The Reavers (led by Spiral) and Mojo make good on their threat to capture Nightcrawler for their own entertainment, and this time suck in Scarlet Witch as well. Unlike Cyclops or Storm, Nightcrawler is capable enough to be able to rescue himself and beat his enemies with minimal, if any, assistance from Wolverine or the rest of the X-Men. It is further proof how no adventure or episode is wasted in this show; they all bring about ramifications and reactions, and build up to greater things. If anything, the only neglected quibble is that little information on Mojo or Spiral is given, and they seem almost like random adversaries.
After being captured by Mystique at the end of episode 10 in his attempt to warn the X-Men about Magneto's real intentions in Genosha, Nightcrawler has found himself in a teleport-proof prison. His only visitor seems to be Wanda Maximoff, played by Kate Higgins. Not interested in being read or spoken too, Nightcrawler doesn't want to hear her words of condolence for siding with her father. While clearly torn between her loyalty to Kurt and her father, the two are quickly kidnapped by Spiral and end up in a forest, being hunted by her gang of cybernetic Reavers. Adapted to Nightcrawler's teleport tactics with electrified tech and force-fields, Kurt and Wanda clash over battle tactics and ideals. Wanda wants to stand her ground and fight, while Kurt wants to deny Mojo the pleasure while seeking a way to escape. They ultimately learn that the "forest" is an artificial one that is inside a dome beneath the ocean. The situation becomes more complicated when a tech-controlled Wolverine is brought into the situation as Mojo's greatest "hunter".
I really liked the twisted design that Wolverine had as Mojo's pawn, especially the twisted "grin" that was like a combination of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and Joker's Laughing Gas effect. While Wanda wants to just take Wolverine out, Kurt is willing to place his life on the line to save his friend, even when it seems hopeless. While one could imagine the idea of Wolverine becoming what he always feared he would become; a sadist's mind controlled weapon, would have effected Logan's character a bit, there just wasn't enough time to cover it here.
While I admitted to liking how Kurt was written in Evolution, I didn't care for how Wanda was written in that show. WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN here has managed to write a superior version. While I do tire of Wanda always being written as a Brotherhood terrorist in most modern cartoons considering about 80% of her comic book past is with the Avengers, this version of her captures that dynamic better. In the comics, she was the one who had the most doubts about Magneto's ideals than Pietro did, and the most apologetic for his methods. This episode allows a character study on her, pretty much facing how the methods of her father Magneto do not always apply to every situation, and can even lead to a worse result. See sees in Nightcrawler how the alternative method is not always worthless or weak. While she ultimately chooses to remain on Genosha with Magneto in the end, it is very obvious that she has doubts about his methods. Kate Higgins puts in a very good performance as Wanda here, playing off O'Brien's Kurt well. Combined with a dead-on version of the costume, this may very well be the definitive animated version of Wanda here, even more interesting than some of the ones from the 90's where she already was a hero. Granted, surpassing the terrible lines from 1999's AVENGERS: UNITED THEY STAND isn't much of a compliment, but there it is.
In fact the only bit where Logan almost upstages Nightcrawler is at the end where he defeats Spiral, the adversary who once battled Kurt for several minutes, with a single spin kick, as well as beating Mojo almost single handedly (with an assist from Wanda). But personally I didn't mind that too much; Logan was sufficiently motivated, and despite the title of the show, gets his rear handed to him fairly often. He's owed some payback.
Who is Mojo on this show? All we know is that he is a fat cyborg who wants mutants to fight each other, or his cyborg gang, for his own bemusement. Who was that woman named "Rita" who was bound to their ship in episode 6? The show doesn't say. It even is unknown whether Mojo and Spiral come from another dimension, or are just Earth empowered cyborgs. Honestly I never cared for the "Mojoworld" stuff from the comics, so if this show wanted to make them more Earth based, I say go for it. I enjoyed some of the methods that EVOLUTION took to tone down the X-Universe and make it less ridiculous, and if this show is going to continue that, by all means shoot for it. Some could even say that this version of Mojo almost seems akin to Arcade, but he is probably more well known (and doesn't remind people of the Joker like Arcade usually does). None of this hurts the episode itself, as the focus is on Kurt and Wanda, though. I never cared for Mojo, so if he and his minions don't get fleshed too much, I wouldn't mind either. He usually was a distraction for the X-Men.
The action is pretty good for the show's standards, although Nightcrawler is purposefully being defensive so it won't be the same as some of his past brawls. The only caveat is Wanda, but it isn't the fault of the show's writers. Wanda's caveat is her power is so ill defined. Sometimes she creates "random bad luck". Other times she just shoots generic energy beams, or her energy beams make whatever is convenient to the plot happen. It is ill defined and was "spammed" in EVOLUTION to the point of annoyance, but here it isn't bad. I wouldn't expect this show to handle her powers better than some 40 years of the comics. It just is part of her.
There are little bits to other characters, though. We meet Polaris and unlike his other children, Magneto seems to deliberately keep her in the dark and not involve her in his battles. He punishes Pyro severely for informing Lorna of things that Magneto does not wish her to know, showing how Magneto's Genosha is one he rules with an iron fist, out of oppression and ignorance. Tom Kane does very well as Magneto, another character the show is handling well. While Magneto often has a point, he also can be chilling him his tactics or methods. His design is one of the show's best.
Also getting some tidbits are Storm, Frost, Rogue, and Iceman. Left at the Mansion after Logan was kidnapped by the Reavers off camera, they launch to try to rescue him. Rogue is irritated that Frost is unable to find him on Cerebro, and all Iceman seems to worry about is how angry Logan will be. Storm appeared to hold the group together without Logan and it was about time someone did. I mean, Scott's too much of a sad sack right now to do more than shoot an optic blast at someone. Storm is a proper figure to act as a co-leader when Logan isn't around. It is something that should have been written in, oh, about ten episodes ago, but better late than never. It was good to see Rogue interact with some of her fellow X-Men again after returning to the team. There seems to be no ill will amongst her allies. Seeing Iceman without Kitty attached was a rarity for this show, but he didn't do much beyond a few amusing lines. At least it is a defined role.
Nightcrawler rejoins the X-Men at the end of this episode, but as he was the only one of them who got as many solo episodes as Wolverine, it almost feels like he never left. It will be interesting seeing him with the cast again. If only Colossus was there, it would literally be my ideal roster of seven X-Men on the show's cast. It is so tantalizingly close, and yet will never be, that as a fanboy I can't help but squeal a little about the omission. I know objectively that Colossus will never join the main cast or be written as a character by this crew; they clearly don't like him and see him as nothing but a design, to be used sparingly (see Evolution). And looking at the rest of the show's strengths, especially in this episode, and objectively I can look past that. It's only the 12 year old in me that sometimes screams, "Oh, C'MON!" at that little omission. I mean, even X-MEN 3 gave us two Fastball Specials, and that movie stank. Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Beast, Rogue, Shadowcat...just missing that big steel piece of the Dread X-Men puzzle. Arrraggh! SO close!
