5x11 Old Soldiers

[7.6/10] This is pulpy fun. There is not much to this episode. It has a bit of emotional ballast in the form of Wolverine lamenting the traitor who got away, and his failure to stop a scientist who defected to the bad guys. It's even low-key touching when the man’s daughter comes to Logan fifty years later and reassures him that he didn’t fail, but rather the scientist was a double-agent working against Red Skull who needed the failed rescue effort to prove his “loyalty.” Unburdening Wolverine like that, out of a sense of squashing his unfinished business from World War II, means there’s a sentimental throughline to this one.

But for the most part, this is a “Wolverine and Captain America join forces to beat up Nazis” episode and it can coast on the novelty and fun of that alone. I have to admit, as we near the end of the series, I’m impressed at how rarely X-Men went outside of the X-characters for anything but a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo. I suppose the world of the mutants is broad and diverse enough that the creative team never really had to, but it’s a marked contrast to the 1990s Spider-Man animated series, which loved bringing in ringers from across the Marvel Universe.

As a result, it’s more of a thrill when “Old Soldiers” flashes back to Nazi-occupied France and gives us a team-up between Logan and none other than Steve Rogers. With Wolverine creator Len Wein penning the script, you’d expect a little more contrast between Wolvie and Cap in terms of their philosophies. But outside of a few jibes about costuming, and some closing differences of opinion over whether the mission was a success, they’re mostly a pair of roughhousing brothers who are on the same page.

That page is clobbering the “goose-steppers” wherever they can find them. The need to rescue Dr. Cocteau and stop his war machines is a perfectly fine narrative throughline. But the bulk of this episode is Captain America and Wolverine finding new and creative ways to punch out Nazis, slice open the neat evil robots with a throwback design, and confront Red Skull in his air.

In many ways, the whole episode plays that throwback, wth a more standard Saturday morning beat-em-up plot that wouldn’t be out of place in an old Hanna Barbera action cartoon. But the camaraderie between Cap and Wolvie carries the day, and seeing them slash, slam, and cannonball their way through the baddies is a blast.

Overall, there’s not much to this one despite the momentous flashback and the WWII setting, but the novelty of the pairing and the entertainment value of the combat makes this a highlight of season 5.