After the two-part premiere with the sentinels and the introduction to the team. The third ever episode of X-Men: The Animated Series introduced the group’s most iconic villain Magneto. It also further explored the themes of prejudice with a subplot involving Beast.
The episode’s introduction is a good way of establishing the difference between Magneto and Professor X before the two are even onscreen together. Beast is still locked up following the events of the previous episode. That is, until Magneto arrives to break him out and attack the facility. Beast, however, refuses to go with him saying he and Charles believe him having his day in court will help show humans how similar they are to mutants.
It’s a good way of highlighting the different beliefs between the two men. Magneto gave up on peace long ago and is disgusted by Charles’ hope to improve relations between humans and mutants. What I like about the debate is that the show doesn’t make Charles right. Beast goes to court, still faces hatred from humans and is denied bail. When Sabretooth and later attacks the courtroom, we see firsthand how Magneto’s way is obviously flawed as well because just attacking humans won’t solve anything.
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What I love about the original iteration of this show is that just three episodes in it feels like an ensemble. Every character gets to have a focus put on them. Again, it’s not like the films or even recent comics and series that push everyone else in the background in order to focus on Wolverine. They feel like a real team. Above all, Cyclops feels like a real leader.
If there’s any criticism for this episode, it might be how quickly they go through the backstory between Professor X and Magneto. Also, Sabretooth randomly showing up in the courtroom and immediately tearing stuff up is kind of funny, though I’m not sure if it was supposed to be.
Overall, “Enter Magneto: is a strong episode following the show’s two-part pilot. On top of introducing the primary antagonist, it also doubles down on the more mature themes bigotry and hatred through the relationship between humans and mutants.
