1x06 Lifedeath (2)

[7.0/10] I’m real mixed on this one. Both stories have their merits, and their cool impressionistic sequences. But both also have a certain randomness, and some heavy signposting that leaves me cold.

Let’s start with Storm and Forge. I’ll say this much -- I appreciate that X-Men ‘97 remembered Storm’s claustrophobia! Even the original show seemed to just move past that pretty quickly, so having The Adversary taunt her with an enclosed coffin, or to have her face her fear by going into a cramped mineshaft to save Forge carries extra weight with what she’s braving to save her lover.

I’m also a fan of those impressionistic sequences between her and The Adversary. I don’t know; I’m just a sucker for that sort of thing. So much of the emotional experiences in our life defy being able to be captured in mundane scenes. Realizing Storm’s inner turmoil from a demon who makes Storm feel like the walls are closing in on her, literally, who drags her through a grand guignol theater of the mind to represent what she’s going through, compels me in a way simple wailing and gnashing of teeth doesn’t. I appreciate the show’s visual creativity and psychological maximalism with those set pieces.

I even like the point the show’s trying to make, about Storm secretly warning to hide who she is and feeling guilty for that. The notion of embracing yourself, of “coming out”, is a powerful metaphor that fits within the X-Men’s accepting ethos. There’s a fair amount of purple prose used to explain it, but it comes with a keen insight about self-shaming and self-acceptance.

My problems are both in how that idea is realized. For one, the fact that The Adversary is just some random demon who happened to be wandering through the desert or something is bizarre. More and more, it’s apparent that X-Men ‘97 wants to be a kind of anime, and this storyline in particular has more of that “weird magical thing happens for no particular reason” bit that often irks me in the (admittedly limited) anime I’ve seen.

They try to put a fig leaf on it, with Forge explaining that it feeds on misery and self-loathing, and so Storm and Forge made for “good chum.” But the whole thing feels so random and arbitrary. And science-focused Forge being able to use the occasional bit of Dr. Strange-esque magic comes out of nowhere as well.

But the biggest pathology,the one this storyline shares with Xavier’s, is that it all but announces the themes to the audience. I know there’s mixed feelings about subtlety among fans, but at too many points, it felt like The Adversary and Storm were just speaking an essay at viewers rather than debating one another in larger than life terms.

This isn’t “Lifedeath”’s fault, but I’m also just a bit tired of the “character has a personal breakthrough which allows them to have a superpowered breakthrough” routine. It’s still cool when Storm regains her powers, but between the hamfistedness of the messaging, and the sense of randomness in her overcoming an ostensibly medical problem by just believing in herself harder, the head-scratch qualities of it made it harder to enjoy the glory of the moment.

I feel the same way about the Professor X storyline. Again, I like the message “Lifedeath” is trying to send here. The warning about resorting to “good old days” nostalgia-baiting and baseless fear of and demeaning outsiders is a good thing in principle. Promoting the importance of education is outstanding. But eventually, the episode devolves into Charles literally lecturing on the topics. The dialogue is blunt as hell and overly florid, and the point could hardly be made in a more didactic fashion, which takes a lot of the oomph out of it.

That said, I do still appreciate the imagery. Another jaunt to the astral plane helps enhance with imagery what the show lacks in the written word. The classroom motif and chalk outlines give Xavier’s speech a distinctive character. And my goodness, the psychic impingement Professor X receives about what happened on Genosha -- with a Watchmen-esque sea of skeletons amid a horrible blast -- is almost as bracing as the original event.

I also appreciate that the show boils down Charles’ situation to a choice. He’s torn between his life with Lilandra on the one hand and his life with his children on the other. Being forced to not only stick around in space, but purge his memory of his old life brings home what he’d be giving up in a visceral way. I can appreciate that choice.

But I don’t know, I was never particularly compelled by the outer space interludes of the original X-Men series, and the connection between Xavier and Lilandra always felt like something that happened more by fiat than something the show had earned, so returning to those elements doesn’t do much for me from the jump. (Though hey, after the importance of the Kree to the MCU, it’s nice to see more than a passing glimpse of them in the X-Men ‘97 universe.)

The politics of the Shi'ar are, once again, very four-color and blunt in the point they’re trying to make. It’s something I could forgive when the original show was aimed at children. But this is clearly meant for those who grew up with the original show, so I think it’s fair to expect a bit more sophistication. (That said, our current political moment in the real world is, perhaps, no less caricatured and blunt, so maybe the joke’s on me.)

Also, on a purely superficial level, I’m not crazy about the new voice for Professor X. Ross Marquand is a talented voice actor, but his Xavier vocal tones are too different from Cedric Smith’s for my taste, and at times, he sounds kind of like Matt Berry, which I found distracting.

From a big picture plot perspective, I don’t really want Professor X to come back. He had such a moving farewell at the end of the original show. It felt like a television program that wasn’t technically allowed to kill main characters off doing everything but. I get the desire to return him to the fold, but undoing such a big choice like that takes away from the import and finality of the original show’s swan song. What’s more, I’m far more invested in the idea of the X-Men figuring out how to move forward without their old leaders than in rehashing the usual “Professor X guides his pupils” routine we’ve seen dozens of times before. Let shows evolve! Especially when it’s been thirty years!

Overall, though, I appreciate what the show’s trying to do in “Lifedeath”, and there’s plenty to like here, but the directness of the writing, and the randomness of the events stops this from being a firm “yes” for me.