Wolverine and the X-Men is a new animated incarnation of Marvel Comics' popular X-Men franchise that recently began airing on the Nicktoons network. The series begins after an explosion has rocked the Xavier Institute (home of the mutant superhero team, the X-Men) and their leader and mentor, Charles Xavier, along with telepathic team member Jean Grey, have disappeared. One year later, the X-Men have disbanded and gone their separate ways.
The first episode, "Hindsight, pt. 1" is about the X-Man Wolverine as he rescues a family that sheltered him from the villainous Mutant Registration Department, or MRD or as the X-Men call them, the "mardies." He recruits former X-Man Beast (who is still looking for Xavier) to help him out. When they realize just how far the MRD is willing to go in their quest to wipe out mutantkind, Wolverine and Beast know one thing: they must reunite the X-Men.
The second episode, "Hindsight, pt. 2" follows Wolverine and Beast as they try reassembling the team. The villainous Brotherhood (a mutant team with a decidedly anti-human agenda) recruit former X-Man Rogue to their cause and begin a plot to assassinate the anti-mutant senator, Robert Kelly. Rogue has a problem with being an assassin and she turns to Wolverine and Beast, who have also successfully managed to recruit former X-Men Iceman and Shadowcat, for help (Wolverine also tried getting Cyclops back, but he's still devastated from the loss of his girlfriend, Jean Grey, and refuses Wolverine's offer). The ragtag group of X-Men arrive to stop the Brotherhood's assassination but end up having to fight the MRD. After the X-Men escape and Rogue has disappeared, Wolverine realizes that they were set up by the Brotherhood to help push towards a mutant/human war.
Episode three, "Hindsight, pt 3" has the Xavier Institute being rebuilt thanks to wealthy former X-Man Warren Worthington III, aka Angel. Angel refuses to join the team, citing that he can better help mutantkind with his father's business contacts and money, but he's more than willing to help fund the new X-Men. Telepath and former X-Men adversary Emma Frost shows up and wants to join the team. Wolverine's distrustful of her, but she says that she can use the mutant-tracking computer, Cerebro, that the X-Men possess to locate Professor X. We're also introduced to another X-Men member, Forge, who has the ability to build just about anything and is helping rebuild the Xavier Institute. Emma uses Cerebro and finds Xavier - who is on X-Men villain Magneto's mutant island of Genosha. Wolverine tries recruiting Cyclops again, who agrees to join this time. The X-Men go to Genosha and fight Magneto, but the master of magnetism wipes the floor with them. The X-Men tell him that they only came for Xavier, and Magneto reveals that Xavier mysteriously appeared on his island a week prior and in a coma. He turns Xavier over to the X-Men, who return to the Xavier Institute to care for their mentor. It is then that they all receive a vision from Xavier, but twenty years in the future, where he has just awoke from his coma and found the world controlled by mutant hunting robotic Sentinels. He tells the X-Men that they are the world's only hope and they must prevent that future from happening...
All in all, it seems to be a decent little show. While lacking the intensity of a PG-13 X-Men, it still manages to be action-packed and not dumbed down as so many cartoons these days seem to be (I managed to catch about ten minutes of Huntik on the CW this morning and had to change over before I hurt someone). Back in my day (when we had to walk up hill both ways to school in the snow and you could buy candy for a penny and see a movie for a nickel…), cartoons weren’t so kid-ified. Batman: The Animated Series and Fox’s 90s X-Men were simple enough for kids and complex enough for adults. In recent years, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Star Wars: The Clone Wars have both managed to head back into that kind of territory and I’m happy to see that Wolverine and the X-Men seems to be trying to follow in those footsteps.
As an X-Men adaptation, I think it works fairly well. The characters, thus far, seem spot on, the voice acting is good, and the mythology is intact. Which says more for it than the previous animated X-Men, X-Men: Evolution which I refused to watch because of its tampering with the X-Men legacy. This one doesn’t suffer from that as of yet and if one were to look at it through half-closed eyes, one might be able to see it as a sequel to the 90s X-Men (though, there are several noticeable gaps between the two series, nothing overtly contradicts them existing in the same “world” or at least in very similar worlds).
All in all, as an X-Men fan, it’s worth a look; as an animation fan, it’s worth a look; as a geek, it’s worth a look. I’ll continue watching it. So far, so good.
No comments:
Post a Comment