X-Men
Beauty & the Beast
Season: 2
Episode: 10
Air date: 1994-01-15
Guest stars: John Stocker
Beast falls in love with his patient, a blind woman named Carly, and though the feelings are mutual, her mutant-hating father and anti-mutant sentiment drive a split between the pair. Meanwhile, Wolverine seeks to take down the Friends of Humanity from the inside out.
The X-Men animated series has been more than a little broad when it comes to their prejudice metaphor that doesn't always connect with me, but this episode is how it utilizes that metaphor effectively, by rooting in the personal drama of Beast in an arc that feels weirdly similar to the 2000s Fantastic Four movie and its Thing plotline (who also had a blind love interest like Hank). It's as if these writers see women as shallow people who only care about appearances unless they're blind. lol It's just the typical trappings of progressive messaging: you would accidentally trip over other "problematic" messaging, regardless of your good intentions.
But I don't personally mind any of that crap though because I'm not narrow-minded like that. I think season 2's been doing a good job focusing on the more personal stories of individual X-Men like Rogue, Storm, Gambit, Wolverine and now Beast. Hank has always been the more tragic member of the X-Men because his personality's not as problematic as other members like Logan and Remy, but he can't blend in as well as them because of his appearance. Even Scott could just put on shades to look normal. Jean has the easiest time blending in though among the team, if not for her weird X-Men animated costume.
We also get to see Graydon Creed getting a holo-projection of his father's image, Victor Creed (aka the murderous psychopath Sabretooth himself), revealing the real reason why he hates mutants - shame and self-loathing. It's always the case, isn't it? It's villain 101 playbook, especially if he's bigoted. lol I think it's pretty good for a children's cartoon though, even if the way he expressed that bigotry in past episodes was just so over-the-top and hyperbolic ("Why do you hate us?" "Because you were BOOOORN!").
