X-Men '97 Review Ep 4 Motendo/Lifedeath | Marvel

0:00 Hey, I'm Derek. And I'm Noah, and you're listening to A Bite of. Where we take our current favorite pop culture of session and we enjoy it 1 nibble at a time. One nibble. Just the littlest nibble at a time. It's funny 'cause this is like 1 nibble of two separate meals. Yeah, this is like taking two different sandwiches and smashing them together. I don't like that. It's weird. Exactly. Yeah. This episode's of X-Men 97, Episode 40, Tendo and Life death Part one.

0:43 We have a lot to talk about. It's going to be probably a little shorter episode because we don't have two episodes to talk about like we did on our first one. Yeah, we had three. We had three. Oh yeah, that's right, because. We waited two weeks. Also, if I am sitting very rigidly, I have like a back injury right now, so I'm very much like Mojo and his I wish I had Mojo's chair. Oh my God, just walk me around. And also have a thing that shoots stuff. Yeah, that'd be really cool. So programming stuff, Is it a program? Are we a program? Yeah, we're a show. Episode show. We have a lot of fun stuff coming up, so yes, we are doing X-Men 97, releasing them on Saturday mornings.

1:24 So hello, if you're listening to this on Saturday morning with your bowl of cereal, I hope. What cereal you're eating? If you are, let us know what cereal you're eating. That'd be fun, but we have some very exciting things coming up. We got some interview stuff and some like saw things before it's released some stuff and we kind of hinted it on our Patreon, but we're not going to say it yet, so you'll be surprised. So we're going to have some double up weeks, which is going to be fun. So much content coming your way. Very, very. I'll just say one, because one is coming out like next week, so fall out. So. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, got to watch fall out and we will have a review on that.

2:05 So that's going to be interesting. Thanks, Prime Video, Wink. So lucky. Thanks. And then, last but not least, you know if you're watching this. Subscribe to the channel. You're listening to this. Subscribe to the channel. Throw some stars their way. Do a thumbs up, leave a comment. All that great stuff. Yeah, Patreon, support the show. Keep the mics on X-Men 97. Spoiler alert, they have been alerted for spoilers for two very separate storylines that happened in one episode. All right, so let us officially take a bite of X-Men 97 Episode Four Mo Tendo Slash Life Death Part One directed by Chase Conley and written by Beau de Mayo Jubilees plans for her 18th birthday go haywire when she and Roberto are trapped in Motendo.

2:54 The luminous pair travel through levels of her life and come face to face with her own face. Storm forges a bond with Forge as they forge ahead in a plan for her to regain her powers. Unfortunately for Storm, a Storm brews after learning about Forge's past, and she is confronted with a demon who wants to consume her powerless grief. Wow, with a lack of. Storms, I liked using. That's the same words to mean the same thing. What is? What is that called? Art. No ow. We can't. Laugh in this episode. No fun on this episode. What is that? A homonym. That no, a homonym is like witch and witch. Whatever.

3:40 It's literally the meaning of a word. It's just their names. No. Yeah. So I guess you're right. Yeah, it is a homonym. It's forge and forge, but it's it's a proper noun and and then the actual. Thing. Anyway, out of a bite of school? It's not All right. So how did you feel about this episode? Slash 2 minisodes I believe. When it ended, I looked at you and I said that was weird. And I think I still kind of sit with that, but not in a bad way. I think that they were just very different episodes. You know, I was, as I was thinking about it, I was like, there are similarities, right? So there are really two people at the center of both stories, both male and female, having some sort of relationship beyond just being a pair of mutants.

4:24 And I think that they were both trying to discover what their powers are and who they truly are, but they're presented in very different ways. Yeah, I I I didn't mind it. I think this is the first not flaw. I don't want to say flaw because since this episode it's been 10 out of 10 and I think them together great on their own. Putting them together, it does very much feel like those old cartoons and stuff like that or even old TV shows where they would kind of do that. I believe the only most recent thing that's done this is Sandman when they released that episode 11 and had two completely different episodes but just told the story. The only like not to start this off with, like a critique. The only thing is I wish they just had life death by itself because of what happens in that episode. And we'll get more into that when we get to it. But it needed a little bit more room to breathe for, you know that I love you to, like, be worth it and to have the impact 'cause it just, it was so brisk, yeah. I'm curious about the decision of doing them back-to-back instead of integrating them together. That was interesting.

5:36 Because I really do think that they mirror each other. It is, it's a similar journey between the two pairs. So why not splice them together like you would any other sort of drama? I mean, in the last couple of episodes we saw that we saw different characters dealing with things at the same time. So why in this episode in particular did they want to separate them? And also I feel like it was a little imbalanced in the sense that I think it was more 2/3 MO tendo and one third life and death. Yeah, I think life and death got maybe 10 minutes. Life. Death Not in, Yeah. Life death, life death got about 10 minutes. So, you know, it's one of those things where I think I'm fine with it. You know, maybe they really wanted to tell this MO Tendo story, but like there wasn't enough of what they had to make it the full runtime. You know, it is what it is at this point, but I feel like maybe not having it with life death probably would have been better.

6:29 And it's almost like MO Tendo had so much action and all this like high energy stuff and then life death was somber and quiet. So maybe to keep that energy until I keep people engaged, they were like, let's have a higher energy thing. And then this, I don't necessarily need that, but I can see the reasoning behind it. I just want, I want Storm's story to be able to breathe just a little bit. Yes, truly. Feel the breeze. Because I think it's only two parts, yes, for this story. So Motendo, let's get into this episode a little bit. I love the beginning part because there's quite a few things that happened before they get to the arcade. Yes, I want to start with the first first, first thing that I want to talk about again in at least I believe we are seeing Gambit's culinary exploration. I'm very sure he cooked those muffins. Well, he probably did.

7:22 Yeah, yeah. And so he's serving everyone. And right off the bat, we start to see this little weird tension in this love triangle right between Magneto Rogue. We don't know if it's a love triangle, but it's definitely some like, Dick measuring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a pissing contest of some sort and I am kind of curious about how Gambit is feeling about this because he plays it off very coolly. I think he doesn't have any hard evidence yet, and I do believe he trusts Rogue, so it's interesting. I'm not sure. I also I don't know the status of the relationship. Are they official? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

8:03 Oh God, I'm getting like comics in the show. I would. Well, I mean, yeah, they're together for sure in the show. I know when the comics, they're married. Are they married in the animated? Maybe not. I don't think so. But they're definitely together, OK? Is like they're for sure together. I didn't like how he's like, oh, I got you coffee. And the magneto's like, I already did it, 3 sugars. OK, how long have you guys not been together? And you know that she likes 3 sugars. And also, she's sitting there with a mug already. And also Magneto. Who's going to wash those spoons? You. I don't think so. Three, He can probably just make the dirt come off of them. It's the master of magnetism. And then the last thing I want to say about this beginning thing is Morph.

8:46 Making fun of Magneto's dead parents and especially with like how they died. It's like morph. You know what? Look, Morph, I think was just trying to relieve some of the tension, OK? And it backfired. You really was. Unfortunately. And I and I also am a little annoyed at Magneto in the sense that like, OK, you you just got here right? And you're already pulling rank on everyone who has been an X-Men much longer than you have. And he's like, we're going to practice all day and they're like, but it's Jubilee's birthday and he's like, not my problem. No, it's not. You know, they need to train. I do feel like there is a time and place, but like if you're going to do the Danger Room, like maybe have like it be a party theme and also like.

9:30 Train laser tag? Yeah, absolutely. He. Could go the extra mile, but I don't think he, like, you know the Brotherhood of Mutants really wasn't there to throw parties. So I think he needs to learn how to also engage in a family. I I I do think it's kind of funny and and like, this is just the life of being an X-Men. I think is literally, maybe a day or two ago we discovered that the Jean Grey who's been living with us is actually a clone and everything's just back to normal. Everyone's like, OK, well, she left. Well, they're gone at this point too. They're they're at the UN. And I really did like how in the intro they've been changing things every episode. And in this one you see that Jean actually has her hair up and this and not down.

10:13 So the intro for the first three was actually Madeline Pryor and now it's right in the gene. So it's just the small little details that are like, that's cool. The gene for the prior three was actually Madeline Pryor. Yeah, I knew you were going to have one. You got it. I saw. I saw it in your eye. It was right there. All right, so to the game. Mojo got to love him and got to hate him. Oh, totally. This particular mojo definitely looks like he went through some like weight loss or whatever, but I like how they explained it with like he feeds off of the ratings, right? This interdimensional alien needs to put on a show to get the ratings. It's just a it's a really cool concept and I love that we're finally getting something now with the X-Men that show how kind of kooky and weird the X-Men can be. And this was a great showing for that. Yes, I believe it is a commentary on how humanity consumes reality TV and watching those struggle in things like Survivor or Big Brother.

11:10 Yeah, or it's just silly fun. Whatever you want to think of it. I did love you know I was doing a little research on on MOJO and I think I was inspired by this from marvel.com Mojo Rules over the Planet Mojo world in the dimension dubbed the Mojo verse. Oh yeah, yeah. Exactly so. It's just like using Mojo and as many things as possible. That's why it's not Nintendo. It's MO. Tendo. Yeah. I also like how MO Tendo has just appeared in Jubilee's room and she's like, cool, let's play it. No big deal. Interdimensional alien. This is what he does. Yeah, yeah, that's how he it's how he rules. The really cool thing about this episode is that we got to see some of the big hits, like they said in this episode. So we got to see Savage Land, we got to see Magneto's space base, and we got to see Jenosha a little bit very briefly.

11:58 So it's really cool to kind of go back to those very iconic things and this. But this story, while it's being fun and injected with nostalgia, because we got that arcade game, which most of us know and it's amazing. I was always Wolverine when I played that because it was just fun to slice, slice and dice things. I was always Storm, of course. Of course. By the way, everyone. You can purchase the actual arcade cabinet for about $500 brand new on Wayfair. Best Buy in a couple other places. I'm just putting that out there. Like you don't even have to bid for it. No, you can just buy it. Yeah, that was tempting. He Derek, literally before we started, he was like, am I going to do this? Like, should I buy this arcade cabinet?

12:38 I was like, we don't have room, even though we have a whole basement. I was. Like we have a basement. What do you mean we have no room? It's like that's all I would be doing. Yeah. Deka deka Dang Dang Deka Dang. Dang, that would be really fun though. I'm just, you know, maybe maybe we will a. Little tournament? Maybe. We'll Maybe that'll be our Christmas gift to each other this year. So the the episode, you know what what does more to say than like they hit it, right? They gave us that feel of the arcade. They gave us a story with it. It was fun. Yeah, my my favorite parts in this episode was actually when it pulled out from being in the game with them to watching the game when it really had that sort of. I mean it was an 8 bit.

13:19 It was obviously more than that 16 bit look to it, that full on nostalgia moment of them in the side scroller. Yeah, it's amazing. It was really fun. So another thing I I like seeing and this is that we get to see Jubilee being more self assured throughout this entire journey, right? Roberto was kind of the young fool that's falling around. We see it. And you know, by reliving her life, seeing all the past trials she's been in, you know, leading up to her 18th birthday, who knew? She was even 17 years old at this point? And I even love seeing when they're falling from the sky. Roberto's falling on his butt, and she's landing in the perfect superhero pose. Oh yeah, yeah, that's. And you can tell who has training and who doesn't. Yeah, it was great because it also, you know, it's a kid turning 18, so they're having to do with like, I'm not a kid anymore, I'm an adult.

14:08 So, like, are you going to stay in this video game forever and never age and just replay the hits all the time? But I think with having Roberto there grounded her a little bit and showed her that there are stakes and maybe this isn't the best place to be. Like, it's a little enticing, but you need to, like, wake up. Oh right, it it's that thing of like, wouldn't we all love to just play all day? But it we can't. You know? Although it seems annoying that Magneto says no, you can't celebrate your birthday, you have to train. OK, place and time, but I think that's for. Him, right? But there is that point of Yes, it would be wonderful if we could live in a land of video games, but there is something that we're truly fighting against. Here.

14:50 Right, right. The last kind of Easter eggy thing that I'll say is I loved it when they first really landed in it and the posters behind them was Days of Future Past. It was a very much homage to that. It was. That's great. Those little tiny things. If you found an Easter egg that you really like that we didn't mention, just let us know because there are so many in this. And then a big thing that happens in this is we get a different version of Jubilee, and in the show it's a little different than the actual version that happens. So Abscissa, is that how you would say it, right? In the comics, it's an actual like alternate future version of her. And this is just a hologram. But the story and everything you know really just is the same thing Jubilee gets to see. Like, her powers aren't just these tiny little fireworks and stuff.

15:33 She can do a lot more with that, and she actually does it in this episode, and I love that. I love it when they show. Jubilee isn't just some kid that does sparklers from her fingers. She's a badass. Yeah, and what Obsessa really illustrates for us is that it's not only coming from her hands, right? Is that she uses these projectiles to almost as skates, right? She can fly across the floor with them, and then she, even from her hands, changes them into buzz saws of light that can cut through things. It's pretty badass. Yeah. And having Allison Court come back to voice the older version, who is the original voice actor for Jubilee, is amazing. And they actually like, so you know, Allison Court specifically said, like I I'm not Asian American. Somebody that is Asian American should voice the character. But I still like that they gave her that little tiny moment of like, thank you for doing this.

16:28 That's really cool. Yeah, it was, really. Cool. So much care. The, the, and and the character of abscissa, right. Just also shows that growth. It's. So cool. Yeah, I just. Love her. I like her chainmail. Her like pointy fingers. What has she been through in this video game in this world of circuits? Countless, countless beta testing. Yes, I also wanted to bring up Spiral. Yeah, she's cool. Right. So a couple of episodes ago, we were like, oh, who did Morph turn into the person with all the arms? Forgot her name? So it turns out it's Spiral. And so Spiral is interesting. You know, in the mojo verse, Mojo has all these slaves, right? And Spiral is one of them. And so she's still working for him. She's helping to try and stop the hacker who we later learn is Obsessa.

17:12 But at the end of the episode, it almost seems like she is one of the people who helps defeat Mojo. In that moment, she kind of appears behind him and like pushes his head down. Well, yeah, he's defeated. Yeah, she's a slave. So. Yeah, yeah. So like she kind of gets the upper hand in this situation, but you know, in in reading about her, she actually ends up joining a group with Madeleine Pryor. So this is something interesting, you know, are they going to maybe lean towards that? Will we see more of Spiral and and Madeleine? That's where this show could really go anywhere, because there's a lot of storylines where like there's not some characters in it and they do show us some stuff, right? And then the next part of this episode, Forge you see on the board or something like that, you see The X Factor team and it has like Wolfsbane and multiple man and all of them. And it's like, are we going to see any of these people? Maybe?

18:01 I'm very excited to see if anything like that happens, yeah. I am as well, and and I love seeing those little Easter eggs in the background and you can see, oh, Polaris and Wolfsbane, you know, and and seeing their lives prior to this moment and that they have existed, right. They're fleshing out these characters a little more. And of course, you know at the end of this entire first part, we get the smooch. The smooch? I didn't expect that to be honest. I like, I mean, there were some moments where I, I guess I was just assuming like, oh, they're developing a good friendship. And then when they smooched, I was like, oh, they like like like each other. Happy 18th birthday. I'm fine with that. Like, Jubilee, have a love life, you know? Yeah, I mean, I hope it all goes well and there's not like some breakup that, like, makes them leave the team. But like, I'm rooting for them.

18:48 I think they're cool. I agree. And again, I I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm beating a dead horse here in a sense. But I think we again are solidifying Jubilee as a hero and not a kid anymore, right? So giving her a love interest, giving her an evolution of her powers, this is all just saying she's not just the kid of the team anymore, she's now a full-fledged X-Men. Speaking of full-fledged X-Men, should we go on to life death? Life, death and horses. I was like, what horses? Oh, that's right. Hello. They ride horses. So she could feel the wind. Yeah. So life death is an interesting one. It's very quiet. I loved it because it got gave Storm a little bit more breathing room and some playground to work with, especially the voice actor, the voices Storm voiced the adversary at the end. So it's like a cool double like oh, she got to like not just I'm mistress of the element, she got to be creepy and scary loved it. I from like Chris Claremont's story being part of a bigger story.

19:53 There's a whole story arc with this. I felt like it was very rushed. Did I like it? Yes. You know, I think it's a very much Cliff Notes version of this story. But I think I can't really be like, it's not that great until I see the second part, right. I really want to see how they're going to round this out and to see where it goes. But I liked it. I I liked it as well. I think what's hard to sort of digest in this situation is that in the last episode, Storm has met Forge for the first time. We don't know how much time has passed. A day. Right. That's what it feels like. It feels like it hasn't been that much time. And for them to create such a strong bond for him, to profess his love for her, it feels like, wow, we missed a lot. Yeah, I I want to say maybe it's just like we have to assume time had passed a little bit because when he does tell her that he loves her, she's bringing food down. So, like, she's comfortable enough to cook and maybe cook his father's bison Stew.

20:54 I don't know. Like, I it's very hard to tell how much time has passed by. And I think it is a little confusing because I think what you had said when we first watched it was, oh, she's still on the machine whenever the Adversary came out because it did seem a little psychedelic and like, what is happening. No, I don't think she is, only because the Adversary is an actual thing. But I can see why you would have thought that you know it because it's so quick and there's no like, transition time. I do think that there's something more meta going on. I don't. So I do think maybe if she's not in the machine, maybe she fell out of the machine and she's in some sort of coma or something like that.

21:35 Because the fact that the person who voices Storm also voices the adversary, right? That's telling us that this is an inner demon that she's fighting. Whatever this is, that's stopping her from accessing her powers is still has a hold on her. And the fact that, you know, she came crashing through the roof and it started to rain and then the roof closed itself, so. Well, this is where it gets like kind of interesting because the adversary is an actual demon that's like a manifestation of forges, like cultural heritage. He like they came about because he used these abilities to fight in the Vietnam War and that demon kind of came about and so he thought we got rid of it.

22:18 But it's still around. This is like a whole part of the story. So it's going to be interesting to see how they do the adversary here. And if you know, the Adversary could be there, but it's just in her mind, which also is scary because Ford can't see it. So that's it's going to be interesting to see like what is real and what isn't, like what is actually happening. And so maybe, if it is in her mind, right, that him professing her love out of nowhere is just her feeling they're attracted to each other and it being expounded upon in her mind. I'm not saying it's not going to happen. No, it has to happen. I'm saying it is going to happen. I'm just saying in her mind, she's like, maybe you. Know one of the things that like I always thought. I thought it was funny that Storm and Gambit had the same hair a little bit.

23:02 And like her changing her appearance is like a huge part of her, her story and her character. And this is kind of one of those big character moments. I feel like I wish they would have, like, had her change her appearance in this instance, like after like Forge found her and everything and she's getting back to her and she needs to, you know, that's like a minor. Critique fully transformed. Exactly because it was a. It's a little interesting when it's like she has the Mullet Hawk, that's what I want to call it, but she has the original outfit, so it's like. So do you think we'll get a new outfit? Maybe it'd be nice, you know? Because there's a whole, like, punk storm story that I'm hoping we get.

23:42 I would not like, wouldn't it be so cool? And maybe this does exist, but I would love to see an entire team of punk, right? So, like, punk, storm, spider punk. Kind of like. I mean, just watch the 2000s X-Men where they all wear leather and not the actual costumes. Oh oh oh. I thought you meant X-Men Evolution. No, I was going to start dancing. No. So in the one of the interesting things that does happen in this is it's a little abrupt, but Forge tells her that he's the one that pretty much made the weapon that took her powers away. And that's also one of the reasons that motivated him to, like, help her, yeah. I like that. She's like, why are you so obsessed with me? He's like, well, I'm sorry.

24:23 He's like, I made the plans, but like, I left and she's like you still. Did it. He was some guy in Scotland. What do you want from me, Storm? I mean, I I like the dynamic, right? And I like the story they're trying to tell. I want more of it, right? And I think an important thing because Storm is that character. She is that Omega level threat. She is a beloved character. So to see her so down is jarring, but I think helps with the character and does humanize her a little bit, or mutinize her or she's a human now, I don't know. No go with. It so I'm curious to see where this goes. You know, I don't think we have Part 2 next week it UN stuff and then Part 2. So we have a little bit to wait.

25:07 Yeah, I I I agree with you in the sense that I am like a little perturbed that here we are, you know, almost you know, 20 years later or or we are like 20 years later. And they're making sure we stick around. Right. It's like, give me more Storm, man. I had like 1-2 episodes of her being amazing and now I have, you know, an eighth of an episode of her, you know, fighting an owl or whatever. I also like when they were riding horses that like she's trying to beat him, and Forge just didn't tell her there was a Cliff. He's like, keep going, lady, keep going. He's like, you think that's fast? Wait until you fall off the Cliff. All right.

25:47 So I guess to wrap it up, yeah. You know any final thoughts? Any? I I'm, you know, I'm perfectly happy with the episode. I feel like it can only go up from here. We're really having some of these characters dig deep, find out who they truly are and I'm sure there's going to be a bad ass fight at the end of the season where we really get to see them. RIP Yeah, like die. No RIP rip it up. Isn't that what? Oh, like RIP. Yeah, but isn't that what they say in the Bear? Like rip it up. I don't know, cousin. I think so. Anyway, yeah. I mean, I, you know, I feel like the first three episodes very high. This one is just like, I think from like a criticals perspective.

26:35 It's like this is interesting decisions still fantastic and it's. We got a fluff, a Nutter and a ham sandwich all right. Yeah, exactly like I I I think it was an interesting way to do it. But you know, I'm who am I to say I don't make this stuff? I know it's hard. I I mean, this is we are us to say it. So that's our thought. Yeah, so let us know what you thought. Yeah. Next week we have two episodes coming. Fallout and X-Men 97, Episode 45. I'm so confused with these. There's too many numbers going on my back. Hurts. I want to lay down. You got it. We we made it through. We hated the episode. And that's yeah, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. We did not.

27:16 We didn't. I'm saying that now we didn't no the. Reason I hate the episode is now all I'm going to be thinking about is a $500 X-Men video game arcade cabinet. So. We'll put it down in the description in case you want to buy it. Yeah, yeah. Let us know. And then do you love it? Invite us over so we can play it party, because we're not buying it. Support us on Patreon so we can afford it, put a. Separate goal $500 to. The Nan and do it. Do it. All right. Oh, till next week. Bye.