Wolverine and the X-Men
Vol. 2Deadly Enemies DVD
Starring Steve Blum, Jim Ward, Tom Kane
Marvel Animation/Lionsgate Films
Release date: July 21, 2009
When Wolverine and the X-Men first came onto the scene, I wasn’t exactly sure what to think. I never watched creators Craig Kyle and Christ Yost ’s first cartoon X-Men: Evolution, but so many people enjoyed the series that I thought I give it a try and was pretty satisfied with the first batch of episodes and even wrote a review on the DVD release, titled Heroes Return. And since I did review the first volume, it was only fitting that I also review the newest volume Deadly Enemies.
For a quick recap of the series, think of this as yet another alternate X-Men Universe. In this version, a mysterious attack on the Xavier school has left Professor X in a coma and Jean Grey presumed dead. This event shakes the X-Men to the core and every member of the team goes their separate ways. Fast forward to one year later, with mutant hysteria and hatred at an all time high, it is up to Wolverine to reunite the team to prevent a future that could wipe out mutantkind permanently.
I really believe that this volume is the one that really helps Wolverine and the X-Men hit their stride. The episodes are entertaining and pretty easy to follow. Each episode is self contained so that any fan can jump onboard the show at any time but those who watch every episode still get ongoing storyline. Kyle and Yost do a great job weaving X-characters into a story and crafting storylines that are new but feel like a classic X-Men tale. They also do a bang up job on condensing the bloated history of the team. Rather than saddle this cartoon with a boatload of X-Men backstory, Kyle and Yost opted to pick the best aspects of each X-Men incarnation and add it into and use that as a springboard. What you get is a combination of the Ultimate-verse X-Men series mixed with the X-Men from films and television.
While I am not a fan of the idea of a loner like Wolverine leading the X-Men, I enjoy the benefits it provides gives the series. How do you create a series that would focus on both the most popular Canadian mutant and still be able to showcase as many mutants as possible? Well you make Wolverine the leader of the X-Men and have him bring back together the X-Men one member at a time. So, each episode features Wolverine specifically but gives screen time to the many merry mutants that inhabit the Marvel Universe. This means that at any given point in time, fans can see Wolverine team up with fan favorites Cyclops or Nightcrawler or have him go toe to toe with charming rogue Gambit and even a certain “Incredible” green goliath.
The animation is quite eye catching for a new cartoon. I am not a fan of the new stuff out there (too many computer generated effects) but this show is a perfect balance of both effects and storyboard art. I am slowly getting use to the voice actors of this show, even though I still have soft spot for voice actors from the original 90’s series. The DVD is pretty bare bones in terms of a standard DVD. Even though the box states audio commentary by the creators, I couldn’t find any on the DVD. It is not a problem though, because the episodes themselves should be more than enough for X-fans.
Wolverine and the X-Men is a new spin on an old X-Men tall but is just as entertaining. I am sure any X-fan, whether they have read the comics or have just watched the movies will find these episodes to be first rate.
