X-Men, Vol. 1 DVD: Review By The First Avenger: JohnnyBlaze

Let me take you back in time to the year 1992. A time when the closest thing we had to reality TV was a semi staged brawl on Jerry Springer, Sharon Stone was without question the hottest women in the world after Basic instinct.(Megan Fox was still in preschool kinda weird when you think about it huh?)

And Bill Clinton was still faithful to his wife Hillary. (Snicker snicker)

Among all these pop culture highlights us twenty something year olds were treated to two of the best animated superhero cartoon series of there time; Batman: the animated series and X-men: the animated series. These two series helped shape my generation's young minds to what a super hero was all about. (Unlike that Crummy Mullet headed Captain Planet jerk)

X-men was the show us marvel fans were waiting for. After a poorly received first attempt in the notorious pilot episode "pryde of the x-men" (check it out on you tube if you dare "dingo")

X men debuted on Fox kids much to the delight of recent readers of the Legendary X-men comic series by Jim Lee and Chris Claremont which debuted a year before as after the first story arc we knew that at long last they got these characters right.

So how does this series hold up seventeen years later? Surprisingly well considering this series is about as old as a Michael Jackson child molester joke (too soon?)

The animation is both clean and colorful that is coupled with "astonishing" sound effects that fans have been clamoring for to hear from Cyclops optic blasts to Wolverine's growl to Beasts..... Shakespeare quotes.

Aside from the roster of then current x-men line up (sans a half naked pylocke) were introduced to All the x-men’s gallery of unique "dark" villains such as Magneto, the sentinels, Apocalypse, and even my personal favorite Sabretooth.

While the show was a bit more Saturday morning friendly then the dark and exciting Batman show, X-men can be credited with providing some of the best x-men stories ever written into animated form a task that would have been for naught for the talents of Claremont himself (who coincidently wrote the classic stories fans know and love from back in the 70's to mid 90's)

A favorite included in this series is the classic "days of future past" story arc that is expertly done in that its both entertaining to younger fans as well as those who read the original story back in the 80's.

Now that's not to say the show isn’t without its faults. Some of the voice actors are memorable (some so good that they were included in the "classic" video game adaptations) some just come off as annoying as a Jimmy Fallon monologue.

Also ol Wolvie's character is severely de clawed in this series as we all know that you could never do a character who experiences "berserker rages", smokes cigars, goes to bars and sleeps with other peoples girlfriends (pretty much Colin Farrel's life)can never be done justice on a Saturday morning cartoon. It wasn’t until I read in an article a couple years later that some of the writers hated Wolverine's character and purposely made him less appealing to fans hence the first episode featuring Wolvie getting taken out by Jubilee. (!?)

While Wolvie suffers the same cannot be said about the SECOND most popular x-man (no not Maggot) the ragin Cajon (no not James Carville either!) Gambit is ever the smooth talking smoother criminal we all know and have missed during the movie trilogy. Gambit is funny and clever and the show really highlights his explosive personality nicely. (Bad pun sorry)

With both entertaining action and undertones about prejudice and being accepted this first collection is truly uncanny. Nuff said.

The Good: A classic cartoon series that truly brings Lee's original art to life with colorful battles, witty dialogue, and some of the darkest undertones this side of a Tim Burton movie.

The Bad: Some of the animation doesn’t hold up well compared to more recent superhero series. Some of the screaming by the actors is about as annoying as A Carrot Top comedy act. Also Zippo on the special features although the trade off is that you get an entire season for one low price.

The Ugly: Wolvie’s character talks big, but ultimately gets tossed like a salad by nearly every character... almost like an animated Joe Dirt.