X-Men: Evolution "Joyride" Talkback (Spoilers)

[Bird Boy]

Discuss this episode of the fan-favorite X-Men: Evolution animated series!

Episode #22 - Joyride
Original Airdate - December 1, 2001

Lance Alvers (Avalanche) wants to join the X-Men in order to be near Kitty. Unfortunately, the rest of the Brotherhood, along with several of the X-Men, are not pleased with his decision.

Comments?

[Failure]

Are WB's clocks off or does Pokemon run longer than it should? I videotaped X-Men til 10.32, but the last minute was still cut off. Can anyone tell me what happens after Nightcrawler walks in with the wax and then sees the X-jet in shambles?

[Lady Iapetus]

He starts complaining about how it's going to take him forever to get the X-Jet back in good repair again (says something about how it's going to take a LOT of wax). Xavier tells Kurt that his probation is officially over. However Jubilee, Bobby and ____ (can't identify the third person; it's a guy)'s probation is just starting, so THEY have to clean up the X-Jet.

Scott apologizes to Lance who leaves in a huff, even though Xavier tries to change his mind. Just as he goes out the door Kitty runs over and gives him a kiss on the cheek, then walks back to the other X-men.

[Failure]

Thanks Lady I, just one more question, did Lance wind up leaving the X-Men?

[JustJack]

Yeah, good ol' Avalanch left the X-Men.
But, maybe it's a good thing? He looks terrible in the X-uniform. I prefer his "fruit bowl" suit..hahaha...stupid Cyclops and his witty remarks..ahahaha..

ANYWAY

I thought it was a good episode. A long expected episode. I found it so odd how Lance ALWAYS associated himself with Kitty, & some of the others, but when it came to fighting time, he never questioned allegiance. Oh well. I hope that NOW, in future episodes, Lance stays out of fights, only to finally chose his true allegiance by the end of the season.

[Samhaine]

Avalanche was in the X-Men???

Wow, it seems I've missed alot this season...

[Failure]

Thanks for the info everyone.

Is Avalanche a good guy or a bad guy in the comics?

[Samhaine]

Originally posted by Failure
Is Avalanche a good guy or a bad guy in the comics?

He's very much a villain. However, I haven't seen the guy in forever. I think the last time he was mentioned was the issue of Uncanny where Warren got his wings back and Pyro was destroying a church. Pyro was dying of the Legacy Virus, and was asking for forgiveness in the church, and then asked the X-Men to kill him. However, Avalanche swallowed Pyro into the earth and took him away. Nothing ever came of the plot, unsurprisingly (Lobdell was notorious for starting subplots and dropping them, never to return)

[optimal321]

Originally posted by JustJack
I thought it was a good episode. A long expected episode. I found it so odd how Lance ALWAYS associated himself with Kitty, & some of the others, but when it came to fighting time, he never questioned allegiance. Oh well. I hope that NOW, in future episodes, Lance stays out of fights, only to finally chose his true allegiance by the end of the season.

What gets me is that Kitty seems to like him too. And even before he decided to be a good guy for an ep. "I know you, like, try to kill me all the time, but i'll, like, sure be lab-partners w/ you, and like, like you, and everything."

[Failure]

Thanks for the info Bloodone.

Originally posted by optimal321


What gets me is that Kitty seems to like him too. And even before he decided to be a good guy for an ep. "I know you, like, try to kill me all the time, but i'll, like, sure be lab-partners w/ you, and like, like you, and everything."

Well, I'm sure you know the deal with girls and bad boys.

[JustJack]

Yep, bloodone, as far as I know Avalanch has disappeared in the X-Men universe.
Basically, after Pyro "died", Avalanch had some other issues with the Brotherhood, and ran away. I don't think he ever returned in Marvel continuity untill now.

Y'know, if someday I ever get to write one of the MANY x-men stories I have bottled up, I am SO going to finish the whole Pyro-Avalanch thing. Avalanch is one of my more favorite characters. And, my bro is a big Pyro fan, so if one of us ever writes an X-Men story, we've decided we'de find some way to bring both back, for eachother(hehe). Anyway...

[oranthal]

i too had the clock problem. i always program my VCR two minutes before the shows is supposed to start and two minutes after it ends, and i still missed the ending. maybe i should try for 5 minutes next time.

Originally posted by Failure
Are WB's clocks off or does Pokemon run longer than it should? I videotaped X-Men til 10.32, but the last minute was still cut off. Can anyone tell me what happens after Nightcrawler walks in with the wax and then sees the X-jet in shambles?

[Failure]

Originally posted by oranthal
i too had the clock problem. i always program my VCR two minutes before the shows is supposed to start and two minutes after it ends, and i still missed the ending. maybe i should try for 5 minutes next time.

I think Pokemon runs long. I didnt have a problem with Jackie Chan's ending. But then again, I'm not sure whether I recorded 2 minutes or 3 minutes afterwards.

[James Harvey]

This is another talkback thread bumped up to coincide with the rerun to spare us from having to start another talkback thread for the same episode.

The episode was surprisingly good. The second episodes have really help the show find their niche. While this episode wasn't as action packed as previous episodes, this still was an enjoyable episode.

And wow...Prof. X will take anybody in practically...he didn't even question Lance or anything. You think he'd be a bit more cautious.

[DR. BELCH]

Jim Harvey:
Prof. X will take anybody in practically...he didn't even question Lance or anything. You think he'd be a bit more cautious.

Spoiler:

Was it actually the Professor, though? We're not sure when exactly Mystique took his place before the season finale, and slipping a wild card like Lance it would seem a good way to encourage in-fighting among the students. I'm not sure if she know about Kitty's feelings for him or not, but if she did she'd probably explot them as well.

Although in the comics, Charles once admitted Sabretooth membership in the Institute...and it's well-noted Logan wasn't always a saint....

[James Harvey]

Originally posted by DR. BELCH
Was it actually the Professor, though? We're not sure when exactly Mystique took his place before the season finale, and slipping a wild card like Lance it would seem a good way to encourage in-fighting among the students. I'm not sure if she know about Kitty's feelings for him or not, but if she did she'd probably explot them as well.

No need for spoiler space - the thread is already tagged 'spoiler'. I'm pretty much sure that Mystique took over Xavier's role at the end of 'HeX Factor', and did it off screen. I think in these early season episodes, she's still disguised as that student.

[Sandoz]

Originally posted by optimal321


What gets me is that Kitty seems to like him too. And even before he decided to be a good guy for an ep. "I know you, like, try to kill me all the time, but i'll, like, sure be lab-partners w/ you, and like, like you, and everything."

There's a reason why Kitty suddenly thinks of him differently. For whatever reason, the Kid's WB version of Growing Pains removed a scene where Lance abandons the fight with Scott to push Kitty out of the way of falling debris. He's crushed instead, and a startled Kitty phases through the wreckage and pulls him out. That's why she's holding him at the end of the episode. The Uncut episode aired on the Cartoon Network in South America, and screencaps can be found here: Haruka's Screencaps I personally think that scene makes their relationship a lot more believable, and I wish they hadn't cut it.


Now, back to the episode at hand. I love Joyride. It's by far my favorite episode of Evolution. There's just so much to love! Lance is so endearing in this episode, I don't know how anyone can hate him after watching this.

The Good:
*Kitty flirting with Lance and phasing him through the door.
*Lance's airsickness. I find it cute that he tries to hold up his tough exterior, even as he pukes his guts out and faints.
*Lance's costume changes. I loved him in the New Mutants uniform (mmm, black spandex... ), and, bless my soul, his underwear! *begins mad fangirl droolings*
*The pool scene is classic. Lance knocking out Rogue, trying to impress Kitty, and heroically "rescuing" her, only to be knocked down by Rogue. "Creep!"
*Scott being a jerk. I actually like him better when he's acting like a real teenager, and not the infallible team leader. It's much more realistic.
*Kitty and Lance holding hands.
*The long, dreamy look they give each other after Kitty phases them through the mesa. *Romantic sigh*
*And, of course, THE KISS! That was so sweet...

The Bad:
*Bobby's stupidity. He crashed ALL of the X-Jet sim tests, and he thought he could successfully pilot the real thing? Jebus...
*Catty remarks. Tabby's "They'll never accept you. " and Jubes' "Come on, you're get the blame anyway." irked me.
*The fact that this episode ended.

And Dr. Belch, I'm also pretty sure it was the real Professor that admitted Lance. It's generally believed that Mystique made the switch much later, in the "The HeX Factor". That's what makes sense to me, anyway.

[Sandman]

I generally don’t like couples episodes(Toad/Witch/Wardrobe, Shadow Dance, Blind Alley, Cajun Spice) But Joyride is one of my favorite episodes because there is so much to like about it.

I really liked the writing in this episode. At the surface it is a boy and girl romance story. But there are other elements at work here. Usually when they have this type of setup, bad guy tries to join the good guys, the bad guy always ends up showing his true colors and why he is not cut out to be a good guy. That never happens here. Outside of Rogue in the pool(and giggling Kitty sure didn’t seem to mind ) Lance was amazingly well behaved for a so called villain. He never once tried to get back at any of the senior X-Men for treating him like dirt, and he generally seemed to care about the New Recruits. It was funny how they took to him. He definitely seemed to be X-Men material. I felt bad for him when the Brotherhood confronted him and Tabitha said those words to him that he knew were true. A very similar scene occurs at the end of No Good Deed.

Scott played his role as B-movie jerk well. Unfortunately this episode would provide more fodder for Cyclops hate. But I guess since he was Lance’s rival there was no other character they could use in the jerk role. It wouldn’t have made sense if Jean or Kurt did it.

The New Recruits were actually seamlessly woven into the plot for change. Usually they just seem to have no purpose and stick out like background filler. We get to see some daily life at the Institute. The beginning when Lance easily takes out the security system was cool, but Xavier really needs to invest in some better stuff. Juggernaut, Sabretooth, African tribesman, Pietro, Toad. It seems like anyone and their brother can break into the Institute.

The only negatives I can think of for this episode was that the animation wasn’t as nice as in other episodes. Also, due to their own excellent writing, it was hard to take Lance seriously as a villain after this. He now seemed like a confused kid, rather than a stock villain for the X-Men to fight.

Random stuff I noticed:

Bobby seems to have major ADD. This would be a pattern in every episode he appears in. He should have gotten a much harsher punishment for what he did.

I wonder why Rahne turned into her wolf/dog form during the pool rescue scene? Aren’t humans considered better swimmers? With Kurt, Rahne, and Beast around, that pool must have to get cleaned a lot.

Sam says “hot-diggity” and uses chewing gun to short out the X-Jet, like McGuyver. Sam was kind of cool in a geeky way.

I wonder if Lance has the same issues Amara has with losing contact with the earth like in Cruise Control? They both have earth based powers and would explain why Lance gets airsick so easily.

With the Lance/Kitty and Jamie scenes, the cuteness in this episode was over the top. My sister, who doesn’t even like the X-Men or comic books, will watch this one over and over again. This was definitely an episode for mainstream fans more than hardcore comic fans. That might explain why it is one of the more popular episodes.

Rogue seems to like to call Lance “creep.” She’s used it a few times during the series. Doesn't give those people who write Lance/Rogue stories much to work with.

Scott's fruitbowl comment was funny, but the smile he made afterward was just weird. And how did Xavier not know the X-kids were taking out the vehicles? I know he doesn't like to read thoughts without permission, but he seemed to do it with Lance. How else would he have known about Lance's true feelings for Kitty?

In terms of the Lance/Kitty romance; it was nice that the show ended with them together again in Ascension Part 2. It brought the storyline that started with X-Impulse, full circle. They were the most interesting canon couple on the show.

[STARTOUNZ]

I thought this was one of the worst episodes of the series. It seemed everyone got a major case of stupidity syndrome here. New Mutants go joyriding and nobody picks up on it? With such powerful vehicles like the X-Van and the X-Jet, they should have at least had some decent security or at least some automated alarms. As for the characters, it's obvious Lance wants to join the X-Men since ditsy Kitty is there. And of course, she's even flakier in this episode as a result until she got to save everyone in the end. Scott of course is suspicious of Lance, then directs him with accusations though he had no proof. I do admit laughing when he knocked Lance over down at the end of the simulation. And exactly what happened in the simulated pool rescue? Lance seemed to smack Sam in the back hard enough for his powers to trigger out of control. Could that actually happen? I thought only Sam could trigger his cannonball powers on his own. The only actual smart thing that occured after Lance botched the rescue was when Rogue pushed him with Kitty back in the pool (certainly well-deserved! )



Bobby seems to have major ADD. This would be a pattern in every episode he appears in. He should have gotten a much harsher punishment for what he did.


I definitely agree on that point. I mean Evan nearly gets booted simply for not adjusting well to Insitute life, yet snowflakes for brains, who nearly gets everyone killed, not to mention causing thousands of dollars in damages doesn't? Major league bad consistency for sure. At least Kurt was paying the appropriate price for his screwups in "Badda Bing, Badda Boom". Unfortunately, another bad episode airs tomorrow as Jean develops a major inferority complex and starts a battle of the sexes in the just as lame "Walk on the Wild Side".

[Kizmet]

This episode certainly provides plenty of fodder for the idea that the Brotherhood are just a bunch of kids and not really serious villains, actually the whole second season shows that without Mystique and Magneto directing them they wouldn't be the X-Men's enemies.

This episode certainly doesn't show Scott in a good light, but his characterization is consistant, Lance seems to have an uncanny knack for bring out the overly-competative teen in Cyclops. Honestly I have more problems with the adult X-Men's behavior than with Scott's. Lance is Scott's primary rival, placing Scott in a potion of power over Lance right from the beginning was guarenteed to result in problems (just too much tempation). At the very least someone should have repremanded Scott for his baseless acuastions when it came to the joyriding...

Or maybe look into who was actually at fault? The NM's were placing themselves in real danger, a glance at the vehicles should have told a person that much. I understand Xavier's moral concerns about not reading people's minds at random, but I think this falls under the category where a guardian is within rights to invade a kid's privacy to insure the well-being of the kid in question. Still since I've thought of Xavier as a flawed character since the first episode it doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the show when he screws up, for all the respect he's accorded he's still human and fallible.



With regards to the comic Avalanche, I believe his most recent appearance was in the first arc of Weapon X (issues #1-4). He and Blob get captured and beaten up by the WX team while they're looking for info on Sabretooth. Afterwards they're just left in tied up in a warehouse so I don't think they ended up in Neverland.