X-Men: Evolution

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X-Men: Evolution

The entire X-Men roster as seen in the series finale
Format Animated
Voices of David Kaye

Scott McNeil
Kirsten Williamson
Mike Kopsa
Kirby Morrow
Venus Terzo
Meghan Black
Brad Swaile
Maggie Blue O'Hara
Christopher Grey
Neil Denis
Christopher Judge
Colleen Wheeler
Michael Donovan
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 52 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 22 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel Kids' WB
Original run November 4, 2000 – October 25, 2003
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

X-Men: Evolution is a two-time Emmy award winning American animated television series about the Marvel Comics superhero team The X-Men. In this incarnation several of the characters are teenagers rather than adults. The series ran for a total of four seasons (52 episodes) from November 2000 until October 2003 on Kids' WB.

Contents

[edit] Plot

[edit] Season one

The first season introduced the core characters and laid the foundations for future storylines. Cyclops, Professor X, Wolverine, Storm and Jean Grey made up the original X-Men. As the season developed the ranks of the X-Men were bolstered by the appearance of Nightcrawler in the first episode, Shadowcat in the second, Spyke in the fifth and Rogue (who joined the Brotherhood in the third episode) in the seventh. In the later episodes of this season, Nightcrawler discovered the identity of his birth mother, Wolverine found answers to his past, Rogue switched sides to join the X-Men, and Xavier's half-brother Juggernaut is released from his prison.

Confrontations were typically with the Brotherhood, who vied for new recruits with the X-Men over the course of the season. Toad was the first to be introduced, followed by Avalanche, Blob and Quicksilver. The Brotherhood, apparently led by Mystique, were in fact being directed by a higher power, the identity of whom was revealed in the two-part season finale as being Magneto. After Cyclops discovered that his brother, Alex, survived the plane crash that killed their parents, they were both taken by Magneto into his "sanctuary" on Asteroid M. Magneto captured several X-Men and Brotherhood members in an attempt to amplify their mutant abilities and remove their emotions. Asteroid M was destroyed by Scott and Alex Summers, but not before two unidentified metal objects flew from the exploding rock.

[edit] Season two

The second season saw the addition of several new mutants, including Beast. During the course of the season it was revealed that the villains who supposedly perished on Asteroid M were in fact alive. Sabretooth, meanwhile, continued his pursuit of Wolverine, while Magneto continued to work his own agenda. Mystique posed as Risty Wilde, a high school student at Bayville High who befriends Rogue, and broke into the mansion, stealing Xavier's Cerebro files. Using the files, she recovered Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, Magneto's daughter and Quicksilver's sister. The mentally unstable uber-mutant joined the Brotherhood upon Mystique's return, allowing them to defeat the X-Men in a battle at the Bayville mall. Before the finale, a pivotal episode aired featuring the telepath Mesmero opening one of three doors that would unleash a mutant known as Apocalypse.

In the season finale, Xavier rigorously trained his X-Men to face Magneto, pairing them with the Brotherhood. Cyclops, furious with having to work with his former adversaries, left the team. The mansion was later set to self-destruct with Cyclops and several students still inside. Magneto, meanwhile, recruited Sabretooth, Gambit, Pyro, and Colossus as his Acolytes to fight the X-Men/Brotherhood team. At the same time, Wolverine was captured by Bolivar Trask for use as a test subject for the anti-mutant weapon, the Sentinel. The Sentinel was unleashed onto the city, forcing the X-Men to use their powers in public. Wanda tracked down Magneto and attempted to crush him with the Sentinel. When the mutants who hadn't been captured by the Sentinel returned to the remains of the mansion, Cyclops and the students emerged from the explosion unharmed. Scott threw Xavier from his wheelchair and blamed him for blowing up the mansion. Xavier calmly stood up, transforming into Mystique.

[edit] Seasons three and four

By season three and four, the show notably begins to take a much more serious tone. After the battle with the Sentinel, the mutant race was no longer a secret. The public reaction was one of hostility. This brings the show into more traditional X-Men lore, with dealing with themes of prejudice, public misconception, and larger threats. As the season progressed, the real Xavier was found, Mystique defeated, the mansion rebuilt, and the X-Men allowed back into Bayville High. Wanda continued to search for Magneto (who was saved by his son, Quicksilver, at the last minute) until Magneto used the telepathic mutant Mastermind to change her childhood memories. Scott and Jean forged a deeper relationship, while the romance between Shadowcat and the Brotherhood member Avalanche ended. Also, Spyke left the X-Men when his power became uncontrollable, deciding to live with the sewer-dwelling deformities, the Morlocks.

As part of the series arc, Rogue loses control of her powers, leading to her hospitalization. During that time, she learned she was the adoptive daughter of Mystique. Mystique, through the visions of the mutant Destiny, foresaw that the fate of Rogue and herself lay in the hands of an ancient mutant that would be resurrected. The return of the long-awaited Apocalypse saga emerged in the season's final episodes. Mesmero manipulated Magneto into opening the second door, and used Mystique and Rogue to open the last, turning Mystique to stone in the process. Now released, Apocalypse easily defeated the combined strength of the X-Men, Magneto, the Acolytes, and the Brotherhood before escaping.

The final (and darker) season contained only nine episodes. In the season premiere, Apocalypse apparently killed Magneto while Rogue murdered Mystique by pushing her petrified figure off a cliff, leaving her distraught son, Nightcrawler, without closure. The Brotherhood became temporary do-gooders, Wolverine's teenage girl clone X-23 returned, Spyke and the Morlocks rose to the surface, Shadowcat discovered a mutant ghost, Rogue was kidnapped by Gambit and taken to Louisiana to help free his father, and Xavier attempted to defeat his evil son. The character Leech was also introduced as a young boy. In the finale, Apocalypse defeated Xavier and Storm, transforming them, along with Magneto and Mystique, as his Four Horsemen. Apocalypse instructed his Horsemen to protect his three domes and his 'base of operations', which would turn the entire world population into mutants. In the final battle, the Horsemen were returned to normal and Apocalypse was sent through time. Rogue and Nightcrawler refused the excuses of their mother, Shadowcat and Avalanche found love once again, Magneto reunited with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, as are Storm and her nephew Spyke and Xavier saw his students reunited as the X-Men.

[edit] Final moments

The X-Men from Xavier's Vision.
The X-Men from Xavier's Vision.

The series ends with a speech by Charles Xavier, who had caught a glimpse of the future while being controlled by Apocalypse. The following future scenarios were foreseen:

  • Continued anti-mutant sentiment.
  • A reformed Magneto teaching the New Mutants, including Jubilee and Wolfsbane.
  • Jean Grey's possession by the Phoenix Force and her transformation into the Dark Phoenix.
  • The future X-Men team consists of adult versions of Cyclops, Nightcrawler, X-23, Iceman, Beast, Shadowcat, Rogue (able to fly and not wearing gloves), Storm and Colossus. The uniforms these future X-Men wear look very much like the dark uniforms seen in the Ultimate X-Men comic.
  • Adult versions of the Brotherhood and Pyro join S.H.I.E.L.D. to form Freedom Force.
  • A fleet of Sentinels led by a Sentinel that resembles Nimrod.
  • The last scene (see top picture) shows the entire cast, which includes the X-Men, the New Mutants, Gambit and Colossus (former Acolytes), Boom Boom (who rejoins in the third season), the previously unaligned Havok, Angel and X-23; along with the return of Jubilee, Spyke and Wolfsbane.

[edit] Comic book spin-offs

In January 2002, Marvel Comics began publishing an X-Men Evolution comic book, partially based on the show. Written by Devin Grayson with art by Studio XD, it was abruptly canceled after the ninth issue due to low sales.

The comic introduced the Evolution version of the Morlocks before they appeared on the show, and their appearances and motivations were radically different in both versions. #6 featured an appearance from Mimic who never appeared on the show.

An ongoing plot line would have introduced the Evolution version of Mr. Sinister, but the comic was canceled before it could be resolved. However, the cover of the unreleased issue 10 does reveal his intended character design.[1]

[edit] Evolution characters in the comics and films

X-23, an original character introduced in later seasons, made her comic book debut in the miniseries NYX, where her appearance was slightly altered to more closely resemble Wolverine. She received a self-titled comic miniseries in 2005 . Much like Harley Quinn of Batman: The Animated Series or Marvel's own Firestar of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, she was a character originally created for an animated series that was incorporated into comic book canon.

The comic book X-Statix featured an African-American mutant with the same codename and abilities as Spyke; however, this "other" Spike was not related to Storm, had a very different personality (modeled after popular gangsta rappers), and is generally interpreted to be a completely separate character. Another similar character appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand as a Caucasian member of the Brotherhood of Mutants. He is listed as Spike in the credits, but is not mentioned by name in the film, and has no dialogue. When Wolverine invades the forest base of the Brotherhood, Spike is one of the characters that attacks him, demonstrating abilities identical to those shown by the Spyke character before he lost control of his mutation.

[edit] Awards and nominations

X-Men: Evolution won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Live Action and Animation at the 30th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, on May 16 2003.[2] It also won the Cover of the Year Award in 2004 for best animated figure for Beast. It was nominated for several Golden Reel awards as well as other Emmys. Steven E Gordon, the director of this show, was nominated in the Production Design in an Animated Television Production category for X-Men: Evolution at the 2001 Annie Awards.

[edit] Comparison with original comics

The X-Men: Evolution series was targeted at a younger audience and as such portrays the majority of characters as teenagers rather than adults like in the previous animated series. In the series, like many animated series based on comics, completely new characters were introduced including X-23 and Spyke. In the case of X-23, she was a teenaged female clone of Wolverine. As much of the cast were teenagers, they are shown regularly attending high school in addition to the Xavier's Institute. At the latter, Professor X, Storm, Wolverine and later Beast also acted as their teachers at the institute. Beast also served as a teacher to the cast at high school prior to his transformation.

X-Men: Evolution is set in Bayville (patterned after the small town on Long Island) rather than Salem Center (Though both exist in New York State and a school bus shown in one episode is from the "Westchester School District"). Furthermore, in the early part of the series (until the end of season 2) most people are unaware of the existence of mutants. It is also important to note that the "Brotherhood" team is not known as the "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" within the context of this series. They are not a team of terrorists or mutant supremacists. Instead, the Brotherhood is made up of misfit mutants who often oppose the X-Men (in physical, social and philosophical realms).

The series was created as a stark contrast to the Fox series of the 1990's. The Series Bible was written by Robert N. Skir and Marty Isenberg (albeit uncredited), who meant to take The X-Men back to their roots as high school students learning to control their superpowers, as when the comics termed them "The Strangest Teens Of All". Whereas the Fox series reflected the then-current role of X-Men as freedom fighters battling persecution and bigotry against mutantkind, X-Men Evolution used the theme of mutant powers as a metaphor for the struggles of adolescence.

The look of the series was designed by Producer Boyd Kirkland and artist Frank Paur who created new costumes for the X-Men, replacing the comics-faithful designs of the Fox series (which, detail rich for comics, animated stiffly) with anime-influenced costumes which were much more animation friendly.

The first season mainly concerned the characters' conflict with Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants as well as served as an introductory to many of the characters to allow people to get used to these new teenage versions. Later seasons predominantly featured Apocalypse as an adversary, introduced versions of the New Mutants, Morlocks and Magneto's Acolytes as well as posed the U.S. Government as an adversary to all parties.

The series revealed a detailed knowledge of canon history in a number of small ways. Examples include the evolution of Cerebro from a console device, Shadowcat's initial uneasiness around Nightcrawler and Forge's scientific arrogance along with his devices causing unintended consequences. Rogue is shown to absorb Cyclops' powers in the correct manner. Where in the older show, she also absorbed his lack of control over his beams (which was a result of a brain injury, not inherent in his powers), in X-Men Evolution, she has full control over them, just as Scott would if he had not sustained a brain injury. In "Survival of the Fittest", Xavier says that Juggernaut acquired his powers through mysticism (but unlike the comic, says that it unlocked a latent mutant power), and in "The Cauldron" Magneto develops his mutant-enhancing techology from that same Jewel of Cytorrak (but says that he has found it to be scientific rather than mystical). In "Day of Recovery", Toad is seen to be quite comfortable with technology and in "Operation Rebirth", the POW camp Magneto is held in as a child is visually similar (in the opening shot) to Auschwitz though it is not identified as such.

In addition Beast's origin is almost identical to that of the comic, despite the change in profession and setting. Mesmero is shown as part of a circus troupe, much like his appearance in the "Phoenix Saga". Aside from this, supporting characters like Bolivar Trask, Nick Fury, Captain America, Destiny, Agatha Harkness, Amanda Sefton were all taken from the X-Men comic, usually serving to homage to originals without necessarily staying completely faithful to their form.

[edit] Characters

See List of X-Men: Evolution characters

[edit] Music

X-Men: Evolution featured several songs that were produced exclusively for the show:

  • "Only a Girl (The Bayville Sirens' Theme)" in "Walk on the Wild Side".
  • "T-O-A-D (Toad's Theme)" in "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe".
  • "Who Am I Now? (Rogue's Theme)" in "Rogue Recruit".
  • "Wolverine (Wolverines' Theme)" in a promotional video.
  • "Evolution Theme (Theme Song)" in the start of the show.

Several characters also had distinct musical cues, including Avalanche, Mystique, Storm, Gambit and Magneto.

[edit] Episode list

See: List of X-Men: Evolution episodes.

[edit] Production notes

One of the main points of the new X-Men: Evolution concept was the design of the new costumes. Early concept art sketches show the X-Men in classic gold-and-black garb. In these drafts, Spyke wears cornrows, Rogue's outfit exposes her midriff, and Jean Grey's costume is the female version of Cyclops' costume. Both Jean Grey and Shadowcat wear face masks, and Kitty is also wearing an orange miniskirt and Doc Martens over spandex. Early Storm drawings shows her wearing white rather than black.

A point of controversy was the design of the blue-skinned villain Mystique. Steven E. Gordon, the character designer and director of various episodes, was never impressed with the Mystique designs for the first season. Mystique was originally to be presented as nude (as in the films), but Warner Brothers didn't want this included in a Kids' WB! production.[3] However, a short scene of Mystique drawn to resemble her film counterpart (albeit clothed) appears in the Season 1 finale. Gordon stopped directing after two seasons, but continued to design characters for the show. He is most satisfied with the designs of Rogue and Wanda.[4]

The show also contained some references to other mediums: the Rogue/Kitty dance in "Spykecam" was modeled after a similar dance in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Bad Girls".[5] The play used in the first season episode "Spykecam", Dracula: The Musical, is a real play. The song used, however, is an original song made for the episode. The writers of the show have also admitted that they were fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Using Shadowcat as the catalyst, the two shows appear similar: a teenage girl with superpowers fights powerful villains in order to save her high school.[6] Unsurprisingly, Buffy creator Joss Whedon has openly credited his inspiration for Buffy as Kitty Pryde.[7]

Starting with the first episode of Season 4, "Impact", the episode title was no longer aired on-screen at the beginning of the show, and X-Men: Evolution became the third longest-running Marvel cartoon, behind Spider-Man: The Animated Series (5 seasons, 65 episodes) and X-Men: The Animated Series (5 seasons, 76 episodes). Boyd Kirkland, the show's producer, says his favorite X-Men: Evolution season is Season 3.[8] The monthly budget for X-Men: Evolution was $350,000.[citation needed]

[edit] Successors

The show has given birth to a new series Wolverine and the X-Men, currently in production, scheduled for release during the first quarter of 2009. It is not a continuation of X-Men: Evolution, though the same creative team behind the show is returning to work on the new cartoon. Steven E Gordon, Greg Johnson, and Boyd Kirkland have all returned to work on this new series.

[edit] Marvel references and cameos

X-Men: Evolution weaves many references and cameos into its show. One of the masks worn by the vandals in the Season 3 episode "Mainstream", bears a suitable resemblance to the classic Marvel Comics monster, Fin Fang Foom. In the Season 3 episode "Under Lock and Key", circumstances gather a mix of X-Men, junior members, and nonmembers into a mission team that matches the original X-Men team (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, and Angel) -- Iceman mentions that this is "definitely the cool team." [9]. In the Season 3 episode "Dark Horizons Part 1" when Rogue enters Kitty's room, Kitty is seen sleeping with a stuffed purple dragon, a reference to Lockheed, her purple dragon companion. Also in "Dark Horizons Part 2", Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Shadowcat are grouped together when the X-Men and the Acolytes are separated, a reference to the Europe-based superhero team Excalibur which included all three mutants in its roster.[10]

Captain America and Nick Fury are the only non-mutant Marvel superheroes to appear on Evolution. There is also, however, a small Iron Man reference in the episode "On Angel's Wings", when a sign reading "Stark Enterprises" is seen during an exterior shot of New York City and a small Spider-Man reference when Angel was reading the Daily Bugle, the newspaper that Peter Parker/Spider-Man normally takes pictures for. In addition, Omega Red mentions Maverick and Kestrel in the episode "Target X", referring to the latter as "Wraith". In "Dark Horizons Part 2" the hieroglyphics translated by Beast refer to the Pharaoh Rama-Tut, one identity of Kang the Conqueror.

At the beginning of the final scene at the swimming pool and as the Professor speaks just before the credits in the Season 1 episode "Speed and Spyke", the first few notes of the theme from the older Fox X-Men animated series play as background music.

[edit] Merchandise

X-Men: Evolution had its own line of merchandise.

Toy Biz created a line of action figures which included Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Storm, Sabretooth, Toad, Spyke, Magneto, Juggernaut, and Blob. Hard Hero also released maquettes of Storm, Professor X, Juggernaut, Magneto, Wolverine, Colossus, Cyclops, and the X-Men: Evolution design of Captain America.[citation needed]

Taco Bell ran the first X-Men: Evolution themed promotion with its Kid's Meals. Burger King also ran a Kid's Meal promotion which included X-Men: Evolution toys.[citation needed] Each toy included a mini-disc with games, screen-savers, and a mini-comic related to the character. The lineup included Rogue, Mystique, Cyclops, Wolverine, Magneto, Quicksilver, Nightcrawler, and Toad.

[edit] DVD releases

[edit] Season 1

  • X-Men Evolution Collection collects the following four DVDs:
    • UnXpected Changes (“Strategy X”, “The X Impulse”, “Rogue Recruit”)
    • Xplosive Days (“Mutant Crush”, “Speed and Spyke”, “Middleverse”)
    • X Marks The Spot (“Turn of the Rogue”, “SpykeCam”, “Survival of the Fittest”)
    • Xposing The Truth (“Shadowed Past”, “Grim Reminder”, “The Cauldron Parts 1 & 2”)

[edit] Season 2

  • Mutants Rising (“Growing Pains”, “Power Surge”, “Badda Bing Badda Boom”, “Fun and Games”)
  • Powers Revealed (“The Beast of Bayville”, “Adrift”, “On Angel's Wings”, “African Storm”)
  • Enemies Unveiled (“Joy Ride”, “Walk on the Wild Side”, “Operation Rebirth”, “Mindbender”)
  • Mystique's Revenge (“Shadow Dance”, “Retreat”, “The Hex Factor”, “Day of Reckoning Parts 1 & 2”)

[edit] Season 3

  • Full-season two-disc DVD set (“The Day of Recovery”, “The Stuff of Heroes”, “Mainstream”, “The Stuff of Villains”, “Blind Alley”, “X-Treme Measures”, “The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, “Self Possessed”, “Under Lock and Key”, “Cruise Control”, “X-23”, “Dark Horizon Parts 1 & 2”)

The two-disc DVD set entered and peaked Amazon best seller animation DVDs at #4. It is the only X-Men Evolution release to enter in Amazon best seller.It currently holds the #1 spot in Amazon's bestselling animated X-Men DVDs,#6 in entire X-men DVDs and #43 in entire animated superheroes DVDs.

[edit] Season 4

The DVD release has been officially cancelled by Warner Home Video for the time being.[citation needed]

[edit] References


[edit] External links

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