THE SHOW:

Previous Wolverine and the X-Men Reviews: Vol. 1 Vol. 2 Vol. 4

To recap: Wolverine and the X-Men is the animated series that ran on international television stations last year, featuring an X-Men timeline where a strike from the future has caused Charles Xavier and Jean Grey to disappear, Cyclops to withdraw in despair, and Wolverine to pick up the pieces of his team and organize a new group to prevent a sentient computer called Master Mold from establishing a society where all mutants are destroyed. Eventually, Logan discovers that Xavier is in this desolate future, and the telepath sends messages back through time to direct him toward preventing the destruction of mutantkind.

Wolverine and the X-Men: Revelation is the fifth volume of Season 1, gathering episodes 19-23 of the 26-episode story. This penultimate volume is the strongest yet, with these five episodes giving fans of the show some of the more solid individual scripts while also cracking open the overall mystery and giving us an idea of where things are going. The quality of the animation continues to be excellent, with bold colors and vividly rendered action. Though some of the character movements can be a bit rubbery, the design is faithful to classic X-Men comics and the show overall offers the best animation of any of the various animated series starring the Marvel Comics mutants.

Contained on this disc:

Episode 19: Guardian Angel - This episode focuses on Warren Worthington, a.k.a. the winged hero Angel (voiced by Liam O'Brien). Warren has been at odds with his father (Jim Ward, who also voices Professor X) over the elder Worthington's funding of the Mutant Response Division, providing the government-backed mutant hunters with their giant killing machines, the robot Sentinels. In this episode, Warren also discovers that his father is researching a mutant "cure," and a tussle with the MRD leaves him wounded and opens the door to his transformation to Arcangel and his alignment with the villain Mr. Sinister (Clancy Brown).

Episode 20: Breakdown - After he loses his cool in battle, believing he saw Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) amongst the wreckage, Cyclops (Nolan North) must face the residual issues regarding her disappearance. With the help of Emma Frost (Kari Wahlgren), Scott digs into his past to uncover what haunts him and possibly excise it; instead, he finds a clue to what really happened when Jean disappeared. Old-school X-Men fans will appreciate the flashbacks here, as we see the original team in their classic form--including a non-furry Beast and the more snowy Iceman.

Episode 21: Rover - Working two different timelines, Scott and Logan (Steve Blum) connect with Xavier to tell him what they know about Jean. Meanwhile, in the future, one of Xavier's team, Marrow (Tara Strong), has adopted a burned-out Sentinel and named it Rover. Some members of the rebels, such as Bishop (Kevin Michael Richardson), doubt the wisdom of having a killing machine among them, but Marrow believes in her friend, leading to questions of whether a being, sentient or otherwise, can conquer his or her own nature.

Episode 22: Aces & Eights - Really? I need another Gambit episode? Not enough bad Creole accents in my life, eh, homme? The cagey Cajun returns (once again voiced by Phil LaMarr) as a central component in the war between mutants and humanity. He was hired by Senator Kelly to steal Magneto's helmet, an action that is believed to lead directly to the creation of the super computer Master Mold. Wolverine sends Nightcrawler (O'Brien) back to Genosha to find out what is going on.

Episode 23: Shades of Grey - As the wordplay in the title implies, Jean Grey is found. Cyclops and Emma Frost rush to rescue her, though Sinister has his own ideas about what should happen to the powerful telepath and sends Arcangel to try to grab her first. This episode also ends with an important revelation about what all is going on with Sinister's side of things.

Though Wolverine is in the forefront of the series title, the truth is, this is more of a team cartoon, and I like that the producers aren't beholden to keep Logan front and center. The comics were always about the soap opera, and by letting all the characters have full storylines, Wolverine and the X-Men gets closer to the old Chris Claremont days of the Uncanny Marvel series. It also means that the overall season has an actual map, and we are building to a big conclusion. Having seen it on TV, I can say it's worth the time you will invest in it (and even worth the second viewing on DVD), and I'm eager for season 2 to premier.

Please Note: Wolverine and the X-Men is being released one disc at a time, retailing for $15 a disc. After the third volume, the first trio were collected as one bundle and sold for $29.98. Though no bundling for the final half has been announced, one can safely assume a similar repackaging will occur once volume 6 is released. Cost-conscious collectors may want to wait until that happens before making a purchase.

THE DVD

Video:
Like all the previous volumes, Wolverine and the X-Men: Revelation is presented as a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. Though there is slight interlacing, the overall picture quality is great, with really good colors and no glitches or blemishes.

Sound:
The English soundtrack is mixed in 5.1 and sounds really nice, with some back speaker effects in the action sequences. Not overly splashy, but good for a cartoon show. A Spanish 2.0 dub is also available, as is English Closed Captioning.

Extras:
In addition to trailers for other kids programming, this fifth series release continues the DVD tradition of having new audio commentaries on all five episodes. Recorded by supervising producer Craig Kyle, head writer Greg Johnson, and writer Chris Yost, they are of the same basic caliber as we are now used to. Frankly, I'm getting pretty bored with the lack of variation in perspective, but I'm generally bored with DVD commentaries as a rule of thumb. Your mileage may vary.

Wolverine and the X-Men: Deadly Enemies comes in a standard-sized keep case with a cardboard outer sleeve.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Recommended in terms of packaging and value for the money. The content of Wolverine and the X-Men rates higher, but as noted above, there is likely a cheaper package on the way. For those who don't want to wait, you get another solid two hours of cartoon adventure. Wolverine and the X-Men is some of the best all-ages programming of recent memory. Stylish animation and smart scripts make for some all around action-packed entertainment.

Jamie S. Rich is a novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for his collaborations with Joelle Jones, including the hardboiled crime comic book You Have Killed Me, the challenging romance 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and the 2007 prose novel Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?, for which Jones did the cover. All three were published by Oni Press. His most recent projects include the futuristic romance A Boy and a Girl with Natalie Nourigat; Archer Coe and the Thousand Natural Shocks, a loopy crime tale drawn by Dan Christensen; and the horror miniseries Madame Frankenstein, a collaboration with Megan Levens. Follow Rich's blog at Confessions123.com.