First Things First…
I LOVED this show when I was a kid. I was 11 when it came out in 1992, and this coincided with the years when I really got into comic books. It’s the reason Uncanny X-Men was the main title I collected monthly, and that all the X titles were ones I’d look for when there was a major event or crossover.
As for the series, I know a lot of people my age consider it a classic part of their childhood and felt it was better than most cartoons of its time. But I’ve never watched it as an adult. Does it hold up? I sure hope so…
5 Things I Like
5. Sabretooth Roars Onscreen
Sabretooth is the first character ever shown in this series. He’s on a news report of a mutant attack, but he isn’t named. He’s also not a factor in the episode otherwise. I just found it cool because he was one of the coolest villains when I was a kid. Whether it was from this series, or the comics, or even his action figure—he has a cool look, he’s a badass, and he’s Wolverine’s archnemesis. So it was exciting to see him immediately, and I look forward to when he becomes a real factor.
4. Enter Cyclops
It always felt like Cyclops got a bum rap because he’s the leader, he’s so straight-laced, and he and Wolverine don’t get along. So it’s cool to see him enter the fray like a stud.
When the first Sentinel terrorizes Jubilee in the mall, she, Storm, Rogue, and Gambit fail to subdue it.
Not Cyclops…
This dude comes right in and decapitates the giant robot with his lasers.
Score one for the good guys.
3. Anti-mutant Hysteria
“Today, the downtown area was rocked by another outbreak of violence. The fact that the perpetrator is believed to be a mutant has fueled current anti-mutant hysteria now growing nationwide.”
TV News Reporter
Discrimination against those who are different is arguably THE theme of X-Men. And we see it from the series’ opening scene with Sabretooth.
Jubilee’s foster father, who loves her but registered her with the Mutant Control Agency to try to help her, sums it up nicely a little later when he tells his wife…
“Let’s just hope the neighbors never find out our beautiful Jubilee is a mutant. They’d never understand.”
Even the arcade manager who chases off Jubilee after her powers break one of his games yells after her…
“We don’t want you lousy mutants around here!”
The Mutant Control Agency is here to take advantage of this hysteria.
Professor X says they’re a private organization but are sometimes supported by the government…
They’re also behind the Sentinels’ hunt for Jubilee. They’re supposed to be a group to help mutants control their powers, but clearly they’re trying to round them up. I don’t know if it’s to use them for their own purposes, or to eliminate them entirely. But either way, we get a clear look at how the world views mutants, and the challenges mutants face just trying to exist.
2. Sentinels
It’s an interesting choice to kick off the series with the Sentinels being the villains of the first episode, rather than Magneto. But it works. At the moment, they’re probably scarier for what Jubilee is facing because she was just registered as a mutant. Magneto wouldn’t be part of a shady organization’s plan to round up mutants, but the Sentinels are.
They’re also hard to take down, as we see with how much trouble the one in the mall gives the team.
They also have a surprising sense of humor, even if it’s inadvertent. Some of their lines—or I should say lies—are actually funny, like when the Sentinel busts into the mall and says in its robotic voice, over people’s screams, “Do not be alarmed. I am here to serve and protect.”
And I LOL’d when another Sentinel hides behind a building that it’s roughly the same size as and peers out from behind it. I mean, these are giant robots that are, what, six stories tall themselves? But it worked.
1. Establishing the Team
“I like solitaire, OK. Unless I got someone… to play with.”
Gambit
The best thing about this premiere is simply getting a sense of who each team member is.
We see Beast’s brilliance… Gambit’s charm… Rogue’s down to earthiness and hidden sadness…Wolverine’s cavalier attitude toward authority (and hatred of Cyclops) … and more.
Even if I was coming into this completely unfamiliar with the X-Men, I think I’d already have a pretty good handle on who they are.
Of course, there’s MUCH more room for depth. But this is a strong start for giving a sense of multiple characters right away.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Ham-fisted Emotional Core
“Why is this happening to me? I used to be a normal kid. It’s not my fault.”
Jubilee
Jubilee is at the center of this episode, which sounds like an odd choice. I don’t think she was ever the most popular team member. But because she’s young and dealing with the onset of her powers, not to mention her foster parents’ struggle to know what to do for her, it makes her the emotional core of the show.
It’s a smart approach. But the way they establish it is so on the nose. She says things like, “I didn’t ask for this,” and—about her foster parents—“They’re ashamed of me. I thought they loved me.”
While running away from the Sentinel, she says…
“What did I ever do to anybody? I didn’t ask to be a mutant. I’m just a kid.”
And after Storm gives her the lowdown on the X-Men and Xavier’s School for the Gifted, she says…
“Gifted, huh? That’s a nice way of saying ‘mutants,’ ‘weirdos,’ like me.”
It’s easy to feel for her, but there’s no nuance to any of this, which makes it clear it was written for a very young audience.
3 Things I Don’t Like
3. Funny Running into You at the Mall
Jubilee is hunted down by a Sentinel while playing video games at the mall.
Meanwhile, Rogue and Storm just happen to be out shopping at the same time—and Jubilee literally runs into them when running away from the arcade.
Nice coincidence!
I don’t know… considering what the X-Men do, it seems like they could be more on top of what’s happening with the Mutant Control Agency. With their tech, they could be hacked into their system and know who’s being registered, so they could proactively try to protect them. That feels a lot more realistic to me than just being in the right place at the right time.
2. Morph
Who the eff is this guy?? And why is he so annoying?
Seriously… watching TV was different in the early 90’s. I watched this show every Saturday morning when it was on and I was home. But I missed episodes here and there. And I didn’t even know when I was watching episodes out of order.
That said, I watched a lot of this series, and I don’t remember this guy. Nor do I remember him from the comics.
It’s notable that he’s not in the show’s intro, even though he seems to be a regular team member.
1. Who’s Watching Jubilee?
First, when Jubilee wakes up in the X-Men’s facility after being knocked out and rescued, no one is in the room to explain to her what happened, where she is, or who they are. So she’s afraid and tries to escape. They have to sound an alarm, which makes it feel more like a prison than it should be. All because this team with multiple literal geniuses didn’t realize it’d be smart to keep an eye on her.
Then, they let it happen again!
After they explain things to her, she’s afraid of what happened to her parents, and no one has that answer. So she just leaves. It doesn’t even seem like she had to sneak out. She just takes off.
Sad to say, but one episode in and the X-Men look like a bunch of incompetent goobers. They can take down a Sentinel but can’t keep tabs on a teenage girl.
Tim Matassa
