X-Men: Evo -- "Ascension 1 & 2" (Spoilers)

Cafe Society
#1

Okay, this is going to be about the two-part season finale for X-Men: Evolution. There are going to be spoilers aplenty here, so look no further if you missed the episodes and are waiting for the reruns.

Spoiler Space: Last Chance to Turn Back Now

I mean it.

Here we go with the spoilers…

Wow. “Ascension” was pretty good, I thought. They brought in just about everyone who’s ever appeared to fight Apocalypse. I think the pacing and direction of the two episodes was very good, but I think the ending of part two was rushed. I bet they could have stretched it out to three episodes is they had been given more than just nine episodes in the season four order. Still, I liked it.

Apocalypse’s four horsemen were pretty cool. Using Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, and Storm to defend the temples provided some excellent fight scenes. Xavier in particular had this psychic weapons thing going on. I’m glad that Magneto and Mystique aren’t really dead; I thought they were gone for good considering how they met their ends earlier in the season. Storm had a lot of good scenes, too; she’s a really cool character.

I liked that they brought back Dorian Leech to be part of the final plan. I was wondering if the episode he first appeared in was going to be a one-off appearance or part of the lead-up to this. Rogue didn’t have a lot to do until the ending, but I agree with Kurt at the end: the girl who shut herself off from the world saved it. I like that Apocalypse arc could be returned to in the future if the series isn’t ending.

I liked seeing Spike, Angel, and Collosus fighting with the X-Men teams. Angel didn’t say anything that I can recall; I guess they couldn’t get his voice actor back. I’m glad that the Brotherhood, who refused initially to help, arrived at the last minute to join the fight. It was a touching moment seeing Quicksilver save the Scarlet Witch. It was also touching seeing the two of them help Magneto off the battlefield at the end.

One thing that puzzles me is the end of the battles when Mystique tries to set things right with Rogue and Nightcrawler. I can understand Rogue telling her to stuff it, but I don’t understand Nightcrawler’s reaction. After all the emotional turmoil he went through with Mystique being turned to stone and thrown off a cliff, I thought he would have been somewhat joyous to see her. Instead, he copped Rogue’s attitude with her. Odd behavior, I think.

Another I disliked was that not all of the mutants we’ve seen joined in. I missed Gambit, Pyro, and Sabretooth, among others. I suppose that’s for the best, though. So many characters were involved here that only really Wolverine had a lot of good scenes. Too much going on and not a lot of time to do it all. Making this a three-parter would have helped that, I think.

I take it from the ending that this may be the series finale of X-Men: Evolution. I haven’t heard yet if there will be a fifth season, but part two sure goes with the basis that this is the end. It was interesting seeing those final few minutes when Xavier was talking about how he pretty much saw the future in Apocalypse’s mind. He hinted at Magneto’s leading the institute for a while. He hinted at Jean Gray becoming the Dark Phoenix. He hinted at the ongoing mutant hatred going on. And he predicted the futures of all the main mutants we’ve seen in the series. Basically, everyone is really older and buffed up.

From the looks of the final line-ups, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver stay with the Brotherhood. Pyro also joins with them. From my limited knowledge of the comics, I thought Quicksilver joined the X-Men while Avalanche, Pyro, and Blob joined Magneto’s new acolytes. Collosus joins the X-Men, and it looks like Wolfsbane and Jubilee return from their parent-forced exile. I couldn’t tell to see what fates Gambit, Boom-Boom, or Angel had.

So, in conclusion, overall the episodes were good, I think. Not enough time to give every character a chance to shine, and not everyone character brought back. The fight scenes were good, but the ending was a bit rushed.

Anyone else see the episodes and wants to comment?

#2

COnsider the spoilers warning from Siegfried continued.
Nightcrawler’s reaction was slightly odd, but maybe after having just gone ten rounds with her he perhaps was more fond of her when she was made of stone, even if she was under Appy’s control. Perhaps some reflection between Rogue shoving the statue and her return to life gave him some time to realise how bad she was. Also, her attempt to mend fences with the pair was clumsy and obvious, so maybe he just wasn’t buying it.

Favorite scene: BoomBoom feeding hundreds of ‘booms’ to hundreds of Madrox multiples armed with slingshots. Plus Boomboom giving Collossus a humungoud ‘boom’ to throw. Personally, I thought she had all the good scenes.

I hope this isn’t the end, but it obvious that they left theselves open for anything. They outright showed a Jean Grey/Pheonix change, and al the older X-men as part of it, including a flight capable Rogue. There’s more than a few loose ends, such as Mystique’s “I’ll show you two” reaction from Rogue and NC, there’s also things like Xavier’s son that are at loose ends.

On the other hand, they’re saturated with characters, and can’t devote much more time to each one. This season was a pathetic 9 episodes long. I have but to wonder. The ‘vision’ of Xavier could be a preempt to a new season or more of a “wanna know more? Read the comic.”

#3

Yes! I was happy that Multiple Man actually got to be useful. That was great having a hundred of him all lining up, taking Boom Boom’s balls o’ fury and shooting them up at Xavier (I think that’s who they were fighting). You’re right, that was a great scene.

Yeah, lots of loose ends that could be continued. Collosus’s backstory would be good as would following up with Xavier’s son. The whole Kelly for Mayor thing is still unresolved, but we already know where that’s headed. I’d also like to see what comes of Mystique’s final reaction. The comics have a lot of good stories that could be told well in the series, from what I’ve heard.

The image gallery for Beyond Evolution is up for Ascension, Part II. Now I can add a bit more to the ending. Posing in front of the institute at the end appears to be the original X-Men and the New Mutants (including Wolfsbane and Jubilee). Also with them are Collosus, Angel, Gambit, Havoc (I think), X23 (I think), Spike, and Boom-Boom. I gather the implication is that they are all X-Men now.

Showing the older versions of the mutants, Rogue gets the power to fly, you’re right. Shadowcat and Jean Grey show a lot more skin in their new uniforms, and Beast has a full uniform as well (he’s not just running around in his underwear anymore).

Other thoughts: yeah, I understand you’re take on the Nightcrawler/Rogue/Mystique ending. Actually, it makes sense. Mystique did seem to come off as less-than-sincere with her attempt to make amends, now that I think about it. Also, it looks like there might be a future again between Shadowcat and Avalance. They’ve seemed turned off with each other since last season’s “Mainstream,” but at the end here they’re hanging on each other during Xavier’s speech. Interesting.

#4

I also liked these episodes. The horsemen were good as were the teams; I second the Boom-Boom/Multiple team-up. It did feel rushed, though. Is this really the fourth season? It felt like just yesterday that the show was starting…

The future-glimpse was cool, and I liked seeing who’s going where. I hope this isn’t the end, but if it is, it could have gone a lot worse. I believe Gambit is shown with the future X-Men, but I may be wrong.

#5

While their future selves were not shown, in the final shot where we seel all the X-men in front of the mansion, Gambit, Boom-Boom, and Angel were there. I thought it was odd for Gambit to be there since he was not in the final fight and the last experience of him was that he was an independent.

Peace.

“I see Jean Grey becoming a powerful foe, but I’m probably not going to do anything to stop it.”

#6

I absolutely loved these last two episodes, although I agree that they felt rushed. I was kind of hoping the story would stretch to a third episode. Still, lots of good stuff going on. I laughed out loud at the army of Jamies with slingshots, and Pietro rushing in to save Wanda was very moving. I’m glad the Brotherhood finally showed up, especially since it looks like this might have been the series finale. They’ve kinda grown on me. Also, I loved when Nightcrawler commented on Rogue being the one to save the world. Very cool.

I figured out the ending a few weeks ago, when Leech first appeared. His power seemed to be the only thing that could stop Apocalypse. When Wolverine told Rogue in part 1 that he had a special mission for her, I figured it involved Leech somehow. But I’ve been a Leech fan since he first appeared in Generation X, so that was fine by me.

Overall, I’d say these were both excellent episodes. I really hope this isn’t the end of the series, because I’ll be sorry to see it go. At least we still have the reruns on Cartoon Network.

#7

Funny thing is, Sam, it was pretty much “yesterday” that I started watching the show. I only started watching it when the reruns started airing on Cartoon Network back in June. I liked it so much that I started watching them Saturday mornings when Kids WB started the current run of episodes.

ladybug, I didn’t know that Leech was a character from the comics. I had assumed that he was an original character for the series like Spike, X23, and Berserker. Pretty neat to know. I’ll also agree with you that the Brotherhood has grown on me. They struck me as being rivals to the X-Men most of the time rather than the archenemies of them.

Thanks to the magic of videotape, I watched the episode again and noticed a couple things. First, after Apocalypse is defeated and when Jean hugs Xavier, he gives her this odd look. It’s almost like he’s concerned for her or something. It just occurred to me that he gave her that look because he knows she’s going to become the Dark Phoenix. The second thing I noticed is the X-Men’s roster in the future glimpse. It includes Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Collosus, Shadowcat, Iceman, Storm, Beast, Rogue, and X23 (no Jean Grey, Wolverine, Angel, or other New Mutants).

#8

I’m pretty sure Leech predates Generation X. Wasn’t he introduced in the late 100’s of Uncanny X-men? A morlock, IIRC.

#9

One line I forgot that was quite memorable:

Toad: Is it over? Did we win?
Quicksilver: Are you kidding?
(Plane rises up off the ground)
Toad: Oh yeah, right, we never win…

I’m probably remembering it wrong, but I laughed at that one.

#10

Great episode. And a really classy way to end a series, if I do say so myself.

Bringing back Captain America for the battle royale might have been fun, tho.’

…and I noticed that they still had Kitty hanging off of Lance in the final scene. Ick.

And they were apparently able to talk Spyke out of living in the sewers anymore. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

#11

Actually, Berserker isn’t an original character…he had a (very brief) appearance as a Morlock, back in the 80s. And had a really bad hairdo.

Spike/Spyke seems to be based off of an X-Statix character.

And X23 has some strong similarities to a character from the Spider-Girl series…Wolverine’s future daughter.

#12

Actually, Spike is a terrible rip off of Marrow, who started off as a really cool villain who became a really bad hero, and now was retrofitted again and is part of Weapon X.

Berserker appeared and died in The Mutant Massacre series. He was rescued by X-Factor, but didn’t buy that they were trying to help them, ran away, and got gunned down by the cops.
Unfortunately, I missed the final episode. I guessed Leach was going to be used in it, but how exactly did they defeat the Big A?

#13

Okay, so I wasn’t entirely correct in describing them as original characters. :slight_smile:

El Elvis Rojo, this is how they defeat Apocalypse. After SHEILD’s resurrected Sentinels get destroyed by the Four Horsemen (Xavier, Mystique, Storm, and Magneto possessed by Apocalypse), four teams of mutants head out to take down the Sphinx (Apocalypse’s HQ) and the three pyramid he domed off. The mutants aren’t doing so well, so they go to their final plan: Rogue takes Leech’s powers and Cannonball flies her into the Sphinx. Rogue uses Leech’s power to shutdown the Mutant Evolution controller that Apocalypse is using and drain him of his powers. She manages to shut him into his sarcophagus. As Wolverine holds the lids down, she returns power to it where it immediately jumps into time. The Four Horsemen are released from Apocalypse’s power, and everyone but Mystique goes back to the Xavier Institute for his speech.

#14

Did anyone else notice some phoenix-hinting during Jean’s fight with Xavier, kind of like how they did with her in X2?

So that’s the end? What a shame. It was a really good show. Although with the most recent season(s), they drifted away from the premise that they’re all students and started to do more epic X-Men vs. The World type stuff, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Fun show. Want more.