The final volume and the final episodes of the popular 1990’s X-Men animated series is here! Featuring popular comic book storylines which includes “The Phalanx Covenant” and battles against Magneto, Omega Red, the Red Skull, Mojo, Mr. Sinister and more!
© MARVEL, X-MEN and all related characters and their distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc. and are used with permission.© Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: X-MEN VOLUME 5 (Marvel DVD Comic Book Collection)
DURATION: 308 Minutes (14 Episodes)
DVD INFORMATION: English, Dolby 2.0 Stereo, Fullscreen (1:33:1), French and Spanish Language Tracks, French and Spanish Subtitles
COMPANY: Marvel Entertainment Group/Buena Vista Home Entertainment
RATED: TV Y7 FV
RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2010
Starring:
Cedric Smith as the voice of Professor Charles Xavier
Cal Dodd as the voice of Wolverine/Logan
Norm Spencer as the voice of Cyclops/Scott Summers
Lenore Zann as the voice of Rogue
George Buza as the voice of Beast/Doctor Henry “Hank” McCoy
Catherine Disher as the voice of Jean Grey/Phoenix
Iona Morris (1992) and Alison Sealy-Smith (1992-1997) as the voice of Storm/Ororo Munroe
Alyson Court as the voice of Jubilee/Jubilation Lee
Chris Potter as the voice of Gambit/Remy Lebeau
Lawrence Bayne as the voice of Cable, Erik the Redd
Payl Haddad as the voice of Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner
Jeremy Ratchford as the voice of Banshee/Sean Cassidy
Lally Cadeau as the voice of Doctor Moira McTaggart
Ron Rubin as the voice of Morph
Marc Strange as the voice of Forge
Philip Akin as the voice of Bishop
David Hemblen as the voice of Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr
John Colicos and James Blendick as the voice of Apocalypse
Don Francks as the voice of Sabretooth/Victor Creed, Puck/Eugene Milton Judd, Shaman
Christopher Britton II as the voice of Mister Sinister/Nathaniel Essex
Rick Bennett as the voices of Juggernaut/Cain Marko and Colossus/Piotr Rasputin
The original tales of Marvel comic books come to life in Volume 5 of the X-men collection. Relive the action of the popular animated series in this collectible compilation of the X-men adventures. The X-men must turn to their arch-nemesis, Magneto, in an effort to save the life of Professor Xavier! Watch the action unfold in the final episode, “Graduation Day, “ and don’t miss a moment of X-men excitement in this 2-disc set, complete with 14 riveting episodes. Complete your X-men collection with this must-own final installment of this great animated series.
The X-Men Escape
Betrayal
Missing Jean Grey
Trouble Brewing
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.
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!