Wolverine and the X-men

[angelophile]

Apparently the first parts of this show aired while I was away, so I'm playing catchup some. Just watching the first three episodes now and filling in thoughts as I go through. I'll I'd better put them behind a cut, so I don't have to worry about spoilers, but I'll try not to give anyway too many major plot points.


EPISODE ONE

Off to a solid enough start, hitting the ground running with a Danger Room session. The tone's child-friendly but not a turn off to older viewers, so far, definitely on the same level as Evolution, which is welcome.

Unfortunately, a couple of flaws with this first section - firstly, you have to accept Piotr, Kitty and Kurt flunking out a Danger Room session and the ways they do are too contrived to be totally believable. And boy did Kitty get whiney. The major issue here though? Kurt's accent. Oy. It sounds like a stoned surfer dude trying to do German. Piotr's isn't much better.

After a shakey voice actor start, however, Logan, Rogue and Hank all nail it.

And speaking of nailing it, it seems they've lifted Rogue's man-sized crush on Logan from the movies and worked it into the cartoon. So far it's definitely hitting the right balance between combining the comics (with the school setting), the Evolution series (stylistically and tonally) and the movie (some of the personalities and relationships.

Unfortunately part of picking up the movie's themes seems to be to ensure two things: Scott's a dick and Jean's putting it about with Logan. Thankfully that triangle doesn't last long.

And everything goes to shit.

One year later: They've done Days of Future Past storylines before, but it's interesting to see it so extended, as it is here. A year later, the Mutant Registration Act has been introduced and enforced by government stooges. It's unusual to see a government painted in such a black light in a kid's cartoon. Nicely dark in tone. And, hey! Santo! Boom Boom! Is that Rahne?

Come to Genosha for sun, sand and Magneto. I approve.

Clearly this man his evil. You only have to look at his moustache.

Government employee torturing civillian? Hmm, this IS kinda dark.

The "dress up as prison guards and free the prisoners" route must be old even to kids, but I'll let it slide this once, because Hank gets to be adorably precious.

If there's one more shot of the standard adorable pre-teen moppet looking up at Logan, I shall scream.

Yay, Santo again.

Holy shit, Pyro and Boom Boom are now my new hot and sweaty OTP. And I nearly fell out of my seat when Pyro unveiled his wicked Australian accent. I'm in love.

Yay, now it's Dust's turn!

Hmm, good call Logan. But I'm now wondering what the heck the rest of the X-men did during the past year. I suspect instead of kicking ass, taking names and taking over the X-men and y'know, LEADING them, Scott must have devolved into a puddle of be-stubbled emo madness like in X3. Mind you, that wouldn't be entirely out of character, just disappointing that it's Logan making the call to arms. Hopefull there'll be a reveal next weak that Cyclops and Storm have actually been kicking ass all this time and Logan and Hank are just out of touch.

All that said and done, excellent stuff. Slick animation and character designs, scripting that was cliched but had some nice sparkle, generally decent voice acting and the sight of some more obscure characters early on. Love it. And they managed to nicely slip in the concept of Wolverine putting together a team without suddenly giving him incredible leadership skills from nowhere (clearly Boom Boom and Pyro preferred to run off to have hawt sexings together instead of sticking around to watch Logan trying to lead his way out of a paper bag. those crazy kids.)

Rating - **** - A solid start.


EPISODE TWO

Come to Genosha for sun, sand and HEY! It's Toad! Well, Toad-lite anyway. Disappointed to see them using the Ultimate design over the snivelling toady of 616, gross-out whiner of Evolution or the cocky Ray Park depiction. Ultimate version's probably my least favorite, but the idea of the Brotherhood having to bail Toad out all the time, probably because he's gone out and got bladdered and arrested again amuses.

Hah! Nice touch of the cop winding the car windscreen up as Blob stomps past.

And say hello to the Brotherhood. not sure how I feel about Pietro and (hey! Is that) Domino being bad guys again, and I don't care for either Pietro's design or his voice actor, but hardly a big issue.

And always good to see that standards in Sentinel design are still upheld. "We're here to unveil the new Sentinel, which is... HELP! WE CAN'T SHUT IT OFF!!"

Rogue: "No one will follow you. You suck as a leader!"
Wolverine: "She's right Hank, I suck."
Nice to see this stated so boldly so early on. A lot of people have taken issue with the toon's title and that Logan has zero leadership skills and to set him up as team leader is ridiculous. I always took the view that this would be addressed in some way, so it's nice to see I'm being proved right and acknowledgement that when the X-men go looking for role models and leadership material, Logan's just nicely slotted on the list between Maggott and the school's dustbin.

Nice to see Warren and Logan getting along well as always.

Stubbly emo Scott must go through a lot of TVs. Seriously dude, there's an off button you know. Although I can certainly get behind the use of eye beams to randomly blast Logan through walls, it's less effective as a TV remote.

Alas, Scott's the movieverse Scott. Give that boy a shave and some backbone at once. C'mon Scott, it's not like you to be sitting alone and doing the emo routine. At least, not unless it's as a ruse to attract those honeys who always fall for your vulnerable routine so you can get over Jean with ill-judged sexings. And Jean doesn't even need to be dead before you start with that.

Okay, now I'm a little confused. Judging by the first episode, the Mutant Registration Act had been passed and everyone was going with the hating of mutants. Now it seems it hasn't. Chronological problems this early on? Or was the group in the first episode not actually government after all? Answers on a postcard please!

I think Rogue absorbed Toad's stupid when she touched him. It's the only explanation for this.

I don't know why Domino wastes time trying to shoot anyone when she could simply walk in and beat the Senator to dead with her breasts.

Okay, second ep done. Weaker than the first as it relied on some big stretched of credibility to work. Even if some were explained, this episode relied rather too heavily on everyone being rather stupid, not just the usual suspects. Interesting to see Domino as a major player, but I would have preferred to see a little grey in the actions of the Brotherhood and I can't quite work out why Domino was used over Mystique as she seems to have been rather shoehorned into her role. Still good stuff, although Rogue's design doesn't stand up as well as the others - the angular face and transparent hair is a stepdown from the Evolution look to me.

Rating - **.5 - A step down. Not bad but average.


EPISODE THREE

Hitting the ground running, not with any action, but some nice interplay between Warren and Logan and then time for the entry of:

Yay! Emma Frost! With a nicely judged voice actress. Rocking the business suit and sharp, cutting and cool, oozing ice queen confidence but with a flash of the vulnerable. No wonder Bobby's quick to try and get in her pants open the door for her.

Oooh, digging the update for Forge. Nice beardy, geeky tech thing going on their mate. And hey, even geeks know that Wolverine's leadership skills suck. tell it how it is, Forge, baby.

Field trip! Field trip!

Seriously, Scott: REMOTE CONTROLS. It's really not that hard.

Scott and Emma - clearly lust at first sight. Just look at the way the cute little love bunnies go hating on each other. Mind you, if I saw Captain Condomhead wearing that outfit, I think I'd consider Logan to be desperate too.

And speaking of relationship snark, look at Kitty nagging Bobby like an old married couple. And hello, you know about Bobby's nocturnal habits, do you, Kitty? Just remember, your feet are like plates of ice in bed too.

Seriously Scott, forget Jean. At least Emma's honest about being a bitch.

Am I the only one thinking that even with stealth mode, attempting to sneak up on Magneto in a jet made entirely of metal isn't going to be that effective?

Scratch that, do you think wandering around Magneto's lair with bones laced with metal isn't going to be terribly effe... oh, hi Erik!

Come now, Erik, Wolverine deserves to be yanked through at least another couple of walls before you're done. You lovable old rascal you. But what's this? Now sporting a neat new Ian McKellen-lite voice actor? How fabulous. It's all suddenly got as camp as Christmas in here.

A four poster bed? Really, Erik, as medical facilities go, what it lacks in practicality it makes up for in subtext.

And on top of the physical slapping the X-men got, Magneto now gives them a verbal one. While Scott's really working hard on perfecting that brooding loner thing. Shame the whole role reversal thing isn't working out. Wolverine continues to suck monkey balls as a leader and Scott doesn't have what it takes to be the mean, mysterious one. Get over it, kids.

"And you, Logan, must lead them..." I think Scott shows remarkable restraint here. Instead of laughing hysterically, he just slides out of the room. Bless.

Oooh, Logan, you're so masterful.

A great episode, nicely giving Magneto plenty of shades of grey, in addition to showing that even with the new cool gay uncle voice he can kick major ass. The plot takes a significant jump forwards and while it seems a little forced, they have, at least, been demonstrating that if the world is to rely on Wolverine's leadership skills, everything really is screwed. But that allows room for growth and Wolverine's not so much leading at the moment as holding the team together. It's contrived but they're doing a good job showing that the premise of Wolverine the leader sounds as horrible to the characters as it does the viewers. And now Emma's on the team and, along with the new, improved Forge, who I really like, things are taking shape. Great stuff.

Rating - **** - Emma and Forge make a favorable impression and there's a tight script and action sequences.