Posted: Tuesday 19th August 2008

Reviewed by Jason Palmer

Professor Charles Xavier has dedicated his life to the pursuit of peace amongst humans and genetic mutants. These mutants with their special abilities are shunned from normal society but his vision is for man and mutant to live in harmony together. His school for the gifted is opening people's minds to change but there are forces at work who seek to alienate these people even more. Similarly there are mutants who see themselves as the next stage of human evolution and therefore feel they don't need to be bound by the laws and restrictions of mortal men. To combat threats on both fronts, Professor Xavier has assembled an elite team of super humans, The X-Men. They are sworn to defend mutant rights whilst protecting mankind from the powers of evil, amongst them the powerful mutant Magneto, a man who seeks to destroy the human race for their prejudices.

The X-Men have had many personnel changes over the years. This TV show started with an impressive roster - Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Rogue, Storm, Gambit, Jubilee and of course, Wolverine. This DVD set comprises of the first 7 episodes of season 1. There is plenty of Wolverine on show for the casual viewer (being the best X-Man by far) however the other team members are fleshed out more than adequately throughout the season which will please die-hard comic fans. Long time favourite villains The Sentinels also feature heavily in a two episode story arc.

This 1992 animated series finally gave X-Men fans what they have wanted for so many years. The 90's was a great decade for Marvel animation as their various properties were finally given the funding to produce decent shows. This X-Men series started that all off with story arcs utilizing so many of the best characters and storylines from the comic books. This also came years before the live action X-Men film came out so it really paved the way for a lot of Marvel Comics endeavours in the subsequent years. The story arcs too were so impressive that they ran throughout entire seasons. Long gone were the threat of the week dangers and instead we were left with a series more in common with episodic drama. It had a great mix of action, adventure and even the odd tragedy which helped make this one of the most accomplished animated properties of all time. It's definitely worth adding to your animated DVD collection, it's just a shame that this release only contains 7 episodes.