TV Talk - Wolverine and the X-Men

Well, it's been a while since I have done one of these! I meant to do this show last year, but too much stuff got in the way. Plus, I really had no good way of watching it. Well, it's finally time to talk about the show about Wolverine and his merry team of mutants.

Background

I didn't know what to think when I first heard about this show. I think my reaction was "Oh, another X-Men show? Cool!" I think my excitement for the show went up when someone posted a video of the show's trailer on the Internet. Unfortunately, I really didn't get to watch the show while it was on. The show came on Nicktoons, and that was a station we didn't get through basic cable. I did watch  a few episodes online at Nicks's site, but I lost track of it after a while.  When I heard it was cancelled, I was a little sad since it only lasted a season. Just recently, I watched a majority of the series. I did skip a couple of episodes because I had watched them before.

Likes

Yep, a Kurt/Wanda pairing. Pretty nice.


• Seasonal Arc - The whole season was pretty much an arc unto itself. It pretty much starts out with the end of the X-Men. The Professor and Jean are missing and the Mansion is destroyed. Since anti-mutant hysteria is increasing, Wolverine (yeah, him) decides to reform the X-Men. We eventually find out that Xavier's mind has been sent to a dark future reminiscent of  "Days of Future Past" and the goal of the season is to prevent that future from happening. Xavier even puts Logan in charge of the team. That's a little jarring, but it's cool to see him deal with the whole situation throughout the series.
• Dark Atmosphere - While it's still a kids' show, the series has that dark feeling from the comic. We actually see a character die in the last episode. The episodes that take place in the future also add to that feeling of dread on the show.
• Great Character Moments - The show's called Wolverine and the X-Men. Of course, the Clawed One received top billing. I'll admit that it's a little much, but other characters did get to shine in some episodes. Some characters I believe got treated well are Nightcrawler, Emma Frost, Angel, Professor X (of course), Kitty, and Gambit. While they did treat Cyclops poorly during the series, he did have a couple of moments to shine as well.
• Pulled things from the comics and movies - The look for the characters were based on the stuff in the comics while the overall feel for the show felt like the movies. You had a tall Logan, a Cyclops who really looked like he fit with the movies, and a Rogue who didn't have Ms. Marvel's powers. The storylines were a mish-mash of all that has come from both the 616 universe and the Ultimate Universe.  
• Decent Animation - At times, the animation was pretty cool. I do think the action was pretty good in most episodes. The costumes that were used looked good. The whole show had a little bit of an anime feel to it.
• Great voice-acting - The voice-acting on the show was pretty good all around. Everybody sounded like they needed to sound like. While Cal Dodd  (voiced Wolverine in the 90's show) is the voice of Wolverine to me, Steve Blum is isn't far from that number 1 spot either.

Dislikes

Logan: You're overly mopey!
Scott: Oh yeah? Well you were made leader! That's one reason for my mopeyness! And what's up with those arms? You trying out for the next Popeye movie?


• It ended after a cliffhanger! - This show and Spectacular Spider-Man have a  lot in common and this is biggest thing here. While this show at least ended its seasonal arc, it ends with a shot of another possible future ran by Apocalypse. I've read that the show couldn't get financed for another season. It's kind of sad. I heard  that it did get good ratings.
• Too much emphasis on certain characters - As I said before, the show's called WOLVERINE and the X-Men. When I want to watch a show involving the X-Men, I'd like to at least have it concentrate on the team in general. Here, we really didn't get that. Wolverine was the main star of the show. While some characters did get some light, others like Storm (who at least got an episode), Beast, and Colossus (who's only in the first episode) hardly got any time to really shine.
• Mopey, Thy Name is Cyclops - If there's one character that really got crapped on in the show, it's Scott Summers. He pretty much spends the whole time being depressed about Jean's disappearance. Now, I get that he would be depressed about her death/disappearance. He left the X-Men for a while after her death in the comics. The thing about that is that he eventually moved on from it. On the show, the man's still in a rut one year after her disappearance. While he does come back to the team, he's still in a rut. I guess I just wanted to see the Scott from other shows instead of this guy. Still, he has a couple of highlights. 
• Some animation was weird - While the costumes and most of the character designs were good, some animation was a little off. A big (and I mean big) example was Logan's arms. They just look too big especially when other characters look normal. I could complain about the "thin is in" design of all of the women here, but at least they did have some diversity in their looks.
• Mogo - I'm just not a fan of the villain.
• That's all I got. While the show wasn't perfect, it wasn't that bad.

Favorite Episodes
Since this show only lasted 26 episodes, I suggest you watch the whole run. Still, here are a few episodes that are pretty good.

• Hindsight - The three-parter that started it all.
• Wolverine vs. Hulk - This episode not only has Wolverine and the Hulk, but a black Nick Fury with hair. Sweet.
• Theives Gambit - ...Just guess who is in this episode.
• X-Calibre - A cool Nightcrawler episode.
• eXcessive Force - The episode where Cyclops kicks some mighty butt.
• Battle Lines - The midpoint of the season.
• Guardian Angel - We get some Archangel and a possible Angel/Storm pairing that comes out of nowhere.
• Breakdown - We get to see past events as well as what lead up to the incident in the first episode.
• Foresight - The three-parter that unfortunately ended it all. The episodes involve an attack on New York by Sentinels, the Phoenix, and events in the future. A lot happens here.

Well, that's all I got. As I said before, the show wasn't perfect but it wasn't bad either. A part of me kinda wished that this was the sequel to another X-Men show that came on in the early 2000's. I'll get to X-Men Evolution eventually, but first I have to look at a movie that involves a certain Clawed character...yeah, that one again.

NEXT TIME: X-MEN ORIGINS - WOLVERINE.