X-Men ’97 Bright Eyes review S1 E7

Bright Eyes was ironically named as the X-Men are still in their darkest hour. Maybe someone has a light?

A small smattering of X-Men and a few of the Thieves Guild — love that continuity (!) are on hand for Gambit’s funeral. Nightcrawler presides over the service, which was a nice touch. It feels like Nightcrawler’s faith is written too often as a narrative anchor instead of a distinctive aspect of his personality.

With the various cameos we’ve seen courtesy of Morph, it would have been cool to see a few more known mutants in attendance. It did seem like Alpha Flight’s Aurora might have been on hand.

One key missing figure was Rogue. She was taking her grief out hunting down Bolivar Trask. First stop? Finding Henry Gyrich. Rogue hits up his original holding facility manned by Thunderbolt Ross (Michael Patrick Gill).  It was awesome to see some non-mutant important Marvel characters showing up. And Ross wasn’t the only one in Bright Eyes.

Rogue gets the line of the episode when Ross asks, “I thought your kind was the good guys” and she responds “You killed those, suga. Now you get me.” Killer delivery from Lenore Zann, who has been tasked with some very emotional bits throughout this season.

Rogue’s quest takes her to an abandoned cabin in the snow. Well, not completely abandoned. A certain stars and stripes clad Avenger is there trying to track down Gyrich too. Josh Keaton again reprises his voice role as Captain America following his work on What If…?

Cap tries to appeal to Rogue with reason, but she’s fresh out. Especially when he suggests that he’ll lead his team (!) to bring Gyrich in to justice. Rogue is done with patience too and tosses Cap’s shield miles away. Avengers vs. X-Men for the season finale, anyone? This was a nice scene that again shows the X-Men’s corner of the Marvel Animated Universe is expanding.

Back at the mansion, Cyclops is trying to get the president to send more relief to Genosha. Instead, he finds he’s more concerned about the voter polls than Genosha’s death tolls. That was a solid line too.

The team arrives in Genosha to help with the relief effort. Check out the background appearance by Blob and a speaking line from Guido/Strong Guy. Trish Tilby is also here to show the world the horror waged against Genosha. She means while and wants to be a mutant ally, but Beast doesn’t have time for niceties. He tells her Xavier’s dream might have been wrong and that begging for your (read: humans’) tolerance was our first mistake.

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In the ruins and debris, Scott and Jean hash out their issues…just in time for Jean to hear another telepath. It’s not Madeline, but Emma in her diamond form. Would the show be able to handle Jean and Emma on the same team? That’s silly. The creative talent behind the scenes has shown their mutant power is to make anything work in the X-Men mythos so bring it on!

Trask radios the X-Men to warn them that Mr. Sinister was behind the Genosha attack. “He didn’t say it was going to be a Mutant Massacre.” See, that’s just a quality Easter Egg reference that doesn’t do anything for folk who don’t know what that’s about. For those that do, it’s a nice tip to one of the first wholesale mutant slaughter events.

Sunspot and Jubilee leave so he can tell his folks about being a mutant. With this heavy a storyline, showrunner Beau DeMayo has smartly kept Jubilee and Roberto out of major battles and treating them like teenagers. The alternative puts them in situations they might not survive or it gets hokey that they escape with no problem.

Sunspot’s parents, specifically his mother, already figured he was a mutant. While his parents are fine with him being a mutant, they don’t want him broadcasting it to the world especially with their company getting antsy after Genosha. This is next level reaction to the now cliche coming out scene and feels more authentic in the show’s context.

Rogue finds Gyrich holed up in a posh resort. That checks. He isn’t worried since Jean isn’t around, but Rogue assures him “this ain’t that kind of probe.” In Gyrich’s mind she sees a vision of Nimrod. That’s gonna be a problem. This psychic encounter blasted Rogue’s mind however.

When she awakens, Nightcrawler is there and calls her his sister. Another nice nod to comic continuity. Rogue finally gives in to her grief crying into his arms in a very solid mature moment. Then she looks up and sees Jean and the others.

Gyrich is recovering from Rogue’s mind invasion when Bastion (Theo James — my 2014 pick for an MCU Cyclops) shows up to kill him. Bastion’s got bigger plans that Gyrich almost messed up.

The X-Men head to Madripoor and find Trask at the edge of a skyscraper. Rogue saves him, but once Trask says he can’t do much to help, she lets him go. That was cold-blooded, but understandable. But Bright Eyes can’t have the X-Men becoming straight up killers now so Trask comes back as a Prime Sentinel.

Interesting note here. There was no Nightcrawler here and Storm hasn’t made her return to the team yet either. Maybe it wasn’t so shocking that the Prime Sentinel whooped the team. Even with Morph channeling Quicksilver (nice!). Cable shows up with an EMP grenade and warns the X-Men that Mr. Sinister is working for someone else. Someone even worse.

Bastion is fine losing Gyrich since this test of the X-Men gave him valuable insight on the Prime Sentinels. Sinister isn’t as happy. Bastion learned that Professor Xavier is alive and is fine with that since he’s got his own secret. He’s got Magneto imprisoned in their lair. Turns out not all of the mutants presumed dead met the reaper…just yet.

Bright Eyes sets the stage for the three-part season finale. And with how strong this season has been it’s going to be some serious appointment TV.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney