As a sequel to the 9th episode, "FUTURE X", this episode picks up sort of where that one left off, with the X-Men of 2029 trying to survive long enough for Future X's time travel gambit in the present to pay off. As assembled in episode 9, this team of rag-tag X-Men consist of Domino (from the former Brotherhood, of course, with shorter hair), Marrow, Bishop, and Hellion, naturally alongside Future Xavier himself in his set of mechanical legs-braces. The group finds themselves on the run from, what else, Master Mold's Sentinels. Only they seem to face a new breed of Sentinel, one that has a set of claws on each arm and appears able to reassemble itself from damages, a robot healing factor if you will. Xavier notes to Bishop how this seems very familiar.
Of course in the comics, the last futuristic Sentinel that could reform itself from damages was the seemingly indestructible Nimrod, whose design I always hated. The designs of these Weapon X Sentinels are superior; less bright pink and white. With no way to escape or defeat these Sentinels, the troupe is forced into running into the desert, or the "Badlands" in the title, an area where Sentinels do not venture due to Sandworms and Spice...no, that's DUNE. Master Mold overrules their programming, as she/it desperately wants to capture Xavier so his psychic powers can be technologically duplicated. Strong magnetic bolts course through the Badlands, tearing apart the robots, separating Domino from her precious guns, and even abducting Xavier. But, this time it isn't Magneto; it is his daughter, who is twenty years older and now calling herself Polaris.
I was never one who liked Bishop at all in the comics or in the 90's cartoon when he appeared. This show, however, has managed to work him better. Firstly, they stuck with his "bald" look, easily the best of his various hairdo's in the comics. Secondly, as his adventures are solely based in the future, he doesn't have time travel contrivances yet. Lastly, while he is voiced very well by veteran voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson (who seems to get some role in any cartoon series on TV these days, just a few steps behind Phil LaMarr), Bishop is a man of few words. He isn't telling everyone he is a cop, or explaining his powers endlessly. He doesn't brag or boast, or get on everyone's nerves. He is a soldier, a man of action. When he speaks, it is blunt and to the point. Bishop almost makes Wolverine seem verbose. This works for him. His power is easily demonstrated by visuals that they don't need to be explained, something Chris Claremont never realized. His outfit, with the 90's costume covered in the trench, was lifted from a mini from about 5-7 years ago and it works very well in animation.
The rest of the Future X-Men are what you expect. Marrow is voiced by Tara Strong (another VA veteran), and while she accepts Xavier after last episode, her bone spikes aren't terribly useful against robots. Domino of course is played by Gwendoline Yeo and as she was the least zealous of Quicksilver's Brotherhood group, in for the cause, not to inflict random carnage, it makes sense to see her alongside Xavier due to circumstance. Hellion, played by Roger Craig Smith, is your holdover from the NEW X-MEN that Craig Kyle & Chris Yost wrote into the ground for a few years, and is your typical youthful telekenetic. Aside for Bishop and Domino, the lot of them usually are lost in the fog of Xavier's discoveries and some exposition, but that isn't a major downer.
Upon discovering Polaris, Xavier discovers that she is trying to carry on the dream of her dead father, Magneto. She has apparently been tearing apart any robots that venture into the Badlands to make her own twisted stab at a New Genosha, where only she lives. Basically, she's insane. When his comrades come to save Chuck, she quickly assembles a Sentinel to fight them. As it is a mangled robot, and all it can say is "Destroy", it seemed a clear homage to Rover from the last arc of Grant Morrison's X-MEN run from several years ago, who had a Sentinel like that based in a future reality. They eventually remove Polaris' psi-proof helmet and Xavier learns that at some point in the past (and our X-Men's perhaps near future), Genosha is completely destroyed by fire, and Magneto sends his daughter away to safety. She's been stuck for years trying to recreate it, but isn't a soldier enough to do much more. It was a tragic turn for the character, even if we really haven't seen much of Lorna Dane before now. All we have seen of her is that she is Magneto's third child, and the one he shelters the most; I suppose that is enough for the show's purposes. In the comics, of course, Lorna has had bouts of unstable behavior. Come to think of it, all three of Magneto's kids have gone conkers at least once or twice over the last four decades. It's like he says in his MARVEL SERIES 1 Trading Card, "I'm a failure as a father!"
Fortunately, of course, Lorna sides with the team in time to save them from a horde of Sentinels, and Future X goes on his way.
Unlike in "FUTURE X", the present day subplot for the episode ties in better and has more time and focus, as well as gives some to a heroine who needed some; Shadowcat/Danielle Jadovits. In the present, Wolverine leads her and Forge into one of Trask's Sentinel facilities. They are clad in black op's costumes, which is a nod to X-FORCE, which Craig Kyle co-writes with Chris Yost (these dark outfits basically come in in HULK VS. WOLVERINE too). Kitty suggests just trashing the joint with the full X-Men, but Wolverine wants to download data and "stop them for good". It is a worthy plan, but it backfires when he orders the other two to flee, then promptly gets captured after beating a half dozen soldiers.
The pacing of the action with Wolverine wasn't too bad this time; while most of the time he slices guns, there were a few edits that at least could have implied that at least one of those guards took a claw slash elsewhere, if you wanted to imagine so. With Forge a complete non-combatant, this forces Kitty to rescue the three of them. Alas, it does not occur until Trask is able to analyze Wolverine's body and lecture him about his plan to "teach robots how to fight like mutants", which we know leads to the harsh future in 20 years when they rule everything. I also liked the "black" versions of their costumes. Functional, and will justify some extra action figures!
Also, something else happens; Kitty Pryde actually lectures Logan about coming up with a not-so-good plan. As in, an actual member of the team notes that Logan did not make the right decision, it backfired, and CALLS HIM ON IT! One should note that the only other member of the team who did this lately was Emma Frost, so it may seem that only women have the, ahem, stones to challenge Wolverine. In the comics of course, Logan and Kitty have a spunky mentor/student relationship, so it fits. In another first, Logan's error doesn't turn out to be meaningless to the general story; Logan being captured in the present, even briefly, led to the suped up Sentinels that Xavier faced in the future. The episode ends with Future X having another time travel telepath conference with Logan, nothing the severity of the war they face. Wolverine, of course, vows not to lose.
Hey, an episode where someone on the X-Men calls Logan on an error, and the story doesn't simply absolve it away into insignificance, is a step in the right direction for the writing staff's intention to show this X-Men team as not as cohesive and Logan as a far from perfect leader. A cynic might state that this sort of thing should have happened more than, at most, 3 instances within 16 episodes, but I will take what I can get towards complexity.
