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

The Bad

Going back and watching the cartoon you realize there were a lot of things that weren’t exactly good about it.

Jean Grey seemed to faint in every episode. Wolverine would only use his claws on doors and robots; and, while that makes sense given that it was a kids show, the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon saw characters use their blades without having to show blood, so couldn’t X-Men have done the same? Furthermore, Jubilee was a focal point despite not truly being that good throughout the series. Sure, she was entertaining, but that role could have easily been filled by Kitty Pryde.

Some of the moments were flat-out cheesy. As pointed out in the X-Men Honest Trailer, the dialogue is a bit dated, meaning that unless you know about the ’90s, a lot of the jokes are probably going to fall flat.

Let me point out that these are very minor things. The show does get cringeworthy sometimes, but it’s still incredibly well done. In addition, a case could even be made for it being one of the two or three best comic book cartoons of all time. And considering it’s in great company like Batman: The Animated Series, Superman, and Justice League, X-Men is in a great spot.

However, a word of advice: Avoid most of the final season.