Wolverine and the X-Men sort of vaguely follows the premise of the X-Men movies, making the series easily accessible to those who've seen the movies, but aren't familiar with other X-Men materials. The show begins with the trajic deaths (or maybe just the disappearances of) Dr. Xavier and Jean Grey. The Mutant Registration Department (MRD) is now in full force, rounding up any and all mutants and imprisoning them. Sentinel technology is now in full swing, tracking down mutants. Magneto has built up a kingdom called Genosha, a sanctuary for mutants. One year later, Wolverine is now endeavoring to reassemble the X-Men.
As with many others, the notion of Wolverine being the leader of the X-Men didn't sit right with me at first, since he's a loner who basically does his own thing. The show has Wolverine chewing out Cyclops sometimes, telling him that he needs to shape up or leave the team. The opposite is what every X-Men fan would expect, since Cyclops is who we always know to be the X-Men team leader. Choice #2 would be Storm, who was also the leader for a while. But actually, the show clearly demonstrates Wolverine's leadership shortcomings, with him showing any real lack of attachment or responsibility in the very first episode, Rogue losing all respect for him, and him making bad decisions and being a bad judge of character. Obviously, with the popularity of the Wolverine character and a Wolverine movie that was due to be out at the time, it was purely a business decision to have him become the leader of the X-Men. The premise of the show sets up the unlikelihood of him being the leader of the team, and the show stays true to character by showing him as being rather lacking in leadership qualities.
The show's main characters, besides Wolverine of course, are Beast, Shadowcat, Angel, Rogue, Emma Frost, Storm, Iceman, Forge, and Nightcrawler. The show also squeezes in some other characters from time to time, such as Gambit, Sabretooth, Psylocke, Silver Samurai, and Spiral. Plus, dozens of other cameo appearances are made, for fans to identify, such as Dazzler and Firestar.
This show features fantastic action sequences, and the animation quality is far better than the beloved X-Men Saturday morning cartoon from the '90s. Fight scenes such as between Nightcrawler vs Spiral are intense, and one episode involving The Hulk features very awesome action. For the most part, Wolverine's claws are mostly for show, since they couldn't get away with him slashing and stabbing people. However, there are scenes of implied deaths that I really did not expect, such as Sentinels shooting helicopters out of the skies. The show leads up to the rise of the Phoenix, but instead of rehashing yet again the tragic fate of Jean Gray, in an interesting twist of fate, another mutant commits self-sacrifice to prevent Jean from becoming the Phoenix. I really did not expect a main character in the show to die.
This show is really, really cool. The writers are true fans of the comics, and it shows. They do such a better job with the source material than the movie writers do, such as not letting characters go to waste (Cyclops, Psylocke), or inserting ridiculous innuendo equating mutantkind to homosexuality. Unlike the movies, this series shows just how Rogue is possibly the most valuable X-Men with her ability to absorb others' powers. (Although in this show, Rogue doesn't have Ms. Marvels' powers of flying and such like she did in the comics, after nearly murdering Ms. Marvel). While watching the show, it's obvious that the makers are real fans of the comics, from inserting the Rover storyline, Wolverine sneaking up on a deer just to pet it, and
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