"Wolverine And The X-Men" Episode Reviews Completed at MAA (Spoilers)

[Stu]

Hi everyone,

With the series now having been shown in it's entirety in both Canada and the UK, The Marvel Animation Age now has reviewed, captures and avatars for all 26 episodes of Wolverine And The X-Men. To see the site, click on the image below.

Big thanks to Arsenal, who, well, did the reviews and had the patience to put up with me while I took forever to upload them!

​

Comments?

Up next: The Spectacular Spider-Man

 

[satam55]

Good! I've been waiting on these for a long time.

EDIT: hmmmmmm.......... I'm disappointed with the new episode reviews for Wolverine & the X-Men. They don't do the final 9 epiosdes justice (which are the best episodes in this season without a doubt) becuase the reviews are TOO short and pale in comparison to the reviews for the DCAU shows on Worldsfinestonline.com and the 90's & other 2000's Marvel shows on Marvel.toonzone.net


Hopefully, Stu or Amazing Spidey will eventually contribute to the Wolverine & the X-Men episode reviews.

 

[Nygma]

Good job getting all the reviews up you guys.

So which episode would be your favorite Arsenal?

We are cheated of an important glimpse into Logan’s psyche. Without that explanation, his actions seem arbitrary or dictated by plot demands.

It misses that one moment that truly could make the show transcendent.

I agree with most of this, I felt pretty much the same way about Peter's feelings towards Eddie Brock on Spectacular Spider-Man. They've never shown us anything particularly deep about how Pete feels towards Eddie's fall from grace one way or another (it just feels like generic stop the villain stuff).
Though here I get the feeling this was done for the sake of suspense in will Logan trust her or not.

But enough about that, back to Wolverine and The X-Men, and a final word on Foresight, Part 3. That Apocalypse design makes him look like a tool. And has me missing the old Apocalypse design from X-Men Evolution even more.

Now hopefully those Spectacular Spider-Man reviews will be up soon.

 

[Wonderwall]

Cool to see the reviews up. But I disagree with "Rover" not being a bad episode. It was by far the worst episode of the series. Ok well not by far as the Hulk episode was pretty bad too

Edit: Oh and the one with Sabretooth as well.

 

[Nygma]

Which Sabretooth episode are you talking about?

IMO Overflow was still the most boring episode of the series thus far. Then again I find Storm to be boring majority of the time. Especially when they treat her as an African Godess.

 

[Wonderwall]

Past Discretions

 

[satam55]

Which Sabretooth episode are you talking about?

IMO Overflow was still the most boring episode of the series thus far. Then again I find Storm to be boring majority of the time. Especially when they treat her as an African Godess.

I 100% agree!!!!!! Storm centered episodes are always boring in all 3 of the X-Men shows (except for maybe the Storm Front 2-Parter for X-Men: TAS). I like having Storm as a supporting character, but when she becomes the focus of an episode, the episode is guaranteed to be boring.

Just reading the description for "Overflow", I knew the episode was going to be boring, and sure enough it was.

 

[Arsenal]

As far as favorite episodes, I think the show hit its stride between "Backlash" and "Shades of Grey." Every episode in that period of time, with the exception of "Rover," was very good.

I think the show lost its momentum during its 3-part season finale. But before then, the creators did a great job of juggling multiple characters and plot lines.

My favorite episode is "Breakdown," just because it's so different from the others, while still being great. It has a relatively small cast and occurs almost entirely within Scott Summers' brain.

It also gave us a brief glimpse of Wolverine with my preferred characterization. I think he works best as the group's outcast and rascal. I realize the suits wanted him to lead the team this time around, but it was nice to see Wolverine as I prefer him. (Even if it was only for 30 seconds.)

Of course, pretty much any Genosha episode ended up golden, partly because this version of Nightcrawler is awesome.

"Shades of Grey" and "Backlash" are probably the episodes that used the long-term plot lines best.

"X-Cessive Force" might just be the best Cyclops episode ever. Before, when I wrote an X-Men retrospective, I ended it with a list of "definitive" performances. In other words, I said which shows used each X-Men character the best.

Thus far, I would say Wolverine and the X-Men has the definitive version of Cyclops, Emma Frost and Forge. (Yeah, I know, not a lot of competition on those latter two.) I'm also tempted to say it has the definitive version of Nightcrawler, but I liked X-Men: TAS "Nightcrawler" episode too much.

As far as worst episodes, well, "Rover" isn't good. And it looks even worse because it's surrounded by excellent episodes. I didn't have much affection for any Wolverine-centric episode. "Thieves' Gambit," "Wolverine Versus the Hulk," "Past Directions," and "Code of Conduct" all bothered me for some reason or another.

I think the worst of that batch was "Code of Conduct," which suffered from idiot plotting. For the uninitiated, "idiot plotting" is when a plot could be wrapped up in 10 minutes if the characters didn't act like idiots.

Overall, I think the show was good. Sometimes, it was great. I think it suffers in comparison to Spectacular Spider-Man, which is, well, spectacular. That having been said, the creators of this show have managed to make a fan-friendly show that respects but is not contained by the source material.

That's difficult to do, so I look forward to more from this crew.

 

[satam55]

Thus far, I would say Wolverine and the X-Men has the definitive version of Cyclops, Emma Frost and Forge. (Yeah, I know, not a lot of competition on those latter two.) I'm also tempted to say it has the definitive version of Nightcrawler, but I liked X-Men: TAS "Nightcrawler" episode too much.

I agree with you on Emma Frost and I will go ahead say this version of Nightcrawler is the definitive version (the X-Men: TAS nightcrawler is too religious for me). But, I disagree with you on Cyclops and Forge.

Overall, I think the show was good. Sometimes, it was great. I think it suffers in comparison to Spectacult Spider-Man, which is, well, spectacular. That having been said, the creators of this show have managed to make a fan-friendly show that respects but is not contained by the source material.

Actually, I think Wolverine & the X-Men is WAY better than Spectacular. Wolverine has a much more serious mature and dark tone, while spectacular has more of a high school goofball drama tone that is a notch below X-Men Evolution's tone.

 

[FlyByNite77]

This show started off with a really great premise that appealed to me a lot.

Jean Grey gone... The thought of having a x-men series where I didn't have to sit through Scott x Jean crap was so awesome. Nothing has made me happier then the past I dunno, 7 or 8 years now? It seems like a while in the comics where they've had Scott coupled with Emma.

Not having to deal with the Logan 'bad boy' temptations of Jean. Not having to deal with how every other word out of Scott's mouth was something about Jean. Ever since she left the comics (and has stayed out as far as I know) I've really enjoyed things a lot more.

Too bad it didn't stay that way for the series. Infact the way the season concluded it was even more of a slap in the face. Emma Frost is probably one of my top 3 or 4 favorite characters in the comics so I was thrilled when I saw the previews for this series and that she was going to be a large part of it. I was even more thrilled when one of my favorite voice actresses (Kari Walhgren) was announced as her voice.

For most of the season they did a good job developing Emma, I was actually beginning to think they really were just going to leave Jean out of the show and just move on with a Scott/Emma thing. Then the rug got pulled out from under me

Emma (although she did eventually change) was out for her own agenda. Although it appears that agenda always was that she thought the Phoenix was too powerful and it needed to be destroyed so even when she tried to get Jean at the mansion which started the series she had better intentions then the rest of the Hellfire Club.

Of course the ending of the first season made me a sad Panda as it looked like she's dead and we now have a reunited Scott/Jean love-fest...

There were a number of things I liked in the series. I thought for the most part the producers did a good job of mixing the new elements of the comics into the old. They went with the younger rogue as a nod to Anna Paquin Rogue in the movies and the relationship with Wolverine/Rogue seemed based off that as well.

I found it a little confusing that they presented Bobby as young as he looks in the series when in the flashback to the "First Class" you saw Iceman there. So what, was he supposed to be like 8 years old then or something? lol

Some of the non-traditional characters got mixed in as well. Hellion, Dust, and Mercury from New X-men all appeared. Blink from Exiles as well, although I spent most of the series wondering how Blink had her Exiles type powers when that was an alternate universe version of Blink where the 616 Blink never really developed them. Ultimately I decided not to care and just be happy that Blink was getting screen-time in a x-men cartoon

I love that they went with the House of M type Magneto/Polaris Father/Daughter relationship. No little dropped hints here and there and speculation for 10 to 15 years in the comics of if he really was her Father or not.

I liked the dangling of a Nightcrawler/Scarlet Witch relationship because if my fondness of Blink didn't give it away I was a big fan of the Exiles and I also a big fan of the character Nocturne. She was the daughter of Nightcrawler and the Scarlet Witch from an alternate earth. It would be cool if we saw Nocturne pop up in the future with Prof X as their daughter in S2

 

[Wonderwall]

Actually, I think Wolverine & the X-Men is WAY better than Spectacular. Wolverine has a much more serious mature and dark tone, while spectacular has more of a high school goofball drama tone that is a notch below X-Men Evolution's tone.

I really disagree. Spec has its share of dark and serious which I think delivers better than Wolverine. Wolverine has the image of darker but never really pushes it or goes into that territory. Throughout the show it just comes off as...safe. It's also another reason I ranked it third overall of the last 3 superhero shows that came out since 2008.

 

[Arsenal]

Wonderwall, does that mean you rank Wolverine as worse than Batman: Brave and the Bold or the new Iron Man?

 

[Wonderwall]

Actually I rank it as below Spectacular Spiderman by a lot and Brave and the Bold by a substantial amount. Iron Man premiered in late 2008 but didn't really start until a few weeks ago. I find WatXM a superior show to that one though as I see it as a good show while Armoured Adventures as a potentially good show with some issues to work out.

 

[Pepperidge]

Wolverine has the image of darker but never really pushes it or goes into that territory.

That's a great way of putting it. I actually find SSM to be quite a bit darker than Wolverine even if it's not immediately obvious. I feel that episode 26 pretty much confirms this after we see

Spoiler

Norman Osborn breaking his son's leg in order to frame him.

 

[Stu]

Since I haven't had the time to review some of the episodes as I would've liked, I thought I'd post something here.

A very ambitious show, Wolverine and The X-Men suffers from the same flaws as previous X-Men shows - mainly it's large cast, many of whom don't really live up to their full potential as there isn't time to do much of anything with them. Iceman, Kitty and Storm do very little but there's not really a way around this - if they didn't appear, people would consistantly whine about thier absence (I am grateful we managed to get a minute or two of Collosus in the premiere).

We do manage to get great versions of Beast, Cyclops and Emma Frost, who comes this close to stealing the show - abandoning Jean was probably the best desicion the show ever made as it gave us a great, bad boy version of Cyclops and a wild card in Emma, who's far more interesting than Jean ever was. I don't think Emma's death and Jean's return to the team is that good an idea for the second season - could we be seeing a dodgy resurrection in time for season two?

The show is slow paced, but highly enjoyable, with a great many twists along the way (I didn't even see Emma's heel turn coming at the end of Shades Of Grey!) The future episodes weren't as much fun as the present ones (sign me up in the camp that didn't think much to Rover) and none of the FX-Men (thanks Arsenal) were really all that interesting, bar Xavier. If we go back to the future for season two, I hope Xavier gets a new crew.

I really dig Wolverine in the leader role and Steve Blum puts in an outstanding performance everytime. I still think TAS has the best version of Wolverine, but there's time to change my mind yet!

Favourite episodes? Fallen Angel, X-Cessive Force and Time Bomb spring to mind. On the other end, the aforementioned Rover, Future X and even some of the episodes delving into Weapon X could've been better - I'd have liked to see more of Wolverine/Mystique if possible. Plently of potential in season two for that I suppose.

Overall, an excellent show with no real terrible episodes. It certainly has the potential to be the very best of all the X-Men shows.

 

[satam55]

The show is slow paced, but highly enjoyable, with a great many twists along the way (I didn't even see Emma's heel turn coming at the end of Shades Of Grey!)

How could you not!? We already knew that the Hellfire club was going to be in this show and when the phoenix appeared in the flashback at the end of "Breakdown", it was obvious why Emma Frost had joined the X-Men.

I really dig Wolverine in the leader role and Steve Blum puts in an outstanding performance everytime. I still think TAS has the best version of Wolverine, but there's time to change my mind yet!


Overall, an excellent show with no real terrible episodes. It certainly has the potential to be the very best of all the X-Men shows.

I agree with you on all points here.

 

[W.C.Reaf]

How could you not!? We already knew that the Hellfire club was going to be in this show and when the phoenix appeared in the flashback at the end of "Breakdown", it was obvious why Emma Frost had joined the X-Men.

I believe he was referring to Emma saving the day at the end, not her betraying the X-men.

A Heel Face Turn refers to a bad guy turning good (what Emma did in the end). Where as a good guy going bad is a Face Heel Turn.

 

[satam55]

I believe he was referring to Emma saving the day at the end, not her betraying the X-men.

But he was referring to the end of "Shades of Grey", she turned on the X-Men at the end of the episode. So she was turning heel. I think you're referring to the end of "Foresight Part 3".

 

[Wonderwall]

Well I assumed Emma was up to something but you don't really get the impending feeling that she's going to betray them at the end of the episode. When she does it's like "whoa...didn't see that coming" even if we knew. SO I thought that was done really well.

 

[ShadowStar]

Favourite episodes? Fallen Angel, X-Cessive Force and Time Bomb spring to mind.

"Guardian Angel" was very enjoyable, although I think we needed to see more of Angel prior to that episode - it would have made me feel more invested in the character. I didn't think the other two episodes weren't that great... "eXcessive Force" took a great idea and made it feel dull. The Marauders were pushovers who were terribly boring and Clancy Brown is not a good choice for Mr. Sinister IMO... There was nothing memorable about "Time Bomb" for me; I didn't get a sense of impending doom or dread as Nitro's powers started to spiral out of control, nor did I like the butchered version of Psylocke.

I like this series but the reason I can't consider it on par with the DCAU or The Spectacular Spiderman is because it falls short stylistically. I can't fault the writing in some episodes, but the animation, fight scenes and background music NEED to be vastly improved upon in season 2.