:14,259 --> 01:13:19,423
him. I think they did a terrific job with Bastion,
and you can almost see Cyclops and Bastion

818
01:13:19,483 --> 01:13:23,927
almost having their own kind of Xavier Magneto
relationship. The characters were both just

819
01:13:24,147 --> 01:13:32,773
so well done. Some of the characters were friggin'
fighting in space? Yeah, that was weird. Well,

820
01:13:32,793 --> 01:13:36,475
I mean, you do have to remember that the bluer
area of the moon does have oxygen. That's where

821
01:13:36,495 --> 01:13:41,759
the inhumans used to live. But like, Sunspot
taking Jubilee down to Earth from Asteroid

822
01:13:41,899 --> 01:13:46,262
M didn't make any sense to me. He would have
brought back a corpse. Yeah, I did like the

823
01:13:46,302 --> 01:13:50,525
fight against Bastion though. Rogue, Cyclops,
Sunspot, Jubilee, they all got their time to

824
01:13:50,565 --> 01:13:55,609
shine. Beasts coming in and piloting the Sentinel
stomping on Bastion, I thought that took the

825
01:13:55,649 --> 01:13:59,419
prize. I thought that was really great. I don't
know if I loved the time portal jump at the

826
01:13:59,459 --> 01:14:04,444
end. You always kind of want to give the team
a little bit of breathing room between their

827
01:14:04,564 --> 01:14:08,287
big adventures. It would have been nice to get
some kind of closure with the team celebrating

828
01:14:08,307 --> 01:14:13,632
their win. But when it comes to the X-Men, they
rarely ever get a chance to breathe here. It's

829
01:14:13,672 --> 01:14:17,916
being pulled into one adventure after the other.
And that was always the nature of the 90s X-Men

830
01:14:17,936 --> 01:14:23,301
cartoon. Those seasons rarely ended with closure.
They were always setting up the cliffhanger

831
01:14:23,321 --> 01:14:27,960
for the next season. Yeah, honestly, when that
time jump happened, I thought they were setting

832
01:14:28,060 --> 01:14:32,323
up for something to tie in with the Deadpool
movie in some way. And maybe like that's how

833
01:14:32,343 --> 01:14:37,166
they were going to get into the MCU universe.
Like it was this group of X-Men specifically

834
01:14:37,206 --> 01:14:41,689
that were going to be our MCU X-Men. They were
just going to make the jump from animation

835
01:14:41,729 --> 01:14:46,552
to live action. Obviously interesting. Didn't
play out that way. But right when that happened,

836
01:14:46,592 --> 01:14:51,538
that's what I suspected. That would have been
cool. I was wondering who was behind the time

837
01:14:51,578 --> 01:14:57,801
jump. My first thought was that it was Kang
because he played a role in ancient Egypt as

838
01:14:57,881 --> 01:15:01,763
Ramitat and also maybe it was a mortis or something
like that. It could have even been someone

839
01:15:01,783 --> 01:15:07,525
like Fitzroy who is Bishop's enemy and he's
able to drain life forces from people to create

840
01:15:07,725 --> 01:15:12,247
time portals. I also wonder if it might have
had something to do with Bastion getting pulled

841
01:15:12,487 --> 01:15:17,829
into the Singularity since he also had Cable's
arm with him which had the time sliding technology.

842
01:15:18,318 --> 01:15:22,740
There's a lot of options here, I guess. Do you
hope Bastion comes back some way in the next

843
01:15:22,780 --> 01:15:28,303
season? I don't think so. I think he was done
really well here. And I'd hate for them to

844
01:15:28,503 --> 01:15:33,666
revisit that and make it feel repetitive and
not give another villain a time to shine. I

845
01:15:33,706 --> 01:15:37,868
am really looking forward to Apocalypse. I think
that'll be cool to me. Apocalypse is sort of

846
01:15:37,888 --> 01:15:42,311
like Super Bastion, just in terms of like his
techno morphing and stuff like that. So I think

847
01:15:42,331 --> 01:15:48,410
it'll be exciting. But that does it for the
series overall. I. find little to no flaws

848
01:15:48,490 --> 01:15:54,654
with this entire season. To me, it was the quintessential
X-Men experience. I thought the season perfectly

849
01:15:54,694 --> 01:15:59,336
captured the complex themes and the characters
of the comic book series in a way that no other

850
01:15:59,376 --> 01:16:05,780
project has. I'll be surprised if any forthcoming
X-Men movie comes close to touching this season.

851
01:16:05,880 --> 01:16:10,002
I know that the show was certainly better than
what came previously with the Fox X-Men universe.

852
01:16:10,342 --> 01:16:15,105
It just captured everything that I love about
the X-Men and was thought-provoking and action-packed

853
01:16:15,385 --> 01:16:21,796
and everything good. I'm giving it five out
of five stars, a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

854
01:16:21,876 --> 01:16:27,359
Yeah, honestly, I feel like by episode three,
I felt like this was going to be a five star

855
01:16:27,399 --> 01:16:33,482
show because right off the bat, it was just
so phenomenally well made in terms of the visuals,

856
01:16:33,502 --> 01:16:38,385
in terms of the writing, in terms of everything.
I was just insanely jealous, as I mentioned

857
01:16:38,445 --> 01:16:44,152
earlier, you know. DC fans will often say that
DC has the edge when it comes to animation.

858
01:16:44,252 --> 01:16:50,135
And I think that may be the case prior to the
Spider-Verse films. But I got to say, I think

859
01:16:50,476 --> 01:16:56,379
I'm enjoying Marvel animation a lot more than
DC animation as of late, which is heartbreaking

860
01:16:56,439 --> 01:17:03,083
to admit. But I have to. Well, the Tomorrowverse
isn't anything impressive, you know, so I can

861
01:17:03,103 --> 01:17:07,165
see where you're coming from there. You know,
we usually reserve five star ratings for things

862
01:17:07,185 --> 01:17:13,254
that. are transcendent and that they transcend
normal superhero tropes and trappings. Yeah,

863
01:17:13,274 --> 01:17:19,398
or they're groundbreaking. Yeah, the X-Men in
themselves, I think, as characters are transcendent

864
01:17:19,478 --> 01:17:24,322
in that they deal with so many more heavy themes
than most other comic book characters. It's

865
01:17:24,342 --> 01:17:29,045
just inherent to the franchise. And when you
have a series that so perfectly captures the

866
01:17:29,225 --> 01:17:34,349
essence of who the X-Men are and how their stories
go, then yeah, you have something that feels

867
01:17:34,389 --> 01:17:39,725
transcendent. So while some people may balk
at the idea of this getting a perfect rating,

868
01:17:39,965 --> 01:17:44,708
I think a lot of X-Men fans out there would
agree with this rating. It's just really well

869
01:17:44,768 --> 01:17:50,272
done in a way that would be hard to surpass
if ever. Yeah, no, I wouldn't call it groundbreaking

870
01:17:50,432 --> 01:17:56,197
in terms of bringing something new that we haven't
seen before. In a way, this took me back to

871
01:17:56,417 --> 01:18:02,005
when I was a child. But I would call it groundbreaking
in that it was so unbelievably true to the

872
01:18:02,225 --> 01:18:10,892
spirit of its creator Stan Lee, who wanted to
create content for not just kids, but really

873
01:18:11,012 --> 01:18:15,776
smart kids who are growing into adulthood. And,
you know, they would have stories like this

874
01:18:15,816 --> 01:18:22,422
to help them get there. I feel like a lot of
animated fare is either very kiddy for little

875
01:18:22,462 --> 01:18:27,706
kids like, you know, Teen Titans Go, or it's
very mature, like, you know, some of... DC

876
01:18:27,746 --> 01:18:33,108
stuff that they've put out. This to me was a
perfect blend of the two, where it wasn't too

877
01:18:33,148 --> 01:18:38,911
kiddy and it wasn't too mature. It was perfect.
I really have no other way to describe it.

878
01:18:39,211 --> 01:18:43,973
There were minor things that I didn't like or
were like, whoa, what's up with that? But ultimately,

879
01:18:44,193 --> 01:18:49,655
I agree with you. It's the best X-Men project
that I've ever seen on screen. DC animation

880
01:18:49,675 --> 01:18:56,950
fans beware, Marvel's coming for you. Yes, you.
Oh no. But that does it for this review guys,

881
01:18:56,970 --> 01:19:03,613
let us know what you thought about X-Men 97
Season 1 by writing to us at dyna or by visiting

882
01:19:03,693 --> 01:19:07,694
us on Instagram, which you can find a link to
in our show notes, or by going to our website

883
01:19:07,775 --> 01:19:12,837
at dynamicduel.com. And on our site you can
also find a link to our Patreon page, where

884
01:19:12,857 --> 01:19:17,879
you can join our Dynamic Duo tier and chat with
us and fellow listeners, our Fantastic Four

885
01:19:17,919 --> 01:19:23,381
tier, which gets you bonus content each month,
our X-Force tier that makes you an executive

886
01:19:23,421 --> 01:19:29,417
producer of this podcast, or our newest tier
that lets you join our Dynamic Podcast Network.

887
01:19:29,777 --> 01:19:34,620
And please don't forget to rate the show on
Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Podchaser or on

888
01:19:34,680 --> 01:19:41,345
our website. Our next episode is going to be
a X-Men tie-in where we pit Warpath, who was

889
01:19:41,365 --> 01:19:47,089
a member of X-Force, against the Native American
DC hero Black Condor. But that does it for

890
01:19:47,129 --> 01:19:51,852
this episode, we want to give a big thanks to
our executive producers Ken Johnson, Jon Strosky,

891
01:19:52,032 --> 01:19:57,336
Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom. Miggie Mathengian,
Brandon Essergard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yaiten,

892
01:19:57,516 --> 01:20:03,540
Austin Wieselowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho,
Gil Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew Shunk, Dean

893
01:20:03,580 --> 01:20:08,684
Mielewski, and Devin Davis for helping make
this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you

894
01:20:08,704 --> 01:20:14,388
guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.
There is no love without sin. Cause I'm freaky

895
01:20:14,408 --> 01:20:14,788
like that.