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Oooooooh!!!! I have been waiting for a while to talk about this show! Ever since the reboot or remake came out, I’ve been wanting to write a post on this show. I know there are a lot of you out there excited to read about it. Today’s Reel Talk will be about one of the greatest and impactful shows of all time. The show that introduced many of us to Wolverine, Cyclopes, Beast, Jean, Professor Xavier and many others. You know the show! The one and only X-Men: The Animated Series. I was lucky enough to go see the creators of this great show at WonderCon before X-Men ’97 came out. I used to watch this show religiously when it first came out back in 1992. Even though the storylines were way over my head as I kid, I had to watch it. I can remember one year that my mom was helping set up for prom. We were there around 11am, and the people put it on for me because I couldn’t miss the show. I was a big X-Men comic book collector. I would go back to collecting them but I might find them and start reading them again. I spent my weekly allowance on buying X-men comic books. Get ready to talk about the X-Men.
Reason #1: The Story
X-Men: The Animated Series ran for five seasons and had 76 episodes. All those episodes were entertaining from the jump. The first episode when the X-Men go on a mission and Beast gets captured. The story was so over my little head that I was glad when Disney bought Fox, they put it all on Disney+ for me to rewatch. The story went hard in the paint with social issues from straight up racism or maybe something else because no one liked mutants, and the sentinels were created to wipe them out. It also dealt with divorce, religion, the Holocaust as Magneto was a survivor, AIDS and many other subjects. The first season was great, and it did follow the comics. The first season was great when the X-Men fought against the Sentinels who tried to kill mutants. You get Magneto’s plan to wage war but I almost forgot that Morph was killed and came back. That was a big deal. The second season was all about Cyclops and Jean going against Mister Sinister. The third season dealt with Jean becoming the Phoenix and when Charles and Magneto were transported, Charles could walk all of a sudden. You have to watch the series because it was everything you wanted and it tied into other shows like Spider-Man
Reason #2: The Characters
Being from a comic book, X-Men has amazing and unique characters. There are so many characters from this series and franchise that it could take me weeks to talk about each one. Everyone will find at least one character that they will root for and love. I know I did. I’m not going to talk about all the characters because once again, it will take me forever. I’ll keep it to no more than four characters.
The first one is none other than Wolverine. He made me fall in love with the X-Men and I thought he was the best character ever made. How many you boys mimic and made the claws come out? I know I did. As Wolverine famous saying is, “I’m the best at what I do and what I do isn’t very nice.” Wolverine is a mutant with animal-keen senses, regenerative ability known as a healing factor, a skeleton reinforced with the unbreakable fictional metal adamantium. He is the best ever and no one compares to him.
I have to put a sista in this review. Can’t leave out Storm. She was a total badass and she was a mutant who was able to control the weather. You know how sick it would be to control the weather! She is considered to be one of the most powerful mutants on the planet. Rocking that ice white hair and that white outfit, Storm was everything and more.
I’m going to give some love to Gambit. Gambit was one of the best characters in the series. Having that Cajun drawl and the world’s greatest outfit, Gambit was the real deal. He had the ability to create, control, and manipulate pure kinetic energy. He used his powers to charge up playing cards where he would throw them and they would explode. Dude had the world’s most beautiful girlfriend of all time with Rogue. Straight up lucky man.
Last, I have to put a villain and that one is Magneto. Magneto has been voted in the top 5 of all time comic book villains. Magneto is a straight up BEAST. He is a powerful mutant who has the ability to generate and control magnetic fields. This means that anything made of metal and he can control it. He is like a god on this planet and I think he stopped the earth. Magneto believes that mutants are far superior and would wipe out humanity.
Reason #3: The Theme Song
The X-Men: Animated Series theme song goes hard in the paint. When that guitar rift hit, you knew it was going to be epic. I love how they introduce each character, but they make sure each character’s introduction is customized to the character specifically. The ending of the song is great as you see both sides running towards each other for an epic battle. After you listen to it a few times, you know how it will go and you will wait for each episode just to hear the theme song. One of the best theme songs ever. Let’s give praise to Ron Wasserman, Haim Saban and Shuki Levy for making this amazing theme song. I would love to see how they actually came up with the song because it is that good.
X-Men: The Animated Series is one of the best animated series of all time. The story is fantastic as it hits on real world issues. The characters are memorable and you will find many to root for and like or dislike. That theme song is one of the best around. Before you watch X-Men ’97, watch the original and see what the original series was all about.
