WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN

 

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN
(Nicktoons, January 23-November 29, 2009)
 
Noxxon Entertainment Inc., Toonz Entertainment, First Serve International, Liberation Entertainment, EVA Finance GmbH, Marvel Entertainment

 

MAIN CAST:
Steve Blum – Wolverine/Logan, Vanisher/Telford Porter, Vindaloo/Venkat Katregadda, Berzerker/Ray Carter, Fever Pitch, various
Susan Dalian – Storm/Ororo Munroe, Dr. Kavita Rao
Jennifer Hale – Jean Grey, Boom Boom/Tabitha Smith
Danielle Judovits – Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde, Tildie Soames
Tom Kane – Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr, Professor Truett Hudson
Yuri Lowenthal – Iceman/Bobby Drake
Nolan North – Cyclops/Scott Summers, Colossus/Piotr Rasputin, Pyro/St. John Allerdyce, Berzerker
Liam O’Brien – Angel/Archangel/Warren Worthington III, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Nitro/Robert Hunter
Roger Craig Smith – Forge, Hellion/Julian Keller, Kamal el Alaqui
Fred Tatasciore – Beast/Dr. Henry “Hank” McCoy, Hulk, Blockbuster/Michael Baer, Juggernaut/Cain Marko, Harpoon/Kodiak Noatak
Kieren van den Blink – Rogue/Anna Marie
Kari Wahlgren – Emma Frost, Magma/Amara Juliana Olivians Aquilla, Dr. Sybil Zane, Kristie Nord
Jim Ward – Professor Charles Xavier, Rover the Sentinel, Warren Worthington II, Dr. Abraham Cornelius, Sentinels

 

            Wolverine and the X-Men was the third animated series based on the X-Men family of comics by Marvel Comics. It was the first and only production by Toonz First Serve, a partnership between Toonz Animation and First Serve International to secure enough funding to approach Marvel about doing the series. Developed by Craig Kyle and Greg Johnson, the series focused on the X-Men disbanding after an explosion at the X-Mansion seemingly killed Professor Xavier (Jim Ward) and Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale). However, within a year, Wolverine (Steve Blum) decides the team needs to reform in order to deal with government-sponsored mutant cops called the Mutant Response Division, the mutant-hunting robot Sentinels (Ward), Senator Rober Kelly’s (Richard Doyle) Mutant Registration Act, Magneto (Tom Kane) trying to incite a race war from his new island kingdom of Genosha, the Brotherhood of Mutants causing chaos, and prevent a dystopian future (based on Days of Future Past) that Xavier found himself in from occurring. With Xavier found to be in a coma, Cyclops (Nolan North) despondent over Jean’s death, and Storm (Susan Dalian) in Africa, Wolverine takes the uncomfortably unfamiliar role of leader as he recruits his X-Men.

Wolverine leads Nightcrawler, Iceman, Storm, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Beast, Angel and Shadowcat.

            The show began life as a Wolverine solo series until it evolved into its final form. The stories and character designs took greater inspiration from the comics of the past decade, as well as cues from the 20^th Century Fox live-action film series about to release its 4^th entry, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. While Wolverine and his team—comprised of Cyclops, Storm, Beast (Fred Tatasciore), Iceman (Yuri Lowenthal), Shadowcat (Danielle Judovits), Forge (Roger Craig Smith), Emma Frost (Kari Wahlgren) Angel (Liam O’Brien) and eventually Nightcrawler (also O’Brien) and Rogue (Kieren van den Blink)—dealt with troubles in the present, Xavier was trying to survive the future with his allies—Bishop (Kevin Michael Richardson), Berzerker (Blum), Domino (Gwendoline Yeo), Hellion, Kamal (both Smith), Marrow (Tara Strong), Polaris (Liza del Mundo), Vanisher (Blum), and a reprogrammed Sentinel named Rover (Ward)—while searching for clues to send back to his past to try and prevent it from occurring.

Magneto always ready to make trouble with the likes of Domino, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Blob, Mystique, Toad and Avalanche.

            Wolverine and the X-Men debuted on Nicktoons on January 23, 2009, airing its first two episodes back-to-back before rerunning on Nickelodeon two days later. Before it even aired, development had begun on the second season, with associate producer and writer Joshua Fine stepping into the supervising producer role exited by Kyle when went to go work on the first Thor film. Plans were in place to continue on from the new terrible future the series ended on based on the Age of Apocalypse storyline, as well as lead into potential crossovers with The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (which Fine was also heading up) and The Spectacular Spider-Man. New character designs were shown off at Comic Con 2009 and things reportedly got as deep as a full season bible and the first eight episodes being written. Unfortunately, work came to a grinding halt when Toonz First was unable to secure the full funding they would need. The idea of Marvel funding it themselves was floated, but as new owner Disney sought to starve Fox of any new adaptable content over their refusal to give up the licenses they acquired during Marvel’s more precarious financial situation, it was promptly nixed and the show was allowed to just end. A decade later, that situation would resolve itself as Disney acquired Fox, allowing Wolverine and the X-Men to be featured on the streaming service Disney+. Could it lead to a revival like X-Men: The Animated Series’ with X-Men ’97? Time will tell.