Cyclops In Animation - A Retrospective

[Stu]

This is the beginning of what I hope will become a series of X-Men related retrospectives to tie into the 15th anniversary of X-Men: The Animated Series. I've got this and one more done, feel free to ask if there's anyone you'd like to see done and I'll see what I can. As always, images appear courtesy of Marvel Animation Age (http://marvel.toonzone.net)

And before you all ask, Arsenal already did a Thunderbird retrospective! Enjoy!

__________________________

Pretty much the leader of The X-Men since it’s incarnation, Cyclops has been present in every single translation of the team since they begin as the world’s strangest teenagers in 1963. Created by Stan The Man Lee and Jack King Kirby, ol’ one eye has been one of the most popular X-Men from the beginning in the comics.

He made his animation debut alongside the other original X-Men in The 1966 Submariner cartoon in what can only be described as a complete mess of an episode. The story is lifted from a comic book but with one major exception – The X-Men were never presented in the comic! It was originally a Fantastic Four/Namor team up, but the FF’s rights were optioned elsewhere (and they too would shortly debut in their own show the following fall). From what I’ve been told, the show isn’t that good to begin with and The X-Men’s appearance won’t do anything to change your mind. I’m sure that fans of Kirby will love seeing the old school X-Men suits animated, if you could call them that, but alas, The Allies For Peace didn’t quite leave a lasting mark.

Marvel spent most of the 1980’s trying to get an X-Men cartoon on TV. The comic book received a revamp in the mid 70’s to huge success, which I won’t attribute entirely to Wolverine because some fanboy will come in and take us off topic, I will fight them and we’ll stop talking about Cyclops, which is why we’re here right? Anyway, having succeeded at getting Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk on network television, Marvel made many attempts with Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends to introduce Saturday morning audiences to The X-Men. Iceman, one of the original members of the team is now part of Spidey’s group and the new original character, Firestar, was written as a former X-Man in the show’s continuity.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/spideyfriends/bios/heroes/x-men/38.jpg

A few different versions of The X-Men were littered throughout the show’s criminally short 24 episode run. The creative team were obviously big comic book fanboys as cameos from the vast Marvel universe were featured in nearly every episode and Marvel’s mighty mutants were no exception. The original X-Men once again don their Kirby suits in The Origin Of Iceman, which tells the story of how Bobby Drake came to join the group whilst Cyclops and the gang perform tricks for the audiences’ amusement in the Danger Room. Cyke’s legendary skull cap costume would make it’s animated debut in the next episode as we learn how Angelica Jones came to be Firestar and how she joined The X-Men. The episode is best known for making Wolverine out to be a complete tool and it’s excellent animation. The villain of the piece is Juggernaut, who is actually one of the show’s better attempts at translating the vast supervillain gallery of the Marvel universe. Cyclops doesn’t really do too much here – the writer understandably had more important things to do, or more accurately, had three leads to write for, a villain to look impressive and a array of guest stars in 22 minutes. There’s nothing greatly offensive here. Unless you’re a Wolverine fan, of course.

The Education Of A Superhero sees the Spider-Friends enlist Video-Man at Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters in hopes of getting them their own show. They thought by adding in a character created to tap into how popular arcades and video games were becoming, they could shoehorn him into an X-Men cartoon in hopes of getting a network to pick it up. Thank Christ, they were wrong.

The X-Men got their own story at long last in the penultimate episode of the third and final season as Iceman and Bobby return to Xavier’s School while Angelica’s old boyfriend attacks and The Spider-Friends and The X-Men are trapped in The Danger Room. The story was pretty lame to begin with and there are some curious choices in the roster – Thunderbird manages to make the cut, while Beast, Jean Grey and Angel are missing? Wolverine is obviously missing – fists had no place in 80’s action cartoons, never mind razor sharp claws. Once again, the backdoor pilot wasn’t picked up.

Would the third time be the charm?

Deciding to bite the bullet and fund an entire pilot themselves, Marvel Studios commissioned a full 22 minute episode in hopes of obtaining network interest, entitled Pryde Of The X-Men. Once again – the roster was a confusing one. Wolverine was back, complete with his irritating Australian accent. Unlike his Spider-Friends appearance, this version of Logan redeems himself because he is wearing his badass tan suit – like he should do damn it! Dazzler is featured, but yet again Rouge, Beast and Angel are nowhere to be found.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmen/pryde/28.jpg

Regardless, the show was never picked up. Some falsely claim that it is the pilot to X-Men: The Animated Series, but it had no bearing on that show. The pilot is best known for its dazzling animation, which is still the best animation I’ve ever seen come from the 1980’s. Given that they had to introduce each individual member of the X-Men as well as the unusually large Brotherhood of Evil Mutants most of the character didn’t really get a chance to shine. Kitty managed to annoy the hell out of me an obscene amount of times for such a short feature, but Cyclops wise, they did very, very well here. The suit just looks so cool. I’m not fond of the black visor with the red dots but the shading on his costume is simply mesmerising – it even trumps the blue’s on Batman’s cape in Batman: The Animated Series a few years later. Not only did Cyclops look great, but voice acting legend among legends Michael Bell was brought in to voice Mr. Skullcap and as always, he delivers.

Again, everyone remembers the animation and how annoying Wolverine and Kitty were. The likes of Cyclops, Colossus and Nightcrawler are rarely mentioned despite the fact they were actually pretty good.

In 1992, The X-Men would finally get their own show. Huzzah!

I remember sitting in my front room in my PJs with my brother, watching a new show called Live And Kicking. The legend that is Andy Peters (Annnddyy Peters!) introduced himself and co-host Emma Forbes as they promised an exciting morning’s television and announced that a new X-Men cartoon would debut later that morning. I’ll be completely honest – I had no idea what The X-Men were at that stage – I just remember thinking that I had to see it this show. I’m not sure why a 10 second clip of the opening credit managed to sell an entire series, but as an action hungry 6 year old, I sat through the entire show and waited to see X-Men premiere. From that day on, I never missed an episode of X-Men. People are quick to mock or bash the show now, but at the time, X-Men was unlike anything I’d ever seen at the time. It wasn’t your typical action show – for starters, everyone hated them!

Night Of The Sentinels sees the group breaking into a government compound in hopes of learning why a gigantic 30 foot tall robot attacked an innocent mutant in a populated shopping mall. Cyclops leads The X-Men into The Mutant Control Agency’s headquarters to destroy their records in order to stop any further attacks but Sentinels overwhelm the group, forcing them to retreat. Unfortunately for Cyke, Morph is ‘killed’ by the robots and Beast is knocked unconscious by their attacks. Rather than risking their lives to go back for them, Cyclops decides it’s a suicide mission and orders them to fly home, much to Wolverine’s dismay.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmen/episode/nightsentinels2/12.jpg

The entire sequence is played out beautifully – the majority of the story is told in flashbacks and there’s an emotional punch to the gut from Wolverine as he labels their leader a coward for abandoning his friends.

Wolverine: Soldier boy here left them behind! For all we know Beast and Morph may still be alive!
Jean: Beast is…
Wolverine: …What about Morph?

Add this to the tension already created by Wolverine’s feeling’s for Jean and you had a great love triangle – you don’t get good relationships on TV anymore. Apparently kids don’t care for them. When I saw at school, a lot of my friends hated Cyclops, simply because they felt he was keeping Wolverine and Jean apart. I thought she was dull to begin with, and Wolverine could do better than a whiney red head. (I’m waiting for Arsenal to come in now to defend the honour of his beloved flame haired fixations)

What interested me most about the opening was… they failed. We didn’t get a happy ending – we got a crushing blow and we hadn’t even made it to episode three yet. I think it was such a great idea to start the show with The Sentinels – the enemy here isn’t some idiot in brightly coloured spandex – it’s bigotry, and they lost.

Oddly enough, despite the fact he was the leader of the group, Cyclops didn’t really do that much more this season, or even in the rest of the show. He’s considered by many to be too much of a boy scout in this show, which I would agree with. He’s not un-likeable in the role but he does come across as a little too square sometimes.

Design wise – there’s no point debating this too much. It’s his Jim Lee costume, which looks awesome when Jim Lee draws it. Crappy animators from AKOM? No chance, it, like nearly everyone else in the show, looked crap. They did a stellar job casting though – a lot of Cyclops’ lines could’ve been unbearable if they had a lesser actor perform the role but Norm Spencer brings his A game. They sometimes had problems with the dialogue in this show and often miscast, which often made for some horrifically cheesy scenes (re: anytime Storm opens her mouth).

He would redeem himself from the opening blunder (if you could call it that?) when they learned that thousands of Sentinels had been created and Cyclops decided that he was going to stop them then and there. This time, he would lead the time into a suicide run, not shy away from it. Wolverine is the first to back him up, as the others contemplate the decision. All great stuff – it made for a brilliant season finale. Hell, it practically was the first season finale in a cartoon that didn’t just feel like any other episode.

They even tease a happy ending as Cyclops celebrates their victory by proposing to Jean, who accepts as a voice most Sinister narrates over them…

[JRP82190]

great start can't wait to see what else you have in store

[Manhunter]

FYI, Cyclops was voiced by Stan Jones (who also voiced Professor X) in "A Firestar is Born" and by Neil Ross in "The X-Men Adventure".

[tb4000]

I've always been a fan of Cyclops in all the animated incarnations. Most of my other childhood buddies were into Wolvie, but I liked him because he had to be the one to hold the group together, regardless of him not being the most popular among them.

[A.Magik]

The X-Men got their own story at long last in the penultimate episode of the third and final season as Iceman and Bobby return to Xavier’s School while Angelica’s old boyfriend attacks and The Spider-Friends and The X-Men are trapped in The Danger Room. The story was pretty lame to begin with and there are some curious choices in the roster – Thunderbird manages to make the cut, while Beast, Jean Grey and Angel are missing? Wolverine is obviously missing – fists had no place in 80’s action cartoons, never mind razor sharp claws. Once again, the backdoor pilot wasn’t picked up.

I can't help but disagree with your regrets about the roster. This episode is very personal for me. Taping this ep. back in 1984 (which had new scenes and lacking some from the present version aired nowadays), this was my first introduction to the X-Men. It made me start collecting the comic. The first issue my dad got me was UXM#192, which to my shock had Xavier walking, Colossus in a different costume, and Storm with a mohawk. This led to me collecting the X-stories before these changes. Thanks to this episode, I see the grouping of Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, and Wolverine as the team roster.
On a side note: I also have a recording of The Education of a Super Hero from 1984, but it lacks the X-Men appearance sequence (which had the aforementioned roster, with Kitty in her rare green and orange outfit), because we changed the channel to ABC and an airing of The Puppy Adventures in the Afternoon Special. UGH!!!

[Nygma]

Finally Stu, you've gotten around to the Cyclops retrospective. You're going to finish the Superman retrospective on The DC board aren't you? I know that retrospective hasn't gotten as much praise as the retrospectives on here but I've really enjoyed most of it, and look forward to the rest of what you have to say, and to see if your opinions on some of it have changed through time.

On to the retrospective, the scene outside the blackbird is still a moment in Marvel Animation that is plastered into my mind to this day. I especially liked Wolverine's moment in the garage("COWARDS" then goes to town on Scott's car, then he tells Jean "Tell Cyclops, I built him a convertible.":D)

Stu, how could you not bring up the epic that was Captive Hearts? Okay who am I kidding here?:D Though I thought Wolverine's brilliant attempted murder fake out was worth a mention.

I liked Cyclops's line in Come The Apocalypse, "We beg to differ."

I liked the whole scene in The Final Decision where the X-Men decide if they want to risk their life in a suicide mission. I especially liked Wolverine("Yeah that's what it means to me too.") and Magneto's("The brave are always the first to die.") responses to the situation. The music also captured that moment perfectly. Other moments I loved was the one Sentinels "It appears to be the ace of spades.":anime: and Cyclops callback to the opening two parter as he goes back for Wolverine and Gambit. "I'm not leaving anyone behind, not this time."


which often made for some horrifically cheesy scenes (re: anytime Storm opens her mouth).Or Jubillee.:p

Bring on old Bat face in the next part.

[Stu]

The opening of the second season sees Jean and Scott tie the knot as relations betweens humans and mutants are at an all time high as newly elected President Kelly urges his nation not to give into bigotry and welcome mutants as humanity’s brothers. In a twist absolutely no one saw coming, Morph came back from the dead and turned heel in the process! I remember being Gob smacked at this back in the day – I never thought we’d see Morph again. For all the BS resurrections Marvel and DC have done in the comics, this is one I don’t think anyone was really expecting and GASP! It even served a purpose beyond shocking people!

For reasons unknown, Mr. Sinister had taken a disturbing fascination with Cyclops and his bride to be and decided to use them as the basis of his experiments. I know a lot of people aren’t too keen on Mr. Sinister, but I thought this show did a great job with him. Brilliant casting and even a great design helped the character come across as one of the creepy characters I’ve seen on a Saturday morning cartoon. I hope he makes his way into the new Wolverine cartoon. Sinister would re-appear throughout the season as Morph became conflicted with his hatred of Cyclops for leaving him behind and trying to overcome the device which Sinister implanted in his brain to allow his hatred of Scott to overcome him. He finally overcomes this and defeats Mr. Sinister and forgives Scott in the second season finale, giving closure to the arc.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmen/bios/villains/sinister/09.jpg

The various Phoenix Sagas would dominate season three of the show. I’ve never much cared for them – I thought they were dull back in the day and struggle to sit through them even now. I like my X-Men to fight for mutant rights – not some daft story about an alien entity being stolen by space pirates. I always enjoy The X-Men more when they ground it in reality – I don’t really care for Savage Lands, alternate dimensions and space stories, I was actually very pleased when X-Men: Evolution managed to pretty much ignore all of these – I think it helped the tone of the show more.

Cyclops spends most of the story mopping about Jean’s well being before ultimately being forced to say goodbye so she can guard the Emkron crystal. I thought the story could’ve been told in a lot less amount of time and ultimately, I think they hindered themselves by sticking too closely to the comics. Part five did have an awesome cameo by Spider-Man though! Thwipp!

No Mutant Is An Island sees Scott leave the group as he is simply distraught over the loss of Jean. It would be the first time that Scott would have a full episode devoted to him. The main problem comes from AKOM (what a surprise!) as there numerous animation errors and the majority of the show had to be reanimated causing a delay which meant the episode aired several years after it should have done and the audience wasn’t actually shown how Jean survived… she literally just appeared. The episode itself actually gives us a good look at how heartbroken Scott is but at the end of the day it was simply too little too late. Must be frustrating for the creative team to work so hard to have AKOM give the kiss of death to most of their work.

Scott would be reunited with his Father again in Orphan’s End as he learns that Corsair is actually his Dad and he wasn’t killed in the plane crash as Scott was originally told. Scott sure does have a complicated family tree doesn’t he?


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmen/bios/heroes/cyclops/08.jpg

Scott didn’t really get up to much for the rest of the show’s run. He finally married Jean in the fourth season saga Beyond Good And Evil but that was quickly overshadowed by the plethora of other characters in the story, who were more than plentiful. It seems that he and Gambit only really showed up in a handful of episodes towards the end of the show’s run and even then, he didn’t really get up to a great deal.

He did appear in the Spider-Man/X-Men team up, but again, played second fiddle to everyone else. I’m personally just glad they managed to get everyone over but Cyclops’ design obviously caused problems – every single shot had a colouring error of some kind.

When the revamped episodes of X-Men came along, Scott was given a new design which worked a hell of a lot better than his previous model. The blue on black looked much better than black on blue, resulting in a much sharper visual. Again, he didn’t really do much until the show’s finale as he carried on Xavier’s dream through his Death. Charles parting words to his son

Scott, were I your father, I would tell you that no truer son could ever be. I am proud, proud of you all, my...X-Men.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmen/episode/graduationday/51.jpg

So in review, there was a lot of good and bad with Scott. It’s difficult to balance the leader of the group into a lot of episodes where he is not the main focus and the show tended to use Wolverine as it’s central character more – although the reasons for this are many – he is the fan favourite and he is actually able to carry his own episode, which one could argue Scott was not able to do.

Cyclops was one of the few X-Men to appear in the first movie. An apparent victim of FOX’s annoying short run time, he isn’t really given too much to do. Unfortunately, this would continue with both sequels as he is all but absent from X2 and is quickly killed in X-Men: The Last Stand, presumably because James Marsden was over in Australia filming Superman Returns.

From the looks of things, it sounds like Cyclops isn’t an interesting character to translate outside of the comics’ right? Fortunately, X-Men: Evolution was there to prove us very, very wrong!

[Silverstar]

In a twist absolutely no one saw coming, Morph came back from the dead and turned heel in the process! I remember being Gob smacked at this back in the day – I never thought we’d see Morph again. For all the BS resurrections Marvel and DC have done in the comics, this is one I don’t think anyone was really expecting and GASP! It even served a purpose beyond shocking people!

About that...

Initially, Morph's death was to have been permanent, as a way to show us how much deeper and more serious X-Men was from the usual Saturday morning fare (though uber-geeks like me knew that something was going to happen to Morph since they didn't include him in the shows' opening title sequence), but he was brought back because fans' response to him was so great.

In the media, even death can't withstand the might of Fanboy Power!

[HenriDucard]

Unfortunately, this would continue with both sequels as he is all but absent from X2 and is quickly killed in X-Men: The Last Stand, presumably because James Marsden was over in Australia filming Superman Returns.

Uh no. That is a rumor people bring up. Not only is it possible to film two movies at once (Ian McKellen filmed both X3 and The Da Vinci Code at the same time, and they release da week from each other) but Superman Returns finished filming before X3 even started!

[Stu]

I can't help but disagree with your regrets about the roster. This episode is very personal for me. Taping this ep. back in 1984 (which had new scenes and lacking some from the present version aired nowadays), this was my first introduction to the X-Men. It made me start collecting the comic. The first issue my dad got me was UXM#192, which to my shock had Xavier walking, Colossus in a different costume, and Storm with a mohawk. This led to me collecting the X-stories before these changes. Thanks to this episode, I see the grouping of Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, and Wolverine as the team roster.

I know how you feel - the X-Men: TAS roster will always be the X-Men to me. Strangely, it missed out a few of my favourites, such as Collosus, Angel and Iceman. I just thought the roster was a little odd for whatever reason.


Finally Stu, you've gotten around to the Cyclops retrospective. You're going to finish the Superman retrospective on The DC board aren't you? I know that retrospective hasn't gotten as much praise as the retrospectives on here but I've really enjoyed most of it, and look forward to the rest of what you have to say, and to see if your opinions on some of it have changed through time.

Cyclops has been on the cards for a while, he's one I've been itching to tackle but other things got in the way. With the 15th anniversary of X-Men approaching, I thought now was as good as any. He's done now, so if the member I've got planned for afterwards too. I'm hoping to get a few more done before the new Wolverine cartoon starts.

I do plan to finish Superman - these X-Men ones have taken priority at the moment however. I prefer writing Marvel ones to the DC ones, and I think the people who post here are a little more appreciative than the DC posters too. Maybe because most people are more familiar with the DC stuff, whereas they've not seen the Marvel stuff in a while?


Uh no. That is a rumor people bring up. Not only is it possible to film two movies at once (Ian McKellen filmed both X3 and The Da Vinci Code at the same time, and they release da week from each other) but Superman Returns finished filming before X3 even started!

Hmmm, didn't know that. Always assumed that push came to shoove and Marsden choice Superman Returns. Were the writers on X-Men 3 really that incompetant towards Cyclops by choice?

And to think, X-Men 3 was still worlds better than Superman Returns!

[Stu]

With the X-Men in and out of theatres, Marvel quickly got them back on TV in order to capitalise on the success of the movie. X-Men: Children Of The Atom, as the show was originally going to be called ended up on Kids WB! which brought about a network mandate that the majority of the characters were to be turned into teenagers in order to make them more relatable for the audience the network was trying to reach. Obviously, this didn’t work for a lot of characters – I don’t think there’s any way you can make the likes of Xavier, Magneto and Wolverine into teenagers. Cyclops, on the other hand, started off as a teenager in the comics, so it wasn’t too hard to make the adjustment for him.

If you’ve read through any of my previous X-Men retrospectives, you’ll probably have noticed a certain formula to them. Pre-90’s stuff was usually all right, X-Men TAS was great, Evo was pretty good but nothing outstanding. Well, at long last we break this dreaded mould because X-Men: Evolution depiction of Cyclops is second to none. It’s better than TAS, it’s better than the movies and it’s better than the comics. You simply will not find a more entertaining version of Cyclops anywhere. He is the balls.

As the show’s central and most entertaining character, Cyclops got plenty of screen time. Season one isn’t good in the slightest but none of it is Scott’s fault – a lot of the characters were clichéd or annoying in the beginning but Scott was cool from day one. Kirby Morrow voiced Cyclops and does an outstanding job in the role – cool, heroic when he needs to be and sympathetic when the occasion calls for it, Morrow was probably the best cast in the entire show. Nice guy too, I interviewed him a while back (Here (http://marvel.toonzone.net/kirby.php)). Class act.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmenevo/bios/heroes/cyclops/38.jpg

Design wise, Cyclops is ace. I’ve always been fond of Steve’s Gordon’s designs on the show and Cyclops is one of my favourites. It’s an original take on his suit, meshing some of his more popular comic book costume together – I’d actually say it’s my favourite costume for Cyclops ever. When they announced that the X-Men were getting their costumes back in Astonishing X-Men, I was hoping they’d look towards this for inspiration, instead we got an updated take on his John Bryne costume that looks really, really dull. “We have to astonish them” he says. How do you expect to do that in a plain blue suit one ponders?

Cyclops is clearly the leader of the kids in the show – he’s not without his problems but you can tell he cares greatly for the people around him, probably because his own family was taken from him in a plane crash when he was just a little boy. (No silly space pirates here, Scott’s Mom and Dad are dead.) Despite being in the vast majority of the episodes, Scott’s moments in this below mediocre season are usually used to develop his feud with Avalanche. As Arsenal told you over in The Brotherhood retrospective, they didn’t become interesting until season two of the show – so this first season is mainly Scott getting over Lance time after time. It got tedious a few episodes in.

Things picked up for him (and everything else) in season two as he begins to make his move on Jean before he’s stopped dead in his tracks by her new jerk of a boyfriend, Duncan. As Jean’s powers begin to get the better of her Power Surge she begins to realise his feelings for her but she also doesn’t act upon it. The rest of the season sees the two of them failing to get together because of Duncan, their own nervousness and a new girl for Cyclops whose name I really can’t remember at this time. First No Prize of the thread goes to the person who tells me her name!


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmenevo/episode/funandgames/03.jpg

Adrift reunites him with his brother Alex again… and it’s really dull. Alex is quick to get on your nerves and there’s not really a lot you can do with a story when your two central characters are stuck in the sea unable to move. Things pick up for Scott in On Angel’s Wings as his would-be relationship with Rouge picks up and is made better than ever before. It’s sad to see everyone saying their goodbyes for the holidays to visit their families while Scott just stands there alone – he’s got nowhere to go in the morning, he’s simply waking up to a pretty much empty institute, just like Rogue the only one who actually thought to get Scott a gift. They then volunteer to go into New York to investigate a series of sightings of a possible mutant – could it be that there are angels among us? Scott and Rouge are developed further as they go shopping together and Scott believes there truly could be such a thing as an angel – he would like to believe there are such things looking out for all of us. He later learns that his angel is not the Heaven variety – he is a mutant, just like him. If you’ve been here before you’ll know I love this episode, it’s unquestionably the best one they ever did in my eyes. I’d go on further, but I think I’ll save that for an Angel retrospective.

Joyride gives us a very interesting take on Scott, one which I didn’t ever see in him before – the villain. Scott plays the hell to contradict Lance who moves into the Institute in order to be closer to Kitty and Scott is immediately distrusting of his bitter rival – it’s Scott who uses the same cheap shots he had previously belittled Lance with, including an amusing scene in which Scott makes a fool of Lance in the Danger Room for Kurt and his own amusement. Attempting to prove to himself that he is the bigger man, he tries to make amends before Lance refuses him and they go back to their rivalry. This episode was a real turning point for the Brotherhood – no longer generic whooping boys for the X-Men, now they had real depth to them.

I don’t think I have to explain the brilliance of the last three episodes of X-Men: Evolution to you – chances are if you’re reading this, you’re well aware that this is the point where the show started kicking ass. Mystique once again aligns herself with The Brotherhood and introduces super nutcase Wanda into their house and, at long last, they beat The X-Men! Unable to deal with the complex nature of her powers, The X-Men retreat, despite Scott almost being offended by the very suggestion of it. His walk of shame after defeat is a powerful image to set you up for the spectacular season finale.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmenevo/episode/hexfactor/59.jpg

With Professor Xavier unknowingly kidnapped (which I failed to notice, despite several hints of the same) and Mystique posing as him to introduce The Brotherhood as the newest members of The X-Men, Scott leaves – his ego has been bruised due to his defeat in the previous episode and now he realises he might be taking orders from the loser’s he’s been beating since he was a Freshman.

He later returns and learns that the Mansion is going to self destruct, with several of the students still inside. It’s not clear at which points he establishes that Mystique is actually posing as the Professor but it’s not important – it was designed to conclude the episode with the Mac daddy of all cliff-hangers.

[Silverstar]

The rest of the season sees the two of them failing to get together because of Duncan, their own nervousness and a new girl for Cyclops whose name I really can’t remember at this time. First No Prize of the thread goes to the person who tells me her name!

Taryn. ;)

[tb4000]

I think in Evo, the scene where he basically removes his visor and goes full blast on Juggernaut proves how much of a hardcore character he was. He knew he had to be stopped, and if it did mean killing him(which his optic blast could do to someone) that's what it would have to come down to.

[Stu]

With several members of both teams kidnapped, the X-Men and The Brotherhood once again team up to retrieve their respective members with Mystique once again pulling the kids strings, and they were powerless to discover where she was keeping Professor Xavier captive. With a helping hand from Nick Fury, they learn the captives are being held in Area 51 and spring forth to rescue them. Upon doing so, Scott calls Mystqiue’s bluff and seals off her exit, demanding to know where Xavier. She refuses, and she is captured. His plan, whilst clever, didn’t help him, in fact, it greatly hindered matters – how was he supposed to find where the Professor was when the only person who knew was locked up in a secret location?

With no mansion, no leader and nothing to lose, the remaining X-Men hid out in a cave while Storm and Beast went to Washington to explain the situation – they are not to be victims of a witch hunt, mutants are people they just have gifts. When they are initially attacked by the military, Wolverine tells the team to retaliate, Cyclops refuses, stating that The Professor wouldn’t have them attack the soldiers. It truly is his defining moment.

Wolverine: Listen Kid—
Cyclops: No, we're the X-Men. We're not kids anymore. You trained us, and you know something, we're good. Very good.

He then leads the kids into battle against the unstoppable Juggernaut and unleashes everything he has against him. Being that he is Juggernaut, it merely fazes him until Rouge is able to absorb his powers and memories, thus revealing the location of Professor Xavier.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmenevo/episode/stuffofheroes/13.jpg

After that, it was back to school for Scott. The day doesn’t being well with everyone looking at all the weirdoes from the Institute with their freaky powers and Scott’s girlfriend Taryn dumping him with but a glance. Cartoons have this annoying tenancy to completely ignore romantic relationships these days and unfortunately, X-Men: Evolution was no exception. It’s especially annoying as Evo was usually good with their romantic relationships and they all tended to come screeching to a halt because the network thought that the audience wasn’t interested. Morons. I wonder how this trait will affect the upcoming Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon?

I’ve stated several times that I never cared for Bayville high but it worked as a good metaphor for acceptance and prejudice in this episode, especially as a few groups went out of their way to ensure that Scott and all the other mutants would be kicked out of school as soon as possible.

Blind Alley takes it’s queue from prior episodes (I love it when they do that!) as Mystqiue returns to make life miserable for her jailer. Stealing Scott’s glasses and leaving him stranded in the desert is an idea that could create an incredibly original story or be just plain dumb. Luckily, this episode is one of the show’s best – something completely different but very much driven by it’s characters. It’s unpredictable from start to finish – how is Scott supposed to do anything if he can’t see?

It has a world class ending with Scott and Jean finally getting together. It’s not a full on “I love you!” “I love you more!” moment (Kids WB! were not for that) but it’s subtle, which is the best way to go with romances in my opinion. Nothing much happened between them after this, so I consider us lucky to get this far.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmenevo/episode/blindalley/49.jpg

The season was on high form, no doubt. One of the many highlights include the original five X-Men from the comics travelling to good ol’ England to stop Apocalypse’s resurrection which meant a thrown down between them, Magneto and his Acolytes and a giant spider. It seems they were finally breaking away and dealing with X-Men stuff, and the shoe became so much better for it. The rest of the important episodes of the show deal with the threat of Apocalypse which had been building since the middle of season two – it was gripping, gripping stuff. To say how poor the opening season was, and how mediocre a lot of the second season was, seasons three and four were among the strongest cartoons I’ve ever watched.

We do get a nice break from Apocalypse, much to Scott’s chagrin as The Brotherhood are proven to be heroes of Bayville after Toad “pulls a Homer”. Reviling in the perks of the hero business, they decide once isn’t enough and begin staging crimes only so they can turn up at just the right time to save the day. They inevitably fall as they are The Brotherhood but it’s unusual to see Scott so frustrated – he’s usually got the one up on The Brotherhood with little effort involved.

They had to fill pretty much every character they’d already introduced into the finale so Scott doesn’t really get a defining moment. We do see a glimpse of the future which hints towards Phoenix and a possible relationship between Scott and Rouge while they sport bad ass new costumes but nothing more ever came of X-Men: Evolution.



http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmenevo/episode/ascension2/56.jpg

Unfortunately, season four was the last X-Men: Evolution would ever do. The show hit the 52 episode mark and pretty much disappeared straight away. There must be some reason why Cartoon Network’s highest rated action cartoon didn’t air all the episodes and why it failed to return to airwaves during any of the X-Men movie tie in opportunities – for such a popular show to never be shown again is a little too unusual. It’s annoyed many people – some areas aren’t able to get Kids WB! and season four hasn’t been released on DVD – the episodes aren’t legally available for many to watch. That may change in the future, nothing prompts a DVD cash in quicker than a movie in theatres and Wolverine is getting his own solo movie next summer – get cracking, Warner Home Video.

Speaking of the future, Cyclops will be returning to TV in a new X-Men show dubbed Wolverine And The X-Men. I’m impressed with the design I’ve seen for him so far and Nolan North has been cast – I’m expecting good things from this show and am really looking forward to sitting down and watching the X-Men on TV again. Hopefully, it will be just like old times.

Up Next: Iceman

[Undrave]

You know...

>.>

It's spelled 'Rogue'. Rouge is the Bat from the Sonic U... they're not pronounced the same at all. :sweat:

[ifthismeansevos]

What?X-Men:Evolution was CN's highest rated show?I didnt know that...:shrug:

[Arsenal]

Nice work on the Cyclops retrospective. He got a quick cameo in his civvies in "Nightmare in Green." You can spot him, Jean and Logan presumably looking for the Juggernaut who also makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo.

I've always thought that Cyclops loses some of his appeal when he is shoehorned into space plots like the Phoenix Saga. Cyke is an everyman. Giving him a father who's a space pilot diminishes that appeal.

[Stu]

I've always thought that Cyclops loses some of his appeal when he is shoehorned into space plots like the Phoenix Saga. Cyke is an everyman. Giving him a father who's a space pilot diminishes that appeal.

I never liked any of those episodes as a kid, to the point where I never really rewatched them again until I made the X-Men site (and if I'd have had your own fine reviewing skills at that time, I dare say I wouldn't have watched them at all!) I never understood exactly why they really bothered - what the hell does an alien crystal have to do with mutants? It seems so randomly off topic for the X-Men.

I agree, Scott works better as an everyman. Evolution showed that he can do it very well - they managed to avoid a lot of the unneccesary crap that's plauged the comics - Phoenix, Corsair, Emma Frost - they made him the one everyone looks to without making him a boring leader. Adding Wolverine, Xavier, Storm and even Beast as his teachers/mentors/bosses really works. It'll be interesting to see if something similar is carried out now that he's apprantly not going to be the leader in the new Wolverine And The X-Men cartoon.

[Hypestyle]

I wish the '88 X-Men show had continued beyond the one episode.. alas, spilt milk..

[Jeffrey Logan]

Officially Wolverine movie (titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine) will be released on May 1, 2009, if nothing's going to change (including title). Rumors say Brian Cox won't play William Stryker in this movie, it might be Liev Schreiber.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_%28film%29

[dmxx116]

Officially Wolverine movie (titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine) will be released on May 1, 2009, if nothing's going to change (including title). Rumors say Brian Cox won't play William Stryker in this movie, it might be Liev Schreiber.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_%28film%29
What this got do with this thread this a Cyclops thread not Wolverine movie thread.

[ifthismeansevos]

Nice work on the Cyclops retrospective. He got a quick cameo in his civvies in "Nightmare in Green." You can spot him, Jean and Logan presumably looking for the Juggernaut who also makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo.

I've always thought that Cyclops loses some of his appeal when he is shoehorned into space plots like the Phoenix Saga. Cyke is an everyman. Giving him a father who's a space pilot diminishes that appeal.


What's Nightmare in green?

[Jeffrey Logan]

With several members of both teams kidnapped, the X-Men and The Brotherhood once again team up to retrieve their respective members with Mystique once again pulling the kids strings, and they were powerless to discover where she was keeping Professor Xavier captive. With a helping hand from Nick Fury, they learn the captives are being held in Area 51 and spring forth to rescue them. Upon doing so, Scott calls Mystqiue’s bluff and seals off her exit, demanding to know where Xavier. She refuses, and she is captured. His plan, whilst clever, didn’t help him, in fact, it greatly hindered matters – how was he supposed to find where the Professor was when the only person who knew was locked up in a secret location?

With no mansion, no leader and nothing to lose, the remaining X-Men hid out in a cave while Storm and Beast went to Washington to explain the situation – they are not to be victims of a witch hunt, mutants are people they just have gifts. When they are initially attacked by the military, Wolverine tells the team to retaliate, Cyclops refuses, stating that The Professor wouldn’t have them attack the soldiers. It truly is his defining moment.

Wolverine: Listen Kid—
Cyclops: No, we're the X-Men. We're not kids anymore. You trained us, and you know something, we're good. Very good.

He then leads the kids into battle against the unstoppable Juggernaut and unleashes everything he has against him. Being that he is Juggernaut, it merely fazes him until Rouge is able to absorb his powers and memories, thus revealing the location of Professor Xavier.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmenevo/episode/stuffofheroes/13.jpg

After that, it was back to school for Scott. The day doesn’t being well with everyone looking at all the weirdoes from the Institute with their freaky powers and Scott’s girlfriend Taryn dumping him with but a glance. Cartoons have this annoying tenancy to completely ignore romantic relationships these days and unfortunately, X-Men: Evolution was no exception. It’s especially annoying as Evo was usually good with their romantic relationships and they all tended to come screeching to a halt because the network thought that the audience wasn’t interested. Morons. I wonder how this trait will affect the upcoming Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon?

I’ve stated several times that I never cared for Bayville high but it worked as a good metaphor for acceptance and prejudice in this episode, especially as a few groups went out of their way to ensure that Scott and all the other mutants would be kicked out of school as soon as possible.

Blind Alley takes it’s queue from prior episodes (I love it when they do that!) as Mystqiue returns to make life miserable for her jailer. Stealing Scott’s glasses and leaving him stranded in the desert is an idea that could create an incredibly original story or be just plain dumb. Luckily, this episode is one of the show’s best – something completely different but very much driven by it’s characters. It’s unpredictable from start to finish – how is Scott supposed to do anything if he can’t see?

It has a world class ending with Scott and Jean finally getting together. It’s not a full on “I love you!” “I love you more!” moment (Kids WB! were not for that) but it’s subtle, which is the best way to go with romances in my opinion. Nothing much happened between them after this, so I consider us lucky to get this far.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmenevo/episode/blindalley/49.jpg

The season was on high form, no doubt. One of the many highlights include the original five X-Men from the comics travelling to good ol’ England to stop Apocalypse’s resurrection which meant a thrown down between them, Magneto and his Acolytes and a giant spider. It seems they were finally breaking away and dealing with X-Men stuff, and the shoe became so much better for it. The rest of the important episodes of the show deal with the threat of Apocalypse which had been building since the middle of season two – it was gripping, gripping stuff. To say how poor the opening season was, and how mediocre a lot of the second season was, seasons three and four were among the strongest cartoons I’ve ever watched.

We do get a nice break from Apocalypse, much to Scott’s chagrin as The Brotherhood are proven to be heroes of Bayville after Toad “pulls a Homer”. Reviling in the perks of the hero business, they decide once isn’t enough and begin staging crimes only so they can turn up at just the right time to save the day. They inevitably fall as they are The Brotherhood but it’s unusual to see Scott so frustrated – he’s usually got the one up on The Brotherhood with little effort involved.

They had to fill pretty much every character they’d already introduced into the finale so Scott doesn’t really get a defining moment. We do see a glimpse of the future which hints towards Phoenix and a possible relationship between Scott and Rouge while they sport bad ass new costumes but nothing more ever came of X-Men: Evolution.



http://marvel.toonzone.net/xmenevo/episode/ascension2/56.jpg

Unfortunately, season four was the last X-Men: Evolution would ever do. The show hit the 52 episode mark and pretty much disappeared straight away. There must be some reason why Cartoon Network’s highest rated action cartoon didn’t air all the episodes and why it failed to return to airwaves during any of the X-Men movie tie in opportunities – for such a popular show to never be shown again is a little too unusual. It’s annoyed many people – some areas aren’t able to get Kids WB! and season four hasn’t been released on DVD – the episodes aren’t legally available for many to watch. That may change in the future, nothing prompts a DVD cash in quicker than a movie in theatres and Wolverine is getting his own solo movie next summer – get cracking, Warner Home Video.

Speaking of the future, Cyclops will be returning to TV in a new X-Men show dubbed Wolverine And The X-Men. I’m impressed with the design I’ve seen for him so far and Nolan North has been cast – I’m expecting good things from this show and am really looking forward to sitting down and watching the X-Men on TV again. Hopefully, it will be just like old times.

Up Next: Iceman
I was trying to say, "that Wolverine won't be getting his own solo movie next summer". Same thing could happen to Wolverine and the X-Men. The rest of my comment was meant for people, who don't read news about comicbookmovies (like I do).

[Jeffrey Logan]

What's Nightmare in green?
Nightmare In Green is an episode of Fantastic Four (1994), where Fantastic Four has to defeat The Hulk and Dr.Doom. Scarlet Spider, Juggernaut and X-Men (recognizable ones are Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey. Unrecognizable guy might be Gambit) had a cameo there in their civilian clothes. The episode comes from second season and if you haven't seen it, then maybe your country is one of the few luckiest countries, that sell DVD titled "Fantastic Four - The Complete 1994-95 Animated Television Series". Unfortunately my country don't.

[Antiyonder]

Now I've wondered, when did KidsWB decide that romance turned off the younger viewers? Did any of them actually complain?

[Spider-Man]

I never liked any of those episodes as a kid, to the point where I never really rewatched them again until I made the X-Men site (and if I'd have had your own fine reviewing skills at that time, I dare say I wouldn't have watched them at all!) I never understood exactly why they really bothered - what the hell does an alien crystal have to do with mutants? It seems so randomly off topic for the X-Men. I agree, Scott works better as an everyman. I thought the 1990s X-Men toon did a fine job at presenting Cyclops even if they make him overly muscular and shoehorned him into a couple ridiculous episodes. Did they ever refer to his "Slim" nickname at all during that cartoon? I always though he was handled much better in X-Men: Evolution. We actually saw him become the leader he was meant to be.

[Silverstar]

Now I've wondered, when did KidsWB decide that romance turned off the younger viewers? Did any of them actually complain?

Kids WB didn't have to decide that; it's common logic. Most Saturday morning action shows are aimed primarily at boys aged 7-11, 12 at a stretch. And generally boys that age aren't into a lot of kissy stuff.

[tb4000]

The most they would have is one of the female characters pining for the oblivious male.

[Antiyonder]

Kids WB didn't have to decide that; it's common logic. Most Saturday morning action shows are aimed primarily at boys aged 7-11, 12 at a stretch. And generally boys that age aren't into a lot of kissy stuff.

Except that the early episodes had a fair number of romance, and the ratings didn't seem to suffer.

[Blackstar]

The first season had a certain degree of crushing, sure, but there wasn't an overwhelming amount of it. There's a difference between the occasional hint of puppy love and full blown romance. Many fans felt that XME got significantly better after things got darker in seasons 3 and 4.

[Stu]

I always though he was handled much better in X-Men: Evolution. We actually saw him become the leader he was meant to be.

I actually liked the way Evo showed him as someone trying so hard to be a leader - he had his superiors in the team, but you got the impression as soon as he got a little older he would out class them all. Cyclops looked to be growing into the great leader he would become in the comics. I thought that was a much better way to handle it - everything in TAS already seemed set up before the show premiered - he was already in a relationship with Jean, already the leader etc.

With Wolverine apprantly leading the team in this upcoming cartoon, I would be surprised to see him in a similar role again.