by Jayden Leggett, Editor

Snikt snikt! For those who missed this series during its original run on television, Wolverine and the X-Men follows the exploits of, well, Wolverine… and the X-Men. I know, who’d have thunk it, right? All jokes aside, the series begins with a mysterious explosion at the X-Men’s school, and the actions pick up a year later with Senator Kelly’s Mutant Response Division (MRD) forces waging a war against mutants. Wolverine begins reforming the now disbanded X-Men when a new and more serious threat emerges as Xavier sends news from the future of a very dire apocalypse taking place that Wolverine and the X-Men must try to prevent.

Here are my brief episode synopses (please note, one or two spoilers may follow):

Hindsight: Part 1

Wolverine rescues a family who have been imprisoned by the MRD for harbouring him after he had rescued their daughter from a train crash.

Hindsight: Part 2

Senator Kelly is targeted by the Brotherhood of Mutants. Meanwhile, Wolverine is trying to recruit a dishevelled Scott Summers, with Logan’s condescending behaviour being met with humorous and unsuccessful results.

Hindsight: Part 3

Emma Frost joins the ranks of the X-Men while Angel is using his father’s wealth to rebuild the school. The X-Men learn that an unconscious Charles Xavier is being held by Magneto at Genosha, and Xavier reveals that when he awakens from his coma twenty years in the future, a catastrophic event takes place across the globe.

Overflow

Storm, who is currently residing in Africa, has her body hijacked by the Shadow King, who uses her to lay waste to the country. The X-Men come to her aid, and Emma Frost proves her loyalty to Logan.

Thieves Gambit

Gambit is hired by Senator Kelly’s employees to steal a collar from the X-Men that can inhibit a mutant’s abilities. Wolverine tracks down the scheming Gambit, who constantly forms alliances and double-crosses to suit his own personal gain.

X-Calibre

Cargo ships are smuggling mutants to Genosha for a fee. Nightcrawler is aboard one of the smuggler ships to ensure the safety and well-being of its mutant passengers, when the ship is hijacked by Spiral and her band of pirates in an attempt to kidnap powerful mutants.

Wolverine Vs. Hulk

Nick Fury blackmails Wolverine into helping defeat a rampaging Hulk, but during the mission Bruce Banner reveals to Logan that it was actually the Hulk who was originally sent in to defeat the Wendigo and the army of monsters that it had been creating through its bite.

Time Bomb

The Brotherhood break a mutant out of prison who uncontrollable explodes at random, in order to use him as a devastating weapon against the MRD forces. The X-Men intervene to try and help this tortured soul.

Future X

In the future, Xavier gets captured by the sentinels and thrown in the mutant prison camp. While engineering an escape plan, Charles discovers that the sentinels are using the mutants as samples to replicate their powers for themselves.

Greetings From Genosha

Nightcrawler is granted permission by Magneto to explore Genosha as a guest, but he discovers that there is much more to this “paradise” than meets the eye.

Past Discretions

Logan seeks Emma Frost’s help to uncover his memories of an apparent assassination carried out by himself. While there he is attacked by both Sabretooth and the daughter of the man who he thought he had assassinated.

eXcessive Force

Cyclops subdues a mutant who claims he knows where Jean is, but it turns out he is working for the evil Mr. Sinister, who lures Cyclops in to a trap in order to harvest Cyclops’ unique DNA for his own devious purposes.

Battle Lines

Mystique breaks out a mysterious young mutant girl from the MRD prison, while Rogue warns Wolverine of an impending attack on them by the Brotherhood. Using this attack as a diversion, Magneto’s forces are using the powerful young mutant to wage war on the city and the MRD.

Stolen Lives

Wolverine is contacted by a stranger who warns him that Maverick’s daughter is in danger, and sets out to protect her while uncovering more of his past from his Weapon X days and encountering enemies from his previous life.

Hunting Grounds

Nightcrawler (who is currently imprisoned in Genosha) and the Scarlet Witch are abducted by Spiral, who forces them to compete in Mojo’s ‘Hunting Grounds’ television bloodsport show against a brainwashed Wolverine.

Badlands

In the future, Xavier and the other mutants are on the run from the sentinels, and they encounter Magneto’s daughter Polaris. Meanwhile in the present, Wolverine is briefly captured by the MRD and it becomes apparent that his healing factor will be used by the robots in the future.

Code of Conduct

An attack on the mansion reveals that the Silver Samurai has captured Wolverine’s friends and is challenging him to a re-match fight to the death in order to gain acceptance in to the Yakuza.

Backlash

Senator Kelly is even more heavily enforcing his mutant registration scheme. Quicksilver has lost the favour of his father Magneto, while the X-Men are attempting to destroy the mainframe that carries the data for Master Mold, the mechanical tyrant of the future. Magneto tips off the MRD to the Brotherhood’s location, forcing the Brotherhood and the X-Men to team up to overcome a mutual enemy.

Guardian Angel

Sinister sets his sights on Angel, who has forcedly had his wings removed by his father’s request after he was injured by the MRD. Angel accepts an offer by Sinister to undergo a procedure to get his wings back, and unwillingly becomes a disciple of Sinister after he is transformed in to Archangel.

Breakdown

Emma Frost offers to permanently erase Scott’s painful memories of Jean Gray. While journeying through Scott’s past, beginning with his earliest encounter with Jean Gray and Professor X, he discovers that the explosion at the school was in fact inadvertently caused by Jean herself.

Rover

In the future, Xavier and his mutants are accompanied by Marrow’s pet sentinel Rover as they continue to fight and evade the sentinel forces. Meanwhile, the X-Men inform Xavier of where the explosion at the mansion comes from, and this information causes Charles to realise that Logan now has only eight days to prevent the end of the world.

Aces and Eights

Gambit is sent by Senator Kelly to Genosha to steal Magneto’s helmet. Wolverine and Nightcrawler find out about this and naturally are worried that Gambit is up to no good, and go in to try and prevent him from stealing it, as Xavier has revealed to them that the theft of Magneto’s helmet contributes to the start of the war that causes the world to be destroyed in the future.

Shades Of Gray

Jean Gray, currently in hospital suffering memory loss, has her powers begin to manifest once more. Cylops and Emma Frost track down her signal, but her psychic activity also attracts the attention of Mr. Sinister, who sends Archangel to recover Jean for himself. After being reunited with the X-Men, Jean is abducted once more, this time by the Hellfire Club.

Foresight Part 1

Wolverine discovers that Emma Frost is somehow involved with Jean Gray’s abduction. Meanwhile, Quicksilver has captured Senator Kelly for Magneto, and Mystique has taken his place, and activates a fleet of sentinels. In the future, Xavier is betrayed by Marrow and is captured by the sentinels, and has his telepathy replicated by Master Mold to be used to locate the rest of the remaining mutants.

Foresight Part 2

The Hellfire Club attempts to unlock Xavier’s mental blocks on Jean in order to unleash the phoenix so that they can control it for themselves. Not liking the fact that the club are refusing to destroy the phoenix, Emma Frost enlists Cyclops help to attempt to rescue Jean. Magneto allows the sentinels to attack his own city of Genosha to trick all of its inhabitants to fight for his cause, before reprogramming them to fight humans. In the future, Wolverine rescues Xavier from the hands of the sentinels, and forms new plans to take down Master Mold.

Foresight Part 3

The X-Men are fighting off the sentinels while Wolverine is tracking Emma Frost to find Jean. The Hellfire Club manage to awaken the phoenix, which runs amok. Thanks to a warning from his future-self, Wolverine allows Emma Frost to attempt to absorb the phoenix into her own body and use her diamond form to destroy it. All this time an epic war is waging in the future between the mutants and Master Mold itself.

Simply put, I straight up loved this show when I first saw it, and re-watching it all on this DVD collection was just as enjoyable as my first time (first time watching Wolverine and the X-Men I mean, not my first time… you know…)

The dual storyline of the X-Men in the present trying to prevent a full scale war between the MRD and the Brotherhood while Xavier and the mutants in the future are fighting to destroy Master Mold was a great story telling dynamic. And I loved that the show was a healthy mix of episodes that were self-contained “done in one” yarns while others added to the overarching narrative events of the series as a whole. The flashback sequences that showed the early days of key members of the X-Men and how they met Charles Xavier were also very welcome inclusions.

The different characters were also represented very well. The rivalry between Wolverine and Cyclops is as entertaining as ever, and I loved any episode that featured Gambit (that sneaky Cajun). Of course the writing behind the characters can only do so much, so thankfully the voice acting is of a very impressive standard. As far as I am concerned, Steve Blum (Starscream from Transformers Prime) is Wolverine.

In addition to boasting a fantastic storyline, what kept me coming back for more were the awe-inspiring action sequences. Despite the fact that Wolverine can never actually impale anybody due to the PG rating, the action scenes were hard hitting and plentiful, and were wonderfully animated. On numerous occasions I found myself glued to the screen and completely unaware of my surroundings, so as long as you don’t watch this series while driving a car or operating heavy machinery you should be pretty safe.

In fact my only real complaint about this series is a very petty one, but the way Xavier was drawn (particularly in the first episode when he is going all bug-eyed) kind of irritated me. Instead of being depicted as a wise, sagely older gentleman, he looked somewhat like a creepy bald guy who no responsible parent would allow near their children. Like I said, incredibly petty, but it bugged me nonetheless.

The only other disappointment I have doesn’t come from the show itself, but from the fact that the creators clearly had plans for a second season (with the revelation of Apocalypse at the very end of the last episode) which unfortunately never saw the light of day. Such a shame.

Special features are very light, apart from brief character profiles for Wolverine, Storm, Professor X, Cyclops, Beast, Rogue, Quicksilver, Shadowcat, Iceman, Colossus, Mystique, Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, Scarlet Witch and Domino, which I did find very enjoyable and helped reveal some information about the characters whom I didn’t have as much knowledge about.

Wolverine and the X-Men is an almost flawless animated series that no true Marvel or superhero fan should go without seeing at least once. Featuring twenty-six episodes of non-stop mutant action, this DVD collection will keep you entertained for hours upon hours. Plus, if enough of us buy the DVDs, maybe we can pull a Futurama and bring this series back from the dead. It’s worth a shot!

ComicsOnline recommends Australian and New Zealand residents purchase their copy of Wolverine and the X-Men from one of the retailers listed on the Beyond Home Entertainment website or directly from the JB Hi-Fi online store.

Rating:

ComicsOnline gives Wolverine and the X-Men 4.5 out of 5 adamantium claw slashes to the face.

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