[7.8/10] Season 2 of X-Men starts off with a bang! There’s a lot going on here, and I’m a big fan of almost all of it.
Let’s start with the biggest deal. The return of Morph! In my write-up of the season 1 finale, I neglected to mention that one of the nice smaller grace notes they included was Cyclops declaring that he wasn’t going to leave anybody behind against, and getting everyone out of harm’s way from the sentinels. His “heavy is the head that wears the crowd” leader material has been mostly underbaked in the show thus far. But I liked the show’s subtle acknowledgement that Morph’s death still weighed on him in some way, even if he pretended that he wasn’t going to second guess his command decisions.
That's why it portends such interesting things to have Morph return. This episode starts with what is essentially the biggest possible wedge between Wolverine and Cyclops. Jean and Scott get married, and there is artistry to cutting between the lovely celebration of matrimony on the one hand, and Wolverine taking out his frustrations in the Danger Room on the other. Things are already likely to be tense given the two men’s conflicting feelings about Jean. But the return of Morph, another wedge between them, suggests even more meaningful differences to come.
Granted, the love triangle material remains pretty underdeveloped. We don’t get much of a sense for why Scott, Jean, or Logan like one another. Jean in particular has gotten very little development so far. But it’s still promising on the archetypes alone.
I also love Morph as an antagonist for both emotional and practical reasons. Emotionally, he is dealing with sentiments (heavily implied to be stoked by Mr. Sinister) that his friends abandoned him. He's bitter and angry, and not unreasonably so, about what happened to him. Likewise, he’s not totally out of bounds to feel like he was replaced by Jubilee and resent her for that. But at the same time, he cares about these people. They were his friends, and we have suggestions that those are his truer feelings beneath Mr. Sinister’s influence. The way this all coalesces to provide his motivations and reactions is great.
Plus hey, having a shapeshifter as the main bad guy allows for plenty of creativity (as the show’s already realized via Mystique). Morph being able to use his power to impersonate to send Professor X on a wild goose chase to Antarctica by assuming Magneto's form, or neutralize Gambit by convincing him Rogue wants a kiss, or get Jubilee out of the way by pretending to be Storm shows a savviness to him that most of the villains thus far haven't shown. (Give or take Magento.) He’s crafty and good and successful at his mischief, which makes for a better antagonist.
Separate and apart from Morph, though, I both love and hate the development of an anti-Mutant vigilante group who starts causing trouble even when disclaimed by their ostensibly political ally in the now-President Kelly. I love it because it’s a realistic reaction to a public movement toward accepting outsiders, something that has parallels to the origins of the Klan, runs through the civil rights movement and unfortunately resonates with domestic terrorists attacking any number of marginalized groups today. That's also why I hate it -- because their presence rings very true.
Speaking of resonance, watching the group recut footage to make the mutants look like the bad guy, or stage other events to intimidate or spread misinformation about mutants makes them feel like a scarier threat, in some ways, then the superpowered bad guys, since they have the touch of the real world to them, and social backlash against the oppressed is scarier to crusty grown-ups like me than laser beams and bombs.
Overall though, this is a hell of a way to kick off the new season, with great signs for the direction of the series going forward.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-04-17T21:24:52Z
[7.8/10] Season 2 of X-Men starts off with a bang! There’s a lot going on here, and I’m a big fan of almost all of it.
Let’s start with the biggest deal. The return of Morph! In my write-up of the season 1 finale, I neglected to mention that one of the nice smaller grace notes they included was Cyclops declaring that he wasn’t going to leave anybody behind against, and getting everyone out of harm’s way from the sentinels. His “heavy is the head that wears the crowd” leader material has been mostly underbaked in the show thus far. But I liked the show’s subtle acknowledgement that Morph’s death still weighed on him in some way, even if he pretended that he wasn’t going to second guess his command decisions.
That's why it portends such interesting things to have Morph return. This episode starts with what is essentially the biggest possible wedge between Wolverine and Cyclops. Jean and Scott get married, and there is artistry to cutting between the lovely celebration of matrimony on the one hand, and Wolverine taking out his frustrations in the Danger Room on the other. Things are already likely to be tense given the two men’s conflicting feelings about Jean. But the return of Morph, another wedge between them, suggests even more meaningful differences to come.
Granted, the love triangle material remains pretty underdeveloped. We don’t get much of a sense for why Scott, Jean, or Logan like one another. Jean in particular has gotten very little development so far. But it’s still promising on the archetypes alone.
I also love Morph as an antagonist for both emotional and practical reasons. Emotionally, he is dealing with sentiments (heavily implied to be stoked by Mr. Sinister) that his friends abandoned him. He's bitter and angry, and not unreasonably so, about what happened to him. Likewise, he’s not totally out of bounds to feel like he was replaced by Jubilee and resent her for that. But at the same time, he cares about these people. They were his friends, and we have suggestions that those are his truer feelings beneath Mr. Sinister’s influence. The way this all coalesces to provide his motivations and reactions is great.
Plus hey, having a shapeshifter as the main bad guy allows for plenty of creativity (as the show’s already realized via Mystique). Morph being able to use his power to impersonate to send Professor X on a wild goose chase to Antarctica by assuming Magneto's form, or neutralize Gambit by convincing him Rogue wants a kiss, or get Jubilee out of the way by pretending to be Storm shows a savviness to him that most of the villains thus far haven't shown. (Give or take Magento.) He’s crafty and good and successful at his mischief, which makes for a better antagonist.
Separate and apart from Morph, though, I both love and hate the development of an anti-Mutant vigilante group who starts causing trouble even when disclaimed by their ostensibly political ally in the now-President Kelly. I love it because it’s a realistic reaction to a public movement toward accepting outsiders, something that has parallels to the origins of the Klan, runs through the civil rights movement and unfortunately resonates with domestic terrorists attacking any number of marginalized groups today. That's also why I hate it -- because their presence rings very true.
Speaking of resonance, watching the group recut footage to make the mutants look like the bad guy, or stage other events to intimidate or spread misinformation about mutants makes them feel like a scarier threat, in some ways, then the superpowered bad guys, since they have the touch of the real world to them, and social backlash against the oppressed is scarier to crusty grown-ups like me than laser beams and bombs.
Overall though, this is a hell of a way to kick off the new season, with great signs for the direction of the series going forward.