![[NS] Joseph](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/fcc22f2e2f61ebc7b5431b3f6b470d22?s=96&d=wavatar&r=r){kind=avatar}
CARTOON BOOM PODCAST: This Saturday morning, Joseph and Chris watched X-Men: The Animated Series, from 1992. This was suggested by BobHJones9, Kyle Killing, Nicholas Moss, AND our very own Joseph, for his birthday pick! Thank you ALL for this X-cellent treat!!!
1. First Episode: Night of the Sentinels: Part 1 (S1E01)
2. Highest Rated: Days of Future Past: Part 1 (S1E11)
3. Joseph’s Pick: Beyond Good & Evil (Part 4): End & Beginning (S4E21)
A team of mutant superheroes fight for justice and human acceptance in the Marvel Comics universe.
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When this show was first on, I watched it mainly for the amazing theme song, the awesome action sequences, and the cool character designs. However, as a kid I never really understood everything that was going on and found myself gravitating toward the Spider-Man cartoon more than this one. Now that I’m older I can definitely appreciate this series a lot more, as well as the stories and themes it portrayed.
When I watched it again for the first time in years, back when it was released on DVD, I was surprised about how well they handled the topic of racism. I’ll always remember the bit where the Friends of Humanity capture Jubilee and she ask what she ever did to them, to which Graydon Creed responds “You were born”.
Beast is one of my favorite X-Men in the comic and easily my favorite character in this show since I felt like he was adapted perfectly in this show. I didn’t even mind that he was barely in the first season because that story arc with him in prison was fantastic and perfect for his character. Colossus was another one of my favorite X-Men in the comics and while I thought he was done well here too, I was always disappointed that he was only in two episodes.
It’s funny that you mentioned that Thunderbird would’ve been better for Morph’s role since he served that same purpose in the comics (although he actually died in Uncanny X-Men #95, not Giant Size X-Men), because that’s what they were originally going to do. However, someone who worked on the show brought up that introducing a Native American superhero and then immediately killing him off might be seen as problematic, and they agreed so they agreed and replaced him with Morph. Fun fact, Thunderbird actually appears at the end of the opening theme, where he’s with the Brotherhood running toward the X-Men.
While you’re right about that final season not being great, I still stand by the last episode, Graduation Day, being a great episode and a much better finale than Beyond Good and Evil.
Not everything was great about this show, sometimes it’s 90’sness showed a little too much (I mean, Gambit was one of the main characters). While most of the dialogue and quips are good, every now and then you’d get a dud, like when a Sentinel order Cyclops to surrender, he responds with “Of course, NOT”. There are also some things that are strangely left hanging, like when they fight X-Factor and Cyclops and Havok are confused that they’re powers don’t work on each other and seemingly develop a rivalry with each other but nothing is ever done with that, nor is it ever revealed that they’re brothers. Also, I was disappointed Kitty Pryde never appeared in the show, and apparently the reason for that was because of the failure of Pryde of the X-Men.
Also, while I do love this show, I think X-Men Evolution is still my go to show for the X-Men.
I always appreciate your in depth comments, Michael! And I pretty much agree with you on all accounts. Especially that “You were born.” comment. Oof, that line still hits hard.
Makes sense that they did exclude Thunderbird for that reason, but also weird that they had him on the villain side of the intro screen. Pretty sure they just needed to fill that side of the screen with more characters, tbh.
I’ll have to rewatch Graduation Day to give it a fair shot, since I’ve generally avoided it on rewatches.
Also, because I came in so late in the game to X-Men: Evolution, it’s not my go-to series, but I don’t doubt that it’s probably a better series, overall. Wolverine & the X-Men is also right up there with it, in my book. Shame it got canceled so early on. 🙁
Thank you.
Yeah they probably need more villains to fill out that side, after all they also had Gargoyle on that side, a villain who was NOT a mutant and was from the very first issue of the Hulk, but died at the end of that issue. They also probably already had the character sheet made up for Thunderbird and didn’t want it to go to waste.
Please give Graduation Day a shot, it’s got some great character moments in it, especially with Magneto.
The only other episode in the final season that comes close to being good is an episode called Hidden Agendas, which has Cannonball saving all the employees of a mine after it collapses and becomes a town hero. However, an evil organization wants to use him and starts spreading rumors to turn the town against him so they can recruit him (for example some townspeople are gossiping about some dead livestock, when one of these guys claims they died from radiation from a mutant, causing the two townspeople to instantly blame Sam). It has a great theme of show fickle prejudice can make people but the execution in the episode could be better and it’s bogged down by some unnecessary stuff (like introducing a new villain organization……in the second to last episode). Still, it might be worth at least one watch.
Yeah, Wolverine & The X-Men was a very good and very underrated series. If it had gone on longer it might’ve been my go-to series. Then again, X-Men Evolution just has some of my favorite versions of the characters, like Cyclops, Toad, Avalanche, Nightcrawler, and Rogue.