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

How does Marvel’s X-Men: The Animated Series hold up 20 plus years later?

The 1990s were a great time for cartoons, as it produced a ton of animated shows that are considered classics in this day and age. Among these shows were gamechangers like Batman: The Animated Series, Spider-Man, and Superman.

Another cartoon that ruled Saturday mornings was X-Men (also known as X-Men: The Animated Series). For 30 minutes, fans would stop what they were doing so that they could tune in to see what Earth’s Mightiest Mutants were up to on a weekly basis – and they were always in for one heck of an adventure!

The show achieved a huge level of popularity after only two episodes had aired, with the two-part  pilot, “Night of the Sentinels”, airing multiple times before the rest of season 1 continued.

This began the X-Men’s run into mainstream media, as you could see this particular incarnation of the iconic characters everywhere – from clothing to Pizza Hut promotions. Every kid wanted to dress up like Wolverine and swing their plastic claws or get a white streak down their hair and talk like Rogue.

There was a lot going for X-Men when it was released – especially the fact that it was one of the few animated shows that focused on the drama in addition to the comedy. And good luck getting that theme song out of your head!

The show is right up there with the likes of DuckTales, the 1967 Spider-Man series, and the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. However, it’s been over two decades since it made its way into our hearts, so does the show 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.

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.

Final thoughts

Despite a few minor drawbacks here and there, X-Men is a show that should definitely be recommend to any young comic book fan. It shows the evolution of cartoons, and it’s clear to see just how much this show influenced the animated, superhero projects that would follow

Moreover, it was also loyal to the source material – only changing it just enough to make it work on television.

With that said, like with many TV shows, there were three words that every kid hated to see on a weekly basis: “To be continued”. As a kid, it was torture having to wait multiple weeks for a series to finish but, in the end, it was undoubtedly worth it.

All in all, X-Men still holds up today. It may not be the big ball of excitement it once was, but it’s still pretty good. The amount of stories used throughout are more than enough to keep you entertained for hours on end, while there are also the random moments, such as Wolverine saying something so ridiculous that you won’t be able to help but laugh (or face palm).

So sit back, relax, put the show on and enjoy it. If you’re older, this will take you on a trip down Mutant memory lane where cartoons were very different from what they are today. And if you’re younger, however, get ready to Google a ton of things like “what is a VCR?”.