Wolverine and the X-Men: The Complete Series

[TheVileOne]

Someone give Dread his Colossus fix! Colossus was really just moved into other X-books at the time.

 

[TheVileOne]

My full review of the complete DVD series is now live:

http://www.411mania.com/movies/dvd_...he-X-men:--The-Complete-Series-DVD-Review.htm

 

[EvilClareToo]

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.



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.

Oh, I know K & Y have a thing for Wolverine because of their work on X Force, but I still think they would have preferred a more of a team series rather than "Wolverine and Friends". The irony is that in a recent interview, it was either Kyle or Yost who said their favorite character is Cyclops. I could only image Panthro's reaction to that! I think Colossus was also mentioned as a fav.

I have no allusions about the anime line-up. Like yourself, I expect the current line-up of Astonishing. Which is better than nothing, I guess. Shame about poor Colossus-he's cursed, I tell you! Well, he does appear now and again on Super Hero Squad.

 

[Dread]

Someone give Dread his Colossus fix! Colossus was really just moved into other X-books at the time.

I know; Shadowcat was seemingly killed off and he was funneled to UNCANNY X-MEN basically. Still, ASTONISHING X-MEN are basically self contained tales for creators to use the roster they like. If Ellis wanted the metal man, he would have had 'im. But, even Joss Whedon found him challenging to write (or so he admitted once to WIZARD).

I guess with W&TXM, it was twice in a row the same creative team basically gypped me with Colossus in their series. Across the last two seasons of X-MEN EVOLUTION, he appeared in bits and pieces, and hints and nods to his past or history or whatever were given, but he was never as fleshed a character as any of the New Mutants or the Brotherhood were; even Blob. The story once the show was canceled was, "oh, if only we'd have had a 5th season, we'd have gotten to him." Okay, fine. I won't obsess over how at least one or two of the final nine episodes introduced characters that had no baring on the finale or the series, like Mirage or Legion.

But then W&TXM came around and, basically, they made the same mistake. Rather than find a way to keep Colossus around as a semi-regular character like the rest of the X-Men, they assumed they'd have more time, another season, to do it later. They didn't. To be fair, they had more awareness that Kid's WB hadn't ordered any episodes beyond 52 going into the last two seasons, while the word that W&TXM season two not happening pretty much occurred in the middle of producing it (as character models had been made, and scripts were being written). Still...that's twice in a row. In a series where ROVER got to basically be the star in an episode, that can get to a fan after a while.

My full review of the complete DVD series is now live:

http://www.411mania.com/movies/dvd_...he-X-men:--The-Complete-Series-DVD-Review.htm

Good review, well written. I don't think I like the show enough to want to pay to own it, yet even I am impressed at a studly 29 commentary tracks, one for every episode.

Oh, I know K & Y have a thing for Wolverine because of their work on X Force, but I still think they would have preferred a more of a team series rather than "Wolverine and Friends". The irony is that in a recent interview, it was either Kyle or Yost who said their favorite character is Cyclops. I could only image Panthro's reaction to that! I think Colossus was also mentioned as a fav.

I have no allusions about the anime line-up. Like yourself, I expect the current line-up of Astonishing. Which is better than nothing, I guess. Shame about poor Colossus-he's cursed, I tell you! Well, he does appear now and again on Super Hero Squad.

Greg Johnson I think was quoted somewhere that Cyclops was one of his favorites, but that could have been someone else. Naturally, the two episodes he cites from W&TXM as being his favorite were Cyclops episodes.

There are some X-Fans who have it worse than Colossus ones. Havok debuted over five years sooner, yet he's had a worse record on cartoons. He's also a victim of the lack of Season 2. Psylocke's had it slightly better, but...not really. But it's the X-Men, every character has about 15 fanpages.

 

[HarleenQuinnzel]

Did anyone else drool over the Scott and Jean episode? It really makes me like Scott better as a character, and helps me understand why Jean loves him throughout the comics. Was their little origin story in the show from a comic? Or was it original? I mean, was it ever written before than Scott joined the X-Men because of Jean to a certain extent? If so, does anyone know which one?

 

[Panthro]

I'm pretty sure it was Chris Yost who said Cyclops was his favorite.

Did anyone else drool over the Scott and Jean episode?

Eh... no.

It really makes me like Scott better as a character, and helps me understand why Jean loves him throughout the comics.

Jean has a thing for men who need to have their strings pulled like puppets?

Was their little origin story in the show from a comic? Or was it original? I mean, was it ever written before than Scott joined the X-Men because of Jean to a certain extent? If so, does anyone know which one?

It was pretty much reimagined to fit the show. I think one comic claimed that when Jean first started working with Xavier as a kid, she picked up on Scott's brainwaves & that brought Scott to Xavier's attention, but I don't think that's canon. In most examinations and recounts of the original 5 Jean didn't really have anything to do with Scott becoming an X-Man, seeing as how they didn't officially meet until she came to live at the institute. Then again, I don't think there are any comics that claim Scott was the weak link of the original 5 before Jean came along and took pity on him either.

Anyone else curious as to whether or not it would have made a difference if Havok had been a member of the season 1 roster as opposed to say... Iceman?

 

[TheVileOne]

Havok was all set to appear in the second season though. He had a finished character design model and everything.

 

[Dread]

Yeah, it was reported at the 2009 SDCC by Vile and others that Colossus, Magik, Deadpool and Havok were all to appear in the second season of the show, which was then in some stage of production - character models were made, scripts were being written, etc.

I always wondered that if Havok appeared in the show, would they have flipped the dynamic? In the comics, Havok always had issues because he felt he could never measure up to Cyclops on the X-Men, yet he felt he was expected to and could never escape his shadow of being "Cyke's little brother". And that made sense...in the comics. In W&TXM, even fans of how Cyclops was handled should concede he was a bit of an emotional mess and it would seem absurd for a sibling to want to emulate him. To be fair, he spent two years in a coma, which is a bit of a hurdle to overcome. So it would have made some sense if in this show, Alex was the one who was together and Scott wanted to emulate him. Continuity nerds would have raged, but it would have made sense for the show and maybe gotten to some good stuff. But, of course, that's moot now.

 

[TheVileOne]

I've always liked Havoc better than Cyclops so its too bad. Except that whole incident where he dated a skanky nurse that was a single mother to a telepathic kid. And Chuck Austen decided to turn Polaris into a psycho-*****.

 

[Cyma]

I was wondering.....is there a possibility of this show being continued as a comic book series? Has there ever been any other cartoon which was continued this way? All I know about is Angel TV show which was canceled after a very evil cliffhanger continuing this way.

 

[Dread]

I've always liked Havoc better than Cyclops so its too bad. Except that whole incident where he dated a skanky nurse that was a single mother to a telepathic kid. And Chuck Austen decided to turn Polaris into a psycho-*****.

Chuck Austen is a hack.

I was wondering.....is there a possibility of this show being continued as a comic book series? Has there ever been any other cartoon which was continued this way? All I know about is Angel TV show which was canceled after a very evil cliffhanger continuing this way.

Greg Weisman did this with a short run of a GARGOYLES comic. Disney booted him from the start of the third season of that show, and to many fans the stuff that came after (the "Goliath Chronicles" era) was not as good or canonical. Weisman wrote his comic basically picking up where he'd left off.

Comic books based on cartoons don't sell too well, which is why Marvel haven't done them between 2002 and now, with AVENGERS: EMH. Plus, some of the show's writers would have to be free to write it, and they're all busy with other projects.

 

[TheVileOne]

The Dark Wing Duck comic is actually selling very well and has been consistently going to second run printings.

 

[katie_girl09]

I actually got the metal "Collector's edition" of the whole series for $10.00. I totally wasn't looking for it, but I had to get it once I saw it.

 

[Emma Frost]

Where did you find it? That sounds like a steal.

 

[Hypestyle]

I'm enjoying what I'm seeing so far. No blatantly kiddie-ized characters.. Characters being able to use their powers in interesting ways..

But some hiccups I noticed-
A character that should be "Scalphunter" becomes "Arclight" (in name, and some powers).. that threw me off.. I guess his regular name was too controversial for TV.. they should have shortened it to just "Hunter", but oh, well..

and of course, in Wolverine/Sabertooth fights, no one actually gets clawed.. not really..

 

[katie_girl09]

Where did you find it? That sounds like a steal.

I don't know if it'll be any help to you, but I got it from a store called The Giant Tiger.