Re:cap - “Mutant Liberation”; Magneto has given himself to a trial by the UN and the X-Cutioner is there to end his mutant powers! Storm stays with Magneto as the rest of the X-Men are there to stop him! At the X-Mansion, Jean is about to deliver her baby, Wolverine takes her in a race to the hospital! Rogue flies to the hospital and absorbs the skills of the doctor who refused to help a mutant! FOH breaks into the council chambers and Magneto holds off their gunfire. He bends the room’s metal into giant swords hanging over the protestors like the sword of Damocles! Magneto slams them down as Storm electrifies the swords into a cage! Innovative power combo! She sees X-Cutioner aim his rifle and flies into the way taking the blast!
Magneto uses his powers to pin X-Cutioner to the UN symbol. Storm has fallen, she reaches out, and says, “The breeze is gone”! In Uncanny X-Men #185 (1984), Henry Gyrich brought the neutralizer to use on Rogue, but Storm was the victim! I like the twist on the story, but the same result. Magneto turns to Val Cooper and the council. He rips up the council and X-Cutioner into the sky. He says he could crush them with his boots over X-cutioner’s face. Still, he brings up Xavier’s dream, as we see Cyclops with Jean. Magneto tells them not to let him down. We the baby in Jean’s arms whom she names Nathan. A perfect contrast of birth and something fantastic. A news report explains the UN’s pardon of Magneto and aid to Genosha.
Magneto and Cyclops are watching and Scott admits that he has to trust Magneto from Xavier’s wish. Beast is at the lab says that the rifle worked like a concentrated inhibitor collar taking away her powers! Jean hugs Storm who is shocked. She goes to her room to see her blasted unifom. Ororo is startled by a thunderclap. I like the reaction of Storm without her powers. Jean finds her farewell letter. Rogue takes off her glove to hold Magneto’s hand. Morph has brought beer to a sulking Wolverine. He transforms into Sabertooth to get into some friendly rivalry. Rogue leaves Gambit whose card drops to the floor. Ororo leaves on a bus from the X-Men. Powerful work by Alison Sealy-Smith. Jean reads the letter to the X-Men.
They hear a doorbell ring and a woman who looks like Jean Grey who says, “I need the X-Men”! “Fire Made Flesh” picks up from there. Beast is checking on his unconscious patient. Jean is by her side and uses her power to examine her doppleganger’s life. The woman’s life is like Jean’s life except faceless and Jean says it is like she was “born yesterday.” Her double wakens in a laboratory out of Castle Frankenstein! She runs into the woods and then sees the trial of Magneto on a television. This Jean stumbles to the X-Mansion. Then Jean is shocked by a vision of fanged teeth and a laugh! Morph dubs her Jean Doe shifting into six-armed Spiral (Abby Trott). Beast tells the X-Mn of the test results that Jean Doe is genetically older than their Jean Grey, a clone! Scott carrying their baby is silent!
Jean tells the X-Men that she was the first of them and then takes baby Nathan. In their room, Jean holds Nathan, as Cyclops enters. It doesn’t matter who is Jean Grey, if this is the one who has his child. She sends him away. Impressive work by Jennifer Hale, the voice work on this show is outstanding with character moments that are familiar, but more dramatic in the animated series! She hears a creepy voice over the baby monitor, it’s giving me shivers, who says he can give answers if she is Jean Grey. Bishop sees his time band almost finished by Beast. Scott asks Bishop why Magneto taking over the X-Men isn’t in his future. Bishop says that the future isn’t set, “Your future hasn’t been written yet”, haven’t they seen Back to the Future Part III?, it was released in 1990.
Beast suddenly tells Scott that they have to find Nathan, scientists, leave signatures. He says he knows who could be behind the mystery and calls him “Sinister”! Over the baby monitor, the voice introduces himself to Jean as Mister Sinister (Chris Britton)! This is the villain who first full appearance as in Uncanny X-Men #221 (1987). He made his appearance in X-Men: The Animated Series in "Till Death Do Us Part, Part Two" (1993). She sees flashes of Mister Sinister in the darkness. Jean should just turn off the baby monitor. She realizes that he wants Nathan! Mister Sinister says she belongs to him and she has flashbacks of herself and Jean Doe on hospital beds with Mister Sinister next to them! He places a crimson gem on her brow which is similar to his own. Jean lashes out and throws down pictures of her wedding day and the X-Men. Suddenly, energy courses around her and she is transformed into the Goblin Queen, a black outfit!
Jean says, “They shall know my inferno!” The Goblin Queen was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #240 (1988). Gambit, Wolverine, and Morph leave a Danger Room session. Morph sees the next sessions are taken by Rogue and Magneto, private time! Morph mocks Gambit who leaves to find Rogue. At the lockers, Morph sees some mist. Gambit sees a green glow from under a door. Roberto and Jubilee are watching television when he hears a whisper, “Muties.” Classic Nightmare on Elm Street! Morph finds Wolverine in the shower who says he is joking to hide what they already know. Gambit finds the room filled with jungle vines as Rogue holds Magneto! She tells him in a wicked voice that she found a real man while her flesh is pulled into Magneto! Watching television, the Gwen Stacy like character’s eyes glow green and a blobby monstrosity out of anime, spills into the floor. It speaks like Roberto’s Brazilian mother, Nina (Christine Uhebe)!
Morph falls back in fear of someone he already encountered, Mister Sinister, and screams! He returned revived by Sinister in the “Till Death Do Us Part, Part One” (1993) episode of X-Men: The Animated Series. Cyclops and Bishop enter his room, but Jean and Nathan are gone! Instead, Nathan’s playthings are changed into tentacles that hold the X-Men. A distorted Professor Xavier puppet who says Scott has failed. Bishop is confronted by the face of his sister, Shard (Kimberly Woods), who says he left her. Roberto’s power flares, but the face of his mother saying he is a mutant freak keeps him against the wall. Jubilee’s pyrotechnics blast the creature away! The elevator opens for the Beast and a giant face vomits purple fluid! The X-Men gather, but fall into a hellish vision. Beast leaps onto a demon out of Lewis Caroll’s poem, funny! Cyclops fully charges up Bishop who uses his power to blast apart the demons! A skeletal Sentinel rises, but is destroyed by Jean Doe.
Cyclops catches her and he tells the Dark Jean that she is controlled by Mister Sinister. She says she is Goblin Queen. Goblin Queen has Nathan contained and blasts the X-Men. They ae all recovering from the battle when Rogue enters with Magneto. Cyclops updates Magneto. Morphs tells them that sinister was a scientist in the 1800s and used mutants to extend his life. Magneto has Rogue, Wolverine, and Beast stay behind to help their wounded teammates. He will lead the others in an attack on Sinister! The villain is about to drop the seemingly happy infant into a vat. Sinister intends to make Nathan “invulnerable”! The X-Men enter the mansion of Sinister; Magneto, Bishop, Cyclops, and Morph. The Goblin Queen is there and sends out a mystic blast at Cyclops. Morph shifts into Magik (Courtenay Taylor), the sister to Colossus with a mystic Soulsword. Goblin Queen corrupts him into serving her and attacks in her demonic form! Magneto faces the Goblin Queen whose magical power is beyond his own! Another fantastic episode of X-Men `97 that wrestles the continuity of two Jean Greys that was retconned and tells some really personal stories with touches of anime horror!
Five Sentinel Blasters out of Five!
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