"Operation: Rebirth"
Writer: Bob Forward
Director: Gary Graham
Original Air Date: March 30, 2002
Introducing: Nick Fury
Synopsis/Review: This episode begins
with Wolverine motorcycling down a rural road- y'know, what he's doing
in every other episode he's in anyway. Well, a chopper following him, and
we see...somebody.... do an x-ray scan on Logan and find out that his bones
are adamantium. Yep, this is the guy they're looking for. Logan, meanwhile,
smells something and unsheathes his claws- in them he can see the chopper's
reflection. Logan runs off the road, hoping to lose the chopper in the
forest. The guy in the chopper calls for the two ground pursuit vehicles,
themselves hidden in the forest, to go after Logan, and they comply. Logan
manages to evade/trash the two pursuit vehicles (complete with laser cannons!),
and he eventually drives out of the forest... right onto a dead-end cliff
edge. The chopper manages to hover down right next to the cliff face, and
a gray-haired man with an eyepatch steps out, saying hello to "Weapon X"...
Wolverine asks Fury
(Nick Fury) what he wants. Nick responds that they needs Logan's help,
but Logan refuses- he doesn't work for S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore. Nick says,
hey, that's alright, oh, and by the way, gunner, target Logan's bike. The
gunner locks on, and Logan growls angrily and turns back towards Nick-
yep, Wolverine's motorcycle's his weak point. Logan angrily asks what Fury
wants, and Fury says that the Rebirth project was stolen- he shows Logan
a picture of a large hole in the side of the max. security building, the
metal apparently bent outwards until it split. Logan identifies it as Magneto,
but... he thought the Rebirth project was destroyed? Fury says that they
had a backup copy, just in case. Figures. Logan reluctantly accepts the
mission.
Back at Bayville, Rogue
and Kurt and walking through the schoolyard to their next class when some
big rude guy pushes by one of them, telling them to get out of the way,
Rogue angrily points out that "I think the phrase you're looking for is
'pardon me'!?" Well, he don't like that, obviously, and starts pushing
Rogue, and Kurt jumps in and the big guy crushes his holowatch... revealing
Kurt's true self. The bully's understandably freaked out, and is about
to go off and tell other kids about it when Jean comes up, using a "Jedi
mind trick", heheh, to make the bully believe he didn't see anything, and
to walk away. Jean asks Kurt if he's okay, but Kurt just mutters that he's
used to this by now, and teleports out.
Later, at the X-Mansion,
after a short, cute scene in which Wolfsbane "helps" Multiple with his
homework, we see Wolverine talking to Xavier while the two take a stroll
(or, in Xavier's case, "ride",) in the Mansion's yard. Wolverine tells
Xavier about what transpired earlier that day, and what Project Rebirth
was all about. Apparently, it was a top-secret project by the U.S. government
during World War II, to create "super soldiers" to fight the Nazis. A guy
named Steve Rodgers was the first (and only) guy that underwent the process.
Steve Rodgers became Captain America, and went forth to kick much Nazi
booty. We learn that Logan was also around back then- his anti-aging factor
that's a side effect of his regeneration abilities made this possible-
and he served in the U.S. Military alongside Steve Rodgers. Both were rather
good friends. Xavier responds that he didn't know Logan was THAT old- wow,
those regeneration powers are amazing. And then they talk about how the
Rebirth Project created a very powerful machine (capable of producing super-humans).
And now, Logan says angrily, it's in the hands of Magneto...
Later, Rogue and Kurt
have just returned from their day at school and are walking through a hallway
of the Mansion when the lights flicker. Rogue mentions that it MIGHT be
a power surge, or... "Cerebro!" Kurt mentions. They run off to go check
it out.
In said Cerebro, Xavier's
pulling up a map of all the known Mutants on the world, represented by
colored dots. There's a TON of 'em, and Logan says so. Mutants definitely
aren't going to be under wraps much longer... Xavier says that he can't
locate Magneto via Cerebro, so he can't help Logan there. Rogue, peeking
in the entrance along with Kurt, starts to say something, only to stop.
Logan looks up and notices her, and asks her what the eavesdropper wanted.
Rogue says that she got a bunch of memories from Magneto when she touched
him in New York City. (Remember, in "On Angel's
Wings"?) She says that one of those memories is of some dome, somewhere
in the Sahara Desert. She doesn't no exactly where, but she can point out
some landmarks if she recognizes them. Logan gets what she's hinted at,
and tells her sternly that she is NOT coming along. Rogue stubbornly responds
that he won't be able to find Magneto otherwise- and the only way to get
in the metal dome is with the power of magnetism, or... "Teleportation!"
Kurt pipes in again, glad that he's going on the mission as well. Logan
just groans and shakes his head.
Later, the three X-Men
are all suited up, and they all take off in the Velocity helicopter-jet
thingy (Logan piloting, of course). Kurt's excited that he's finally going
on an official mission, and Rogue responds that it's not really any big
deal- there's not really many of them here. Besides Logan, they're just
a team of two.
The "team of two" phrase
triggers a flashback in Logan's mind- we phase back to WWII, where Logan
and Captain America are in an airplane, being briefed on their mission.
Their instructor tells them that the "team of two" will be dropped into
a Nazi prison camp, to free some POWs. They're to hold the place for a
minute or so until more troops can arrive by ground. And it's gonna be
a REAL quick drop, too- no parachutes.
The plane swoops low
over the Nazi POW camp, and manages to evade enemy fire long enough to
quickly drop Logan and Captain America right into the POW building. The
two quickly usher the inside citizens out, Logan grabbing a small boy and
helping him out. Logan and Captain America both manage to single (or is
it double?)-handedly keep the Nazis at bay until the reinforcements arrive.
They're helped out by the small boy, who- magnetizes!?- incoming grenades
away to explode at a safe distance. As Logan helps the boy onto the rescue
truck, he asks what the boy's name is. The boy responds, in obviously a
tone that suggests that English is not his first language, that his name
is Eric Leinsherr- thanks for saving them!
The flashback is interrupted
when he realizes they're getting close to the metal dome, as Rogue spots
a familiar landmark. They eventually spot the metal dome in the distance
and land, not wanting to get too close to the dome's defense systems. They
go back to the cargo bay, and get out some dune buggies- or sand... motorcycles...
or whatever. I'm not familiar with whatever sand-traveling vehicles they
got out. Rogue, after hooking some explosives to her hip and putting on
her helmet, idly asks what happened to the Rebirth project, and Logan tells
her that the project had a flaw- it caused the recipient's cells to slowly
break down. In short, Captain America was dying... Determined not to let
the army use the machine on (and, as a consequence, kill) another human
being, Captain America and Logan (or, as he tells Rogue, "...another guy",)
secretly infiltrated the building where the Rebirth machine was and blew
it up. But now, Logan said, there's a backup... and Magneto has it. With
that, the three take off in the sand vehicle thingies, heading towards
the dome. They soon run into the missile defense systems, which the barely
manage to dodge 'till they make it to the dome. As soon as they get there,
an errant missile strikes the ground in back of them, sending them all
flying off their sand motorcycle thingies. Kurt manages to quickly grab
all of them before they hit the ground, and teleports them all inside the
dome.
Inside, they find out
that the place is under construction, but otherwise empty- except for the
large greenish containment unit on the other side of the dome. The three
cautiously make their way towards it, until Sabretooth tackles Wolverine
and a metal beam (controlled by an out-of-sight Magneto) catches Rogue
and Kurt and traps them between it and a one of the walls of the dome.
Kurt manages to quickly teleport out from behind the metal beam and catch
Rogue's thrown explosive pack, quickly teleporting again to the machine,
where Kurt straps the explosives on the thing and is about to pull the
pin out, when he hears a familiar voice telling him not to do so... it's
Magneto in there! He looks reeeeaally old, too. Kurt, confused, asks Magneto
what happened to him!? Magneto explains that he's an old man- up until
now, his Mutant powers had kept him young enough to endure the physical
activity he had to do in order to keep running his "team". But no more.
The Rebirth machine will help make him younger again, give him new strength!
Kurt says that Magneto's got it wrong- that machine slowly kills whatever
it effects! Magneto counters that that's only for normal humans- for Mutants,
though, it grants them long life.
Meanwhile, Wolverine
finally manages to knock out Sabretooth and angrily asks Kurt what's going
on- pull the pin already!
Kurt's torn as Magneto
begs him not to destroy the machine that's about to revive him. Is he THAT
much like his mother!? That hits Kurt where it hurts, and Kurt reluctantly
looks down as the machine finally activates, and Magneto is turned back
into his old self. Wolverine's not so understanding, though, and runs over,
gets Kurt and Magneto's limp body, and pulls out the pin, managing to get
far enough away from the machine so its explosion doesn't hurt them, it
only knocks over a bunch of steel girders and stuff. And the metal beam
holding Rogue to the wall is dropped, too.
Magneto stands up, looks
at the destroyed machine, and is furious with Logan. He immediately uses
his powers to cobble together a bunch of the metal to form a giant metal
spider-like thing, which he tries to get to deal with the three X-Men.
He manages to knock out Kurt and pin down Rogue and Logan with the thing.
Just as it seems that he's about to kill them, he holds- he says that although
he has them at his mercy, Kurt spared his life. So he will spare theirs
this one time and grant them safe passage out. (He's apparently over his
quick bout of anger by now.) Logan sort of smirks, and he, Rogue, and the
now-recovered Kurt make their way back to the Velocity. Well, Kurt says,
that's that. They've completed their mission. Logan responds that it's
not quite over yet- he wants to stop to see an old friend first...
Later, we see Nick Fury
lead Logan into a room in a top-secret government building, apparently
S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. In there is none other than Captain America,
in stasis under cryogenic ice. Logan comes up to the comatose Captain America
sorrowfully and tells him that they had a victory today... for him. And
that they're sure to eventually find a cure for the Rebirth Project's effects.
Someday... An interesting point is that Logan's voice is cracking- for
the first time ever in the series, he's actually close to crying.
Before he can get any
more emotional, Logan walks back to Nick Fury, who reminds Logan that he
was never here. Logan sadly nods his head, and Nick Fury leads Logan out
of the room, leaving the frozen Captain America to himself...
Last Words: This episode was wonderfully written, with nice dialogue and a good story. Many people see this as primarily Wolverine's episode, but it's just as much his as it is Magneto's. We find out quite a bit about both of their pasts, and we learn of Magneto's jaded view of humanity (since he used to be in the Nazi concentration camps) and of Wolverine's past with S.H.I.E.L.D. We also see a side of Logan we've never really seen before at the end of the episode- a side that deeply mourns for his as-good-as-lost friend. Rogue and Kurt were really just in the ep for variety of character. My only major complaint about this episode is that it consisted of too many flashbacks- it seemed like the half the episode was taken up by them. I would have better liked Logan's past with S.H.I.E.L.D. to be slowly revealed over several eps, instead of the "Okay, here's what you missed- now here's the REAL story" attitude that is prevalent in the episode. Flashbacks just don't have quite the "suspense" inherent in them as the actual story, since... you know at least partially how flashbacks are going to turn out. Also, the scene in school with Rogue, Kurt, Jean, and the bully didn't really have any impact on the story at all, or any extra characterization added to any of the characters... it just seemed to be in there to take up time. Additionally, in case you're wondering, I didn't put "Captain America" in the "Introducing" part because I don't consider him an official character in the Evolution universe; he doesn't even have any lines! Other than these small problems, this was a practically flawless ep. Definitely worth your time.
Overall Rating: 9/10 Excellent
(NOTE: This episode was aired as the fourteenth episode of Season 2, even though, in actuality, it is the eleventh.)