It’s the second part of a story that started two weeks ago. Will Storm get her powers back? Are all those Genoshans dead?
SPOILER WARNING! The following contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 Episode “Lifedeath Pt. 2”! Do not proceed if you wish to avoid spoilers!
MAJOR POINTS
- Charles Xavier is back and he’s WALKING!
- Storm has her powers back
Deathbird leads a Shi’ar attack on The Kree. her victory monologue is interrupted by Empress Lillandra announcing her engagement to Xavier, who appears in a gold exoskeleton that allows him to walk again. Deathbird demands that Charles renounce all memories of Earth and The X-Men or the marriage will be forbidden by Shi’ar law. Rather than get angry, Xavier uses his teaching skills to explain how The Shi’ar’s ways of fear and conquering other species are wrong. But before he convinces them, he gets a vision of Gambit’s death and the massacre on Genosha.
Meanwhile, on Earth, The Adversary taunts Storm. Forge uses arcane magic to bind The Adversary and send it through a portal. She takes him to Snowsnake Tower, a Civil War outpost, to treat his injuries with a rare cactus. The Adversary reappears as Storm fights her claustrophobia crawling through a tiny tunnel. However, Storm realizes her powers are suppressed by her self-doubt and the lie that humans will never accept mutants. She rises and thwarts The Adversary with her returning powers. With The Adversary defeated, Storm and Forge discuss where they can go to be happy. But their happiness is short-lived when they turn on the TV and see the reports of the massacre on Genosha.
MAJOR QUESTIONS
- Will The Shi’ar attack now Earth
- Is Magneto still alive given that Xavier didn’t see a vision of his death?
FINAL GRADE: B
The “double-story” format we discussed last week was fully displayed here. Both stories deal with characters turning away from the present to embrace the past of who they are. Now that Storm sees what happened to Genosha, she’ll likely return to help in whatever ways she can. It will also be interesting to see if the rest of the world learns that Xavier’s death was a lie. And if they do, will it undo any sympathy for mutants?