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So Volume 3 and 4 have been released together, but isn’t there only one volume left? Maybe THAT one will have all the extras!
The Main Characters
--The main cast of characters here are Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Gambit, Storm, Professor X, Jubilee, Rogue and Beast. They are all super-powered mutants, or people born with their extraordinary abilities. Wolverine has claws made of unbreakable metal called adamantium and has a healing factor. Jean Grey is a telekinetic and a telepath, Cyclops shoots optic blasts out of his eyes, Gambit can charge objects that can explode on contact, Storm controls the weather, Professor X is the strongest telepath on the planet and Rogue can steal anyone’s power and memories and also has super-strength and flight. Finally, Beast is super-dexterous and is also blue and furry.
The Setting
The X-Men live in Xavier’s mansion Westchester, NY, but their adventures bring them everywhere.
The Collection
The episodes are numbered as they are on the box, and are continued from Volumes 1 & 2 (which brought us to episode 33).
---Disc One---
34) Savage Land, Strange Heart Part I (21:17)
Original Airdate: 09/10/94
Sauron fights off Ka-Zar in the Savage Land when a woman working for the idol, Garrok, tells Sauron (Karl Lykos in real life) to flee the Savage Land. This seemed to be at the behest of Magneto. Sauron ends up in New York (where a Comic Con is going on!) and while there he runs into the X-Men. He kidnaps Storm and brings her back to the Savage Land. She’s made to lose control of her powers as the X-Men head out to save her. Garrok is about to be resurrected at the close of the episode.
35) Savage Land, Strange Heart Part II (21:19)
Original Airdate: 09/17/94
Storm continues causing havoc with the weather and the X-Men try and stop her. Their last resort is to send Karl Lykos up to absorb her powers. Storm is knocked out and Sauron reappears. Garrok is resurrected, due in part to events that happened the last time the X-Men were in the Savage Land. Storm is basically the only X-Men to put up a fight, until Sauron interjects himself to try and absorb the same power Garrok was using. The three of them manage to cancel each other out and the threat of both Garrok and Sauron are over. This was close to the X-Men storyline from Uncanny X-Men that followed the Phoenix Saga, except Beast is there in place of Colossus and Jubilee in place of Kitty Pryde. Obviously it doesn’t have the many layers the original did, but it was a good adaptation for the series.
36) Obsession (21:23)
Original Airdate: 09/24/94
Archangel is obsessed with finding and destroying Apocalypse. He does the finding; it’s the destroying part he has troubles with. They also learn of Apocalypse’s massive sentient ship. Beast, Cyclops and Wolverine board it and they are able to figure out a way capture Apocalypse, but the ship had a pre-programmed counter-measure. Luckily the trio is able to save themselves as Archangel ands Rogue go after Apocalypse. Apocalypse makes it back to the ship and he’s captures but Apocalypse breaks free. The ship, badly damaged by an enraged Angel, helps Beast stop Apocalypse and re-imprison him.
37) The Dark Phoenix Part I: Dazzled (21:17)
Original Airdate: 11/12/94
Jean is being tested at Muir Island and she calls to Cyclops for help. Cyke is in the city watching a show when he leaves. He meets a mutant named Dazzler who is attacked by Donald Pierce. Cyke saves her and he heads home to meet Jean. We head to the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, or a group of evil mutants. They are led by Sebastian Shaw who oversees the White Queen, Pierce and Leland. They plan on harnessing the power of Jean’s Phoenix. The White Queen is able to do this by invading her mind with Jason Wyngarde brining her under an illusion. The Hellfire Club takes Jean and the X-Men are there to try and save her. Much like the comic book, the X-Men are utterly defeated, with Leland dropping Wolverine into the sewer with his gravity power, and the rest of the X-Men getting captured.
38) The Dark Phoenix Part II: The Inner Circle (21:17)
Original Airdate: 11/12/94
The X-Men are the captives of the Inner Circle and all seems lost, even when Cyclops loses a mental duel with Jason Wyngarde. Cyclops is killed in the mental plane but Cyke’s connection to Jean Grey keeps her alive. To compound things for the Inner Circle, Wolverine makes his way back from the sewers to exact revenge. Phoenix knocks Wolvie down but when Wyngarde loses control of Phoenix this allows the X-Men to defeat the Hellfire Club. The Phoenix reveals who Wyngarde truly is (Mastermind) before losing all control and becoming the Dark Phoenix.
39) The Dark Phoenix Part III: The Dark Phoenix (20:23)
Original Airdate: 11/19/94
The Dark Phoenix battles and defeats the X-Men before flying into space and feeding on a star. Now in the comic this resulted in the loss of a billion lives while here it resulted in no deaths. The Shi’ar get wind of this and they want to stop the Phoenix, who is returning home. She encounters the X-Men, who try to stop her with a device that would block her mind. That fails miserably, but Xavier is able to rid Jean of the Phoenix entity. Things are calm for a second until the Shi’ar show up saying that Jean must die.
40) The Dark Phoenix Part IV: The Fate of the Phoenix (21:02)
Original Airdate: 11/26/94
With the Shi’ar looming, Xavier calls a battle of honor that will pit them versus the Shi’ar. They battle on the Blue Area of the Moon, with Jean wearing her old X-Men costume. The X-Men are thoroughly defeated, with only Jean and Cyclops remaining. Just like in the comics, Jean sacrifices herself to save the X-Men and the world. However, Jean doesn’t stay dead. Instead the Phoenix force rises out of Jean and takes some of the life of all the X-Men to resurrect Jean.
---Disc Two---
41) Cold Comfort (21:23)
Original Airdate: 02/04/95
Iceman has broken into a government facility and Charles wonders why he would do that. The X-Men head out to see why the young, rebellious former X-Man is causing trouble. We learn that Bobby went to that complex to save Lorna (Polaris). Jubilee overhears that Bobby just wants to save Lorna and so she lets him go from the stasis field that Xavier had put him in. Of course, Bobby and Jubes end up getting captured. They free themselves by the time the X-Men show up and they are immediately confronted by X-Factor. Cyclops and Havok square off but their powers don’t effect each other. They are brothers; they just don’t know it yet. All of the mid-90’s X-Factor is here: Wolfsbane, Quicksilver, Multiple Man, and Strong Guy. This turns out to be a training ground for X-Factor as a mutant-based government team led by Forge. The miscommunication is fixed and we’re done. It was always cool to see other characters in this series, and seeing PAD’s X-Factor was awesome.
42) Orphan’s End (21:22)
Original Airdate: 02/25/95
The X-Men are surprised to find Corsair crash-land on their doorstep as a Shi’ar fugitive. Cyclops finds Corsair and his dogtags, including a picture of him and his brother! We learn that Corsair is actually Cyclops’ father. Corsair tells Scott how he was captured by the Shi’ar but Scott also learns why his father is wanted and actually turns him in! Scott soon realizes that his father was being framed and helps save him.
43) The Juggernaut Returns (21:22)
Original Airdate: 05/06/95
As Juggernaut wanders around the water, after getting tossed by Gladiator earlier in the season. The Juggernaut attacks the X-Men but loses his power when someone else finds the temple of Cytorrak. The ceiling falls on Juggernaut and he’s near death. So Xavier actually sends the X-Men to find the new Juggernaut and take his powers away so his step-brother can live. The new Juggernaut is just a geeky guy, just comic relief, and while the X-Men are stopping the new Juggernaut Charles learns more about his relationship with Cain growing up and how Charles’ step-father was really only after his mom’s money. Charles and the X-Men are able to save Juggernaut and he leaves for the time being, acknowledging what Charles did for him and stopping their feud for one day.
44) Nightcrawler (21:22)
Original Airdate: 05/13/95
Rogue, Gambit and Wolverine are in Europe when they hear of a demon in a local town. They investigate and they find out that demon is really Nightcrawler, a mutant with teleportation abilities. They team up to stop the rioting town and Nightcrawler’s faith discussions with Wolverine were actually well done. I think this is also the first place where it was revealed that Mystique was Nightcrawler’s mother. If memory serves, that wasn’t revealed in the comics until later.
45) Weapon X, Lies and Videotapes (21:22)
Original Airdate: 06/11/95
Wolverine starts having bad dreams and he visits an old place from his memories. While there he runs into Maverick, Sabretooth and his old love, Silver Fox. He also relives the memories of first getting his adamantium skeleton while in the Weapon X program. All of Logan’s memories are called into question, even his memories with Silver Fox. The end really doesn’t reveal if Wolverine’s memories are real or imagined. This was the end of Season 3 and if I remember correctly this was a prime-time episode of the show as a preview of the fourth season.
46) One Man’s Worth Part I (22:47)
Original Airdate: 09/09/95
Nimrod and Fitzroy travel back in time and kill Xavier before he is able to bring the X-Men together. This completely altars the timeline we know and it brings Storm and Wolverine into an alternate timeline where the Master Mold is in control. This combines the Days of the Future Past story (Sentinels running the world) with the Age of Apocalypse (the death of Charles altering the timeline) and in fact this new timeline sees Magneto in charge of the group of mutants (including a cameo by Mimic) fighting off the humans (including Goliath and Hercules). Bishop and Shard show up and realize they’ve returned too late. They bring Storm and Wolvie back to before Charles is killed but they botch saving him as the episode ends.
47) One Man’s Worth Part II (21:18)
Original Airdate: 09/16/95
Bishop, Shard, Wolverine and Storm head back to the future where they see the timeline has again altered. They run into an AoA Forge, and they find out that Master Mold is running the show now. Bishop, Wolverine and Storm are able to hijack the time machine and return to 1955 and this time they are able to stop the murder of Xavier and things return back to normal. I thought this did a really good job of making a kid-friendly animated version of AoA.
48) Courage (21:21)
Original Airdate: 09/23/95
Morph returns to the X-Men right in time to help Wolverine look into a power plant that was broken into. They discover it was broken into by Sentinels and Morph freaks, since he was killed by one and all. So the X-Men coddle him and have him stay behind. Xavier ends up kidnapped by the Sentinels, as does Gyrich, because Master Mold wants revenge and wants to wipe out all mutants. In the end Morph ends up saving the day and ultimately leaves the X-Men.
Collection Review
I keep saying this but it is worth repeating. I never realized just how good these cartoons were. They managed to stay true to the comic books in a way that most movies don’t while also changing some of the plot lines to fit the characters used in the show. It was a great rotating cast that sometimes wasn’t always utilized. Jubilee is noticeably absent from most of the later episodes for instance. The highlight here is the Dark Phoenix Saga and as I was watching these cartoons for the first time in over a decade I marveled at how masterfully the story was told. The things that were changed weren’t things that took away from the spirit of the story. This is just a fantastic collection.
DVD Features
A) Extras
Barring Sneak Peaks on Disc One (which I won’t even bother with here); there were no extras at all. Maybe a little feature talking about the origins of the series, or even something about the voice-over actors would’ve been nice.
B) Audio/Video
It’s Dolby Digital and Full Screen. I was wondering how this would look, considering I still have all the 1992-1995 episodes on VHS. I have to say, it doesn’t look much better at all than what I have. A lot of the colors seem washed out and it just looks really grainy. The bright colors are non-existent. It sounds slightly better than my VHS, so we’ll give a positive to that.
C) Packaging / Liner Notes
This is about as bare-bones as DVD could get, with a standard DVD case and a lone liner note promoting Blu-Ray DVD’s.
D) Easter Eggs
None
Overall Review
Previews start this off. We have Legend of the Seeker S1 (1:45), G-Force (1:36), and Disney Blu-Ray (1:14). Other than that there are no extras to speak of. I really love buying these sets since a) they are so cheap and b) I want them on DVD so that is two notches in the pro’s column. One very big con is that there’s nothing else included. I don’t know why these collections are so sparse. It’s a great show and it does stand on its own but there was nothing that could’ve been included? This gets a higher rating than the other two collections solely based on the strength of the episodes included in here.
Overall Rating
5.0
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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