X-Men: TAS can be enjoyed on multiple levels; you can take it seriously or revel in its numerous flaws, many of which have spawned countless memes and in-jokes. Its animation might not hold up to today’s standard, its voice-acting may be corny, hammy, AND/OR cheesy at times, and its own internal continuity was not always the tightest, but none of that matters when compared to the warm embrace of nostalgia the series envelops me in when I watch it. Join me now as I try to articulate which of these 76 episodes are my personal favorites and growl like Cal Dodd’s Wolverine when I don’t pick yours.
Time Fugitives Part 1 + 2
Written by Michael Edens (Part 1) and Elliot S. Maggin (Part 2)
Original airdates- December 11th and 18th, 1993
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| In the future, all disputes will be settled with Laser Tag. |
Ah yes, there’s nothing better than convoluted X-Men time-travel stories with Bishop and Cable! The ballsy part is that the creators just figured kids could handle and comprehend this stuff on a Saturday morning cartoon. Really, the way these two episodes are set-up is quite interesting, with the first part focusing on Bishop’s intervention in the present, and the second part having Cable intercept Bishop and basically redoing the first part, but this time with Cable in the works trying to alter events. Cable then finds a third option that allows both his and Bishop’s futures to be preserved, as well as preventing the X-Men from being killed by Apocalypse in the present.
There is stuff that doesn’t make sense, which is only natural for so convoluted a time-travel plot, like how Apocalypse decides to just eff-off at the end of Part 2 instead of insta-killing the X-Men as he did in the original version of events as seen in Part 1. I guess it’s just a “For want of a nail” situation (for want of a Cable, maybe?) Still, I again just have to appreciate that the writers attempted this kinda stuff at all in the limited space they had. Cable and Bishop were both pretty new characters in the comics at the time these episodes aired, but there’s a certain confidence with which all their time-travel shenanigans were presented with here. I’d imagine this two-parter had a considerable part to play in cementing those essential trappings of both characters in the minds of many viewers.
-HONORABLE MENTION-
Bloodlines
Written by Len Uhley
Original airdate- October 26th, 1996
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| Graydon makes all their Thanksgivings awkward. |
If you were unfamiliar with the comic lore when watching this episode for the first time, all these revelations might have been shocking. I WAS aware, even at the age of 12, but thankfully the episode still manages to milk the drama from this family reunion thanks to the usual solid voice-acting. Nightcrawler’s always been a favorite X-Men character of mine, and this cartoon’s version of him is sometimes a bit too low-energy for my liking. I usually prefer the lighthearted, swashbuckling Nightcrawler from the comics over the somber monk portrayed here. However, it’s hard not to feel his utter heartbreak at the end of the episode when Mystique sacrifices herself for him and he realizes his bigot half-brother is beyond saving. (“God help you, brother…”)
-HONORABLE MENTION-
Graduation Day
Written by James Krieg
Original airdate- September 20th, 1997
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| WHAT ARE YOOOOOU??? |
The series finale of the show… it honestly isn’t a great episode on the whole. Animated by a cheaper studio than usual (as was most of the final season), that fact does the attempted scope of the primary conflict no favors. With Professor Xavier struck down on live television by an off-model Henry Gyrich and brought to the brink of death, Magneto finally has the impetus to launch his mutant revolution. However, thanks to the animation (and character choices), Magneto’s gathered mutant army doesn’t seem like that much of a threat. Randomly headed up by Sunfire (what’s wrong with your faaace) and a weirdly-sedate Feral, Magneto’s mutant followers just seem to be a bunch of sewer-dwelling Morlocks and other C and D-listers like the Kangaroo. And of course, THAT GUY you see in the GIF above. What’s HIS deal??
What saves this episode and made it memorable and a fitting send-off for the series, is the final scene. A dying Professor Xavier renders a truly heartfelt and individualized farewell to each of his students that not even the lesser-quality animation could diminish. Heck, if the Saturday morning cartoon model didn’t demand SOME kind of action scene in every episode, you could probably cut out the whole “Magneto attempts an uprising” part of the plot. That last scene holds the entire episode on its back and is what everyone remembers from the series finale of X-Men: The Animated Series.
And now on to the actual TOP TEN...
#10.
Weapon X, Lies and Videotape
Written by David McDermott and Steven Melching
Original airdate- June 11th, 1995
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| I wouldn't wanna remember "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" either. |
I’ve got a soft spot for this episode, just because I remember it aired in a special prime-time spot alongside an episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. That made it seem like it was supposed to be more important to younger me, and the subject matter kind of lives up to that. Back in the mid-nineties, Wolverine’s origins were still cloaked in some manner of mystery, even in the comics at the time. His past relationship with Sabretooth was often a topic of debate (was he Wolverine’s father? Brother? Second cousin twice-removed??) and an episode delving into that was an exciting prospect, even if Wolverine wasn’t my favorite character.
This episode manages to play it both straight and coy, giving us some answers but remaining vague on which of Wolverine’s memories were actually real and not implanted by the Weapon X program. It at least makes for some decent trauma and drama for the characters involved to work through. Heck, it even makes one feel slightly bad for Sabretooth of all characters, when we glimpse his traumatic childhood in a flashback (“No pa, please… I’ll be good. I’ll be goooood!”)
The animation is on the upper end of quality here, which some great action sequences, even if Wolverine and Sabretooth are never allowed to actually slash each other. At least there’s a robot for them to cut up and shoot (one which Wolverine, Sabretooth, Silver Fox, and Maverick have to team-up and fight, and then a second identical one that badass Beast takes out ON HIS OWN cuz the episode has hit the twenty-minute mark.)
#9.
Orphan’s End
Written by Douglas Booth
Original airdate- February 25th, 1995
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| "Son, I think you're overreacting." "YOU THREW ME OUT OF AN AIRPLANE DURING A UFO ATTACK, DAD!!" |
Look, it’s no secret that Cyclops is my favorite X-Men character, but even I can admit his few spotlight episodes in this show are all pretty mid at best. This is easily the best one though, as Cyclops learns that space pirate Corsair is his long-lost father. Norm Spencer (God rest his soul) was no stranger to emotional intensity at this point voicing the role, with Cyclops previously having been put through the wringer in the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix episodes. Here however, he gets to get worked up over something that isn’t Jean Grey, and Cyclops unloading on his absentee dad is one of the rawest emotional scenes in the entire show (“Oh, did I imagine the orphanage? The foster homes where nobody wanted me? Tell me, “dad”… AM I MAKING THIS UP???”)
The rest of the plot is about a corrupt Shi’ar officer trying to cover up a crime by killing the one witness, who happens to be a little girl. Even under the usual Saturday morning limitations, there’s not a lot of soft-shoeing around the fact that the bad guy of the week wants to murder a kid, which is a testament to how seriously this show could take itself. Cyclops and his dad eventually come to a reconciliation and there’s some genuinely heartwarming stuff between them by the end of the story. Also, this episode contains my absolute favorite overwrought delivery of a line by Alison Sealy-Smith’s Storm-
8.
Old Soldiers
Written by Len Wein
Original airdate- February 22nd, 1997
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| "Mm, this will age well." |
There’s some cheesy stuff, like a pre-adamantium Logan repurposing cliff-climbing gauntlets as his fated claws (“Y’know, these things ain’t half-bad...”) and virtually everyone’s faux French and German accents. Still, the whole package comes together, and it’s hard with hindsight not to see this as a backdoor pilot for that canceled Captain America cartoon that Marvel was intending to sell to Fox before their money troubles in the late nineties. All in all, I appreciate this as episode that probably couldn’t have been made in an earlier season, but one I’m glad managed to squeeze in right before the finish line.
7. + 6.
Night of the Sentinels Part 1 + 2
Written by Mark Edward Edens
Original airdates- October 31st and November 7th, 1992
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| Maybe don't punch the guy whose eyes lead directly to the PUNCH DIMENSION. |
Ah yes, possibly the most famous episodes of this show, the two-part premiere and what made me an X-Men fan for life. I knew of the X-Men beforehand, had played the arcade game and perhaps even skimmed an X-Men comic or two, but nothing could prepare me for how deeply I’d fall in love with the franchise after these episodes debuted. It was a prime-time event too, with both of these episodes airing on Saturday nights a few weeks before the series itself would claim its spot on the Saturday morning Fox Kids block. I made sure to tape them and re-watched both parts numerous times before that point though.
The original broadcasts were infamously rough takes of those episodes, with numerous animation errors and alternate audio in places thanks to the rushed production of the show, but that stuff didn’t matter to eight year-old me. The mature storytelling and moody atmosphere that I had already gotten a taste of from Batman: The Animated Series’ earlier debut was firmly in place and I’d settle for nothing less from my superhero cartoons from that point on.
This two-parter expertly sets up the memorable characters and the dangerous world they inhabit. The good guys didn’t always get along and sometimes they could even die trying to do the right thing. It was something I had barely ever experienced before in cartoons (the closest I came at that point was Transformers: The Movie) and it blew my little kid mind. I didn’t know who the hell Morph was at that point or even that he’d largely been invented for the show, but I know I was as shaken as an eight year-old could be when a member of the X-Men DIED in the second episode.
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| "Thanks, I guess." |
All the other characters were really distinct and color-coded and as a Transformers fan, I had no trouble parsing a large cast and picking out the ones I liked the best. I immediately gravitated to Cyclops as my favorite character, being as he wore glasses and a blue uniform and I wore glasses and blue was my favorite color. I can remember even back then defending Cyclops’ decision to leave Beast and Morph behind, while many of the other kids at school took Wolverine’s side (and joined his fan club.) In fact, when we formed an “X-Men Club” in the third grade, I got to pick Cyclops as my guy to be on the playground with no dissent, while everyone else argued over Wolverine and Gambit. One of my friends was even convinced Wolverine was the leader of the team, which I… let him think because I was outvoted. But I knew Cyclops was The Man even back then at eight years old, just like I knew Leonardo was way cooler than Raphael!
It’s hard to look at something critically when it was so formative in your earlier years, but I’m pretty safe in saying that these two episodes specifically helped make me a comic book fan for life. On the strength of this premiere, I started to devour any X-Men-related reading, be it comic or otherwise and that led me to more Marvel superheroes. My comic book reading had been mostly limited to Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles up until that point, but “Night of the Sentinels” was the bite that turned me into a Marvel Zombie. I have intense nostalgic fondness for these forty-some minutes of television, even if they aren’t in my top five episodes, and they had to be on this list. This one’s for you, Morph.
5.
Cold Comfort
Written by Len Uhley
Original airdate- February 5th, 1995
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| Cyclops strongly disapproves of validating Jubilee in any way. |
The Iceman episode and one I remember anticipating greatly as a kid. I always had a fascination with Iceman, probably because I remembered him from repeats of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and the fact that his first Toy Biz action figure was really hard to find back in the day. This is a pretty great episode too, not only giving us some backstory on the history of the X-Men (even if it kinda didn’t fit with previous continuity in this show) and expanding the world a bit by introducing X-Factor (even if they really didn’t do much else after this point in this show.) It’s got some great animation and fight sequences with a bunch of action fig- I mean, characters running around, which of course appealed to little kid-me.
The lore introduced, as mentioned, doesn’t quite line-up with the first season… for one thing, the flashbacks show the original X-Men fighting Magneto even though it seemed like they had never met him before prior to the second episode of the series. I think I tried to head-canon it that the original X-Men in this continuity were Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Iceman, and Polaris based on the flashbacks here. However, further flashbacks will show Angel as part of that original squad, which again… doesn’t fit with the first season and them apparently meeting him for the first time. In whatever case, this is a fun episode to rewatch and provided a lot of material to chew over for nascent little comic geeks like ten year-old me.
Also, this episode includes my favorite Wolverine claw-related one-liner in the entire show after Forge says that X-Factor could learn a few “pointers” from the X-Men- (“I gotcher “POINTERS”- SNIKT! -right here.”) Sublime.
4.
The Phoenix Saga Part 5: Child of Light
Written by Mark Edward Edens
Original airdate- September 9th, 1994
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| Guess she just doesn't like Gambit or Rogue that much. |
The entirety of the animated Phoenix Saga is pretty stand-out, but I’m trying to be fair and allot spots to single episodes in this list, so the conclusion of this five-parter makes it on. I remember Fox Kids hyping The Phoenix Saga up as a big event, and it originally aired in a daily timeslot for one week. I would come home from school and eagerly watch the next installment.
While I hadn’t actually read the original comic version of the Phoenix Saga, I had read enough supplementary material (and Wizard magazine “Best of” articles) by this point to know it was a huge deal for X-Men. I also already knew that Jean Grey had eventually died (sort of) at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga in the comics, so it was a little bit of a shock to see her apparently sacrifice herself at the end of The Phoenix Saga’s animated adaptation. I mean, of course she doesn’t “die”, but this episode certainly plays the gravitas of her flying into the sun to contain the M’Kraan Crystal for all it’s worth.
Seriously, everything is running on full steam here- the animation, the plotting, the music, and the acting combine to make this one of the finest X-Men: The Animated Series episodes ever and a truly epic conclusion to this five-parter. Jean’s farewell to her loved ones as well as her struggle to reach the heart of the sun are beautifully portrayed, with the symbolic imagery of the X-Men forming a Tree of Life (I think that’s what they’re going for at least) being a standout moment.
There’s even a cameo by Spider-Man’s shadow and left hand as he helps save people on Earth from M’Kraan Crystal f**kery alongside War Machine. Yes, War Machine, not Spidey’s “BEST FRIEND” Iron Man. In fact, War Machine shows up as a cameo no less than THREE separate times on this show, but then it was the mid-nineties. His book was selling better than Iron Man’s for a while there, according to Tom DeFalco.
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| It was the 90s, we're lucky it wasn't the Scarlet Spider or Venom showing up. |
ANYWAY! Child of Light! Great episode. All the Phoenix stuff in this show is pretty top-notch, but I think I prefer the animated vanilla Phoenix Saga to the Dark Phoenix Saga, just cuz some of the more dicey stuff from the comics had to be neutered for the animated Dark episodes. Broccoli aliens, you were spared by Saturday morning Standards and Practices!
3. & 2.
Days of Future Past Part 1 + 2
Written by Julia Jane Lewald (Part 1), Robert N. Skir and Marty Isenberg (Part 2)
Original airdates- March 13th and March 20th, 1993
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| That seagull pooped in Liberty's eye! |
I’ve always loved the one-off “Horrible alternate timeline where everyone dies” installments in many science fiction and fantasy series and I think this is probably the first time I ever encountered that premise. This two-parter is a Frankenstein’s monster of no less than THREE X-Men time travel comic stories and I have to admire how much material they managed to fold in. The basic framework of the original Days of Future past comic story, utilizing Sentinel-of-the-future Nimrod from slightly-later era X-Men comics, and of course… positioning Bishop as our chief time-traveler.
In the original “Days” story, it was Kitty Pryde who traveled back in time to prevent the events that led to her apocalyptic future, but in 1993 Bishop was the new Jheri-curled hawtness in current comics of the day. Not only that, but the Terminator movies were still fresh in the zeitgeist, so having some brawny guy with a big gun go back in time was just the style at the time.
The first part in particular does a very effective job of painting the incredibly bleak and desolate nature of Bishop’s future world, where the Sentinels rule and mutants are hunted to near-extinction. Even the music throughout the episode contributes to the feeling of utter despair that permeates this future. The imagery here is just haunting, as you can see by the above shot of the Statue of Liberty which opens the episode. I remember being creeped out by that as a kid, and there’s plenty of other scenes that follow which are pretty disturbing for a Saturday morning cartoon. Wolverine coming across the gravestones of his former X-Men teammates and friends is an especially-upsetting moment (poor Jubilee was apparently among the first to die!)
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| "Grrr, if only Cyke had validated you more!" |
The second part is sometimes overlooked by fans, but I think it’s also a great episode and some of the bleakness from the first part is carried over in a stirring monologue by Bishop (“The camps are your final stop. You never leave… NEVER!”) After Bishop accuses Gambit of being the mutant traitor that sets his dystopian future in motion, everyone’s underlying distrust of the Cajun X-Man comes to the fore. Gambit’s past was still mostly shrouded in mystery in the actual comics at the time as well, so the characters’ distrust was effectively mirrored by even experienced X-Men fans. And of course, the second part ends on one of the most memorable cliffhangers in the series when Senator Kelly is kidnapped by a “mystery” antagonist.
XAVIER: My watch has stopped.
CYCLOPS: I don’t understand… why is that important?
XAVIER: Because… it’s been magnetized.
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| "Find Magneto...and BILL HIM for my watch." |
1.
The Final Decision
Written by Mark Edward Edens
Original airdate- March 27th, 1993
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| Logan was originally going to call himself "Jackrabbit". |
Directly following from my previous entry, this episode is the season 1 finale and the culmination of all plot points and themes from the season as a whole. I’ve always felt the number one obstacle that the X-Men must always overcome is the prejudice and bigotry they face every day. The Sentinels are directly borne of this cancer- the physical avatars of mankind’s hatred and fear and they’ve been a constant presence in these first thirteen episodes. After seeing the absolute worst result of the Sentinel program in Bishop’s future, the X-Men must take on an army of Sentinels to prevent that timeline from manifesting in the present. It’s an epic finale that manages to touch on virtually everything the X-Men have experienced in this first season.
There’s plenty of the action and drama that you’d expect from any season finale, with the final battle against thousands of Sentinels and their Master Mold being done as much justice as possible in twenty-two minutes. A particular standout sequence with awesome direction is Wolverine taking on Sentinels in an underground chamber with intermittent lighting, as seen above. Magneto’s presence is always welcome, as he eventually teams-up with the X-Men to take on their mutual enemy. He and Professor Xavier doing their “Rival Fusion” to take out Master Mold is an appropriately epic conclusion to the battle.
The best scene, however, is before the final battle as the X-Men gather in their War Room to decide on going to their potential deaths to rescue the kidnapped Senator Kelly. The weight of “The Final Decision” lands perfectly, with even cynics like Wolverine, Gambit, and Magneto coming around. I can’t do it justice, and I’m not sure it will hit as heavy as it did for eleven year-old me, but just watch the scene and judge for yourself-
Well, that’s it for my favorites, but there’s one more entry on this list- my customary “0.” slot. This is what I’ve judged as my least favorite episode of X-Men: The Animated Series.
0.
Hidden Agendas
Written by Steven Melching and David McDermott
Original airdate- September 13th, 1997
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| "Ah'm poorly-drawn when ah'm blastin'!" |
One of the last episodes of the series and thus suffering from the cheaper animation studio’s work, this episode introduces teenage Samuel Guthrie, AKA Cannonball to the series. Except… he’d already shown up in cameo appearances before, looking older and wearing his classic X-Force costume. Alongside the continuity error and weaker animation, we’ve also got “Wrong-Sounding Gambit” to contend with here, as his usual voice actor Chris Potter wasn’t available for this final season and the role was recast with Tony Daniels. Daniels tries his best to do a Chris Potter Gambit impression, but comes up way short and his Cajun accent comes off as a caricature of what was already a caricature of someone from New Orleans.
Speaking of caricatures, the main plot of this episode takes place in Kentucky, so you’ve got a lot of Canadian voice actors trying their hand at a midwestern/southern American accent. The results are… not great, with stereotypical “yokel” parlance being thrown around willy-nilly and pronouncing the word “gas” as “gay-ass”. Pfft.
Leaving all that beside, the plot of this episode is just mercilessly pedestrian and the chief antagonist is a moron who fails at his very simple goals repeatedly (let’s try to gas, sorry, gay-ass the kid who can throw up an impenetrable force field around his body.) The climax of the episode features the ENTIRE X-Men team arriving to calm a very localized and rather tame riot, then being confronted with a military-enhanced super-mutant who, and I’m not kidding here, KEELS OVER AND DIES almost immediately after arriving. Well, Beast says he’s alive, but it’s funnier if you believe he died.
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| The Underwhelming Mulk. |
It’s a real shame that this was one of the last episodes of the series, but at least it was surrounded by strong efforts like “Old Soldiers”, the Mr. Sinister origin episode “Descent”, and the series finale. I guess it’s a testament to the strength of this show that when I was trying to pick my least favorite episode, I ultimately landed on this one because all the other contenders were just kinda “mid” rather than outright bad.
Whelp, that’s that! My top ten episodes of X-Men: TAS plus some. We can only hope X-Men ‘97 delivers the goods and is a worthy follow-up to this series.
-Mike
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