Review: X-Men ’97 “TOLERANCE IS EXTINCTION: Part 1”

Overview

The X-Men must unite to face a new threat…


Our Take

The episode primarily focuses on three separate storylines that slowly converge. The first involves Cable making an appearance and explaining why his time travel device doesn’t allow him to undo what happened in “Remember it” despite multiple tries. So, he, Cyclops, and Jean’s team investigate the individual who’s been pulling the strings behind the Genosha disaster: a government official who calls himself “Bastion”. The second storyline follows Beast investigating and learning about Prime Sentinels, which are basically random civilians who were turned into mutant-hunting robots without consent whenever a mutant is detected. The third storyline revolves around Jubilee and Roberto/Sunspot being understandably disgusted by the hypocritical nature of Roberto’s mother, who wants to do a fundraiser for Genosha’s mutant survivors but remains tone-deaf or lacks any form of support for her son who just came out as a mutant, which rightfully irks Jubilee. The two leave for a mall in protest.

Slowly, things begin to unravel and escalate in different ways, but each of the action sequences is where they really shine. From the Summers family kicking some ass while escaping the Prime Sentinels to Nightcrawler and Wolverine taking down some Prime Sentinels while protecting an unconscious Rogue, which was mostly teased in recent promo material, but here there’s now added context, along with seeing what goes on inside his teleportation’s, which was easily the highlight. However, what happens near the end is not only a fun surprise, but to put it mildly, a familiar face puts everyone on notice, punctuated with the word “Enough!”, while hope comes in the form of something crashing into the mansion…

Overall, this was one hell of a way to begin a Season Finale, especially with the cameos, which were a fun surprise. Upon research, the Showrunner Beau Demayo publicly shared a tweet to the fans with a very specific list of episodes from the ’92 series that tie into the Season Finale. As someone who made the effort to follow that list, the big twists that unraveled so far have quite a payoff. With two more episodes left, I still have no idea where the last two episodes will take us, and that’s a good thing.