Synopsis: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch learn that their father is gravely ill, and go visit him, only for him to tell them a long-held secret: He is not really their biological father! To learn more about their family history, they seek out the midwife who brought them to their adoptive father...only to learn that their mother died after the town was ravaged by none other than Magneto! Meanwhile, Magneto himself has gotten wind that his allegedly late wife may be alive after all, and goes to find her. Will he find what he has been searching for all this time?
The Good: The fourth season--and fourth DVD volume--ends with a bang! A convoluted plot, plenty of action and suspense...what's not to like?
The Bad: The animation wasn't as polished as it had been in previous episodes.
Content Concerns:
Sex: A suspicion of illegitimate parenting, which turns out to be untrue.
Nudity: Wolverine loses part of his shirt in battle.
Language: Name-calling.
Violence: Fantasy action violence throughout.
Drugs: None.
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Scary villain; a hero goes through a creepy transformation.
Other: Talk of evolution.
Whoa, and I thought the first 3 seasons were childish when I first watched them as a kid in the 90s after reading the comics (the stories right after Inferno). This show really took a nosedive after the Phoenix Saga. It gets worse every episode. Not long after Wolverine finds Jesus he gets comically transformed in a 80s cartoon animal monster. The lines of dialogue from Xavier, Magneto and everyone else are cornier than ever, the deliveries woodier than ever. And how the hell Magneto came back after having his molecules spread for being a junkie in withdraw (another stupid plot btw) ?!
Geez.... Saban really knew how to turn something cool into lame garbage, just like Super Sentai to Power Rangers.
I have a feeling this trend will go on and continue on X-Men 97. Just lost all hype for it.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-06-28T04:51:26Z
[6.8/10] Hey! Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver! An episode centered on revealing their heritage! And the bad guy is the High Evolutionary with his Beastials on Mt. Wundergore! Suffice it to say, this is a fun one if you’re already steeped in the Marvel canon.
That said, it takes a little oomph out of the reveals if you already know that Magneto is the twins’ dad and that the High Evolutionary is typically a villain. Nonetheless, I like the complexity in the relationship between the twins and Magneto. He is nothing but contrite and offers no excuses. They are still angry and cannot accept him as their father yet. They go from hating him to realizing the object of their hate is the parent they’ve been looking for. As usual for X-Men, the emotional volume is turned up to eleven, but I admire the depth and truth of that challenging parent-child relationship.
The episode gets a little extra zing from the fun designs for the human-animal hybrids. The action is still pretty same-y, but having the animal designs makes it more likely to catch the eye. I only wish that the High Evolutionary was better fleshed out. He basically gets some generic, “I want to make more perfect, unblemished creatures” without any additional shading.
Wolverine getting turned into a more literal wolverine seems too obvious and unnecessary, but I think ten-year-old me found it cool, so there’s that. I also wish we got more than a couple of gestures toward what Beast and the High Evolutionary would think of one another, since they’d seem to have some common interests.
I also like that this is an episode that further develops the enduring friendship between Charles and Magnus despite and because of all they’ve been through together. The tenuous alliance between Xavier and his X-Men with Magneto on a quest to find his lost wife and unexpectedly recover his children has some extra force that comes from the two sides working together.
Overall, the more generic combat and melodrama hold this one back a fair bit, but the ideas at play are interesting enough to make it worth watching.
(As an aside, the X-Men talked about Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch like they’re familiar with the two of them already. I don’t remember them coming up in the last X-Factor episode, but maybe I’m forgetting something? No big deal, I suppose.)