X-men/Spiderman The Animated Series

[Lace Neil Singer]

Both of these cartoons came out in the 90s and both had several story arcs lifted straight from the comics. The characters were tweaked a little to fit the confines of a kid's show, and there was some censoring especially in the Spiderman cartoon; for example, Morbius' craving for "plasma" rather than blood and "Look, lasers!" instead of bullets. However, despite that, the characters were spot on and the X-men cartoon was, to my mind, the best adaptation of X-men ever... yes, that includes the movies.

Some of the characters were even better in the cartoons than the comics. Chameleon (Spiderman) is one; in the comics he comes accross as being a complete dickhead without many brains. In the cartoon, he's pretty badass. Tombstone's backstory was tweaked; I actually prefer the cartoon version. X-men, too, did a great job with the Phoenix Saga despite the tweaking of the story to suit its status as a children's cartoon show (tho, in my opinion, it's too good for the little shits. )

As for Venom... ugh, I just have to mention the terrible casting crime that the movie committed as far as Eddie Brock was concerned. -.- Eddie is supposed to be ripped, dammit; not a skinny little emo. The movie could have done so much more with Brock's character; and it also would have rocked if Carnage had been brought in, too. I always think of the cartoon's version of Venom as being the definitive version anyway.

In case you don't know these cartoons (I pity you, but that's another story. XD), here's some links:

X-men TAS

Spiderman TAS

[Fire_on_High]

The X-men one is the Fox version? I used to be a HUGE Phoenix fan and yes, they did that amazing justice.

[Amanita]

I used to love Spiderman, they did a fantastic job on that!

[Ginger Tea]

I recently watched all Xmen Evolution seasons on marvel's youtube channel, I know it's not the same series you are on about, but I enjoyed most of it, but the whole brotherhood being total incompetants all the time ...

[bunnyboy]

I recently watched all Xmen Evolution seasons on marvel's youtube channel, I know it's not the same series you are on about, but I enjoyed most of it, but the whole brotherhood being total incompetants all the time ...

Hell it even gave us one of the few good Mutants in that wonderful time between Onslaught and House of M, where it seemed like every other person was one.

yes I am talking about X-23, of course it was because of what the comics did for her, and it still makes me sad that whoever thought house of M was a good idea didn't realize that it killed off one of the only non-Xavier related X comics (I woulda started reading comics again if NY-X had stayed around.)

[Lace Neil Singer]

Oh yes, I love X-23 as a character, and I think it's great that she was developed fully in the comics as a result of Evolution. ^^

One thing about Evolution tho; this may be a nitpick, but Avalanche seems to me to be more like Richtor, rather than the Avalanche of the comics or of the original animated series. Also, Boom Boom got on my nerves a bit.

[Ginger Tea]

Just watched Wolverine and the X-Men episodes 1-3, got the box set (along with others) from forbidden planet today, first impressions were I liked the art style of the Evolution serise I watched yonks ago more, but after a while I stopped noticing it and just watched the show for itself, not as a comparison.

Story wise, there actually is one forming, episodic stuff is ok but I do like me some story arcs that last a while.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I love it when they do story arcs in animated series; the best one, in my opinion, was the one in TAS when they do the Phoenix saga, followed by the Dark Phoenix saga. Yeah, they changed a few things, but remember that it was a kid's show, so there were some things they couldn't do.

In Dark Phoenix, the Hellfire club especially Emma Frost are just so well presented; you forget sometimes that it IS meant to be a kid's show. XD

[Nyoibo]

I'm currently watching my was through X-Men TAS, I missed a few episodes as a kid so now it's time to relive it all, what's scary is Ieven in episodes I don't really remember I can still quote the damn things

[fireheart17]

Ihad to have a look. The only thing I know about the X-Men show is the VERY VERY awesome theme song.

[DrFaroohk]

There's an x-men spiderman cartoon that used to be, and its probably the same one, that every single time i've ever turned it on, its that episode where they're all in like this alternate universe and dr. doom is there and he changes ben back to normal for a while i think, and then other stuff happens, and finally these godlike characters reveal it was some test, but they're gonna wipe their memories.

I mean literally like any time the show was on....it was that episode.

[Andara Bledin]

That's a common phenomenon with TV. It works with just about any show. I know that every single time my aunt ever ended up flipping to a channel that was showing Seinfeld, it was always the same episode.

^-.-^

[DrFaroohk]

I remember reading that somewhere too. Most shows its sometimes, but strangely, with this spiderman show its ALL THE TIME! I've never seen any other episode of it.

[lordlundar]

There's an x-men spiderman cartoon that used to be, and its probably the same one, that every single time i've ever turned it on, its that episode where they're all in like this alternate universe and dr. doom is there and he changes ben back to normal for a while i think, and then other stuff happens, and finally these godlike characters reveal it was some test, but they're gonna wipe their memories.

I mean literally like any time the show was on....it was that episode.

Spider man. It was near the end of the series and the episode was Secret Wars Part 3: Doom. The multi part was a test conceived by Madame Web and the Beyonder for that particular incarnation of Spider Man to gauge his leadership capabilities for a "greater conflict". The test consisted of the Beyonder choosing 5 of the greatest villains Spidey dealt with and gave them a year to control an otherwise peaceful planet. After the year, Spidey was dropped in it and could choose 7 allies he worked with to defeat the villains.

The villains chosen were Doc Oct, Doctor Doom, Alistair Smythe, the Lizard, and Red Skull. Spidey choices were the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Captain America, and Storm. In the first episode of the three part he converted the Lizard to his side with the aid of Mr. Fantastic. The second episode the heroes managed to get Black Cat and with the aid of the planet's indigenous rebels, brought down the Red Skull's empire, causing Smythe to join their cause and Oct and the Skull escaping. It's assumed they were labelled as defeated and sent back to earth.

Episode three is the one you talked about where Spidey's forces met with Dr. Doom. The Fantastic Four were sent out to scout ahead and were ambushed by Doom's forces. Doom took Been and used his device to restore Ben. When Spidey's forces reached Doom they found a peaceful utopia, which was a smokescreen for doom to finish his device. Doom knew he was placed there by omnipotent forces and his device was made to capture that force. He used it to acquire the Beyonder's powers which were eventually going out of control and the fight breaks out between Doom and all the heroes. Ben manged to fire the device back at doom, releasing the Beyonder and then he used his powers to return all the villains and heroes save spidey back to Earth with no memory of the battles. It was then it was revealed that the war game was a test for the real task.

It was later revealed to be the Spider Wars, which closed out the series with a multi-dimensional battle where spidey led a group of Spider men from other dimensions to stop the Kingpin and Spider Carnage (yet another spider man from another dimension who merged with Carnage) from destroying all of reality. After they were successful, one of the spider men revealed that he was an actor and took the series spidey to meet Stan Lee, which was a promo for the upcoming Spider Man movie.

Fun closeout to a really good series.

[Lace Neil Singer]

The series actually was supposed to go on for longer, but was cancelled. It's hinted in the last episode that Madame Web is taking Spiderman to find Mary Jane, who was lost in limbo as a result of falling into a black hole.

My favourite story arc within the Spiderman TAS series was "Neogenic Nightmare"; it had everything, including a cameo by the X-men. I also liked the "Six Forgotten Warriors" arc.