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It’s undeniable that the early 1990’s animated X-Men remains one of the best, and most popular, adaptations of a comic book series to the small screen ever.

For years, fans of the series have cobbled together the seventy-six episode odyssey with the help of ebay, bootlegs, and poorly recorded, sometimes wobbly, taped-from-TV versions of the show, that were usually accompanied by commercials for that damn Taz-Mania cartoon.

The search, dear travelers, is ending. Finally, beginning with the first thirty-three episodes, X-Men: The Animated Series is coming to DVD on today in two volumes.

While it’s not the complete series, it is, at least, a start towards releasing the series in high-quality production, not uber-digitalized and pixilated bootleg form.

While there were many highs during the series’ run, there were a few “dips” as well. Listed below, in no particular order, are a few of the odd, misguided, or simply bad episodes from this otherwise excellent show.

The Unstoppable Juggernaut (Season One)

While it was great to see Juggie added to this series so early on, his introduction was strange at best. Jubilee and Wolverine stumble across Juggernaut while he’s robbing a bank and quickly find themselves overpowered. After help from Colossus, the X-Men are able to defeat Xavier’s half-brother.

What makes this episode so odd is the absence of ordinary people. Does no one live in this part of what appears to be New York City? Juggernaut destroys at least three buildings and all of them, miraculously, are abandoned. The brevity of this episode is also nagging. With as many two-part episodes as X-Men had, surely this one begged a “to be continued” teaser at the end, setting up a larger, more action-packed showdown with the magic-powered tower of rage.

Beauty and the Beast (Season Two)

One of the best features of the series was Beast’s portrayal as the intelligent, learned scholar that he was in the more recent X-Men comics. While there were many episodes that featured excellent uses of Beast, this particular one was tiresome and cliché. One of Beast’s patients in a local hospital, Carly, is blind (of course), and they quickly develop an attraction for each other.

While this may have been an effective ‘knowing is half the battle’ message for young kids watching on the power of brains over beauty, adults quickly knew where this was going. Complicating things was the fact that Carly’s father represented the prejudiced townsfolk of the classic tales this one is based on, with the anti-mutant Friends of Humanity getting involved also. A bit of an angst-ridden episode, and sadly, a motif that would be repeated in other comic series.

Courage (Season Three/Season Four)

Poor Morph. He just couldn’t seem to catch a break during the run of this show. You knew something was up from the opening credits, where he was noticeably absent! After finding out several episodes back that he in fact survived the Sentinel attack in the first two episodes, viewers got to see Morph trying to be an X-Man again in this one.

This episode has him and Wolverine investigating a return of the Sentinels, with Morph getting cold feet and flashbacks at first, but eventually gaining the strength to turn the tables on the robots this time. He decides he is not quite ready to return to active duty, and the episode feels like the equivalent of a shoulder shrug and an “OK”.

Love in Vain (Season Four)

This episode deals with the altering of one of the X-Men’s few extraterrestrial villains, the Brood. Wolverine is covered by alien figures he sees emerging from a crashing spaceship, where the rest of the X-Men must step in and defeat the parasites. Although called “the Family” in this episode, the tameness and restraint shown here compared to what the Brood actually are made this one ho-hum.

Whereas the Brood are known for infecting the “host” body and taking it over, the Family are known for implanting spores in order to reproduce. Further underwhelming us in this episode is the fact that it, too, is a one-shot. Align this with a so-so and too convenient plot point with Rogue’s first boyfriend, Cody, turning out to be part of an intricate plan to make Rogue the new “queen” of this group and the entire episode just feels like a mess, other-wordly or earthly.

Overall the X-Men series provided many hours of enjoyment, comic book indulgence, and a refreshing sense of history that few other animated series, despite the hero or group, have been able to capture. Its arrival on DVD is a welcome relief to fans, despite the few aberrations from the greatness that made this series what it was for so many years.

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