Motendo / Lifedeath – Part 1
Whoops. Guess I’m not doing 5 posts this week. These posts take more time than you would expect and until I become a fully licensed wizard, I only have so many hours in a day. But this is the first episode of X-Men ’97 divided neatly into two stories and there’s not much extra research necessary for the first one, so that’s a bit easier. Let’s see if I can wrap this series up in time for the finale!
Remember when I said the title sequence changes just about every episode? Well as of this episode, the intro officially features Jean Grey. But wait, you may ask, wasn’t she there before? No! That was Madelyne, as shown by her hair being down in episodes 1 through 3! The real Jean is rocking a ponytail, as it should be. And shame on me but I just now noticed that Storm is missing from the title sequence. Or at least she doesn’t get a name card. I guess it’s a reflection of who’s actively on the team as of the current episode, so it makes sense she’s been missing.
Episode 4’s first half is “Motendo,” which is a portmanteau of “Mojo” and “Nintendo.” Who’s Mojo? Hoo boy… Okay, so you know how websites like YouTube or Facebook–and to a certain degree even television networks–have The Algorithm that is specifically designed to keep you engaged, and therefore you stay on their site? Mojo (Mr. David Errigo Jr) is the physical manifestation of that predatory programming, doing unspeakable evils all for ratings. He’s also like 500 pounds and literally has no spine so he moves around using robotic spider legs. I hate him because he’s gross, but that’s kind of the point. ANYWAY, today is Jubilee’s 18th birthday, but Magneto is not in the mood to let the X-Men celebrate. Dejected, Jubilee sulks with Roberto until she notices the titular Motendo game system set up in her room. Surely this is a surprise gift from her teammates, right? WRONG! Techno-tendrils burst out and attach themselves to the two youths. They wake up in Jube’s room, but things are… off. Almost like they’re trapped in a video game! Because they are. Roberto refuses to use his powers or play along, leaving Jubilation to progress through the levels. Once they realize where they are, Mojo appears and… oh man is he unpleasant to look at. He’s… skinny. But not skinny-skinny; more like a 500 pound spineless blob lost a bunch of weight but kept all the skin. It’s worse than usual! He plumps back up when the ratings for his new game come in, because Jubilee is a hit. But as the heroes play a total homage to the X-Men arcade game from 1992–which wasn’t based on the X-Men animated series but was instead pulling from X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, which I will get to one day–a mysterious female figure dressed up in leather and spikes keeps helping them. And they need her help, especially when Roberto nearly dies during the boss battle against Magneto. Her name is Abscissa, and she’s voiced by Alyson Court, AKA Jubilee’s voice actress from the 90’s who voluntarily stepped back so an Asian actress could voice the team’s only Asian character! And that fits, since she’s revealed to be a digital, aged replica of Jubilee that Mojo used as a “beta tester,” and the only survivor of said tests. Jubilee agrees that she can’t stay here forever and needs to go back to the real world and grow up, which Mojo hates. He’s the final boss, and during the fight Abscissa shows off some new uses of Jubilee’s powers. Even Roberto joins in by using his powers! After Mojo snd the Motendo system explode, Jubilee and Roberto wake up back in the real world and end this half-episode with a kiss.
Then it’s on to “Lifedeath – Part 1,” featuring Storm and Forge trying to fix her lack of powers. There are obvious romantic overtones as the two share dinner, and we learn a bit about Forge–he can invent anything he can think of, and only vaguely says he was in “a war” when asked about his robotic hand and leg. Siding timescale says not to mention Vietnam anymore! As the two get ready to–WOAH, HEY, THAT’S AN EASTER EGG WORTH MENTIONING HERE! On Forge’s wall is a photo of him back in his war days with two men–one’s an old scientist, and the other has his face cut off by another picture. But we can see this second man wearing a black costume with pink around the neck, gold buckles on the chest, and it appears he has light pink skin and white hair. That’s definitely Bastion, he’s bad fucking news, and I’ll talk about him in a later post. Just… know that he was foreshadowed. Anyway, Forge uses his invention in an attempt to fix Storm, but it doesn’t seem to work. Ororo finally breaks down facing a future with no powers, and it’s not helped when Forge reveals that he helped invent the technology used to remove a mutant’s abilities while he worked at the Defense Department. She does not take it well. And Forge thought saying he loved her would fix the situation? Read the fucking room, my guy… That night Storm has a nightmare, brought on by a demon who identifies itself as… the Adversary?! I… huh. Honestly didn’t expect the show to reference him. The Adversary bites Forge and advances on Storm. To be continued.
Let’s start with the Easter eggs. When Mojo is talking about how the X-Men are like TV shows from the 80’s and 90’s, the image we see associated with A Different World includes several X-Men, as well as Northstar and Darwin. Darwin was in X-Men: First Class and… I’ll talk about how that movie failed him some other day. During player select for X-Men: The Rise of Jubilee, the player one and player two were Jubilee and Roberto, but other, unselected options include Colossus, Magik, Longshot, and what appears to be Cable. MAN, SURE SEEMS LIKE THIS CABLE GUY IS GONNA SHOW UP AT SOME POINT!
Over with the comics, I don’t have much to say about Abscissa. She appeared in two issues of Wolverine (1988 – 2003), specifically first appearing in Wolverine #52 (1992). She was a future version of Jubilee, but something something time paradox, she ceased to exist the following issue. I wasn’t following Wolverine’s solo comic at that time, and I really don’t feel like I missed anything super important. It was the era of Albert and Elsie-Dee–who appear in those issues–and no, I will not explain who those characters are. Some things are better left bur–WHAT DO YOU MEAN ALBERT SHOWED UP IN DARK X-MEN (2024)?! UGH.
I’ll save the Adversary for “Lifedeath – Part 2,” but what is “Lifedeath,” anyway? Well, it all started in Uncanny X-Men #185 (1984) when Henry Peter Gyrich used a power-neutralizing gun designed by Forge on Rogue, but Storm took the blast for her teammate. Man, Gyrich has always been a shit, hasn’t he? The following issue–Uncanny X-Men #186 (1984) for if/when I get to that issue over on my comic blog, Chwineka Reads–is called Lifedeath, where Forge tends to Storm, who has lost her will to live. She perks up a bit and the two start to fall for each other, until Forge reveals his involvement in creating the gun. They part on bad terms, as you can imagine. Sometime later in Uncanny X-Men #198 (1985) the story continued in Lifedeath: From the Heart of Darkness, largely a sequel in name only. Storm goes on a trek in Africa that essentially boils down to helping a woman give birth, and then sitting with the village elder as he dies to maintain a population balance. It’s… not really referenced by anything, like, ever, so do with this info whatever you will.
Previous: Episode 3
Next: Episode 5
Follow Me Elsewhere
Chwineka Watches 
Leave a comment