X-Men: Evolution is an American animated television series
about the Marvel Comics superhero team the X-Men.In this incarnation many of
the characters are teenagers rather than adults. The series ran for a total of
four seasons (52 episodes) from November 2000 until October 2003 on Kids' WB,
which has made it the third longest running Marvel Comics animated series,
behind only X-Men: The Animated Series and Spider-Man: The Animated Series. The
series began running on Disney XD on June 15, 2009.
Plot
Season one
The first season introduces the core characters and lays the
foundations for future story lines. Professor X, Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm and
Jean Greymake up the original X-Men. As the season develops, the ranks of the
X-Men are bolstered by the appearance of Nightcrawler in the first
episode,[2]Shadowcat in the second, Spyke in the fifth and Rogue (who
originally joins the Brotherhood in the third episode) in the seventh. In the
later episodes of this season, Nightcrawler discovers the identity of his birth
mother, Wolverine finds answers to his past, Rogue switches sides to join the
X-Men, and Xavier's half-brother, Juggernaut, is released from his prison.
Confrontations are typically with the Brotherhood, who vie
for new recruits with the X-Men over the course of the season. Toad is the
first to be introduced, followed by Avalanche, Blob and Quicksilver. The
Brotherhood, led by Mystique, are in fact being directed by a higher power, the
identity of whom was "revealed" in the two-part season finale as
being Magneto. After Cyclops discovers that his brother, Alex, actually
survived the plane crash that killed their parents, they are both taken by
Magneto into his "sanctuary" on Asteroid M. Magneto captures several
X-Men and Brotherhood members in an attempt to amplify their mutant abilities
and remove their emotions. The brotherhood and X-men show up leaving Magneto
and Mystique trapped on the asteroid. Asteroid M is destroyed by Scott and Alex
Summers, but not before two metal spheres fly from the exploding asteroid.
Season two
The second season sees the addition of several new mutants,
including Beast, who becomes a teacher at the Xavier Institute and an X-Man, as
well as a version of the New Mutants: Boom Boom,Sunspot, Iceman, Wolfsbane,
Magma, Multiple, Jubilee, Berzerker, and Cannonball. During the course of the
season, it is revealed that the villains who supposedly perished on Asteroid M
are in fact alive. Sabretooth continues his pursuit of Wolverine, while Magneto
continues to work his own agenda. Mystique poses as Risty Wilde, a high school
student at Bayville High who befriends Rogue and breaks into the mansion to
steal Xavier's Cerebro files. Using the files, she recovers Wanda Maximoff, the
Scarlet Witch, Magneto's daughter and Quicksilver's sister. The mentally
unstable mutant joins the Brotherhood upon Mystique's return, allowing them to
defeat the X-Men in a battle at the Bayville mall. Before the finale, a pivotal
episode aired featuring the telepath Mesmero opening one of three doors that
would unleash a mutant known as Apocalypse.
In the season finale, Xavier rigorously trains his X-Men to
face Magneto, pairing them with the Brotherhood. Cyclops, furious with having
to work with his former adversaries, leaves the team. The mansion is later set
to self-destruct with Cyclops and several students still inside. Magneto,
meanwhile, recruits Sabretooth, Gambit, Pyro, and Colossus as his Acolytes to
fight the X-Men/Brotherhood team. At the same time, Wolverine is captured by
Bolivar Trask to use as a test subject for the anti-mutant weapon, the
Sentinel. Magneto continues to manipulate events by unleashing the Sentinel
onto the city, forcing the X-Men to use their powers in public. Wanda tracks
down Magneto and attacks him while he is trying to deal with the Sentinel that
is targeting him. The Sentinel is damaged and apparently crushes Magneto as it
falls. When the mutants who have not been captured by the Sentinel return to
the remains of the mansion, Cyclops and the students emerge from the explosion
with minor injuries. Scott throws Xavier from his wheelchair and blames him for
blowing up the mansion. Everyone is shocked as Xavier calmly stands up,
transforming into Mystique.
Season three
In seasons three and four, the show notably begins to take a
much more serious tone. After the battle with the Sentinel, the mutants are no
longer a secret and public reaction is one of hostility. The show is brought
into more traditional X-Men lore, dealing with themes of prejudice, public
misconception, and larger threats. As the season progressed, the real Xavier is
found, Mystique is defeated, the mansion is rebuilt, and the X-Men allowed back
into Bayville High. Wanda continues to search for Magneto (who was saved by his
son, Quicksilver, at the last minute) until Magneto uses the telepathic mutant
Mastermind to change her childhood memories. Scott and Jean develop a deeper
and stronger romantic relationship ( particularly after Mystique kidnaps Scott
and brings him to Mexico ), and Spyke leaves the X-Men when his mutant ability
becomes uncontrollable, deciding to live with the sewer-dwelling mutants, the
Morlocks.
As part of the series arc, Rogue loses control of her
powers, leading to her hospitalization. During this time, she learns she was
the adoptive daughter of Mystique. Mystique, through the visions of the mutant
Destiny, foresaw that the fate of Rogue and herself lay in the hands of an
ancient mutant that would be resurrected. Apocalypse emerges in the season's
final episodes. Mesmero manipulates Magneto into opening the second door, and
uses Mystique and Rogue (Rogue being hypnotized) to open the last, turning
Mystique to stone in the process. Now released, Apocalypse easily defeats the
combined strength of the X-Men, Magneto, the Acolytes, and the Brotherhood
before escaping.
Season four
The final season contained only nine episodes. In the season
premiere, Apocalypse apparently kills Magneto while Rogue murders Mystique by
pushing her petrified figure off a cliff, leaving Nightcrawler without closure.
The Brotherhood become temporary do-gooders, Wolverine's teenage girl clone
X-23 returns, Spyke and the Morlocks rise to the surface, Shadowcat discovers a
mutant ghost, Rogue is kidnapped by Gambit and taken to Louisiana to help free
his father, and Xavier travels to Scotland in order to confront his son Lucas.
The character Leech is also introduced as a young boy.
In the finale, Apocalypse defeats Xavier and Storm,
transforming them, along with Magneto and Mystique, into his Four Horsemen.
Apocalypse instructs his Horsemen to protect his three domes and his 'base of
operations', which will turn the entire world population into mutants. In the
final battle, the Horsemen are returned to normal and Apocalypse is sent
through time. Rogue and Nightcrawler refuse the excuses of their mother,
Shadowcat and Avalanche find love once again, Magneto is reunited with
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, Storm and Spyke are also reunited, and
Xavier sees his students reunited as the X-Men.
Final moments
The series ends with a speech by Charles Xavier, who had
caught a glimpse of the future while being controlled by Apocalypse. The
following future scenarios were foreseen:
Continued
anti-mutant sentiment.
A reformed Magneto
teaching the New Mutants, who now include a returned Jubilee and Wolfsbane.
Jean turns into the Phoenix. Had the series
continued, the show's next season would have focused on the "Phoenix/Dark
Phoenix Saga".
The future X-Men
team consists of adult versions of Cyclops, Nightcrawler, X-23, Iceman, Beast,
Shadowcat, Colossus, Rogue (able to fly and not wearing gloves), and Storm. The
uniforms these future X-Men wear look very much like the dark uniforms seen in
the Ultimate X-Men comic, as well as that of the live-action feature films.
Adult versions of
the Brotherhood, the Scarlet Witch and Pyro becoming heroes and joining the
S.H.I.E.L.D. Freedom Force.
A fleet of
Sentinels led by Nimrod.
The last scene
shows the entire cast, which includes the X-Men, the New Mutants, Gambit and
Colossus (former Acolytes), Boom Boom, Havok, Angel and X-23; along with
Jubilee, Spyke, and Wolfsbane.
Characters
Click Here For Character Guide
Episode list
Click Here For Episode Guide
Music
X-Men: Evolution featured several songs that were produced
exclusively for the show:
"Only a Girl
(The Bayville Sirens' Theme)" in "Walk on the Wild Side".
"T-O-A-D
(Toad's Theme)" in "The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe".
"Who Am I
Now? (Rogue's Theme)" in "Rogue Recruit".
"Wolverine
(Wolverine's Theme)" in a promotional video.
"Evolution
Theme (Theme Song)" in the start of the show.
Several characters had distinct musical cues, including
Avalanche (heavy guitar riffs) and Storm (orchestra piece). Others had special
sound effects. These include Jean Grey (light chime noise), Rogue(also has a
unique, black and white special effect), Magneto, Gambit, Shadowcat, and
Nightcrawler. The main theme song was recorded by William Anderson.
Production notes
One of the main points of the new X-Men: Evolution concept
was the design of the new costumes. Early concept art sketches show the X-Men
in classic gold-and-black garb. In these drafts, Spyke wears cornrows, Rogue's
outfit exposes her midriff, and Jean Grey's costume is the female version of
Cyclops' costume. Both Jean Grey and Shadowcat wear face masks, and Kitty is
also wearing an orange miniskirt and Doc Martens over spandex. Early Storm
drawings shows her wearing white rather than black.
A point of controversy was the design of the blue-skinned
villain Mystique. Steven E. Gordon, the character designer and director of
various episodes, was never impressed with the Mystique designs for the first
season. Mystique was originally to be presented as nude (as in the films), but
Warner Brothers did not want this included in a Kids' WB! production. However,
a short scene of Mystique drawn to resemble her film counterpart (albeit
clothed) appears in the Season 1 finale. Gordon stopped directing after two
seasons, but continued to design characters for the show. He is most satisfied with
the designs of Rogue and Wanda.
The show also contained some references to other mediums: in
episode 9 of the first season, one of Wolverine's defensive programs for the
Danger Room is referred to as "Logan's Run X13", a clear reference to
the novel/film Logan's Run. The Rogue/Kitty dance in "Spykecam" was
modeled after a similar dance in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Bad
Girls".The play used in the first season episode "Spykecam",
Dracula: The Musical, is a real play. The song used, however, is an original
song made for the episode. The writers of the show have also admitted that they
were fans ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer. Using Shadowcat as the catalyst, the two
shows appear similar: a teenage girl with superpowers fights powerful villains
in order to save her high school. Buffy creator Joss Whedon has openly credited
his inspiration for Buffy as Kitty Pryde.
Starting with the first episode of Season 4,
"Impact", the episode title was no longer aired on-screen at the
beginning of the show, and X-Men: Evolution became the third longest-running
Marvel cartoon, behind Spider-Man: The Animated Series (5 seasons, 65 episodes)
and X-Men: The Animated Series (5 seasons, 76 episodes). Boyd Kirkland, the
show's producer, says his favorite X-Men: Evolutionseason is Season 3. The
monthly budget for X-Men: Evolution was $350,000.
Successors
The show gave birth to a new series Wolverine and the X-Men,
which began airing in 2008. It was not a continuation of X-Men: Evolution,
though the same creative team behind the show: Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Steven E
Gordon, Greg Johnson, Steven Blum, and Boyd Kirkland, all returned to work on
the series.
Awards and nominations
X-Men: Evolution won the award for Outstanding Achievement
in Sound Mixing - Special Class at the 28th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, on May
18, 2001 and won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Live
Action and Animation at the 30th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, on May 16,
2003.[7]
It also won the Cover of the Year Award in 2004 for best
animated figure for Beast. It was nominated for several Golden Reel Awards, as
well as other Emmys. Steven E. Gordon, the director of this show, was nominated
in the Production Design in an Animated Television Production category for
X-Men: Evolution at the 2001 Annie Awards.
Analysis
Comparison with original comics
The X-Men: Evolution series was targeted at a younger
audience and as such portrays the majority of characters as teenagers rather
than adults like in X-Men: The Animated Series. In the series, like many
animated series based on comics, completely new characters were introduced
including X-23 and Spyke. In the case of X-23, she was a teenaged female clone
of Wolverine. As much of the cast were teenagers, they are shown regularly
attending high school in addition to the Xavier's Institute. At the latter,
Professor X, Storm, Wolverine and later Beast also acted as their teachers at
the institute. Beast also served as a teacher to the cast at high school prior
to his transformation.
X-Men: Evolution is set in Bayville, New York, the state
established in the episode "The Beast of Bayville", where Kitty Pryde
receives a package addressed to Bayville, NY. Furthermore, in the early part of
the series (until the end of season 2) most people are unaware of the existence
of mutants. Also, the "Brotherhood" team is not known as the "Brotherhood
of Evil Mutants" within the context of this series. They are not a team of
terrorists or mutant supremacists. Instead, the Brotherhood is made up of
misfit mutants who often oppose the X-Men (in physical, social and
philosophical realms).
The series was created as a stark contrast to X-Men: The
Animated Series. The Series Bible was written by Robert N. Skir and Marty
Isenberg (albeit uncredited), who meant to take The X-Men back to their roots
as high school students learning to control their superpowers, as when the
comics termed them "The Strangest Teens Of All". Whereas the Fox
series reflected the then-current role of X-Men as freedom fighters battling
persecution and bigotry against mutantkind, X-Men: Evolution used the theme of mutant
powers as a metaphor for the struggles of adolescence.
The look of the series was designed by Producer Boyd
Kirkland and artist Frank Paur who created new costumes for the X-Men,
replacing the comics-faithful designs of X-Men: The Animated Serieswith
anime-influenced costumes which were much more animation friendly.
The first season mainly concerned the characters' conflict
with Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants as well as served as an introductory to
many of the characters to allow people to get used to these new teenage
versions. Later seasons predominantly featured Apocalypse as an adversary,
introduced versions of the New Mutants, Morlocks and Magneto's Acolytes as well
as posed the U.S. Government as an adversary to all parties.
The series revealed a detailed knowledge of canon history in
a number of small ways. Examples include the evolution of Cerebro from a
console device, Shadowcat's initial uneasiness around Nightcrawler and Forge's
scientific arrogance along with his devices causing unintended consequences.
Rogue is shown to absorb Cyclops' powers in the correct manner. In the Fox
series, she also absorbed his lack of control over his beams (which was a
result of a brain injury, not inherent in his powers). X-Men: Evolution shows
her with full control over them, just as Scott would if he had not sustained a
brain injury. In "Survival of the Fittest", Xavier says that
Juggernaut acquired his powers through mysticism (but unlike the comic, says
that it unlocked a latent mutant power), and in "The Cauldron"
Magneto develops his mutant-enhancing technology from that same Jewel of
Cytorrak (but says that he has found it to be scientific rather than mystical).
In "Day of Recovery", Toad is seen to be quite comfortable with
technology and in "Operation Rebirth", the POW camp Magneto is held
in as a child is visually similar (in the opening shot) to Auschwitz though it
is not identified as such.
In addition Beast's origin is almost identical to that of
the comic, despite the change in profession and setting. Mesmero is shown as
part of a circus troupe, much like his appearance in the "Phoenix
Saga". Aside from this, supporting characters like Bolivar Trask, Nick
Fury, Captain America, Destiny, Agatha Harkness, and Amanda Sefton were all
taken from the X-Men comic, usually serving to homage to originals without
necessarily staying completely faithful to their form.
Another difference between the comic and the show is the
name changes. Toad, originally Mortimer Toynbee, is changed to Todd Tolansky,
and Avalanche, originally Dominic Petros, is changed to Lance Alvers. Both
changed names have similarities to their codenames.
Evolution characters in the comics and films
X-23, an original character introduced in later seasons,made
her comic book debut in the miniseries NYX, where her appearance was slightly
altered to more closely resemble Wolverine. She received a self-titled comic
miniseries in 2005.Much like Harley Quinn of Batman: The Animated Series, Terry
McGinnis of Batman Beyond or Marvel's own Firestar of Spider-Man and His
Amazing Friends, she was a character originally created for an animated series
that was incorporated into comic book canon. The character of Dr. Deborah
Risman which created X-23, the clone of Wolverine, was also created for the
show and was replaced with a similar character named Dr. Sarah Kinney in the
miniseries X-23.
The comic book X-Statix featured an African-American mutant
with the same codename and abilities as Spyke; however, this version of Spyke
was not related to Storm, had a very different personality (modeled after
popular gangsta rappers), and is a completely separate character. Another
similar character appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand, but as a Caucasian member
of the Brotherhood of Mutants. He is listed as Spike in the credits, but is not
mentioned by name in the film, and has no dialogue. When Wolverine invades the
forest base of the Brotherhood, Spike is one of the characters that attacks
him, demonstrating abilities identical to those shown by the Spyke character
before he lost control of his mutation. In the canon Storm has a teenaged
cousin, not a nephew, named David Evans, but he is apparently too young to
display any mutant abilities.
Marvel references and cameos
X-Men: Evolution weaves many references and cameos into its
show. One of the masks worn by the vandals in the Season 3 episode
"Mainstream", bears a suitable resemblance to the classic Marvel
Comics monster, Fin Fang Foom. In the Season 3 episode "Under Lock and
Key", circumstances gather a mix of X-Men, junior members, and nonmembers
into a mission team that matches the original X-Men team (Cyclops, Jean Grey,
Beast, Iceman, and Angel)—Iceman mentions that this is "definitely the
cool team." In the Season 3 episode "Dark Horizons Part 1" when
Rogue enters Kitty's room, Kitty is seen sleeping with a stuffed purple dragon,
a reference to Lockheed, her purple dragon companion. Also in "Dark Horizons
Part 2", Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Shadowcat are grouped together when
the X-Men and the Acolytes are separated, a reference to the Europe-based
superhero team Excalibur which included all three mutants in its roster.
Captain America and Nick Fury are the only non-mutant Marvel
superheroes to appear on Evolution. There is also, however, a small Iron Man
reference in the episode "On Angel's Wings", when a sign reading
"Stark Enterprises" is seen during an exterior shot of New York City
and a small Spider-Man reference when Angel was reading the Daily Bugle, the
newspaper that Peter Parker/Spider-Man normally takes pictures for. In
addition, Omega Red mentions Maverick and Kestrel in the episode "Target
X", referring to the latter as "Wraith". In "Dark Horizons
Part 2" the hieroglyphics translated by Beast refer to the Pharaoh
Rama-Tut, one identity of Kang the Conqueror.
Releases
iTunes release
All four seasons are available for download on iTunes (Only
available for America), being released in 2009 by Marvel. All 4 seasons
immediately broke into the Top 10 Animation charts on iTunes, with season 4
peaking at #3.
DVD release
The first three seasons have been released on DVD. Season 3
was released as a two disc set, while Seasons 1 & 2 were released in 4
volumes each.The fourth season has not yet been released on DVD as of 2012.
Netflix
All four seasons are currently available on Netflix Instant
in the United States.
Hulu
All four seasons are currently available on Hulu
Merchandise
Comic books
In January 2002, Marvel Comics began publishing an X-Men:
Evolution comic book, partially based on the show. Written by Devin K. Grayson
with art by Studio XD, it was abruptly canceled after the ninth issue due to
low sales. They have been reprinted in two trade paperbacks.
The comic introduced the Evolution version of the Morlocks
before they appeared on the show, and their appearances and motivations were
radically different in both versions. It also featured an appearance from Mimic
who never appeared on the show.
An ongoing plot line would have introduced the Evolution
version of Mister Sinister, but the comic was canceled before it could be
resolved. However, the cover of the unreleased issue 10 does reveal his
intended character design.
Action figurines
Toy Biz created a line of action figures. Taco Bell ran the
first X-Men: Evolution themed promotion with its Kid's Meals. Burger King also
ran a Kid's Meal promotion which included X-Men: Evolutiontoys. Each toy
included a mini-disc with games, screen-savers, and a mini-comic related to the
character. The lineup included Rogue, Mystique, Cyclops, Wolverine, Magneto,
Quicksilver, Nightcrawler, and Toad.
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