Previously on X-Men

This is the kind of stuff I'll go out of my way to support from Disney mismanagement Marvel. Supporting creatives, and actual good story possibilities.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe........ 

So it is.

I finished season one. I get what you mean. Some of it is needlessly convoluted… but the overarching plot is easy to follow. They do the Sentinels and Days of Future Past and tie it into Senator Kelly and his campaign against mutants.





I finished season two. It had some very strong episodes, most notably the Bishop/Cable ones, but Sinister as the overarching villain, and trapping Xavier & Magneto on that island, was weak sauce. They also seem to be in a rush to cover as much of the big X-Men stories as possible. I can see why Dracula feels the show was muddled. I do wonder how the show would panned out if it had paced itself.

I’m in the middle. On one hand, I do agree that the adaptations have been handled well. On the other hand… just looking over the list for season three… they do both the Phoenix saga and the Dark Phoenix saga. Why? None of this feels earned. They’re just rushing through 16 years of Chris Claremont comics. I’ve gone through two seasons of this show (roughly 26 episodes) and Jean Grey is barely a character. And yet, they’re just gonna dump the entire Phoenix arc in one giant swoop. That’s nuts.

I’ve also rewatched the ‘94 Spider-Man (which I think holds up) and they don’t fall into this trap. For example, they do Venom in season one, but they actually build up to it. Eddie Brock is an actual character on the show before we even get to the black suit. The audience doesn’t feel overwhelmed watching this show.

By the way, has anyone noticed that Stan Lee got the occasional writing credit on the Spider-Man show? Most notably he got one on the black suit episode. In the comics, Peter got the black suit while on the Secret Wars. But on the show, he gets it when Jameson’s astronaut son brings it back after a space mission. They gave Stan the Man a writing credit for that. How funny. Also amusing that Stan was more involved on this show than on X-Men. I know Stan was always open about Spidey being his favorite, but he really wasn’t shy about it. He was also the narrator on the 80’s Spider-Man cartoons. This was his baby.

I sorta threw in the towel.

For season three, I watched the Phoenix Saga and the Dark Phoenix Saga. I love the Phoenix Saga, but can we agree that Dark Phoenix sucks? Also, can Cyclops fans stop complaining that he gets the short end of the stick in the movies? Cyclops is a bitch and Jean/Phoenix should just bang Wolverine and call it a day. I also watched the episode in which Cyclops quits the X-Men and goes hang out at his orphanage. I remember liking that episode as a kid. But I was wrong. I can’t stand Cyclops. I apologize to Jubilee. Cyclops is the worst X-Men. And yet, you’d think I’d learn my lesson, but no, I also watched the episode with Cyclops’ dad. Can we kill off Cyclops and replace him with Corsair?? Last but not least, I watched the Iceman episode. Solid episode.

Season 4. There’s a bunch of Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Apocalypse episodes. I… um… I just didn’t care. I watched a random Xavier episode where he battles the Shadow King. Meh. Then I watched the Quicksilver/Wanda/Magneto episode. Pretty good episode. They used the villain from the third Guardians movie. By the way, what’s the story with Magneto’s name? Is his name Max, Magnus, Erik? Bro, just go with Erik.

Season 5. I watched one episode. Wolverine & Captain America battling Red Skull during World War II. That was awesome. Honestly. Best episode. Yeah. I said it. Come fight me.

I ended this journey with the Spider-Man and X-Men crossover. I love that 90’s Spider-Man show. Still holds up. Solid episodes. Kinda funny how Rogue wanted to hook up with Spider-Man. Did I miss something? Is Rogue now able to have sex without murdering her partner? Gambit also seemed unfazed. I might have to watch seasons 3, 4 and 5 of X-Men to solve this mystery. Goddamn it.

I’m glad this is canon.

A lot of it was editorial too. It was a constant battle to keep the X-Men from turning into Superman. Also, the need to distinguish the X-Men from the rest of Marvel. Considering all the super beings running around the Marvel verse, all the mutant bashing made no sense. A lot of the drama was artificial.

First episode was whatever.

Second episode was excellent.

Now gotta wait a week for episode three.

I’m choosing to pretend this is Michael Fassbender Magneto and not Ian McKellan Magneto.

It’s also great that he’s finally called Erik and not… Magnus… or whatever dumb name he had in the OG series.

I think he's on his third or fourth name in current comics continuity.

Fun fact: his defense in the UN Trial in the comics was that he was previously de-aged into a baby and thus couldn't be deemed responsible for anything that happened previous. It worked! Paired with an attack from nazi-incest twins that he helped save the UN from.

Wyldstaar knows what I'm talking about.

There's stuff I didn't care for.

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This is a story that deserved a multiepisode arc, and if developed in the films should be a 2 or 3 movie seed-and-payoff kinda deal.