Jonathan Dobres

Air date: November 6, 1993

There are three non-intersecting stories in this episode and only one of them is any good. “Whatever It Takes” is very whatever.

The A-plot concerns the return of the Shadow King. This is strange from the jump, because we’ve never heard of the Shadow King before. Rogue and Storm simply explain that Xavier fought him previously, and defeated him. It sounds like that would make for an epic multi-part story, but we’re never going to see it. In fact we’ll only see the Shadow King in one other episode, three years from this one. Anyway he’s back now, having emerged from a tear in the astral plane to possess Storm’s godson, MjNari. Storm agrees to become the Shadow King’s host, which frees MjNari and gives her the opportunity to attempt to kill the Shadow King (and herself) by flying up to where the air is too thin. MjNari, who in addition to his speedster powers can perceive the astral tear, then lures the King back to the astral plane and gives him the runaround until Storm physically pulls him out of the closing portal.

All of the action takes place near Mount Kilimanjaro. I’m going to go ahead and guess that the depiction of Storm’s home village as a simple agrarian people living in thatched roof huts is not exactly culturally sensitive. At least we get a little more background on Storm and what connects her to humanity (Rogue is there, too). The Shadow King is another Chris Claremont original, a deeply malevolent psychic entity that regularly tangles with Earth’s most powerful telepath, Charles Xavier. Here he’s a deep-voiced cackling ghost with vague plans for rebuilding his unseen empire. For a much more interesting portrayal, go watch the first season of Legion.

The B-plot is Wolverine’s quest to find and rescue Morph. Wolverine tracks them to Brazil (somehow), finding them in a random bar. Morph doesn’t want to be rescued and puts up a pretty good fight, first getting Wolverine off balance by mocking him as Jean, and then transforming into several other mutants and wild animals to overwhelm his would-be rescuer. Should Morph really be able to take down Wolverine this easily? Maybe, maybe not. But neither character actually wants to kill the other. Morph makes clear that they have to get through things by themselves, saying, “I have to get through this by myself!” (the writing in this episode is not subtle). It’s a shame this story wasn’t given a little more time. The brief fight is creative, and Wolverine’s simple motive of “This person is my friend, we did wrong by them, and I’m going to fix that,” deserved more.

And finally, we briefly check in on Xavier and Magneto in the C-plot. They climb out of the avalanche and note that they’re near a rainforest, which is pretty unusual for Antarctica. Magneto explains that this is the Savage Land, a place he’s a little familiar with for as yet unexplained reasons. Neither of them has their powers, but somehow Xavier can walk. Before they can process this, they are attacked by men riding pterodactyls, summoned by a mysterious figure at a surveillance console (sure seems familiar). Both men go over a waterfall, to be continued, etc.

Stray observations:

• Storm is so given to Dramatic Pronouncements that it’s starting to feel like she can’t invoke her powers without them. She is especially dramatic here, bringing the rains, wind, and lightning when called for.

• There’s no reason for Rogue to accompany Storm to her village, and there’s not much for her to do there. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to take a telepath like Jean along to investigate a psychic phenomenon? The best explanation I can think of is that Storm and Rogue are friends.

• Catherine Disher has a lot of fun voicing Morph-as-Jean, and it’s nice to hear her branch out just a little from what has been a pretty flat role so far. “Whenever I’m with you, all I can think about is how much I’m in love with Cyclops!”