Throwback Thursday: X-Men: Evolution

As X-Men: Apocalypse continues filming and the "First Class" trilogy comes to a close, as well as the Rogue Cut for Days of Future Past coming soon, we look back on one of the X-Men's oft-ignored animated adventures. While many spring to Fox Kids' classic series when X-Men cartoons are mentioned, there exists another X-Men series equally worthy of fandom's love. X-Men: Evolution, which aired on Kids WB shortly after Bryan Singer's first X-Men film, raised a new generation of X-Men fans much like it nineties predecessor did. A series filled with plenty of iconic moments and compelling arcs, X-Men: Evolution is an interesting addition to the X-mythos that deserves, at the very least, some exploration. 

The heir to the '92 X-Men animated series, X-Men: Evolution brought a whole new look to the X-verse that nobody had seen before. Going back to the Xavier School's roots of being a home for teens, the ages of the primary characters are scaled back to where they're in high school. Debuting in November 2000, the X-Men movie from the summer (is that really 15 years old?) still fresh on everyone's mind, it seemed a perfect chance to launch a new X-Men cartoon. 

Shying away from the darker tone of the '92 series, Evolution became its own thing, using notes of comic canon for story beats, but kept it light with being a teen drama in a way. Cyclops, Jean, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Spyke (a creation for the show, with a power set similar to Marrow's) made up the primary X-Men team, with Wolverine and Storm actually being the field commanders and mentors. Some elements of the '92 show are still in the mix, such as Scott and Jean's flirtationship, Rogue feeling like an outsider, Wolverine being a bit salty, and the world full of prejudice against mutants. Kitty Pryde's role here mirrors Jubilee's as the spunky, somewhat ditsy party girl. 

The first season concentrates primarily of the team going up against the Brotherhood, who is actually led by Mystique, until it's revealed that she is simply taking orders from a higher power, which of course was revealed to be Magneto. There's a showdown that takes place on Asteroid M, culminating in Scott and his brother Alex destroying it, make it seem that Magneto, Mystique, and others have died during the explosion. Well in the Season Two, we find out, that wasn't exactly the case.

Using the chemistry between Magneto and Mystique from the X-Men movie, it's dropped in and explored more in Evolution. Season Two also expands the roster to include the New Mutants as well as include Beast as one of the teachers. Season Two was also the introduction to Scarlet Witch and her unpredictable powers. The Magneto/Quicksilver/Scarlet Witch dynamic was the backbone for a lot of the season as well as future episodes. Magneto later aligns himself with Colossus, Sabretooth, Pyro, and Gambit as his Acolytes. This is where it truly sets itself apart from any sort of X-canon that has come before it. The big reveal at the end was the coming of Apocalyse. 

Seasons Three and Four is where things start going a bit dark. Even Wolverine changes costumes to reflect the modern era and goes from a retooled brown and tan costume to the Ultimate X-Men look . 

The biggest change, aside from tone, was the departure of Spyke from the team. His powers were becoming too much and disfigured him, so he found himself among the ranks of the Morlocks. The main arc was how Apocalypse was coming, and Rogue finding out her true heritage: being Mystique's foster daughter, which makes her Nightcrawler's foster brother. The last two seasons acted as a full departure from what had become. It wasn't just about saving mutant kind, but now the entire world. 

Obviously good triumphs over the power of evil, and Apocalypse is defeated and sent through time. The series had a small epilogue of things that were to come had the series not been canceled, including Jean's transformation into the Phoenix, Nimrod and his army of Sentinels, and the team going full Ultimate with synced up uniforms. 

X-Men: Evolution has its own legacy, even though it's not as well-remembered, but it is the third longest Marvel cartoon right after Spider-Man: The Animated Series and its predecessor, X-Men: The Animated series. The treatment of taking the team back to the roots of being the "strangest teens of all time" should be admired more and complimented. An X-series has yet to go back to the series' original start since Evolution, but since the X-Men are now part of the pop cultural zeitgeist, it's possibly doubtful they ever will again. The series is also the first appearance of X-23, who was later adapted into the comics a few years later. 

The show may be a footnote for X-Men mythos, but it was still entertaining and, arguably, ahead of its time. 

What do you remember about the show, readers? How does it rank against the original X-Men cartoon or Wolverine & The X-Men? Sound off! 

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