X-Men: Evolution


X-Men: Evolution is an American-Canadian animated television series about the Marvel Comics superhero team X-Men. In this incarnation, many of the characters were teenagers instead of adults. The series ran for a total of four seasons from November 4, 2000 until October 25, 2003 on Kids' WB, which at the time made it the third longest-running Marvel Comics animated series, behind only Fox Kids' X-Men and Spider-Man animated series. The series began running on Disney XD on June 15, 2009.
Produced in the United States, the voice recording was done in Canada and the show was animated in Japan and South Korea.

Plot

Season One

The first season introduces the core characters and lays the foundations for future story lines. Professor X, Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm and Jean Grey make up the original X-Men. As the season develops, the ranks of the X-Men are bolstered by the appearance of Nightcrawler in the first episode, Shadowcat in the second, Spyke in the fifth, and Rogue in the third. In the later episodes of this season, Nightcrawler discovers the identity of his birth mother, Wolverine finds answers to his past, Rogue switches sides to join the X-Men and Xavier's half-brother, Juggernaut, is released from his prison.
Confrontations are typically with the Brotherhood, who vie for new recruits with the X-Men over the course of the season. Toad is the first to be introduced, followed by Avalanche, Blob and Quicksilver. The Brotherhood, led by Mystique, are in fact being directed by a higher power, the identity of whom was "revealed" in the two-part season finale as being Magneto. After Cyclops discovers that his brother Alex actually survived the plane crash that killed their parents, they are both taken by Magneto into his "sanctuary" on Asteroid M. Magneto captures several X-Men and Brotherhood members in an attempt to amplify their mutant abilities and remove their emotions. The Brotherhood and X-Men show up leaving Magneto, Sabretooth and Mystique trapped on the asteroid. Asteroid M is destroyed by Scott and Alex Summers, but not before two metal spheres fly from the exploding asteroid.

Season Two

The second season sees the addition of several new mutants, including Beast, who becomes a teacher at the Xavier Institute and an X-Man, as well as a version of the New Mutants: Boom Boom, Sunspot, Iceman, Wolfsbane, Magma, Multiple, Jubilee, Berzerker, and Cannonball. During the course of the season, it is revealed that the villains who supposedly perished on Asteroid M are actually alive. Sabretooth continues his pursuit of Wolverine, while Magneto continues to work his own agenda. Mystique poses as Risty Wilde, a high school student at Bayville High who befriends Rogue and breaks into the mansion to steal Xavier's Cerebro files. Using the files, she recovers Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, Magneto's daughter and Quicksilver's sister. The mentally unstable mutant joins the Brotherhood upon Mystique's return, allowing them to defeat the X-Men in a battle at the Bayville Mall. Before the finale, a pivotal episode aired featuring the telepath Mesmero opening one of three doors that would unleash a mutant known as Apocalypse.
In the season finale, Xavier rigorously trains his X-Men to face Magneto, pairing them with the Brotherhood. Cyclops, furious with having to work with his former adversaries, leaves the team. The mansion is later set to self-destruct with Cyclops and several students still inside. Magneto, meanwhile, recruits Sabretooth, Gambit, Pyro and Colossus as his Acolytes to fight the X-Men/Brotherhood team. At the same time, Wolverine is captured by Bolivar Trask to use as a test subject for the anti-mutant weapon, the Sentinel. Magneto continues to manipulate events by unleashing the Sentinel onto the city, forcing the X-Men to use their powers in public. Wanda tracks down Magneto and attacks him while he is trying to deal with the Sentinel that is targeting him. The Sentinel is damaged and apparently crushes Magneto as it falls. When the mutants who have not been captured by the Sentinel return to the remains of the mansion, Cyclops and the students emerge from the explosion with minor injuries. Scott throws Xavier from his wheelchair and blames him for blowing up the mansion. Everyone is shocked as Xavier calmly stands up, transforming into Mystique.

Season Three

In the third season, the show notably begins to take a much more serious tone. After the battle with the Sentinel, the mutants are no longer a secret and public reaction is one of hostility. The show is brought into more traditional X-Men lore, dealing with themes of prejudice, public misconception, and larger threats. As the season progresses, the real Xavier is found, Mystique is defeated, the mansion is rebuilt, and the X-Men are allowed back into Bayville High. Scott and Jean develop a stronger and closer romantic relationship, Spyke leaves the X-Men when his mutant ability becomes uncontrollable, deciding to live with the sewer-dwelling mutants known as the Morlocks, and Wanda continues to search for Magneto, who she discovers was saved by Quicksilver at the last second, until Magneto uses the telepathic mutant Mastermind to change her childhood memories.
As part of the series arc, Rogue loses control of her powers, leading to her hospitalization. During this time, she learns that she is in fact Mystique's adoptive daughter. Mystique, through the visions of the mutant Destiny, foresaw that the fate of Rogue and herself lay in the hands of an ancient mutant that would be resurrected. Apocalypse emerges in the season's final episodes. Mesmero manipulates Magneto into opening the second door, and uses Mystique and a hypnotized Rogue to open the last, turning Mystique to stone in the process. Now released, Apocalypse easily defeats the combined strength of the X-Men, Magneto, the Acolytes, and the Brotherhood before escaping.

Season Four

The final season contained only nine episodes. In the season premiere, Apocalypse apparently kills Magneto while Rogue murders Mystique by pushing her petrified figure off a cliff, leaving Nightcrawler without closure. The Brotherhood become temporary do-gooders, Wolverine's teenage girl clone X-23 returns, Xavier travels to Scotland in order to confront his son David, Spyke and the Morlocks rise to the surface, Rogue is kidnapped by Gambit and taken to Louisiana to help free his father, and Shadowcat discovers a mutant ghost who is found in a cave. The character Leech is also introduced as a young boy named "Dorian Leach".
In the finale, Apocalypse defeats Xavier and Storm, transforming them, along with Magneto and Mystique, into his Four Horsemen. Apocalypse instructs his Horsemen to protect his three domes and his 'base of operations', which will turn the majority of the world population into mutants. In the final battle, the Horsemen are returned to normal and Apocalypse is sent through time. Rogue and Nightcrawler refuse the excuses of their mother, Shadowcat and Avalanche find love once again, Magneto is reunited with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, Storm and Spyke are also reunited, and Xavier sees his students reunited as the X-Men.

Final moments

The series ends with a speech by Charles Xavier, who had caught a glimpse of the not-too-distant future while being controlled by Apocalypse. The following future scenarios were foreseen:
Had the show continued after its two-part Season 4 finale, "Ascension", with thirteen more episodes would have been produced. It would likely focus on the constant persecution and discrimination mutantkind continues to receive from normal people since being discovered at the end of. It would also have adapted its own version of "the Dark Phoenix" saga, with Jean Grey being taken over by the all-powerful dark Phoenix Force entity within her, as foreseen by Professor X, and with the X-Men attempting to save her from "herself". This would take place a few years later.

Cast and characters

X-Men: Evolution featured several songs that were produced exclusively for the show:
The theme and score for X-Men: Evolution was composed and produced by William Kevin Anderson. Several characters had distinct musical cues, including Avalanche, Storm, and Apocalypse. Others had special sound effects. These include Jean Grey, Sabretooth, Rogue, Magneto, Gambit, Shadowcat, and Nightcrawler. The main theme song was recorded by Anderson.

Production notes

One of the main points of the new X-Men: Evolution concept was the design of the new costumes. Early concept art sketches show the X-Men in classic gold-and-black garb. In these drafts, Spyke wears cornrows, Rogue's outfit exposes her midriff, and Jean Grey's costume is the female version of Cyclops' costume. Both Jean Grey and Shadowcat wear face masks, and Kitty is also wearing an orange miniskirt and Doc Martens over spandex. Early Storm drawings show her wearing white rather than black.
A point of controversy was the design of the blue-skinned villain Mystique. Steven E. Gordon, the character designer and director of various episodes, was never impressed with the Mystique designs for the first season. Mystique was originally to be presented as nude, but Warner Brothers did not want this included in a Kids' WB! production. However, a short scene of Mystique drawn to resemble her film counterpart appears in the Season 1 finale. Gordon stopped directing after two seasons, but continued to design characters for the show. He is most satisfied with the designs of Rogue and Wanda.
The show also contained various pop culture references: in episode 9 of the first season, one of Wolverine's defensive programs for the Danger Room is referred to as "Logan's Run X13", a clear reference to the novel/film Logan's Run. The Rogue/Kitty dance in "Spykecam" was modeled after a similar dance in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Bad Girls". The play used in the first season episode "Spykecam", Dracula: The Musical, is a real play. The song used, however, is an original song made for the episode. The writers of the show have also admitted that they were fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Using Shadowcat as the catalyst, the two shows appear similar: a teenage girl with superpowers fights powerful villains in order to save her high school. Buffy creator Joss Whedon has openly credited his inspiration for Buffy as Kitty Pryde.
Starting with the first episode of Season 4, "Impact", the episode title was no longer aired on-screen at the beginning of the show, and X-Men: Evolution became the third longest-running Marvel cartoon, behind Spider-Man: The Animated Series and X-Men: The Animated Series. Boyd Kirkland, the show's producer, says his favorite X-Men: Evolution season is Season 3. The monthly budget for X-Men: Evolution was $350,000.
Produced in the United States, the voice recording was done in Canada and the show was animated in Japan and South Korea. most of the animation has been outsourced to Madhouse, and Mook Animation, in japan, DR Movie, and WHITE LINE in south korea.

Successors

The show gave birth to a new series, Wolverine and the X-Men, which began airing in November 2009. It was not a continuation of X-Men: Evolution, though the same creative team was behind the show: Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Steven E. Gordon, Greg Johnson and Boyd Kirkland all returned to work on the series.
In 2012, Jean Grey and Robert Kelly appeared in the episode "The X-Factor".

Reception

According to IGN, the show aired "much to X-fans' initial protests and lamentations." RPGnet enjoyed Evolution's second season, hailing it as the show's "transition season." An improvement over the show's first season "in every way," X-Men: Evolution, according to RPGnet, "introduc many... re-imagined characters from X-Men lore that will certainly entertain the X-Men fans," specifically Beast and Principal Kelley. However, RPGnet wrote, "Some episodes could easily be cut out of the show and they would not be missed," describing the dialogue as "atrocious at times" and some of the characters as "very one dimensional." Positively, Fred Choi of The Tech hailed X-Men: Evolution as "the best incarnation of X-Men yet," admitting that "There are a few changes which will send s howling in the streets." However, Choi acknowledged that "The students generally have abilities more powerful than they ever had in the comics," specifically mentioning intangible Shadowcat and telekinetic Jean Grey. While praising the show's animation and music – "cleaner than the original series" – Choi described the transformation of Rogue "into a reclusive goth chick" as " completely baffling but surprisingly palatable."
Noting the show's treatment of its characters, specifically making them high school teenagers for thematic purposes as "admirable," John G. Nettles of PopMatters concluded, "What disappoints, however, is the sheer number of missed opportunities here and the decision to subscribe to the same old social norms." Reviewing X-Men: Evolution's third season, Filip Vukcevic of IGN was mixed in his analysis, deeming it inferior to X-Men: The Animated Series and concluding, "Evolution... will interest long-time X-fans, but the fluffy stories and underutilized character personalities... will cause discerning viewers to zone out," suffering from its attempt "to cram everyone in." Additionally, the author felt that Evolution lacks the "visual flair" of The Batman and the "wit" of Teen Titans. The author also panned the series' "average" voice acting, feeling that Magneto, Wolverine and Beast were "miscast." However, he positively noted that, combined with "inventive gags," "the show does its best to make the most of the mutants' powers" because "The fight scenes are fun to watch if only to see how the characters interact."

Awards and nominations

X-Men: Evolution won the award for Outstanding Sound Mixing – Special Class at the 28th Daytime Emmy Awards, on May 18, 2001 and won the award for Outstanding Sound Editing – Live Action and Animation at the 30th Daytime Emmy Awards, on May 16, 2003.
It also won the Cover of the Year Award in 2004 for best animated figure for Beast. It was nominated for several Golden Reel Awards, as well as other Emmys. Steven E. Gordon, the director of this show, was nominated in the Production Design in an Animated Television Production category for X-Men: Evolution at the 2001 Annie Awards.

Analysis

Comparison with original comics

The X-Men: Evolution series was targeted at a younger audience and as such portrays the majority of characters as teenagers rather than adults like in X-Men: The Animated Series. In the series, like many animated series based on comics, completely new characters were introduced including Spyke. As much of the cast were teenagers, they are shown regularly attending high school in addition to the Xavier's Institute. At the latter, Professor X, Storm, Wolverine and later Beast also acted as their teachers at the institute. Beast also served as a teacher to the cast at high school prior to his transformation.
X-Men: Evolution is set in Bayville, New York, the state established in the episode "The Beast of Bayville", where Kitty Pryde receives a package addressed to Bayville, New York. Furthermore, in the early part of the series most people are unaware of the existence of mutants. Also, the "Brotherhood" team is not known as the "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" within the context of this series. They are not a team of terrorists or mutant supremacists. Instead, the Brotherhood is made up of misfit mutants who often oppose the X-Men.
The series was created as a stark contrast to X-Men: The Animated Series. The series' bible was written by Robert N. Skir and Marty Isenberg, who meant to take The X-Men back to their roots as high school students learning to control their superpowers, as when the comics termed them "The Strangest Teens of All". Whereas the Fox series reflected the then-current role of X-Men as freedom fighters battling persecution and bigotry against mutantkind, X-Men: Evolution used the theme of mutant powers as a metaphor for the struggles of adolescence.
The look of the series was designed by Producer Boyd Kirkland and artist Frank Paur, who created new costumes for the X-Men, replacing the comics-faithful designs of X-Men: The Animated Series with anime-influenced costumes which were much more animation-friendly.
The first season mainly concerned the characters' conflict with Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants as well as served as an introductory to many of the characters to allow people to get used to these new teenage versions. Later seasons predominantly featured Apocalypse as an adversary, introduced versions of the New Mutants, Morlocks and Magneto's Acolytes as well as posed the U.S. Government as an adversary to all parties.
The series revealed a detailed knowledge of canon history in a number of small ways. Examples include the evolution of Cerebro from a console device, Shadowcat's initial uneasiness around Nightcrawler and Forge's scientific arrogance along with his devices causing unintended consequences. Rogue is shown to absorb Cyclops' powers in the correct manner. In the Fox series, she also absorbed his lack of control over his beams. X-Men: Evolution shows her with full control over them, just as Scott would if he had not sustained a brain injury. In "Survival of the Fittest", Xavier says that Juggernaut acquired his powers through mysticism, and in "The Cauldron" Magneto develops his mutant-enhancing technology from that same Jewel of Cyttorak. In "Day of Recovery", Toad is seen to be quite comfortable with technology and in "Operation Rebirth", the POW camp Magneto is held in as a child is visually similar to Auschwitz, though it is not identified as such.
In addition, Beast's origin is almost identical to that of the comic, despite the change in profession and setting. Mesmero is shown as part of a circus troupe, much like his appearance in the "Phoenix Saga". Aside from this, supporting characters like Bolivar Trask, Nick Fury, Captain America, Destiny, Agatha Harkness and Amanda Sefton were all taken from the X-Men comic, usually serving to homage to originals without necessarily staying completely faithful to their form.
Another difference between the comic and the show is the name changes. Toad, originally Mortimer Toynbee, is changed to Todd Tolansky, and Avalanche, originally Dominic Petros, is changed to Lance Alvers. Both changed names have similarities to their codenames. Also, their nationalities were changed to American from, respectively, British and Greek.

Evolution characters in the comics and films

X-23, an original character introduced in later seasons, made her comic book debut in the miniseries NYX, where her appearance was slightly altered to more closely resemble Wolverine. She received a self-titled comic miniseries in 2005. Much like Harley Quinn of ', Terry McGinnis of Batman Beyond or Marvel's own Firestar of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, she was a character originally created for an animated series that was incorporated into comic book canon. The character of Dr. Deborah Risman which created X-23, the clone of Wolverine, was also created for the show and was replaced with a similar character named Dr. Sarah Kinney in the miniseries X-23.
The comic book X-Statix featured an African-American mutant with the same codename and abilities as Spyke; however, this version of Spyke was not related to Storm, had a very different personality, and is a completely separate character. Another similar character appeared in ', but as a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants. He is listed as Spike in the credits, but is not mentioned by name in the film, and has no dialogue. When Wolverine invades the forest base of the Brotherhood, Spike is one of the characters that attacks him, demonstrating abilities identical to those shown by the Spyke character before he lost control of his mutation. Another similar character, who bears a greater resemblance to Spyke appears in , but again, he is not named. In the canon Storm has a teenaged cousin, not a nephew, named David Evans, but he is apparently too young to display any mutant abilities.

Marvel references and cameos

X-Men: Evolution weaves many references and cameos into its show. One of the masks worn by the vandals in the Season 3 episode "Mainstream", bears a suitable resemblance to the classic Marvel Comics monster, Fin Fang Foom. In the Season 3 episode "Under Lock and Key", circumstances gather a mix of X-Men, junior members, and nonmembers into a mission team that matches the original X-Men team —Iceman mentions that this is "definitely the cool team." In the Season 3 episode "Dark Horizons Part 1" when Rogue enters Kitty's room, Kitty is seen sleeping with a stuffed purple dragon, a reference to Lockheed, her purple dragon companion. Also in "Dark Horizons Part 2", Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Shadowcat are grouped together when the X-Men and the Acolytes are separated, a reference to the Europe-based superhero team Excalibur which included all three mutants in its roster.
Captain America is the only non-mutant Marvel superhero and mutate to appear on Evolution. There is also, however, a small Iron Man reference in the episode "On Angel's Wings", when a sign reading "Stark Enterprises" is seen during an exterior shot of New York City and a small Spider-Man reference when Angel was reading the Daily Bugle, the newspaper that Peter Parker/Spider-Man normally takes pictures for. In addition, Omega Red mentions Maverick and Kestrel in the episode "Target X", referring to the latter as "Wraith". In "Dark Horizons Part 2" the hieroglyphics translated by Beast refer to the Pharaoh Rama-Tut, one identity of Kang the Conqueror.

Home media release

iTunes

All four seasons are available for download in SD format on iTunes, being released in 2009 by Marvel. All 4 seasons immediately broke into the Top 10 Animation charts on iTunes, with season 4 peaking at #3.

DVD

Streaming services

  • Disney+ - All four seasons are currently available as of November 2019.
  • Netflix - The series is not currently available on Netflix, though does offer the DVD.
  • YouTube - All four seasons were uploaded on YouTube, however Marvel Entertainment's YouTube channel listed them as private.
  • Google Play - All four seasons are currently available on Google Play, although the show is inaccessible in some countries, such as Poland.
  • Hulu - Hulu had all episodes available on streaming as early as 2009. However, it is no longer available.
  • Amazon - All four seasons are currently available on Amazon Instant Video.
  • iTunes - All four seasons are currently available for purchase on the iTunes Store.

    Merchandise

Comic books

In January 2002, Marvel Comics began publishing an X-Men: Evolution comic book, partially based on the show. Written by Devin K. Grayson with art by Studio XD, it was abruptly canceled after the ninth issue due to low sales. The series has been reprinted in two trade paperbacks.
The comic introduced the Evolution version of the Morlocks before they appeared on the show, and their appearances and motivations were radically different in both versions. It also featured an appearance from Mimic who never appeared on the show.
An ongoing plot line would have introduced the Evolution version of Mister Sinister, but the comic was canceled before it could be resolved. However, the cover of the unreleased issue 10 does reveal his intended character design.

Action figurines

created a line of action figures. Taco Bell ran the first X-Men: Evolution themed promotion with its Kid's Meals. Burger King also ran a Kid's Meal promotion which included X-Men: Evolution toys. Each toy included a mini-disc with games, screen-savers, and a mini-comic related to the character. The lineup included Rogue, Mystique, Cyclops, Wolverine, Magneto, Quicksilver, Nightcrawler, and Toad.