[Dr Kain]

So I finished the final disc to X-Men and hot damn, except for two to three episodes, they were down right dreadful. The two parter where Storm suffers from Stockholm Syndrome is by far the worst multipart episode of the entire series, but even that was no where near as bad as some of the episodes on this disc. The Jubilee story time episode was just so dumb and boring. On the other hand, The Fifth Horsemen was a decent episode even though we never saw Jubilee meet Caliban before, so her just knowing him out of the blue makes no sense. We also have no idea who he is or why he becomes the way he does by Cortez at all. The ending is kind of cool, but since this is the last appearance of Apocalypse ever in this universe, it becomes a tad meaningless.

The Captain America one is average. It's cool to see Wolverine and Cap working together, but that is about all the episode has going for it. Thankfully, the following episode that deals with Mr Sinister's origins more than make up for any of the episodes that came before it on the disc because this one is amazing. It is hands down one of the best episodes of the entire series. Not to mention it not featuring any X-Men was unheard of.

Sadly, that episode is followed by one of the worst in the series. Now Rogue can suddenly touch people without them passing out? WHAT?! She touches Cannonball, she touches Gambit, she touches other people without any repercussions, which means the animators weren't even paying attention to what they were doing. LAZY!! The ending doesn't hold any meaning either with The Right given that they are never heard from again after this.

Alternatively, Graduation Day is a phenomenal finale to a truly spectacular cartoon series. It feels rushed and they should have made this a multi-part episode, but it is an ending and one of the best ways they could have ended the show on. To be fair though, I never knew this was originally the series finale because Fox never advertised it as such. I never even knew the show was over until a local comic shop employee told me in the summer of 98 that GD was the series finale.

Overall, this show has been a blast to revisit. There are episodes that I never want to sit through again, but as a whole, I will definitely be watching the vast majority of it again in the future. There were a few areas that didn't make sense when it came to the original X-Men team because there were flashback scenes that showed Angel was part of the team, even though that was contradicted way back in the first season when they met Warren for the very first time. Even Shard says, "He will one day join up with the X-Men," also stating he has never been part of the team before. My favorite episode of the series (counting all multiparters as one story) is probably The Dark Phoenix Saga, followed by The Phoenix Saga, Beyond Good and Evil, and Bloodlines. The worst episode is easily Longshot, with Hidden Agenda, Storm Front, and A Merry Morlock Christmas right behind it. It is a shame that the show lost a lot of its story driven elements during the third season, as that really sets it apart from other comic cartoons. Nevertheless, it was truly nice to revisit this show after a decade (if not longer).

Well, now to try and look to see if X-Men Evolution was ever released on DVD.