"Untouchable"
Writer: Devin Grayson
Artwork by: Udon Studios
Month Published: March 2002
Takes Place: ? (Doesn't really fit anywhere in the X-M:E timeline...)
Synopsis/Review: After a page in
which we get a brief picture intro to each of the main characters of the
Season 1 X-M:E Universe, this episode begins with Scott and Jean kissing
in the Danger Room.. or, at least, they appear to be kissing. Wolverine
is using them to give the other X-Kids a lesson in CPR- well, except Scott
seems to be holding the position a bit longer than he needs to. Rogue's
obviously a bit jealous, Nightcrawler's kidding around bit, like always,
Evan's bored, and Kitty seems... neutral. Anyways, the session eventually
ends, and Scott and Jean let go of each other, almost blushing.
Rogue cracks a couple
of thinly veiled jokes at Jean's expense, and Scott asks her what's wrong.
Rogue says that "not all of us are faultless, you know" before storming
out of the Danger Room in a huff. The others are convinced that she's just
angry because she can't do CPR herself, though.
Later, at school, Rogue
is with her friend Risty in a hallway, and they're both eyeing Scott and
Jean talking further on down the hall. Risty basically says what Rogue
is thinking, even though Rogue herself denies it. (You know the situation
by now, if you've watched the show, Rogue's got a crush on Scott, but Jean
actually has a shot with him, he only seems to be in love with her, etc.,
etc.) Anyway, Risty has to go, and they bid each other adieu. After she's
out of Rogue's eyesight, though, Risty morphs into Mystique, mentioning
that this will be much easier than she thought... (You think Mystique would
be a bit more careful about morphing into her normal form in the middle
of the hallway, though...)
Later, at the Brotherhood
House, Pietro, Lance, Freddy, and Todd are just hanging out, as always,
when Mystique busts in, just like in "The HeX
Factor". Although they're not surprised to see her, so I guess this
might (?) take place during Season 1, if it wasn't for other things, which
I'll get into later... All of the members line up in front of her, and
she tells them about her plan for "psychological warfare". She wants all
of them to begin befriending Rogue, starting tomorrow. She apparently wants
to turn Rogue over to the Brotherhood (again?), with their help.
Back at the Xavier Institute,
the phone rings, and Kurt picks it up- he calls for Kitty, since it's her
mom. She and her mom start talking, and Kurt is obviously a bit upset that
he can't do the same thing with his. Rogue kinda comforts him, telling
him that Mystique probably doesn't know the first thing about being one
anyway. It doesn't really help Kurt much, though...
The next day, Rogue
is staring at Scott reading a book in the quad when Jean comes up and talks
rather snidely about how Rogue will never have a chance with Scott, considering
that she can't even touch him, and that the only reason Scott being nice
to Rogue is because he, like the rest of the X-Men, feel sorry for her.
After Jean leaves a rather stunned Rogue to herself, Blob comes up, trying
to comfort Rogue in his own way by saying that the popular crowd rarely
has anything going for them anyway. Apparently, Blob has "seen Rogue around"
but they haven't actually gotten to know each other yet, so they introduce
themselves to each other, and Blob walks off quickly, telling Rogue to
"stay cool", like they're now friends or something.
Later that day, in the
Danger Room, the X-Men are having an average session. Scott has lost his
visor, though, and Rogue's dodging a laser blaster that needs to be fragged.
Rogue tells Scott to turn his head to a certain position and open his eyes
to fend off the gun, but he's not sure that he can do it. After a bit more
frantic prodding by Rogue, Scott does, and he hears Rogue scream. Panicking,
Scott hurriedly finds his visor and puts it back on- only to find that
Rogue was just joking, he didn't hit her at all. Jean comes in and calmly
berates Rogue for that- the Danger Room is no place for practical jokes.
But Rogue just angrily tells Jean to stuff it and stomps out of the Danger
Room, walking out into the front courtyard of the Mansion, shoving past
Evan. Apparently, Evan's going home to his folks for the night to have
time with them, and Storm insists on him going alone, to spend time one-on-one
with his folks. As Evan and his mom drive off, Kurt looks out one of the
second-story windows of the Mansion, obviously depressed...
The following day at
Bayville High, Rogue is in the Library. Riley spies her there, and morphs
into Scott. We then see pretty much a replay of what went on in the quad
yesterday, only from Scott's POV. Only this time, it's Quicksilver to the
rescue. He and "Scott" actually almost fight each other, but Rogue intervenes
and calls Scott off. Pietro thanks her for the save, and says basically
the same stuff to her that Blob said the previous day. But this time, Quicksilver
invites Rogue to the Brotherhood House, where "at least they aren't two-faced"...
That night, after everyone
else is asleep, Rogue packs up her stuff (along with a picture of all the
teenage X-Men) and silently makes her way over to the Brotherhood House.
Blob, Quicksilver, Avalanche, and Toad greet her with an artificial smile
and complement, and let her inside. Rogue asks if it's alright if she stays
here, and Mystique nods the affirmative. She tells Rogue to make herself
comfortable, and she talks about how she's glad that Rogue has come here.
Mystique mentions how the people at the Xavier Institute obviously don't
understand Rogue, but as she's talking, she slips up and says a philosophy
("Never let them know you care") that was, word-for-word, exactly what
"Scott" had said earlier that day in the Bayville High Library. Rogue finally
makes the connection- that it was Mystique who was really "Jean" and "Scott"
in those earlier situations, and not Jean and Scott themselves. Rogue yells
at Mystique that it WAS her, and gets ready to leave- only to have Quicksilver
block her way out. Rogue just takes off one of her gloves, touches Quicksilver,
and speeds off, backslapping Mystique (heheheh) before leaving, taking
her powers as well.
Rogue speeds back to
the Mansion, and is about to go back to bed when she remembers that she
had stolen Mystique's shape-changing abilities for a while. Morphing into
Mystique herself, Rogue silently creeps into Kurt's room and whispers that
"I'll always care" before slipping back out again, leaving a rather confused
(albeit slightly relieved) Kurt behind. Once she's far away from Kurt's
room, Rogue morphs back into herself again and walks into her and Kitty's
room, silently putting the X-Men picture she had taken earlier back on
the shelf and smiling...
Art Comments: I really like the cover
art on this one- the page is split in half by a jagged red line, showing
half of Mystique's head and shoulders on one side and a lined-up visage
of a frightened Rogue on the other. The "X-Men: Evolution" logo, the other
logos, and even the bar code is all off-center as well, and the former
is cut in half to boot. Plus, Mystique just looks eeevil, and it's nicely
drawn.
However, once you get
into the actual comic, there's nothing to differentiate this comic from
its predecessors. Nice, if a bit anime-ish, artwork when there's a closeup,
but anything else looks sloppy. Especially that last scene in the Brotherhood
House, that REALLY looked bad.
Last Words: The story was rather
cliche in this one, and Mystique's attempts to bring Rogue over to her
side by morphing into Jean and Scott were reeeally see-through. I mean,
if I had known that Mystique was my enemy and was out to get me, I would
have seen RIGHT through those obvious attempts straight off the bat. People
simply don't have that much of a change in personality that quickly, and
then change back to their "good" self the next time you see them. I can't
believe that Rogue wasn't smart enough to figure that out the first time,
much less the second time.
However, what really bothered me was that
the situations presented in this comic were not all present at ANY time
in the X-M:E television show. The New Mutants have not been introduced-
yet Mystique is in her Season 2+ costume, and Rogue already knows Riley!
Not to mention that if this WAS Season 2, then Mystique would not be present
yet, since she would be off stealing Xavier's files or whatever, and the
Brotherhood members would be on their lonesome, with no supervision. And
when Mystique did finally come back near the end of Season 2, she brought
the Scarlet Witch with her, so it's not as if it could have happened after
that! Bah. Even a casual X-M:E fan could pick out the inconsistencies in
this storyline. This comic is what convinced me that the writer of this
comic series does not follow the Evolution television series at all, and
only has watched maybe one or two episodes here and there, or was given
a brief outline of the story arc for her writing job, with no details given.
Pathetic, considering that she's WRITING a comic series based off the same
freakin' TV show. If the inconsistences were not there, this story might
have earned a 6/10, but as it is, I was sorely dissapointed in this one.
Overall Rating: 4/10 Below Average