When X-Men: The Animated Series arrived on television screens back in 1992 it was an instant hit with viewers. The combination of cool characters, slick super heroics, and strong storytelling ensured the show hit a home run and it became a ratings winner.
And one of the great things about X-Men: The Animated Series was how the show would shock and surprise viewers. This wasn’t a cookie cutter cartoon, this was a sprawling adventure series where actions had consequences and anything could happen.
Some characters would come and go, others would be killed off, and you never quite knew what was coming next. OK, so many comic book fans had a rough idea where certain episodes were headed, but X-Men: The Animated Series was keen to keep everyone on their toes.
And the show did this in the following ways…
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The death of Morph
First up, and arguably one of the most shocking moments in the entire run of X-Men: The Animated Series came within the opening two-part story, Night of the Sentinels. In this double-episode, Jubilee joins the team as the X-Men come face-to-face with mutant-hunting robots known as the Sentinels.
Now, of course, there was nothing shocking with Jubilee joining the team, but while viewers were being introduced to her teammates on the X-Men, and just getting to grips with the show, X-Men: The Animated Series threw out a curveball by killing off one of its cast! The jovial shapeshifting mutant known as Morph seemingly lost his life while the X-Men battled the Sentinels, sending huge shockwaves in the process!
It would later be revealed (in season two) that Morph had survived the encounter with the Sentinels, but that did nothing to change the initial shock. X-Men: The Animated Series wanted to make it clear this wasn’t your grandad’s cartoon, and killing off Morph was a way of shouting this out loud and proud.
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The school destroyed
The next big shock came fairly swiftly, via the closing few seconds of the seventh episode, Slave Island. The majority of the story took place on the island nation of Genosha, where Storm, Gambit, and Jubilee are enslaved along with various other mutants.
Towards the end of the episode, after the trio manage to fight their way out of the situation, they are picked up by their fellow X-Men and taken home. And this is where the big shock comes in, as they arrive home to discover the X-Mansion has been destroyed and Professor Xavier is missing.
The next couple of episodes reveal that a.) the mansion was destroyed by Juggernaut, and b.) Xavier is away in Scotland on an unrelated trip, however, the destruction of Xavier’s School for Gifted Mutants is still very shocking. From the end of Slave Island until the arrival of the next episode, The Unstoppable Juggernaut, viewers were left wondering how the mansion could have been totalled while the X-Men were away.
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Days of Future Past
This next one will have come as no major surprise to comic book fans, as Days of Future Past is an iconic story (which in 2014 was adapted into a movie), but back in 1992 this two-part story served up something very shocking. And pretty hard-hitting when you consider the fact X-Men: The Animated Series was a Saturday morning cartoon.
Anyway, the crux of this one is that in the not-too distant future the world has gone down the toilet. The X-Men failed, the Sentinels took over the planet, and most mutants are either enslaved in camps or they are dead.
The two-part episode aims to resolve this situation, with the mutant Bishop travelling back through time to change this dystopian future. However, it’s still somewhat of a shock to viewers that until Bishop succeeds, the future is a nightmare and their favourite heroes are no longer around.
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Magneto and Xavier tricked?
This next one is perhaps less of a shock and more of a surprise. And it’s a surprise in the sense that it changes the format of the show for an entire season.
At the beginning of season two, Professor Xavier receives a distress call from old frenemy, Magneto, along with coordinates of his location. Magneto receives a similar call from Xavier, and heads off to the same coordinates.
However, this is a trap set up by Mister Sinister, who wants Xavier and Magneto separated from the X-Men and out of his way. He sort of succeeds (for a while anyway), and the pair are reduced to cameo roles in each episode.
This in turn creates a situation where Xavier and Magneto have their own journey which runs throughout season two, largely independent of what else is going on in the show. Viewers watch the main action for the X-Men, then get a minute or two, here and there, to explain what is going on with Xavier and Magneto.
Shocking? Perhaps not, but certainly surprising that each episode of the season would spend a few minutes with Xavier and Magneto as they attempt to survive in the Savage Land without any assistance from the X-Men.
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Apocalypse wins?
Onto this next shock which comes roughly mid-way through season two, in the first part of the two-part story, Time Fugitives. In this story, Bishop travels back to the 1990s (from the future) to warn the X-Men of a terrible mutant plague.
As the X-Men investigate this plague, they are led on a trail which takes them to a secret laboratory. It is here the X-Men realise Apocalypse is behind the creation of a deadly virus, causing them to engage him in battle.
And here is where the shock comes in. As the X-Men attempt desperately to destroy Apocalypse, he gets the upper hand, hits them with an energy blast and seemingly obliterates the entire team.
Thankfully for viewers, the X-Men are saved thanks to a bit more time travel in the next episode, this time via Cable, but from one episode to the next it appears as if the X-Men are dead as a doornail.
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Jean’s sacrifice
Onto this next shock, which again will not have been particularly shocking for comic book readers, but certainly would have caught viewers off guard. And it came at the end of the five-part story, The Phoenix Saga.
In this epic tale, Jean Grey is granted immense power and is transformed into an entity calling itself the Phoenix. She then works alongside her fellow X-Men for a space-set adventure to save the galaxy!
And then there’s the shock: The X-Men win, but only after Jean/Phoenix sacrifices herself. Jean appears to die and the X-Men face the realisation they saved the day but at a cost.
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Xavier assassinated
Another death, and another spot of time-travel now in the two-part episode, One Man’s Worth. The episode sees Bishop travel back in time to the late 1950s, to prevent Charles Xavier being assassinated and a terrible alternate future being created as a result.
Unfortunately, things don’t go quite to plan to begin with, and as Part One of the story comes to a close, Xavier triggers a bomb which kills him. As the episode fades to white, and the inevitable ‘To Be Continued…’ flashes up on screen, it appears as if Bishop has failed his mission and Xavier has paid the price.
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Mutant team-up
Onto the penultimate shock now, and this is a shock which is very much entrenched in the ‘good shocks’ category. Why? Because it includes a mammoth team-up!
In the season four, four-part finale, Beyond Good and Evil, Apocalypse sets in motion a grand plan to gain control by manipulating time. This in turn sees various villains join forces, including Sabretooth, Mystique, the Nasty Boys, and Magneto, while the regular team of the X-Men are joined by Bishop, Shard, Cable, Archangel, and Psylocke.
The shock here is that so many mutants come together for an epic story. Beyond Good and Evil was initially conceived as the show’s grand finale, so the writers brought a whole heap of characters together to send the series off with a bang!
Only problem is, Beyond Good and Evil wasn’t the grand finale. Which leads onto the final shock of X-Men: The Animated Series…
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The crappy fifth season
And finally, the last big shock for fans of X-Men: The Animated Series came when the show was picked up unexpectedly for a fifth season, and the production team were forced to cut corners to make it work. The result was a downgrade in the stories, but far worse, a complete drop off in the animation.
What was a mighty show during the first four seasons, became a shadow of its former self for the fifth year. Watching the series stumble like this was a shock many viewers struggled to get their heads around.
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