Hogan Reviews

(My review of the first half of Season 3 can be viewed by clicking HERE)

The next half of Season 3 adapts the Dark Phoenix Saga, and not just the Inner Circle stuff either, it once again includes the space-based stuff with the Shi’ar and even the “Blue Area of the Moon”, which always confused me, at least until I read more of the comics. It also has a couple of other stories either side of it, so let’s take a look (and hope I can fit the next two seasons in the next month as we finally have a date for X-Men 97!)

Episodes 12 and 13 comprise one story called “Savage Land, Strange Heart” and takes place in the Savage Land, you’ll be surprised to hear. A powerful entity known as Garokk is using Magneto-created mutant Sauron to capture powerful mutants in order to resurrect itself and instructs Sauron to kidnap Storm, which he does (just). After this though Sauron is stripped of his artificial mutant powers and returns to a normal Savage Land tribesman and actually helps Wolverine, Beast, Rogue, Jubilee and Ka-Zar take down Garokk, though it’s not easy as not only is Storm “freed from her restraints” and turned crazy but Garokk eventually fuses with the ground itself and starts using Earthquakes and Volcano eruptions against his foes. Luckily Sauron manages to undo the mental conditioning on Storm and she helps save the day.

One of those screenshots that are far funnier if they just speak for themselves…

Next up is the big four-part Dark Phoenix adaptation, starting with Jean having trouble controlling the Phoenix power and that fact getting brought to the attention of The Inner Circle, a powerful group of mutants dictating events from their large mansion. Using a combination of Jason Wyngarde’s illusions and Emma Frost’s mind control they manage to sway Jean to their side, allowing the Phoenix’s new dark impulses room to fully manifest, helped by Jean seeing Cyclops help a young mutant called Dazzler in a nightclub and mistaking her forcing a kiss on her love as confirmation of an affair. The X-Men as a whole arrive at the Inner Circle’s mansion and eventually in Part 2 have a full-on mutant team vs. mutant team showdown, which is always fun. The end comes when the now self-titled Dark Phoenix realises it doesn’t need any allies, X-Men or Inner Circle, and takes them all out (especially the Inner Circle’s top brass) before heading off. Part 3 sees the X-Men trying to find a way to expel the Dark Phoenix from Jean in order to save her but they only end up re-defeated by the powerful cosmic force, a force that then leaves Earth and the Solar System and wipes out an entire other planetary system by destroying its sun (though in the cartoon version here the system belonged to the D’Bari but it was uninhabited… mass genocide was a little much for a 90s cartoon…)

The Inner Circle debates who has the best side burns (well, Emma Frost excluded… Unless?!)

I’ll get to the conclusion of the big story in spoilers but once again it’s a really fun and thanks to the expanded time allowed, a more faithful adaptation of the comics. The last two episodes of the season then are once again entirely stand-alone. Episode 18 “Orphan’s End” has Cyclops find out that galactic rogue Corsair is actually his father and the X-Man goes through a stage of denial that sees him willingly hand his father over to the Shi’ar, only to then find out from Corsair’s group that the people after them are corrupt Shi’ar officers and that Corsair is a good guy after all, leading to Cyclops helping rescue his father and bring down the corrupt officers. It has some nice moments.

“Wait, you’re my son?! What are the odds?” “I know! Next you’ll be telling me I ran into my long last brother a few days ago too!”

Episode 19 “Love in Vain” is just plain weird as it involves an alien invasion from some insectoid race who capture Wolverine and later an innocent young lad called Cody who was Rogue’s old flame, and then use him to try and lure her to their ship as integrating her into their colony would make them strong, even setting her up as a possible next Queen. It works, especially as Rogue can kiss Cody without killing him (as he is already more insectoid than man) and the two of them, along with Wolverine, begin to transform into insectoids themselves. Thanks to his healing factor Wolverine fights back against it and Rogue uses her power to absorb some of that same healing factor to fight it off herself. Eventually Professor X manages to convince the living creature they use as a spaceship to fly off Earth with insectoids intact, including Cody, who is too far gone to escape the pull of the alien hive mind. As I said, bloody weird way to end the season!

Overall Thoughts:

Love can be a complicated thing… Not normally THIS complicated, but still…

Season 3 as a whole is peak X-Men animated series, with the Phoenix and this Dark Phoenix multi-part epics being the central focus. In terms of this half though the extra stories dotted about here are fine but nothing outstanding and the Dark Phoenix part isn’t at insane and fun as the regular Phoenix one so it doesn’t quite match the first half’s five, but if I did an overall for Season 3 it would be a five combined…

In terms of how the “Dark Phoenix Saga” concludes? Well Lilandra gets back in contact with Professor X and tells him that thanks to destroying an entire solar system for a laugh they have deemed Phoenix to be too much of a potential threat and so have now ordered her execution. The X-Men are brought to her trial and X uses his mind reading power to find out that the Shi’ar have a right to Trial by Combat and so enacts it, his X-Men vs. the Shi’ar Royal Guard, the battle taking place in the “Blue Area of the Moon” so its uninhabited and still has breathable air, which Beast correctly identifies as “quiet remarkable”. That’s one way to put it!

Okay, this screenshot is from an earlier episode, but hey-ho… at least I included a screenshot of Dark Phoenix at all…

The two sides fight toe-to-toe but it looks bleak, so Cyclops and Jean embrace before trying to take down who they can but this situation just calls forth the Dark Phoenix once again. With what little remains of her self-control Jean intentionally guides Dark Phoenix in front of Lilandra’s powerful laser and commits suicide to finally put a stop to her evil counterpart. Everyone is understandably upset but luckily the regular Phoenix Force rises from her body, the dark impulses now expelled, and resurrects Jean as her regular pre-Phoenix self. So despite everything, we get a happy ending, which admittedly isn’t like the comics but again as much as it pushed boundaries at the end of the day it was still a kids cartoon…