'X-Men '97' Episode 7 "Bright Eyes" Review
Image Source: IMDb
X-Men '97 continues the strong momentum it has built up so far in "Bright Eyes", showing the ramifications of the attack on Genosha, and introducing us to the season's big bad. The Episode opens with the X-Men attending Gambit’s funeral. Some notable characters from the Caujun’s backstory/ previous episodes of the original series are present, which is nice to see. However, one X-Man is notably absent: Rogue.
Instead of attending the funeral, she is on the hunt for Bolivar Trask, via Henry Geyrich. She tears up a military base looking for him. Thunderbolt Ross is commander of the base and reminds the troops the base was made to withstand the Hulk, but seconds later Rogue breaks through into the chamber and confronts Ross.
We then see Cyclops on a holocall with the President, Discussing Genosha. After the call, The X-Men fly to the mutant-controlled country, to help with the recovery effort.
RELATED:
Image Source: Comic Book Movie
Rogue is confronted by Captain America, who offers to help her find Geyrich because he is also looking for Trask over the Genosha incident. Something the original series was lacking was a bigger connection to the Marvel Universe. But now everything is under Disney the showrunners have a lot more power to tap into Marvel's infinite toybox of super-heroes and teams. Rogue and Captain America uncover the name of a shady organisation, OZT, and deduce they are linked to Geyrich and the sentinel attack. Cap then tells Rogue that Geyrich is being held in Mexico City. Now Rogue has Geyrich's location, she throws Cap's shield away so he can't follow her, and goes after him
Back on Genosha, all the X-Men are helping the recovery effort. The devastation (and a talk from Jubilee) causes Sunspot to think it's time to tell his parents he is a mutant. Beast is talking to the Reporter from the previous Episode. The Reporter says the general population still fears mutants, which Beast, given the recent events, takes offence to. He says mutants shouldn't beg for human tolerance, and whilst the reporter tried to protest that’s not what she meant, Beast walks off. This is very intelligent screenwriting, showing how ignorance can offend. X-Men has always been at its best when showing off prejudice/inequality in society, and this is no different.
Rogue then confronts Geyrich. She asks him about OZT, but won't tell her anything. Geyrich tells Rogue that psychic tricks won't work on him this time. But then Rogue tells Geyrich she isn't a psychic and uses her powers on him to get Trask's location. But she seems to have found a lot more than she bargained for.
Suspot and Jubilee travel to his parent's house, and he tells his mother he is a mutant. It seems to go well at first, and she says she already knows and loves him no matter what. But she follows up that he must keep his powers a secret, as the board of directors of the company she owns would not take it well. She tells him he has to be more discreet in the future using his powers going forward.
Nightcrawler then saves Rogue from Geyrich's compound. She has a heart-to-heart with her brother about losing Gambit. Nightcrawler tells her everyone grieves in their own way, and she didn't cause the death of Gambit or Magneto. They rejoin the Team.
Image Source: TV Tropes
A mysterious man then confronts Geyrich, who is now on life support after Rogue drained him. He seems happy to see the man and says everything is happening as he predicted. The stranger then says Geyrich told them too much and kills him.
The X-Men confront Trask. Who tries to kill himself, saying Sinister has taken his plan too far, and this is never what he wanted. Rogue goes to stop him but lets him jump off the skyscraper. This act appalls all the other X-Men, they can't believe Rogue let him kill himself. But before they can unpack this, Trask's body comes back to life, as some sort of mega Zombie-Sentinel, and attacks the X-Men, bringing down the skyscraper in the process.
Chaos ensues. The climatic battle to end the episode is everything we’ve come to expect from the show so far. We even get a random cameo from Quicksilver here, who turns up unannounced to help take down Sentinel-Zombie-Trask. After the battle is over, The X-Men are left with more questions than Answers. But we then cut to the mysterious figure who killed Geyrich, and it's revealed he is holding Magneto hostage. The Mysterious man is revealed to be Nimrod/Master Mold hybrid Bastion.
This is another really strong episode, as momentum builds to the end of the season, after a few red herrings, it's probably safe to say that Bastion is our big bad for this season. It’s a very cool choice, and nice to see the showrunners choose a character who wasn’t in the original show for this role. The episode continues the show's will to dive into adult themes, has some great cameos, and a fantastic climatic battle.
Rating: 9/10
READ NEXT:
Latest News
Featured
