^^Haha, totally agree, although i thought the Hulk episode was pretty good. Good not great. I wanna see more x-men!
Wolverine's three "solo" episodes were "Thieves' Gambit", "Wolverine vs. The Hulk" and "Past Directions", and I agree that "Wolvie vs. Hulk" was probably the best rounded out of those three. "Past Directions" had some good moments and interesting hints, but as a whole it was just awkward. "Thieves' Gambit" is officially the worst episode of the season so far. And even that one wasn't terrible, just average.
Some people claim that the reason for this is Wolverine suffers from "Fonzie Syndrome"; he is a standout with a cast, but is boring solo. In a way I disagree; the 90's show got some terrific episodes out of solo Wolverine, or at least 1-2 great episodes, without Logan being teamed up with any of the X-Men. Unlike in Evolution, Logan usually has no sort of "sidekick" character to bounce off of (in the comics, he's has Kitty, Jubilee, or even Armor).
Honestly, I believe it comes not only due to writing, but censorship. Wolverine is a network TV enigma. He has claws and is famous for them, but can't actually use them against most opponents. He is a dark character, but networks cringe at episodes that are TOO dark. His rage is well known, but he can't go too berserk lest he scare some soccer mom somewhere. Considering all this, making Wolverine a side character in favor of the energy-beam using Cyclops in EVOLUTION might have been a pragmatic way to avoid censorship hassles for storyboards.
Still, the envelope can be pushed. TMNT from seasons 3-4 seemed to push that envelope of how dark an episode can be, how much gore can be implied without actually being shown, almost weekly, and that was on the station formerly known as Fox Kids. The question is if Kyle & Johnson are up to those sorts of battles, or if they have been working under TV blinders for so long they never even peek outside of them.
That all said, no episode of W&TXM for me has been outright "bad". For a debut season, especially within the first 13 episodes, having the worst episodes merely be "average" is not too shabby, far better ,or on par, with the the debut seasons of a dozen cartoons I could mention. But that said, so far the writers have struggled with episodes that feature Wolverine alone, which is ironic as he is the star character. Hopefully this week will show some improvement in this area.
