X-Men: TAS vs. X-Men: Evolution vs. Wolverine and the X-Men

[Divine Spark]

Really? Jean was one of my least favorite characters on that show (found her really bland).

She is the best version out of the three shows.

[Uncanny X-Man]

I voted for TAS because it was just THAT good. I think I still have all the episodes on VHS at my parents' and watched them multiple times. That said, I think we as X-fans have been pretty lucky so far in that all 3 main animated series have been quite good. Wolverine & the X-Men started off pretty slow but quickly got better and the finale was excellent. Would have loved to have a second season with AoA.

[DragonsChi]

TAS is what got me on X-Men and it will always hold a place in my heart. However, Evolution has way better re-watch-ablity so it got my vote.

I didn't even bother with Wolverine and the X-Men. Have him headline a X-Men show like that just sorta seemed like a insult to the franchise to me.

[From The Shadows]

I admit to not watching much of TAS as I just couldn't get into it at the time even though by then I was a devoted comic reader. Maybe because I was in my teens and it was aimed more towards kids. I used to be a harsher critic of it but I have put it into perspective. I found Evolution entertaining but I felt it was too much of a departure from the original source material for it to be my favorite. Like Kurt, Rogue, Scott Jean etc being students while Storm and Wolverine were instructors. I felt both Storm and Wolverine were pretty boring as characters. Also, Kurt was directed towards kids too much as the comic relief and as a Nightcrawler fan I couldn't get behind that. I was in my twenties when the show aired as well and this was where Kurt was just getting off being a capable leader of Excalibur. I really enjoyed WatX though because I felt they were able to combine everything that made the X-Men great. The senior X-Men that were senior X-Men in the comics were senior X-Men in the show. And I had no interest in them as teens. They also incorporated the more mature subject matter that the X-Men were famous for and the subplots that Claremont was known for. The more mature content didn't overshadow the superheroics in it so it still remained fun and didn't become too depressing. I also have to admit to some bias here because I thought this is where they really got Nightcrawler right as a character. I really couldn't complain about how any of the X-Mens personalities were depicted here. I thought they were mostly spot on.

If I have any complaints about WatX its the obvious one that others have had. I felt Wolverine being the spotlight isn't the road they should have taken with it. They had established all the characters as interesting and likable and it made you want more of them but they took a back seat to all the Wolverine episodes. I think Storms intro episode was handled really well and I was really excited but then she became sidelined through most of the show. The only other character besides Wolverine that got any attention was Nightcrawler and maybe Rogue. My biggest complaint though was how they handled Forge. They took a deep and interesting character and made him the comic relief. He was almost a completely different character entirely. Even his voice isn't what I imagined it to be. I know people have complaints about Cyclops like the OP re: being the trench coat guy. I think that was to reflect more his grief about Jean being missing and it mirrors how he was portrayed just at the end of the DPS in the comics where he needed to take a break from the X-Men so it didn't seem really OOC to me. That scene in the show when you think Cyclops isn't going to join the X-Men on their mission and he just silently walks onto the plane with determination saying "Ok I may be gutted over Jean but I'm still an X-Man and I have a job to do." And the way he effortlessly takes out the Shadow King with his optic blast, you can see his thoughts are still with Jean but he is so seasoned and formidable on the battlefield he instinctively knows what to do. That scene really sticks out with me and is what I remember him for. If they focused on Scott more I felt they would definitely have done him justice. Even though Wolverine was being portrayed as the "destined one" over say Scott and Jean and even Xavier himself I still found him pretty likable and if they toned that down or did away with it completely this show would have been just right.

Here I'll rate the animation of all three shows from "best" to "worst." Its all preference really.

1. WatX
2. Evolution
3. TAS

[AdamFTF]

They all had their strengths but none of them are perfect.

I grew up with the Fox X-Men cartoon. Given the time period and the way it combined classic stories with a more contemporary cast of characters, it was the best at giving young viewers a snapshot of "this is what X-Men is".

X-Men: Evolution is its own thing while at the same time being about something that's been part of the X-Men's DNA since the '60s. Like it or not, teen mutant heroes have been a part of the X-Men concept since the O5, and then it was carried on to stuff like New Mutants, Generation X and New X-Men. Basically, it took the teen hero aspect and did it with more popular characters, which is probably the only way such a show would have been made before the cinematic superhero boom. I like the show. I think it was well made. It portrayed likable characters and the drama it was trying to portray rather well. It was a "smaller" series than the other ones in a lot of ways, but that didn't make it bad. Heck, I even liked the fact that they went to public school half the day. It meant they had to interact with non-mutant people and that every interaction wasn't just going to drive some kind of conflict.

Wolverine and the X-Men I had a hard time even seeing because I didn't have Nicktoons Network. When I first saw it I wasn't impressed. But when I watched the whole show on DVD I liked it a lot more. I think it's one of those shows that's so tied up in an overarching story that it's more satisfied when watched in large chunks.

[Jokerz79]

90's X-Men the Animated Series had the best translation of comic stories to film period nothing not even the films have come close.

X-Men Evolution and no pun intended had the best Evolution as a series out of the three and had one of the best moments in X-Men history with the public reveal of mutants something never really done before most other mediums even the comics treated mutants as an established thing during their first appearances. Last it also had one of the best Apocalypse storylines and it was nice to see a series incorporate the New Mutants.

Wolverine and the X-Men had the best over all story and was excellently executed.

[From The Shadows]

Hmmm, there were elements about all three that I liked. But I think TAS what comes up as my favorite from all three, with WatX barely edging out Evolution. I'll agree that Evolution only got good in it's final season as the whole emo teen thing bothered me, especially that Storm wasn't a teen. Wolverine being the focus of WatX pulls it down a lot. TAS tackled a lot, and you can tell when the quality got sent over seas. I think I base my answer on my teen self watching TAS and screaming at the TV when they gave Rachel's background to Bishop (i.e. DOFP) and yelling "That isn't your future, where is Rachel?!?!" LOL, how times have (or haven't) changed...

See that's what really bothered me at the time. I was also a teenager and have read a lot of the X-Men comics by that point. Stuff like Cyclops taking Angels place in the Morlock story and Jubilee taking Kitty's place in Piotr's story. I suppose I could have seen it as an AU back then but now I'm not nearly as down on it. It brought fans to the comics.

[WebLurker]

She is the best version out of the three shows.

Never got far enough into Wolverine and the X-Men to see their take, but I gathered that she was mostly a plot device.

I think I liked Evolution Jean more later in the show than earlier on (she seemed to show more characterization), but I don't think she had a distinct enough personality to stand out among the other student characters, like Rogue or Nightcrawler.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

X-men evolution was my intro to the x-men and I'm fond of the x-men in school so I didn't mind that aspect.

[Innocent Bystander]

as I was an X-men fan from the 1980's, the Animated Series was never more than a pale shadow of the comic stories. Evolution, while it didn't do exactly right by my favorites, at least had them as regulars, and it was its own thing, and I respected that. And it beats out WatX because Wolverine was tolerable as a team player.

[butterflykyss]

TAS was the most comic accurate version so aside from being the version the catapulted the xmen to popularity, this is another reason it shines above the others.

[SerCo]

Evolution. I took me a time to get used to the high school setting but it was the show I enjoyed the most. Sad we didn't get to see their version of the phoenix saga and Emma Frost.

[Wolverine12]

I couldn't pick one so I voted for all three. TAS is my childhood and the best comics to tv representation out there for any Marvel animation. Evolution didn't get good until later in it's run, but it's good stuff was really good. WaTXM I think could have taken the overall #1 if it had more than 1 season. The dystopian future stuff was just so awesome.

[Cyke]

TAS may not have aged well animation wise or in other areas, but as time goes on, I'm finding that its ideas and themes become increasingly more relevant than the themes brought up in Evolution or WATXM. Sure, there's the standard racism part that comes with anything X-related, but upon rewatch of TAS, there were things that may not have been issues before but are now and were relevant to the writers' minds, whether or not they realized it. Things like adoption, respectability politics, transparency, the meaning of chosen family, immigration, incarceration, religion, they all exist in some degree in the other shows to some degree, but TAS seemed to be particularly cognizant and almost anticipating them as side effects to or intersections with race and class. Unlike the other two shows, TAS seemed to have a great deal of foresight.

Plus, I'll forever hear their voices and sound effects when I read X-comics.

[Dementia5]

Plus, I'll forever hear their voices and sound effects when I read X-comics.

And here I thought I was the only one.