One of the better episodes of the show. As it should be since it was written by comic scribe Len Wein. The animation style was slightly better than the average episode, and the dialogue was actually pretty decent. While I've always questioned the voice talent on this series, I think they did a good job at casting the members of Alpha Flight. Their voices sounded pretty close to how I've always imagined them (except for Heather, who is a shrill harpy). Let me just say though that Alpha Flight was always one of my favorite Marvel hero teams - especially the John Byrne years, and this episode is lifted straight out of a classic Chris Claremont/John Byrne issue of Uncanny X-Men. Plus, we get a flashback of Wolverine's origin back when he first became Weapon X! All in all, a fairly sweet episode to a series that was routinely bouncing between mediocre and horrible.
Oh Canada We Stand on Guard…
I can not bring myself to rate an episode higher than "6". What I liked about the X-Men movies was that they seem to be playing in our reality, just with mutants in it. This has androids, laser guns, dinosaurs and so many other fantasy stuff that puts this into kids territory.
Stories are good at times but the setup doesn't work for me.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-04-21T20:51:36Z
[7.6/10] My favorite part of this one is the glimpse we get of Wolverine's history. There's more reveals to come, but seeing the torturous conditions under which he received his adamantium bones, the semi-feral state he existed in after that, and the group he broke away from before he found the X-Men makes for compelling and pathos-ridden material. I had my gripes with writer Len Wein for his middling-at-best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, but there’s arguably no one better qualified to write an episode about Wolverine's origins, and he acquits himself well here.
The episode does a good job of adding dimension to Wolverine beyond his usual status as a badass loner type. He is, not for nothing, a victim of cruel experimentation, that treated him more like a tool than a human being. Seeing Dr. Cornelius put him through this terrible process and dare to ask for “repayment” of a sort, seeing Wolverine extend his claws for the first time and deal with the unimaginable pain, seeing him have to fight his way out of the lab that treated him like an animal, is genuinely harrowing stuff.
His interactions with Alpha Flight are no less fascinating. We see how they took him in when he was struggling, gave him a purpose and a uniform. But we also see his objection to the way he and the Canadian special forces unit responsible for Alpha Flight treated him like a weapon, another sort of tool, in contrast to how Professor X treats him like a person. His history with this other group of mutant heroes is a mixed, rather than a strictly bad or strictly good one, which makes things more interesting.
That said, man, Wolverine has a type, right? The fact that he seems to be nursing feelings for this woman named Heather who is an empathetic bystander type, in contrast to her by-the-book and kind of jerky boyfriend Vindicator makes you wonder how exactly he managed to slip into pretty much the same scenario with Jean and Cyclops.
Likewise, I don’t care much for Alpha Flight themselves. In truth, I find them kind of silly. That's completely unfair, because their powers and looks are no more ridiculous than our regular X-men. The catch is that I wasn’t socialized into Alpha Flight as a kid. So while Beast seems normal to me, Sasquatch seems silly. While a Cajun dude throwing exploding playing cards and speaking in bayou cliches doesn’t make me roll my eyes, a “medicine man” talking about the “great spirit” using magical vines does. It’s not X-Men’s fault. It’s just how it is. But it makes it harder for me to take this other group seriously.
That said, the confrontation in the present isn’t much to write home about. They seem pretty trusting of an obviously evil handler who’s ready to cause pain to Wolverine to explain why he’s able to withstand the adamantium. The conflict between him, General Chasen, Vindicator, and Heather is the usual melodrama. But there’s poetry in him breaking free from a lab that treats him with crue disregard once more. And hey, the conflict between not-Jean and not-Cyclops over whether to follow orders or recognize Logan’s humanity has some juice to it too, as does the rest of the Alpha Flight crew rallying to Wolverine's aid when they realize the general wants to hurt him, not just have the team reunite with him.
The whole thing does a good job of helping the audience understand Wolverine's troubled past, and the reason that, for however much he may grouse and gripe, he has healing and a home with Xavier and the X-Men. Another good installment in what seems to be a continuing series delving into the backstories of some of the major characters.
I continue to be nonplussed by the continuing saga of Xavier and Magneto in the Savage Land though. The hook that Magneto himself may have created the mutants there, and withstood a revolt when they got tired of his leadership, comes with some intrigue. But the cheesy sequence with them on the rope bridge does this already cornball setup no favors.
Overall, a strong episode mainly focused on further fleshing out Wolverine, that makes his plight more recognizable and thus also makes the character more interesting.