Operation: Zero Tolerance stands revealed as Bastion launches his attack on mutantkind, the X-Men mount a desperate (and blade-y) counterattack and an old friend returns in X-Men ’97 season 1, episode 8, “Tolerance Is Extinction Part 1,” written by Beau DeMayo and Anthony Sellitti and directed by Chase Conley.
Say this for the series: It’s not holding anything back. At this point, we know it’s getting at least a second season, but the creators probably didn’t know that when crafting these inaugural 10 episodes. As such, they’re writing like they’ve got only one shot at this and want to cram in as much good stuff as possible. Sometimes, as with “Fire Made Flesh,” this can create a disorientating sensation for comics-knowledgeable viewers as decades of plotlines and character development get condensed into one 30-minute installment. At other times, it creates a dense and exciting viewing experience, which is the case here. Moreover, with the endgame of season 1 clearly revealed to be a riff on “Operation: Zero Tolerance,” the last of the “big” annual X-Men event crossovers from their initial heyday, X-Men ’97 is even occasionally finding ways to improve on the source material.
Following on from the reveal of Bastion and his Prime Sentinels as well as the return of Cable last episode, “Tolerance Is Extinction Part 1” widens the scale and nature of Bastion’s threat. Thanks to a bit of psychometry from Jean, it’s revealed that Bastion is a mutant/human/Sentinel hybrid, born of the machinations of the far-future Nimrod who traveled back in time to infect Bastion’s father with itself via some techno-organic goo, in order to … birth itself in hybrid form as Bastion. From there, Bastion has used a similar process, born of the techno-organic virus with which Mister Sinister infected baby Nathan in “Fire Made Flesh,” to populate the planet with a series of sleeper Prime Sentinels, normal humans who, when coming into contact with mutants, transform into powerful human-shaped Sentinels.
Bastion’s attack unfolds in “Tolerance Is Extinction Part 1” via three different action sequences that cover the final third of the episode: Cyclops, Cable and Jean Grey trying to escape the Sentinel-fied residents of Bastion’s hometown; Jubilee and Roberto trying to fight off Prime Sentinels (including Roberto’s butler) in Manhattan; and Wolverine and Nightcrawler defending the mansion from a siege of protesters-turned-Sentinels. The episode effortlessly and at times elegantly cuts back and forth between these sequences. An explosion that concludes a beat in one transitions into an explosion that leads off the next beat in another sequence. Wolverine gets blasted into the sky, then fall-fights his way through Prime Sentinels back to the ground. Cyclops channels big dad energy as Jean drives his Porsche through a mountain while he blasts a tunnel for them and Cable covers his back by picking off Sentinels. The camera moves around Nightcrawler and Wolverine as they fight back to back to protect a comatose Rogue, making the space feel expansive as it swirls and zooms around their respective blades. It’s big, bold, exciting action storytelling on par with anything the series has done before.
It also works to underscore the threat posed by the Prime Sentinels, and in doing so, improves on the comic book version of “Operation: Zero Tolerance.” When the Sentinel-fied Trish Tilby declares “Surrender, mutant” to her would-be paramour Beast, the dialogue is a callback to the monotone catchphrase of the traditional two-story-tall Sentinels. But coming from Trish, it becomes even more sinister and threatening. Moments ago, she was a potential love interest. Now, she’s a killer robot. The Prime Sentinels are terrifying because they could be anyone, and because, once they activate, they just keep coming, more akin to zombies than robots. The initial transformation sequences tap into a body horror element as, for example, Bastion’s mother’s form cracks and breaks as the Sentinel programming takes over. Wolverine cuts off a Sentinel’s hand, and the Sentinel resorts to using its tongue as a weapon (while the hand continues to crawl along the ground toward him). As the Sentinels swarm the Blackbird, one tries to punch its way into the cockpit using its head. The Sentinels of old are big and lumbering, threatening for being massive, immovable walls of robot. These Sentinels are even scarier, because they swarm, they’re everywhere, they’re both human and decidedly not. It’s a vast improvement on the comic book version, where all too often the Prime Sentinels were no more threatening, once they’d been revealed, than a regular old Sentinel, just more robots to punch.
The sequence involving Roberto and Jubilee offers another new angle on the threat as well. Throughout “Tolerance Is Extinction Part 1,” it’s established that Bastion is waging a PR campaign as much as he is a physical attack on mutantkind. He explains to Val Cooper that the attack on Genosha was less about killing mutants as it was overwhelming the general public’s capacity for sympathy. He leaks evidence of Xavier’s survival — and Gyrich’s death — to further undermine public sympathy for mutants and raise suspicions. And when the Prime Sentinels chasing Roberto and Jubilee follow them into the charity gala being hosted by Roberto’s mother, they shift tactics. They deny they’re trying to kill the young mutants. Instead, say the Prime Sentinels, they’re trying to save mutants. Now, it’s the X-Men who are the crazy ones, claiming they’re being targeted by beings who insist they just want to help. X-Men ’97 is firmly set in the year 1997, yet this additional angle to Bastion’s attack is particularly resonant today. Now, the Sentinels are programmed with the power of gaslighting.
Of course, “Tolerance Is Extinction Part 1” still suffers from some of the pacing issues affecting the whole season, born of its short episode order and the (understandable) desire of the creators to cram as much story as possible into it. One of the main ways the Prime Sentinels are distinct from other Sentinels is the whole “they could be anyone” paranoia built into their premise, but that gets mostly blown apart in seconds here. An extra episode or two in which that tension was allowed to mount before exploding into the massive attack on mutants presented in this episode would have further built up the impact of their threat (It’s also not terribly clear what causes, say, Roberto’s butler from activating now vs. all the other times he was around Roberto, other than the fact that Bastion has since explained to the audience by explaining to Val Cooper how Prime Sentinels work).
That aside, “Tolerance Is Extinction Part 1” remains a thrilling episode. It showcases some of the series’ best action sequences while building up the threat of Bastion and Operation: Zero Tolerance in ways that both take advantage of the medium and improve on the comic book origins of the story. In doing so, it expresses a remarkable confidence in itself. X-Men ’97 is no longer content to simply do right by the stories it’s adapting; it’s now clear it also wants to surpass them.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Teasing his return at episode’s end, Professor X is back in the opening credits.
- Morph gets the line of the episode, when learning about Cable’s future: “Another dystopia where Logan is the last to die.”
- Images of that future include cameos by the mutant with super speed and metal arms who first appeared in Bishop’s timeline in “Days of Future Past Part 1,” an older Polaris and an older Rachel Summers.
- Beast references the “mystics of Kamar-Taj” and Jean sees a flier for the “Stark Expo” in the memories of Bastion’s childhood home; more MCU tie-ins.
- In the establishing shot of New York City, the World Trade Center towers are visible.
- William Stryker is the talking head on TV in Roberto’s apartment, looking more like his “God Loves, Man Kills” self than his X2 self.
- Growing torn on the “Val is Mystique” theory; on the one hand, freeing Magneto seems very Mystique-esque. On the other hand, it seems hard to believe she could be around all those Prime Sentinels (and Bastion) without being caught as a mutant.
- Bastion’s origins here are decidedly different from the comic book version (and bonkers, to be clear), though similar in spirit (in the comics, he is the merged form of Nimrod and Master Mold created by the Siege Perilous, an Aruthurian gem-turned-portal that takes people in and spits them out as their “true selves,” used periodically by the X-Men toward the end of Chris Claremont’s run).
- Bastion is working with some kind of Council of Evil, which includes Doctor Doom(!), Baron Zemo(!!) and an unrevealed woman who might be Viper/Madame Hydra?
- Jubilee dons a black jumpsuit in this episode which, when paired with her signature yellow coat, resembles the look she had in the comics during the surprisingly long mid-2010s “Jubilee is a vampire” era.
- Trish brings Beast hot cocoa from “Kate’s Coffee,” possibly a reference to Kate Pryde?
- Cyclops is totally the kind of dad who wants biographies or history books for Father’s Day (To be clear, so am I).
- After being released by Val, Magneto sets off a planet-wide EMP (something he did in X-Men Vol. 2 #25), which presumably wipes out at least the active Prime Sentinels (while also presumably killing A LOT of people). It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out (and if there’s a reason Bastion didn’t kill him when this seems like a pretty big obstacle to his plans).
- Val also declares “Magneto was right,” as X-Men ’97 continues to draw on post-1997 X-Men iconography/memes.
- In the grand comic book tradition of “establish an event as a Big Deal by showing characters around the world reacting to it,” we see Spider-Man, Silver Samurai and Omega Red reacting to Magneto’s attack.
- When Xavier crash lands on Earth, he’s wearing the same kind of bug-like space suit Lilandra wore when she arrived.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
