Books The Wheel of Time Reading The Wheel of Time: Lan Rides, Perrin Dreams, and Graendal Escapes in Towers of Midnight (Part 1) By Sylas K Barrett | Published on July 7, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Good day and welcome back to Reading the Wheel of Time! We are starting Towers of Midnight this week, and will be covering the first half of the prologue, which includes Lan’s section, Perrin’s section, and Graendal’s section. Onward to Tarwin’s Gap the recap. Towers of Midnight opens with Lan riding through Saldaea, proceeding on a road that runs parallel to the Blight. He is annoyed with how quickly Nynaeve learned to use her words like an Aes Sedai, and regretful that his death will cause her pain. He is wary of the possibility of attack, keeping his bow and quiver near at hand. A few sliding rocks betray the presence of someone near by. He is ready to shoot, but when the figure comes into view, it is only a man leading a packhorse. He addresses Lan by name, assuring Lord Mandragoran that he has brought supplies and wishes to ride with Lan. When he identifies himself as Bulen, Lan finally remembers him—he’d known Bulen when the man was just a messenger boy, twenty years ago.  Lan learns from Bulen about Nynaeve spreading the message that he is raising the Golden Crane, and that that others will be coming to join him as well. Lan remembers that Nynaeve made him promise to allow anyone who asked to ride with him to do so. However Bulen is on foot, so Lan decides that technicality allows him to send Bulen away. Bulen, however, is persistent, telling Lan of his Malkieri father and Kandori mother, who were killed by bandits when he was very young. He wants to wear the hadori, the only thing he has left of his father, and fight the Shadow, but tradition says he must receive permission. And he has no one to ask. Lan urges him to go to the Dragon Reborn or to the Kandori army, but when Bulen points out that there is no food to be scavenged along the road, Lan hesitates.  Bulen asks Lan formally for permission to wear the hadori and to fight beside him. Lan, thinking of his honor and his promise, agrees, though he makes the young man promise that they will ride anonymously. “Then wear that hadori with pride,” Lan said. “Too few keep to the old ways. And yes, you may join me.”Lan nudged Mandarb into motion, Bulen following on foot. And the one became two. Elsewhere, Perrin dreams of working in Master Luhan’s forge. He knows he is making something important, but doesn’t know what it is. Hopper lies in the corner of the room, lazily watching him. He communicates that he doesn’t understand the things Perrin is doing, and that they are idle foolishness, “like a pup snapping at butterflies.” When Perrin realizes that the thing he has made is nothing but a misshapen lump, he begins to remember who he is—that he is no longer an apprentice. Somehow, things seem worse now than they did before, and Perrin doesn’t know why. He started pounding. I need to spend time with Faile, to figure things out, remove the awkwardness between us. But there’s no time! Those Light-blinded fools around him couldn’t take care of themselves. Nobody in the Two Rivers ever needed a lord before. Hopper suggests that, if Perrin is unhappy, he can just take Faile and leave, letting some other lead his pack. But Perrin replies that he can’t leave, can’t give in to being a wolf. He had thought he had more control over himself, but recent events have shown him how close he is to giving in to the wolf. Hopper seems amused, though Perrin tells him his problems aren’t funny. Perrin longs for the freedom of being a wolf, but knows it would cost him too much.. Problems are not amusing, Young Bull, Hopper agreed. But you are climbing back and forth over the same wall. Come. Let us run. Perrin tries to ask if he can reverse the transition into a wolf, but Hopper doesn’t understand what he means. In the dream, he finds a figurine in the quenching barrel: the image of Aram, his face distorted in a scream. The walls fade away as the dream shifts into memories of Malden, but in this version, Perrin kills Aram himself, as a shadowy wolf. He also kills Aiel, though he remembers that in the real version of events he used his hammer and a knife, not the axe. He accuses Hopper of making him dream. They return to the forge, where Perrin finds more and more figurines in the quenching barrel, all looking at him accusingly. They become shards, shattered hands reaching for him, as do the pieces of the figurine of Aram. Perrin starts awake in his tent, Faile asleep beside him. They have been camped in the same place for a few days, after a bubble of evil manifested as snakes. Aes Sedai healing prevented anyone from dying of the bites, but many are still recovering. It is difficult for Perrin to fall back asleep. In Natrin’ Barrow, Graendal sips wine while Aran’gar complains of boredom and a desire to be back where the action is. Graendal thinks action and excitement is best viewed from a distance. She uses a trickle of the True Power, all she has access to, to make a ribbon of air to caress Aran’gar’s cheek The Great Lord’s essence forced the Pattern, straining it and leaving it scarred. Even something the Creator had designed to be eternal could be unraveled using the Great Lord’s energies. It bespoke an eternal truth—something as close to being sacred as Graendal was willing to accept. Whatever the Creator could build, the Great Lord could destroy. Aran’gar is shocked that Graendal has the ability to channel the True Power, but Graendal reminds her that before the naming of the Nae’blis, the Great Lord’s favor was not confined just to Moridin, in this regard. Aran’gar sends for Delana and the two start “exchanging affections.” An alarm, for Graendal’s ears alone, goes off, and Graendal leaves them, sending some of her Compulsioned pets to jeep Aran’gar distracted. In her audience chamber she meets with a man who begins to introduce himself when he is cut off by Graendal’s use of Compulsion on him. “I am Piqor Ramshalan,” he said in a monotone. “I have been sent by the Dragon Reborn to seek an alliance with the merchant family residing in this fortification. As I am smarter and more clever than al’Thor, he needs me to build alliances for him. He is particularly afraid of those living in this palace, which I find ridiculous, since it is distant and unimportant. Ramshalan goes on to say that the Dragon is weak, and that Ramshalan believes that he can get himself made King of Arad Doman. He wishes to create his own alliances. Graendal cuts him off, thinking of the fact that the Dragon Reborn has found her, and that he has sent a distraction, hoping to manipulate her. She almost leaves immediately via gateway, then remembers the orders to bring pain and anguish to Rand al’Thor. She remembers, too, that Aran’gar was punished for losing her place with Egwene al’Vere. Graendal does not wish to suffer any similar punishment. Aran’gar’s voice from outside the door makes up Graendal’s mind for her. She allows the other Forsaken to come in and tells her what has happened. She orders Aran’gar to have Delana place Compulsion on Ramshalan, as intricate and complex as possible, and then for Aran’gar to do the same. Once Ramshalan’s memory has been altered and the parameters of his actions are decided, they release him and send him away. In private, Graendal puts a web of compulsion onto a dove, controlling it enough to navigate it over the forest outside and to see through its eyes. She is terrified when she locates Rand, so close to her hideout and looking directly at it. She watches as Ramshalan is brought to him, though she can’t understand his words through the bird’s ears and mind. When she sees the Access Key and realizes his intention, she snaps back into her own mind. Al’Thor had sent Ramshalan in, expecting him to be captured, expecting him to have Compulsion placed on him. Ramshalan’s only purpose was to give al’Thor confirmation that Graendal was in the tower.Light! How clever he’s become. Desperate and terrified, she releases the True Power and embraces saidar. Aran’gar is standing in the room looking towards the building force of saidin that she, a channeler of the male half of the Power, can sense. Graendal realizes that, since Aran’gar and Delana performed the Compulsions on Ramshalan, their survival would suggest her own, and their deaths would make al’Thor think she is dead. She shields both Aran’gar and Delana, leaping through the Gateway as the blinding light of balefire consumes everything. She lands nearby, winded and with a twisted ankle. A wave of wrongness washed over her, a warping in the air, the Pattern itself rippling. A balescream, it was called—a moment when creation itself howled in pain. She can see that all of Natrin’s Barrow has been destroyed, and beyond, the ridge where she knows the Dragon Reborn is standing. He has become far more dangerous that she assumed he could, and the loss of her hideout and all her servants is a disaster.  Graendal consoles herself with the knowledge that al’Thor will think her dead; she is safer now than she has been since she escaped imprisonment in the Bore. However, she did cause the death of a fellow Chosen, which the Great Lord will not be pleased about.  She limped away from the ridge, already planning her next move. This would have to be handled very, very carefully. Oh, my dear Lan. I appreciate how cool Borderlanders are. There is something special and mystical about their devotion to defending against the Blight, up to and including to their own deaths. (We’ll see more of this next week when we cover the second half of the prologue.) However, it is also deeply tragic and kind of depressing. Lan is a wonderful person, and I loved seeing him as a mentor to Rand, especially in the early days when Rand desperately needed it. But Lan was also a terrible mentor because his whole thing is “I inherited a duty to die,” which definitely rubbed off on Rand. I can certainly understand why Lan’s parents would want to have the oath of the Malkieri sworn for their son, and to have him raised in Malkieri tradition, but in doing so, they basically inducted their infant son into a death cult. Perhaps they didn’t realize they were doing so; the oath, after all, is to defend the Malkieri, not the nation of Malkier, after all. They perhaps intended Lan to keep the survivors together, to lead them as best he could even without a land. But Lan certainly sees those oaths as being a debt to a dead nation, and sees fighting the Shadow as something that should, and will, take his life. Moiraine was right that Lan’s life was wasted going into the Blight to fight alone, and that he could do much more to fight the Shadow as her warder than going on an ongoing suicide mission that benefited no one. This reasoning is why she asked him to be her warder in the first place, and why she arranged to have his bond transferred without his permission. Setting aside the moral issues of consent and the promise she made to him, you can see why Moiraine acted the way she did. Lan’s not so much living to fight as he is fighting to die. Rand accepted that the lines about his blood on the rocks of Shayol Ghul foretold his death. Lan accepts his very existence as a death sentence; he has clearly always believed he was meant to perish in the Blight. In fact, his conviction is so strong that I forgot that the oath of the Malkieri kings includes the line “To defend the Malkieri while one drop of blood remains,” and not “to defend Malkier.” True, most Malkieri died when the country was overrun by the Blight, but not all of them. Yet Lan has always seemed more focused on the country being gone, and there being nothing left to defend, than focused on the survivors who are looking for a sense of identity, much in the same way he is.  It feels incredibly significant that the first person Lan encountered who wanted to ride with him was Bulen. A young man who has no memory of Malkier, just as Lan has no memory of the land that fell when he was just an infant, Bulen also lost his parents very young, and is desperate for a sense of belonging and connection to his heritage. He wasn’t raised with male guardians who taught him Malkieri ways, as Lan was, but the similarities are striking all the same. I can’t help thinking that Lan let Bulen come with him as much for that reason as for a sense of obligation or adherence to his promise to Nynaeve. It is Bulen’s request for permission to wear the hadori that appears to chance his mind, after all—that and the realization that he has no supplies and might not find enough food on his journey to make it all the way to the Blight. After all, Lan has a death wish, but he doesn’t want to die for just any reason. He specifically wants to die fighting the Shadow. We see a little bit of resentment from Lan in regards to his thoughts about Aes Sedai and his wife, though his annoyance is tempered by his regret for causing her pain when he dies. Of course, he has no regret for his own death, because he’s kind of a dummy. A dummy with trauma, but a dummy nonetheless. It will be interesting to see how Lan’s opinion of Nynaeve’s actions and Moiraine’s actions might change if he survives the Last Battle. I assume the Blight will be destroyed, or at least healable, if Rand is successful in repairing the hole in the Dark One’s prison. If so, the Malkieri refugees and their descendants might be able to settle on that land and build a new Malkier. Lan and Nynaeve could actually become rulers in fact, rather than just symbolically. Even if that doesn’t happen, the defeat of the Shadow and the eventual transfer of Lan’s Warder bond to Nynaeve surely would change Lan’s perspective on his life, and the value of living it. If he survives, that is. I can’t really imagine the new Rand leaving Lan and his men to die in the Gap as a distraction for the Shadow, but I suppose those events will be revealed in time. I really really loved Perrin’s extended dream sequence. His ongoing struggle to understand himself and the nature of his own violence needs to come to a head, soon. It’s been dragging on a little too long with how long Faile’s captivity went on, but now that she’s back and Perrin has realized his willingness to abandon all his duties and responsibilities in favor of saving his wife, his culpability in the death of Aram, and his own brutality against his wife’s Aiel captors, it seems like he is getting pretty close to having his own sort of Dragonmount moment, in which he is actually honest with himself about who he is and why he is doing what he is doing. Perrin puts a lot of effort into not being honest with himself, although it seems to be largely an unconscious action. We see this throughout the series, but I think it’s very nicely summed up in his dream. At one point, he accuses Hopper of making him dream these things, to which Hopper replies; This is not my dream, Young Bull. Do you see my jaws on your neck, forcing you to think it? It’s not the first time Perrin has blamed Hopper for the nature of his dreams, or accused Hopper of controlling him or not answering Perrin’s questions, when in fact Hopper is answering his questions, or is giving advice that is more useful than what Perrin was asking. But my favorite part of their discussion is when Hopper points out to Perrin that there is no difference between the axe and the hammer when both are used to kill. A horn or a hoof, Young Bull, does it matter which one you use to hunt? Hopper was sitting in the sunlit street beside him.“Yes. It matters. It does to me.”And yet you use them the same way. This is a point I’ve been desperate for Perrin to realize. He has skirted around it, I think, but he clings to the concept that a hammer can be used to make or destroy, while an axe is only used to kill. This could be a healthy perspective, if the point is that Perrin wants to remind himself of balance, of the fact that he can always choose a way of non-violence under whatever circumstances allow it, even if he does choose to fight at other moments and other times. However, Perrin seems more focused on the idea that he can look away from his violent nature and desire to fight by refocusing specifically on the hammer’s non-violent attributes. Perrin also blames the wolf part of himself for the moments in which he loses himself to anger or violence, but as I’ve pointed out before, all of Perrin’s most violent moments have been very human, especially the ones he carries the most guilt over. Perrin seems to have tied his (very understandable) fear of losing himself to the wolf the way Noam did with his fear of becoming a violent killer, and has yet to realize how separate those two fears, and the danger of them happening, really are.  Hopper also points out that Perrin quibbling over whether he killed Aram or Aram died by Aiel arrows doesn’t really matter, saying that the dead are dead regardless of how they died. While I agree with Perrin that he has some responsibility for contributing to Aram’s downfall through neglect and ignorance of Aram’s needs, and that it is good for him to hold himself accountable to that lesson going forward, Hopper’s lesson is also important. Perrin should learn from what happened to Aram, but he can’t go back and change it. Litigating just how much at fault he was or dwelling on his guilt, in a dream or in the waking world, won’t serve anybody. It will keep Perrin stuck, rather than helping him move forward. I am really waiting for either Faile or Hopper to finally get through to Perrin, but Perrin really needs to take the first step. Like Rand, he has to start seeing the truth of the problem, rather than what he perceives it to be, before he’ll be able to hear what anyone is actually saying to him. Honestly, if I were Hopper, I’d be a bit annoyed with Perrin’s inability to hear what Hopper is actually saying. Which perhaps Hopper is, in his own wolfy way. The whole dream sequence is really well done, in my opinion. I was particularly struck by the imagery of Perrin hammering metal into useless hunks, and by the repeated emergence of figurines from the quenching barrel showing the images of people Perrin has lost or feels he let down. From the start, Perrin has felt lost and confused about his purpose and who he is, even more so than Rand, in a way. The dream really shows how he has yet to find an answer to that confusion, and how he feels trapped within his own life and circumstances. Honestly, I can relate, even as I get frustrated with Perrin’s inability to change his perspective. I think we’ve all been there, stuck turning over the same memories and pounding the same thoughts until they become useless. I know I have. A thing of men indeed. Well, whatever else you think about Graendal, you have to admit she is both quite clever and also very lucky. She partially guessed that Rand had more of a plan than could be initially deduced from Ramshalan’s story, and even though she couldn’t have guessed about the balefire or that Rand was specifically trying to use her compulsion of Ramshalan to prove her death by said balefire, she is cautious enough to have had Delana and Aran’gar do the compulsion instead of her, just in case. If she had done it herself she might still have escaped death by balefire, but Rand would have known that she wasn’t killed. At best, he would have been hunting her while she lacked many resources to escape/fight him. At worst, he might have been able to find her alone on that hill and finish the job he set out to do. I did assume Graendal survived his attack. From a narrative perspective, it seemed highly unlikely that Graendal would perish without a confrontation, and of course, there’s the general rule of genre fiction that no body = no death. I mean, Moiraine survived, Tom survived… Ishamael/Ba’alzamon survived the fight at the end of The Eye of the World, despite Rand’s conviction that he killed the Dark One. You can’t assume someone’s gone just because you had a big supernatural victory over them! I’m still having trouble believing Sammael is really dead, since Rand never actually saw mashadar touch him. But of course, that’s my reader’s eye seeing things that someone within the story can’t see. I think it is reasonable for Rand to assume he managed to kill Graendal, given the size and severity of his attack as much as anything else. It’s a bit ironic to realize that if he hadn’t been so clever, using Ramshalan as bait and confirmation of Graendal’s death, he actually would have been successful in killing her. If he had just shown up and released his balefire bomb on the place, she would never have had any warning of his presence. He wouldn’t have had any proof she was in Natrin’s Barrow when he attacked, of course. I think there’s something to be said, narratively speaking, for the fact that the destruction of Natrin’s Barrow is arguably the worst thing Rand does in the series (not withstanding any actions in the last two books, but given his revelation on Dragonmount, I don’t think we’ll see anything like that from him again). It is also a complete swing and a miss, as far as achieving his goals goes. Something something evil bringing about its own downfall. Not sorry to see Aran’gar and Delana go, though. I think there are two possibilities for how Graendal’s story goes for the rest of the series. The first is that she manages some kind of terrible comeback/revenge enacted on Rand and very nearly defeats him. The second is that even though Rand failed to kill her, his success at destroying her hideout and the death of Aran’gar will still bring the wrath of the Dark One down upon her and she’ll be rendered pretty much useless, i.e. Moghedien and Lanfear/Cyndane for the rest of the series. (Not that I’m counting Lanfear out just yet. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t see her with at least one more trick up her sleeve before the end of the series.) I also really enjoyed the description of Graendal using the dove to spy on Rand. It is a very interesting revelation that Compulsion can be used on animals, though I am curious about whether or not it can only by done with the “True Power” or if it can be done using saidin or saidar as well. Graendal may be using the “True Power” in this way to avoid detection, or because only the True Power can do what she is trying to do. However, the following paragraph, in which she muses over the fact that it would be easier to use a raven or a rat for her purposes, may provide the answer. Though, most vermin that watched for the Great Lord had to report back before he knew what they’d seen. Why that was, she was not certain—the intricacies of the True Power’s special weaves never had made much sense to her. Not as much as they had to Aginor, at least. This seems to suggest that the compulsion of animals is something that can only be done with the “True Power,” but doesn’t quite read as definitive to me. Either way, it certainly seems like only the most talented practitioners of Compulsion would be able to do what Graendal does with the dove. I’m also very curious whether or not this paragraph is stating that the ravens and rats only spy for the Dark One if they are under Compulsion. (Compulsed ? Compelled?) We know that not all carrion animals are the Dark One’s spies, but that any of them can be, so it would make sense if the hypothesis that ravens and rats are more susceptible to being compelled by the True Power is true, rather than being actually more connected to the Dark One. After all, carrion eaters, insects, fungus, and other types of life that feed on death and decay are an important and natural part of the world; they are not evil, nor are they anti-creation, the way the Dark One is. I’ve personally always thought of the Dark One’s connection to such things as a sort of “translation” of his essence to something that fits within the scope of the Pattern. Just as he needs humans and animals, beings of the Pattern, in order to interact with it, so too does he need a “mood” or “theme” that exists within the Pattern in order to translate his own influence into the Pattern. Death, decay, drought, famine, terrible winters—these are all things that exist naturally within the Pattern. They don’t come from the Dark One; his influence merely extends and enhances them to an unnatural degree. Rats and ravens are not evil, but as the Dark One translates his nature into the Pattern, they are a substitute that he can graft his aspect onto. I like this theory, and I like that Graendal’s musings about the Dark One’s favored eyes and the usage of weaves specific to the “True Power” fits well with my theory. I also went down a very interesting rabbit hole reading about the type of vision birds have, and can confirm that the description of the dove’s sight is accurate. Most birds can see in infrared, which explains how intense Graendal finds the colors. Doves and pigeons, with their laterally placed eyes, do have depth perception, but the way they achieve it is very different from the way those of us with forward facing predator eyes do. Did you know that this is why pigeons and doves bob their heads around so much, to establish depth and position? Because I didn’t. I love learning new things about animals, especially from unexpected sources. Next week we will cover the second half of the prologue, which includes Galad (yay!), the creature formally known as Padan Fain (ew), and a new character, Malenarin Rai, commander of Heeth Tower in Kandor (as I mentioned before, more depressing Borderlander heroics). See you then![end-mark] The post Reading The Wheel of Time: Lan Rides, Perrin Dreams, and Graendal Escapes in <i>Towers of Midnight</i> (Part 1) appeared first on Reactor.

Books cover reveals Revealing Goma by Peter Gikandi An historical fantasy about a cursed East African railroad By Reactor | Published on July 7, 2026 Photo credit: James de la Cloche Comment 0 Share New Share Photo credit: James de la Cloche We’re thrilled to share the cover of Goma, the historical fantasy debut from author Peter Gikandi—available in April 2027 from Saga Press. February 1898. The sanguine Lt. Col. Patterson sails to Mombasa with a mission straight from London: to build a railway bridge at Tsavo, one hundred miles inland. It is hard work on loathsome territory, made harder when something begins picking off his men one by one. Oh, it looks like the work of lions, but as Patterson starts to investigate, he has reason to suspect the predator is something from another world, and things go from hard to dangerous to personal.Enter Kifa, a Bogomo girl ostracized for her gift of cheating death, estranged from her twin brother and all hope of anything like friendship. She’s spent most of her life on the outskirts of society, but now she’s drawing attention from all the wrong places. Something from another world has come knocking, and it is asking for a favor.Based on a true story, Peter Gikandi has crafted a thrilling novel brimming with history and magic, in a time and place where Christians, Hindus, Muslims, and Africans once collided, each bringing their gods with them. Cover art by Amir Zand; Design by Ella Laytham Buy the Book Goma Peter Gikandi Buy Book Goma Peter Gikandi Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Peter K. Gikandi was born and raised in Kenya, a two hours’ drive from Tsavo, the bleak setting of his debut novel Goma. Addicted to the dark-wholesome, the bittersweet, and anything ancient, he’s a recipient of both a Society of Illustrators and Microsoft Gold Star award. While living in Canada, he created 3D models and concept art for the video games industry, and animated several fun music videos. He branched out and found himself in Vietnam, creating hundreds of illustrated children’s tales that landed him on Vietnamese TV. His short fiction has earned him modest accolades and has been published in Colorado. Peter writes daily, still draws, and lives in Thailand where he gets around on his bicycle, chugs hot peppers, and torments his girlfriend with dad jokes. To relax, a stiff cocktail and pile-driving research into the obscure does the trick. The post Revealing <i>Goma</i> by Peter Gikandi appeared first on Reactor.

News Neuromancer Apple TV Shares Mysterious First Teaser for Adaptation of William Gibson’s Sci-Fi Novel Neuromancer The teaser certainly captures the look and feel of the novel By Matthew Byrd | Published on July 6, 2026 Image: Apple TV Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Apple TV Apple TV has just released the first trailer for their upcoming adaptation of William Gibson’s revolutionary 1984 Cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer. The preview is a teaser in the true sense of the word, meaning that it doesn’t really give us much to go off of. It largely consists of a retro monitor that displays the words “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel” before cutting to a blurry image of an interior setting that we can’t quite make out. The text is simply the opening line of the Neuromancer novel, and the description for the teaser offers little additional information: 42 years ago, William Gibson introduced the world to Neuromancer. Now, the next chapter is loading. The phrase “the next chapter” is quite interesting as it suggests that the show will, or is prepared to, go beyond the events of the novel. That particular detail has not otherwise been hinted at or confirmed at this time, and the show’s official description (“A hacker and an assassin are thrust into a web of high-stakes crime as they take aim at a corporate dynasty”) seemingly sticks fairly close to the major events of the book. One would assume that the other two novels in the Sprawl trilogy (Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive) will eventually be adapted if this first season goes well, though that has also not been confirmed at this time. Beyond that, the only other notable takeaway from the teaser is the apparent confirmation that the show will feature the kind of rough, retro tech that the novel famously utilized. That’s probably a good decision given that the sometimes crude nature of the story’s technology ended up being one of the defining elements of both the narrative and the popular notion of modern cyberpunk worldbuilding that Neuromancer helped to shape and popularize. We previously learned that Graham Roland (Dark Winds) and J.D. Dillard (Sweetheart) will serve as co-creators on Apple TV’s Neuromancer adaptation with Roland operating as the showrunner and Dillard set to direct the series’ pilot. It’s also been confirmed that Gibson is involved with the series as an executive producer and creative consultant. So far, the show’s cast is headline by Callum Turner as Case, Briana Middleton as Molly, Mark Strong as Armitage, and Clémence Poésy as Lady 3Jane. The most prized detail about the series so far is its release date, which this teaser sadly doesn’t even hint at. However, the release of this teaser and reports that the show is currently in post-production all suggest that it may still be on track for its rumored late 2026 debut. Regardless of its eventual premiere date, Neuromancer will almost certainly be one of the year’s most talked-about shows. For quite some time, the Neuromancer novel was considered to be one of the most-requested, yet most-daunting adaptations in the genre canon. Some went so far as to refer to it as an unfilmable novel due to its experimental storytelling style and once-daunting technical requirements. Yet, as Apple TV continues to carve a surprising niche for itself as the destination streaming service for critically acclaimed sci-fi and fantasy series, hope remains that they just might get this right.[end-mark] The post Apple TV Shares Mysterious First Teaser for Adaptation of William Gibson’s Sci-Fi Novel <i>Neuromancer</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV The Vampire Lestat The Vampire Lestat Finds a New Sound in “New York” “I don’t want a job. I want to die.” By Molly Templeton | Published on July 6, 2026 Image: Sophie Giraud/AMC Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Sophie Giraud/AMC Pour one out for book Lestat’s many travels. I had been so looking forward to the flashback version of his quest to find Marius, and while I understand why it’s been cut—a lot of locations, not a lot of plot!—I really was looking forward to watching Sam Reid carve messages in stone walls. But this is a small complaint. “New York” continues Lestat’s linear flashbacks while, in the present, he and the band hunker down in what he calls a 7,000 square foot coffin in order to make a record. It doesn’t go quite as planned. Or maybe it does. Like every episode this season, this one is so tightly woven that it is almost hard to pick apart. You can’t talk about music without talking about Claudia. You can’t talk about Armand without talking about Daniel. You can’t talk about Louis without talking about basically everyone else. There is simply so much. The density of this show, the way every scene is doing 14 different things, is just glorious. I’m already excited about rewatching the first six episodes before the finale and seeing what I missed the first two times. For now, let’s start in the studio, where Lestat is saying “Again.” (Somehow this reminds me of Moira Kelly in The Cutting Edge: “Toe pick!”) The band is not getting it. The band is not playing their instruments like metaphors. Alex, oddly, is eating meat and drinking whiskey. Lestat does not want to answer anyone’s questions. He wants to get it just right. He wants to get it just right so badly that he will fling himself into the alley over and over again in order to sing the word “alive” while literally on the edge of dying. This is a whole different kind of rockstar excess.  Meanwhile, Sofia has taken over the Christine role, Christine and the rest of the gang having been dismissed and paid off in order to support the story that Lestat really died when shot by the man with the unlikely name of Beau Riddley. We will miss you and your terrifying competence, Christine. Lestat stays in the studio, likewise to support the tale of his demise. His impending resurrection as vampire Jesus, onstage for one night only!!!!, will likely have much stronger effect on the world than the fans—mourning the loss of his songs and his hotness in unsanctioned Daniel interviews—expect. The songs are no longer subtle: “Make! More!” the band chants, uncertain what it is they’re insisting that one make more of.  Image: Sophie Giraud/AMC Across town somewhere, Louis is in deep with his role-playing Claudia stand-in, having now enlisted a faux-Madeleine as well. The wig! The accent! I don’t know how anyone in that scene kept a straight face. Awards for all. But when not-Claudia and not-Madeleine start making out, something changes for Louis. Jacob Anderson’s face is a tangled mystery: unhappy, not angry, but something complicated and messy is going on there, and I can’t quite decide what it is. He is a wonder as an actor.  There are two Louis and not-Claudia scenes, and in the second, Regina asks him to demonstrate his time-freezing powers on her by saying “Make me a stone,” which is a very upsetting phrase coming from the woman who looks exactly like the vampire who wrote “I feel nothing” in her journals. One suspects that experience was too freaky, as the next time we see her she’s back at the diner, faced with another vampire who has questions of his own.  I love that Regina goes back to work when she needs some “real real” as a break from her vampire role-play. But I love so much more than when Louis begins to get lost in it all, the only person he can possibly call is Lestat. (Louis’ ghost walks out of the recording studio; Louis the man requests Lestat’s presence.) Lestat tries so hard to say no—mad at Louis for not calling after he was shot; trying to say he’s busy with recording—but he can’t. Whatever Lestat’s role in the not-a-play that led to her death, Claudia was still his fledgling. The three of them were a family—a fucked-up, murderous, fraught family, but still. There’s no one else whose judgment Louis could borrow when he wants to know if that woman is, somehow, Claudia.  And yet: If you believe Armand, this might not be real at all. If you believe Armand, who says that Louis is “methodically cruel,” then this could be Louis wishing to inflict on Lestat the same confusion and grief he feels. His reaching out could be fully manipulative. I don’t, as a rule, believe Armand about much of anything. But his perspective on the last 50+ years does, maybe, put some of Louis’ behavior in a different light. Image: Sophie Giraud/AMC Or does it. Like I said last week, I know that Daniel and Armand are a canon couple in the books. But I still can’t help but watch the gremlin from a skeptical angle. Everything he says, I want to poke at, especially when he possesses some random Great Conversion-obsessed vampire in order to talk to Daniel. (Armand has never been straightforward a day in his life.) Yes, he knows the details of Daniel’s life. He could have gotten those from reading Dan’s mind before his turning. Yes, he loves to be controlling, so it tracks that he might have done all the things he said he did. But I still don’t see love. I don’t emotionally buy the tale of five decades of following Daniel around and then coming home to update Louis on the man’s progress or lack thereof.  On the other hand, I also did not for one second believe Louis when he called Armand the love of his life, so maybe this has been a half-century game they’re playing with one unsuspecting Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.  One thing at the heart of Interview with The Vampire Lestat, all three seasons of it, is the question of how much you can really ever know someone—and the mirror image question: Is the person you think you are the same as the person that your loved ones know? How a person is and how a person seems can be in perpetual conflict, as we see played out over and over again on these densely gorgeous shows. (The shot of Lestat, as dressed by Louis’ memory, in the “previously on”—it’s truly like he’s a different person.) When no one character has to be constantly consistent, they can truly contain multitudes. We get Armand the lover and Armand the murderer within 30 minutes of each other. Louis the desperate and Louis the cruel. Lestat the cocky bastard and Lestat the lonely manchild who wants to die.  And Lestat, face to face with the Claudia who isn’t. Lestat in a plain black hoodie is surprising enough, but this Lestat, almost plain-spoken, straightforward, is like yet another version of himself. He is so clearly rattled, even before he gets back to the studio. It’s classic: He tells Louis it’s not her (to protect him?) and then goes to write the song that will herald the transformation of his band. Parts of “Stained Glass Eyes” are shot like a music video, like the direct opposite of his music-video mockery of Magnus: Here the feelings are real, the vocals raw, the lyrics opaque but also not. “Don’t break that stare.” Image: Sophie Giraud/AMC Armand says in season two, narrating the events of the play,  “The last thing she saw on Earth was him.” I would never have guessed that would lead us to this heartbreaking scene, with ghost Claudia staring at Lestat as he records her song. Stripped-down Lestat; stripped down instrumentation; laid-bare feelings. It’s an astonishing sequence, beautifully performed. Louis is trying to make a stranger into Claudia. Lestat makes art of his grief and complicity.  And then there’s Sam, with that look on his face in the recording booth, knowing exactly what the song is about. I keep wondering what Lestat thought was going to happen when he went to Paris. The way he said to Armand, last week, that it wasn’t a play, but a trial. Did Armand tell him it was all just for show? To shame Claudia and Louis and make them suffer a little? Did he think that because he survived, they would, too? Will the flashbacks take us that far? For now, the continuing flashbacks take us, finally, to Lestat’s meeting with Marius, which is in some ways just like the book (Marius digging him up) and in some ways quite different. He isn’t selected to watch over Akasha and Enkil, in the book; he is brought to meet them by Marius, who continues to tend to his vampiric ancestors long after Lestat is gone. But this is a good change, I think, not least because of the wonderfully detailed and cluttered set where the ancient vampires lie (its messy richness is echoed in the cluttered and cozy recording studio). But even better are all the great lines the setup gives Lestat, and the way having a purpose takes him all the way from “I don’t want a job. I want to die” to his enthusiasm about an ice cream scoop. (Scoooooop.)  Image: Sophie Giraud/AMC Writers Rolin Jones and Hannah Moscovitch are not subtle about the way Lestat replaces his desire to please Gabriella with his desire to please Akasha. He does not bring her nine thousand sticks, but he brings her shiny things, and he educates himself in the process. (Gabriella would never understand this. She saw only her own boredom with his childish play.) His time tending the vampire queen is how he came to be a self-taught musician: She liked music, so he learned to play it. We don’t see all of that, but we see the depressed man shift from “I don’t know how to play” to detailing the musical movements of a symphony—and then flying into a rage when he scratches the record. Lestat does not like mistakes. So naturally he makes a big one. Don’t give her blood, Marius says, and some time later, Lestat ignores the warning, giving her blood lipstick. (Always the show pony!) The entire climactic scene here is painful chaos: Marius telling Lestat he’s unworthy; Lestat spinning in place, caught up by Akasha’s blood; and Akasha herself (an intense Sheila Atim) speaking, speaking, almost chanting, asking question after question like a person possessed.  This Marius (Christopher Heyerdahl) is not a gentleman eager to tell Lestat the story of his own making and history (which is very interesting!) and the backstory of Akasha and Enkil. No, he’s a man who’s been doing a job for a very long time and is tired of it, ready to pass the responsibility to someone else. He has also made a very large mistake on the job, and says that he is the reason why there are so few vampires: Because he drank a drunk guy and didn’t get Those Who Must Be Kept tucked away from the sun in time, and if they burn, all vampires burn. This is an important detail, no? And honestly seems like a bigger mistake than giving Akasha a bit of blood. (Was there anyone around to berate Marius? Who did he take over the job from?) Image Sophie Giraud/AMC The important part of the story, to Lestat, is that his Akasha-tainted blood is dangerous, the source of his temper (despite the fact that he displayed said temper before he drank it!) and his worst impulses. This is what he tells his remaining three bandmates after Larry walks out and they all unite to proclaim they’d rather be vampires than quit. (Magnus did say there was a drummer at Lestat’s table of muses and ghosts.) Do we buy this? I am not sure I buy this. I think he’s trying to avoid more fledgling disasters and/or not wanting to be tied to any more vampire children and/or just preferring to be the only vampire onstage. But it’s exactly what Gabriella wants. Make more, indeed. (There are three vampires in that recording booth, and three supplicants, and I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how that all plays out.) At any rate, the band has a new sound, and it is designed for vampire ears. Vampires understand metaphorical instruments, obviously. I would have had a bone to pick with the idea that “Stained Glass Eyes” was that marked a departure from the other songs in any way but its emotional honesty, but this change in sound isn’t just a shift to more piano. It’s something bigger and deeper than that, and I am very curious what it will mean for the show. (New title sequence, maybe?) I don’t know how to end this, because this episode ends with a gasp, and yet there is one lingering ghost in the room I haven’t talked about yet. But first, I think, we put Larry to rest.  The first thing Armand says to Larry is exactly the same thing Alex said to him earlier in the episode: “Terrible goalie, but a total shredder with an axe.” How much of drunk, meat-eating Alex is Armand? (Is it fun for a vampire to puppet a human while they’re eating and drinking? Like an echo of things they can no longer enjoy?) But the next thing he says, he also said to young Daniel Molloy: “Rest.” He did not then mind-fuck Daniel off a subway platform, though.  Image: Sophie Giraud/AMC Armand does not even look pleased with his decision, after this horror. (That poor woman across the platform!) He looks maybe distracted. Is he just trying to stop the band by killing the guitarist? Is it an attempt to balance the scales, if it happens after (in theory) the rest of the band are turned? He clearly doesn’t believe that Lestat is dead, or he wouldn’t be worried about it. What are you doing, gremlin? And the last last thing for this week:  In his opening narration, Lestat pauses and says, “But I, Amel, digress.” You can read this one of two ways: It is not actually Lestat speaking, but someone called Amel. Lestat is directing his narration to someone called Amel, and just interjecting the name quite oddly. Neither makes a ton of sense at this point in the narration. The name “Amel” does not appear in the book The Vampire Lestat. (Did I buy an ebook just to search this for confirmation? I did.) But at the end, as Akasha rants and chants and asks endless, endless questions, Amel comes up again: “And who arranged it? Did Amel?” she asks. She says “Amel” at least two more times.  This is very teasing. If you would like to know just who or what Amel is, you can look at the Vampire Chronicles Wiki. I think it would be rude and spoilery to say too much, but I did want to point out that weird little phrase at the beginning, because when I didn’t have the captions on, it slid right by me; I assumed it was just a little Lestat-ism that I did not catch.   I don’t even have theories so much as questions, at this point, and they tie back to questions I’ve had since the beginning: When did Lestat record The Failures and why are the album numbers recited by someone else (Canadian director Guy Maddin)? Why does Raglan James, of all people, react so drastically when the second auction lot is revealed? Why is a bottle of Lestat’s blood included? And what has happened to everyone? We are not even halfway through the albums that make up The Failures, which really suggests there has to be a second (or fourth, depending on your counting) season. Can worldwide disaster strike in the next two episodes? I kinda hope not. LITTLE SIPS Image: Sophie Giraud/AMC Such an interesting table Lestat set! For a minute I thought it would overlap with Magnus’s description of the people at the table, but I don’t think that included Marie Antoinette or the cabbages.  My wish for the finale to play out like the climax of the novel seems to be coming to delicious fruition. There are such rich parallels this episode; one of my favorites is the shift from Lestat being a dick to Sam about the job (that he presumably isn’t excited about) straight to Marius telling Lestat about the job (that he definitely doesn’t want). Lestat’s job turned out to be life-changing. Perhaps Sam’s will as well.   If Louis’ hotels are actually for vampires, but there aren’t enough of them to fill them, does that mean he’s banking on the Great Conversion? Did Daniel actually get so distracted by Armand promising a walk in the sun that he didn’t register what Armand said about Gabriella, or was he performing that in order to avoid giving Armand the satisfaction of having shocked him? We haven’t seen Daniel do much conniving yet, but I think he has it in him.  Lestat briefly but effectively demonstrating to Gabriella that he has also learned the art of withholding, phew.  When Lestat says “Stop performing,” is he talking to himself, or to Regina? “If you were the first, then who made you? Why do we exist? Why do we endure at all? And why did she leave me? Am I evil? Is my evil sanctioned by nature or divine error? Where is God?” Lestat just running through all the hits while talking to Akasha.  I didn’t entirely understand Nicki yelling random numbers at Lestat while he was trying to record “Big Boss,” but ghost Nicki is clearly not satisfied with anything. Little Lestat is quite present this week, stumbling over his Thomas Aquinas just before “Thomas Pitty He’s a Whore” reaches out. The passage he was reading is curious: “How is it they live in such harmony, the billions of stars, when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds?”[end-mark] The post <i>The Vampire Lestat</i> Finds a New Sound in “New York” appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV X-Men 97 X-Men ’97 Kicks Off a New Season With Timey-Wimey Adventures The sophomore season starts with a time-traveling family reunion, a break-out role for X-Force, and an Apocalyptic Big Bad. By Ben Francisco | Published on July 6, 2026 Image: Marvel Studios Animation Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Marvel Studios Animation “Days of Past Future” The second season of X-Men ’97 picks up where last season left off, with the X-Men stranded across time. Bishop (voiced by Isaac Robinson-Smith) and Forge (Gil Birmingham), two of the few X-Men remaining in the 1990s, have tracked down their teammates to two times: ancient Egypt in 3000 B.C.E., when Apocalypse arose as the first mutant, and the 40th century, when he reaches the height of his power. The two split up to retrieve their teammates, with Bishop going to the past and Forge to the future. Arriving in the year 3960, Forge is ambushed by Apocalypse’s Terminator-like robot henchmen. Fortunately, he’s quickly saved by Wolverine (Cal Dodd), who’s now sporting bony claws sans shiny indestructible metal, since Magneto stripped him of his adamantium at the end of last season. After a sweet lovers’ reunion between Forge and Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith), they reconvene with Cyclops (Ray Chase) and Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale). Cyclops and Jean explain that they want to stay in the future a little longer to take advantage of this second chance at parenting young Nathan (Michael Johnston). (Last season, they had to send baby Nathan away to the future to get treated for the techno-organic virus that was killing him, not yet knowing he’d grow up to be the time-traveling soldier known as Cable. But they haven’t told young Nathan any of this, so the poor kid thinks his parents just abandoned him. The X-soap opera is in full effect!) Image: Marvel Studios Animation Meanwhile, it seems even the mighty Apocalypse has to deal with the woes of aging after seven millennia, so he’s searching for a new body—and has decided Nathan Summers is the perfect fit.  Cyclops pleads with the leader of the rebellion, Mother Askani (Gates McFadden), asking if Nathan really is destined to defeat Apocalypse. She affirms the truth of the prophecy and warns Cyclops, “None escape the whims of time.” Ignoring her warnings, Jean and Scott are about to tell Nathan the truth, when Apocalypse’s horsemen attack and overpower the three of them. The other X-Men hatch a plan to save the Summers family, and Mother Askani reveals to Storm that she’s from a different dystopian timeline and is the one who’s flung the X-Men across time, hoping to thwart Apocalypse’s schemes in both the past and the future.  Still in captivity, Scott and Jean finally come out to Nathan as his parents (eliding a few details, such as his mother technically being Jean’s clone, not Jean herself). Inspired by the love of his rediscovered family, Nathan uses his telekinetic powers to take control of the techno-organic virus in his body and disables the collar dampening his mutant powers, allowing them to escape. With Mother Askani’s encouragement, Storm brings her powers to a whole other level, using it to summon a solar storm to power up Apocalypse’s old ship so that they can catch the runaway train holding Cyclops, Jean, and Nathan. With all the X-Men of this time now free and reunited, they handily defeat the four Horsemen, though Apocalypse himself escapes, fleeing to the 1990s to confront the X-Men there. Back in the ’90s, a much older Nathan (now Cable, voiced by Chris Potter), strategizes with Archangel (Christopher Barger) and Psylocke (Naoko Mori) about recruiting more mutants in the fight against Apocalypse, a direct lead-in to…. “A Force to be Reckoned With” Image: Marvel Studios Animation The second episode has an unusual start for this series: instead of the credits, it’s a cold open showing Quentin Quire (Thomas Dekker), Monet (Miatta Ade Lebile), and several other young mutants seeking refuge at the abandoned X-Mansion, only to be captured by the government-sanctioned mutant team X-Factor. Jubilee (Holly Chou) and Sunspot (Gui Agustini) are hiding out in an arcade, bemoaning the sad state of the world with the other X-Men still missing. Then Cable shows up and recruits them to join his black ops team of mutants working to take down Apocalypse. The scene cuts to a new take on the opening credits featuring the title “X-Force” and the team’s current roster, causing the simultaneous gagging of thousands of fans around the world. X-Force tracks down one of Apocalypse’s old Horsemen, War, to Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They telepathically interrogate him and then kill him, disturbing Jubilee with their violent methods. War doesn’t offer much intel, but the psychic blocks in his mind lead them to Emma Frost (Zehra Fazal) in London, England. They find Emma on her way back from her party, interrupting what looks like it would have been a very fun encounter with two gentlemen companions. She admits to helping War and brings the team to Switzerland, where they find an abandoned lab for powering up a new cohort of Horsemen—but with much more powerful technology than Apocalypse has previously used. Then they’re ambushed by X-Factor, revealing that Emma double-crossed them in exchange for amnesty.    A fun fight scene between X-Factor and X-Force ensues. Most delightfully, Emma Frost transforms into diamond form and sits back and watches the whole thing with a distracted yawn. Cable and his team escape—but X-Factor captures Jubilee. Havok (Teddy Sears) and Polaris (Carolina Ravassa) interrogate Jubilee, explaining that X-Factor is “just trying to keep order by easing tensions.” Jubilee rightfully points out that abducting innocent mutants doesn’t exactly seem to be the best way to “ease tensions.” She reminds Polaris of her time in the X-Men and notes that while Cable’s methods are questionable, at least his cause is worthwhile. Havok and Polaris lock up Jubilee with dozens of other mutants, many of them children.  Apparently Polaris was moved by Jubilee’s speech, because she sneaks back to her cell to deactivate her inhibitor collar. With an impressive display of acrobatics and fireworks powers, Jubilee escapes and single-handedly frees the other imprisoned mutants. Cable and the rest of X-Force arrive to pick them up, but their victory comes at a cost. They’re now wanted fugitives.  The episode’s closing jumps back to 2,000 years in the future, where a much younger Cable sends the X-Men back to their own time, separating the Summers family yet again. “Rise of Apocalypse — Part 1” Image: Marvel Studios Animation In the 1990s, Forge reconvenes at the mansion with Storm, Jean, Cyclops, Morph (J.P. Karliak), and Wolverine, bemoaning that Bishop has not returned with the rest of the team—and they have no way of following them into the past. In Egypt in 3000 BCE, the other X-Men have found En Sabah Nur (Adetokumboh M’Cormack), history’s first mutant, who will one day become Apocalypse. In this time, En Saban Nur and many others have been enslaved by Rama Tut (John de Lancie), who has an army of robots and other advanced technology at his disposal. En Saban Nur and his comrade Baal (Michael Dorn) are leading the uprising against Rama Tut’s oppressive regime. Magneto (Matthew Waterson) has befriended En Sabah Nur, hoping to convert him to Xavier’s dream of human-mutant harmony instead of his own apocalyptic vision of “survival of the fittest.” Nur successfully raids one of Rama Tut’s strongholds, defeating Tut’s right hand, Logos (Chris Britton). Following Magneto’s counsel, Nur shows mercy to Logos and takes him prisoner, instead of killing him, as Baal urges him to do.   Meanwhile, Rogue (Lenore Zann), Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough), Professor X (Ross Marquand), and Beast (George Buza) are hiding out nearby. Beast is trying to repurpose Rama Tut’s robots and other tech to build a time machine to take them home—but doesn’t have a power source strong enough to fuel it. Nur is happy to have found community in this group of mutants, feeling less alone than he did before, but doesn’t know they’re hiding that they’re from the future. En Sabah Nur and Magneto interrogate Logos, who eventually reveals that Rama-Tut is close to discovering a lost celestial temple that could give him near unlimited power. Professor X scans Logos telepathically, hoping the temple could help them return to their own time, but learns little. Baal shows Nur that the X-Men have been hoarding the pharaoh’s advanced technology, and accuses them of making a weapon for themselves. Hurt by his new friends’ betrayal, Nur kills Logos and orders his army to attack the X-Men. Bishop—who’s been undercover among Nur’s followers—reveals himself to assist his teammates in defending themselves.  Just as the X-Men and En Sabah Nur’s battle climaxes, Rama-Tut locates them and uses a new weapon to raze their base, ending the episode on a cliffhanger. Commentary Image: Marvel Studios Animation Like the first season of X-men ’97, these three episodes are dense, sometimes packing a year’s worth of comics continuity in a single episode. The characters have also proliferated almost as much as in the comics, so it seems wise that they split them up, allowing each of these three episodes to focus on a different core cast. The first episode is a strong opener, allowing Scott and Jean to have a restorative connection with Nathan and giving us some closure to the complicated cross-time Summers family tree. In the comics, that tree also includes Mother Askani, who’s also known as Rachel Summers, Jean and Scott’s daughter from another alternate timeline. It’s probably for the best that they leave that as an Easter egg for fans without delving too deeply into the timeline weeds. The other big moment in episode one is Storm’s summoning of solar flares. On the one hand, it’s always fun to see Storm go Omega. On the other hand, this seems like a power-up that will inevitably have to be forgotten for the sake of future plots. It was also a massive build-up all so that the X-Men could… catch up to a really fast train? If you’re going to have one of your best characters make a play that big, I feel like you should save it for something with a better payoff. But then again, it gives the ever-brilliant Alison Sealy-Smith a chance to show off her amazing voice-acting with an inspiring Storm soliloquy, so in the end I was happy with it. I’m not sure if any actor—whether in voice acting or live action—will ever embody Storm with the iconic gravitas that Sealy-Smith brings to the role. Image: Marvel Studios Animation In general, the voice acting continues to be a strength of the show. In addition to Sealy-Smith, Agustini, Chou, Potter, and Waterson all offer notably strong performances as Sunspot, Jubilee, Cable, and Magneto in these three episodes. There’s also exceptional talent on display among the guest stars, including three actors from Star Trek: The Next Generation (de Lancie, Dorn, and McFadden) whose brilliant voicework offers an extra dollop of nostalgia for the large Venn diagram slice of X-fans who are also Trekkies. The second episode was my favorite of this batch, which is surprising since I’ve never been a huge fan of X-Force or Cable. But I enjoyed the way it set up two clear paths for mutants beyond the typical Xavier-Magneto binary. There’s Cable and X-Force, with its more military orientation, and there’s X-Factor, which is oriented toward government collaboration in this depiction. Jubilee’s resistance to Cable’s take-no-prisoners approach is well done, and very much mirrors the debates between X-Force and the traditional X-Men model. Jubilee’s argument with Polaris is also nicely executed, and I found myself loving her bad-ass prison-breakout-while-playing-the-Walkman moment. The whole episode shows how much she’s grown both as a person and in her power since way back in the first episode of the original series. This X-Factor roster mostly mirrors the team from Peter David’s first run in the comics, but the mutant-hunting angle goes back to the original five X-Men posing as mutant hunters when they first formed X-Factor. But the posing part was pretty essential, and even that carried some heavy moral baggage. In the show, once it’s clear that the X-Factor team is literally caging mutant kids, their cooperation with the government goes from morally questionable to morally reprehensible. (It’s all the more disturbing knowing that, in our own present-day reality, the government is kidnapping, caging, and abusing immigrant children.) I found it hard to believe these characters would sink that low, especially Polaris, and part of me wishes the show had left space for a little more ambiguity, though the core theme at work remains resonant. Image: Marvel Studios Animation I’m always delighted any time Emma Frost gets screentime, though this depiction seems quite a bit more villainous than the one we know in present-day comics—particularly her complicity with rounding up mutants. But I did see moments of the Emma I know and love with her interrupted three-way, her manicuring, and her nonplussed yawning during the big battle. The third episode mostly feels like set-up, but I like what they’re setting up. Magneto being the one with the idealistic hope of converting Apocalypse to the side of the angels is an unexpected dynamic with potential to tread some new territory. Rama Tut—a variant of the time-traveling Kang the Conqueror, at least in the comics—provides an interesting foil for both Apocalypse and the X-Men, especially when voiced with such verve by John de Lancie. These episodes are chock-full of cameos, especially the second one. Like many fans, I was excited to see characters like Quentin Quire, Chamber, the Cuckoo sisters, Artie, Monet, Dust, Synch, and others brought to animated life. For the most part, the show did a good job of letting these characters remain in the background to fill out the story, offering Easter eggs to those who know without overwhelming those whose X-knowledge is less than encyclopedic. Even so, there were a lot of named characters, and there were times I wondered if more casual fans would have trouble keeping track. I was low-key thrilled that we jumped right to Wolverine having the adamantium-free, bony version of his claws, and even enjoyed the slightly wetter sound of the snikt when they came out. I’m looking forward to seeing where they take that plotline, including the awkward reunion when Logan and Magneto are back in the same time. Morph was an unexpected favorite of mine last season, but didn’t have much to do in these. Hopefully we’ll get more of them in the remaining episodes. Image: Marvel Studios Animation The writers are clearly setting up Apocalypse to be the big bad of this season, which has definite potential. I’m completely unclear on how time travel works in this universe but largely felt able to set that aside and enjoy the timey-wimey adventures. Overall this premiere is a promising start, maintaining all the ingredients that made the first season so successful: savoring the nostalgia without letting it hold back the story, drawing smartly on a wealth of source material in the comics, and delving into the complexities of mutant resistance and resilience in difficult times that resonate with our own present-day world.[end-mark] The post <i>X-Men ’97</i> Kicks Off a New Season With Timey-Wimey Adventures appeared first on Reactor.