Marvel’s
mutants
are
locked
in
a
world
of
fighting—fighting
to
survive,
fighting
to
push
back
against
hate.
But
they’re
also
just
as
often
fighting
among
themselves,
and
this
week’s
penultimate
episode
of
X-Men
‘97
is
no
exception...
except
mutantdom’s
two
biggest
drama
queens
couldn’t
have
picked
a
worst
time
for
their
latest
squabble.
Previously,
I
described
last
week’s
“Tolerance
is
Extinction,
Part
1”
as
the
necessary
“fight
fight
fight!”
portion
of
X-Men
‘97's
grand,
three-episode
finale,
setting
the
stage
for
the
ideological
battleground
to
come
as
both
Magneto
and
a
returned
Professor
X
made
themselves
known
to
the
world
once
again,
rising
up
to
tackle
the
threat
of
Bastion
from
opposing
fronts.
But
really,
it’s
much
the
same
in
“Tolerance
is
Extinction,
Part
2”
this
week.
The
fighting
is
still
here,
there’s
a
lot
of
it,
and
it’s
good.
The
threat
of
Bastion
is
still
here,
albeit
paused
by
Magneto’s
almighty
EMP
pulse,
even
it’s
dulled
slightly
by
the
actual
ecological
threat
his
magnetic
assault
means
for
the
world
now.
It’s
just
that
that
ideological
schism
is
now
firmly
here
too,
and
so
far,
mutantkind
is
facing
it
by,
well,
going
“fight
fight
fight!”
The X-Men love this almost as much as they love working together. The franchise has always been as much a soap opera as it is a superhero story, and there is no greater, cattier drama than friends and allies getting digs in under the belt and turning on each other for a big bustup. It’s why it makes perfect sense, that even with Bastion lighting half the world on fire unleashing the Prime Sentinels, and with Magneto having shut down electronics regardless of the source worldwide to bring those Sentinels to heel, the real thrust of this episode isn’t how our heroes will stop Bastion, but how they’ll stop slapping each other about the face for five seconds and listen to the arguments everyone’s making.
Screenshot: Marvel
So as Jean, Storm, Forge, Morph, Beast, and Cable lead one team to infiltrate Bastion’s stronghold in an attempt to dampen his technopathic powers, and Cyclops, Wolverine, Jubilee, Nightcrawler, and Charles head to a reforged Asteroid M to try and talk Magneto down from destroying the Earth as they know it—backed up by both Rogue and Roberto, who took Magneto’s potent offer of vengeance for Genosha in the face of Charles’ recalcitrance—we’re really getting more of what we already got. And once again, that’s not a bad thing: X-Men ‘97 is relishing in getting to let loose in its action, and an abundance of fight scenes is actually quite perfect for a show that’s always almost running a little too hot to slow down and let its ideas simmer a little. With not much else really going on in the narrative other than the ticking clock of Magneto’s magnetic field, it lets the thing that matters most rise to the surface. And what matters most to X-Men so much of the time than its two most prominent idealogues trying to cross the aisle?
But this is not some clean hall of debate Magneto and Professor X find themselves in—it’s the heat of battle, and as Rogue growls at Logan at one point, they’re all playing to kill. Mutantkind’s used to lashing out when it’s got its back against the wall, but that’s united against exterior forces: the threat feels different when it’s them duking it out among themselves. And it makes the arguments that Magnus and Charles make to each other different, too. For all the villainous edge ‘97 paints Magneto’s broad actions here with—he is, after all, quite ready and aware of the fact of what he’s doing isn’t just stopping the Sentinels, but setting all of Earth on the path to immediate cataclysm—there is still an understanding the audience, as well as Rogue and Roberto, feel with his hurt, that Genosha was a step too far to be taken on mutantkind’s chin. For all the reason ‘97 paints Charles’ pleas for Magneto to stop with, meanwhile, there is still the fact that his road to tolerance—and yes, that tolerance is in the face of an attempted genocide—is bathed with the bodies of battered and bloodied mutants, as his students scrap among themselves around him, or in how quick he is, the second Magneto’s helmet is removed, to start torturing him with a horrifying psionic blast as he tries to claim dominion over not just Magneto’s powers, but his very body.
Screenshot: Marvel
Both
Magnus
and
Charles
want
the
same
things,
they
always
have.
And
while
the
situation
they’re
in
sparks
desperation
from
the
both
of
them,
it’s
neither
man
that’s
wholly
right
in
“Tolerance
is
Extinction,
Part
2.”
It’s
Cyclops—blasting
Charles
mid-assault
after
being
given
a
psychic
vison
of
Jean
almost
perishing
in
battle
to
try
and
stop
Sinister
and
Bastion;
and
it’s
Wolverine—stabbing
Magneto
to
try
and
stop
his
pulse
from
getting
even
stronger,
the
bravest
falling
in
battle
first
as
he
puts
it.
This
isn’t
the
time
for
the
ideological
thrust
at
the
heart
of
the
X-Men.
It’s
the
time
for
them
to
be
heroes,
for
each
other,
for
their
own
people,
for
the
world
they
call
home
no
matter
who
doesn’t
want
them
there.
The
path
they
take
in
that
world
after
the
fact
can
wait.
We’ll have to wait for next week’s finale to see if their attempt really worked—Logan certainly pays a high price, as the episode ends with Magneto tearing the adamantium off his skeleton in one of the most horrifying sequences of the show up to this point. But even if it does, that pause right now is only a pause... and extinction awaits the X-Men and the whole world if they don’t do something beyond it soon.
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