Wolverine and the X-Men Season One
Mar. 30th, 2009 08:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrasteWhen I first heard that the new X-Men animated series was called Wolverine and the X-Men, I did not have high hopes for it. While I've nothing against him, Wolverine is the most over-exposed character in the Marvel stable and I wasn't looking forward to twenty-six episodes of what I assumed would amount to Wolverine and His Amazing Friends. The trailer looked cool, but raised some new doubts. It quickly became clear that within the first forty-five seconds of the show Professor X would get taken out of action, leaving Logan in charge of the team. The prospect of an entire X-Men series without my beloved did not fill me with joy.
However, having watched the whole first season, my worries were for naught. The series draws on the depth and breadth of comic book history to create a three-dimensional world, making especially good use of characters and concepts introduced in the last decade or so. While I don't love it without reservation - more about that later - this is my favourite animated adaptation of the X-Men so far, maybe even my favourite screen adaptation.
First of all, if you're a Charles Xavier fan, the premise is actually a blessing in disguise. You see, Charles doesn't just end up in a coma, he also ends up in the future. In said future, he runs around (literally, thanks to the wonders of technology) with Bishop and Marrow fighting Sentinels. Charles always seems to get more to do when separated from his team - see X-Men: Legacy or the second season of the first animated series - when he doesn't have to sit around being mentorly to everyone. His role in the series is absolutely vital, since he's Wolverine's window into the future the X-Men are fighting to prevent. Also, Charles and Magneto manage to be hella slashy on the strength of about three scenes together.
This brings me to my second reason for fangirling this series: Magneto is a complicated bad guy, which is just how I like him. He does reprehensible things, but they make sense in context and he never acts like a raving two-dimensional lunatic. His relationship to his children is also intriguing: in this continuity he seems to have raised the three of them, rather than being separated from his kids before they were even born. The resulting family dynamic is one of the most interesting parts of the show. Erik has no time at all for Pietro, sending him to head up the Brotherhood seemingly to get him out from underfoot. Wanda, by contrast, is his trusted lieutenant and confidant. In this continuity, Polaris is definitely Magneto's daughter as well, the baby of the family that he tries to protect from the harsh realities of what he does. I'm really hoping we get some more background on all of this next season - I'd love to know if the twins and Lorna have the same mother, and what happened to her.
Once I actually watched the show, I found that the title helped reconcile me to the fact that it's Wolverine-centric. I mean, I might complain that there's too much Logan in the X-Men movies, but I'm hardly going to make the same protest about the upcoming Wolverine film :). The title is a clear mission statement: Wolverine is the central character, but that doesn't mean nobody else gets to be in the spotlight. There are some episodes in which he barely appears.
It helps that Charles putting him in charge of the team is pretty logical under the circumstances. Cyclops is very young in this continuity - early twenties, I'd say - and badly traumatised by the events that take Charles out. I'm still puzzled that Storm didn't get given the job, though, which brings me to one of my few problems with the show.
Ororo has very little characterisation and just doesn't get much to do, which is frustrating because it makes it impossible to know if she'd have been a suitable leader for the team or not. Shadowcat, likewise, doesn't seem to have much of her comics personality in evidence - she comes across as a generic sassy teen rather than the brilliant computer scientist I know and love. Emma Frost, Rogue, Marrow, Wanda and the female villains do get better characterisation. However, Emma, the most dynamic and complex of the X-Women in the show, appears to die at the end of the season. Her heroic sacrifice is moving and appropriate under the circumstances, but it's still immensely frustrating to have the most interesting woman on the show killed off. If they do plan to replace her with Jean Grey next season, I hope Jean gets some decent character development.
Also, Episode Seventeen, Rise of the Silver Samurai, is made of 100% pure racefail and bad Japanese stereotypes. Fortunately it is completely irrelevant to the ongoing plot so you can easily skip it.
All in all, though, I really enjoyed the first season and am looking forward to the next. It seems that, as in Heroes and the Marvel Universe, every time the mutants fix one bleak future another one springs up to take it's place: now Charles is stuck in the Age of Apocalypse, oh noes! Will be fascinated to see him interact with future versions of his own team members. In the Days of Future Past future they were all dead/missing, but Scott at least is alive here, and working for the bad guys. I am keeping all my extremities crossed that Magneto is a freedom fighter in this future as he was in the comic AoA, so he and Charles can hang out andhave hott sexorz fight crime.
However, having watched the whole first season, my worries were for naught. The series draws on the depth and breadth of comic book history to create a three-dimensional world, making especially good use of characters and concepts introduced in the last decade or so. While I don't love it without reservation - more about that later - this is my favourite animated adaptation of the X-Men so far, maybe even my favourite screen adaptation.
First of all, if you're a Charles Xavier fan, the premise is actually a blessing in disguise. You see, Charles doesn't just end up in a coma, he also ends up in the future. In said future, he runs around (literally, thanks to the wonders of technology) with Bishop and Marrow fighting Sentinels. Charles always seems to get more to do when separated from his team - see X-Men: Legacy or the second season of the first animated series - when he doesn't have to sit around being mentorly to everyone. His role in the series is absolutely vital, since he's Wolverine's window into the future the X-Men are fighting to prevent. Also, Charles and Magneto manage to be hella slashy on the strength of about three scenes together.
This brings me to my second reason for fangirling this series: Magneto is a complicated bad guy, which is just how I like him. He does reprehensible things, but they make sense in context and he never acts like a raving two-dimensional lunatic. His relationship to his children is also intriguing: in this continuity he seems to have raised the three of them, rather than being separated from his kids before they were even born. The resulting family dynamic is one of the most interesting parts of the show. Erik has no time at all for Pietro, sending him to head up the Brotherhood seemingly to get him out from underfoot. Wanda, by contrast, is his trusted lieutenant and confidant. In this continuity, Polaris is definitely Magneto's daughter as well, the baby of the family that he tries to protect from the harsh realities of what he does. I'm really hoping we get some more background on all of this next season - I'd love to know if the twins and Lorna have the same mother, and what happened to her.
Once I actually watched the show, I found that the title helped reconcile me to the fact that it's Wolverine-centric. I mean, I might complain that there's too much Logan in the X-Men movies, but I'm hardly going to make the same protest about the upcoming Wolverine film :). The title is a clear mission statement: Wolverine is the central character, but that doesn't mean nobody else gets to be in the spotlight. There are some episodes in which he barely appears.
It helps that Charles putting him in charge of the team is pretty logical under the circumstances. Cyclops is very young in this continuity - early twenties, I'd say - and badly traumatised by the events that take Charles out. I'm still puzzled that Storm didn't get given the job, though, which brings me to one of my few problems with the show.
Ororo has very little characterisation and just doesn't get much to do, which is frustrating because it makes it impossible to know if she'd have been a suitable leader for the team or not. Shadowcat, likewise, doesn't seem to have much of her comics personality in evidence - she comes across as a generic sassy teen rather than the brilliant computer scientist I know and love. Emma Frost, Rogue, Marrow, Wanda and the female villains do get better characterisation. However, Emma, the most dynamic and complex of the X-Women in the show, appears to die at the end of the season. Her heroic sacrifice is moving and appropriate under the circumstances, but it's still immensely frustrating to have the most interesting woman on the show killed off. If they do plan to replace her with Jean Grey next season, I hope Jean gets some decent character development.
Also, Episode Seventeen, Rise of the Silver Samurai, is made of 100% pure racefail and bad Japanese stereotypes. Fortunately it is completely irrelevant to the ongoing plot so you can easily skip it.
All in all, though, I really enjoyed the first season and am looking forward to the next. It seems that, as in Heroes and the Marvel Universe, every time the mutants fix one bleak future another one springs up to take it's place: now Charles is stuck in the Age of Apocalypse, oh noes! Will be fascinated to see him interact with future versions of his own team members. In the Days of Future Past future they were all dead/missing, but Scott at least is alive here, and working for the bad guys. I am keeping all my extremities crossed that Magneto is a freedom fighter in this future as he was in the comic AoA, so he and Charles can hang out and
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-30 11:46 am (UTC)I was recently explaining Magneto to someone who never read comics in any form, and as I did she was obviously getting more and more offended. I tried to clarify that his background is okay because Magneto is so awesome but am not sure she really got it. Do you happen to know if there is a killer Magneto essay (or whatever) out there?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-31 09:19 am (UTC)My pleasure - the worst of the racefail is fortunately confined to that one episode and easily skipped. (I'm not guaranteeing the rest of the show entirely fail-free, but at no point did I want to beat my head against the wall. Or, more to the point, anyone else's head.)
I was recently explaining Magneto to someone who never read comics in any form, and as I did she was obviously getting more and more offended. I tried to clarify that his background is okay because Magneto is so awesome but am not sure she really got it. Do you happen to know if there is a killer Magneto essay (or whatever) out there?
Actually, yes! Alara wrote an essay for
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-30 01:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-31 09:12 am (UTC)There is a lot of Wolverine, but it's pretty easy to tell when the entire episode is going to be about his angst-ridden past. If you really dislike him, you could probably skip most of those and still follow the overall plot arc *g*. It is so worth watching for the Charles and Erik, though!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-31 08:28 pm (UTC)I have to second the slashiness factor 100%. Erik takes his body and puts it in a special big bedroom. Then attacks everyone who comes near him...yeah. It's easy to win me over with Charles/Erik slash in scenes.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-04 03:01 am (UTC)I keep meaning to watch more of Evolution - I hear it gets better in the later seasons once there's more of an ongoing plot - but I keep being put off by things like Charles and Erik having no personalities.
I have to second the slashiness factor 100%. Erik takes his body and puts it in a special big bedroom. Then attacks everyone who comes near him...yeah. It's easy to win me over with Charles/Erik slash in scenes.
Same here. Even better, I think that has to be Magneto's room, because it doesn't have any doors, just metal walls that can be opened and closed with magnetic powers.
(I guess Polaris can do that too, but it's obviously not her bedroom.)