After a couple of weeks on hiatus, we return to X-Men: The Animated Series with episode 7, Slave Island.
After a brief re-cap, this episode picks up where Cold Vengeance left off, with Storm, Gambit and Jubilee discovering they have now be captured. The Genoshans have also given them a new fashion accessory, a slave collar that can suppress their mutant abilities and will explode if they try to remove them. Delightful. Storm’s attempt to escape fails, as her collar is reactivated. I guess she wasn’t paying attention when the soldier was explaining what the collar does.
So many cameos… can you name all the mutants shown in this episode?
While Storm is put isolation, the other mutants are put to work building a dam. While the circumstance they are in are horrendous; it is interesting to see their mutant abilities used in a practical way and not in a violent way. Meanwhile back at the X-Men’s mansion, Scott is trying (and failing) to phone through to resort in Genosha. Wolverine returns from his Arctic getaway, much to the relief of Rogue and Jean.
Back at Genosha, Jubilee uses a power cut to leave her cell. Unfortunately, the mutants and Gambit don’t want any part in her plan to escape, thinking it is too dangerous. Its nice to see Jubilee trying, even if she wasn’t successful, to be proactive. She is often used as either a damsel in distress or the reason why the audience gets exposition or even just sidelined completely, so seeing her act like a member of the X-Men makes a nice change. Meanwhile, Scott is concerned about the X-Men and decides to take the other mutants to investigate. The Professor is up to something, as he makes a call to someone called Moira, once the mutants leave. I love that the Professor is much more secretive and closer to the comic version.
On Genosha, Jubilee finds out that Gambit has been taken away by the guards. The other mutants have now decided to join her escape attempt… which unfortunately fails. To give Jubilee credit, her plan was alot more thought out than Storm’s was. The escape attempt earns her a place in isolation with Storm. It is now revealed why the Genoshans are wanting a dam, to power a huge Sentinel making Sentinel. The second revelation is that Gambit was the one to betray Jubilee. Why Gambit, why?
As Gambit tries to escape, well I guess third times the charm because it actually works. Sort of. He comes across Cable, a mercenary who is hunting the leader of Genosha. Cable gives Gambit a key to the slave collars, which he uses to free Jubilee and Storm. While the X-Men are fighting the Sentinels, Cable is attacking the Genoshan leader. Storm decides to revert back to the X-Men’s main philosophy, vandalism solves everything by destroying the dam. As the dam is destroyed, the other X-Men arrive in time to save Storm and the others from the flood. As the X-Men return to the mansion, they discover it has been destroyed and Xavier is nowhere to be found, which is how the episode ends.
I’m not sure vandalism is a great message for the children…
This episode was a bit of a mixed bag. It was great to see Jubilee and Gambit get a chance to show what they can do, but it meant the other mutants didn’t get much to do in this episode. I also liked the cameos of some of the other mutants on Genosha, like Sunfire, Mystic and Blob. I like that this show doesn’t just use an antagonist for one episode and we never see them again, like Trask and the Sentinels. Overall, if you are a fan of Jubilee and Gambit then this is a brilliant episode; otherwise it doesn’t really add too much in character or plot development but it is still worth watching.
What did you think of the episode? Let me know in the comments. Next week’s episode is Unstoppable Juggernaut. See you next week!
The first image came from the Marvel wiki and the second image came from nerdist.com.
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