Favorite X-men Series
- Thread starter DragonSJG
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Just did a rewatch of different episodes from the 90s XMen and Evolution recently and Evolution just holds up better. I still love the 90s cartoon for what it is, as a product of its time and the cheese it brought, but Evolution is just great all around. I wish they had time to adapt the Phoenix saga in Evolution though, but I guess when it takes place is much earlier. Phoenix Saga was my jam as a kid with the 90s show.
They all have their strengths and flaws, I still have a soft spot for TAS above the rest due to how cohesive the first two seasons are, but I can watch each series and find things to love about them all. Cam Clarke as Xavier in Marvel Anime is mad underrated btw
I grew up with TAS and Evolution. Evolution is my absolute favorite Xmen experience and, to this day, still has my favorite versions of characters like Wolverine, Rogue, and Cyclops.
View: https://youtu.be/PatOEz3wp1k?si=e7OU9hKkp0oHtAeK
View: https://youtu.be/PatOEz3wp1k?si=e7OU9hKkp0oHtAeK
This poll will be ridiculously bias toward TAS just cause of the demographics of this forum. Any kid of the 90s will pick that show cause that was the height of X-men mania. That show introduced me to the X-men, I then read some comics, played all the games and Wolverine became my favorite comic character. By the time other cartoons came out I was aged out so I didn't watch them. I'm pretty sure the majority of voters on this poll just watched TAS and that's it.
I have read how others shows are better written, have more developed characters and so on. But TAS was pretty damn comic accurate, covering a lot of the Clermont run with a set group of X-men and simpler version but I thought it did a great job. Can anyone who thinks TAS doesn't hold up explain why it wasn't that good?
I have read how others shows are better written, have more developed characters and so on. But TAS was pretty damn comic accurate, covering a lot of the Clermont run with a set group of X-men and simpler version but I thought it did a great job. Can anyone who thinks TAS doesn't hold up explain why it wasn't that good?
The original animated series is just kinda awful.
Iconic, yes. Influential, certainly. Responsible for making a new generation of X-men fans, beyond question.
But the art, animation, writing, acting... all of it a step down from your average cartoon from the 80s. And the 90s was the era of Batman: The Animated Series. The bar had been set and X-men had been found lacking.
No denying that intro is fucking incredible though.
But I'm not even sure you could call TAS comic accurate to Claremont's run, because while it carries over plot points more or less intact, the characters are not the characters that Claremont wrote. And Claremont was always a character-first writer. He was writing a daytime soap opera that happened to have a fight every few beats. And the fight was always just another way to advance the soap plot.
X-men TAS doesn't do this; it's much more focussed on plot and action for their own sake. And it had to be - TV law at the time was you can't have new viewers (or those who happen to miss a couple of episodes) feeling like they don't know what's going on. If the characters truly evolved in that soapy way then kids might feel lost.
Iconic, yes. Influential, certainly. Responsible for making a new generation of X-men fans, beyond question.
But the art, animation, writing, acting... all of it a step down from your average cartoon from the 80s. And the 90s was the era of Batman: The Animated Series. The bar had been set and X-men had been found lacking.
No denying that intro is fucking incredible though.
I don't think being comic accurate is a virtue in and of itself for an adaptation. What works in one medium doesn't necessarily work in another.
But I'm not even sure you could call TAS comic accurate to Claremont's run, because while it carries over plot points more or less intact, the characters are not the characters that Claremont wrote. And Claremont was always a character-first writer. He was writing a daytime soap opera that happened to have a fight every few beats. And the fight was always just another way to advance the soap plot.
X-men TAS doesn't do this; it's much more focussed on plot and action for their own sake. And it had to be - TV law at the time was you can't have new viewers (or those who happen to miss a couple of episodes) feeling like they don't know what's going on. If the characters truly evolved in that soapy way then kids might feel lost.
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Evolution has the best character development.
Wolverine and the X-Men has the best single season story.
The anime is just fun.
TAS has a great theme song and a decent adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga. And bad animation, okay voice acting and nothing else. It was just nice to see X-Men on my TV when I was a kid.
Wolverine and the X-Men has the best single season story.
The anime is just fun.
TAS has a great theme song and a decent adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga. And bad animation, okay voice acting and nothing else. It was just nice to see X-Men on my TV when I was a kid.
grew up with TAS, but Evolution is clearly the better one, and being basically one of the only x-men media that don't have a focus on wolverine is a HUGE plus
Does Gifted and Legion counts?
Because Legion is amazing and Gifted is much better than it has any right to be considering the circunstances
Does Gifted and Legion counts?
Because Legion is amazing and Gifted is much better than it has any right to be considering the circunstances
Just on the strength of Jean Grey's treatment alone, I pick Evolution...I appreciate TAS...it was great to see certain storylines adapted...Season 1 was great, 2 good(I love "A Rogue's Tale), 3 entirely carried by the 2 Phoenix Sagas...but Season 4 and 5 mostly do nothing for me.
*Edit* As a Jean fan, I'm glad I got into the comics a year before the cartoon...no telling how having TAS as 1st contact would have shaped(polluted) my viewpoint
*Edit* As a Jean fan, I'm glad I got into the comics a year before the cartoon...no telling how having TAS as 1st contact would have shaped(polluted) my viewpoint
Evolution is probably the best show as a whole, but it has its ups and downs and ended right when I thought they finally had it all figured out.
TAS is iconic but it's... rough.
Wolverine and the X-Men is sadly pretty boring and the one "hook" it has, with Wolverine leading the X-Men instead of Xavier or Cyclops, is not great. Mostly just feels like an uninteresting retread of the TAS without the camp, though the future timeline stuff is pretty cool.
Never watched the anime though I never heard anything good about it.
TAS is iconic but it's... rough.
Wolverine and the X-Men is sadly pretty boring and the one "hook" it has, with Wolverine leading the X-Men instead of Xavier or Cyclops, is not great. Mostly just feels like an uninteresting retread of the TAS without the camp, though the future timeline stuff is pretty cool.
Never watched the anime though I never heard anything good about it.
