Volume 2 picks up with the fourth episode of season two, which finds Colossus returning to ask the X-Men for help to defeat the villain Omega Red, until its conclusion. While the first season focused a lot on the team, the second season presents many storylines that derive from the heroes’ back-stories. In “Repo Man,” Wolverine gets captured by his former team, the Canadian superhero group known as Alpha Flight. “X-Ternally Yours” finds Gambit return home to save his brother. “A Rogue’s Tale” revisits the title character’s past and reveals much of her powers were absorbed from Ms. Marvel.
The second season also featured two two-part episodes. “Time Fugitives” finds Cable from the year 3999 going back into the past to fix the timeline altered by Bishop from the year 2055 who was trying to stop a plague in his time. The season-ender “Reunion” culminates the season’s running subplot featuring Xavier and Magneto who are captured in the Savage Land of Antarctica by Mister Sinister to trap the X-Men. Marvel Comics fans won’t be surprised by the appearance of Savage Land residents Ka-Zar and Sauron.
Volume Two concludes with the first seven episodes of the third season that are used to set up and tell the classic “Dark Phoenix Saga,” which appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #129-138 about the transformation of Jean Grey. The resolution is altered, but delivers similar results, making it satisfying.
The creative team of X-Men do a great job capturing the characters’ personalities and their interactions. Although a Saturday morning cartoon, the writing isn’t dumbed down for children and deals with themes of diversity and tolerance without being preachy. There’s also a lot of good action and fighting.
Both volumes are worth owning for superhero/comic book fans and Volume 3 can’t come soon enough. Makes me wish I had the time-travel ability of some of these characters.
Article comments