Wolverine and the X-Men: The Complete Series

[Original Spawn]

I love the cover art but i´ll tell you something, i liked the story from wolverine and the x-men but i hated a bit the drawing stile of the characters.

 

[JP]

Cover art is amazing. Can't wait to own this..

 

[Doc Ock]

Awesome, I never got to check this show out but one time, I have been hoping for a complete release! Can't wait to try this show out!

 

[Ipodman]

Awesome, I never got to check this show out but one time, I have been hoping for a complete release! Can't wait to try this show out!

Yea, I rather buy the Complete series than get the individual volumes or those compilations with no chronological episodes.

 

[Doc Ock]

Yea, I rather buy the Complete series than get the individual volumes or those compilations with no chronological episodes.

Individual volumes and half-season sets of TV shows are a entire plague to the market IMO. I blame BSG for being the ones starting it!

 

[TheVileOne]

Honestly I don't care for it either.

I think they should've just forgoed the individual releases and just do a season set.

 

[Sawyer]

Individual volumes and half-season sets of TV shows are a entire plague to the market IMO. I blame BSG for being the ones starting it!

Battlestar Galactica hardly started that trend. And the BSG volumes actually had some meat to them and were just half the season. The DVDs they do for animated series' are bull****. Any less than 12 episodes and i'm not having it.

 

[Dread]

Honestly I don't care for it either.

I think they should've just forgoed the individual releases and just do a season set.

Agreed.

It is also worth mention that for many years, most anime shows would get single releases. So it isn't just BSG that gets the blame. Especially since, unlike mainstream film and whatnot, the anime industry collectively abandoned VHS as a format option in 2002-2003; the rest of the studios didn't really toss it by the wayside completely for releases until about 2006-2007.

 

[TheVileOne]

we seldom get single volumes for anime shows anymore. Most distributors now release much larger episode sets in DVD/Blu-ray format.

 

[Dread]

we seldom get single volumes for anime shows anymore. Most distributors now release much larger episode sets in DVD/Blu-ray format.

Yes, thankfully sanity, or efforts to save costs, prevailed. Hopefully, one day, Western TV animation learns a similar lesson.

 

[JerseyJoker]

Oh my god that cover is so damn sexy.

So picking up the complete series on Blu-Ray and going to enjoy the hell out of it.

 

[TheVileOne]

Hey guys, I just got the DVD set from Lionsgate.

All I can say is its got TWENTY NINE AUDIO COMMENTARIES. I haven't had a chance to crack it open, but I wonder if any of them were recorded after the show got killed.

 

[EvilClareToo]

Hey guys, I just got the DVD set from Lionsgate.

All I can say is its got TWENTY NINE AUDIO COMMENTARIES. I haven't had a chance to crack it open, but I wonder if any of them were recorded after the show got killed.

Cool! Any word if it will get a Region 2 release for us outside the US?

 

[TheVileOne]

Didn't you guys already get some full DVD sets quite a while ago? Pretty sure the series was collected already in Latin America at least though I could be wrong. I thought Liberation Ent. was doing the UK release or I could be mixing one up there.

 

[EvilClareToo]

Didn't you guys already get some full DVD sets quite a while ago? Pretty sure the series was collected already in Latin America at least though I could be wrong. I thought Liberation Ent. was doing the UK release or I could be mixing one up there.

It wasn't around when I was looking for it on UK sites a few months ago, but I'll check now and see if it's been released.

 

[TheVileOne]

Oops sorry. I think it was Canada that got a complete series set but it didn't really have any extras.

Later tonight my final interview with series writer, Greg Johnson, on Wolverine and The X-men will be going up.

 

[Emma Frost]

How does this look on blu ray?

 

[Dread]

This might be the interview that TheVileOne mentioned. It was posted on Toonzone by James Harvey, but he may have conducted it. It is with Greg Johnson, who was a Head Writer on the series:

http://marvel.toonzone.net/news.php?action=fullnews&id=581

Some notes of interest to me:

MARVEL ANIMATION AGE: Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. Looking back at the series, what do you think really worked and what could’ve used improvement?

GREG JOHNSON: Some of our character arcs worked well, and some could have used more attention. Nightcrawler is an example of a character that worked well, in my opinion. We got to see him become a swashbuckling hero to the downtrodden, then slowly fall in love with the daughter of his sworn enemy. Some characters didn’t get as much screentime as we’d planned. Colossus vanished after the first episode, and we could never find a story compelling enough to bring him back and do that character justice. Storm is another one that I wish I could have done more with. As for Wolverine, I wish I could have messed with him more. Just really had him screw up at the beginning as proof that this guy shouldn’t be leading. Sometimes you realize what’s lacking during the frantic story and writing sessions, but the schedule is king. If we spend a few hours knocking around a story idea or a character direction, and nothing gels, then it’s time to move on to something else.

MAA: Is there anything that you didn’t (or couldn’t) include in the first season but originally planned to (such as characters, stories, etc?). Any missed opportunities, perhaps?

GJ: We had so many story arcs going at once that the series could have become too complex for the average viewer if we’d added any more. We tried hard to get more X-23 in the season, and more Gambit (to further explore his journey from scoundrel to hero), but as I said, we had so many characters to service, we just couldn’t.

MAA: Do you regret including that final episode cliffhanger, one that fans will never see resolved? Is there always a risk in ending the season in such a fashion?

GJ: I don’t regret putting it there. I do regret not having the opportunity to see it through. As it stands, it’s a nice reminder that the X-World is fluid. Every action has a consequence, and this just shows that the X-Men will continue to have their hands full.

MAA: So, for once and for all, can you clear up why a second season of Wolverine and The X-Men was scuttled?

GJ: I was not a part of any closed door meetings when that decision was finally made, but I do know that the production partner responsible for the financing had some investor issues (they lost some due to various reasons that have nothing to do with the show), and they were just unable get it fully funded again. After over a year of starts and stops, it all finally collapsed.

MAA: As I’m sure you’ve been asked dozens of times, what was on tap for the “Age of Apocalypse”-inspired second season?

GJ: As I mentioned recently on a Facebook page called 1 Million to save WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN, I had a VERY cool Deadpool script, where basically he was sent from Weapon X as part of a larger effort to bring Wolverine in. It was so fun, and Nolan North would have done the voice. We also had an awesome story with Colossus and his sister trying to get out of Russia, which was in major lockdown because of the anti-mutant hysteria.

The future stuff where Apocalypse was ruling, was a massive puzzle.

The “Age of Apocalypse” books were their own universe. But in our series, we needed the AoA to have logically developed from our modern day storyline. For example, Cyclops had to go from where he was in our series, to working for Apocalypse in the future, and that transition had to be plausible. We had many of those types of hoops to jump through, and the rules were slowly falling into place with nearly every script.

Interesting stuff. Apparently, some of the issues with the plot were not just us being nitpicky but a result of trying to complete episodes for deadline and only having so long to work on a script. It's a reasonable explanation.

Naturally, it was a shame not to get more Colossus.

And Cyclops would have worked for Apocalypse in Season 2, or been steered towards that.

I wouldn't be surprised if the experience of W&TXM is why so many episodes of AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES are being produced as quickly as possible, to avoid any finance issues that come with stopping and starting production. Of course, W&TXM was financed before the Disney deal became inked, so that is also a factor.

Given that "THOR: TALES OF ASGARD" is supposed to be coming out in less than 6 months, I've heard no official announcement or promotion of it until now (in comparison, WB usually gives some sort of promotion for their animated DTV's months in advance, even if they have NO finished animation ready and it's just talking heads and some storyboard sketches). Given that "THOR" the movie will be out in May 2011, that seems odd. It's the last of the Marvel/Lion's Gate animated DTV's.

 

[Cyma]

GREG: Unfortunately for Marvel, Fox controls the feature rights to the X-Men, even if it's animated direct-to-dvd. In Hulk Vs., those stories were not feature length, so Hulk Vs Wolverine does not constitute a feature.

So if Marvel had the rights we would've atleast gotten something by now? With so many good direct-to-dvd animated movies DC's been churning out, it's so depressing we never got even one X-men movie

Why does Fox have animation rights to X-men when it never uses them? And out of curiosity, how much money does one season of a cartoon requires?

 

[EvilClareToo]

Good interview, but it just goes further to depress me that this show is no longer around, especially since the new Avengers show seems quite good. Season 2 sounded great! Looks like Greg also had many of our criticisms of the first season as well. I really would love to hear in detail more about the script for the Deadpool episode!

Lets hope for loads of camoes and guest spots for X Men in the new Avengers series...

 

[TheVileOne]

That's not my recent interview with Greg Johnson. My latest interview was a separate one:

http://www.411mania.com/movies/columns/157362/411mania-Interviews:--Greg-Johnson.htm

For the better part of nearly two decades, Greg Johnson has been a writer on some of the best shows ever including the best ever series to come out of the Transformers franchise in Beast Wars. Johnson was a staple writer at Marvel Animation having scripted such hit movies as Ultimate Avengers, Ultimate Avengers II, Doctor Strange, and Planet Hulk. Johnson was also the writer of the next Marvel animated movie release, Thor: Tales of Asgard due out early next year. Recently I got the chance to catch up with Greg about the Wolverine and The X-men animated series. For reasons that are still not completely clear, the show that was an apparent runaway hit for the NickToons network will not be returning for a second season as previously thought. As unfortunate as that is, Johnson was gracious enough to answer questions about the series which is now collected in full on Blu-ray and DVD:

Jeffrey Harris: Even though we likely won't be seeing another season of Wolverine And The X-Men, are you and the team satisfied with the epic story you got to tell over the course of 26 episodes?

Greg Johnson: In the sense that we got to tell the story we set out to tell, yes. Back in the beginning of development, we were a little unsure how this kind of episodic, continuity-driven series would be received. Both from a production company, network, and viewer perspective. We got the greenlight shortly before Avi Arad left Marvel, and at any time in the early stages, someone could have decided they'd rather have stand alone stories. Fortunately, either everyone loved what Craig Kyle, Josh Fine, and I were doing, or no one was paying attention. So, whether you hate us for it or love us, this is the series we had in mind from the get-go.

Jeffrey Harris: In writing an animated series based on comics, how much research and research materials goes into the process for a show like Wolverine and The X-men?

Greg Johnson: I read stacks of books and character bios, but I mostly depended on the amazing knowledge of Chris Yost, Craig Kyle, and Josh Fine, all of whom would contribute bits and pieces of X-History and little-known characters that I was unaware of. And being huge fans themselves, they were also a good barometer on how other fans would react to some of the liberties we took in order to include certain storylines or characters in the series. If they thought it wouldn't tick too many people off, then that was good enough for me.

Jeffrey Harris: For the complete series DVD release of the show will you be featured on any DVD extras or commentary tracks?

Greg Johnson: I did an interview specifically for it, and over the years I'd done interviews that may also be included. And as seen in the individual releases, Craig Kyle and I did commentary on every episode, with Chris Yost joining us for many of those. Other than that, I have no idea what's going to be on the special features.

Jeffrey Harris: I asked Jeph Loeb at Comic Con about some sort of possible continuation of the series (Wolverine and The X-men) in the future. Loeb said the idea was possible of a continuation maybe as a DVD movie. Hypothetically, if that were to ever happen would you like to be involved?

Greg Johnson: Absolutely. Though the way I understand the situation with the X-Men, Marvel couldn't technically call it a movie, since the movie rights are controlled by Fox. It would be great to button the series up properly… but as far as I know, there aren't any plans of doing so.

Jeffrey Harris: Will the Thor: Tales of Asgard animated DTV movie be like an animated version of the Thor: Son of Asgard comic series by Akira Yoshida and Greg Tocchini?

Greg Johnson: No, not really. Just in spirit, I suppose. It is what prompted discussions back when we were first pondering the movie. Like that series, the characters are portrayed as younger, and it takes place in Asgard and some of the other realms of Norse Mythology. But this is an original story.

Jeffrey Harris: Do you have a favorite episode or storyline you contributed to the Wolverine And The X-men series? The three part openers and enders were awesome.

Greg Johnson: Thanks. I particularly like the emotional and plot simplicity of "Shades of Grey" where we get to finally reunite Scott and Jean, while they're being relentlessly chased by Archangel. I like the unusual story format of "Breakdown," allowing us a framework in which to explore Scott's history a bit, while also ending with an answer to the mystery that launched the series – what caused the explosion at the mansion. Also, "Hunting Grounds" gave us a fun adventure with Nightcrawler and Wanda – their chemistry was so good.

Jeffrey Harris: You've worked on many of the Marvel animated movies we've seen over the last several years. Do you have a favorite maybe because of a preference toward a personal beloved character?

Greg Johnson: Of them all, I think I enjoyed writing "Thor: Tales of Asgard" the best. Mainly because it allowed me to explore Thor and Loki back when they were not only close brothers, but friends who stood by one another. Watching how that relationship changes, and what causes it to change, is great fun. "Doctor Strange" is also a favorite. His story is so compelling, his character so complex, and the tone so brooding, that it feels very different than the others. The biggest puzzle to structure was Planet Hulk. That book series was epic, and explored so many things. Fitting that into one animated movie was a challenge, but ultimately the source material was so strong that it provided a terrific backbone for not only the stories, but the characters.

Jeffrey Harris: Do you know what your next project is at the moment?

Greg Johnson: I've been over at Hasbro writing for GI Joe: Renegades, and having a blast. Unfortunately I'm not involved with anything at Marvel currently, other than getting ready to promote Thor.

Wolverine And The X-men: The Complete Series is available now on Blu-ray and DVD from Lionsgate. Lionsgate will also be releasing Thor: Tales of Asgard written by Greg Johnson on DVD and Blu-ray early next year in 2011. GI Joe: Renegades will be debuting soon on The Hub channel (formerly Discovery Kids).

 

[Dread]

GREG: Unfortunately for Marvel, Fox controls the feature rights to the X-Men, even if it's animated direct-to-dvd. In Hulk Vs., those stories were not feature length, so Hulk Vs Wolverine does not constitute a feature.

So if Marvel had the rights we would've atleast gotten something by now? With so many good direct-to-dvd animated movies DC's been churning out, it's so depressing we never got even one X-men movie

Why does Fox have animation rights to X-men when it never uses them? And out of curiosity, how much money does one season of a cartoon requires?

Fox has the movie rights to the X-Men and that may include some clause about other media. A TV series is one thing, but a made-for-DVD film is another. HULK VS. WOLVERINE counted as a "short", as it was 35 minutes long, and thus Fox couldn't really poke at it. The X-Men have shown up in MARVEL SUPER HERO SQUAD, and there will be an X-MEN ANIME showing on G4, as well as a WOLVERINE ANIME. Heck, Wolverine technically had a cameo in the AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES mini-episodes. So there may be some fine print that says Fox has the X-Men rights for movies, whether live action or animated, whether in theaters or on DVD, but Marvel may retain the rights to the X-Men for TV animation.

I don't know how much an entire season of an animated series costs. Naturally, the more money invested, the better the quality of animation. In animation I believe what determines the price is something called frames-per-second (FPS). The more FPS, the better the animation looks, and the more expensive it is. Things such as character models, digital effects, etc. also all cost more money the better you want them.

One website claims that one episode of "THE SIMPSONS" costs $1 million to produce, and it takes 6-8 months. As many as 10 episodes are in production at any one time. While not every animated TV program is "THE SIMPSONS", which has become the "SEINFIELD" of TV animation, that may give some idea of costs. http://www.snpp.com/guides/lisa-4.html

So, it is possible that it could cost approx. $26 million dollars to produce an entire season of 26 episodes. Even if one trimmed the costs by, say, 50%, that still is $13 million dollars to invest. For perspective, $13 million dollars is more than the cost of "SAW VI", and only $4 million less than the cost of "SAW 3-D".

That's not my recent interview with Greg Johnson. My latest interview was a separate one:

http://www.411mania.com/movies/columns/157362/411mania-Interviews:--Greg-Johnson.htm

I see, I didn't know you worked for any website that wasn't Toonzone. You sure get around.

It is interesting that all three of Greg Johnson's favorite episodes were episodes that did not star and feature Wolverine exclusively. "SHADES OF GREY" and "BREAKDOWN" barely have him at all, as they focus on Cyclops & Frost, and he's really in "HUNTING GROUNDS" in the final act. I always got the vibe from the show that the episodes in which Logan wasn't the exclusive focus tended to be better. That isn't to say that Logan didn't get some decent episodes in a show named after him, but that I thought the writers felt they had more leeway with others, because Wolverine had to "act to type" as it were. As in, there were fewer risks they could do with Wolverine, since he was the star, the leader of the team as well as the most popular member. Regardless of what one says, they were willing to take risks with Cyclops, or even Nightcrawler. One might say, "making him leader was itself a risk", but to me that's as "risky" as making Batman come off as the leader of the Justice League, which DC animation has done on occasion. Putting the most popular member front and center isn't as risky as, say, trying to have Cyclops play against type.

Nightcrawler was truly awesome in this show, as was Scarlet Witch.

"THOR: TALES OF ASGARD" is mostly an original story. Hmm. That means it may be hit or miss. The better Marvel/LG DTV's tended to be based on stories that actually existed, like ULTIMATE AVENGERS (which was loosely based on THE ULTIMATES #1-6) or "PLANET HULK" (based on the comic of the same name). HULK VS. were both original stories, although HULK VS. WOLVERINE also bore a lot of credit to the WEAPON X story by Barry Windsor Smith. I have to say I enjoyed the Wolverine of "HULK VS. WOLVERINE". He wasn't neutered for kids or network censors, and he was still a jerk and proud of it, not trying to be anything else. And, of course, got to stab and cut stuff. My inner 18 year old loved to finally see that depiction of Logan animated.

And what about "original" tales? Well, a lot of INVINCIBLE IRON MAN was original...and I am glad the feature film didn't go those routes. NEXT AVENGERS was better, but still not all the way there. ULTIMATE AVENGERS 2 was entertaining for an action romp, but I preferred the first. DOCTOR STRANGE is good as a bit of supernatural character piece, although every time I watch it, I wonder how it would have been had it been closer to how Marvel treats magic, and not taking cues from Japanese anime with their mages, who would not have felt out of place in "X" or even some Madhouse productions.

My point is that when the Marvel LG crew had an actual Marvel story as a foundation, or at least that universe, they tended to do better than when left to their own devices more. That all said, I'll likely get TALES OF ASGARD, and if Marvel does another Paley Center preview, I'll try to get in.

Thanks for the interview. Greg Johnson usually does good work when he's in charge of stuff, so hopefully we see more of him.

 

[TheVileOne]

I don't think a show like this costs as much as the Simpsons because the voice actors for the Simpsons and creators I would guess probably get paid a lot more. Plus that show has been on for over 20 years. I imagine though animated action cartoon shows can still probably get quite costly though. Some of the newer shows we've been seeing though have looked as cheap and shoddy as hell like the new Speed Racer series that was on NickToons. It looked like it was animated in a coloring book. Just saying it looks like a lot of shows have cut corners in the past several years be it because of the economy or growing costs of Asian animation production or outsourcing or what have you. A lot of fans don't realize that their favorite cartoons are actually animated in Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan.

Maybe the problem is that there aren't any enslaved unicorns in the sweatshop where the show gets animated .

 

[EvilClareToo]

Yeah, I wasn't suprised that Johnson's favorite episodes were non Wolverine driven. I always got the impression that having Wolverine as center stage was something Marvel forced on Johnson and Co. because of his popularity and the movie that came out. I really wish he did have the time to also focus on Gambit's turn from scoundrel to hero-I'm sure something along those lines was planned with season 2, maybe tieing in with the AoA Externals. Oh well, bring on the anime, I guess.

 

[Dread]

I don't think a show like this costs as much as the Simpsons because the voice actors for the Simpsons and creators I would guess probably get paid a lot more. Plus that show has been on for over 20 years. I imagine though animated action cartoon shows can still probably get quite costly though. Some of the newer shows we've been seeing though have looked as cheap and shoddy as hell like the new Speed Racer series that was on NickToons. It looked like it was animated in a coloring book. Just saying it looks like a lot of shows have cut corners in the past several years be it because of the economy or growing costs of Asian animation production or outsourcing or what have you. A lot of fans don't realize that their favorite cartoons are actually animated in Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan.

Maybe the problem is that there aren't any enslaved unicorns in the sweatshop where the show gets animated .

As I said in my post, I only cited "THE SIMPSONS" as a point of reference, and assumed many other shows would have half that budget at best. While some animated programs are done on the cheap, especially ones that seem to be done via Flash Animation, Marvel Animation projects tend to have a higher budget than some of those. Still, assuming a full season of 26 episodes could cost about $8-9 million or so from start to finish shouldn't be too unreasonable. Marvel has been employing Madhouse Studios for a few of their projects, and they're among one of the best animation houses in Japan.

I at least am aware that virtually all animation for most U.S. cartoons is done overseas in Japan or Korea. Heck, other countries too. There are some animation studios in India. "FANTASTIC FOUR: WORLD'S GREATEST HEROES" from 2006 was animated by Moonscoop, which if I am correct is a French animation studio (best known for TOTALLY SPIES, among other shows). Very little animation is done in house anymore. And the animation that is tends to either be Disney and/or CGI stuff.

Yeah, I wasn't suprised that Johnson's favorite episodes were non Wolverine driven. I always got the impression that having Wolverine as center stage was something Marvel forced on Johnson and Co. because of his popularity and the movie that came out. I really wish he did have the time to also focus on Gambit's turn from scoundrel to hero-I'm sure something along those lines was planned with season 2, maybe tieing in with the AoA Externals. Oh well, bring on the anime, I guess.

Let's not kid ourselves; I'm sure Craig Kyle and the others had some liking for Wolverine. It's hard to earn a living writing the X-Men without at least tolerating the Canucklehead.

True, WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN was coming out around the same period as Fox's "X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE" so there could have been some attempt at synergy due to that. But it isn't like Wolverine hasn't been seen as the most popular X-Man for decades. The interesting thing now is that has waned to a degree. The relaunch of WOLVERINE #1 was the top selling comic book in Sept. 2010, but that's notable for how rare that sort of thing has become; even into the late 90's, Wolverine being a top 10 seller was routine. Now? Not so much. I mean, even WOLVERINE needed a relaunch. Giving him three titles and two offspring have diluted him a bit, and on average he sells better alongside the X-Men, the Avengers, or even Spider-Man over the last year or two. In theory this should not be surprising; every character has a peak in popularity before reaching that height and them dipping a little into something more reasonable. He's not at the point where he needs a rest for a few years like, say, Thor did, but he's also not as high up there as he was in the late 80's or early 90's. Just don't tell Marvel. They still think it's 1990 again by how they market stuff.

As for the X-MEN ANIME, it's written by Warren Ellis so I will imagine that it will feature the team of X-Men he has used for his ASTONISHING X-MEN run over the last few years - Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Storm, Emma Frost, and Armor. The latter has been confirmed and is in fact central to the plot. Ellis immediately dumped Colossus and Lockheed after he took over the title from Joss Whedon. I would be astonished (pun intended) if the X-Men in the anime were different from that line up.