Warning, this will be a long blog entry. Please take as many breaks as humanly possible unless you're an mutant. Then go right ahead, I'm not stopping you.
Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, today I got a double feature review. I'm still in the X-Men mood, I absolutely loved Death Battle: Phoenix vs Raven despite Phoenix loss. I recently streamed two more X-Men cartoon shows on Disney+. Honestly, I was quite surprised how these were different from the usual X-Men concept in their own respective way.
Quick note: I do remember seeing pieces of X-Men: Evolution years ago. More recently, I learned about Wolverine and the X-Men. You can tell I'm very excited for X-Men '97 show.
X-Men: Evolution (2000-2003)
This aired on Kids' WB back when that was a thing years ago. Most of the cast are portrayed notably younger. In fact, we're talking mostly high school students. Not just the X-Men but also the Brotherhood of Mutants too. Speaking of them, both these X-Men shows has more of them than the classic 90s show. Of course, they made several changes.
Somehow, it worked amazingly well for it's time. You get to see them learn instead of the older, more experienced versions. This also helps making them more relatable as well. Personally, I strongly felt out of these three X-Men shows currently on Disney+. This one had the best portrayal of Rogue hands down. There's more Mystique than you're prepare for.
Yes this was meant for an younger audience. More notable than the previous 90s show in comparison. At the same time, I can say this still heavily felt like X-Men!!! They still saving people while taking on threats mostly other mutants. Sentinels is barely in the show at all. Very notable to the other X-Men cartoon shows I reviewed.
If you love Nightcrawler, this one has the most appearances. They even made the principal strangely interesting too. This one may not pull more from the usual rogue of enemies. In it's defense, they really worked with what they had. All these crazy situations the X-Men deals with. It isn't the 90s show level of insanity but it's more than expected.
I felt the animation surprisingly held up in my opinion. Magneto does come off as being menacing. Personally, he comes off being more feared when they don't fully see his face. Those few couple appearances stuck out to me. I'm also not trying to say by revealing his face, they ruin the character. This ran for four seasons with plans for a canceled fifth season.
They nearly brought in the Phoenix, a small cameo sadly all you'll get. Apocalypse is easily done better than X-Men: Apocalypse, you bet I was going to do that. The movie wasn't great, this felt like a huge fresh breath of air in comparison. X-Men: Evolution is a contender for the best animated X-Men shows. Some characters were made more younger than expected like Iceman.
This was a decent X-Men show that stayed true to it's concept. Yes I'm also aware DC has Doom Patrol that came out very close to Marvel's X-Men. Personally, I felt both had a similar concept rather than ripping each other off situation. Again, humanity is mostly not known to the mutants. Most of these were fine but one particular moment to me sorta came off a bit racist.
Spyke who evolved further with more spikes over his body goes to a small grocery store. He attempts to buy groceries but the store manager chosen to refuse them service because they're a mutant. This already sounds bad until the part I felt went a little too far. Spyke was going to leave peacefully. A kid whose also an mutant suddenly became a target of disliking mutants.
Quick note: Spyke is an original mutant character on the show. His powers are strikingly similar to another mutant character, Marrow. Unlike X-23, he never made it out the show. He also the nephew of Storm making things a little interesting. X-23 herself isn't in many episodes but they're interesting to watch.
Keep in mind, this kid virtually didn't do anything!!! I mean nothing at all, Spyke was forced to step in. He safely got the kid with their mom out of there. Maybe that's just me but I'm curious how did gotten allowed to aired? Especially on Kids' WB block is virtually mind blowing to me. They never fully made Cyclops & Jean an couple.
A little weird I know, a lot of crazy stuff happens when saving the world multiple times. They brought in Scarlet Witch who kinda looks a little like Rogue. Until she changed her appearance not long following things. Quicksilver comes off like a more annoying Scrappy Doo. I loved how vastly different it was from the 90s show.
Gambit is barely in the show but briefly was allied with Magneto. Shadowcat is virtually what Jubilee was on the 90s show. Not in terms of powers but where they fit into their respective show's teams. Speaking of Jubilee, up to a point in the show. She was in a couple episodes until she left. Juggernaut for some odd reason was made an mutant in this show.
I will say this version of Juggernaut better than Wolverine and the X-Men version. I still prefer the 90s show Juggernaut more. Some characters are better in the 90s show while a few like Rogue got done better here instead. Let's be honest, she kept getting owned a lot in the 90s show. This version was actually pretty awesome in comparison, I'm a huge Rogue fan sue me lol.
There's a lot of interesting stories to be told here. This was a vastly different point of view from the usual X-Men stuff. Wolverine is one of the main staff at Professor Xavier's school. There's plenty of moments good & bad respectively. I can't say there isn't much I dislike about the show rather than what I previously brought up.
I do wanna point out Beast comes in during season 2. He does become a supporting character for the reminder of the show. I do liked we get to see him how he was before he further mutated. I also liked he eventually found the peace he wanted through this school. One of the more interesting versions of the character I say.
They do play on a lot of possible real life scenarios. The team easily bests the Brotherhood of Mutants. You got to love from they pull from the comics at times. Even comparing stuff the 90s show previously done, it isn't the same thing. The factors as well as how some of those ended are vastly different. I'm trying to clarify, they don't recycle previous content on purpose to save time.
X-Men: Evolution was an interesting concept of seeing the challenges of attending school while being mutants. I also liked how they done most of the characters. Obviously, Rogue was my favorite hands down. This really shows exactly why I loved the character so much. She is one of the nicest people yet capable of ridiculous potential.
There's a particular episode where Rogue loss control over these personalities. Every time she uses her powers on someone, she gains their memories as well as their powers to a degree. I never thought we would see something like this. There's a lot of potential in this X-Men cartoon show. I highly recommend checking it out if you're an X-Men fan.
Wolverine and the X-Men (2009)
This aired originally on Nicktoons Network, an related channel to Nickelodeon. They got back to the older, more experienced versions of the X-Men. There's a few major changes that helps it stand out a bit. For starters, usually Cyclops the one leading the team in most things X-Mne. In this rare case, that role was given to Wolverine.
They basically made Cyclops more into a lone wolf like how Wolverine was in most X-Men things. Also they heavily focus on how the past could change the future concept. Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch & Polaris are in the show. Professor Xavier has a strangely interesting role. The past him is stuck in a long coma stated to be around 20 years long.
Wolverine mostly gets to speak with the future Xavier on how to change things for the better. This was done way better than the canned live action Netflix Resident Evil show. They somehow made Toad not only the ugliest so far but more annoying than Jar Jar Binks. Seriously, you wish he would shut the hell up sometimes.
I'm not trying to offend someone with this. Everyone knows The Blob, an fat mutant. They somehow made him extremely thick, it's like putting the 90s show version then they times that by two. There's some surprises among the characters that shows up. They actually do the Phoenix concept before it got canceled.
I'll talk about that in a little bit, I promise. Gambit has a much smaller role than he previously had in X-Men: Evolution. It just seems like they don't want to use the character. I never said he was used badly either. Unlike X-Men: Evolution, there's a lot of Sentinels. There might actually be more of them than in the 90s show.
Jean is mostly absence in the show as well. They somehow made Shadowcat, one of the most awesome mutants ever. Some of the craziest stuff she does with little to no effort. There's a good amount of Beast as well. I always felt Beast was underrated among the other members of the X-Men. They do bring in some of their other enemies.
Such as Mr. Sinister, Mojo and Silver Samurai to name a few. They held to keep dealing with an organization that's against mutants almost the entire show. Apocalypse shows up late into the show. Sadly they didn't confirm what they would've done for season 2. Thankfully it didn't get canceled due to low rankings.
What actually led to that was simply bad timing on their part. The same bad timing that also ruined Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite that came out a couple years later. It was a notable process of Disney buying 20th Century Fox. They canceled most shows not on their own channels including this show. It's a shame, this could've had a chance against X-Men: Evolution.
If they would've had another season at least. The overall tome is more notably darker but plenty of light moments too. This also had my favorite animated take on Nightcrawler. I also need to point out, parts of the designs came from the live action X-Men movies. This kinda works surprisingly well honestly. I was a little mixed White Queen helped the X-Men but you sorta get use to that.
I also wanna say my least favorite animated version of Cyclops too. I confessed, I kinda liked X-Men: Evolution Cyclops way more. Wolverine does try being a good leader in Xavier's absence. The two major antagonists of the show were Magneto & Master Mold. Yes Master Mold is in the future controlling the Sentinels.
This is vastly different take on the character from the 90s show version. This one was more feminine theme with a more Skynet strategy programming. The story arc quickly reminded me of X-Men: Days of Future Past. Both heavily involve altering the past to save the future from Sentinels. I also wanna say not my favorite version of Rogue either.
Wolverine and the X-Men is a good show. You just wish they had more episodes than it actually has. Well to be fair, it's twenty five more episodes than X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men. You know the failed cartoon X-Men pilot episode? Trust me, this show is way better than that!!! It's also notably better than a lot of X-Men movies too.
If I had to rank this with the other X-Men cartoon shows I watched off the same streaming service. I say this would be the bottom but it's not a bad X-Men show. It just got cut a little short before they got going. Then X-Men: Evolution is easily the second best. It's very obvious the 90s show is the best X-Men cartoon show ever!!!
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