BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE
STUDIO: Lionsgate
MSRP: $23.99
RATED: Not rated
RUNNING TIME: 598 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• 29 audio commentaries with the show creators
• The Making of Wolverine and the X-Men Featurette
• The Inner Circle: Reflections on Wolverine and the X-Men Featurette
• English 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
• Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio
• Trailer Gallery
The Pitch
The X-Men get a new spin (yet again) with Wolverine front and center.
The Humans (via Wikipedia, ’cause damn, that’s a lotta names to type)
– Charlie Adler – Mojo, Reavers
– Tamara Bernier – Mystique
– Kieren van den Blink – Rogue
– Steven Blum – Wolverine, Vanisher, Vindaloo, Fever Pitch
– Clancy Brown – Mister Sinister
– A.J. Buckley – Toad
– Corey Burton – John Grey
– Susan Dalian – Storm, Dr. Kavita Rao, Jean’s Nurse
– Grey DeLisle – Psylocke, Spiral, Network
– Alex Désert – Nick Fury
– Richard Doyle – Senator Robert Kelly
– Chris Edgerly – Agent Haskett
– Crispin Freeman – Multiple Man, Maverick
– Jennifer Hale – Jean Grey
– Kate Higgins – Scarlet Witch, Pixie
– Mark Hildreth – Quicksilver
– Michael Ironside – Colonel Moss
– Dominic Janes – Squidboy
– Danielle Judovits – Shadowcat, Tildie Soames
– Tom Kane – Magneto, Professor Thornton
– Phil LaMarr – Gambit, Bolivar Trask
– Yuri Lowenthal – Iceman
– Peter Lurie – Sabretooth
– Gabriel Mann – Dr. Bruce Banner
– Graham McTavish – Sebastian Shaw
– Vanessa Marshall – Vertigo
– Phil Morris – Colossus
– Liza del Mundo – Polaris
– Nolan North – Cyclops, Pyro, Berzerker
– Liam O’Brien – Angel/Archangel, Nightcrawler, Nitro
– Kevin Michael Richardson – Shadow King, Bishop
– Crystal Scales – Boom Boom
– James Sie – Yakuza Leader, Sensei Ogun
– Roger Craig Smith – Forge, Hellion, Kamal
– André Sogliuzzo – Arclight
– Stephen Stanton – Blob
– April Stewart – Selene
– Tara Strong – Marrow, Dust, Firestar, X-23, Stepford Cuckoos
– James Patrick Stuart – Avalanche
– Fred Tatasciore – Beast, Hulk, Blockbuster, Juggernaut, Harpoon
– Kari Wahlgren – Emma Frost, Magma, Dr. Sybil Zane, Christy Nord
– Jim Ward – Professor X, Warren Worthington II, Abraham Cornelius, Sentinels, Rover
– Gwendoline Yeo – Domino, Master Mold, Mariko Yashida
– Keone Young – Silver Samurai
Wolverine: “Be ready for anything, X-Men.”
Cyclops: “Rob Liefield’s drawing us this episode.”
“Wolverine: “We’re doomed…”
The Nutshell
In this latest adaptation of the popular Marvel comic, Wolverine is now the leader of the mutant
superhero team while Charles Xavier is in a mysterious coma, but
communicating telepathically from 20 years in the future. Many of the
old characters, both hero and villain, are given somewhat new spins in
this more dystopian incarnation where mutants are hunted by a government
agency called the Mutant Response Division (MRD) in the future, while Professor X and a band of mutants fight to survive a future post-war wasteland ruled by the Sentinels. Wolverine also tries to guide the X-Men –
and the rest of the world – away from an oncoming apocalypse whose
origin he and Xavier work to discover together from the two different
time periods.
The Lowdown
This is a pretty easy review, because I’ve already done most of it in installments:
– Wolverine and the X-Men: Deadly Enemies
– Wolverine and the X-Men: Fate of the Future
– Wolverine and the X-Men: Revelation
– Wolverine and the X-Men: Final Crisis Trilogy
This isn’t Wolverine after a night with the Hulk. This is Wolverine after a night with She-Hulk…
My
main take on those payment plan editions of this offering of the entire
series was simple: the show was a pretty entertaining version of a
property that has been revamped, reworked and rehashed in the comics,
films and cartoons so many times already. Also, that it was asinine for
the viewer to buy the installments rather than this comprehensive set.
That goes without saying for any cartoon show that’s offered up in
bullshit three to five-episode morsels. The price for this set is
roughly $24. Total price for all the piecemeal discs: around $80. I’ll
refrain from saying “do the you-know-what.”
It’s the .gif that keeps on giving.
This version of the
X-Men only got the one season because of financing issues that Marvel
had with its partners. Shame really, because the show did have some
interesting takes on the well-worn mythology. The character designs
were generally good and the episodes for the most part well-written.
The show managed a season-long arc yet still work in some
good one-off episodes with the large and familiar cast of characters. Also,
one thing we were spared, for most of the show’s run anyway, was the
whole “Scott!” / “Jean!” scenario. The show tended to look much more
similar to X-Men: Evolution than to the the X-Men toon of the ’90s.
Wolverine after trying on Cerebro and watching Jim Lee’s Psylocke taking a shower…
In
the first three-part episode, “Hindsight,” a mysterious explosion
destroys the X-Mansion. Professor X and Jean Grey go missing and the
X-Men end up scattering to the four winds as a result. Cut to a year
later and Wolverine and other mutants are being hunted by a government
entity called the Mutant Response Division. This is due to the efforts
of Senator Kelly and Angel’s father, Warren Worthington, who is funding
the MRD. Wolverine decides to regroup the X-Men, but doesn’t succeed in getting the entire team back together. Strangely enough,
Emma Frost asks Wolverine to join the team, in order to find Professor
X. Wolverine has his strong reservations, but ultimately agrees, because no one else is capable of running Cerebro.
“Has anyone changed my depends undergarment lately?”
From there, the next few episodes, “Overflow”, “Thieves’ Gambit”, and “X-Calibre” deal with stories involving Storm and the Shadow King in Africa, Magma and the MRD and Gambit, and Nightcrawler and Genosha respectively. “Wolverine vs. the Hulk” features yet another go-round between the two, with Wendigo thrown into the mix. Other notable episodes include
“Past Discretions”, where Wolverine deals with his past, Maverick and
Sabretooth. “Hunting Grounds” finds Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch
trapped in one of Mojo’s TV shows.
“Guardian Angel” deals with Angel’s Archangel transformation.
“Breakdown” finds Cyclops mulling over whether or not he wants Emma to
wipe jean from his memory since she can’t be found. The truth of the explosion in the mansion is
also revealed. The final five or six episodes, including the “Foresight” trilogy, deal with the show’s
version of the Phoenix / Hellfire Club storyline. Also, Magneto escalates the war with humanity utilizing the Sentinels; and the future storyline resolves
when Professor X and his group of mutants, along with the future
Wolverine, take the fight to Master Mold and the Sentinels. The
prevention of the dystopian future by Wolverine and the X-Men in the
present doesn’t quite go as planned as another undesirable future
replaces it involving one of the X-Men’s most powerful enemies.
“What’s the hurry, Angel?”
“There’s a hot eagle down there that caught my eye.”
“I didn’t know you swung that way, uh…damn…”
Overall, I liked Wolverine & The X-Men.
It managed a few good twists to the mythologies of the characters, had
stories working on a couple of levels and time periods, and was sharply
drawn and well-written. I hope the next X-toon, which should be along
any minute now, is as good.
The Package
As mentioned, the look of the show’s animation is good. Sound is available in Dolby 5.1 English or Spanish 2.0, without subtitles. One nice thing that all of the DVD sets of the show included were commentaries on all the episodes (at least the ones I reviewed), and there are 29 commentaries by the producers on the 26 episodes. There are also two featurettes: The Making of Wolverine and the X-Men and The Inner Circle: Reflections on Wolverine and the X-Men. If you liked the show and wisely heeded my warnings about avoiding those shitty hors d’oeuvre offerings before this one, bravo. This is the set of Wolverine and the X-Men to get.