Jonathan Dobres

Season 4, Episode 5. Air date: April 27, 1996.

X-Men: The Animated Series employed at least 37 writers over its five seasons, 20 of whom wrote one episode apiece. Of the writers with multiple credits, there doesn’t seem to be much consistency in the quality of their stories. Case in point: the same writer who gave us the season 2 standout, “Beauty and the Beast”, Stephanie Mathison, is also credited for “Xavier Remembers”. I don’t understand how the same person could have written both stories, because this episode is one of the thinnest yet.

At every step, this story commits the cardinal sin of telling rather than showing. Jean (Hi, Jean!) tells us that Xavier suffered a slight concussion (not pictured), which has made him vulnerable to attack from the Shadow King (last seen in season 2’s even worse “Whatever It Takes”). We’re told he fought the Shadow King long ago, but we’re shown only a single shot of that battle. We’re told that this encounter so profoundly affected Xavier that he founded the X-Men, but we’re given no sense of what set this apart from the many other fantastic encounters that characterize his life.

The good guys facing their worst nightmares is a pretty common Saturday morning trope. What’s less common is that the first time this happens, it’s not the team that experiences these visions; it’s Xavier thinking that the team is. When the Shadow King finally becomes strong enough to possess Xavier and torment the X-Men directly, about half that footage is shamelessly reused. The only new nightmare sequence, and by far the best of them, is Storm’s. The ceiling of her attic bedroom starts lowering, crushing everything in its way. Storm recognizes the presence of the Shadow King and refuses to give in to her greatest fear. This is about as good as the episode gets.

I cannot emphasize enough how little the Shadow King possessing Xavier matters. There’s a bit of evil monologuing and then Jean projects herself to the astral plane. She and Xavier, manifesting glowing weaponry, fight the Shadow King until he’s beaten. The fight is lengthy, boring, and badly animated. The characters are just outlines against starry backgrounds. My notes say, “More like the astral lame, right?” I want to believe this was an artistic choice, but it was a bad one. It probably freed up budget for “Sanctuary”.

Xavier closes the episode with the words, “He [the Shadow King] forced me to think through why I formed the X-Men, and why we fight for our ideals and for each other. In short, why I live. For that, I will always be grateful.” But this story has nothing to say about any of those things. It’s a totally unearned conclusion that makes no sense, the ultimate tell-don’t-show.

Stray observations:

• There’s an enjoyable sequence where the Shadow King switches gears and tries to sway Xavier by showing him his dreams coming true. The X-Men, all brightly dressed for a day at the beach, inform him that mutant-human peace has been achieved. “This place is great! No Sentinels!” chirps Jubilee while sipping a drink.

• You’re telling me that Wolverine, a guy who’s alternated between mercenary and government special agent for decades and has seen all manner of terrible things, is most afraid of Sabretooth?

• This is Jean’s first appearance since “The Dark Phoenix” (at least with a line) and Jubilee’s first line since “Savage Land, Strange Heart”. Been a while, ladies!

• When the X-Men are finally roused from sleep, Cyclops is the only one already in uniform.

• Xavier’s astral projection dons classical fencing gear to fight the Shadow King, as he did when he fought Dark Phoenix.

• The flashbacks to the founding of the X-Men, some of which are reused from “Sanctuary”, show Angel once again. Or rather, they show a weird mashup of bird-winged Angel and blue-faced Archangel. This has got to be an animation error.

• On the toilet: Rogue and Gambit, technically. They’re in the illusions and flashbacks, but are otherwise mysteriously absent from the real-world events.