Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After the release of Volumes 1 & 2 most fans were ecstatic to be able to own the first three and a half seasons of this classic animated series on studio released DVD. The problem with Disney is you can never tell if they will finish releasing a series or cancel it because of poor sales or God knows why. Luckily fans of this series will be able to collect more episodes this September 22nd with the further release of X-men: The Animated Series with Volumes 3 & 4. Volume four is confirmed to contain the following fourteen episodes from the fourth season of the show spread across two discs:

Disc 1
49 Proteus (1)
50 Proteus (2)
51 Sanctuary (1)
52 Sanctuary (2)
53 Beyond Good and Evil (1)
54 Beyond Good and Evil (2)
55 Beyond Good and Evil (3)
56 Beyond Good and Evil (4)

Disc 2
57 Have Yourself A Morlock Little Christmas
58 The Lotus and the Steel
59 Love in Vain
60 Secrets, Not Long Buried
61 Xavier Remembers
62 Family Ties

Really every episode from this series can be considered a fan favorite but more noticable in this collection is the four part Beyond Good and Evil saga as well as The Phalanx Covenant, Sanctuary and Family Ties.

The audio & video quality we can expect will be the same as that of the first two volumes. Episodes tended to be in the same quality they aired with minor compression issues that go unnoticed by most and didn't impede on my personal viewing enjoyment. Also the further we go into the series we should notice a slow steady improvement on the actual animation quality of the show.

There are no special features on these volumes but given the fact we're dealing with Disney that's to be expected. Television was better in the nineties. Thanks for your time.

* Rather than clutter up the review page I have included a list of episode summaries in my comments section for those interested.

In my opinion, X-Men, Batman TAS, Spider-Man, Animaniacs, Power Rangers, Eek the Cat, Bobby's World, Tiny Toons and all the other shows that were featured on Fox Kids were the very best shows. X-Men, in spite of being a Saturday morning cartoon gathered very high ratings. In fact, it was so successful that it ran for a whopping 76 episodes with a total of 5 seasons, all the way from 1992 to 1997. In fact, it is the longest running Marvel animated show with Spider-Man being the second longest. X-Men has often been compared to Batman the Animated Series in terms of quality.

We can now witness more adventure as episodes from season 3 and 4 are now being released. X-Men closely followed some storylines from the comics. In this one, we witness Magneto building Asteroid M, a sanctuary for mutants, Wolverine battle Silver Samurai and the X-Men even clash in an epic battle with the immortal god-like mutant Apocalypse as he plans to reshape the universe in his own evil ways. We'll even encounter Mr.Sinister as he teams with Apocalypse and Magneto who reluctantly battle along side the X-Men to battle Apocalypse.

X-Men is something for all ages. Kid and teens will love the action and adventure, while adults will appreciate the well written episodes and how some of them follow the comics. And of course, everybody will appreciate the top-quality animation created by some of the greatest animation studios of the day and everyone will love the nicely drawn awesome looking characters who bear great resemblance to the X-Men of comic book artist Jim Lee and writer Chris Claremont.

In case you're a fan of X-Men, Marvel, good action, emotional scenes or epic battles of good vs evil or if you even watched this on Fox Kids during the fantastic era of the 90s, don't miss X-Men! If you got the first volume and volume 2, then I,m sure you'll adore volume 3 and volume 4 and if you haven't experienced X-Men, it might just be a good time to grab both new volumes and prepare for epic adventures featuring Marvel's mutant team.

Here are the episodes in this volume.

Proteus Part 1: A deadly mutant foe named Proteus who can warp anything it touches has been unleashed at Muir Island. The X-Men head to Muir Island to battle him.

Proteus Part 2: Proteus searches for his the Father who abandoned him as a child whilst Moira and the X-Men continue to try and him.

Sanctuary Part 1: Magneto establishes a sanctuary in space known as Asteroid M. But when the mutant Fabian Cortez overthrows him and takes over, the X-Men are called for assistance.

Sanctuary Part 2: As the X-Men battle Cortez who temps to take over Asteroid M, Magneto returns to reclaim his place on the throne.

Beyond Good and Evil Part 1: As Cyclops and Jean prepare to wed, Mr.Sinister drops by and kidnaps Jean and takes her to an unknown world and learns that Apocalypse has plans for her.

Beyond Good and Evil Part 2: The X-Men figure out that Apocalypse is after Psylocke and other mutants who posses telepathic abilities. They even have a run in with Angel. The X-Men must figure out why Apocalypse is after psychics.

Beyond Good and Evil Part 3: Professor Xavier and the X-Men are taken to a place known as the Axis of Time and realizes that Apocalypse plans to use the psychics to recreate the universe in his own will. Cable heads to the Axis of Time to stop Apocalypse once and for all.

Beyond Good and Evil Part 4: In the final part of this episode, an epic battle between the X-Men, the psychics, Cable and Apocalypse will decide the fate of the immortal mutant once and for all.

Have Yourself a Morlock Little Christmas: It's Christmas time at the X-Men's mansion and Wolverine, Storm and Jubilee have a run in with The Morlocks who have an ill member of the family. Will everyone have a happy Christmas? Will Jean survive the wrath of Gambit's competitive cooking?

The Lotus and the Steel: Finding himself continually losing control, Wolverine takes a sabbatical to Japan, in an effort to find inner peace in temple-building. Instead, he faces a village under siege by a group of bandits and Silver Samurai, and struggles to help them without compromising his search for his true nature.

Love in Vain: Rogue's childhood sweetheart, the boy whom she put into a coma when her powers first manifested, returns to her life unexpectedly. But what strange connection does he have with the bug-like aliens Wolverine encounters in the desert?

Secrets Not Long Buried: Cyclops visits an old teacher only to discover strange things about the town he lives in.

Xavier Remembers: Xavier's concussion leads to more problems than a simple headache.

Family Ties: Magneto is summoned by his dead wife to a reunion, but all is not as it seems.

Volume 4 is best summarized as a mixed bag. There are some stellar episodes contained on this two disc set and some stinkers. Such should be expected considering the creative crew was admittedly running low on ideas and did not expect the series to receive a fifth season. The four part "Beyond Good and Evil" was actually to be the last set of episodes (like with the other releases, the episodes here are in broadcast order and not production order) and would have been a fitting way to end the series. I for one, am glad the series continued as there are still some good ones to come but the best days for this series are unfortunately behind them.

The already mentioned "Beyond Good and Evil" is an engaging set of episodes centered around Apocalypse. As I mentioned in the review of Volume 3, it is a pseudo-Age of Apocalypse but differs greatly. We get a lot of cameos from villains and hero's past and Psylocke even gets some dialogue. Overall it's a fun time travel story and one I enjoy more than the other two long arcs for the series. "Sanctuary" is another excellent two-parter that sees the creation of Magneto's Avalon and the introduction of his Acolytes. It captures the story from the comics of the betrayal of Magento's right-hand man Cortez, as he attempts to assassinate Magneto (in a Saturday morning kid's show kind of way). And for good measure, an old flame of Xavier's is thrown in to spice things up. The other two-part arc "Proteus" takes the popular classic X-Men story and adopts it for television in an appropriate way

As you can see, I think highly of disc one, so why the passable three star rating? Well, there is a disc two to this set and unfortunately it is not the equal of disc one. "Have Yourself a Morlock Little Christmas" is the series lone holiday themed episode. I suppose it's surprising it took this long for the series to have one but perhaps it is another example of the team running out of ideas. It is a typical Christmas special and Jubilee gets some screen time. One thing that does bug me about the episode is that we are to believe it is Jubilee's first Christmas with the X-Men, nevermind that the show has been on for years at this point. I guess the X-Men really pack a lot of excitement into one year! I'll admit this one is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, I'm a sucker for these kind of episodes, but it is typical holiday fare. The episode "The Lotus and the Steel" is another Wolverine centered episode that sees him make a journey to Japan and introduces the television audience to the Silver Samurai. It's not a bad episode but it has the feel of "haven't we been here before" as numerous other Wolverine episodes have dealt with similar issues. "Family Ties" gives us the big reveal of who Magneto's children are, but outside of that the episode is mostly uninteresting. Rogue's old flame Cody returns in "Love in Vain" and the results are about as interesting as the episode premise sounds (though one thing that always bugged me about this episode is why didn't the creators use this opportunity to give us the Brood?). "Xavier Remembers" is an okay episode that details the backstory of the Shadow King, a villain I personally have no use for. And lastly, Cyclops gets some face-time in "Secrets Not Long Buried" but the results are probably the worst episode of the series. I don't know if the series writers just felt burned out by Cyclops and Jean following the Phoenix Sagas but they do not surface much on these two discs (Cyclops also famously had an episode delayed until season five which seems to irritate fans to this day as it takes place between the two Phoenix Sagas).

That's one man's opinion anyway on these set. In short, disc one is excellent and disc two is mostly throw-away. I fear Volume Five will be the same case though likely worse but it shall at least conclude the series. If I have one last gripe with Volume 4 its that the cover art is definitely lacking when compared to the other three releases. Still, for the completists out there, this is a must buy. Disc one is essential viewing and hopefully you will find more to like about disc two than I did.

It's great to finally have a decent copy of the original X-Men Animated Series from the 1990's. This collection contains my favourite saga Beyond Good & Evil.

I would highly reccomend this to any X-Men Fan.

I really liked this series. It had my favorite story THE DARK PHOENIX SAGA. Nowhere near as good and the comic version, but still VERY good! It is a shame this series was canceled when MARVEL went though bankruptcy back in the mid 90s. I bet it would have gone on for many more seasons.

I am hoping they will release the last season, when they SERIOUSLY upgraded the animation...and finally showed THE PHALANX, and THE BROOD.

The fourth volume of Fox's excellent animated X-Men series from the 90's continues to provide more of the same kind of quality action and excitement. More classic X-Men literature gets used in a few of the episodes featured here, including the X-Men's encounter with the powerful mutant Proteus, in the aptly titled "Proteus". We also witness Apocalypse bringing his plan for universal domination using psychics to fruition, but the time traveling Cable isn't about to let that happen in the four part "Beyond Good and Evil". We also witness the personal struggles of Professor Xavier in "Xavier Remembers", Rogue in "Love in Vain", Cyclops in "Secrets, Not Long Buried", and Wolverine in "The Lotus and the Steel" (featuring a face-off with Silver Samurai). Magneto is also in fine form in the two-part "Sanctuary", in which he creates a haven for mutants that ends up being anything but, and "Family Ties", in which he learns of a startling connection between himself and X-Factor member Quicksilver and Avengers member Scarlet Witch. Also featured here is the surprisingly touching "Have Yourself a Morlock Little Christmas", in which Wolverine proves just how heroic he is when the Morlocks are in need during Christmas. Just like the episodes collected on the previous three DVD volumes, volume four of Fox's X-Men remains classic to this day. It manages to both mine and pay tribute to the comics that it draws from, and remains must-see animated TV to this day and beyond.

After the release of Volumes 1 & 2 most fans were ecstatic to be able to own the first three and a half seasons of this classic animated series on studio released DVD.

It's nice to see againg this episodes of X men animated series . This remember me the saturday morning when i was young this cartoon bring good memory i recommende it to all X Men fan .

Okay, so I don't know what possessed me to look this up and buy the set, but I'm glad I did. The episodes are exactly as they aired fifteen years ago (I feel old now), which means the quality of the animation is probably not as good as you remember, but it's still a great show. If you watched this show and liked it, then I'd recommend this set. What else is there to say?

The X-Men animation tv series is one the best if not the best animated comic book tv series of all time!!! Others are good, Batman, Avengers EMH, Silver Surfer. The Justice League tv series is in my opinion the only other series that compares. The quality is good for early 80's animation, but story line and execution of character continuity are excellent. For example,Batman of the 90's is not the same as The Batman of the early 2000 nor Batman The Brave and The Bold. Different writers and illustraters. Not even close to the comic book characters. But this tv series does an excellent job.