X-Men Evolution

[Mull]

Just to let people know that Marvel.com are seemingly going to be showing all of the X-Men Evolution episodes on their website for some reason, thought I should let people know as the series was a favourite to alot when growing up

[JackFetch]

the series was a favourite to alot when growing up

Wow, that just made me feel old. You know there was a way better series on before that one right?

[Doug]

Awesome! Thinks for the news!

[Missy]

Was Evolution any good? I've seen a few minutes here and there, and the animation looked good, but I never saw enough to comment about the stories.

[slothian]

Evolution was on the same channel that showed JL/JLU, and I really dug it. It made me a fan of Nightcrawler and Kitty Pride, mainly because they were the principle characters of the show.

And even if the 90s show was better, Evolution had some GREAT storytelling at times.

[Mull]

the series was a favourite to alot when growing up

Wow, that just made me feel old. You know there was a way better series on before that one right?

For me it was just one long show to be honest, the tv channels here didnt really make an announcement that it was any different so just seemed like a continuation of the first seris

[coolguy]

Most of the stories were alright, but then agian i was like 9 or 8 when they were showing them, i think, so i am not htat reliable of a source. Last i checked they were still pretty good.

[MatthewMG]

Was Evolution any good? I've seen a few minutes here and there, and the animation looked good, but I never saw enough to comment about the stories.

The first season was weak but the show improved dramatically towards the end of the second season, especially the season finale. The last two years were IMHO equal to 90's animated series.

[GoFlash]

Was Evolution any good? I've seen a few minutes here and there, and the animation looked good, but I never saw enough to comment about the stories.

I think it depends on what you're looking for.

Animation-wise, I liked it better than the 90's series - it was a bit more streamlined. The 90's character designs always seemed kind of stiff; plus, it seemed like they only had one build, and just drew different costumes over it.

Story, continuity wise, without a doubt, the 90's series stuck more closely to the comics, which gave them some great stories to adapt. In a couple of parts (the Dark Phoenix 4 parter, especially the showdown with the Imperial Guard) they essentially used the original stories as storyboards (and I don't mean it seemed that way; I meaned that's what they did). This worked better sometimes than others - the Brood story was so watered down that I think they would have been better off not bothering. Does this make one better? Depends. I tend to go more with the general feel of things rather than details - I didn't freak out because the webbing on Toby Maguire's Spidey costume was raised, for example. The 90's series drew on a lot of great stories, but they also had to fit those stories (which happened at different times in the comics, with different X-Men) into the same team, so there were times that it felt a bit clunky. (For example, during the Phoenix storyline, Jean Grey was the only X-Man who could pilot the shuttle through the solar flare {by telepathically absorbing it from Dr. Corbeau} while at the same time physically protecting herself from the radiation telekinetically, so her sacrifice made sense. In the cartoon, though, Rogue could have done it better {absorb Jean's TK, Corbeau's knowlege, Wolvie's healing, and her own invulnerability}, so...she just happened to be elsewhere that day, with no reason given. Things like that.} Evolution used some comic storylines more as points of inspiration, but I'm fine with that.

Character development - I would say Evolution was way ahead. Many of the characters in the 90's series were very one-dimensional. Cyclops was uptight. Wolverine was about to fly off the handle. Rogue was good ol' gal. Jean was...angsty. There wasn't much sense of them as complex individuals, and given the source material, I think that hurt the cartoon. I'm not sure how much of this was the writing and how much of this was the voice acting, but there just didn't seem to be much variety in any of them. Evolution seemed to focus much more on character development, and for me, that actually made it a more watchable show, because I actually care about the characters. Jean may be the best example. In the 90's series, I never really cared about her, so it's hard to get worked up about the Cyclops/Wolverine rivalry. In Evolution, she's a much more developed character, so you can see why Scott likes her - and while he's still the uptight rule abider, you can see a wry sense of humor, a bit of uncertainty balanced by his self confidence - much more developed characters - and again, some from the writing, some from the acting.

Of course, my favorite X-Men were Nightcrawler and Shadowcat. Kitty never appeared in the 90's series (unless there was a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance where I blinked) and they only showed the religious side of Kurt. In Evolution, I thought they nailed Kurt - especially later in the series, you clearly see the deep sense of morality he has, but you also see the joking swashbuckler throughout.

In terms of the meat of the two, I think that the 90's series might have had better plots (although that was in large part because they mined 30 years of comic stories - well maybe 15-20. Most of the stories were from after Giant-Size X-Men #1). I think that Evolution was way ahead, though, when it came to characterization and character development.

Chris

[ShaunKL]

I believe I've seen the last two seasonsish of the 90's show, if you don't know much about those characters it's gonna be very hard to follow. Evolution on the other is very easy to get into. All in all I would compare the two with Batman:TAS vs the rest the the DCAU. And Evolution has had some really dark stuff, for instance

Rogue kills Mystique

. I <3 Evolution.

[SuaveStar]

Wait, how does it happen?

Is it accidental, like in most cartoons, where the villian cause their own demise, or did she outright do it?

[KnightWing]

Wait, how does it happen?

Is it accidental, like in most cartoons, where the villian cause their own demise, or did she outright do it?

Mystique had been turned to stone by Apocalypse, and Rogue pushed her off a cliff, shattering her into a million pieces. Then Apocalypse resurrected her and turned her into one of his horsemen.

[ShaunKL]

But still, that was Mystique, and her consciousness was still inside the rock version of herself up until the moment that the stone shattered. So for all intents and purposes Rogue murdered her "mother", on a children's show no less.

[KnightWing]

But still, that was Mystique, and her consciousness was still inside the rock version of herself up until the moment that the stone shattered. So for all intents and purposes Rogue murdered her "mother", on a children's show no less.

This is true.