Re:cap - “Remember It”!; Magneto, Rogue, and Gambit traveled to the mutant nation of Genosha where they see Nightcrawler! There is also Madelyne Pryor and the rest of the Interim Council. This includes Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost from the Hellfire Club. They ask Magneto to be leader. At the X-Mansion, there is tension between Jean Grey and Cyclops, they have been distant since baby Nathan was given to Bishop into the future! Genosha, Magneto has asked Rogue to be his queen and she relates to Gambit about falling for Magneto before she was an X-Man. He could cancel her mutant power to absorb memories and abilities. At the ball, Gambit leaves when Rogue and Magneto kiss during their dance. Madelyne starts to see flashes of images and her nose bleeds. Rogue leaves Magneto.
Madelyne stumbles out of the ball and Cable rushes in saying to her, “He’s coming!” She realizes he is her son, Nathan, all grown up. A dramatic moment even with time travel and the sci fi part. He is drawn back to the future. Then, an explosion tears apart the ball, a distortion of images and sound! Rogue recovers and throws off a piece of rubble. Magneto is also there and they find that it is a Sentinel!, the Wild Sentinel which first appeared in New X-Men #114 (2001) part of the “E is for Extinction” storyline. It is about to blast them, but Nightcrawler bamfs them away. He has fallen from escaping the blast, but alive. Shaw is down as well as Callisto who has died! Gambit says the “Godzilla Sentinel” is too powerful and the Morlocks are trapped at the bay. Val Cooper tries to evacuate civilians.
Magneto assaults the Wild Sentinel to give time for Rogue and Gambit to save the Morlocks. He says they do not want to live wondering if they could have saved more innocents. The material here is very mature and hints at Schindler’s List (1993). Gambit races on a motorcycle with both Rogue and himself taking out Sentinels dropped by the Wild Sentinel. Magneto’s fight with the Wild Sentinel sends him knocking over a statue of Charles Xavier onto Genoshan mutants! He sees the images of the casualties and flashes back to his childhood. Magneto screams out, “They shall be avenged!” He sends out a tram as a flail to bash the Wild Sentinel.
The Morlock survivors include Erg with an eyepatch, Ape, both debuted in Power Pack #12 (1985), the multi-colored hair woman, Tommy, introduced in Uncanny X-Men #210 (1986), and Leech. He tries to inspire confidence with Magneto’s promise to him. They are detected by the head of a Sentinel, it smashes though the window, and Gambit drives a staff into its head to the return of the theme song! He leads them out, but Magneto is thrown into a car past them! The Wild Sentinel detects the Omega-level power of Magneto. Leech is by Magneto who creates a shield around the Morlocks from the Wild Sentinel’s blast! Rogue tries to help, but she and Gambit are lashed to a pole by Magneto. She pleads with Erik, but he seals them in a metal sphere. A final blast, Erik says in German to Leech, “Do not be afraid”, and the Wild Sentinel has eliminated the Omega-level threat!
Rogue breaks free in tears and flies towards the Wild Sentinel. Gambit rides his motorcycle and then charges it up to knock away Rogue. The Wild Sentinel charges up to blast Nightcrawler and the other mutants. Gambit leaps towards it with his charged up staff and then is stopped. The Wild Sentinel has ran its pincer through his side! The Wild Sentinel drags him in front of it and says he is neutralized. Remy says his name is Gambit, charging up the entire Sentinel through the pincer, and then finishes his catch phase, “Remember it.” Then an explosion that devastates the city. The smoldering city is seen on the television at the X-Mansion. Cyclops shouts that he wants to know how many were lost.
At a crater, the young mutants we saw at the beginning see Rogue holding the body of Gambit, we feel her tears as she says, “I can’t feel you.” It is all animation, but very powerful, more so than the live action movies and comics. “Lifedeath - Part 2”, we hear the thumping of drums before we get the title sequence. The episode is directed by Chase Conley who also directed Ep. 2 and 4 which was the first part of Lifedeath. The writer is Charley Feldman who cowrote Ep. 3 and 4. We see Forge in X-Men uniform! Nightcrawler is added! We see the Sentinel, Nimrod, blasted by Bishop. Xavier kisses Lillandra before the final sequence. It begins with a space battle, Shi’ar ships against Kree.
The Shi’ar with bird-like hair first appeared in X-Men #97 (1975). The Kree were seen in X-Men: The Animated Series season three episode, “The Fate of the Phoenix” (1994). After the attack on Genosha, the change in setting dramatically lightens the load a bit. A Kree ship is breached by Deathbird voiced by Cari Kabinoff who returns to the part after “Promise of Apocalypse” (1995). She is seen by Ronan the Accuser (Todd Haberkorn) who is seen for the first time in X-Men animation. He was introduced in Fantastic Four #65 (1967). An explosion heralds the arrival of the Imperial Guard from Uncanny X-Men #107 (1977). They were also in “Fate of the Phoenix” and counterparts to DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes. Ronan is smashed by Gladiator (David Errigo Jr.), the version of Superboy. They are hunting the Supreme Intelligence.
This is interrupted by an announcement by Deathbird’s sister, Empress Lilandra (Morla Gorrondonna). The messenger (Errigo Jr.) activates a hologram of Empress Lilandra. She explains that a Terran man, also a mutant, was saved by their healers. She tells the assembled Shi-ar that he saved the univese from her brother, D’ken, defeated in “Orphan’s End” (1995), and stopped the Phoenix. Then, Lilandra announces her marriage, we see walking to the balcony, the golden armor of Professor Charles Xavier! This gets Deathbird to smirk. At the gardens, we see Kymellian gardeners, this is the pale horse-like aliens from Power Pack #1 (1984)! A great introduction, I can’t wait to see Power Pack in a series or film, they were part of the early Marvel plans for the MCU. Lilandra tosses seeds to exotic plants, knows he wants to return to his “children”, his X-Men.
She says he can invite them to the wedding through a holo-globe. Lilandra helps him take off his armor which helped him to walk. Yes, the X-Men should be able to function by themselves, but he left abruptly without telling him he recovered. This shifts to the owl over Forge’s cabin which picks up after episode four. Storm looks after him recovering on his bed from The Adversary’s bite in its demonic owl form. Storm tries to break out of the cabin, but The Adversary keeps her trapped. The situation makes sense since Storm would have no way to find out about what happened in Genosha. The Adversary wants her to let Forge die from its poison. Storm becomes sealed in a coffin with The Adversary trapping her inside. Claustrophobia has always been the childhood fear for Ororo. The face of The Adversary says her words to Jean about thinking about living as a human. It shifts into the evil faces of the X-Men and says she already rejected them. She falls next to the capsule and Forge charges in to face the Weaver of Lies with his magic! The Adversary is sent away and Forge collapses into Storm’s arms! The sixth ep of X-Men `97 has the dual troubled romance of Xavier with Lilandra and Storm, a change of pace from the heaviness of last ep!
Four Sentinel Blasters out of Five!
#XMen97, #LifedeathPart2, #ChaseConley, #CharleyFeldman, #AlisonSealySmith, #GilBirmingham, #RossMarquand, #MorlaGorondona, #CariKabinoff, #DavidErrigoJr, #ToddHaberkorn.
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