X-Men is not just a popular movie franchise, but it has held its own corners of TV Land as well. Any of the Live Action attempts failed at the pilot stage, and the only one to have any wings to it was Mutant X, which had a strong resemblance to the X-Men, based on Marvel’s concept of mutants and even bore the Marvel branding during the credits despite having nothing to do with the Marvel Universe.
But the various animated series have been fairly successful and it all owes its success to the first series to dare a season after the failed X-Men 80s pilot Pryde of the X-Men.
Walt Disney Home Video has released two DVD volumes of the popular 1990’s ‘X-Men’ animated series. Launched in October of 1992 by the Fox Network, the series aired on Saturday mornings and met tremendous success. For the first time comic book fans were given the opportunity to see their favorite X-Men stories told in an animated form that honored the original material. The “Night of the Sentinels” two-part episode originally aired as a “sneak preview” even though it truly wasn’t ready for broadcast. There were many animation errors in these two episodes, but the errors were later corrected when Fox re-aired the pilot in early 1993.
Back in the day these were the first collected TV Series I ever bought. Granted being the dinosaur that I am, this was available in VHS format with ONE EPISODE per tape. I had the entire first season of videos including the three part season finale that dealt with the Dark Phoenix Saga.
For the most part, this animated series was the closest thing to the comics of that same time.
I liked X-Men Evolution, and the new Wolverine and The X-Men and there will likely be 3 dozen more animated series. This one just reminds me of a simpler times and I will likely pick it up out of nostlatia sake. But also because I never had the second season. My favourite episode (with Nightcrawler) was on that second season.
