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Proteus, Parts One And Two Review and by Stu, Media by Jim Harvey Episode #51 - Proteus, Part One Original Airdate - September 30th, 1995 Moira MacTaggert's son Kevin, also known as Proteus, is suffering from an uncontrollable mutation. Moira scrambles to find a cure while trying to hide the true identity of her son, but when he escapes from Muir Island she has no choice but to call on the X-Men for help. Episode #52 - Proteus, Part Two Original Airdate - October 7th, 1995 When Proteus discovers that his deadbeat dad is a prominent politician, he storms the Union Hall to disrupt his father's speech to tell him that he is his son. Angered at his father's reaction, Proteus creates havoc, and becomes an unstoppable force even the X-Men can't contain. Now it's up to Professor Xavier to prevent Proteus from hurting himself along with everyone else. Credits Written By: Bruce Reid Schaefer (Part 1), Luanne Crocker (Part 2) Music Composed By: Shuki Levy Animation Services By: AKOM Review: A nice two-part, standalone story with some great moments for each of the X-Men here. The villain here isn’t really a villain, and the viewer can sympathise with him, as well as understand the situation Xavier and co are in, as they seem powerless to stop the boy. I’ve been told the comic which this story is based on is a lot more brutal, but given that this aired on Fox Kids, only a fool would expect them to try and get some of the edgier stuff in there. Working with the smaller roster seems to greatly benefit the stories, with only 4 X-Men, Moira and Banshee here, it gave all of them time to be developed, especially Moira, Xavier and Logan. The scene in the Blackbird with Xavier reminiscing about his former loves was odd to say the least. It did offer insight to his past, which I appreciate, it’s just the way it was shown. It leapt right into it, without any indication to inform the viewer that it was a flashback. Given the length of it, it was more than a little odd to watch. I thought Xavier was portrayed well throughout the episode. He obviously still has feeling for Moira, and is willing to go to great lengths to help her, as shown by his snapping at Wolverine’s “Big deal!” line in the Blackbird. I was surprised with Logan’s characterisation here. Some people thought they went to far with it just to make Proteus look stronger, but I thought it worked. Given how he was practically fearless and never hesitated to get into a fight, it was simply shocking to see him run away. Between that, crying and throwing up, it wasn’t a good time to Wolverine. I liked how they later brought this up in the episode “The Lotus and The Steel”. The sequence in which he ripped apart by Proteus had some stunning visuals, which were often simply painful to look at. It was arguably one of the series most shocking moments! The episode’s visuals were above average, Proteus himself was given a nice, simple design that wasn’t too much of a bother to animate, and he had some great effects whenever his powers were used, even in the usually shoddy backgrounds. The plot revolving around the boys Father was a good one, and made me feel for Proteus plight. As someone who’s Dad also left him when he was a little boy, I couldn’t help wanting someone to kick McTargert in the crotch and run. Whilst this episode wasn’t anything exceptionally brilliant, it was still a very good story in my opinion, plus, it had a happy ending, which is simply a rarity in X-Men. Screenshots: