5x01 The Phalanx Covenant (1)

[7.7/10] A cool start to the new season. I am a sucker for Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style stories, where you have a handful of people who’ve caught onto the problem but never know if their prospective allies are part of the solution or part of the problem. This episode has the edge of a paranoid thriller, with influences as varied as The Thing and Star Trek: The Next Generation. That’s a good thing, as melding those store shapes into the X-Men’s world pays dividends.

I particularly like the choice to make Beast the protagonist for this sort of story. He’s a man of science and logical reasoning. So watching him get to the bottom of this invasion from the Phalanx, and try to escape capture and absorption by this all-consuming threat, comes with more purpose and insight than the usual punch-and-kick fest.

I also like Warlock! If nothing else, his design is really cool, which goes for all the members of the Phalanx. Something about the neon yellow with dark black piping giving it the appearance of psychedelic circuitry, really works as a variation of X-Men’s usual art style. It makes Warlock and his ilk seem genuinely alien, different in form and construction than the heroes we know and love. Warlock’s individual dreadlocked look, seeming like a tricked out version of C-3P0 from the Droids cartoon, is distinctive, and the other Phalanx members have a real body horror vibe with the human faces blanketed in a sea of technological consumption.

I also like the setup here. The idea of an alien force come to assimilate humanity is nothing new. (Hello, fans of the Borg!) But it works as a venerable threat when they can attach themselves to any piece of technology or anything that conducts electricity in general. The show uses their abilities to do that and to shape shift well, creating plenty of chilling and thrilling surprises.

But I also like the human element to this one. Warlock doesn’t want to give himself over to the collective. And his mission to fight against it is both bolstered and restrained by the fact that it’s consumed his wife, whose presence he can still feel in the sea of voices coming for him. That personal connection, tied with the paranoid sense that anyone among them could secretly be a part of the conspiracy, gives this episode a particular energy.

I also appreciate that Mister Sinister is helping them out. Its impact is a little muted when he sided with Apocalypse to destroy and remake all of creation, unlike Magneto and Mystique. But it’s still cool to see people with distinct interests like Best, Forge, and Mister Sinister come together because this danger is so significant. It sells that this is a big existential threat that cuts across the usual alliances. Hell, even the iconography of the Empire State Building being draped in the Phalanx’s aesthetic, with the suggestion that it’s a giant beacon to signal them to consume our planet, works for that old school horror movie vibe.

Overall, this is a particular cool sci-fi story to kick off season 5 with, and I’m excited to see where things go from here.