After the obligatory recap of episode 1, the show gets off to an unexpected start...a good 5-6 minutes without the sight of Wolverine. I was fairly surprised, although considering Rogue and Beast are probably the second and third most popular and well known X-Men after Wolverine (with Cyclops and Gambit likely rounding out that top 5 of recognizability). Senator Kelly is holding a rally seeking support for the mutant registration act, and proposing a new instrument to combat the mutant threat; a purple spider-like robot that looked like it was on loan from the SPIDER SLAYERS trilogy from SPIDER-MAN:THE ANIMATED SERIES. Seriously, was not a fan of the design. The thing's programmed to only attack mutants, but because Rogue was secretly in the audience, it goes nuts and tries to attack her.
Rogue carries much of the episode here so some commentary on her is due. Kieren van den Blink gets more to do and she takes some getting used to; her Southern accent sometimes sounds awkward, but it gets better as it goes along. I'm still not a fan of the "anime eye through hair" bit, but she appears to be a little from both the comics and the movies in terms of design. She has the green hooded cloak from the original film, but a costume that is very close to her iconic 90's one, complete with the ill-fitting belt. She's also not a goth. Not that I minded it. In EVOLUTION, it made sense that she was isolated like that. Frankly, the EVOLUTION Rogue for me was the best version of the character yet put forth, and I didn't expect W&TXM's Rogue to surpass that. She's basically more like the comics, but like in EVOLUTION, there is focus on recruiting her into the Brotherhood very early in. Hey, the same fellas wrote both, right? I also like her power level here; I never was a major fan of the Ms. Marvel power-set and have preferred Rogue relying on her genuine mutant abilities, which have their strengths and drawbacks (rather than boring, permanent super strength/durability).
The high flying Angel comes to Rogue's rescue from the Spider-Slayer (all they needed was Sebastian Smythe snickering in the background); much like in Evolution, some symbolism is used with Angel's imagery, although his outfit is closer to the comics (actually, exactly from the comics), which is a shame because his EVOLUTION suit was, again, an update. But, at the very least, he launches an attack without needing razor wings (he drops a slab of concrete on the robot). Of course, EVOLUTION fans like me might draw parallels to "ON ANGEL'S WINGS", arguably the best episode of X-MEN EVOLUTION in which Angel saves Rogue from, uh, a nasty purple threat (in that case, Magneto). In a way, while this series is in no way connected to Evolution besides being an X-Men show, the creators do appear to be re-using certain elements or dynamics, which is fine so long as they mix and match well. Beast and Wolverine save the pair from the Spider-Slayer, and try to recruit them.
Warren is busy trying to use his money to help mutants and fears his father will cut off his trust fund if he returns to the X-Men, so Angel declines. Rogue, however, is clearly still perturbed at Wolverine for being halfway out the door when Xavier & Jean got nuked; she outright says that she won't be "abandoned" again by him. Is Logan an unreliable mentor or crush for Rogue? The writers keep it ambiguous, which is the best way to play it, especially as there are a few "made for network TV" angles to the action. More on that later.
I did like the conflict expressed throughout the episode with Warren of all characters; Kyle & Yost obviously like the winged X-Man more than some writers, and considering this is Wolverine's show and he's hardly popular, it was good to see some focus on him, even if I don't expect him to return more than once later on. Liam O'Brien, who also voices Nightcrawler, is fine as Angel, although my preference still goes to Mark Hildreth. Go FATAL FURY! I also liked the tension between Warren and Logan; in the comics, they barely tolerated each other, and this show uses that. Least everyone isn't all gung-Logan (yet).
I do have to admit, I rolled my eyes when not even Beast could dare to attack the Spider-Slayer and had to wait for Wolverine to save them. I mean, let's not make it TOO blatant.
Wolverine takes the interaction with Rogue to signal that "no one will join an X-Men led by me" because he has his rep of riding off into the sunset for various reasons. That leads him into the preview-shown confrontation with Scott Summers. The scene would have been better if we all hadn't seen it already, but that's the price of scoping sneak peaks sometimes. Scott naturally has taken losing Jean and the X-Men hard; he's staying at a dive apartment/hotel and decided that Logan and Beast aren't the only men who can get away without shaving monthly. And why bother putting batteries into a remote when you can just blast the TV? If this were a more mature show, I could have easily imagined a liquor bottle of some sort in Scott's hand, but because kids are watching, it's just emotional distress. Logan shows up and as we all know, picks a confrontation with Scott by pushing his buttons, which gets him a blast for his trouble. It still is hard to gauge Nolan North's Summers when he only gets 1-3 lines an episode, but he's doing fine so far.
Of course, it is one of those scenes where it couldn't have ended another way. Logan of course is going to push Scott's buttons at the slightest moment of weakness. He never thought Cyclops was "all that" or worthy of Jean's love, either in the comics, the 90's cartoon or the movies. Cyclops, of course, is knee deep in bitter angsting and isn't in the mood to hear crap from his rival, and I can understand that. The only downer is, of course, we know that Wolverine really does evolve into the leader of the X-Men so in a way he's kind of right, Cyclops isn't all that without Xavier backing him up or Jean's fawning. Logan's the one trying to rebuild the X-Men, not Scott. Of course, Scott never ran into a little kid who believed in him like Logan did, which always seems to inspire wayward superheroes. The scene's nothing I didn't expect. Cyclops will rejoin the team, of course, but he isn't leader material. That sort of thing wares thin since the moral of the three films was basically the same thing, but Kyle & Yost have more time to work with so things may turn out better. Again, casting Cyclops as the brooding loner to Wolverine's gung-ho leadership is a gutsy move, one that either will be decried as foolish or lauded as brilliant. It won't do anything for Cyclops' popularity (kids aren't stupid enough to fall for a repackaged gift; I'm sure most of them see the intro and go, "hey, he's wearing Gambit's coat"), but if the pair are written well together, and NOT as bosom buddies, it could work out.
Of course, who will get Cyclops to shape up? More than likely Emma Frost. He's nothing without a hot telepath around, but to be fair, that's how he's been written in the comics for the past few years, so Kyle & Yost can claim the sin of being accurate.
Toad, played by A.J. Buckley, gets arrested by cops, but is freed by the Brotherhood of Mutants, consisting of Blob (Stephon Stanton), Avalance (James Patrick Stuart), Quicksilver, and Domino as the token woman. While X-MEN EVOLUTION took time to introduce the Brotherhood one by one, this time they're all heaped out at once and resemble their comics counterparts more faithfully. Toad more resembles his Kubert design from Ultimate X-Men and that works best for him, anyway. Blob is back to being an impossibly fat man in a grotesque spandex outfit (with NO PANTS), but at least Avalanche doesn't have a Trouble Bubble Helmet or makes lame puns like, "Time to rock and roll!" Yes, yes, I know Evolution Lance eventually became a popular anti-hero and all that, but this Avalanche and Blob are back to goon status. Of course, this being a network TV show, great pains are made to show the police officers inside the cars that Blob tosses as alive and well, or later on, buildings that Avalanche collapses to be conveniently "abandoned". It does get a little annoying especially considering that the 2k3 era TMNT cartoon got around that stuff. They frequently showed vehicles or bases exploding and would not show people (usually Foot Ninja) escaping, presuming that they were killed (or mortally injured) without outright saying it. That I figured works better than reducing the Brotherhood to smashing empty structures.
Quicksilver leads the Brotherhood (under the watch of endless GENOSHA billboards featuring his father), and Quicksilver comes off a bit weird. The costume is faithful to the comics, but he has the face wrinkles of a 40 year old man, wearing an outfit that only Peter Pan could pull off. His voice is fine but Quicksilver is one of those characters who has never had a good costume design from the House of Ideas and benefits from any redesign you can find. Domino, being a wise femme fatale, is the one with the most influence over Rogue; the pair seem to know each other and it isn't said from where. They also don't quite explain Domino's power, although allude to the "luck" thing by having her win at pool just by breaking the balls. I never really cared for Domino and I certainly am not the one who is proud to see her attain supporting character status while Colossus is once again shoved into "two guest spots or less" status for the third time in a row. Her breasts did seem to be almost falling out of her leather outfit, though; very sexy for network TV. Rogue naturally is ill at ease with the Brotherhood's methods as they first destroy Sen. Kelly's house and then force Rogue into absorbing Mr. Worthington's memories, TKO'ing Warren in the raid. With knowledge of Kelly's schedule, the Brotherhood seemingly plans to assassinate him at the next public function.
With the short list of potential X-Men dwindling, Beast and Wolverine pay a visit to the home of Bobby Drake and literally kick down the door to get the kid to run away back to the X-Men. Drake's played by Yuri Lowenthal, who isn't a stranger to teen superheroes, having voiced Superman for two seasons in LEGION OF SUPERHEROES. Iceman's design here isn't bad; the best animated Iceman design was, of course, from SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS, but I liked this design better than his Evolution one, which I found a bit bland. This at least has more flair. Unlike the others so far, Iceman was eager to return to the X-Men and play hero again, which was a switch. Kitty Pryde had run away and hopped a boat to Genosha, but is easily persuaded to return. Danielle Judovits still isn't better in the role than Maggie Blue O'Hara was from Evolution, but she has less annoying material to work with. Her costume isn't bad, although I dislike the pigtails.
Rather than just snipe Kelly outright, though, Domino only stages a distraction while the X-Men, with a seemingly reformed Rogue with them, stage a rescue. Things get out of control as they wait until after the chopper is crashed and they pummel every trooper in the area to realize no Brotherhood are there. Even for Wolverine, it seemed obligatory and stupid. Couldn't he have just smelled that no Brotherhood were there? Or seen that no bright spandex was in the crowd? Not even Beast caught on. While I did like at least that in this episode, Logan was hardly a perfect X-Man, setting up the team could have been handled a little better. I don't mind Wolverine making errors in leadership, so long as he isn't just stupidly inept, which is out of character. Frankly, I was surprised he so easily trusted Rogue again. No one in the audience was, though. Even without trailers, it was fairly obvious.
The Brotherhood seemingly won round one, setting up the X-Men for the attack on Kelly and provoking the fight they want, as well as getting Rogue to join them. Quicksilver's trying to be his father's son, but whenever he tries to be scary, he just comes off as a bit...well...not. The writers get a lot of comic mileage out of Toad, though.
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In my opinion atleast. Less action, but the story progresses more Id say.
