| X-Men Evolution | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background Information | |
| Name: | X-Men Evolution |
| Type: | Animation Action/Adventure |
| Format: | Procedural Drama |
| Created by: | Greg Johnson Steve Granat |
| Written by: | Greg Johnson Peter David |
| Voices of: | Kirby Morrow Venus Terzo Neil Denis Scott McNeil Kirsten Williamson Meghan Black Maggie Blue O'Hara Brad Swaile David Kaye Michael Kopsa |
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| No. of Seasons: |
4 |
| No. of Episodes: |
52 |
| bout the Show | |
| Statue: | Ended (2000-2003) |
| GALLERY | |
X-Men: Evolution was an American animated television series created by Greg Johnson and Steve Granat for Kids' WB. It was cancelled in 2003 under speculation that "So many shows were changing back then because Nickelodeon was so strong and getting so much of an audience" as stated by Skir. Each season would come to an end with a two part finale. The show began on the 4th of November 2000 and ended on the 25th of October 2003 and had a re-run on Disney XD from the 15th of June 2009 to the 30th of December 2011. Despite being produced in the U.S, the voice recording had been done in Canada with it being animated in Japan and South Korea. Warner Bros Television Studios released the show and currently, the rights are held by Walt Disney Television in America.
The show follows the lives of teenaged versions of the X-Men. It is set during the early 2000s where Mutants hide themselves within society. As the show progressed, Mutants became public knowledge and they were generally disregarded by their human peers who considered Mutants as freaks. As it came to a close, the final series included the X-Men, Brotherhood of Mutants and Acolytes teaming up to defeat Apocalypse.
Theme songs[]
Cast[]
X-Men students[]
- Kirby Morrow as Scott Summers/Cyclops: Scott is the leader of the X-Men, his powers include optic beams that he shoots from his eyes. To keep the blasts at bay, he opts to wear his visor on missions and a pair of ruby quartz glasses in his civilian attire. Later on, he began dating his teammate Jean.
- Venus Terzo as Jean Grey: Jean is another member of the X-Men, her powers include a powerful range of telepathy as well as being the host to a force known as the Phoenix. She typically becomes an older sister figure to the younger, immature, New Mutants to teach them about their powers.
- Meghan Black as Rogue: A young, angst-riddled mutant. Her powers include skin-to-skin contact that absorb the memories of both humans and mutants, she can also absorb the powers of other mutants if she touches them. She is the the adoptive daughter of Mystique and foster sister to her teammate, Kurt.
- Maggie Blue O'Hara as Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat: Another young mutant who cares very much about her teammates. Her powers include phasing through solid matter. Despite showing no interest in Lance, Kitty briefly began recuperating her feelings for him. Despite being enemies, during her time allying herself with the Acolytes and Brotherhood, Kitty showed her kindness to the former group when she showed her concern over Colossus and expressed he was merely innocent during the time he came through a wall despite being told to take it easy.
- Brad Swaile as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler: The son of Mystique, Kurt's X-Gene was genetically advances and modified as a baby by Erik. He was taken away by his mother whom sent her son away, the latter of which was adopted by the Wagner's. His powers include teleportation as long as he knows where he is teleporting to. He is the foster brother to Rogue. To hide his blur furred appearance from the public, Kurt wears an image inducer that gives off the appearance of a human boy.
- Neil Denis as Spyke: The nephew of Storm, Spyke's interest consisted of moving around on his skateboard. His powers allowed spikes to come out his skin which he was able to retract at will prior to being exposed to the Pow-R8 drink. After the latter incident, he allied himself with the Morlocks yet re-teamed up with the X-Men to stop Apocalypse.
X-Men mentors[]
- Scott McNeil as Logan/Wolverine: One of the more older members of the team, Canadian-born Logan Howlett served as a soldier in World War Two and much later on joined the X-Men as a teacher to the younger members. His powers include a self healing factor and an Adamantium skeleton that allows him to make claws come from his knuckles, a major issue he had as a result of the bonding process was his memories. He later gained a young female clone of himself that obtained the same abilities as he did due to HYDRA having his DNA. The clone was known as X-23.
- Kirsten Williamson as Ororo Munroe/Storm: Regarded as an African Goddess due to her powers, Ororo Munro is the aunt of Spyke. Her powers include the ability to alter the weather to her and her allies advantage. She has an extreme case of claustrophobia meaning she cannot be in small spaces as it causes her stress levels to rise. Despite being a firm figure, Ororo is also a compassionate woman who even peacefully advocated for the safety of mutants once they became public knowledge.
- David Kaye as Charles Xavier/Professor X: Charles Xavier is the wheelchair bound founder of the X-Men as well as the Headmaster at the School for Gifted Youngsters, his powers include a high level of telepathy and is the ex-husband of Gabrielle Haller where the two had a son by the name of David whom of which struggled with his other two identities. Charles is also the step-brother to Cain Marko, known by the name of Juggernaut. He is also referred to as "Charles" "Chuck" and "Charlie" often by Logan or Cain. Despite his firm nature and attitude, Xavier still regards his allies as family and was open to teaching them about their powers. He is also welcoming of new students such as when he allowed the hallucination of Danielle Moonstar to stay with Kitty. He also respects Erik to a high degree despite both having different views on how mutants should be treated within society.
- Michael Kopsa as Hank McCoy/Beast: Originally a teacher at Bayville High, Hank McCoy tutored his subjects in science but was forced to stop once his mutation began getting out of hand. His mutant powers show that he became a large blue furred mutant where he was forced to leave the school. After being recruited by Xavier, Hank began working at the Institute as a teacher who often helped mentor his students on their abilities and stood in for Logan during training if possible. Despite his mentor status, Hank still supported his students having fun such as joining in on a snowball fight. When out in public, Hank wears a disguise to hide his body due to not having an image inducer like Kurt.
Recruiting the X-Men[]
- Main article: Season One
In the beginning, the team of X-Men only consisted of Jean Grey and Scott Summers. As it progressed, more young mutants were welcomed to the Institute due to their abilities as well as show how the team interacted on and off duty. The main villain was Mystique whom recruited other mutants as members of The Brotherhood of Mutants on orders by Erik. It was stated by Greg Johnson that the theme was "Secrets and lies, and also independence.".
As the series progressed, more core characters were introduced along with their focus episodes. Newer mentor members included Logan and Ororo who were there to help hone the powers of their new students. New students included Kurt who was able to teleport as long as he knew where he was teleporting to. In an effort to hide his true appearance, he was given an image inducer as a gift. Another was Kitty Pryde who, attempting to sleep one night, phased through into the basement of her house but her parents attempted to convince her it was a nightmare but all three were proven wrong once they discovered Kitty's bed was partially phased through the ceiling. Later on, Evan Daniels, nephew to Ororo, joined the team after going through another incident with Pietro. Eventually, Rogue joined the crew after temporarily allying herself with the Brotherhood. Other plot points that were wrapped up were Logan discovering his true memories of his past, Rogue becoming a permanent member of the X-Men and Juggernaut being released from his prison.
The X-Men typically confronted their Brotherhood enemies. The latter group consisted of Todd Tolansky, Lance Alvers, Fred Dukes and Pietro Maximoff. In the finale two parter, it was revealed that Erik was indeed the mastermind to recruit a team to fight against his old friend, Charles Xavier, Erik also pitied mutants against each other as a way to get the strongest to his Asteroid M. Two of which were the Summers brothers who were subjected to a machine which amplified their abilities yet removed any emotional attachments the two once had, others on the Asteroid also included some of the X-Men and the Brotherhood. Asteroid M was soon destroyed after Erik and Mystique were left on it but two metallic sphere left just as it was blown up.
The New Mutants/Mutants become public knowledge[]
Later on, Mystique and Erik successfully escaped from Asteroid M and went to carry out another place to exact their revenge on the X-Men. Whilst Erik focused on his own plan, Mystique took on the form of a teenager named Risty Wilde whom befriended Rogue as a way to get closer to her daughter. As Risty, she infiltrated the Institute with Arcade during a party where she stole files on Cerebro before escaping. A mutant known as Mesmero used his powers to control a few of the young X-Men to obtain relics needed for his plan. After recovering the files, Mystique came across a mutant by the name of Wanda Maximoff who was the daughter of Erik and the twin sister of Pietro, Wanda had been locked away within a mental institute due to being out of control as she became a problem for her father. Wanda was taken from the Institute and taken back to the Brotherhood where she met her brother after many years of being away. Upon confronting the X-Men, The Brotherhood which now included Wanda easily took down their allies due to the latter's powers of hexing known as chaos magic. Despite the levels of chaos that were going on, Xavier still recruited other younger mutants who became known as the New Mutants who were mentored by their older allies on their powers and abilities. Meanwhile, Sabretooth continued to pursue his known rival, Logan and Mystique returned to lead the Brotherhood. Leading up to the season finale, Mesmero opened one door of three that would eventually lead to the release of Apocalypse.
In the two part finale, Xavier heavily trained his team to face Erik and often paired the X-Men with their enemy team, The Brotherhood, much to the annoyance of Scott who was not pleased to partner up with Lance. During this, the Institute had been set to self-destruct even with Scott and several of the students still inside. As the X-Men and Brotherhood continued to attempt to work together, Erik recruited Gambit, Pyro and Colossus where they became known as his Acolytes. That same time, Bolivar Trask had Logan captured where he used the latter has a test subject for a anti-mutant weapon known as the Sentinel. Trask then sent out his creation out into the city which caused the mutants to use their powers but their cover was blown as the media reported the incident and named several of those involved causing a majority to escape to the sewers. Wanting revenge for what he did to her, Wanda tracked down her father and attempted to crush him with the remaining parts of the Sentinel, upon being able to return to the Institute, the mutants who were not captured found their home in rubble as they found their other allies coming out of the nearby woods due to the explosion. Already seeing through it, Scott grabbed Xavier and threw him from his wheelchair where he blamed him for the reason why the Institute was gone. Xavier then stood up as he reverted back to Mystique, showing those around her that she had taken the place as their Professor for quite some time.
Mutants in society/Rise of Apocalypse[]
In the third season, it started to take a more serious tone once mutants were revealed to the world after the battle with the Sentinel as the public shunned their mutant peers such as Bayville High students and adults no longer trusting them because they were different due to their abilities. As the season progressed further, the real Xavier had been rescued from his confinement and Mystique was defeated. In an attempt to get back to trying to live normal lives, the X-Men and the New Mutants spent most days repairing and fixing the Institute despite dealing with the hatred for their kind. In order to show the world that not all mutants had evil intentions, Xavier prompted his students to return to school despite them not wanting to but after a board meeting that involved Jean trying to convince the board, the team were finally allowed back into school as long as they promised not to use their powers. During this, Wanda continued to search the city for her father where she and Toad discovered that he had been saved from the Sentinel by Pietro who had used his speed to move his father out of the way before he was crushed. Realising that his daughter would continue her persistent search, Erik captured Wanda and used Mastermind to rewrite her childhood memories which caused her to believe Erik was always a good father. As the Institute continued to be rebuilt, Scott and Jean forged a much deeper relationship with each other. Whilst their relationship strengthened, the one between Kitty and Lance began to end. After Spyke came into contact with a drink known as POW-R8, he was forced to live with the Morlocks under the sewers due to the substance being toxic to mutants.
As it continued, Rogue lost control of her powers and struggled to deal with the identities of those she had absorbed and had to be stopped by her friends causing her to be sent to the infirmary of the Institute after discovering she had been adopted by Mystique some time after the latter had lost Kurt. Soon after, Mystique returned to Destiny where she discovered the fate of both her and Rogue were in the hands of a soon to be resurrected Apocalypse. Logan soon discovered he had been cloned by HYDRA after the organisation had obtained his DNA resulting in them creating a female version of him known as X-23 that wanted revenge on him as she blamed Logan for her existence, after S.H.I.E.L.D intervened, X-23 chose to keep a low profile as she did not want anyone else to find her again. As time went on and in the two parter season finale, Mesmero manipulated Erik into opening and destroying the second door that would release the ancient mutant, the door in which he opened contained a guardian that once defeated, would allow the door to be opened, In order to awaken Apocalypse, Mesmero hypnotised both Mystique and Rogue into opening the third door with Mystique being turned into stone in the process. Once awakened, Apocalypse sat up in his tomb and stole the powers that Rogue had absorbed from the X-Men, Brotherhood and Acolytes causing her to fall unconscious. After being released, Apocalypse easily and swiftly defeated the three groups and left his tomb in order to begin his plan.
Stopping Apocalypse/Saving the world[]
The much darker and final season only had nine episodes in which Apocalypse seemingly killed Erik after the latter tried getting rid of the more powerful mutant. Due to being filled with rage after being lied to, Rogue, much to the horror and dismay of Kurt, shoved the statue of their mother off a cliff after Kurt had brought it back to the Institute after finding it had been abused by the Brotherhood. After an incident that resulted in Lance saving an on old woman from a broken down train that lost control after Wanda became frustrated, the Brotherhood, much to the annoyance of the X-Men, were hailed as heroes by the public and staged more situations so more people would be interested in their deeds and so they could get more press coverage but were forced to stop after they created an issue they lost control of causing the X-Men to step in after they had been arrested by the police. After being hunted by Sabretooth and Gauntlet, Logan discovered that X-23 returned and was hunting down HYDRA bases to get revenge on them for what they did to her. After taking down Viper, X-23 seemingly was killed after the destruction of one of HYDRA's jets but Logan discovered she survived but went into hiding once again. Now tired of humans hating on them, Spyke lead the Morlocks to the surface to get back at those above. Kitty became friends with a young mutant by the name of Danielle Moonstar after a biking accident. After being allowed to stay at the mansion, Danielle became roommates with Kitty but soon disappeared the morning after with nobody else knowing who Kitty was talking about. Wanting to prove them wrong, Kitty and Kurt travelled to where the former had found Danielle and found more information on her through her grandfather. After finding out that Danielle trapped herself in a statis below the surface, Kitty rescued her and brought her home to safety. Gambit eventually kidnapped Rogue and took her to Louisiana under the impression it was a chance to have a break but in reality it was so they could save Gambit's father. Xavier, Jean, Scott and Ororo then travelled to Scotland after Xavier's son was seemingly captured, after learning that David Haller, Xavier's son with an ex-wife named Gabrielle, was struggling with two more identities, Xavier fought to separate them but accidentally put Lucas in charge.
In the show's two part season finale, Apocalypse swiftly defeated Xavier and Storm turned them and Erik and Mystique into his Four Horsemen of Apocalypse. To stop the now allied mutants from stopping his plans, Apocalypse commands his Horsemen to travel to each dome to protect it and fight off those who tried to get near it. After the fight was over, the Horsemen returned to normal with Apocalypse being sent back through time after being defeated. Kitty and Lance began to slowly get feeling for one another again and Erik reunited with his twin children and Storm reunited with Spyke. Xavier then spoke with his students and congratulated them on saving the world.
The Future[]
- Main article: The Future
Under the control of Apocalypse, Xavier foresaw a future in which he saw:
- More anti-mutant behaviour within society.
- Erik, who became reformed, was now teaching the New Mutants and Jubilee and Rahne had returned after previous incident making them leave the team.
- Jean lost control of her powers and turned into the Dark Phoenix.
- The future X-Men consisted of Scott, Kurt, X-23, Bobby, Hank, Kitty, Colussus, Rogue (Who could fly and no longer wore gloves) and Storm.
- The X-Men gained new uniforms that resemble those from the Ultimate comics and live action films.
- The Brotherhood which included Pyro, joined S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Another fleet of Sentinels were suggested and was to be lead by Nimrod.
Comics[]
During the course of the show, writer Devin Grayson and editor Joe Quesada released a comic on the 28th of November 2001 called "Lines In The Sand" that focuses on the time Mystique went to recruit Toad to the Brotherhood and when Kurt joined the X-Men. The comic started a few weeks after the season two episode Adrift aired. On the 26th of December 2001, Lines In The Sand was followed by a sequel. The comics came to an end on the 31st of July 2002 with "House Party". A tenth issue had been written but was cancelled that year.
Toys[]
Toy Biz created a line of action figures. Taco Bell ran the first X-Men: Evolution themed promotion with its Kid's Meals. Burger King also ran a Kid's Meal promotion which included X-Men: Evolution toys. Each toy included a mini-disc with games, screen-savers, and a mini-comic related to the character. The lineup included Rogue, Mystique, Cyclops, Wolverine, Magneto, Quicksilver, Nightcrawler, and Toad.
Trivia[]
Due to shows like Batman: The Animated Series being deemed too dark by the networks, Season one of Evolution was restricted and the writers were forced to keep it as light as possible. After it aired and proved to be successful, the writers were given more freedom on the show were given more freedom as seasons two and three aired. By season four, they were allowed to have a more slightly darker tone. Boyd Kirkland once stated that he wanted the show more character focused rather than action based and claimed that the restrictions on the team were helpful. Kirkland has also said that "The high-stakes epochs they did later really became more meaningful and poignant because of how much time we had given the audience to get to know and empathize with the characters".
Awards[]
At the 30th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards on the 16th of May 2003, Evolution won an award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing-Live action and animation. Another award won by the show was Cover of the Year award a year later in 2004 for the way Hank and his beast form were drawn. The show had also been nominated for several Goldeen Reel awards and other Emmys. Director Steven E. Gordon had been nominated for Production Design in an animated show in 2001 at the Annie Awards,