This series was SO GOOD, was my first introduction to the X-Men, and it’s stuck with me ever since. I haven’t seen it in AGES, I watched it the first time when I was a kid on the telly, all out of order and with a 9 yr old brain so rewatching it much older has been a revelation. So much they managed to get into to one action packed season. I forgot how much of an impact these characters really had on me — they’re the definitive versions of the characters for me. Even after all the comics and adaptions I’ve seen of them, this is what I come back to. (Haven’t seen X-Men Evolution, unfortunately, I’m gonna get on that.)

I love the sustained storylines throughout this season, this show being released in a pre streaming service congested world, it’s interesting to see how they do it differently to how you’d expect these days; for one, we get treated to Steve Blum’s “Previously, on Wolverine and the X-Men,” and they also still manage to have their single episode contained stories. Sometimes it’s a bit jarring, like Arc Angel’s storyline happening in a single episode, but sometimes it’s really fun, and offers a nice change of pace. And even with the Arc Angel storyline, I still liked how they hit major beats in the single episode regardless.

I love the designs for most of the characters, I love how comic book inspired the look is, I love the line up they went for, the action is incredible, no really; it’s a stand out — fight scenes always feel like they have stakes and the X-Men take damage and never feel like they get through a fight easy, and villains and heroes alike have their powers used interestingly in a fight. The opening sequence itself is a great example of this. One character who does get totally nerfed is perhaps Storm though.

Which leads to my point on characters; like I said, I really love the way the story handles the characters because it’s my first exposure to them so they just have that special place in my heart, but after having read comics and even seen other adaptations, I can see there’s some choices made in adapting characters that are strange.

Storm, besides her excellent introductory episode, isn’t given much focus, which is kind of criminal considering her power level and just the fact that she’s a core member. Or should be.

Quite a few of the main cast have little storylines of their own; it wasn’t quite noticeable to me at first, because they all feel important in fights and the main plot but don’t have much by way of character arcs. I mean, Pietro has more of an arc than Bobby and Kitty combined. Still though, I love those two anyway, they are just fun to see on screen when they appear.

They do an interesting thing with Scott’s character; you can probably tell from the title that Wolverine is the main focus and is also the de facto leader of the X-Men in this iteration. He’s done so before, and the show deals with Cyclops by positioning him as too crippled by grief from losing Jean to lead the team. I actually dig this angle for him. Again, bias, this is my first Scott Summers encounter in media and he ended up my favourite character this season despite his whole shtick being “guy whose entire personality is loving his girlfriend”. Why not, truly. I think it might be what Nolan North brings to the role; Mr North does turbulent emotion and internal conflict very well so it just sells, for me personally. And it’s just an interesting change; Scott is always my favourite because of his very classic heroic nature, but I like seeing him in this “Broken Ace” kind of role as well.

I also loved Night Crawler here, I forget who voices him, think it might be Liam O’Brien (edit: it is), his design is great, Liam does wonderful in the role, and he has a nice moment at the start of the season with a few dedicated episodes on him and remains relevant and is utilised well throughout. I especially love how the fights use his powers—again, the fights are a standout for how they effectively show and use all the X-Men’s powers—it really makes them feel like a team.

I also really enjoyed the character of Emma Frost, she’s surprisingly soft in this series, but still intriguing if you can excuse that her arc boils down to her love for Scott. Still. That final scene with her exploding into diamond shards is magnificently done. I even managed to care about the love triangle. Kari Wahlgreen does wonderfully here.

The season is packed with culminating storylines and to the show’s credit, manages to mostly wrap it all up by the finale. I loved how they structured and wrote the way the past in the flashbacks, the present, and the future, all affect and interact in the plot, especially the switching storylines with Future Professor X and current Wolverine, and the way they manage to keep the stakes raised and real for both. They are balanced really well and create tension, really excitingly done with the finale too. Which was awesome. The finale was wholly awesome.

Other random thoughts before ending this rather long rant:
- the first episode of this show is so effective at showing us who Wolverine is, the stakes of the season, the villains, the humanising of innocent people and introducing the main conflicts of the show. Really great episode.
- love how they early episodes also go about “collecting” the X-Men; it’s just an effective way to set up their history and characters
- I really liked Pietro here. I don’t usually care for him but he’s great here? Maybe I should give his stuff a shot.
- the brotherhood was actually good to see here, they feel useful and able to pose a threat, and the brief moments of seeing them feel like a team just like the X-Men
- I liked Lorna’s character here; it could have been one-note but what they do with her in the future makes her more interesting
- I loved all the villains here; I think everyone feels threatening, from Senator Kelly, to Magneto, to Sabretooth, to the Sentinels, to SHEILD—every player has something to do.
- GOD WHAT I WOULDN’T DO FOR ANOTHER SEASON