X-Men: Evolution - Season 4 ((LINK))
X-Men: Evolution is an American animated television series based on the X-Men superhero team appearing in Marvel Comics.[1] The series takes inspiration from the early issues of the source material and follows the X-Men as teenagers rather than adults, as they learn to control their developing mutant powers and face various threats.[2] X-Men: Evolution ran for a total of four seasons comprising 52 episodes from November 4, 2000 to October 25, 2003 on Kids' WB, which made it the third longest-running Marvel Comics animated series at the time, behind Fox Kids' X-Men and Spider-Man. The series was aired on Disney XD from June 15, 2009, to December 30, 2011.
X-Men: Evolution - Season 4
Season one focuses on introducing the core characters of the series. The titular team founded by Professor Charles Xavier competes with Mystique to recruit young mutants with newly discovered superpowers to their cause. At the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the teenage X-Men are taught by Xavier, Wolverine and Storm to control their abilities and keep them hidden from the rest of society whist attending high school in Bayville, Massachusetts.[3] Their ranks grow over the course of the season and ultimately include Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Spyke, and Rogue, who is initially manipulated into joining Mystique's Brotherhood of Mutants.
A point of controversy was the design of the blue-skinned villain Mystique. Steven E. Gordon, the character designer and director of various episodes, was never impressed with the Mystique designs for the first season. Mystique was originally to be presented as nude (as in the films), but Warner Brothers did not want this included in a Kids' WB! production.[5] However, a short scene of Mystique drawn to resemble her film counterpart (albeit clothed) appears in the Season 1 finale. Gordon stopped directing after two seasons, but continued to design characters for the show. He is most satisfied with the designs of Rogue and Wanda.[5]
The show also contained various pop culture references: in episode 9 of the first season, one of Wolverine's defensive programs for the Danger Room is referred to as "Logan's Run X13", a clear reference to the novel/film Logan's Run. The Rogue/Kitty dance in "Spykecam" was modeled after a similar dance in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Bad Girls".[6] The play used in the first-season episode "Spykecam", Dracula: The Musical, is a real play. The song used, however, is an original song made for the episode. The writers of the show have also admitted that they were fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Using Shadowcat as the catalyst, the two shows appear similar: a teenage girl with superpowers fights powerful villains in order to save her high school.[6] Buffy creator Joss Whedon has openly credited his inspiration for Buffy as Kitty Pryde.[7]
Starting with the first episode of Season 4, "Impact", the episode title was no longer aired on-screen at the beginning of the show, and X-Men: Evolution became the third longest-running Marvel cartoon, behind Spider-Man: The Animated Series (5 seasons, 65 episodes) and X-Men: The Animated Series (5 seasons, 76 episodes). Boyd Kirkland, the show's producer, says his favorite X-Men: Evolution season is Season 3.[5] The monthly budget for X-Men: Evolution was $350,000.[citation needed]
Noting the show's treatment of its characters, specifically making them high school teenagers for thematic purposes as "admirable," John G. Nettles of PopMatters concluded, "What disappoints, however, is the sheer number of missed opportunities here and the decision to subscribe to the same old social norms."[11] Reviewing X-Men: Evolution's third season, Filip Vukcevic of IGN was mixed in his analysis, deeming it inferior to X-Men: The Animated Series and concluding, "Evolution ... will interest long-time X-fans, but the fluffy stories and underutilized character personalities ... will cause discerning viewers to zone out," suffering from its attempt "to cram everyone in." Additionally, the author felt that Evolution lacks the "visual flair" of The Batman and the "wit" of Teen Titans. The author also panned the series' "average" voice acting, feeling that Magneto, Wolverine and Beast were "miscast." He also noted that combined with "inventive gags," "the show does its best to make the most of the mutants' powers" because "The fight scenes are fun to watch if only to see how the characters interact."[12]
X-Men: Evolution is set in Bayville, New York, the state established in the episode "The Beast of Bayville", where Kitty Pryde receives a package addressed to Bayville, New York. Furthermore, in the early part of the series (until the end of season 2) most people are unaware of the existence of mutants. Also, the "Brotherhood" team is not known as the "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" within the context of this series. They are not a team of terrorists or mutant supremacists. Instead, the Brotherhood is made up of misfit mutants who often oppose the X-Men (in physical, social and philosophical realms).
The first season mainly concerned the characters' conflict with Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants as well as served as an introductory to many of the characters to allow people to get used to these new teenage versions. Later seasons predominantly featured Apocalypse as an adversary, introduced versions of the New Mutants, Morlocks and Magneto's Acolytes as well as posed the U.S. Government as an adversary to all parties.
The series revealed a detailed knowledge of canon history in a number of small ways. Examples include the evolution of Cerebro from a console device, Shadowcat's initial uneasiness around Nightcrawler and Forge's scientific arrogance along with his devices causing unintended consequences. Rogue is shown to absorb Cyclops' powers in the correct manner. In the Fox series, she also absorbed his lack of control over his beams (which was a result of a brain injury, not inherent in his powers). X-Men: Evolution shows her with full control over them, just as Scott would if he had not sustained a brain injury. In "Survival of the Fittest", Xavier says that Juggernaut acquired his powers through mysticism (but unlike the comic, says that it unlocked a latent mutant power), and in "The Cauldron" Magneto develops his mutant-enhancing technology from that same Jewel of Cyttorak (but says that he has found it to be scientific rather than mystical). In "Day of Recovery", Toad is seen to be quite comfortable with technology and in "Operation Rebirth", the POW camp Magneto is held in as a child is visually similar (in the opening shot) to Auschwitz, though it is not identified as such.
X-23, an original character introduced in later seasons,[17] made her comic book debut in the miniseries NYX,[18] where her appearance was slightly altered to more closely resemble Wolverine. She received a self-titled comic miniseries in 2005.[18][19] Much like Harley Quinn of Batman: The Animated Series, Terry McGinnis of Batman Beyond, Cinderblock of Teen Titans, or Marvel's own Firestar of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, she was a character originally created for an animated series that was incorporated into comic book canon.[20] The character of Dr. Deborah Risman which created X-23, the clone of Wolverine,[17] was also created for the show and was replaced with a similar character named Dr. Sarah Kinney in the miniseries X-23.[18][19]
All four seasons are available for download in SD format on iTunes (Only available for America), being released in 2009 by Marvel. All 4 seasons immediately broke into the Top 10 Animation charts on iTunes, with season 4 peaking at #3.
X-Men: Evolution is an American animated television series about the Marvel Comics superhero team X-Men.[1] In this incarnation, many of the characters are teenagers rather than adults. The series ran for a total of four seasons (52 episodes) from November 2000 until October 2003 on Kids' WB.
The Marvel YouTube page lists "Walk on the Wild Side" as episode 10 of season 2 (set before "Shadow Dance" because Blob still has his mohawk and Duncan gets tickets for Jean) while "On Angel's Wings" and "Operation Rebirth" are out of place, even though they may have aired on the supposed dates.
The final (and darker) season contained only nine episodes. In the season premiere, Apocalypse killed Magneto while Rogue murdered Mystique by pushing her petrified figure off a cliff, leaving her distraught son, Nightcrawler, without closure. The Brotherhood became temporary do-gooders, Wolverine's teenage girl clone X-23 returned, Spyke and the Morlocks rose to the surface, Shadowcat discovered a mutant ghost, Rogue was kidnapped by Gambit and taken to Louisiana to help free his father, and Xavier attempted to defeat his evil son. In the finale, Apocalypse defeated Xavier and Storm, transforming them, along with Magneto and Mystique, as his Four Horsemen. Apocalypse instructed his Horsemen to protect his four domes, which would turn the entire world population into mutants. In the final battle, the Horsemen were returned to normal and Apocalypse was once again entombed. Rogue and Nightcrawler refused the excuses of their mother, Shadowcat and Avalanche found love once again, and Xavier saw his students reunited as the X-Men.
While it did have some toned down storylines, there were still times where it even excelled above the '90s X-Men cartoon. Especially in the graphics department. Sadly, the show was cut short when it wasn't picked up for a 5th season.
X-Men: Evolution had a completely different look and feel when compared to the original X-Men cartoon of the '90s and even to the comics. At times, the characters looked a bit unrealistic in appearance and body type. Yet, it was the villain Mystique's appearance in the first season that made the designers do a re-do of her costume and overall design beginning in season 2. The new design turned out to be a hit and lasted until the end of the series. 041b061a72