X-men: My life as a fan of the merry mutants of Marvel

The first time I watched and heard about the X-men was through Spider Man and his Amazing friends.  Since Spider-Man is friends with an X-man in Iceman, seeing the X-men crossover was almost expected, especially when the Juggernaut is involved.  Their first and only episode from the original cartoon was called “Pryde of the X-men” where Kitty Pryde (a.k.a. Shadowcat) joined the X-men and saw them in action against Magneto.  This cartoon was the inspiration to X-men: The Arcade game by Konami.  It is a timeless classic in the form of a side-scrolling brawler where you control in a 4 player to 6 player environment.  So, I got a cartoon about the X-men and a video game about them.   What more could a guy ask for?  How about another cartoon series that spanned 5 or so seasons, playing up the various stories and sagas from the comic books?  How about amazing amounts of merchandise that span over 50 years of history?  How about 4 feature length films that have helped bring about the rise of the comic book-adapted film?  How about a digital reprinting of over 40 years of issues from “The Uncanny X-men” comic line, which was the original and main comic line in the series?  Yes sir (or madam), life couldn’t be any better as an X-men fan.  So, after reading the comic retrospective and going through all the aforementioned, I’d like to give my insight on the X-men on the whole of what I know.

In the comic world, The X-men may have been the most maligned heroes in the history of comics.  In fact, they may be the only superheroes that are maligned.  The world loves the Avengers, is aware of the Fantastic Four, and takes comfort knowing the Justice League of America is watching.  When the X-men are brought into the equation, it’s nothing but prejudice, hate, and fear, resulting in death, violence, and chaos.  The X-men’s mission is to save and protect a world that hates and fears them.  Whether it is evil mutants, dangerous humans, or some other means of danger, like aliens, the X-men are there to step in and make the save.  The interesting thing is that they were initially five teenagers assembled by Professor Charles Xavier to work in a school specifically made for mutants that were not in control of their powers. When he’s not teaching, he’s having meetings, talks, and interviews promoting a pro-mutant sentiment.  Xavier is actually a mutant himself as he is the most powerful telepath in the world, with the ability to read thoughts, change minds, and project telekinetic energy.  He has to work hard to maintain his cover as a mutant if it has not already been noted amidst others in order to keep his secrets about the X-men from being exposed.  As for the secrets with the X-men, most of his time is spent tactically training his exceptional students in combat for missions that involve evil forces looking to continue the anti-mutant or anti-human agenda.  That’s the premise in a nutshell and it has held up for more than 40 years, filled with new and old heroes, new and old enemies, and some of the most notable sagas in comics.  I could go on and on about the history of the X-men, but it would be one long blog post, and I can’t do the justice, really.  So, I guess, I’ll give you my reactions and observations on what I’ve been exposed to.

There’s something about translating X-men to other forms of media that just tickled my fancy.  It wasn’t perfect all around, but for the things I liked, it worked.  I enjoyed the Toy Biz action figures, even if I didn’t get all of them.  The collector in me still wants to secure the X-men:  Mutant Hall of Fame set.  Yea, the figures were mounted and couldn’t move, but it was the first and maybe only place to get an actual Professor X figure.  Thankfully, some or most are still on sale.  As time passed, the toys got better in quality.  Sadly, I didn’t collect them, only because my money was still into wrestling action figures…and G.I. Joe action figures. 

When it comes to video games, only two games ring true as the best representations of X-men in video game form.  Call me a fanboy or a stodgy old coot, but this is my opinion.  The games in mind are X-men: The Arcade Game from Konami and X-men: Children of the Atom from Capcom.  If there was one genre of video games I loved back then and still to this day other than platform action games, it’s the side-scrolling brawlers.  It started with Double Dragon and was embellished with Final Fight for me.  Once I saw this game, I couldn’t turn away.  Heck, I even see the clips and enjoy it.  I was disappointed that home consoles couldn’t hold the magnitude of this game, at least until recently.  You had 6 X-men to choose from; all based on the early cartoon which focuses on the mutant line-up Chris Claremont came up with in the comics.  They were Cyclops of the original 5, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Dazzler.  Somehow, Magneto and a host of evil mutants control a slew of human-sized Sentinels and are ravaging the world.  It’s up to these 6 mutants to stop them at all cost.  You can attack, jump, and use your mutant power.  While 3 of them have powers that are real, 3 others have powers only made for the game.  Attacking seems simple enough, but there’s a lot of depth to it as you can attack behind you, attack enemies on the floor, and even come up with combos that kill or stun.  There are variations to jump attacks as well, along with throws.  Once you got wind of all of that, it was all about creating strategy.  And trust me; strategy was a must if you ran the gamut on your own.  I’ve seen one person beat this game all by himself, with one character.  He didn’t waste his energy using mutant powers that much.  He barely got hit.  And when it came to bosses, he had an amazing strategy of “stick and move”.  It was a sight to behold.  I’ve tried to pattern myself after him, but failed miserably.  Instead, I just play the game with others on a free play machine and just blast through the game.  Regardless, it’s loads of fun.  Children of the Atom took a different approach, as it debuted in 1994.  It was based on the later cartoon that came out in the same year.  It was also a fighting game.  The graphics reflected a new art style that was reminiscent to say, Capcom’s approach at bringing a comic book to life.  The game play style was patterned after Street Fighter II, but with subtle differences like super powers, super jumping, and the ever popular “hunter chain combo”.  It was also very challenging as it stands as the only Marvel fighting game made by Capcom that still remains challenging to this day.  You can choose from 6 X-men and 4 evil mutants, all reminiscent to the stories brought to us from John Byrne, Scott Lobdell, and even Chris Claremont in the X-men comics.  It stands as the progenitor for the “versus” fighting games in the Capcom universe, as well as the first title to get actual voice actors from the animated series for their respective video games.  These games re-established my love for X-men.

Now that I’ve referenced the cartoons, let’s get into these shows, eh?  The first original cartoon, which was made in the late 1980s, was something of a blur to me.  They only had one cartoon, sadly, and it never really picked up traction-wise.  If you look it up, it comes off very odd and obscure, even with Stan Lee doing narration.  Wolverine sounding Australian instead of Canadian?  I don’t know about that.  Years later, Marvel would try to capitalize on a new sensation that was taking the world by storm in the 1990s.  That sensation was Batman: The Animated Series.  To this day, it is considered one of the best adaptations of Batman to the screen of any kind.  It drew its inspiration from the 1989 Tim Burton film and ran with the mystique, capturing a noir, yet timeless feel coupled with realism and atmosphere.  In an attempt to cash in on, if not counter this success, Marvel gave us the X-men animated series.  Artistically, it didn’t match that of Batman, but thematically, it captured the realism.  The show openly showcased the issues the mutants went through in the comics, re-telling the various stories in the comics.  The show lasted for about 5 seasons and was well-received for the initial set of seasons.  As the time passed, the quality of the cartoons started to dwindle, but not to the point where it was unwatchable.  The voice cast was amazing, as they were mostly picked from The Ocean Group in Vancouver.  So, rest easy, Wolverine fans.  He sounded Canadian here.  Problem was, so did various others, but most people didn’t mind it.  The show wasn’t a run-away success, like Batman, but it did establish itself as the definitive X-men cartoon.  This show would be followed by two other series in X-men: Evolution and Wolverine and the X-men.  The first came out, in the early 2000s, promoting a different look to the X-men.  This time, they would be younger, more conflicted, and more vulnerable to their surroundings.  After all, they all started as teens, right?  The X-men cartoon focused on them being adults, but never as teens.  This cartoon lasted 4 seasons with something of an inconclusive, open ending with more of the New Mutants being mentioned and showcased in the cartoon.  The second cartoon came out around 2008 as Marvel decided to take a more serious approach to their franchises.  This cartoon was to focus on Wolverine as more of the elder member with leadership experience, while Cyclops was a bit younger and had some leadership experience.  This only lasted one season, due to either ratings or restructuring within Marvel and its studios.  Nonetheless, all 3 cartoons make for a rather interesting and comprehensive representation for the X-men on the small screen.  But, what about the big screen?

Marvel stepped into the movie industry in the 1980s and 1990s with their characters, in an attempt at crossing over into the mainstream.  It didn’t work as well as planned until the movie about the unique character, Blade.  This move was a commercial success even though Blade wasn’t a well-known character and his comics were very adult in nature.  To capitalize on this, Marvel made the move to make the full-length, live-action feature for X-men.  The movie came out in 2000, and was a complete success, ushering in the rise of comic book films.  It’s been more than a decade, and comic book films have been a runaway hit, with standouts like the Batman: Reboot Trilogy (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises) and Marvel’s The Avengers (which is the 3^rd highest grossing film in movie history).  The X-men movie franchise would go on to have two sequels, and a reboot sequel that were received very well, very poorly, and surprisingly good, in that order.  X-men now has a place in the mainstream as a comic book franchise that has made the turn as a can’t-miss commodity.

You can see how much of an impact the X-men have had on me as a fan, just by all the stuff I talked about in fair depth.  Now, here are some odds and ends I’d like to share upon my exposure to such.  Firstly, whenever we played make believe and X-men was the game of choice, I chose Nightcrawler.  I thought his powers were very cool.  He has the ability to teleport and crawl on walls.  How cool is that?  That and he seemed very realistic to me, in the sense that he was smaller than most of the guys.  I loved his acrobatics and it helped that his good nature made him very likeable.  When the new series in 1994 came about, there was no Nightcrawler on this team.  Oh rats.  Who can I be now?  I could be Beast, but he’s pretty big, and doesn’t quite teleport.   Wait a minute, who’s this?  Gambit, eh?  I saw his trading card and that was cool.  I’ll go with him.  And that was a great choice.  Gambit has the ability to charge any item with enough kinetic energy to make it explosive.  Throw in his Cajun charm, his ability with a staff, and his good looks and I have one great character.  So, it’s safe to say that Gambit and Nightcrawler were my favorite X-men.  I admired Beast for being like Nightcrawler (although it was the other way around in a sense), and his intelligence was way cool.  I’m a nerd, so leave me alone.  I was cool with Cyclops, but his hard-nosed leadership was a bit trying, even for me.  Loosen up, will ya, Cyclops?  Later on in life, I realized why he was like that so I was cool with that.  However, I’m about to drop a piece of info that may make you hate my guts.  I can’t stand Wolverine.  I don’t like him, and I don’t hate him.  I just don’t care for him.  I get that he is who he is, but to be virtually immortal and a rebellious loner is not conducive to the team.  And yet, everyone clamors to him, more so than others.  It’s really annoying.  Yay, he’s unstoppable.  Well, it gets kind of boring, ok?  And no, he doesn’t deserve Jean Grey, kiss or no kiss.  She wants a good guy who’s secure, not a bad boy who’s insecure.  When it comes to the evil mutants, I figured Magneto was that constant threat that never got ahead, like Dick Dastardly.  I realized very soon that I was wrong.  Magneto is truly a threat and a half.  I’d fear this guy almost every time he’s mentioned.  After I looked past Magneto for other threats, I saw that he was just one of three very serious baddies in the mutant world.  Mr. Sinister not only is immortal but his advanced knowledge in genetics and manipulation of various mutants makes his reach into the mutant world dangerously expansive.  Also, his genetic combinations have shown me how dangerous he can be.  Lastly, we have Apocalypse.  He was the first mutant born and has found the secret to immortality.  His advanced abilities allow him to be a threat on so many levels, even on a temporal level.  He can literally traverse time and space to be a threat.  If not, he can and has found a way.  He has no visible weaknesses and his plans for world domination and annihilation are unreasonably fearful. 

Another tidbit to note is that over the years, upon reading 40 years of comics, I realized that there were many mutants with similar powers, but subtle differences.  It was almost as if they were place-holder or replacement mutants for those who were inactive or elsewhere.  When the original group was changed, we had Beast who turned blue and furry  with tremendous agility and dexterity get switched up for Nightcrawler who was also blue and furry, but was an acrobat for most of his life,  a fencer and instead of having super strength, has teleportation powers.  Dazzler, who was a short-term X-man, could make sonic vibrations and sounds into various forms of light, varying in strength.  She was a bit of a bubblehead, usually making it a point to stand out with all types of flash and flair.  When she left, Jubilee, who had the ability to create fireworks, also varying in degree of intensity joined the team.  She was also very bratty and childish.  This of course, made sense since she was the only teenager on a team of adults.  Magneto is the master of magnetism, but then another magnetically powered mutant in Polaris came in to the mix, albeit a good mutant.  She would become a villain later.  Cyclops and Havok are brothers and channel the power of the sun to emit powerful beams of solar radiation or powerful plasma beams, respectively.  However, you could see the leadership shift when Cyclops left the team and Havok stepped in.  Even Gambit and Longshot have similarities.  Both were young, mysterious, charming to the ladies, and a clutch in combat.  Both even had powers that were very useful, powerful, and had great potential.  However, once Longshot departed for greener pastures in the future, Gambit showed up on the scene.  And, let’s not forget Psylocke’s original incarnation replacing Jean Grey when she departed.  It wasn’t until after Grey’s return and a bevy of other events that led to Psylocke changing into a different type of telepathic mutant, relying more on psionic powers.  I’m guessing the changes were made to give the reader a fresh look at those mutant powers from a different approach.  Also, the idea was to play up the possibility of when these people cross paths and what would happen if they did. 

I could go on and on about X-men, but I’d rather stop here just to give you my final insight.  The X-men as a commodity is something I have a fondness over to this day.  I do have my problems with it at times, like most fans do.  I don’t want to watch X-men: First Class and I’d rather not watch the other cartoon series that I wasn’t fully familiar with only because I don’t really care on the approaches these things take on the X-men franchise.  It just doesn’t seem right to me, based on what I got into.  However, with what I have seen and enjoyed, I can definitely say I have had a blast enjoying the X-men on the whole.   They are the mutants that protect us while we hate and fear them.  They are the X-men.  I can sympathize.  I know what it feels like to feel prejudice and to help regardless.  Sometimes, the best forms of art are the ones that really speak to you…