Two episodes of this show are out, and it's even more X-Men adjacent than before. Some observations:
- People still refer to Polaris' father without naming him, but imply that he's very powerful and dangerous and infamous..
- We don't have the X-Men, but we do have the Hellfire Club and, coming up next episode, the Morlocks.
- Most of the major characters are made up for the show. The central family is descended from Wolfgang von Strucker, but they don't exist in the comics. However, the twin Strucker children in the comics combined to form Fenris, with great powers, and the two Strucker kids on The Gifted are more powerful when together.
- Eclipse is another character I think is made up for the show. But I could be wrong.
- The mutant rights lawyer Evangeline Whedon is from the comics. Introduced in X-Treme X-Men, she can turn into a red dragon. This is implied on TV.
- I dislike Andy less this season. Maybe because he's being duped, and seems to have a good heart now. (He used to just be a brat.)
- Lauren Strucker is an attractive girl, but she is by no means a classical beauty. I notice they tend to shoot her from below, to emphasize her boobs and make her look taller. My wife, bless her heart, said after seeing her the first time this season, "She's a chunky little thing, isn't she?" I'm ashamed to say I laughed.
- While a lot of characters are made up, many are not. Polaris, Thunderbird, Blink, the Cuckoos (who have never been called that) and even Reeva Payge come from the comics. Seriously, Reeva Payge comes from the comics! (But I had to Google it.)
- I loved how they offhandedly made Blink's weird eyes necessary for her powers to work. When she wears contacts to disguise their inhuman color, she can't create portals -- she can't "see" the holes in the space/time continuum to exploit. So her weird eyes aren't just for looks, the show explained, they're necessary. That's such a Roy Thomas thing to do. Next: Why Aquaman's gloves were sometimes yellow in the Golden Age.
- The Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club is incredibly murderous. There is no redemption for these characters, especially the Cuckoos. Reeva almost killed a 15-year-old boy (Andy) for being homesick. Of course, that's what makes the show good.
- The Cuckoos have their comic book first names -- Esme, Sophie and Phoebe -- although two -- Irma and Celeste -- don't exist on TV. Interestingly, the girls have the surname Cuckoo in the comics, but on TV it's Frost -- implying that they're the children of Emma Frost. That's kinda cool, because they should be.
So what do y'all think?
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