I got into the X-Men cartoon in about 1996, when I was in my teens, and in theory shouldn’t have been taking any interest in kids shows. But this one, for whatever reason, caught my attention and held it. I now know why - having seen that it had a lot of the same writers as the equally brilliant Exosquad, which dealt with some similar themes, and which I only caught the end of as a kid, but watched and enjoyed thoroughly for the first time about 3-4yrs ago.
I saw the X-Men toys in the shops but never bothered getting them. Like I said, I was into my teens, and while I never had a teenage attitude, action figures were not something I was even thinking about buying. But like I said, I enjoyed the show.
I think I only saw the pilot episode for the first time this year - I probably saw most of seasons 1-4 back in the day, but not much of season 5. Then again when I rewatched the whole of this show for myself at the start of this year, season 5 didn’t pack the same punch, and season 4 ended with such a brilliant finale that anything after was unnecessary. But that’s beyond the scope of this thread, we’re only covering season 1 here.
Night Of The Sentinels is a pretty impressive start to a pretty impressive series - in at the deep end right away with major themes, this is a show that is not treating its audience with kid gloves. The storyline is great, the characters are well-defined. The relations between characters are clearly identified, Cyclops and Wolverine are at loggerheads from the off, while Beast is the gentle giant with a brain as big as his heart, while Gambit is so laid back he’s almost horizontal. For the women, Rogue is naturally the character with the most insecurities about her powers - something the films also got right - while Jubilee is the youngster through whose eyes we meet the rest of the team. Storm is more in control of her powers - and indeed she is next in command after the Professor and Cyclops. The only character who doesn’t get as much attention in the opener is Jean, but that is rectified later, and she still has one key moment, she is the one who senses Morph’s death.
Enter Magneto and Deadly Reunions continue right where the pilot left off, Beast spends the whole first season in prison, and takes the opportunity to read. I liked the details of the books he chose while incarcerated. For Magneto’s first appearance he’s much more actively hostile towards Xavier and his team than he was later on. I may not have seen these episodes as a kid either, because all my memories of the Xavier-Magneto relationship from my youth revolved around their being true friends underneath it all, a relationship that has always fascinated me. That’s why Ian McKellen was the right choice to play Magneto in the movies - he had the necessary chemistry with Patrick Stewart, they went way back just like their characters did. And they were never going to find a better Xavier than Patrick Stewart!
If I had to pick a couple of minor visual faults, one would be the absence of Morph from the opening titles in the pilot - for me who didn’t remember him, it was a big tipoff to the fact that he was going to get killed. The other relates to Cyclops’ powers - the number of times he just shoots beams from his visor with his hands nowhere near it - it implies he has a lot more control over his powers than is later revealed. Still, it’s a minor quibble. This is one of the best cartoons of the 90s.