"The Stuff of Heroes"
Writer: Bob Forward
Director: Curt Geda
Original Air Date: September 21, 2002
Synopsis/Review: After a brief recap
of the previous episode, this ep starts off with some scientists in the
wrecked remains of the X-Mansion, searching through the Danger Room. Obviously,
they're completely bewildered by what they're seeing- what was going on
in here? Outside, a reporter tries to get past the army men surrounding
the Mansion, but no luck- in fact, she barely manages to get out of the
way of a still-functioning gun from the Mansion's defense system before
the army guys take care of it. As the guards escort her out of the Mansion
grounds, she turns the report back over the the anchor in the studio, who
continues on with the story about the continuing debate over whether the
newly-discovered Mutants are threats or not. He cycles through some pictures
of the X-Men, talking about how most of them look like normal human beings,
so it's hard to spot Mutants in a crowd.
The last picture is
of Rogue, and we then zoom out- to where Rogue and Wolverine are watching
the news report on a TV in a rural gas station that looks remarkably like
the one Wolverine had entered in the very first episode of the series...
Anyways, Rogue complains about how that picture makes her look fat, and
Logan growls at her to keep it down, they're trying to keep their cover
going while they pick up a couple things they need here. Rogue just responds
by putting back the cupcakes she was going to buy (heheh). Just then, a
couple of army men enter the store, and one of them recognizes Rogue. Wolverine
barely manages to push her out of the way before they fire on her, and
the army men then train their guns on him...
Wolverine manages to
distract the soldiers while Rogue runs out and gets his motorcycle, crashing
back into the wooden store via it and picking him up as they smash out
the other wall, the soldiers unable to follow. However, one of the guards
angrily gets out his comlink and calls for air support...
Meanwhile, in a nearby
county, a train conductor has called the attention of a security guard
to a stowaway in a boxcar of the train- Juggernaut. The guard insists that
Cain step out and identify himself, but Cain responds by punching a hole
in the boxcar before telling them that he's Juggernaut, then pushing the
guard out of the way before he continues off to whatever destination he's
going towards. The guard shakily tells the conductor to call the sheriff-
they've got a Mutant problem!
We then go to Washington,
D.C., at the Capitol Building. The Congressmen are debating whether Mutants
are dangerous or not, and one head guy is really being vocal on how dangerous
they are. He's interrupted as Storm and Beast barge into the room, surrounding
by reporters, cameras, and other media. The anti-Mutant Congressman asks
what all this is about, and Storm angrily mentions that this "witch hunt
will stop, now".
We then go to a cave
in a nearby mountain range, where it seems the X-Men are holed up in. Cyclops
is standing by himself, looking out at the scenery and brooding when Jean
comes up. Jean's a bit ticked at Scott for doing nothing but moping around
lately- after all, it wasn't like they didn't expect this kind of reaction.
Scott says it's not just that, but he's really worried about Storm and
Beast- they're supposed to be showing up at Congress today to make their
case for Mutants. He also is really worried about the Professor- he doesn't
understand why Xavier hasn't contracted them via his telepathy, if he's
holed up somewhere. Jean just tries to reassure him that everything will
be alright, and they seem just about the share a "moment"... when Kurt
suddenly teleports in between them, testing the reception on Spyke's mini-TV
to see if they can get the Congress hearings in. He teleports out and over
to another section of the cave, where the reception finally manages to
come in, albeit staticky. Spyke tells Kurt to hold it right there as he
tells the others that the hearings are on. Kurt complains that he's stuck
in this awkward position- until Kitty takes it from him so that he can
teleport away. Then Iceman "ices up" Kitty, and Kitty phases out of her
"ice shell"- voila, instant TV stand! It's still hard to see, though, so
Iceman creates a giant magnifying glass via his ice to make the picture
bigger.
At said hearings, Storm
and Beast are, sadly, on the losing side of the debate. The outspoken Congressman
has accused them of building the Sentinel robot- before it turned on them,
and started the whole she-bang. Storm, of course, protests- the Institute
is for schooling the teenage Mutants. The Congressman then shows him that
scientists have turned up evidence that the Mutants are "preparing for
war"- and then he shows the rest of the Congress pictures of the destroyed
Danger Room... Cyclops mentions that this is definitely NOT good...
Back with Rogue and
Wolverine, they're barely managing to outrun the choppers that are now
on their tails- in fact, Wolverine (of all people!) gets knocked off the
bike once, setting them behind a bit before Rogue switches it into overdrive.
A little later, Wolverine
and Rogue crash in on the X-Men in the cave- literally, as Logan accidentally
rams into the "insta-TV holder", smashing it. Seems Rogue rides even faster
than HE'S used to... Anyway, Logan tells the X-Men that they've got to
get out of here, the military choppers aren't far behind them! Suddenly,
a familiar "whirring" sound is heard, and Rogue corrects him- the choppers
ARE here...
Logan tells the others
(maybe a little gleefully?) that they've got a fight on their hands...
until Cyclops intercepts Logan, telling him quickly that no, they don't.
He orders Iceman to ice up the entrance to the cave, keeping the choppers
from reaching them for the time being, as they launch missiles at the thick
ice wall.
Logan's furious at Scott
for defying him as Scott explains that they're supposed to be heroes, not
thugs. If they ever want humanity to accept them, then they need to show
them that they won't fight them aggressively, they will only defend themselves.
He knows that any one of them could smack those choppers down, easily,
but they shouldn't do so. He demonstrates how good the X-Men have become
by easily destroying a couple of incoming missiles via his eyeblasts with
little more than a turn of his head. Logan angrily asks Scott what's he
going to do then? Run!? Scott responds that yeah, that's what the Professor
would have them do, if he were here... Logan growls that they're on their
own, then. He takes off on his motorcycle while the teenage X-Men run out
of the cave, deflecting incoming missiles as Kurt and Kitty pop into the
chopper's cockpits and disable their weapons systems. Once they get into
the nearby Velocity, Jean grounds the choppers and bends their blades,
rendering them ineffective before the X-Men take off.
Meanwhile, a reporter
and her cameraman are heading towards a town where they hear a giant man
is running amok- they still need confirmation on whether it's a Mutant,
though. Just then, an empty police car comes hurling up the hill, slamming
into the road right next to them. Yep, it's a Mutant...
Juggernaut is heading
towards the city's large dam up in the surrounding mountains- he's taking
care of the local police force. The sheriff calls for army support, and
when asked how many backup troops he needs, he says for them to start with
the whole army and see where it goes from there...
Meanwhile, the Congress
proceedings are not going well. The outspoken Congressman has received
word of what Juggernaut is doing, and he calls it up on a large screen
in the room. The Congressman dares Storm and Beast to tell the thousands
of innocent people below that dam that "Mutants aren't dangerous"...
The teenage X-Men, in
the Velocity, see the proceedings going on via a viewscreen in the front-
Juggernaut's somehow gotten loose, and this time, the Professor isn't around
to stop him...
The X-Men ask Scott what they should do,
and at first, Scott has his reservations about going to stop Juggernaut.
Somehow, the humans will just blame the X-Men... again. And Juggernaut's
practically unstoppable without Xavier's help, anyway. Jean stops Scott,
and asks him what Xavier would do... Scott gives in and turns the Velocity
around, towards the dam.
Juggernaut, meanwhile,
is wreaking havoc on the dam, and completely stopping any military opposition
with no trouble at all. The aforementioned reporter and cameraman are covering
all of this happening for the nation as Juggernaut manages to down the
last of the military choppers.
Finally, the X-Men show up. Juggernaut's
almost happy to see them- he can't wait to pound them into a bloody pulp,
now that Xavier isn't around to help them out.
A pretty lengthy, ultra-cool
fight scene then begins between Juggernaut and the X-Men. The X-Men have
obviously gotten a LOT better than their last encounter with him in "Survival
of the Fittest", but alas, it doesn't seem to be enough. The X-Men
almost manage to subdue Juggernaut several times, via very creative uses
of their powers (one of the highlights is Shadowcat partially phasing a
falling Juggernaut into a block of cement), but although they manage to
get his helmet off, it doesn't help them out one bit. Eventually, though,
Rogue manages to get a hold of Juggernaut and saps his powers- although
he's still conscious afterwards, of course, because he's Juggernaut. However,
Rogue now has HIS powers, heheh, and lays the smackdown on him. She hurls
him off the dam, and Iceman completely freezes Juggernaut up in the air,
sending the giant human ice cube plunging into the waters far below.
Back in the Congress
room, the various Congressmen are cheering- except for the formerly outspoken
anti-Mutant guy, who is now confused. He hesitantly asks Storm and Beast
what...they just did... And Storm answers confidently that they did what
they were trained to do... use their powers for good.
Back with the X-Men
at the dam, some reinforcement military choppers have arrived, and are
searching the waters for Juggernaut- to no avail. He must be long gone,
Scott says. Suddenly, Rogue falls over, clutching her head. After asked
if she's alright, Rogue responds that yeah,
but she got a big dose of memories
from Cain, and... she knows where the Professor is!
Switch to the familiar
chamber that Juggernaut used to reside in in the maximum security jail.
Turns out Xavier's in that tank instead. The captain of the facility drains
the fluid from the tank and Scott grabs a sputtering Xavier. The captain
is completely bewildered how anyone could get Xavier in, much less Juggernaut
out. Jean responds that it must have been Mystique- they've learned the
hard way never to underestimate her... Wolverine then comes in, duped up
in a new costume and everything. (Why?) He admits that he was wrong in
this instance, and congratulates Scott on a job well done.
We then go over the
speech made by the President, where he formally renounces the X-Men of
any wrongdoing in the Sentinel disaster. He says the real perpetrator,
Dr. Trask, has been put in jail for his crimes. As the President goes on
about how this teaches us all that we should not judge people solely by
their differences, we zoom in on the ruined Mansion, where Xavier the other
X-Men, INCLUDING the New Mutants are standing, looking at the ruined rubble,
apparently getting ready to rebuild.
The speech soon ends,
and the reporter concludes the speech with "You heard the President on
his views of Mutants ...but will it work? That remains to be seen." We
then zoom over to another group watching the broadcast- Magneto's team,
in a secret hideout, and Magneto narrows his eyes at the screen as the
news reporter concludes the news story...
Last Words: Geezum crow, yet another awesome ep! This entire episode was flawless- except for the ending, regrettably. The ending definitely seemed rushed to me. The rather sudden revealing of where Xavier is, as well as the miminal amount of time spent on getting him out of there, was rather anti-climactic, in my opinion. And the New Mutants are back with the X-Men at the end of the episode, but we aren't shown what happened to them when they were with Caliban, and how they got back to the Institute. Do the X-Men now know about Caliban? They didn't explain that all, which left me a little miffed. However, if you can ignore the rushed ending, this was an excellently written episode, with nice speeches, and some really neat fight scenes. Scott has now officially become the leader of the teenage X-Men- before he was still unsure, but now it's pretty much set in stone. And the pure desperation experienced by the X-Men couldn't have been done better. Well done!
Overall Rating: 9/10 Excellent