Customer Reviews

X-Men: Volume Five (Marvel DVD Comic Book Collection)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

X-men fans can finally finish off the complete animated series on DVD with this 5th volume. All I can say is thank God that Disney finished releasing this series and didn't leave us hanging. Containing all 13 episodes of the 5th season and one episode held over from the 3rd season this set contains the following fourteen episodes:


The Phalanx Covenant (1) Aired: 9/7/1996
Rushing to investigate a disturbance downtown, the X-Men find Sabretooth on the rampage again, but realize too late that it isn't really Sabretooth at all. It is the Phalanx, a voracious alien life-form that can assume the guise of anything or anyone.

The Phalanx Covenant (2) Aired: 9/7/1996
Beast and Forge search for allies to help them battle the alien threat. Gathering assistance from such unlikely sources as Magneto and Sinister, they embark upon a daring and risky plan to free the planet from the clutches of the Phalanx by traveling straight into the belly of the beast.

A Deal with the Devil (Aired: 9/14/1996)
The former Soviet Union's weapon, Omega Red, is thawed out by the US Military to deal with an abandoned Soviet nuclear submarine near Hawaii. He asks for his old enemy, Wolverine, and the woman responsible for freezing him, Storm, to accompany him on the mission. Omega Red is offered restored humanity, but once aboard the warhead-filled sub he reveals he may have other intentions.

No Mutant is an Island (Aired: 9/21/1996) [This episode is from the 3rd season]
Following the loss of Jean Grey to the Phoenix Entity, Cyclops becomes disillusioned with the constant struggle between human and mutantkind. He quits the X-Men and returns to the orphanage he grew up in, discovering his old friend Sarah runs the place. She's helped by wealthy philanthropist Killgrave, who has been adopting orphaned mutant children. When Killgrave may be more than he seems can Cyclops overcome his grief in time to stop him?

Longshot (Aired: 10/5/1996)
Longshot, a rebel from another world, tumbles into this world with no memory and a murderous gang led by the six-armed warrior women Spiral hot on his trail. Longshot is on the run from Mojo, maniacal inter-dimensional TV executive. Using Jubilee as the prize, Mojo and his minions lure Longshot and the X-Men into a deadly contest which Mojo broadcasts 'live' to up his ratings.

Bloodlines (Aired: 10/26/1996)
Nightcrawler gets a mysterious message informing him that his birth mother (whom he never knew) is in trouble. He turns to the X-Men for help. Jubilee is baffled that Nightcrawler wants to help the mother who abandoned him -- she has never known her birth parents and feels hostile toward them. Nightcrawler admits there has been pain, but his faith in God has helped him overcome her rejection. The plot thickens when one of the team members recognizes Nightcrawler's mother's voice.

Storm Front (1) Aired: 11/2/1996
The dashing alien, Arkon, unleashes terrible weather conditions over Washington D.C. to get Storm's attention. He begs her to come to his planet, Corsus, to save it from meteorological chaos that threatens his people. Intrigued yet suspicious, Storm departs leaving a clue for the X-Men to follow. When the X-men arrive to 'rescue' Storm they find her proclaimed savior throughout Arkon's universe and Arkon asks her to marry him.

Storm Front (2) Aired: 11/9/1996
Spectacular preparations for Storm's wedding to Arkon proceed quickly. But as Jubilee helps Storm, the new queen, prepare for the wedding, Jubilee can't help notice how badly the palace workers are treated. Meanwhile Wolverine, Cyclops and Beast discover fleet ships bringing slaves from the neighboring planet. Back at the castle, Storm has been making a few discoveries of her own.

Jubilee's Fairytale Theatre (Aired: 11/16/1996)
Jubilee tells children her own fairy tale having herself, her fellow X-Men and their greatest enemies be the characters in it.
The Fifth Horseman (Aired: 2/8/1997)
Fabian Cortez helps Apocalypse escape from the astral plane.

Old Soldiers (Aired: 2/22/1997)
Wolverine thinks back to the time when he fought during World War II and teamed up with Captain America.

Descent (Aired: 9/13/1997)
The origin of Mr. Sinister is explored.

Hidden Agendas (Aired: 9/6/1997)
When the army learns of Sam Guthrie's cannonball power, they try to enlist him in their ranks.

Graduation Day (Aired: 9/20/1997)
Due to a serious injury, Professor Xavier is dying and must leave with Lilandra and go with her to the Shi'Ar Empire. He bids farewell to his X-Men. The last scene of this show ends with all of the X-men standing outside the mansion watching Lilandra's ship, carrying Xavier, flying away.


A great collection of episodes to finish off the series. My favorites among them being No Mutant Is An Island, Bloodlines, Old Soldiers and Graduation Day. Some fans are upset that the episode No Mutant Is An Island, produced for season 3 (where the story would resonate more and make more sense chronologically), is being released on the 5th volume rather than the 3rd. Disney is releasing these episodes in the order they originally aired though and as long as I own them all it doesn't bother me too much.

Audio and Video of the episodes isn't beautifully restored but they are in the same quality viewers will remember from when they originally aired. Some people have complained about minor compression issues but I'm fairly uptight and the quality of these episodes has never bothered me. Also these sets have yet to contain any special features other than previews for other Disney movies. This final volume will be no different so don't expect any sort of supplemental material. Despite the lack of special features I still give this 5th Volume 5 stars because this series is so great and because the packaging and original package art has been fantastic on all five.

Now fans can own X-men the complete animated series in five volumes and have it look great on their shelf. Now lets hope good sales on these volumes will mean a possible complete series set with special features someday for more diehard fans like myself. I at least hope that good sales on these volumes will mean the release of other great series such as Spiderman the 90's animated series and/or possibly even convince Disney to release the remainder of the Gargoyles series on DVD. Anyways that's just me hoping. Thanks for your time.

Fox Kids, in my opinion had the best cartoons in the world, X-men being one of them. Fox Kids had Eek the Cat, Bobby's
World, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, X-Men, Spider-Man, The Tick and Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. Each one of memorable
shows of the 90s. One of the most highly successful shows was the 90s X-Men.

The final adventures of the highly successful X-Men animated series are now finally here.
With this final volume, the entire series is now complete. We've waited long enough for this
whole series. We can now rejoice as the series is now completed.

This is the series' season four and five. X-Men debuted in 1992 on the Fox Kids network and ran all the way to 1997 with
five seasons and a total of 76 episodes. In this season, we'll witness Omega Red teaming with the X-Men,
an alien species consuming the planet, Storm being engaged to a king from another world, the origins of
Mr.Sinister and Wolverine teaming up with Captain America to battle the Red Skull. We'll even witness the final
episode with emotional results as Xavier leaves the X-Men to survive a fatal illness.

If you are either a fan of X-Men, Marvel, Fox Kids' cartoons, 80s/90s cartoons or just love all in general, then don't miss the final adventures of X-Men. If you loved volumes one two, three and four, then don't miss the final volume. It might just be
a great time to gather all volumes and witness the 90s all over again.

Also the Iron Man 90s animated series is being released along with X-Men. Let's just hope that someday, Disney will someday
released the 90s Spider-Man, along with Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Silver Surfer and all other Marvel series. I would
love to have the 94 Spider-Man get a DVD release. I also hope that they'll release Eek the Cat and the rest of Gargoyles and the Tick on DVD.

Here's the episode in this volume:

The Phalanx Convient, Part 1:
While pursing Sabertooth, the X-Men's mansion is taken over by an matter consuming entity known as The Phalanx.
Beast meets an alien being named Warlock who offers to help.

The Phalanx Convient, Part 2:
Beast, Warlock, Mr. Sinister and Forge recruit Magneto to help them stop The Phalanx from taking over the world.

A Deal With The Devil:
Wolverine and Storm are summoned to 'assist' Omega Red in finding an active nuclear submarine. Can Omega Red be trusted?

No Mutant Is An Island(this is from Season 2):
This was supposed to be in volume 3 because this took place after the Phoenix Saga. But it wasn't in that volume.
In this episode, Cyclops leaves The X-Men and returns to the orphanage where he was raised. He prevents a crisis there
and returns to the X-Men after hearing that Jean is returning.

Longshot:
Longshot escapes Mojo's dimension, but the fat tyrannical TV host follows him, once again leaving the X-Men to battle the gargantuan villain in a TV show.

The Fifth Horseman:
Fabian Cortez attempts to help Apocalypse find a new body by freeing him from his imprisonment.

Storm Front, Part 1:
Storm is kidnapped and taken to another dimension. The king of the planet asks for her hand in marriage.

Storm Front, Part 2:
Storm agrees to marry the king to become Queen. But the X-Men know it's not what it seems. They must convince her
that he cannot be trusted.

Bloodlines:
When Nightcrawler receives a letter threatening his Birthmother, he asks The X-Men for help. Will Nightcrawler finally find why his Mother abandoned him?

Jubilee's Fairytale Theater:
Jubilee 'entertains' a group of children with a fairytale starring The X-Men.

Old Soldiers:
Wolverine recalls his adventure with Captain America during WWII. He and Captain America must break into a Nazi establishment in order to rescue a kidnapped American scientist. The odds are turned against them when The Red Skull appears.

Hidden Agenda:
Rouge confronts a new mutant that has been making waves in his hometown.

Descent:
An ancestor of Charles Xavier tells his story of his search around the world hoping to find the truth behind the sinister intentions of Nathaniel Essex. Mr.Sinister's origins are told.

Graduation Day:
In the final episode, Xavier gets fatally wounded and ill with a deadly illness. With Professor Xavier dying, the X-Men set out to find the only man who can help him, Magneto. Will Magneto save his Former friend or finally live his dream of a mutant dominated earth?

Disney has actually decided to finish releasing the entirety of one of its properties, rejoice X-Men fans, its been a long wait!

Unfortunately in many ways the series went out with a whimper. The creators never anticipated a fifth season and the contract with the animation studio even expired resulting in the last few episodes being animated by a new studio and a drastic change in visual style. Some voice talent left as well, most notably Chris Potters who played Gambit and was replaced by Tony Daniels, making for a somewhat jarring presentation and conclusion. A lot of the episodes are "filler" and stand-alone stories. That doesn't mean they are bad, but the series always had a feeling of moving forward that is absent here.

Nevertheless, if you've come this far you must see it through! There are some good episodes here, even some classics, and the series did get a proper final episode which provides closure to the series. Among the standout episodes are the two part Phalanx episodes which provide at least an entertaining team-up between Beast, Magneto, and Sinister. I quite enjoy the episode "Deliverance" which gives us the back story of one of the villains of the series. "Old Soldiers" is another flash back episode, this one featuring Wolverine and depicting his team-up with the legendary Captain America to take on the Red Skull. "Bloodlines" brings back Nightcrawler and unveils his origins and relationship with Rogue and Creed. We also get a couple holdover episodes, "A Deal With the Devil" and "No Mutant is an Island," two episodes part of prior seasons that are presented here according to air date. "Fifth Horseman" raises the question of whether Apocalypse is truly defeated and brings the often forgotten X-Factor member Caliban to the party.

There are a few episodes I personally don't care for. The two part "Storm Front" episode just doesn't do it for me, and the fact that is two parts is unfortunate. The Cannonball episode is not well done and the new visual style just doesn't work here. "Jubilee's Fairytale Theater" is definitely the black sheep of all the episodes.

Despite a couple shortcomings this is still a must own. The final episode is fun to watch, even if Xavier's illness is left mostly unexplained, its one of the few episodes where all of the X-Men get some facetime (and Jean is depicted in her comic book yellow and blue costume for the only time in the series, for those of you interested in that sort of thing). Its unfortunate more time could not have been allotted for the conclusion, as it really would have benefitted as a multi-part arc give how quickly the Magneto conflict is resolved, but at least we get a final episode. As a final piece of fan service, the original voice actor for Magneto, David Hemblen, was brought back for the last episode. If you loved the series I imagine you need no further convincing.

I am blown away that Disney is finally completing a series. And this is a great series! After the disappointment of ending great TV series to DVD releases like Gargoyles and The Tick at season 2, I was really worried Disney was going to drop the ball on X-Men.

Granted, the last half of the 5th season of the X-Men animated series changes dramatically in animation quality and voice over quality, but it wouldn't be complete without it. As mentioned, No Mutant is an Island is an episode from the 3rd season, and it'll be nice to have this episode back.

I recommend all the fans pick up this volume not only to complete your series, but to give Disney the signal that completing a series is what fans want!

If anyone knew anything about being different it was me. Growing up I just didnt belong to any group -I was never bullied or picked on, I think I was just not interesting enough for anyone to want to bother. Had it not been for the X-Men series, and the action figures, I might have not survived.

This was a great show that aired in the early 90s and survived for a few years, before (horribly) the show was cancelled. I thought I was going to die. My whole world revolved around Professor Charles Xavier and his "gifted" students. I wished, and prayed that I would develope sometype of "mutant" ability and at last have a reason for being so different. Of course it never happened. But while other kids were drinking, smoking and commiting suicide I escaped reality by writing myself into the Marvel Universe sometimes as a member of the X-Men, but more often than not as a member of the brotherhood.

X-Men is really a great metaphor for the Gay struggle. I mean the cartoon really speaks about bigotry as a whole, but it is up to the individual to extract from this what they need. I did and it did alot for me. I cant explain it, but I will say without X-Men i doubt I would have survived High School, and I know I would not have finished College. It is crazy and I really cant give a reason, but this series really introduced me to a world that was a great help in my growth and development. The lessons Xavier taught are really good ideas to use in reality.

As a huge fan of the series, I have to say that volume 5 collects the very worst the show has to offer. The first disc has some good stuff, but the second disc is just horrible. Lack-luster stories, and much worse animation (quite honestly, I can't even rate the stories because the animation is just so awful that it overwhelms everything else) bring a sad end to a great show. I loved this show, but the final episodes left me praying for a quick death.

Having said that, I am really, really glad they released every episode on dvd. It's definitely worth a few bad episodes in order to have the whole thing. I do not regret shelling out the money for this at all.

Marvel's 90s X-Men animated series comes to an end with this fifth DVD set from Disney, which contains the final episodes of the beloved series, which remains to this day the best Marvel animated series ever produced. In these episodes, the X-Men face-off against a powerful alien force ("The Phalanx Covenant"), Omega Red returns with vengeance on his mind ("A Deal with the Devil"), Nightcrawler's past and family ties are revealed ("Bloodlines"), and Wolverine reminisces back to fighting alongside Captain America in World War II ("Old Soldiers"). The best of the bunch here though are undoubtedly the two-parter "Phalanx Covenant"; in which Beast and Forge form an unlikely alliance with Magneto and Mr. Sinister, "Descent"; in which the origins of Mr. Sinister are explored, and the final episode "Graduation Day"; which finds the X-Men uniting with Magneto in an effort to save the life of Professor Xavier. Though the animation quality and voice work took a downward turn in some of these last episodes of the series, its overall message remained untouched. Just as it was when these episodes first aired, seeing them again on DVD is bittersweet, if only due to the fact that this is the end.

Season 5 is the end of the series, and for good reason.

The artistry was horrible. The stories atrocious. And the voice actors had changed. They were not bad.

Just imagine if your favorite actor or actress of a Teevee series came back for the next season, with a completely different voice. It'd throw you off, right? Well, that's what it was like for me, listening to the new voice actors for Gambit, Rogue, and, I believe, Storm.

And when I say the stories were atrocious, I mean the concept was good, but the follow through fell flat.

And though the cover art looks like what you'd expect from Seasons 1-4, Season five is completely wrong. They should have ended the series after four. It would have left me wanting more, but at least they wouldn't have "jumped the shark".

This is still my favorite cartoon of all time. I love this show. Volume 5 is definitely the weakest collection of the series, but it's still great to watch. I would recommend casual viewers of the show (are there any of these?) pick up the first volume, but if you're a huge fan like me, I'm sure you already have all 5 volumes, and this review won't tell you anything you don't already know. All 5 volumes were great quality, and I can't think of a single complaint about any of them. I can now watch every episode (I have been watching them with my wife because she wanted to see them all too) in better quality than I saw them when I was a kid! (fuzzy TV reception being the norm back then) This is definitely the most true to the comics representation of any comic book brought to visual medium and a blast to watch for kids of all ages!

For 46 years, the mutant superhero team known as "X-Men" have been a part of the lives of several generations. I personally grew up with the the X-Men during the latest 70's and early 80's but became interested once again during the early 90's when artist Jim Lee brought a new look and eventually created this incredible synergy amongst the fans. A time when Chris Claremont was ending his run and the storylines would be be infused by more excitement from Fabien Nicieza and Scot Lobdell.

We were greeted with awesome storylines such as the "The X-Tinction Agenda", "The Muir Island Saga", "X-Cutioner's Song", "Fatal Attractions", "Phalanx Covenant" and "Age of Apocalypse" from 1990-1995 and in addition to the excitement in the comic books (which would continue on with the action figures from Toy Biz), the animated series was one of those special events that took place in October 1992 on the Fox Network.

I can easily remember how many of my friends and fellow comic book collectors were excited for the series. Although not exactly the same type of storyline from the comic books, the animated series captured the heart and soul of the X-Men and "X-Men: The Animated Series" would continue on through 1998.

Needless to say, the animated series is close to the heart for the diehard X-Men fan but also those who were young when the series came out, are now wanting to share the animated series with their own children. And for me, it's great to watch this series alongside my six-year-old son and seeing him enjoy the series as well.

"X-MEN VOLUME 5' comes with the final 15 episodes of the animated series on two DVD's. It's important to note that Buena Vista Home Entertainment has the episodes going by how it was aired and not by production episode number. So, I will list the episodes with their episode # on the DVD but also their episode script #.

Here is a brief, spoiler-less synopsis of "X-MEN Volume 5 - Marvel DVD Comic Book Collection":

DISC: 1

* EPISODE 63 (67) - The Phalanx Covenant (Part 1) - The techno-organic aliens known as the Phalanx attack life on Earth.
* EPISODE 64 (68) - The Phalanx Covenant (Part 2) - The X-Men vs. the Phalanx.
* EPISODE 65 (47) - A Deal with the Devil - Wolverine and Storm take on Omega Red.
* EPISODE 66 (34) - No Mutant is an Island - After the aftermath of "The Phoenix Saga", Cyclops leaves the X-Men.
* EPISODE 67 (36) - Longshot - The Inner Circle make their move and Professor X and Emma Frost battle against each other for psychic control of Jean. The Dark Phoenix is born.
* EPISODE 68 (59) - Bloodlines - Nightcrawler receives a message that his mother is in trouble.

DISC 2:

* EPISODE 69 (69) - Storm Front (Part 1) - The alien Arkon asks for Storm to return with him to his planet and proposes to her.
* EPISODE 70 (70) - Storm Front (Part 2) - Arkon and Storm are to be married but the X-Men find out that Arkon is not exactly on the side of good.
* EPISODE 71 (72) - Jubilee's Fairy Tale Theatre - Jubilee leads a tour for several kids in a cave on mansion property but are caught in a cave-in.
* EPISODE 72 (71) - The Fifth Horseman - Fabian Cortez kidnaps Jubilee.
* EPISODE 73 (73) - Old Soldiers - A past story of when Wolverine and Captain America worked together back in World War II.
* EPISODE 74 (75) - Descent - The origin of Mr. Sinister.
* EPISODE 75 (74) - Hidden Agendas - Professor X takes in Sam Guthrie (Cannonball).
* EPISODE 76 (76) - Graduation Day - It's the day of the Mutant/Human Relations Summit but Gyrich intends to make his presence known.

VIDEO:

"X-MEN" the animated series is presented in full screen (1:33:1). One thing that you will notice is that the animation does show its age. Since the animation was created over 15-years ago, a lot of the animation is hand drawn and compared to many of the digital animated series that are show on television today, the animation doesn't have that digital color vibrancy as newer animations and also, you will notice that the animation does has its share of interlacing and on bigger television screens, viewers will notice edge enhancement as well.

It's important to note that the final six episodes were animated by a different company. As the animated series was supposed to end with season four's "Beyond Good and Evil", FOX ordered more episodes but the animators in Korea (AKOM) were already working on the second season of "Fantastic Four", the Philippine Animation Studio was brought in to complete the season. Although not sure if anyone will be able to tell the difference.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

As for audio, audio is presented in Dolby 2.0 and is dialogue-driven (a French and Spanish language track is also included). Unfortunately, the soundtrack is front channel driven but for those who have receivers capable of a setting to enable stereo on all channels, I found that to be the best setting to enjoy the series on my home theater system.

As for subtitles, "X-MEN VOLUME 3' is provided in English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There are no special features included on both DVD's.

JUDGMENT CALL:

I was among the big X-Men fans who were highly anticipating the series and just loved it! As a collector of the X-Men comic books around that time period, to have a series based on Jim Lee's character designs and a series with so much potential of showcasing a variety of enemies and characters, it was always a treat to find out who would be introduced in each episode.

In fact, during the hoopla and way before the Internet became part of our natural lives, many of the fans would communicate about the episodes through electronic BBS's and show our happiness and excitement over the animated series, the action figure line and of course the many multiple X-Men related comic book series that flourished from the early 90's.

For volume 5, fans who were reading the comic books were also treated with the Phalanx storyline in animated format. So, as an X-Man fan at the time, it was very cool to see something that was featured in a comic, appear so quickly in the cartoon.

Now, there is one thing that is a big negative that hardcore fans of the animated series may find and that is the choice to feature the episodes via air date and not script #.

For example, the majority of the episodes on this DVD are from season five but because of the production #, episodes from season three such as "No Mutant is an Island" (which is listed as episode #66 but on television it was episode #34) and "Longshot" (which is episode #67 was episode #36 on television) end up on this fifth DVD volume. So, for continuity sakes, especially with "No Mutant is an Island" which comes after the "Phoenix Saga", there is continuity disruption which is a bit unfortunate.

Granted, I know there are hardcore fans who really take issue of the episode listing on this DVD series but knowing how long fans have waited for the series and knowing what's done is done, this is probably the best we are going to get of the series in a long time (unless they remaster and restore it for a Blu-ray release in the future which I don't know if that will ever happen and because of the quality of the series, I kind of doubt it). So, with that being said, I still recommend the purchase of the series, especially if you have already purchased volume 1 through 4.

Overall, "X-MEN VOLUME 5' is an entertaining set and if you have started collecting the various volumes, you will definitely want to complete your collection with this fifth volume.

For fans of the "X-MEN" animated series, despite the episode listing which is disconcerting for some, the episodes are still entertaining, nostalgic, action-packed and still enjoyable to watch over 15 years later and yes... for hardcore X-Men fans, still worth owning!