Wolverine and the X-Men

I caught a screening of the first three episodes of "Wolverine & the X-Men" at this year's Comic Con and although my expectations for the series were quite low, I found myself pleasantly surprised. I shouldn't give away too much, but I will say that despite being aimed primarily at children, "Wolverine & the X-Men" deals with some adult issues that will make the show appeal to an older audience while still being appropriate for the little ones. The violence is kept to a minimum, though the action is still exciting. Despite the numerous action sequences, there are plenty of moments of humor so things never get too overly serious. Thankfully, the the jokes aren't corny. They are actually quite funny as opposed to a lot of the jokes in X-Men: The Last Stand. I have to admit I can't remember if anyone on the Comic Con panel mentioned if "Wolverine & the X-Men" is supposed to exist inside the continuity of any of the live-action films, though there were several references to live-action films being a bit of an influence on the show, especially in terms of how the excellent voice work is done. Like the films, the main story is relatively faithful to the comics. The characters look similar to the way the characters are drawn in the comics with some understandable changes. Those who are fans of the comics or just fans of the movies shouldn't be disappointed. Based on what I've seen...8/10. This is the best superhero cartoon in a long time.

What has happened to Marvel TV cartoons?? On the DC side, excellent reimaginings of Batman, Superman and the Justice League have been plentiful with so, so many substandard versions of Spiderman and X-Men based on Manga for Generation 'Teen'. The recent 'Next Avengers - Heroes of Tomorrow' was better but again for a younger audience in my opinion.

I don't need to see a bunch of kids reenact adult X-Men situations where there's no risk. This series bodes much better, feeding off the 80s X-Men series. Yes, there are some serious plot problems having Wolverine lead but they're addressed in the right way where many X-Men don't want to follow him.

Fantastic, and well overdue.

So I'm real happy I'm Canadian. Why you ask? Because I got to see the premiere of Wolverine and the X-Men last night! Now for those of you who are not Canadian or can't download the episode I shall provide a review of sorts.

Story: The story definitely has me intrigued. The episode takes place a year after the attack at Xavier Institute where Charles Xavier and Jean Grey have died?…disappeared?…on vacation? Its never made clear to us, but all we know is that they are gone. The X-Men have apparently disbanded because when Wolverine meets up with Beast (Hank Mcoy) in his underground laboratory, both admit they don't know where the others are.

Anyhow Wolverine helps out a family (A interracial family by the way which made me very happy, you don't see that enough) when they get in a RV crash, in return they take him to their home to heal. However, they have an anti-mutant neighbor named Carl ("He's got razors in his hands!") calls the MRD on them, which I think stands for Mutant Registration Department but I could be wrong. The family gets taken to MRD headquarters for helping out wolverine, which seems to also be a prison for mutants the ones we see are Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), Rockslide (Santo Vaccarro), Boom Boom (Tabitha Smith), Dust (Sooraya Qadir), Pyro (John Allerdyce)…and possibly X-23...

I won't go into anymore then that since most of you might not have seen the episode yet, but I will say that I'm looking forward to see what will happen in future episodes. One of my main concerns is that the show will focus too much on Wolverine and forget the rest of the characters. I can't tell from seeing only one episode but I hope those who are working on it will remember that one of the best things about the X-Men franchise is the large cast of distinctive characters.

The story isn't your atypical Saturday morning cartoon, and its obvious they want both kids and adults to enjoy it. IMDb said that the cartoon is a spin off of X2 and I can see that, especially with the strong familial bond between Rogue and Wolverine in this episode. However, its not really a continuation but more like they were influenced by the films (The first two anyhow…) It has a lot of potential that the will hopefully be carried out.

Animation: The animation is top notch. The colors are subdued and dark, I guess to avoid the whole bright colored cartoon cliché. The designs are similar to X-Men: Evolution which makes sense since Steve E. Gordon the character designer for X-Men: Evolution is the director of the series.

But if you didn't like the designs from Evo there's a high chance you won't like these ones, even though the looks and costume so far are faithful to the comics, (The X-Men we see are wearing the original yellow and blue costumes…with the exception of Nightcrawler) the designs have a stylized look to them.

Voice Acting: Here is a quick low down of the voice actors.

Wolverine played by Steve Bloom: Bloom has the whole gritty and growl tone to Wolverine voice (One of my biggest disappointments with Hugh Jackson is that he didn't sound like Wolverine, its not his fault but it still made me sad), I personally think he will do a great job. He's is certainly no slouch when it comes to voice acting, anime fans will recognize him as Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop and Orochimaru from Naruto.

Beast played by Fred Tatasciore: Tatasciore is mostly a video game voice actor but he has provided additional voices in popular shows such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, Family Guy, Robot Chicken, and Invader Zim. He's a great Beast with the deep yet calming voice that displays Beast intelligence, though I will always love George Buza… Rogue played by Kieren van den Blink (best name EVER): I'm reserving my judgment for Karen, Rogue is not an easy character to play since you want to show her frustrations of being an outsider while not making her sound too emo. Also she doesn't have a strong southern accent which bothers me, but my favorite Rogue voice is still Lenore Zann from the 90s X-Men show so I might be biased.

Shadowcat played by Danielle Judovits: I'm very pleased with Danielle she managed to have the haughty teenage attitude without sounding annoying. Though she's a relative newcomer, she has already worked in animation with being Barbara Gordon/Batgirl from The Batman cartoon.

Nightcrawler played by Liam O'Brien: Another veteran of voice acting especially in Anime where he has played roles such as Gaara from Naruto and Vincent Law from Ergo Proxy. Though his appearance was brief I think he will make a great Nightcrawler, and I'm looking forward to his Angel.

Cyclopes played by Nolan North: Nolan is primarily a video game voice actor most notably Prince of Persia (The Prince). He has however done voice work in animation playing Hank Pym/Giant Man in the direct to video Avengers movies and Raphael in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. He says very little in the episode but what I've heard sounds good so far. He will also be playing Deadpool.

Colossus played by Phil Morris: Here's the sad thing. Phil Morris did a great job with Colossus and he had the accent without it being exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness (I'm looking at you Robert Cait!). Sadly IMDb does not list him as playing Colossus and Wikipedia has him on the cast list but not who he is playing…I had to narrow it down that he was playing Colossus. This could mean that he and Colossus won't have a big role in the series, which makes me sad.

So thats the dirty low down, hope you all enjoyed it.

When I first heard about this show, I was as you can guess, very excited and it did not fail to live up to expectations. The X-Men (who consists of Wolverine (duh), Cyclops, Storm, Forge, Iceman, Kitty, Beast, Rogue, Emma Frost, Jean Grey and Nightcrawler) are handled very well in terms of characterization. Sure, some things have obviously changed but this is good change. They have taken the X-Men in a totally different direction as compared to X-Men (TAS) and X-Men Evolution. Basically, Professor X is in some kind of coma but is also in the future, which at the time, is being dominated, by Sentinels and it is up to the X-Men (in the present) to stop that future from happening. Neat, huh?

Wolverine and the X-Men, is in my opinion, a more-serious take on the X-Men. The stories are deeper and go in to explain some of the character's origins i.e. Cyclops which is always nice to see as opposed to the comics. The action sequences (if you can call them that) are good and certainly entertaining although I feel as if sometimes, they are a little repetitive if you know what I mean. I would say Magneto is the main villain throughout season one although they also have to battle the Brotherhood on more than one occasion and on those rare occasions, each other. Season two, however, will focus on Age of Apocalypse. I also hear Deadpool will be making an appearance.

Although Wolverine and the X-Men, is undoubtedly entertaining and has its fair share of funny moments, I prefer X-Men (TAS), mainly because Wolverine was not in the spot-light all the time and the chemistry between characters was fantastic! I just love them. Scott is such a boy scout. I also think the Phoenix saga was in a way, handled better seeing as it lasted for longer. Nevertheless, Wolverine and the X-Men is still thoroughly entertaining and I cannot wait for season two. Watch it. You won't regret it! 8/10.

'Wolverine and the X-Men' is a new animated X-Men series that manages to surpass its predecessors thanks to some solid writing and refreshingly unique but surprisingly accurate portrayals of all the mutants. 'Wolverine' also succeeds in telling a more mature, straight forward storyline without all the cheese and convoluted plots and sub-plots from 1992's 'X-Men: The Animated Series.' Also gone is the teenage cast from 'Evolution.' 'Wolverine' sports a mostly adult cast of characters and mutants, giving a more appropriate take on the X-Men and their universe.

'Wolverine' plays it smart by not spending so much precious time expounding and explaining away the very basic, common knowledge that most people already know when going into an X-Men series: Why it is the X-Men exist, their purpose, and the reason for this conflict that exists between regular humans and evolved humans with special powers. Instead of explaining the same axioms again for the umpteenth time, 'Wolverine' rightfully assumes you possess basic knowledge of the X-Men universe and focuses on its own story.

The plot unfolds early on as the X-Men are assaulted by an unknown force, causing the disappearance of Professor X and Jean Grey, and leaving the Xavier Institute along with remaining team members in shambles. After an ordeal Wolverine faces, he moves to reunite the X-Men to solve the mystery behind the attack. Having seen up to the tenth episode myself, there's been a healthy balance of action and plot development within each episode. The action scenes are fun and inventive, with clever and unique usage of the mutant's powers. There's also the subtle and not so subtle humor in 'Wolverine,' some of which is very well done and wouldn't be out of place in a feature length movie.

Perhaps what's most interesting about 'Wolverine and the X-Men' is the attention given to some of the more unfamiliar characters who are often overlooked, or underdeveloped in prior series. You never know who will show up in an episode of 'Wolverine,' whether that be from the X-Men universe or perhaps even another Marvel license. Also explored in greater detail is the inherent ambiguity between some of the various characters and factions. Are they friend, foe, or are they simply misunderstood? These are questions you'll find yourself asking of both the familiar and the unfamiliar in 'Wolverine and the X-Men.'

Finally, the production values are all quite good, and the voice cast deserves a mention for their work. Excellent voice work all around, with proper inflections and careful avoidance of hammy overacting. The only one area I would fault 'Wolverine' in is the animation, of which I am a huge lunatic when it comes to fluidity of motion in animation. Simply put, more fluid animation would have worked wonders for several of the action sequences. Still, I don't want to disparage it too much as it's pretty typical of what you'd expect from an animated TV series, or kid's cartoons. However, what is not so typical is the overall quality and ease of viewing of the show. It's the best animated X-Men yet and it's an absolute shame it hasn't appeared on American television yet.