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| Friday, March 13, 2009 01:49 PM |
| On the Viewer - Wolverine and the X-Men (Episode 8 - "Time Bomb") |
 by Fëanor |
Hey, they're bringing Nitro into the story! Cool.
Heh. Toad got himself captured again. What a doofus.
Ah, it's the MRD guy Wolverine scratched across the face in the first episode. I was wondering when we'd see him again.
I love that there's a mutant whose power is that he blows up.
Quicksilver breaks in (which is no problem at all for a speedster - man, I love speedsters) to tell Toad he's not breaking him out. Then Quicksilver takes Toad's picture, because Blob wanted to see his reaction. So hilarious!
Quicksilver steals a ton of ID cards, then just swipes them all really fast until one opens the door. He uses the same basic brute force method for entering the pass code on Nitro's prison - just punches in numbers really fast until one works. Simple, but effective!
Interesting: Professor X told Wolverine to capture Nitro and give him back to the MRD, otherwise half the world's mutants will die. This is neat that he gets these little communiques from the future. Reminds me of the messages written in blood on the wall of the basement in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
I love the way the truck sags over when the Blob gets out. The Blob is so awesome. He's just a big fat guy! It's great! I also love Pietro. He's such a dick. And Domino is hot.
Ha! They just threw Nitro into a shaft like a human grenade. Fantastic.
Wow! Nitro outdid himself with that explosion.
Hey, it's Psylocke! So good to see all our old friends showing up, one after the other.
Hmm... Emma lied about Forge not being available so she could pick up Wolverine and the gang in the Blackbird herself. I wonder what she's up to? Does she just want to face off against another telepath?
The X-Men freeze the Brotherhood's plane, Kitty drops in, casually says, "Hi, Rogue," and drops out again with Nitro, falling right down into the waiting Blackbird. Brilliant and awesome.
Everybody tells Nitro they're "here to help," but they rarely seem to be. And is there going to be an episode when the Blackbird doesn't get blown up?!
Wolverine, you really don't want to put Nitro back on board the Blackbird. He'll just blow it up even worse!
Telepath girl fight! Emma's clearly a little better at this than Psylocke, however.
Quicksilver: "Why couldn't you just stay out of this, Wolverine?"
Wolverine: "Because you're stupid."
Uh... good comeback?
Wolverine: "Would you people stop saving me?!" Heh heh.
I love the way Kitty uses her power. Stealing Domino's guns: nice!
Toad: "Trust me, our chances of winning are much higher if I'm not involved." Most intelligent thing he's ever said!
I would say this was probably my favorite episode of this show yet. Lots of great characters, lots of clever ideas, and lots of funny moments. Plus, Nitro's story is a very moving one. At the end he walks of his own accord, and with some small measure of peace, into a chamber where he'll be kept unconscious and frozen indefinitely. It's powerful stuff. I'm very pleased. |
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| Sunday, March 1, 2009 02:49 PM |
| On the Viewer - Wolverine and the X-Men (Episode 7 - "Wolverine vs. Hulk") |
| by Fëanor |
I had only one thought when I saw the title of this episode: "This is gonna rule!!" And it opens with Hulk totally effing up some military team who seem to be trying to get away with a briefcase. Dude thinks he's safe once he gets in a helicopter. Man, you're not safe. You're screwed.
Wolverine's in the middle of a huge fight with MRD officers when Ultimate Nick Fury shows up, no doubt to recruit him to take out the Hulk. It's good to see the man with the eye patch in the show. It's interesting that everybody uses Ultimate Nick Fury now, instead of regular old white Nick Fury. I guess whenever you can get some diversity into your show it's good. Also, Ultimate Nick Fury is pretty awesome. He says, "Let me buy you a cup of coffee, Logan," and Wolverine says, "I should have taken my chances with the MRD." Heh. I always love it when this show just subtly suggests a deep history between the characters, without bothering to go into some long, expository explanation of that history.
Also, Logan was totally right about taking his chances with the MRD, as Fury blackmails him into taking on the Hulk. Wolverine says one day he and Fury will have some serious words, and Fury says, "I look forward to it. Heh. What happened to you, Logan? This kind of thing used to be your idea of fun!" Another thing I love about this show is how well they know the characters.
Well, Wolverine finds the Hulk fast enough! It's interesting how the Hulk and Wolverine are both flashing back to an earlier encounter. I wonder if that's a reference to the animated Hulk vs. Wolverine film that's coming out, or to some earlier animated series, or is it just something they're making up for this series?
Well, that's handy. Wolverine's got a little grenade that turns the Hulk back into Banner.
Ah, this episode is going to be more interesting than just a big fight between Hulk and Wolverine (as interesting as that would be). As usual, Fury didn't tell the whole story. There's another monster out here that the Hulk was sent in to bring out into the open.
I can't decide if it was a good idea or not for Wolverine to bring Banner with him on his quest to find the monster antidote. If Banner turns, Wolverine might have two monsters to fight - but then again, he might also have backup in his fight against the other monster.
Uh, I should have said other monsters, plural. There's a ton of them out here! It's a Wendigo, and it's infecting everybody it bites! D'oh.
You know, Wolverine is constantly unsheathing his claws, but very rarely actually using them. I guess Nickelodeon doesn't want their show to be all bloody.
Great scene: as Wolverine is totally overwhelmed by the Wendigo and its offspring, a roar comes from the helicopter wreck that Banner disappeared into. Wolverine says, "Uh oh," and out comes the Hulk. The Wendigo and all its friends go after the jade giant, and Wolverine staggers to his feet and says, "Yeah, and there's more where that came from!" Heh.
Hulk to Wolverine: "Hulk remember you!!" Uh oh, that's not good.
Yay, they're bringing out all the old tag lines! "Hulk is strongest there is!" Awesome.
Wolverine tries to warn Hulk the Wendigo is coming: "Hulk... Hulk, behind..." Hulk: "Hulk not a behind!" Aw, man. That was lame.
D'oh. The original Wendigo was also a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Figures. Fury was just testing out a different kind of super soldier out here.
It's funny that Hulk just accepts Wolverine's apology and his promise that he won't hunt the Hulk again.
Fury calls Banner and Wolverine just tools to use when he sees fit. Wolverine threatens him. Then he says, "Oh, and one last thing," and it looks like he's going to punch Fury, but instead he punches Banner. "Hulk wanted to say thanks, too," he explains. That's just awesome. Fantastic ending.
Exciting episode! Lots of action, and a fun story about S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, and the Hulk. I love that they keep bringing all these classic Marvel characters into the storyline. Good stuff. |
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| Saturday, February 21, 2009 02:16 PM |
| (Last updated on Thursday, February 26, 2009 08:30 PM) | | On the Viewer - Wolverine and the X-Men (Episode 6 - "X-Calibre") |
| by Fëanor |
Ha! As the ship goes by in the opening scene, its name is revealed to be the Ellis. That's got to be a Warren Ellis reference. The Captain might even be a caricature of the man himself, I'm not sure.
A lot of weird and interesting mutants in this episode! Some of them look familiar, but most I just don't know.
Why did the girl who can talk to machines think her power would not be useful in fixing the ship?? Uh, the ship is a machine! You can talk to it!
Nightcrawler rules. I love the way he got the water out of the ship's hold by repeated teleports. His power is very cool.
I'm actually not sure I was able to watch this entire episode. The video kept messing up and repeating itself. All the internet videos I watch today seem to be cursed. Anyway, what I did see was fun.
UPDATE 1: As it turns out, I was right and I had not seen the entire episode on my original viewing; there was a portion in the middle that I missed. But I got to see it eventually, and it was also fun. Nightcrawler did more cool stuff with teleporting, and that's always good.
UPDATE 2: Uh, and actually, I missed a section at the end, too! The pirates turn out to be aliens who are kidnapping the toughest mutants so they can come fight in some kind of space gladiator games. Nightcrawler manages to save all the mutants and beat the crap out of the aliens, and all without the X-Men's help! When they show up and ask him to come with, he says no thanks, he wants to see this through (meaning, he wants to help the other mutants get the rest of the way to Genosha). Kitty's pretty pissed, but Wolverine understands and lets him go. So... does that mean Kurt is joining the X-Men, after he gets back from Genosha, or does that mean Kurt's on his own and will just ask for help from the X-Men when he needs it? I guess we'll see in the coming episodes... |
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| Tuesday, February 17, 2009 11:31 AM |
| On the Viewer - Wolverine and the X-Men (Episode 5 - "Thieves' Gambit") |
| by Fëanor |
The X-Men have a collar that turns off mutant powers? That's kind of creepy. Ah, I see. It's one of Forge's more recent inventions.
Aww, Kitty has a shirt with a kitty on it!
I think Emma's nightgown is actually more modest than her X-Men uniform.
Heh. I just imagined Wolverine waking up in the middle of the night, sniffing, and running down with his claws out whenever anybody gets up for a midnight snack. In this case he's finding a robbery in progress, but still...
I think the dude who wanted the collar is the Senator who hates mutants, but I'm not entirely sure; he's kind of a generic guy in a suit and hard to recognize.
Wow. Gambit's accent is really bad. Admittedly, it was often really bad even when you were just reading it in the comic, but... wow.
Gambit is surprised when Wolverine starts cutting through a metal door. He chucks a couple of his exploding cards at the dude and says, "I trust you have had enough?" Um, have you met Wolverine?
Wolverine: "And you still sold out your kind for a little cash?" Gambit: "Absolument non! I sold out my kind for a large amount of cash." Heh.
Wolverine knows the rules of the Thieves' Guild? Good for him!
This episode was really just the start of a story, but it was pretty interesting nonetheless, and it's fun to see Gambit getting thrown into the mix. |
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| Thursday, February 12, 2009 11:06 PM |
| On the Viewer - Wolverine and the X-Men (Episode 4 - "Overflow") |
 by Fëanor |
Woah, freaky opening. Guy apparently possessed, with totally black eyes, passes on his possession to another man.
Interesting. Wolverine gets a communique from the future that Storm is about to go crazy and destroy Africa! Sort of a Dark Phoenix storyline, but with Storm at the center of it instead of Jean. Also, they've got Emma in one of her skimpy costumes now, and good lord are her bosoms enormous. I just don't know.
Wolverine is a cruel man, cutting the Blackbird that Forge just fixed right in front of the kid's eyes like that. It's funny, though. Heh. But hey, why not bring Forge with them? In case they need some sudden repairs, or a crazy gadget or something?
Oh, man, this possession thing is moving its way towards Storm frighteningly fast!
I'd never heard of this Farouk the Shadow King before, but as always, Wikipedia is enlightening.
Well, there goes the Blackbird! Poor Forge.
Huh. That answers my question (from a previous episode review) about Emma's diamond form. She does indeed have that power already. Interesting. But hey, why has she not jumped into Storm's mind yet, found the Shadow King, and started fighting him?? Get to work, girl!
Oh, there she goes. Well. That's good then.
Yeah, a Shadow King-possessed Wolverine would not be good! That was pretty hot when Emma astral projected right in there and jumped his ass. Time for a crazy psychic battle! Ooh, she cut his head in half! Very nice. And after all that, all she gets from Logan is a smile and a nod. I guess that's the equivalent of a hearty "thank you" and a hug from a normal person, though.
And the X-Men collect another member. Good episode! A little cliche, but fun, with some exciting action. I wonder if Forge will have the Blackbird all fixed up again in time for next episode. Actually, I wonder how the X-Men got back home! It's not like they can just hop on an airplane without being noticed. Did they have to dredge up the Blackbird and fix it themselves to get back? We'll probably never know. |
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| Wednesday, February 4, 2009 04:03 PM |
| Television Overload |
| by Fëanor |
I'm trying to keep up with waaaaaay too many TV shows these days, and it's only going to get worse next weekend when Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles comes back, and is joined by the brand new Joss Whedon hotness, Dollhouse. Just look!
- Battlestar Galactica
- Dollhouse
- Fringe
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- Wolverine and the X-Men
And that's not even counting the shows I'm catching up with on DVD, like Avatar: The Last Airbender (which I'm way behind on reviewing). Ah, well! I'll just have to try to soldier on somehow under this mountain of great entertainment. |
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| Tagged (?): Avatar (Not), Battlestar Galactica (Not), Cartoons (Not), Dollhouse (Not), Fringe (Not), Joss Whedon (Not), Star Wars (Not), SW:TCW (Not), Terminator (Not), TV (Not), Wolverine and the X-Men (Not) |
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| Wednesday, February 4, 2009 09:11 AM |
| On the Viewer - Wolverine and the X-Men (Episode 3 - "Hindsight - Part 3") |
| by Fëanor |
And here's Emma! In the comics, she didn't get her secondary mutation (the diamond form) until after Genosha was destroyed. I wonder how they'll deal with that here... I see Kitty hates Emma, which is just as it should be. This is interesting, the backstory about Emma having her own mutant school in Massachusetts. I don't know if that's canon or not, but it makes sense. Emma, of course, has the cleavage and midriff going on, but at least her outfit here isn't nearly as ridiculous as many she wore in the comics. Bobby sure likes her, though! Poor Bobby. He gets so upset when Kitty points out Emma knows what he's thinking. Heh.
Hey, Forge is here, too! And he's a cute little nerd! Awww.
It's pretty neat how quick any member of the X-Men is to do something if it means helping Xavier.
Pieces are dropping off the Blackbird and Wolverine wants them to get in and fly it?!
Bobby freezes in his sleep! Awesome.
Uh... if the Blackbird's stealth doesn't work, why don't they just wait a few minutes? You know, go around the block a few times? I mean, c'mon. Xavier's been in Genosha for a year, apparently; he can wait a few more minutes.
Cyclops is just busting all the doors open, and Bobby's leaving a giant trail of ice? I thought they were trying to be discreet!
It's not particularly surprising that Magneto is smarter, calmer, cooler, and more in control than any of the X-Men. They attack him, but he easily subdues them. Once he learns their purpose, he ends the fight and gives them Charles. A true gentleman! But Xavier is in a coma with no brain function. When the X-Men get him back home, he suddenly contacts them telepathically - but it's not the Xavier from the present. It's an Xavier from 20 years in the future. He reveals that his coma will last that long, and gives them a glimpse of the world he wakes up to: a horrible post-apocalyptic future where Sentinels patrol a blasted wasteland. This future came to be, he warns, because the X-Men fell apart and the members failed on their own. They must stick together as a team to keep it from happening. As he breaks off contact with them, we see he's been talking to them from the ruins of Cerebro. As he runs outside, he passes the gravestones of every member of the X-Men. Ouch!
Now we've got a story! The team has an urgent purpose, and another major element of X-Men storylines - a glimpse forward at a dark and terrible future that must be avoided at all costs - has been added. The interesting thing is that Xavier also pointed out that Wolverine has to lead the team for this to work. That made Cyclops almost walk out right then and there.
I'm really impressed with this series! Sure, it's got some corny dialogue at times, but overall it's pretty clever and the over-arching storyline is really intriguing. Now that the premise-building first three episodes are out of the way, I'm very curious to see where it goes next. |
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| Tuesday, February 3, 2009 08:37 PM |
| On the Viewer - Wolverine and the X-Men (Episode 1 - "Hindsight - Part 1") |
| by Fëanor |
[This is a recreation of a post I mistakenly deleted.]
I finally figured out where to watch this show online: Nickelodeon. The first episode is pretty good. It opens up a year in the past, with the X-Men all together at the Xavier Institute, but with Wolverine planning to leave and go off on his own. Just before he takes off there's an explosion, and when the smoke clears, the Institute is mostly destroyed, and Jean Grey and Professor X are nowhere to be seen. It seems as if they've been killed. After this event, the X-Men apparently fell apart. A year after the explosion, only Wolverine and Beast are still hanging out in the ruins of the Institute, trying to figure out what caused that explosion and what could have happened to their two missing comrades. While out wandering around, Wolverine takes a risk and saves a little girl from the flaming wreckage of a car accident. Her family, extremely thankful for his help, takes him in and hides him from the police force that hunts down and imprisons mutants: the MRD. But the MRD capture the human family and torture the father for information about Wolverine, so Wolverine and Beast sneak in and save them, along with all the other mutants they find in the MRD prison. But they know this conflict isn't over, and that the only way to change things is to get the band back together; namely, reform the X-Men.
It's a kids' show so it tends to be predictable, with corny, cliche dialogue. But it also has an interesting construction, jumping back and forth in time, and an intriguing story with decent action and some surprisingly adult moments. Plus it's true to the characters and the main storyline of the original comic. Wolverine and Beast sound and act like the Wolverine and Beast I know. And front and center here, right from episode one, is the central concept of the X-Men: mutants persecuted for being different by ignorant humans.
It's pretty good stuff! And I'll definitely keep watching, at least until it does something really stupid. |
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| Monday, February 2, 2009 09:09 PM |
| On the Viewer - Wolverine and the X-Men (Episode 2 - "Hindsight - Part 2") |
| by Fëanor |
This episode opens up with appearances from many more wonderfully familiar characters! The Blob! Toad! Quicksilver! And... some other guys I didn't really recognize (turns out it's Avalanche and Domino). And hey, it's Warren!
I like that Wolverine realizes nobody's going to come back to the X-Men if he's in charge. He's not the leader and never was.
That's some cleavage Domino's sporting! Jeez.
Wow, Cyclops looks seriously disheveled.
I like that they decided to just be really subtle with the accents, and that Rogue's Southern drawl, instead of being painfully fake and overdone, is barely there. Same with Wolverine.
Oh. Uh, actually Avalanche's accent is really terrible and overdone. Ah, well.
I think they cheated a little having the buildings that Avalanche brought down all be empty warehouses. C'mon, what are the chances of that?
Bobby: "All right! The X-Men are back!" Wolverine: "Well, sort of. It's... just us." Bobby [disappointed]: "Oh." Heh.
Kitty's on her way to Genosha, but as soon as Wolverine shows up in a helicopter she jumps right on and says, "It's about time!" Short, funny, to the point, and revealing of character. Great scene!
I gotta say, Rogue is pretty annoying. She sounds like she's always one step away from busting out crying. How emo.
Nice touch having Senator Kelly's potential assassin aiming at him from right in front of a Genosha billboard.
I like very much that they haven't bothered with any lengthy explanations or exposition here. They just assume we know the basics about the characters and the story and that we'll pick up whatever else we need to know as the show goes along. That's another way in which the series is more adult than your average kids' show.
And hey, the Brotherhood's plan was quite clever. They totally manipulated Rogue and set up the X-Men. Or... did they?? Okay, I have to admit, that last twist really surprised me. It probably shouldn't have, but it did. Nicely done! Now I like Rogue more as a character.
Good episode! I'm looking forward to the next one. |
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Jim Genzano's books on Goodreads
