Throwback Thursday: Does X-Men: The Animated Series still hold up?

The Good

X-Men highlighted a lot of characters throughout its run. The likes of Cable, Bishop, and Nightcrawler are just some of the heroes that had great moments. And of course, Wolverine was the star, but he wasn’t the focal point of every episode, as each one of the X-Men had their moment to shine.

Cyclops was leading the team into battle and knocking people back with his optic blasts. Rogue flipped Sentinels like they were sacks of rice. Gambit was charming, tough, and mysterious and, in fact, this series may be the reason he is as popular as he is today. And despite being overly dramatic, Storm was one of the best characters on the show.

The stories themselves were also deep. Graydon Creed and his Friends of Humanity battled the X-Men and hated them because they were different, but this ended up educating viewers on how our differences make us unique – a lesson that came up a lot throughout the show’s run. As this remains a focal point in the comic book, it only makes sense it would be one in the series, as well.

The villains were grade A, and Magneto wasn’t the antagonist every week. Sabretooth, Mystique, and even Mojo and Spiral made appearances. Apocalypse was dramatic, arrogant, and incredibly formidable, while the way he was brought in and turned Angel into Archangel was fantastic. And “The Phoenix Saga” was everything that we had hoped to get from the movies. They really took their time and made something special.