The Original X-Men Series - What i've noticed

[Anime Freak]

I recently got a hold of a set of all the episodes of the Origianl X-Men tv series from the early 90s that aired on Fox and after rewatching through it for the first time in years, there's a lot that i've noticed that I didn't before.Just thought i'd see what you'll think.

-Was there not enough money to pay the voice actors or something? I noticed that they didn't have every x-men in every episode. Some eps there'd be only 3 or 2 of them and sometimes there'd be an X-Man there and they wouldn't say anything. I've always found this kinda odd,but maybe it's just me.

-The villians on this show just seem way too damn powerful (except Magneto). I mean juggernaut I can understand, but some of the other characters were just crazy strong.

-Apocalypse played a bigger role and seemed to appear way too much it felt like.

-Xavier got so much more action and was much more active and involved than he ever was in the movies or in evolution. The savage land stuff and the part where he crashes his plane into Mastermold was great.

-Sorry,but the excessive use of Cabel and Bishop and the time travel crap bored me.

-I guess wolverine was a big favorite since he was in practically every episode and we learned so much more about his past than anyone else's.

-Magneto seemed like "less" of a bad guy in this series than he does in the others. Yeah I know that sounds weird.

Any other comments? Anyone disagree/agree ?

[mg_winxclub]

Remember in the X-Men universe, there are SOOOO many characters, it would be impossible to have ALL of them in EVERY episode. Also, can you really have background stories on someone with every character in the episode? Rogue's background story with Ms Marvel and Mystique is my favorite BTW.

If villians weren't powerful, then every episode would be boring. You need strong villians to fight strong heroes. Remember with great power comes great responsibility. Some feel power = greed, thus use power for evil purposes.

Yes Wolverine is a fan favorite, thus he was in more episodes than most.

If you didn't like the time travel episodes, that's your opinion. A lot of fans love the X-Force character crossovers and alternate universe storylines.

Apocalypse is immortal afterall. If he only tried to take over the world once and you never saw him again, you'd complain he wasn't used enough.

[Anarky]

COUGHbootlegCOUGH

[PowerZord]

This series was the closest to the comics, right? I remenber reading "Captive hearts" in the comics.

[Nightwing]

This series was the closest to the comics, right? I remenber reading "Captive hearts" in the comics.

I believe so, yeah.

Interesting stuff, Anime Freak. I'm inclined to agree with the positive stuff. I was never as gung ho a fan of X-Men as I am with say Batman and Spiderman, so I have a lighter way of looking at the series. I DID love it and appreciate it though. Here's some stuff that I noticed:

One thing I noticed which I remembered from seeing the show on FOX KIDS all those years ago was how much everybody has to scream and how frequently. lol. My friends and I always made fun of that.

A more potent thing I noticed much more recently was not only did Wolverine have zillions of fun and witty one liners in battles and stuff, but there were more pop culture references in them than I could count. I thought that was interesting. He made one reference to a villain being like the Energizer Bunny for example.

It feels like writers in general don't do that enough anymore. It's all or nothing with that sort of thing. There is no inbetween. In one season 1 JLU episode "Hawk and Dove," Hawk and Dove get into a political argument with some rough tough guy, and he refers to our JLU boys as some sort of "bleeding heart" term. But instead of saying "liberal" they said something else. That's an example of how the 'going in between' stuff falls flat and doesn't deliver what the dialogue is supposed to deliver.

When Ultimate Spiderman was fighting Rhino in the Ultimate Spiderman game (my copy on gamecube) as he's dodging a brutal messy attack he yells, "Jumanji!!!" Funny stuff! In that same fight in a similar situation he yells "HOOCHIE MAMA!" (Seinfeld and George Costanza's father)

[Spider-Man]

The cartoon was really close to the comics. They even touched upon Gambit's background in the second season and the whole backstory with Rogue absorbing Ms. Marvel's power was pretty spot on. They were able to kept what worked for the most part and made changes. They made the Phalanx more simple than it had to be and I thought did a beautiful job on the whole Asteroid M thing from the comics. The cartoon was very heavily involved with the 1990s (and 1980s) X-Men history.

[Apprentice]

I would have loved to see Mutant Massacre animated, but it probably would have been deemed to violent for a cartoon.

[tb4000]

Cartoons don't really use trademarked things for jokes anymore like they used to on X-Men, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, etc. Guess they're more copyright infringement happy these days.

[Spider-Man]

-Xavier got so much more action and was much more active and involved than he ever was in the movies or in evolution. The savage land stuff and the part where he crashes his plane into Mastermold was great.
I think using Xavier more was one of the smartest things the series did. I always felt that Xavier's presence in the X-Men books were always lopsided and uneven but the 1990's series really gave him actual storylines and some great character development. The Savage Land arc is one of Xavier's best moments in series regardless of how loopy it got.

[ifthismeansevos]

Yes I first saw that episode like two months ago when one guy who actually recorded almost all the series borrow me all his cassettes. Xavier destroying the Mastermold was awesome. And I love the time travel stuff.

[PowerZord]

I would have loved to see Mutant Massacre animated, but it probably would have been deemed to violent for a cartoon.


Mm.. what was the Mutant Massacre about? I'm curious.

[BCVM22]

http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/crossover/showquestion.asp?fldAuto=205