![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nevannaSome thoughts on the end of X-Men: Evolution's first season, a week after re-watching (and a dozen years after my first viewing). Sadly, I'm not sure how much more I'll be able to watch, due to my work schedule for the next few weeks.
A couple of years ago, a fandom friend and I agreed that most of the first season of XME was skippable. Now that I've actually rewatched a good chunk of those episodes, I kind of understand why we thought that, though I don't think that it's entirely accurate. True, I think that the writers grew to understand both their characters and their audience a little better as time went on, and to take more risks in their story arcs, and to weave in a stronger sense of continuity. The first season is definitely the most episodic and lighthearted, but it sets up character dynamics and themes that will be important later on. (This is probably true of a lot of multi-season shows for whatever age demographic - Buffy comes immediately to mind as another example).
As I've said before, I became interested and invested in this show after watching the second episode, and not just because it introduced the two characters who would be my favorites and my OTP for years. I still really like Kitty, and her introductory arc of trying to return to a normal life, discovering that she can't, trusting the wrong person, and harnessing her own power, remains a very solid one indeed. I think that "The X-Impulse" encompassed a lot of the sillier elements of the show (the cheesy dialogue, the preachy and sometimes outright condescending themes and tone, the terrible puns), but also so much of what made it genuinely worthwhile and appealing: namely, the balance of super-powered action with stories of teenagers just trying to live their lives, and to find some sense of identity and purpose - that is, the same thing that made the franchise as a whole so popular. I often call XME "the canon high school AU that works." Did the writing occasionally land in After-School Special territory or forced attempts to be "cool" and "with it?" Absolutely. But I think that one of the reasons why it still worked was because the characters' emotions and conflicts were, if not always "realistic," then at least recognizable. And both the best and the worst were there from the beginning.
The most recent episode that the gang and I watched was "The Cauldron," the Season 1 finale, in which Magneto starts recruiting mutants to his "sanctuary" on Asteroid M. I remember having a low opinion of that one when I first saw it, but I found it a lot more tolerable and even enjoyable now. The setup allows all the characters to be part of the action, and the episode is one of the first to explicitly address an issue that has always been important in other versions of canon: how mutants fit into the rest of the world, and Magneto and Xavier's conflicting ideas on the matter. Magneto is actually somewhat persuasive and charismatic when he's not too busy stuffing people into metal spheres, waving radioactive gems in their faces, or abandoning his own second-in-command. Mystique's reaction to his leaving her behind, however, is handled so much better here than it is in X3 (though the circumstances are admittedly different).
But even the episodes that use the ensemble cast very well often still have a focal character, and "The Cauldron" is Scott's episode, if it's anybody's. Scott Summers in any universe has somewhat of a reputation as The Boring Responsible One, and it's not undeserved (to say the least), but I've actually become quite fond of his XME incarnation over time. He knows how to have fun occasionally, makes misjudgments and is willing to admit to them, and takes his teammates' mockery in stride, while still trying to be The Responsible One because he finds it both necessary and satisfying. His unfortunate self-blame when he finds out that Alex has been alive all along was nonetheless an excellent characterization moment, and their reunion and interactions are actually quite sweet. Scott also questions and argues with Xavier a lot more than I remember from my first viewing… or, perhaps, more than I was willing to acknowledge at the time.
The end of the first season and the beginning of the second were also the beginning of my involvement in the fandom. This was in the summer of 2001. I remained deeply immersed in said fandom for the next three years, dipped my toes back in regularly for several years after that, and am not unwilling to do so even to this day. As usual, there is so much I could say (and have said) about that experience - the fandom trends that I was and wasn't part of, the friends I made there (hi, Sandoz!), the Writing Project That Ate My Adolescence and why that still matters to me - and I'm not saying that I will not address those things again ever, just that I haven't the time or space to get into them now. The fact that I still have thoughts and feelings about XME over a decade after it ended says absolutely nothing bad about me - it just means that I enjoy talking about stories, which are - last I checked - supposed to get an emotional reaction from people. I didn't love this show uncritically then and I definitely don't love it uncritically now, but I am happy to say that I try to love it without shame.
A couple of years ago, a fandom friend and I agreed that most of the first season of XME was skippable. Now that I've actually rewatched a good chunk of those episodes, I kind of understand why we thought that, though I don't think that it's entirely accurate. True, I think that the writers grew to understand both their characters and their audience a little better as time went on, and to take more risks in their story arcs, and to weave in a stronger sense of continuity. The first season is definitely the most episodic and lighthearted, but it sets up character dynamics and themes that will be important later on. (This is probably true of a lot of multi-season shows for whatever age demographic - Buffy comes immediately to mind as another example).
As I've said before, I became interested and invested in this show after watching the second episode, and not just because it introduced the two characters who would be my favorites and my OTP for years. I still really like Kitty, and her introductory arc of trying to return to a normal life, discovering that she can't, trusting the wrong person, and harnessing her own power, remains a very solid one indeed. I think that "The X-Impulse" encompassed a lot of the sillier elements of the show (the cheesy dialogue, the preachy and sometimes outright condescending themes and tone, the terrible puns), but also so much of what made it genuinely worthwhile and appealing: namely, the balance of super-powered action with stories of teenagers just trying to live their lives, and to find some sense of identity and purpose - that is, the same thing that made the franchise as a whole so popular. I often call XME "the canon high school AU that works." Did the writing occasionally land in After-School Special territory or forced attempts to be "cool" and "with it?" Absolutely. But I think that one of the reasons why it still worked was because the characters' emotions and conflicts were, if not always "realistic," then at least recognizable. And both the best and the worst were there from the beginning.
The most recent episode that the gang and I watched was "The Cauldron," the Season 1 finale, in which Magneto starts recruiting mutants to his "sanctuary" on Asteroid M. I remember having a low opinion of that one when I first saw it, but I found it a lot more tolerable and even enjoyable now. The setup allows all the characters to be part of the action, and the episode is one of the first to explicitly address an issue that has always been important in other versions of canon: how mutants fit into the rest of the world, and Magneto and Xavier's conflicting ideas on the matter. Magneto is actually somewhat persuasive and charismatic when he's not too busy stuffing people into metal spheres, waving radioactive gems in their faces, or abandoning his own second-in-command. Mystique's reaction to his leaving her behind, however, is handled so much better here than it is in X3 (though the circumstances are admittedly different).
But even the episodes that use the ensemble cast very well often still have a focal character, and "The Cauldron" is Scott's episode, if it's anybody's. Scott Summers in any universe has somewhat of a reputation as The Boring Responsible One, and it's not undeserved (to say the least), but I've actually become quite fond of his XME incarnation over time. He knows how to have fun occasionally, makes misjudgments and is willing to admit to them, and takes his teammates' mockery in stride, while still trying to be The Responsible One because he finds it both necessary and satisfying. His unfortunate self-blame when he finds out that Alex has been alive all along was nonetheless an excellent characterization moment, and their reunion and interactions are actually quite sweet. Scott also questions and argues with Xavier a lot more than I remember from my first viewing… or, perhaps, more than I was willing to acknowledge at the time.
The end of the first season and the beginning of the second were also the beginning of my involvement in the fandom. This was in the summer of 2001. I remained deeply immersed in said fandom for the next three years, dipped my toes back in regularly for several years after that, and am not unwilling to do so even to this day. As usual, there is so much I could say (and have said) about that experience - the fandom trends that I was and wasn't part of, the friends I made there (hi, Sandoz!), the Writing Project That Ate My Adolescence and why that still matters to me - and I'm not saying that I will not address those things again ever, just that I haven't the time or space to get into them now. The fact that I still have thoughts and feelings about XME over a decade after it ended says absolutely nothing bad about me - it just means that I enjoy talking about stories, which are - last I checked - supposed to get an emotional reaction from people. I didn't love this show uncritically then and I definitely don't love it uncritically now, but I am happy to say that I try to love it without shame.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-11-06 08:34 am (UTC)I don't remember having given the show much of a try when it first ran, and I haven't done much since. Checking on when it originally started, it seems it had the misfortune of starting at around the point I was losing interest in the books. I read the books from 1986 to 2001. X-Men: Evolution started in 2000, putting it towards the end of my interest. I've a vague memory of having been uncomfortable with it being a "canon high school AU." That wasn't so much a matter of my age, though I graduated high school in 1993. It was more a combination of my being used to the older members of the X-Men being adults, and the "junior team" being first the New Mutants and then X-Force. It sounds like "The Cauldron" might be a good episode for me to try. Magneto was my first love in the X-Books because the first title I read was the New Mutants, and he was the Headmaster of Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters at the time. It put me in the position over the years of finding myself siding with Magneto at times when I knew I wasn't supposed to, and feeling pity for him at other times because to me the writers had messed him all up.
The fact that I still have thoughts and feelings about XME over a decade after it ended says absolutely nothing bad about me...
Absolutely. I mean I've been in love with Magneto for over 25 years. ;)
no subject
Date: 2013-11-08 02:19 pm (UTC)Magneto was my first love in the X-Books because the first title I read was the New Mutants, and he was the Headmaster of Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters at the time.
I remember those issues! I liked Magneto's interactions with the New Mutants.
Unfortunately, although X-Men: Evolution's Magneto does have a few compelling and interesting moments, he spends a lot of time being a stereotypical megalomanical villain. I've known some Magneto fans who happen to like this version regardless, so I would leave you to judge for yourself.
With that in mind, if you still want to give the show a try, the Season 1 episodes that I'd recommend are "The X-Impulse," "Rogue Recruit," "Speed and Spyke," "Turn of the Rogue," "Shadowed Past," and "The Cauldron." So, fewer skippable episodes than I thought. The others aren't horrible, but I don't think that they're necessary to understanding the show as a whole.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-08 09:27 pm (UTC)Having watched a couple of episodes recently (both halves of "The Cauldron"), I know it felt "wrong" for more reasons than I even remembered before I did some episode watching.
You're right that some elements of XME are very different from the comics - it's an AU/adaptation in the same way that the movies are.
And X-Men: First Class was the first of the movies I really liked. In fact, having watched those episodes of XM:E, I was reminded that one of the things that bothered me was the feeling that the character design for Wolverine in XM:E already showed influence from the casting of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. I hate the fact that the movie Wolverine is 6'2", I love Wolverine being only 5'2", and he's definitely taller than that in XM:E. Hell, it isn't just his height that feels "wrong" in XM:E. There's also the fact that, while Scott and Jean (two of the founding X-Men) are just teenagers, Wolverine and Storm are two of the instructors. It's so very definitely an alternate universe. Reminds me, I've been meaning to check what XM:E's Universe designation is. It might not be 616, but I bet it does have a designation in the Marvel multiverse. :D
One of the reasons why I call it the "canon high school AU" is that the teenage X-Men live and train at the Xavier Institute, but...
Just the use of "Xavier Institute" rather than "Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters" is enough to bother me a bit. It's not as bad as some of the other stuff because it's a change I know has happened in the books, but I still prefer the place to actually be called a school rather than an institute.
...it's a departure from pretty much any other version of canon.
Yeah, I think the main reason it's one of the less jarring changes to me is that it is a cartoon. I'd worry about the actual safety of the normal human kids if it were something more adult, but being a kids show I expect that none of the mutant kids is really going to lose control badly enough to endanger all of the normals that they're going to school with. I mean the "pretty much any other version of canon" separation isn't just about keeping the mutant kids in a "safe" environment. It's about keeping them from being unintentional dangers to others while they're learning to control their powers.
I remember those issues! I liked Magneto's interactions with the New Mutants.
A good portion of how Magneto and Magik are two of my all time favorite X-Characters are how they interacted before Doug Ramsey's death was used by the writers to drive them both back in the direction of being villains rather than being heroes.
Unfortunately, although X-Men: Evolution's Magneto does have a few compelling and interesting moments, he spends a lot of time being a stereotypical megalomanical villain.
No great surprise. There are lots of fans who seem to prefer him as a one note super villain rather than anything more complex. It's why I'm very grateful that Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender seem to appreciate that Magneto is a more complicated character than that. I mean Stan Lee has said he never meant for Magneto to be a villain, an antagonist to Charles, but not a villain. I always choose to remember that Magneto was one of the "Heroes For Hope" in the African Famine Relief book.
I've known some Magneto fans who happen to like this version regardless, so I would leave you to judge for yourself.
I've only watched "The Cauldron" so far, but from it the character I was most interested in seeing more of was actually Mystique. She's another character who's presentation has gone all over the map over the years. I haven't got strong feelings about her being presented a particular way because I felt like she was in flux when I started reading the books. It helps.
TBC
no subject
Date: 2013-11-08 09:28 pm (UTC)Heh. Sure. Now that I've already watched "The Cauldron." Of course, watching those episodes, I realized that one of my initial problems with XM:E was how many OTPs I've got in the 616 canon. Kitty without Colossus and Rogue without Gambit both feel incomplete to me. Not to mention that Gambit is one of my favorite characters in the Marvel multiverse period. Having watched "The Cauldron" I think I will try those other episodes sometime. I may have distinct preferences about how things "should be" with Marvel characters, but I can adapt if I find something in the AU that really appeals to me. I loved The Age of Apocalypse. It likely prolonged my reading of the books.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-16 03:54 pm (UTC)I completely understand where you're coming from, actually. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I learned about the various versions of the X-Men universe in roughly the following order: movie -> XME -> comics. From the very first time that I saw the movie, I loved the school setting, the mixture of familiar classroom and social dynamics with with both the angst and fun of superhuman powers. It's a very distinctive part of the X-Men canon, and I definitely missed it about XME just like you did, though I ended up enjoying some of the story lines that came from the kids mingling with normal human characters in a "normal" school setting.
I'd worry about the actual safety of the normal human kids if it were something more adult, but being a kids show I expect that none of the mutant kids is really going to lose control badly enough to endanger all of the normals that they're going to school with. I mean the "pretty much any other version of canon" separation isn't just about keeping the mutant kids in a "safe" environment. It's about keeping them from being unintentional dangers to others while they're learning to control their powers.
That's a good point. Obviously, since XME is a kids' show, nobody ever gets badly hurt, but the students do lose control of their powers in front of their classmates occasionally (or deliberately use them in self-defense/to help others/to cause trouble). This is further complicated by the fact that the entire existence of mutants is a secret in this reality, and while Xavier requires the mutants in his care to attend high school, they're not allowed to tell anybody what they are or the true purpose of the Institute.
It's why I'm very grateful that Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender seem to appreciate that Magneto is a more complicated character than that.
Yes! It's a combination of scriptwriting choices and really great acting that make Magneto so complex in the movies.
I've only watched "The Cauldron" so far, but from it the character I was most interested in seeing more of was actually Mystique.
Mystique is wonderfully sneaky and effective in XME. I'm glad that she's captured your interest.
Of course, watching those episodes, I realized that one of my initial problems with XM:E was how many OTPs I've got in the 616 canon. Kitty without Colossus and Rogue without Gambit both feel incomplete to me. Not to mention that Gambit is one of my favorite characters in the Marvel multiverse period.
Gambit and Colossus do appear in XME, later on, although Gambit has a somewhat more prominent role. I'm not quite as attached to those pairings as you are, and I should probably warn you that the show does not really pursue them. I definitely sympathize with wanting to see how an alternate canon would portray something that you liked in the original, whether it's a character, a romance, or a story arc.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 12:56 am (UTC)Thanks!
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I learned about the various versions of the X-Men universe in roughly the following order: movie -> XME -> comics.
Whether or not you've mentioned it before it's worth giving me a reminder. To be fair have I mentioned that I actually was first exposed to the X-Men when they appeared in the Spiderman and his Amazing Friends cartoon series? I mean I didn't go straight into reading the books from that because Firestar was a character who'd been created specifically for the show, and she was the character I was really into. However, one of the series I bought the first year I was buying X-Books was Firestar's mini-series. :D
...though I ended up enjoying some of the story lines that came from the kids mingling with normal human characters in a "normal" school setting.
I haven't watched much of the show yet, but I have never forgotten a comic book were the New Mutants went to a mixer at the local high school. It really brought home for the kids how lucky they were to have each other.
That's a good point.
Thanks again!
This is further complicated by the fact that the entire existence of mutants is a secret in this reality...
It maybe I watched enough of the show the first time around that it bothered me. I've gotten really tired over the years of universes where the magical/supernatural/science fictional aspects of them are a secret from the general population. Not to mention I was never happy with how badly things seemed to tend to go for the humans that were supportive of mutant rights in the comic books. It always seemed like Magneto might not have been right about all humans hating mutants, but loving them wasn't good for you.
It's a combination of scriptwriting choices and really great acting that make Magneto so complex in the movies.
I don't think the scriptwriting is always the best, but I think the actors always do the best they can with what they are given.
Mystique is wonderfully sneaky and effective in XME. I'm glad that she's captured your interest.
Heh. If I remember right, in XM:E Apocalypse manages to harness Magneto, Xavier, Mystique, and Storm for his Four Horsemen. I remember thinking it should be pretty near impossible to defeat those Horsemen.
Gambit and Colossus do appear in XME, later on...
Cool.
I'm not quite as attached to those pairings as you are, and I should probably warn you that the show does not really pursue them.
*Sighs.* It's probably just as well. The older I get the more I learn that seeing other people revisit things I loved when I was younger means having to make allowances for how those people see those things. I mean I thought Wolverine/Mariko ended badly enough in the comic books without adding how it ends in the anime and the movie The Wolverine. Never mind I have watched the anime. I've at least avoided the movie.
I definitely sympathize with wanting to see how an alternate canon would portray something that you liked in the original, whether it's a character, a romance, or a story arc.
Thanks, once more. I should mention, that on reflection, it's occurred to me that there are relationships besides romantic ones that I'm really attached to and which don't seem to be as close in XM:E as I prefer them. Quicksilver/The Scarlet Witch is a genuine family bond that I've always seen as very close and Wanda doesn't seem to be part of XM:E they way that her brother is. There's others, but that works as an example of how much of the 616 canon I don't just carry around in my head, but I like a certain way.