Mutant X (TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling.
You can assist by editing it now. A how-to guide is available. (August 2007)
This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)
Mutant X
Format Science Fiction
Created by Avi Arad (Marvel C.E.O)
Starring Forbes March
John Shea
Lauren Lee Smith
Victoria Pratt
Victor Webster
Tom McCamus
Karen Cliche
Country of origin Flag of Canada Canada[1]
Flag of the United States United States
No. of episodes 66 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 44 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel syndicated
Original run October 6, 2001 – May 17, 2004

Mutant X was a television series that first aired October 6, 2001. Created by Marvel Studios (a division of Marvel Comics), the story centers around Mutant X, a team of "New Mutants" who possess extraordinary powers as a result of genetic engineering. Like hundreds of other unsuspecting people, the members of Mutant X were used as test subjects in a series of covert government experiments. The company behind the project wants to control these New Mutants for their own purposes. The mission of Mutant X is to seek out their fellow New Mutants, help them come to terms with their abilities, and protect them from those who want only to exploit their powers.

The series was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mutant X is unrelated to the Mutant X comic book series.

Contents

[edit] Mutant X team

The team was formed by Adam Kane (John Shea), a geneticist who used to work for Genomex. He now serves as the leader, tactician and moral center of Mutant X. It was his experiments that inadvertently created the hundreds of New Mutants. It is now his responsibility to save these innocent victims of society. It can be argued that he may be the smartest man alive, but he is not a mutant.

Shalimar Fox (Victoria Pratt) possesses both human and feline DNA, giving her the strength, speed and cunning of a jungle cat. She is a panther-like Feral who has the most common feral weakness, a fear of fire. Her Feral abilities were enhanced during a 'secondary mutation' within her genes during the show's first season, giving her superhumanly strong senses.

Jesse Kilmartin (Forbes March) has the ability to alter his body's density, enabling him to pass through walls or to become as completely solid as stone. He is limited to about 30 seconds as an intangible state (or else risk not being able to reintegrate) and can only stay supersolid for as long as he can hold his breath. As a result of his secondary mutation, his powers were augmented so that he could also make any object he touched intangible or as supersolid as he was, allowing others to pass through the object or be as invulnerable as well. Though he initially was seen fighting in supersolid state, he eventually seemed to be less mobile in that form, perhaps due to the fact he significantly increased his mass. Jesse is the only known New Mutant to have surpassed his "expiration date".

Brennan Mulwray (Victor Webster) is an Electrical Elemental who can generate extraordinary amounts of electricity and control its direction and flow. His energy blasts are usually referred to as 'Tesla Coils'. His primary weakness is water. His secondary mutation allowed him to charge up his electrical powers into powerful energy jets from his palms, which if fired downward, could launch him high into the air.

Emma deLauro (Lauren Lee Smith) is a Telempath, a psionic mutant. She is able to read the emotions and feelings of others, alter them and broadcast her own emotions. Her secondary mutation gave her psionic blasts that she could fire from her forehead at her opponents, knocking them unconscious, erasing memories or even killing them upon impact. Her powers expanded in range and scale as Season 2 progressed, allowing her to broadcast emotions to a much wider range, though she could not isolate targets when doing this. She could also shoot psionic starbursts and psionic shockwaves. Emma died in the explosion at Naxcon (Nick Fox's company).

Lexa Pierce (Karen Cliche) was the first member of the original Mutant X, but was unknown until Emma's death and Adam's disappearance. Has also worked for Eckhart at Genomex and the GSA and then for the Dominion before rejoining Mutant X. Lexa is a Chromatic and can bend light around her to become invisible, project flashes of light to momentarily blind others and focus light into laser beams which she can shoot from her fingers. After Emma died during the start of the show's third season, Lexa joins the team and sets herself up as the new leader. She did this at the behest of a mysterious organization which was secretly manipulating everything within the lives of the Mutant X team for their own reasons. Although many times disgusted over their orders for her, Lexa was forced to comply, as she believed they held vital information to the whereabouts of her long-lost twin brother. Eventually, Lexa had to kill her brother after his powers went out of control.

[edit] Genomex

Genomex, formerly known as the Breedlove Foundation, is a biotech company dedicated to genetic research. Their employees include some of the top scientific minds in the world and it was these people who created New Mutants. The victims of their experiments fall under four categories: Elemental, Feral, Molecular and Psionic. Genomex understood perfectly what their experiments would do but their subjects were kept in the dark, though the late Paul Breedlove did try to warn them.

[edit] GSA

When New Mutants began appearing in the news, Mason Eckhart, head of security set up the Genetic Security Agency (GSA). Their mission was to recapture new mutants for further genetic testing. Under Eckhart's command, their ranks included human agents and a minority of new mutants. His second in command changed weekly, most ending up in stasis pods as instant demotion after a failure. He is killed in a confrontation with Mutant X in the opening of the final season over the presumed deaths of Adam and Emma.

[edit] Patient Zero

While most New Mutants' abilities fall under one category, Gabriel Ashlocke, (a.k.a. Patient Zero), the first and most powerful of new mutants had the combined abilities of all four classes: Elemental, Feral, Molecular and Psionic. As a child, Ashlocke killed his parents with his mutant powers. He was the first New Mutant that Adam worked on and the subdermal governors and stasis pods used by the GSA were developed by Adam because of him. With help from the Strand, Gabriel was released from stasis, defeated Eckhart, and replaces him as the series' main antagonist for Mutant X's second season. While Eckhart's goal was to destroy mutants, Ashlocke wishes to empower them to conquer the world. Ironically, having the same mutant genes within him, his glory proves to be his downfall as the sheer amount of power that he wields literally tears him apart at a molecular level, despite his best efforts to stop the process from happening. Gabriel had powers such as force field generation, telekinesis, mind control, telepathy, energy blasts and psionic blasts.


[edit] New Mutant classifications

New Mutants are categorized into four different groups (Ferals, Elementals, Moleculars and Psionics) depending on their abilities.

  • Ferals are New Mutants with a combination of animal and human DNA, allowing them to use the abilities of the animal DNA within them. Different types of Ferals include Feline, (who possess cat, tiger, lion, puma, leopard or cheetah DNA); Ursines, (who possess bear DNA); Canines (who possess dog, wolf or coyote DNA); Reptuses, (who possess reptilian DNA) ; Porcines, (who possess pig, boar or hog DNA); Cervines, (who possess deer DNA); Amphibians, (who possess frog or toad DNA); Piscis, (who possess fish DNA), Aves (bird DNA) and Insectums, (who possess insect DNA), although the last type is rare.
  • Elementals are New Mutants with the ability to channel, project and control different types of energies through their bodies. Different types of Elementals include Electricals, (who can absorb and channel electrical energy): Thermals, (who can absorb and control fire or cold); Sonics, (who can control sound waves); Chemicals, (who can project chemical substances, such as acids, from their bodies); Botanicals, (who control and manipulate plants); and the extremely rare Geologicals, (who control earth).
  • Moleculars are New Mutants who manipulate their body structure and molecular density in various ways. Some Moleculars possess more than one ability . Moleculars abilities include Intangibility, (the ability to pass through solid objects); Impervious, (the ability to increase their mass so they’re invulnerable to projectile weapons); Invisibility, (the ability to project an aura that renders them invisible); Propulsive, (the ability to move at high speeds); Gravitative, (the ability to manipulate gravity); Chromatics, (the ability to change color, light and shades like a chameleon); Stasis-suspension, (the ability to slow down time); Replication, (the ability duplicate solid objects); Elasticity, (the ability to change their shape or size) and Regeneration; (the ability to heal and repair tissue and limbs).
  • Psionics are New Mutants who have heightened mental abilities. Different types of Psionics include Telepaths; (who can read other peoples thoughts); Telekinetics, (who can move solid objects with their minds), Telempaths, (who can feel and to various degrees, manipulate, the emotions of others); Telecybers, (who can mentally connect with machines and control them); Precogs, (who are able to receive visions); and Illusionists, (who can create and project illusions to other people)

[edit] Lawsuits

 This section does not cite any references or sources. (March 2007)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

In 2001, 20th Century Fox (the producer of the X-Men series of films) sued Marvel (the originator of the characters in Mutant X and the X-Men), Tribute Entertainment (the distributor of Mutant X) and Fireworks Entertainment (the producer and International distributor of Mutant X) for breach of their licensing agreement and false advertisement. Fox stated it had exclusive rights from Marvel to develop the X-Men property, and anything similar was an infringement. Fox claimed that Mutant X was too similar to X-Men, and that Mutant X was being advertised as an "X-Men replacement". Fox asked that Mutant X production be stopped.

Marvel within weeks countersued Fox, saying that the two were dissimilar and asking the courts to allow Mutant X production to go forward. Production was allowed, as long as X-Men material was not used in the promotion of Mutant X. Apparently the title "Mutant X" itself was deemed too close to "X-Men" to be effectively leveraged.

With this environment, there was virtually no development of Mutant X merchandising.

In 2003, Fox and Marvel resolved their differences in confidential settlements of their suits, while Fox continued to pursue their cases against Tribune and Fireworks (apparently focusing on the false advertisement issues of using X-Men as a "springboard" to launch Mutant X).

Tribune then sued Marvel (for $100,000,000) for fraud and breach of contract stating that Marvel encouraged Tribune to connect Mutant X to the X-Men, misrepresenting what they were getting in their license, and causing millions in losses due to the need to alter storylines and characters to ensure distance between Mutant X and X-Men (which Tribune asserts led to the failure of the Mutant X series) as well as fighting Fox's litigation.

Litigation between Tribune and Marvel (and perhaps still between Fox and Tribune) appears to be continuing its way through the courts as of December 2006.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Locations

  • Skywalk escalator between Rogers Centre and Toronto's Union Station

Genomex - Water Filtration Plant in the Beaches Area of Toronto Sanctuary (external shot - season 2 - The Scarborough Bluffs, Toronto Outdoor fighting sequences - most shot under Gardiner Expressway near Cherry Street studios, Toronto. Various episodes internal and external shots - Ontario Science Centre, Toronto. Various episodes, external shots - Toronto Islands, Scarborough Bluffs (base and top), Old Don Jail Climax of Season II - Fox Industries (proper name?) Ontario Place Cinesphere and buildings. External forest shots - Guild Inn and Park External and internal building shots - Living Arts Centre, Mississauga.

[edit] Episodes

see List of Mutant X episodes

[edit] DVD

All three seasons have been released on DVD in season box sets, but are currently out of print as of 2008.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Claire Bickley (2001-08-19). "Mutant X Next". The Ottawa Sun. Sun Media. 

[edit] External links

List of live action television programs based on Marvel Comics