Episode #16 - Power Surge
Original Airdate October 13th, 2001

Jean struggles to control her mutant abilties as Scott makes his move towards romancing her.

Credits
Written By: Doug Molitor
Directed By: Gary Graham
Music Composed By: William Anderson
Animation Services By: FIND OUT
Guest Starring: Dale Wilson as Principal Kelly and Vincent Gale as Duncan Matthews.

Review: An interesting episode that greatly expanded on the fun relationship between Scott and Jean. I always liked this version of Scott and Jean, as I found developing their romance to is much more interesting than simply having them being lovey dovey. The chase is much more thrilling than the fruit when it comes to watching romance, in my opinion. It’s a shame the movies and TAS never knew this, as I find both interpretations of this relationship to be really, really dull.

The thought of a mutant power being too much to control is interesting on it’s own, but adding it to Jean and the potential Phoenix storylines simply come brewing out of it. The story itself was handled exceptionally, there was a great sense of danger to the situation, especially how dangerous someone with Jean’s power could be. I’ve never been a massive fan of the former Marvel Girl, as I always found here to be a bit on the bland side, but the Evolution proved to be interesting. The only version that really compares is the super spunky version in Ultimate X-Men, most of which wouldn’t be suitable in a Saturday morning cartoon. I don’t think BS and P would like lines like “Marvel Girl? I outgrew that name two bra sizes ago”, do you?

This episode also threw a great surprise at me, by introducing one of my favourite X-Men into the show, Beast! I remember being thrilled when he turned up, and was intrigued that he was one of their teachers. Whilst connecting everyone to the school was passé at this point (did we ever need Mystique as the principal?), it made a whole lot of sense with Beast. I especially liked that we got to see a little of McCoy before Beast fully came into play. He was really likeable here too. They really did do a spot on job with our beloved Beast.

The ending was one of the best in the entire shows run. There’s something that I’ve always liked about seeing team mates turned against each other, and the visual of an overpowered Jean making everything in the room levitate was utterly awesome. The visuals of this show are outstanding, there’s no denying it. Whilst some episodes do look better than others, this particular episode is especially well grafted when compared to the others. It’s helped by some tremendous animation. I hope that Fantastic Four looks this good, I really do.

Speaking of visuals, the great use of body language in the characters is once again found in the closing moments, with Scott’s awkwardness around Jean slightly decreasing, but his frustration over her relationship is kicking in at the same time. A picture is supposedly worth a thousand words, so take a look at the final image in the gallery below, as it sums up the situation perfectly.

Not a perfect episode, but still much better than anything that came before it. Three for three in season two!