Wolverine and the X-Men, if it follows through with its great first season, has the potential of being the premiere X-Men animated series around. Time will tell.
Let me put it simply. If you like western animation, you should try this. If you like X-Men, you should to watch this. If you like Wolverine, you MUST watch this.
Any fan of the X-Men would instantly see the quality given to this series by Marvel. And it is by far, one of the best (if not the best) written and the best animated Marvel flick out there. This animated series gives everyone, fans or otherwise, a healthy dose of action, drama, and superheroics. I was honestly surprised at this series, since I did not expect much from an animated series titled “Wolverine and the X-men.” (They could honestly have done better than that… it sound so UGH!) But the series was surprisingly mature, well-written, well-paced, and quite faithful (yet remaining original) to the source material.
The best part? The White Queen, Emma Frost is here as a main character. Albeit as little less of a B**ch Queen as the original. She also seemed to have gained a fake English accent… which actually fits the Emma gig quite fine. Now if only they can get Joss Whedon to write these series, it would be great. Kitty and Emma and their vocal jabs would simply make the screens ignite.
The series starts with an explosion, and ends with one. It begins with a scene about the END of the X-Men, a mysterious explosion that takes out a good chunk of the Xavier University, leaving a crater – and the disappearance of the psionics’ Charles Xavier and Jean Grey. The leader of the X-Men, Cyclops, is not heartbroken with Jean’s Death – and has become a drunkard, and for the first time, mutants are truly in danger. Now, Wolverine, the title character, has to rebuild the broken X-Men, one member at a time. Not very many series can pack as much punch in start and still pack a heavier punch in the ending. Wolverine and the X-Men chose its main characters well, and the team dynamic was indeed very well done, though my only complaint was the series’ utter concentration on Wolverine (and Wolverine alone for almost half the episodes… this gave very little character growth to some very good characters like Kitty Pryde and Iceman – who were all but forgotten. And these are such interesting characters.)
But that aside, the episodes are incredibly fanbase-centric, showing episodes that very few of the other X-Men installments had done before. The Origin story of Storm, for example, is rarely shown in an X-Men cartoon – and Wolverine vs. the Hulk is also shown in the series, as well as Logan and Raven’s ‘history’ together. An interesting little tidbit here, however, is Wolverine and Cyclops had changed places – where he now handles the leadership of the X-Men, and the latter has become an angry and unpredictable x-factor in the team. Also, in this release, Wolverine has finally been given a proper translation. Most X-Men films (including the movies) forget some details that this animation did not… there are episodes concerning Wolverine’s time as a Samurai, episodes that highlight his tracking skills, and even an episode where his military marksmanship was featured.
While this series does not go as in depth as the original X-Men cartoon, this one, at least, was more maturely written. The ending of this series, in fact, still sends me chills when I remember that climactic scene. That scene, and the nice twist from the all-too-familiar Phoenix plotline was very refreshing, and quite simply – perfectly done.
You may just like watching western animation, or you may be an avid reader of the comics – and while it may not pack as much ‘awesome’ as Avatar: the Last Airbender – but this title is still a worthy addition to any animation-lovers’ watch-list.
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