Season one of the animated series X-Men was a great success for both Marvel and Fox Kids.  It was the highest rated program on Saturday Morning in its target demographic and thus was renewed for a second season.  Its reign as a rating’s top dog would be short-lived, thanks to a new kid’s show called Power Rangers, but its new-found status of second place had nothing to do with a dip in quality.  Far from it, actually, as season 2 would prove to be every bit as good as season 1, if not better.

Season 1 had a narrative structure that involved linking all of the episodes together, rather than having them all be stand-alone in nature.  This may have made it a little challenging for viewers to jump right in mid-season, but was rewarding for those who latched on from episode one.  Season 2 kept this format, but augmented it slightly.  Season 1 chose to introduce villains every few episodes, where as season 2 opts to focus more on the X-Men individually.  Most of the characters get their own episode that details their back story.  In Rogue’s episode we learn how she joined the X-Men, with Gambit we learn about his involvement with the thieves’ guild, and so on.  Cyclops and Jean are the only two who do not get this treatment.  Jean ends up being a big player in subsequent seasons while Cyclops will have a few episodes dedicated to him down the road.

The one narrative piece linking all of the episodes together involves Xavier and Magneto’s trials in the Savage Land, a place time forgot located in Antarctica.  They would receive a few minutes either at the end or beginning of an episode as they tangle with dinosaurs and try to avoid the Savage Land’s mutates, all while trying to uncover who the mysterious Leader is.  The villain Mr. Sinister would also play a large role in season 2 as he shows up in several episodes.  Sinister was still a some-what new villain for the comics and his inclusion would really benefit the character.  The other major villain would be the Friends of Humanity.  With Senator Kelly now president, the mutants needed a new human villain.  This organization would prove to be the KKK of mutant hating.  Lead by the merciless Graydon Creed, the FoH made life miserable for the X-Men in season 2 and were a big part of several episodes.  Their inclusion helped keep the civil rights aspect of the show in the forefront.

Till Death Do Us Part (Parts 1 and 2)

Evil Morph

For weeks before season 2 began airing, Fox teased fans with commercials featuring the big return of Morph, and this two-part story did not disappoint.  Morph was back and revealed right away to the viewing audience, but not to the X-Men.  The once cheerful mutant was now bitter.  It was soon revealed that Morph had developed two personalities; the happy-go-lucky persona we saw in “Night of the Sentinels” and a new, evil one.  This new one was depicted as having yellowish skin and black circles around his eyes.  He looked a little more gaunt as well, making him a sort-of zombie Morph.  He’s angry with the X-Men for leaving him to die at the Mutant Registration Compound, and he’s going to use his shape-shifting powers to get back at each member of the X-Men.  He first tricks Cyclops and Jean into thinking they’ve been married by a legitimate priest before sending them off on a honeymoon.  He sends Xavier to Antarctica by posing as a dying Magneto.  Jubilee is sent off to the Friends of Humanity headquarters (“That’s for thinking you could replace me!”), Gambit is duped into kissing Rogue (and being knocked unconscious by her energy draining powers), Storm ends up getting shot by police, and Rogue is pissed at Beast (they got off easy) for thinking he was going to back Storm up.

All the while the Friends of Humanity try to make life bad for mutants.  Creed hires someone to pose as a mutant and wreck up the place where President Kelly is giving a speech.  They’re able to provoke Wolverine, Gambit, and Beast into a fight and capture some unflattering images of the recently pardoned Beast for inclusion on the evening news.  This results in Wolverine storming off to take care of them on his own, which leads him to the FoH headquarters where Jubilee is being held and the two bust out.

The main baddie of season 2, Mr. Sinister.

Morph, of course, is eventually outed as the perpetrator of all of this mischief when Wolverine’s nose picks up his scent while he’s masquerading as Xavier.  He escapes the mansion and the X-Men follow him to a secluded island, a base for Mr. Sinister, and we see just what happened the night Morph died.  Cyclops and Jean are being held prisoner, and the X-Men show up to tangle with Sinister’s Nasty Boys.  We get some good action here, as the Nasty Boys possess some unique powers (and some not unique) that give the X-Men some trouble.  Of course, Morph comes to his senses and ends up saving the day by (inadvertently) freeing Cyclops from his restraints, who takes care of the rest.

The episode ends with the bad guys getting away and Morph taking off as well, much to Wolverine’s disappointment.  The episode does a good job of introducing Sinister as a puppet master who is both formidable in combat and behind the scenes.  The inclusion of Morph is pulled off in a respectable way as well.  Most of the time I despise it when writers bring characters back from the dead, but this one works, especially when one considers it was always kind of odd that a Sentinel blast could kill an X-Man.  The episode also concludes with Xavier and Magneto’s reunion and the two, thinking each had been invited by the other, are soon caught in an avalanche.  Xavier’s premonition of “I sense something sinister,” kind of ruins the whole mystery of who’s behind the Savage Land mutates that the writers try to perpetuate throughout the season, but it’s easily forgiven.  As a kid, I was disappointed Morph did not rejoin the X-Men at the episode’s conclusion.  As an adult,  I’m disappointed he was, more or less, freed from Sinister’s control as evil Morph was a very entertaining villain throughout the two episodes.

Whatever It Takes

The Shadow King, quite possibly the worse X-Men villain to appear in the animated series.

The first character to get their own special episode is Storm.  We learn that Storm has a foster son in Africa, and a disturbance in the astral plane discovered by Cerebro sends Storm and Rogue off to investigate.  The episode also introduces the Savage Land, a tropical oasis in Antarctica where many prehistoric creatures still roam.  Magneto and Xavier find themselves trapped here and strangely their mutant powers have vanished.  Along with that, Xavier is also able to walk again.  Magneto informs Xavier he is familiar with this land, but it never had such properties before.  They tangle with some dinosaurs and basically set the stage for what will end up being a season’s long adventure.

Wolverine has a side-story where he’s chasing after Morph through the jungles of South America.  He finds Morph, who has used his shape-shifting powers to assimilate himself with the locals, and the two tangle in a mine shaft.  Morph delights the audience with a couple of cameo transformations including Maverick and Deadpool as he attempts to harm Wolverine psychologically.  Eventually, Morph backs off and slips into his “good Morph” persona pleading with Wolverine to let him get through this by himself.  Wolverine, begrudgingly, acquiesces  to his friend’s wishes.

Sadly, the minor side story is the most compelling, as Storm and Rogue’s exploits in Africa are not.  The Shadow King is the one behind the rip in the astral plane, and he has targeted Storm’s surrogate son Mjnari in order to lure her back to Africa.  It is revealed that Storm once served the Shadow King in her youth as a pick pocket.  Xavier sealed the Shadow King away in the astral plane, a realm the most powerful psychics are able to access, destroying his physical body.  He possesses Mjnari, and then eventually Storm as she offers herself to him in order to spare her son.  Rogue is kind of just along for the ride as her brawn is not able to touch the Shadow King’s corporeal form.  Mjanri ends up finding a way to lure the Shadow King back into the astral plane, and the portal between the two worlds closes, sealing him away once more.  The whole thing is kind of silly and predictable, the end result being season 2’s worst episode.  At least they got it out of the way early.

Red Dawn

A new villain for the '90's: Omega Red

Season 2’s fourth episode is one of the few not to feature significant back-story or character details about one of the X-Men, and that’s because it chooses to introduce a new villain:  Omega Red.  Omega Red was a very new villain to the comics and one that caught on with audiences pretty quickly, mostly because of his look and because he was a new villain for Wolverine.  Red was born from the Soviet equivalent of the Weapon X project.  His back-story isn’t explained in great detail, just that he was the Soviet’s ultimate weapon and Wolverine lead a team that helped, in his words, put Omega Red back on ice.  Armed with retractable carbonadium coils (an indestructible metal similar to adamantium) that drain the life from his victims, Red is unfrozen by a corrupt Soviet regime looking to take back the country.

Naturally, this presents an opportunity to bring Colossus back into the fold.  Colossus helps Jubilee deal with some Friends of Humanity goons who are harassing a convenience store owner.  He tells Jubilee he has come seeking the X-Men’s help in dealing with Omega Red.  The X-Men aren’t home, so Jubilee leaves a note and the two head off to Russia to combat Omega Red.  Wolverine arrives home soon after from his exploits in South America, and promptly crushes the note while growling “Omega Red” and bad ass music plays as he stalks off to the hangar.

Back in Russia, Colossus and Omega Red face-off, with Wolverine soon joining the party.  We learn about their back-story, while Omega Red handles the threat effortlessly.  The battle is broken up, and the rest of the X-Men soon arrive.  Together, they battle Red and Storm’s mastery of the cold freezes Omega Red once more.  The character Dark Star, once an ally of the old regime, assists in taking down Red and she also apprehends those responsible for bringing him back.  Colossus once again is offered a place with the team, but he declines saying his place is with his family.  Unfortunately, this episode is the last to feature the brawny metal mutant.  A good almost one-shot for Omega Red (I say almost because he does get a return episode) and a way to keep the series topical with the comic books.

The Cure

Rogue takes center stage in "The Cure."

I talked about this plot in my review of X-Men: The Last Stand.  It’s an excellent story line for the X-Men and works especially well with X-Men the animated series because of its focus on the Rogue character.  The cure refers to a cure for mutants and raises all kinds of social issues when extended to the real world.  If there was a “cure,” for example, for homosexuality would some homosexuals want to take it?  Never mind the outrage from certain parties if anything like that was ever referred to as a cure.

For the X-Men, the existence of such a cure brings about a mixed response.  There’s the outraged part displayed by Wolverine, while Cyclops is more empathetic.  These reactions make sense considering the characters.  Wolverine’s mutant healing ability and sharp senses only give him an advantage over other individuals.  Cyclops, on the other hand, can’t open his eyes unless they’re protected by ruby lenses.  It must suck only seeing the world in shades of red, plus imagine the expense of having to replace a pair of busted glasses!

Rogue, rather predictably, ends up being the member of the team most interested in a cure as her powers prevent her from having skin to skin contact with another person.  Her sexual frustration must be unmatched, considering she surrounds herself with beautiful people who prefer to wear skin-tight spandex.

Xavier is the one who relays the message from Muir Island, which is the reason for his presence there.  A Dr. Adler is the one claiming to have a cure, and Xavier wanted to investigate though his psychic powers warn him of a great danger.  Rogue takes off to investigate on her own, where she ends up tangling with the villains Pyro (given an accurate Australian accent) and Avalanche, who both previously had made cameos in the episode “Slave Island.”  Cable also gets involved, and Angel has a small part as well.  He is depicted in his X-Men red and white uniform, but makes no mention of ever being a member of the team.  The episode forces Rogue to consider her life and what she would be giving up if she did not have her powers.  As with most of the season one episodes, the main plot is wrapped up but a teaser ending is inserted, this one featuring the menacing Apocalypse.  All in all, this is one of the better episodes from season one from a writing standpoint and ends up being far more successful in its handling of the cure plot device than the film.  If it has one failing, it’s with the Angel character who is revealed to be funding Dr. Adler’s project as he wishes to be normal.  His mutation grants him flight through the presence of two feathered wings on his back, it seems like if he wished to be normal he could just have them amputated.  I feel like this could have easily been resolved if someone just asked him and he said they always grow back or something, but I suppose I’m being nit-picky.

Come the Apocalypse

Apocalypse as he appeared in the animated series.

Given how the previous episode ended, it’s no surprise this one would properly introduce Apocalypse to the animated universe.  This episode marks the first time the X-Men tangle with Apocalypse, both on and off-screen.  Apocalypse is referred to by Xavier as a mutant driven completely mad by his own powers, where as Apocalypse is quick to point out to a human that he is “as far beyond mutants as they are beyond you.”

Apocalypse was revealed to be the one behind Dr. Adler’s cure.  Adler was revealed in the last episode to be the shape-shifting mutant Mystique, and we find out in this episode the machine that supposedly cures mutants actually turns them into slaves of Apocalypse.  After first using the machine on Angel, Mystique disguises herself as his alter ego Warren Worthington to convince some locals the cure works, which leads to three no-named characters submitting to the process giving Apocalypse his four horsemen: War, Pestilence, Plague, and Death.  Angel is now Death, and referred to as Archangel, and Apocalypse unleashes his horsemen on Washington.

The X-Men are forced to respond and the episode is a fairly action oriented one.  They’re able to drive Apocalypse off when Rogue absorbs Archangel’s powers and, in her words, takes the evil away that Apocalypse created.  Archangel thanks the X-Men but sets off on his own at the episode’s conclusion.

The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse.

Apocalypse is portrayed well, and the plot allowed the writers to work in the Archangel character through Apocalypse even though the character’s motivations were the opposite of his comic book counterpart (who sought out Apocalypse’s help to regain his wings).  Apocalypse is portrayed faithfully, though for some reason the creative minds behind the show chose to give him a purple and blue color scheme instead of the black and blue one from the comics.  I definitely find this color scheme off-putting but I suppose the complaint is superficial.  The only real hole with the episode, and most episodes dealing with Apocalypse, is the resolution.  Apocalypse is shown as being indestructible in many scenes, and whenever he flees it seems superficial.  He appears capable of completely annihilating the X-Men but never does.

Days of Future Past (Parts 1 and 2)

Bishop

Season one’s second two-parter takes the popular story from the comic book and attempts to adapt it for the television cartoon.  The end result is a story that has the same basic premise, but differs pretty drastically from the original.  In the comic, the central character was Kitty Pryde which obviously presents an instant obstacle since she isn’t a part of this version of the X-Men.  Kitty mentally travels back in time and inhabits her younger counterpart, here the character Bishop is used in her place and he literally travels back in time.  We’re shown his future world where the Sentinels are in charge of everything.  Bishop is a mutant working as a tracker for the Sentinels who hunts down renegade mutants.  Wolverine, the sole remaining X-Man, is his most recent capture.  When the Sentinels inform him he is of no more use to them, Bishop is forced to team-up with Wolverine and two unnamed mutants to allude the Sentinels capture.  It is then that they meet-up with Forge and Bishop learns of their plans to travel back in time to prevent an assassination they believe is the root cause for this bleak world.  Bishop ends up convincing Forge that he should go instead of this older version of Wolverine and winds up back in the 90’s, but with no recollection of why he’s there.

It’s here the episode gets going as Bishop knows he has to stop an assassination attempt on Senator Kelly, but can’t remember who the assassin is.  He only knows that it is a member of the X-Men.  He tries taking them all out, but is understandably over-matched.  The X-Men confirm his story, or at least confirm he believes he’s telling the truth, when Xavier scans his mind with Cerebro.  Bishop ends up being pursued by the futuristic super Sentinel Nimrod, and we get to see the X-Men tangle with him.

It is revealed that Mystique was actually the assassin Bishop was after.

Part 1 ends with Bishop declaring Gambit is the assassin.  Bishop is convinced and Gambit is understandably outraged.  Once again, the writers are calling into question Gambit’s loyalty to the X-Men’s cause and do so effectively.  The X-Men leave Gambit, Bishop, and Wolverine behind to go and try to prevent this assassination attempt.  We discover that Mystique and her crew are behind the attempt with Apocalypse pulling the strings (though he’s mentioned in name only).  Rogue and Mystique have a confrontation where Mystique drops a proverbial bombshell on her, and we learn it was her shape-shifting into Gambit that lead Bishop to believe he was the assassin.

In the end, Bishop is sent back to his time where we see nothing has changed even though the assassination attempt is thwarted.  Senator Kelly is kidnapped in the closing moments, and it is revealed in a chilling way that Magneto is the culprit.  This two-parter is the first time the writers explore the concept of time travel and it’s done in a fun and amusing way.  The episodes have great build-up and the conclusion is satisfying.  The scenes between Wolverine, Bishop, and Gambit interject some nice humor to the mix and we get to see the entire team of X-Men in action as well.  So while the story-line wasn’t exactly faithfully adapted from the source material, it doesn’t offend the purists either.

The Final Decision

The season one finale pits the X-Men against the Sentinels as they try to save a senator who distrusts all mutants in the face of insurmountable odds.  We see early on in the episode that Magneto was indeed behind Kelly’s abduction and that he intends to kill him in an attempt to bring about war between mutants and humans.  The Sentinels, composed entirely of plastics to better equip them against Magneto, rescue Kelly and leave Magneto broken and bloodied (a rare sight for a Saturday morning cartoon) for the X-Men to find.  We then find out that the Sentinels have plans for Kelly.  Their creator, Bolivar Trask, had sent them to rescue Kelly in an effort to get his backing for more funding, but the massive Sentinel factory that is Master Mold overrides Trask’s commands.  Declaring that mutants are humans, Master Mold aims to rid the world of all life to protect humanity from itself and Trask is powerless to stop him.  He wishes to replace Kelly’s brain with a robotic one.  Kelly points out the insanity of such a plan that Master Mold dismisses, for he is quick to point out that he (it) is incapable of being insane as that is a human failing.

How do you stop a gigantic robot? Fly a plane into him.

The X-Men track down Henry Gyrich to learn where Trask has hidden Master Mold and the Sentinels.  At the same time, Trask calls Gyrich to let him know what has transpired.  Now that the Sentinels are no longer a threat limited to mutants, Gyrich tells the X-Men Trask’s location but warns them that going there is a veritable suicide mission as Trask has created thousands of the mutant hunting robots.  This leads to a scene back at the mansion where the X-Men argue amongst themselves if they should go after Kelly, with Cyclops being the major voice for it and Gambit the one most opposed.  Magneto emerges, battered, to inform them they’re fools to go after Kelly.  Xavier declares this must be done and heads for the Blackbird.  The others soon follow, including Jubilee, who initially is intercepted by Wolverine.  Declaring she has to go because she’s an X-Man and it means more to her than anything else, Wolverine relents and agrees with her sentiment.  Gambit is the last to rise from his seat and head for the Blackbird.  Magneto watches the X-Men leave, remarking rather ominously to himself, “The brave are always the first to die.”

The scene is emotionally heavy, and the mood is lightened some when the X-Men storm Trask’s mountain compound.  Some comedic relief takes place as the Sentinels inspect a present left behind by Gambit, and while Cyclops, Wolverine, and he enter.  I particularly enjoy the scene where Wolverine attempts to save Gambit by sacrificing himself and Gambit’s reaction to Wolverine’s intention.  The major uplifting scene occurs when Magneto rescues Xavier, and we see the X-Men’s nemesis join in.

The X-Men are victorious in the end, and Magneto departs without incident.  This proves to be their ultimate victory in more ways than one.  The Sentinels are seemingly vanquished, and they gain a new ally in Senator Kelly.  In the closing moments we see Kelly’s mutant acceptance platform vaults him into the White House, where his first act as president is to issue a full pardon to Dr. Henry McCoy, aka, Beast.  This presents a huge pay-off for viewers as the X-Men routinely dealt with failure throughout the show’s first season and rarely experienced so complete a victory.  A cliff-hanger teasing the villain Mr. Sinister is included at the end effectively giving viewers something to look forward to.

Season one proved a great success, both creatively and commercially for Fox Kids and Marvel Entertainment.  X-Men ended up being more than just the usual action hero spectacle as it had a very strong emotional core.  The civil rights premise of the show was the main focal point for many of the season’s plots.  This direction would be de-emphasized in later episodes, probably because the writer’s felt they had done all they could there.  When those issues are at the forefront is when X-Men is at its best.  Season one also did a wonderful job of giving a lot of face-time to each member and wasn’t nearly as Wolverine-heavy as a lot of other adaptations.

Season One is probably the overall best, but Season Two is every bit as good.  I plan on going through them all so be sure to check back in the coming weeks for more thoughts on X-Men.

Captive Hearts

Episode 5 of the inaugural season of X-Men introduced the audience to everyone’s favorite love triangle:  Cyclops, Jean, and Wolverine.  Cyclops and Jean are romantically linked and by all accounts are very much in love.  Wolverine lusts for Jean, and while she comes across as sympathetic to his feelings, her heart lies with Cyclops.

The meat of the episode involves Jean and Cyclops getting kidnapped by The Morlocks while out on a date.  The Morlocks’ leader, Callisto, views Cyclops as a weapon and wishes to make him her husband to strengthen her position as leader of The Morlocks.  Xavier has Storm lead a team of X-Men (Wolverine, Gambit, and Rogue) into the sewers where The Morlocks reside to rescue their comrades.  This brings in another conflict for the plot as Storm is forced to face her claustrophobia.

This episode is often derided as Season 1’s worst.  The Morlocks are an uninteresting villain and it seems like even a small team of X-Men should be able to handle them with relative ease.  The whole claustrophobia angle was definitely uninteresting for me as a younger viewer and as an adult it still feels kind of forced.  And as good as the writer’s for this show were, they never were able to appropriately handle Wolverine’s affection for Jean.  He comes across like a teenager who can’t get the girl he wants and the whole angle would become way over-played throughout the show.

And ultimately, kids didn’t want to see Wolverine like this, they just want to see the bad ass side.  Though I do like his tough love approach for Storm and her claustrophobia.  In the end though, a rare dud for the early seasons of X-Men.

Cold Vengeance

After not wanting to deal with Jean’s adoration of Cyclops, Wolverine flees to the arctic region of Northern Canada for some solitude.  In his quest for inner peace, he is confronted by his old nemesis Sabretooth who puts a tribe of local eskimos in between their feud.

This was the show’s first Wolverine centered episode, and while he would end up with more solo episodes than any other character, the writers never over did it (which is something the people over at Fox could learn to understand).  This episode depicts a vulnerable Wolverine once again.  As a man who’s life is plagued by violence and tragedy, he just wants to get away but his past is always there to haunt him.  Sabretooth is a good villain for Wolverine and serves to remind the viewer what Wolverine could have become had he given into his more primal nature.

The tribe gives Wolverine an outlet to be at ease and we’re able to understand what it is about them Wolverine so admires.  The young tribesman who views Wolverine as a threat is perhaps over done but serves a purpose.  Really, the only downer about this episode is there isn’t much of a payoff.  Plus, we see Wolverine act a little too wimpy when he tells Sabretooth, “I don’t want to fight you.  I don’t care who started it.”  That’s not the Wolverine anyone wants to see, plus it’s too much of a role reversal from the blood thirsty Wolverine we saw just two episodes ago in “Deadly Reunions.”

In the end, their fight is slightly more interesting this time around, but it is still obvious the censors prevented it from being anything worthwhile (there’s one really odd exchange with Sabretooth throwing snow in Wolverine’s eyes that just screams “edit!” all over it).  Thankfully, the episode doesn’t leave Wolverine as some shamanistic man of peace and he is pretty much back to his old self soon after.

Slave Island

This episode contains several cameos of other mutants, some of which would become major players in future episode plots.

Throughout the previous episode there were a couple of scenes showing the X-Men receiving information about the island nation of Genosha and its apparent acceptance of mutants.  Cyclops selects Storm, Gambit, and Jubilee to go check it out.  At the episode’s conclusion, they’re shown being gassed in their hotel room and captured by a Sentinel and a small band of solders.

This episode picks up right where that one left off, and Storm, Gambit, and Jubilee are imprisoned in a mutant work camp.  This episode introduces the mutant power suppressing collars.  All of the mutants wear them and a controller deactivates them during the day so the mutants can use their powers to construct a dam.  It is said if the mutants tamper with the collars they’ll explode though later episodes would prove that to be an empty threat.  Storm tries to rally the mutants into a rebellion and the controller reactivates the collar forcing her capture.  As punishment, she is placed in “the box” where her claustrophobia pretty much drives her mad.

This episode features numerous cameos from other mutants.  It also introduces Cable, who’s past is apparently different from his comic book past.  Here he’s after The Leader, who is apparently behind the whole operation on Genosha, and who he supposedly served under as a marine.  Cable will go on to display little knowledge of the X-Men in both this episode and the following.  Similar to the situation with Magneto, in future seasons Cable will be portrayed more faithfully as the time-traveling son of Cyclops and Jean.  He is given this really cool gun though that seemingly turns anything it hits into a bomb.

What helps keep this episode interesting is the seed it plants in the viewer’s head regarding the Gambit character.  How much of a team player is he?  The swerve is nicely set-up, and in the end we find out he’s an X-Man through and through, but there is a moment of doubt.  Jubilee gets her first taste of action and she’s actually used effectively.  It’s no secret most fans have a strong dislike of the Jubilee character.  This is actually one of the few episodes that doesn’t feature much from Wolverine.  His role is reduced to just a brief cameo showing his return from his trip in the previous episode.  Xavier also takes off unannounced to visit his old friend Moira MacTaggert  and to investigate a future plot device.

The Sentinel creation process is also shown for the first time, introducing the character Master Mold, a giant Sentinel that manufactures the rest and the reason for the dam’s construction.  The Sentinels continue to be de-powered by the writers since their original appearance, and the X-Men are able to dispatch them with relative ease.  The dam gets destroyed calling into question if Master Mold was destroyed as well, while Trask and Gyrich make their escape to show up in a later episode.

The Unstoppable Juggernaut

The X-Men will need all the help they can get to stop the Juggernaut.

At the end of “Slave Island,” the victorious X-Men return to find their mansion destroyed and the Professor missing.  They immediately set out to try and find the individuals responsible which leads Wolverine and Jubilee to a construction yard where a young mutant from Russia makes his debut.  Colossus, depicted in street clothes as opposed to his costume from the comics, is suspect number 1 for the X-Men.  We the viewers, of course, know Colossus is a good guy and wouldn’t smash a mansion just for the fun of it.  Wolverine determines the same, and Colossus is cleared.

Not for long though, as he’s shown getting arrested later on for an apparent bank robbery.  The case of mistaken identity leads Wolverine and Jubilee to another robbery, where they find their real mansion-masher, the Juggernaut.

Unlike Magneto, the X-Men are shown as being all too familiar with the Professor’s jealous step-brother.  All of the X-Men, and Colossus, are forced to take him on in the city streets where they use team work to win the day.  Beast also makes a cameo during a jail break scene where Rogue and Storm free Colossus.

In the end, the X-Men are successful and subdue the Juggernaut.  Colossus helps in the rebuilding of the mansion but declines an invite to join the team.  The episode works as a fun way to show all of the X-Men in battle against a worthy foe.  Juggernaut is an amusing villain who is well written and also well-voiced.  A solid, action-packed episode.

When I was a kid it sometimes felt like my whole life was spent waiting for Saturday morning, because once 11 AM hit I was locked onto the television for that is when my beloved X-Men graced the set.  From 1992-1997, 76 episodes were produced and aired.  The creators of the show took a modern cast of X-Men and found a way to work them into both classic and current stories.  It must have been a writer’s dream to have 20+ years of comic book plot-lines already written to pick and choose from.  Sure some would necessitate re-working, but there were lots of interchangeable parts throughout the years and finding a replacement on the current X-Men for someone like Kitty Pryde proved relatively simple.

X-Men was my favorite cartoon and nostalgia demands that it still is.  When the series ended its run in ’97 it all but vanished from television.  At some point, Disney acquired the rights for the program and the show started popping up on their channels but in odd time slots.  By then I was in my teens or early twenties and not willing to commit to watching much of anything on TV.  For awhile it seemed like the show would never get a proper DVD release, even during the rise of retro television releases it seemed like the X-Men were forgotten.  This lead me to eventually purchase a bootleg set off of eBay.  The episodes were recorded off of television and probably transferred from a VHS.  The quality was terrible and the DVD’s often crashed.  Disney had a poor track record with their cartoon releases, most notably with the series Gargoyles in which they released only the first two seasons, so optimism for a true release was not very high.

X-men: Volume 1 (2009)

Finally in 2009 things changed.  Presumably to capitalize on the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine film, Buena Vista Home Entertainment began releasing the series on DVD.  By May of 2010, the entire run has seen release across 5 two disc volumes.  The sets themselves are pretty bare bones.  There’s no special features, commentary, or anything added.  The only notable aspect of each release is the original cover art for each set.  The studio also chose to release the episodes in air date order.  For long time fans, this came as a disappointment because a few episodes from seasons 3 and 4 ended up getting passed over initially and bumped to later seasons (the most obvious being “No Mutant is an Island”).  Beggars can’t be choosers, and I’m just happy to finally have the episodes in a watchable format.

Which brings me to the review portion of this post.  I want to review the whole series, just for the fun of it and because I can.  Some basic info before diving in must be explained first.  The X-Men that exist in this show consist of Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Beast, Jean Grey, and Jubilee.  Professor Charles Xavier oversees everything and the team remains stable through out the show’s run (much to my ire as a child).  Season 1 kicks off with one additional member of the X-Men, Morph, who was made for TV but adapted from the old comic book villain/sometimes hero Changeling.  The audience is lead to believe these X-Men are a little green when it comes to the covert mission they undertake in the season’s first 2 episodes.  It’s later shown these X-Men are not familiar with Magneto and the other villains they end up facing, with the only exception being the Juggernaut.  This ignoring of the history of the characters would be corrected in later seasons when flashbacks would depict the original X-Men (Cyclops, Jean, Iceman, Angel, and a human looking Beast) battling Magneto.  Who knows why the change was made but it does make some scenes in the first season a bit off for longtime fans of the comic.

That said, season 1 is probably the show’s best.  The writers took a continuous approach with each episode picking up where the previous one left off.  Season 2 would follow a similar format but as the show went along more self-contained episodes would be featured with two-parters and mini series popping up.  I enjoy the format of the first two seasons the most as it makes for a much more rewarding experience.  In the end, it matters little so long as the quality is there.

The animation should be mentioned as well, before I delve into the plots of each episode.  The X-Men are brightly colored and take their looks from the works of Jim Lee.  The characters are obviously not as detailed and the sex appeal of the female members is toned down slightly but the influence is obvious.  The backgrounds are a bit drab in comparison with the characters but there is at least some variety thrown in as the X-Men battle at night, during the day, in the sewers, caves, industrial parks, and so on.  The animation is a bit stiff though, and the animators were limited in how they could depict violence.  Wolverine’s claws are reserved for attacking machinery only, all weapons seem to always be set for stun, and getting hit by a bolt of lightning from Storm apparently isn’t all that bad.  The characters were however able to freely use the word “death” which is actually kind of a big deal for a kid’s program.  This, in part, allowed the writers to create a mature and dramatic atmosphere even with the PG level of violence.

Night of the Sentinels (Parts 1 and 2)

The show begins with a two part episode.  The first episode focuses on introducing the audience to the X-Men and the conflict that exists between mutants and humans.  The opening shot depicts Sabretooth wreaking havoc on a downtown locale through a news broadcast on the television of two concerned foster parents.  They begin talking about a mutant, who needs help, and we soon learn they’re speaking of their foster child Jubilee.  Jubilee is a young girl (who’s supposed to be Chinese, but looks American in the show) coping with being a mutant.  She overhears her parents and, hurt, she decides to run off to the mall.

Here is where the X-Men are introduced.  Not long after Jubilee’s arrival she is attacked by a giant, mutant-hunting robot.  It just so happened that Rogue and Storm were both shopping that day and jump to assist.  Gambit, shown flirting with a cashier as he buys stacks of playing cards, soon joins the fun.  He’s wise-cracking and ends up being an instant hit for most young boys watching the show.  Cyclops finishes the job as Jubilee runs into him and passes out.  She wakes to find herself in the mansion of the X-Men.  She sneaks out of bed and looks in on the remaining X-Men that have yet to be introduced.  Wolverine is saved for last as Jubilee finds herself in the Danger Room where Gambit and Wolverine are sparring against each other.  Thinking her hero Gambit is in real danger, she unleashes a blast of fireworks from her hands and subdues Wolverine, eliciting laughter from the other X-Men.

X-Men don't cut and run, or do they?

It is soon revealed the Jubilee was attacked because her name was obtained by the robot, soon revealed to be a Sentinel, via the Mutant Registration Center.  Professor X deduces that this program, supposedly designed to help mutants, has ulterior motives and the X-Men are deployed to check our their headquarters.  Before doing so we’re given a look at the inherit conflict that exists between Wolverine and his peers.  Going by the motto of “I go where I wanna go,” Wolverine intends to set off by himself to find Jubilee, who has run away, where as Cyclops has him slated as part of the infiltration team.  They argue, and eventually Wolverine does what he wants and the X-Men set off without him.

It ends up mattering little as Wolverine soon rejoins them after he was unable to pick up Jubilee’s trail (he got bit by a dog, too).  The X-Men chat as they make their way in about their individual pasts in a casual tone, which helps give a little more back story.  Beast, Morph, Wolverine, and Storm enter the compound and some of the show’s more memorable lines are featured (“So I’ll buy him a new door!”) and everything appears to be going smoothly.

Then the army shows up, and the X-Men find themselves with a fight on their hands.  As they’re running for their jet, the Blackbird, Morph utters the fateful line of “Smooth sailing all the way,” which seems to only provoke the Sentinels into attacking.  This memorable exchange then takes place:

Wolverine: “Hey tin woodsman, I’m sending you back to Oz!  In pieces…”

Morph: “Wolverine! Fall back!”

"Wolverine! Fall back!"

This is actually shown later on in a flashback, and it is revealed that Morph bites the dust.  This, to me, is a really effective way to get viewers attached to a new show.  Up to this point, Morph was depicted as an extremely likable piece of comedic relief.  It is assumed that most of the viewers liked him right away, so when he gets killed off it has weight even though we’re only in the show’s second episode.  Wolverine is profoundly affected, and we get a shot of him punching Cyclops about as violently as one can right in the gut over his anger that the team left Morph and Beast behind.  Beast was captured, and would spend the remainder of season 1 incarcerated.  It’s interesting to see these characters cope with not only the loss of a teammate, but failure.  Their first mission was a disaster, and Jubilee is still missing and probably in danger.

The X-Men are able to locate the Sentinels’ base and launch an attack.  Jubilee was being held captive and is obviously delighted to be rescued.  The X-Men have an easier time with the Sentinels this time out and are able to force their handlers, Bolivar Trask, and Henry Guyrich, to flee.

Jubilee ends up joining the team in the end, while Cyclops is left to wrestle with the fact that he ordered the team to retreat and leave behind some of their own.  In just two episodes, the show proves it will have an emotional weight that will separate it from the usual kid’s programming.  I still think these two episodes represent the best debut episodes for any show and it is easy to see why the show was a ratings behemoth early on.

Enter Magneto

The third episode gives longtime fans exactly what they want and newcomers are introduced to what they suspect will be the main villain of the series.  Magneto has long been at odds with Xavier.  Xavier wishes for peace between mutants and humans while Magneto views that as an impossibility and believes a war is brewing.  As I mentioned in my lead-in, the X-Men will exhibit little to no knowledge of who Magneto is.  Xavier explains their past but not in great detail.

Awesome VHS box art.

This episode also introduces the conflict that is Wolverine and Sabretooth.  An early scene shows Beast at a hearing for his involvement in the raid of the Mutant Registration head quarters (now defunct, thanks to the X-Men’s efforts) where he is denied bail.  Sabretooth bursts through the wall, apparently outraged by the judge’s decision.  Sabretooth finds himself getting blasted by cops, and when Cyclops calls on Wolverine to assist he refuses.  It isn’t revealed why Wolverine hates him, and he doesn’t enjoy the fact that Cyclops brings him to the mansion for care.  Comatose, Sabretooth lies in the infirmary when Wolverine shows up.  A stand-off ensues where Xavier tells Wolverine if he removes Sabretooth from the premises he’s no longer welcome.  The confrontation is broken up when Magneto attacks a military base, prompting Wolverine to ask of Xavier, “How come we’re supposed to trash your old enemy, but we gotta go easy on mine?”

Magneto was earlier introduced trying to free Beast from prison as the episode opened.  Beast, stating he and Xavier believe it is better for their cause if he goes through the courts, declined.  Now at the military base, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine are tasked with bringing him down.  Magneto initiates a launch sequence of nuclear missiles and leaves the X-Men nearly incapacitated.  Storm, initially planning to sacrifice herself by detonating the warheads overseas, is telepathically given insight from Xavier on how to use her powers to disarm them.  She does so, and all is well as the X-Men save the day.

Deadly Reunions

More awesome VHS box art!

Episode 4 picks up right where 3 left-off, with the conflict of Wolverine and Sabretooth left very much unresolved.  Wolverine gives some insight in regards to their past when he mentions that Sabretooth wasted (take that to mean whatever you want, I suppose) some friends of his for no reason.  He takes off, and Magneto soon attacks a chemical plant prompting Cyclops, Storm, and Rogue into action (Jean and Gambit are apparently occupied elsewhere) leaving Jubilee behind with Sabretooth.  Predictably, Sabretooth is able to dupe Jubilee into releasing his restraints and proving Wolverine right.

The conflict at the chemical plant is resolved somewhat quickly and in an unsatisfactory manner.  As Magneto takes out the X-Men, Xavier shows up and uses his telepathy to traumatize Magneto into fleeing after making him relieve some violent moments of his childhood.  Fans of the comic know that Magneto was imprisoned for being a Jew during World War 2, though the cartoon does not make that entirely clear.  We just see images of Magneto as a child in a war-torn environment.

Cyclops ends up getting poisoned by some sort of radioactive smoke, forcing Rogue to give him mouth to mouth.  This ends up being kind of a fun way to show the audience Rogue’s mutant power stealing abilities as she’s soon uncontrollably firing blasts from her eyes.  Storm’s claustrophobia is also shown as she’s paralyzed with fear when a wall comes down on her.  The wall is made of brick but her injuries are strangely superficial.

Back at the mansion, Wolverine shows up just in time to save Jubilee from Sabretooth.  It is revealed that Sabretooth was working for Magneto and was tasked with sneaking into the mansion to get a look at the place.  Wolverine and Sabretooth duke it out in a very kid’s show kind of way as the two just trade-off pinning each other down with Sabretooth grasping Wolverine’s wrists to prevent his claws from doing any damage.  Wolverine gets the upper hand before the X-Men storm in.  Xavier, assuming Wolverine initiated the conflict, begins to scold him granting Sabretooth an opening to take a swipe at Wolverine’s abdomen.  Jubilee blasts him through a wall and Sabretooth chooses to flee once outside the mansion while the X-Men get Wolverine to the infirmary.  In the closing moments, Xavier is shown realizing his willingness to trust any and all mutants is not always the wise course of action.  He apologizes to an unconscious Wolverine as the show closes with Magneto vowing revenge to no one.  The episode ends up being emotionally captivating, but with little pay-off.  Magneto’s seemingly easy defeat by Xavier undermines the character and, strangely, he is not shown again until the season’s final episode.