Admittedly, I have an unjustifiable level of love for this cartoon. It wasn’t the best of its time, nor did it always make sense the way the episodes were arranged with no respect to an overarching timeline, but it was fun. It has sappy one-liners from Wolverine and Gambit; it cements Cyclops as the dickish leader; and it lets many of the great villains from the X-Men universe get a moment in the spotlight. Sure, it was inferior to Bruce Timm’s spectacular Batman: The Animated Series, but what cartoon of that era wasn’t? Despite its chronological shortcomings, the series as a whole maintained a superb visual aesthetic, great characterization, and interesting plots – at least until the end of the season. Just like Batman, which changed its name to The Adventures of Batman & Robin and altered its awesome opening sequence, some studio exec decided the X-Men series needed an overhaul in its final moments and changed everything for the worse.
Through the first disc and a half of the fifth DVD volume of X-Men, the show stays true to its roots. Two-part stories interspersed between quality mutant-of-the-day episodes that did much to further a viewer’s understanding of the series’ terrific ensemble cast. While most of the truly deep looks at Wolverine’s past have been completed by the episodes of this volume, it does have the memorable, albeit somewhat disappointing Captain America appearance. Storm and Cyclops get their own episodes, which, especially in the case of Cyclops, were exceedingly rare, especially if the basic plot wasn’t all about Jean.
With only 14 episodes total in the set (a bit on light side), there are at least two double-episode stories to bolster the set. First, there’s the Phalanx storyline, which is honestly shorter than I remember it being, but only because as a kid I’d confused/mixed it together with the Apocalypse-oriented “mutant disease” pieces. After two alien lovers crash land on Earth, their universe-domination-loving brethren (the Phalanx) come to Earth and begin spreading rapidly in their attempt to assimilate the entire world. Beast takes center stage here (which is even more rare than Storm and Cyclops) and works with a free-thinking member of the Phalanx race to combat the invading horde. The aforementioned Storm-centric episode just so happens to be one of the doubles, as she is recruited by the ruler of a planet to quell the storms that threaten to ravage his planet and destroy his people. Her success endears her to him, and she prematurely accepts his proposal to become her queen. Before long, however, she and the X-Men discover that he isn’t the beneficent ruler they originally thought him to be. The double-episodes are quality, but they barely help us overlook the animation change that occurs intermittently in the second disc, and then totally in the final episodes.
Feeling the comic book-style animation must have been too boring, someone somewhere decided X-Men needed to be more cartoonish. Thus the bold color palette is replaced with bright happy colors and the stern appearance of characters gives way to goofy looking replacements that are so horribly out of place in the cartoon’s legacy. To make matters worse, the changes take hold in the final episodic appearance of Apocalypse (one of my personal favorite villains). Now, I suppose it’s poetic justice that Apocalypse’s first and last episodes in the series make him look sort of goofy. When we first saw him, he wasn’t the traditional blue that most comic book fans know him as, but rather an odd purple. And, in his final episode, while he may be the color, the cartoony-style makes him out to be incredibly silly looking and not at all menacing. It was an unnecessary change and it sullies the good memories the other four volumes had helped to create.
The voice cast features such seasoned professionals as Cathal J. Dodd, Cedric Smith, Norm Spencer, Lenore Zann, George Buza, Chris Potter, Alison Sealy-Smith, and Alyson Court.
Episode List:
The Phalanx Covenant (Parts 1 & 2)
A Deal with the Devil
No Mutant is an Island
Longshot
Bloodlines
Stormfront (Parts 1 & 2)
Jubilee’s Fairy Tale Theatre
The Fifth Horseman
Old Soldiers
Descent
Hidden Agendas
Graduation Day
DVD Bonus Features
None at all, and just like the Iron Man: The Complete Animated Television Series DVD set, you just know they could have gotten Stan Lee to do an intro or commentary. Heck, a lot of the people who did voice work for this show are still working. There should be something to fill this disappointing void.
"X-Men: Volume 5" is on sale May 4, 2010 and is not rated. Action, Adventure, Animation, Comic Book. Directed by Larry Houston. Written by Stan Lee, Michael Edens, Mark Edward Edens. Starring Alison Seasly Smith, Alyson Court, Cathal J Dodd, Cedric Smith, Chris Potter, Lenore Zann, Norm Spencer, George Buza.
