X-Men '97 Season 2, Episode 5 Review & Recap: "Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs"

Warning: This reappraisal contains afloat spoilers for X-Men '97 Season 2, Episode 5!

It says a batch astir the priorities of the X-Men '97 writers' country that we're halfway done Season 2 and lone conscionable present getting our archetypal Wolverine-centric occurrence of the series. That's a acold outcry from the attack taken by the classical X-Men: The Animated Series, and 1 I'd reason has mostly benefited the caller show. But eventually, Cal Dodd's Logan needed to participate the spotlight, peculiarly successful airy of his adamantium nonaccomplishment from Season 1. That's wherefore it's a spot astonishing that X-Men '97 does truthful small with Wolverine's post-adamantium presumption quo successful the end.

As the rubric suggests, "Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs" is fundamentally a sequel to the archetypal series' "Weapon X, Lies, and Videotape," again turning the absorption to Wolverine's sordid past with the Weapon X program. This clip around, Logan assembles a squad to infiltrate a caller Weapon X facility, lone for his allies to observe helium has ulterior motives for going backmost to the belly of the beast.

First, the good. Episode 5 is simply a wide throwback to classical '80s enactment movies similar Predator and Aliens, with nonstop homages to some films. Who doesn't emotion a bully communicative astir a clump of musclebound grunts charging into a mission, lone to recognize they're successful mode implicit their heads? It's not needfully the mode I would person expected characters similar Sabretooth (Darin De Paul), Lady Deathstrike (Erika Ishii), and Maverick (Crispin Freeman) to beryllium reintroduced for X-Men '97, but it's an attack that works. And there's thing fitting astir Wolverine and Yuriko's reunion again devolving into a struggle implicit alien invaders.

It besides helps that Episode 5 is arsenic overmuch a Morph-driven communicative arsenic it is thing else. This is simply a quality who has ne'er received the attraction they merit successful the caller series, and this installment goes a agelong mode toward making up for mislaid time. It digs heavy into the oddball enslaved betwixt these two, further calling into question whether what Morph (J. P. Karliak) feels for Logan is axenic relationship oregon thing much akin to unrequited love. This occurrence lone proves that Morph needs to beryllium successful the spotlight much often.

But again, not each is good successful Episode 5, and a batch of it has to bash with what I would see to beryllium X-Men '97's 1 existent flaw. This bid has a inclination to determination excessively rapidly for its ain good, blazing done classical Marvel Comics root worldly with reckless abandon. That occupation rears its caput connected much than 1 beforehand here. As amusive arsenic it is to spot the Brood introduced to this beingness (complete with an homage to Marc Silvestri's Uncanny X-Men #234 cover), it's a small weird to spot them treated arsenic specified an afterthought. They're a means to an extremity to unit Logan backmost into that adamantium bonding tank, erstwhile they should beryllium a menace worthy of the X-Men arsenic a whole. I accidental thing is stopping the bid from revisiting the Brood good down the road, but volition it?

Worse is however abruptly X-Men '97 wraps up Logan's adamantium subplot. I feared this was coming erstwhile the trailer spoiled the information that helium was already getting his metallic back, but that doesn't lessen the vexation present that it's happened. In the comics, Logan losing his adamantium was the catalyst for virtually years worthy of storylines arsenic helium grappled with the intelligence and carnal fallout. Not each of those stories were great, but you can't impeach writers similar Larry Hama of not exploiting that peculiar crippled twist to its fullest.

The post-Season 1 clip leap hasn't helped matters connected this front, but the constituent remains that the bid doesn't bash overmuch to excavation into Logan's mindset arsenic helium deals with being defanged. The downside to the Morph-centrc attack to Episode 5 is that it doesn't really extremity up focusing connected Wolverine much, peculiarly the pre-infected version. The eventual uncover that helium feels he's thing without his signature claws rings true, to beryllium sure, and I anticipation the bid continues to propulsion connected that thread nevertheless and whenever it can. But wherefore couldn't X-Men '97 person dug deeper into Logan's plight earlier bringing the adamantium back? Why couldn't we person gotten a spiritual successor to Season 1's "Lifedeath" episodes? There's truthful overmuch storytelling imaginable being near connected the array here. Episode 5 is an entertaining romp, but it could person been thing more.