Previously, on X-Men! Magneto takes command of the X-Men. Cyclops’ son is born. Storm loses her powers. A second Jean Grey appears.
Picking up where the previous episode left off, “Fire Made Flesh” begins with Jean trying to read the mind of the now unconscious second Jean and determines she’s a clone; the two look the same, share memories, basic clone stuff. Beast on the other hand, explains that the newly arrived Jean is in fact the original, while the other one is the clone. It gets confusing and even a bit tragic, seeing how this revelation would affect Jean (both of them!), especially since the others (including Cyclops) don’t know what to believe or who to trust.
Mister Sinister (with Chris Britton reprising the role) is revealed to be the one who cloned Jean, in an attempt to create a new breed of perfect mutants. Their child, Nathan is his real target. Sinister controls clone Jean’s mind, twisting her into becoming the so-called Goblin Queen, and uses her powers to turn the entire mansion into a horror movie. Some of the creatures and imagery seen here are pretty creepy, though personally I didn’t find them that scary, just bizarre more than anything, which still works. Seeing the X-Men try to evade these monsters, including a demonic Sentinel, did make for a few neat visuals. I especially liked the scenes with Magneto holding his ground against Goblin Queen, until she uses glass instead of metal as her weapon.
The episode offers a good enough showcase for the real Jean, with her using her powers to help the others. Her psychic showdown with the clone is similarly entertaining to watch and she does manage to make Goblin Queen break from under Sinister’s control. However, baby Nathan is still in trouble as he was exposed to a techno-organic virus, for which there is currently no cure. The only solution at the moment would be for Bishop to take the baby into the future, but he can only take him and no one else. This leads to more drama, as Cyclops doesn’t want to abandon his son (like his father abandoned him… though he seemed to reconcile with his dad Corsair during the old series), or clone Jean saying goodbye to her son. Additionally, she also takes on the identity of Madelyne Pryor and leaves to start her own life.
Other interesting bits in the episode include Jean reading Logan’s mind and realizing (or remembering) he has feelings for her, though I doubt much will come out of this. It’s pretty obvious Logan still longs for her but I hope they will not focus too much on this, going forward; Wolverine being at odds with Cyclops’ (and Magneto’s) leadership and refusing to follow orders would be enough, for me. Morph was also one of his test subjects on the original show, as most viewers might remember and now has to confront the immortal mad scientist again. Bonus points for a cameo from Magik as one of Morph’s transformations (and turning her into Darkchylde while Morph is being controlled by Goblin Queen, which is also a nod to the “Inferno” story from the comics where she played a larger role). Illyana/Magik is another character I hope will eventually appear in person on future episodes, alongside her brother Colossus who never seems to manage getting too much screen-time in X-Men cartoons. Taking into account she had a speaking role here, and a voice actress (Courtenay Taylor) listed in the credits, I presume the chances of her appearing again are higher. As a side-note, a younger non-powered Illyana also appeared on the original series, voiced by Tara Strong (well, credited as Tara Charendoff at the time).
Speaking of voice actors, Jennifer Hale does a good job voicing both Jean and Maddie, 
going through an array of emotions while doing so. I was kind of hoping the show would try and use Hale as Jean/Maddie, only until the real Jean shows up and that her original voice actress, Catherine Disher, would reprise the role but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Something I didn’t mention in last week’s reviews is that Disher is part of the voice cast for X-Men ’97, but as a different character, Doctor Valerie Cooper who works for the United Nations and seems to help out the X-Men at times, but it remains to be seen if that will still be the case by the end of the season. Chris Britton still sounds good as Sinister, and it is nice hearing him again, as he might be one of the few villains here to keep his original voice from the old show.
“Fire Made Flesh” is a darker episode, compared to the previous ones. It is still an entertaining one, with some interesting developments. The drama works for the most part and the action is quite good, as one would expect. I also like how it’s not exactly explained when Jean was switched with Maddie, and kind of leaves it open to interpretation. “Inferno” was a story from the comics I didn’t think the show would touch at all, but they handled it well enough here; while it feels a bit rushed at times, it did cover the basic plot points in regards to the Goblin Queen, anyway, while also making them fit into the animated series’ continuity. It also offers a pretty satisfying conclusion for Maddie, though it’s always possible she might return later on the show.
The ending teaser for the next episode hints that Storm’s story isn’t over, with Ororo meeting Forge who offers his help. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.
