X-Men ’97 Weapon X Lies and DVDs review S2 E5
Weapon X Lies and DVDs is further proof that X-Men ’97 is gunning for the top spot as the best comic book cartoon series of all-time.
After the intense and shocking Rise of Apocalypse arc the last two episodes, it would make sense for Weapon X Lies and DVDs to be a serious cool down installment. Not so for X-Men ’97, which took the series down a wild horror thriller/Aliens hybrid complete with that iconic line.
We get an immediate payoff to the folder dubiously titled Weapon X that Captain America and Black Widow gave Wolverine last episode. It didn’t seem like Wolverine’s crew was going to be Cyclops, Jean and Storm, but at least his crew includes one X-Man in Morph.
Joining them on this adventure is Wolverine’s old merc crew of Maverick, Garrison Kane (!), Lady Deathstrike and Sabretooth (?!?). Morph’s interaction with Sabretooth including some very spicy catty lines was definitely a highlight of Weapon X Lies and DVDs.
This episode opener featured clips of Wolverine, Sabretooth and Maverick in their Team X gear as well as a tender moment with Logan and Yuriko. No doubt some very attentive and dedicated fans will catch more than a few other Easter Eggs in the opening clips.
They’re off in the Blackbird chasing down a lead on a Weapon X facility when mutated birds crash into the jet sending it out of crashing down. Kane doesn’t survive getting impaled on a tree. That was unfortunate as Kane was amusing in his only segment with the others and his death before the action got started felt like a nod to Deadpool 2’s handling of the X-Force team.
After making it to the compound, Wolverine and the team see the decimation wrecked by some malevolent force eventually coming face to face with the menace — The Brood. Weapon X Lies and DVDs made yet another deep pull into X-Men lore and in the process gives X-Men ’97 fans a far bloodier and more gruesome take on the Brood than was possible during the FOX cartoon series days in the 90s.
Wolverine wants Morph to go with him to get transport out of the complex, but Deathstrike wisely argues that the X-Men shouldn’t travel together so she takes Morph and Sabretooth while Maverick goes with Wolverine. In a really cool touch that ties into the Weapon X Lies and DVDs title, Morph finds a DVD with footage from the early 90s with animated done like the original cartoon. And poor Maggott gets experimented on by Professor Cornelius and his staff. Maggott never gets any love. Morph did however with another round of fun “cameos” by shifting into Puck, The Thing, Deadpool and even Spider-Man!
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Further exploration in the compound reveals Omega Red is in a state of suspended animation. Clearly, he’s been in status after the X-Men battled Magneto on Asteroid M since he was running around while that was playing out in space.
Maverick barely escapes another encounter with The Brood and actually says “It’s Game Over.” Sure, maybe it was a tad out of character for Maverick to say, but it was still cool. He barely finishes his warning before the Brood infected Wolverine skewers him. Weapon X Lies and DVDs has been a brutal episode for the C-list mutants. Showing their absolute devotion to the source material, of course the X-Men ’97 team does an homage to the Uncanny X-Men #234 cover by Marc Silvestri and Dan Green.
Once Omega Red breaks out of his chamber, Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike decide this fight isn’t worth the trouble. Omega Red doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but he is absolutely given the Darth Vader Rogue One decimator tank treatment in another wild moment in Weapon X Lies and DVDs.
Morph convinces them to stay not for Logan’s sake, but to stop The Brood infestation. And it just so happens that the solution to freeing Wolverine is to provide him with what he came to this compound for in the first place — adamantium. Morph’s solution to get Wolverine into the adamantium chamber was hilarious and completely on brand. That didn’t come without consequences as Brood Wolverine stabs Morph before getting thrown into the chamber.
The Brood can’t handle the adamantium and releases Wolverine from their thrall. Rather than a big throwdown with Omega Red, Wolverine traps him with The Brood and joins the others on a jet out of the exploding compound.
It seems to dawn on Morph that Logan chose his team because they were expendable in his goal of getting the adamantium. Still recovering from the wound, it looks like Morph wonders if Wolverine considered Morph just as expendable?
The only odd aspect about Weapon X Lies and DVDs was neither Logan or Morph mentioned what happened with Apocalypse, Magneto and the other time-lost X-Men. It’s possible Wolverine immediately took off after Forge retrieved them from the future.
That’s the one tricky aspect when an episode is focused on a select group of characters. There’s no real sense of time especially in relation to other events. In the comics, we’d get a helpful little caption stating these events took place while the other X-Men were in the past. Maybe there is one area X-Men ’97 can improve on for next season after all!
Weapon X Lies and DVDs was a fantastic interlude from the main Apocalypse story and gets Wolverine fully restored to cause as much damage as possible just in time for the big showdown.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Photo Credit: Disney
After checking out Weapon X Lies and DVDs, grab X-Force Epic Collection: Under The Gun trade paperback over on Amazon.
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