X-Men is one of the perennial favorites in the Marvel catalog, maybe as well known now as Spider-Man, and seeing this TV series it's not hard to see why. This is taken, as far as I can tell from my limited knowledge of the original comics that featured the main cast assembled here (Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Gambit, Jean Grey, Xavier, Jubilee), right from the source material, and it's a pleasure to see how the series in the first two seasons followed a fairly straightforward continuity. Indeed it's like going through a comic book series; you can't really jump in on any episode to really gage the plot (albeit there are some great stand-alone episodes, particularly in the second season where we get some backstories on Gambit and Rogue), though at the least you get an idea of who every character is and what their interests, powers, concerns and little dramas tend to veer toward.
This is not to say sometimes it can't get a little confusing; by the time it gets into time travel with Cable it can be a little crazy, especially in terms of how much affects what or why an apocalypse still seems to be taking place. But aside from that, it's a classic Saturday morning serial, with lots of adventure and action and colorful villains. And they're all given some meaty comic-boom dialog, too, and it's a step-up usually from the times in the movie series when they've tried to go too far (i.e. X3, Wolverine) in defining personalities. Here it's done just enough as to get a grasp of everyone, but relatively so. And along with the breakneck animation (some of it quite sophisticated for the time, some on par with the Ninja Turtles cartoons if not quite up there with Batman), there's the whole issue of being a mutant, the identity of it and how it is to be a human and an outsider in society that works its way into the show and theme in general.
It's got a message but it doesn't overstate it, it's got action that is believable enough so that we don't roll our eyes and incredible at times to keep the kids wondering (there's a moment where the flying-angel character in an episode asks Rogue how she can fly and she gives a shrug kind of answer, a perfect little comic-book moment), not to mention characters like Beast and Wolverine and Magneto, who are the kinds of icons that need strong storytelling to keep them interesting to new and old fans. This X-Men series, frankly, is the be-all-end-all for me, bad-ass and an all-around crowd-pleaser.
This is not to say sometimes it can't get a little confusing; by the time it gets into time travel with Cable it can be a little crazy, especially in terms of how much affects what or why an apocalypse still seems to be taking place. But aside from that, it's a classic Saturday morning serial, with lots of adventure and action and colorful villains. And they're all given some meaty comic-boom dialog, too, and it's a step-up usually from the times in the movie series when they've tried to go too far (i.e. X3, Wolverine) in defining personalities. Here it's done just enough as to get a grasp of everyone, but relatively so. And along with the breakneck animation (some of it quite sophisticated for the time, some on par with the Ninja Turtles cartoons if not quite up there with Batman), there's the whole issue of being a mutant, the identity of it and how it is to be a human and an outsider in society that works its way into the show and theme in general.
It's got a message but it doesn't overstate it, it's got action that is believable enough so that we don't roll our eyes and incredible at times to keep the kids wondering (there's a moment where the flying-angel character in an episode asks Rogue how she can fly and she gives a shrug kind of answer, a perfect little comic-book moment), not to mention characters like Beast and Wolverine and Magneto, who are the kinds of icons that need strong storytelling to keep them interesting to new and old fans. This X-Men series, frankly, is the be-all-end-all for me, bad-ass and an all-around crowd-pleaser.