X-Men ’97 2×05 and 2×06 Review: “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs” and “Danger.exe”

X-Men 97 season 2 episode 5, titled ‘Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs’, and episode 6, titled ‘Danger.exe’, focused on a couple of relationship developments. However, the narrative, for me, has continued to feel more focused on setting up certain events instead of progressing organically.

With all of the time-displaced X-Men being brought to the present after what happened during episode 4, the writers decided to take a moment to shift away from the Apocalypse drama and shine a spotlight on Wolverine getting his mojo back. ‘Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs’ was all about Logan putting his previous Weapon X team together to undergo a mission involving assassinating Dr. Cornelius inside a new Weapon X facility.

Due to their past trauma, Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike, Maverick, and Garrison Kane had a bone to pick with Dr. Cornelius. However, Morph tagged along because of his crush on Logan. Sigh! But also, Yay! Because we got to witness a much-needed pivot in Morph’s dynamic with Logan, and I have my fingers crossed that Morph moves on to loving someone worthy of their time.

The twist about Logan’s mission also being about undergoing the adamantium-binding process wasn’t much of a surprise to me. It was obvious Logan was going to get his adamantium claws back during season 2. However, I do feel the writers could have taken the time to explore more of Logan’s emotions over Magneto forcefully stripping the adamantium from his body and having to survive Apocalypse’s forces in the future with only bone claws. I really hope the writers slow down the pacing a bit going into season three. There are a bunch of potentially engrossing character-driven moments that get brushed to the side due to a lot happening in each approximately 25-minute episode.

While we didn’t get to learn a lot about Logan’s feelings, I did appreciate the screentime we got of Morph being told by Lady Deathstrike and even Sabertooth that he needed to do a lot better than Logan. The Weapon X people were quite aware of who Logan was. Morph hoping for Logan to love him back romantically wasn’t going to happen. Morph needed to move the heck on!

The scene where Morph had to shapeshift into Jean to prevent a Brood-infected Logan from killing them? Ufff! Like, how much more humiliation can you put yourself through, Morph? Stand up!

I hope that young queer individuals harboring an unrequited crush on their straight friend watching ‘Weapons X, Lies, and DVDs’ will get a wake-up call. You deserve better!

Oh, and yeah, Logan got infected by the Brood. That was the other twist in episode 5. Turns out, Cornelius had been using Brood brain fluid to ensure the new Weapon X subjects didn’t retain any memories from their past lives. Of course, things got out of hand, and the alien brain fluid led to people turning into Brood and wanting to spread their population.

The Brood considering most mutants as unhealthy hosts did make me laugh, especially with how certain people think that the X-gene was the next step in human evolution. Having an infected Logan undergo the adamantium bonding process helped get rid of the infection and bring him back to his senses.

The episode did conclude with Logan and Morph’s relationship being strained. And you know what? I’m okay with that. I really want Morph to direct his attention toward someone else.

Episode 6 was about Polaris finding her way back to the X-Men after getting fired by X-Force because she was too much of a wildcard for a government-funded team all about presenting mutants as law-abiding citizens while using them to go after their own.

With Lorna back at the X-Mansion, it made sense for her to have a conversation with Professor X about Magneto’s death. Lorna came across as quite a sympathetic character to me. Even though Mags was her father, he had been absent from most of her life. Not only that, Lorna had to continue dealing with pointed fingers talking about how she was Magneto’s heir, especially due to them sharing the same powerset.

Lorna was trying to find an identity separate from a father she didn’t really know, while Charles was trying to get Lorna to accept her lineage because she was the only living link to Magneto that Charles could interact with. Even though Charles sharing his memories and feelings toward Mags with Lorna to help her unlock more of her power made for a cool action sequence, I have to say that Charles went about doing so in a somewhat manipulative manner. But then again, who would Prof X be if not a bit manipulative with his students? That’s kind of his brand.

The threat in ‘Danger.exe’ was the Danger Room AI gaining consciousness and deciding to take matters into her own hands. She had been running Danger Room scenarios to aid Charles in processing Mag’s death and his not being powerful enough to stop Apocalypse. Charles wanted the sessions to be therapeutic. But Danger Room AI looked at it as the X-Men and the new students needing to grow stronger to face upcoming foes.

Take note that Danger didn’t debut in the comics until 2005. So, even though it’s called X-Men 97, fans think the writers will do their own version of the Krakoan Age soon enough. But before that happens, it does seem that the appearance of Onslaught is right around the corner.

The battle with Danger was nice, with Jean Grey creating a telekinetic maelstrom to subdue Danger. And while we all know Jean could have easily ripped Danger to pieces, episode 6 was focused on Lorna. So, narratively, Lorna/Polaris had to be the one to overpower Danger by releasing a massive electromagnetic attack.

As for Storm, well, the writers found a way to sideline the Goddess of the Elements by assigning her as the new Headmistress of Xavier’s School. Apparently, Ororo can’t get involved in X-Men activities because the team had been made illegal by the US Government. Stepping out of line would endanger the school. Sigh!

As a way around the government’s ruling, Charles established X-Corp on the ruins of Genosha, with the team consisting of him, Beast, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, and Jean.

With only three more episodes left, here’s hoping Ororo gets one more epic scene against Apocalypse or his Four Horsemen.

Speaking of Horsemen, ‘Danger.exe’ concluded with Apocalypse resurrecting Gambit as one of his Horsemen. Remy’s return is sure to mess with Rogue’s emotional being. So, I’m looking forward to that interaction.

Did you watch X-Men 97 season 2 episodes 5 and 6? What did you think of them?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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