X-Men the Animated Series Season 2 Episodes Ranked
I’ve finished the second season of X-Men the Animated Series. Like I did with season 1, it’s time to stop and rank all of the episodes. Let’s get started!
QUICK REVIEW: In general, I thought season 2 was a solid second season of the show. I don’t think it’s as good as season 1, I think there’s a few more issues with the season. But there’s still a lot about this season that I think worked. It does a great job of building off of where season 1 left off. There’s some great mini arcs in here. Whether it’s the return of Morph and how Mister Sinister is introduced or the time travel stuff with Bishop and Cable. It’s fun that we got this and that they’re taking it seriously and telling it very well. At the same time, I feel like the season had a few to many things going on. Where you have the plot line with Mister Sinister has the season-long arc. But you have a lot of other stuff going on with Morph’s return, Professor X and Magneto being trapped in a different world. Then three or four episodes focus on a different member of the X-Men. So the season tried to tackle a few too many things when you’re only doing 13 episodes that are 20 minutes long, some of it feels rushed and not properly fleshed out. So the finale with Mister Sinister doesn’t have the weight that it otherwise should ahve.
13. Mojovision (Episode 11): This was a bizarre episode to throw into the season. The plot of the episode revolves around the X-Men getting captured and sent to a different dimension run by television. And they get put into different shows that they must fight their way out of. When you have 13 episodes in a season, I don’t know why they would waste their time, money, and resources on this concept. I guess there’s some implications in the final moments that tie into with Professor X and Magneto. But overall, this episode didn’t do it for me. Probably the worst episode of the show so far.
12. Beauty and the Beast (Episode 10): Several episodes of the season focused on a specific member of the X-Men. This episode focused on Beast and it was fine, it’s not a bad episode it wasn’t one that was super interesting to me. Having the episode start a romance between Beast and woman wasn’t the direction I’d go with this episode. The entire show has focused on this idea of humans not trusting or liking mutants, here I think parts of that are a bit too heavy handed. They feel a bit too forced into here at points. So in general, this episode had some moments that were cool. But the overall episode wasn’t great.
11. Red Dawn (Episode 4): I felt like the problem with this episode, they tried to cram a bit too much in there. Where we had multiple different plot lines going on and it felt a bit too overstuffed. The episode starts with Professor X and Magneto running away from a dinosaur and they’re not in the episode besides that little bit. Then we get Colossus’ return where Jubilee and Wolverine help him defeat Omega Red in Russia. Our X-Men defeat Omega Red in there, it doesn’t have the impact that it should. This should have been a two parter episode. You can develop some of this, maybe you dive deeper into Colossus’ backstory. But trying to do a lot in a 20 minute episode, I think was a mistake.
10. Whatever It Takes (Episode 3): This was an interesting episode because we learned some new information about Storm. We learned that she has a son, we learned about her time before joining the X-Men, so we feel connected to Storm in ways that we haven’t before. At the same time, it was nice that we got it. It didn’t feel necessary though, that side of the episode felt like filler. The other stuff with Wolverine finding Morph really worked for me. Especially as you just see how much Wolverine cares about his team. It might not give off that energy, but he really does care. They set up Charles and Magneto’s arc for the next episode. Those elements of the episodes work better for me.
9. Repo Man (Episode 5): I was a bit shocked by the plot of the episode, it sort of came out of nowhere. But I thought it kind of worked, it was nice learning what Wolverine was up to before he joined the X-Men. With that we got a lot of new characters introduced, some of them kind of fun with different types of powers. It builds some nice mystery surrounding the mysterious land that Professor X and Magneto are in. Like several of these episodes, I found the episode tried to do a bit too much. They were trying to tackle a few to many things and it didn’t feel super fleshed out. It’s still a good episode, I liked it. I just wish it could have fleshed some of this out more.
8. Reunion: Part 1 (Episode 12): The first part in our two part finale, one that was solid and good enough. Of all of the episodes on this list, this is the one that was just kind of there for me. There wasn’t anything about it that I hated or anything that I loved. Everything about it was good enough, fun enough. I thought the final moments of the episode where they were getting ready to rescue Charles was a solid season. The way the music was building mixed with what Wolverine was saying was handled very well. It was also nice to get all of the plot lines of the season to start to come together. But like I said earlier, the episode was good and really nothing more.
7. Reunion: Part 2 (Episode 13): A solid season finale but one that wasn’t as good as maybe it should have been. You do get some solid moments here, when your X-Men defeat Mister Sinister it’s done very well. The way the music plays just elevates the scene and it puts a smile on my face. They set up some nice directions to go with season 3, especially between Rogue and Gambit. The other stuff with caveman guys rescuing his family and friends didn’t have the emotional weight that maybe it should have. I didn’t feel like the rest of the season did a good enough job of making you care for them. So in general, I thought this was another good episode but not a great episode.
6. Time Fugitives: Part 2 (Episode 8): A fun continuation from where part one left off. Obviously, I don’t think this episode is as good as part one but it still worked for me. This one goes a bit weirder and wilder with the time travel aspect, they go back to events from part one but now told from the perspective of Cable. Cable is more prominent in this episode, we get some cool action with him. So all around this is a solid part two in the time travel story arc. For whatever reason, it just didn’t come together as well as part one did.
5. X-Ternally Yours (Episode 6): This is another episode that I wasn’t expecting, but I actually really dug what they delivered. It’s a Gambit focused episode, he’s the start we learn more about him. We see what his life was like before joining the X-Men. It provides context for something’s set up in the first season. Of how Gambit has trust issues, he doesn’t always trust the people around him. This episode explains why, it makes Gambit a more interesting character. I like how jealous Rogue gets when she learns some things, it makes you care about the relationship between Gambit and Rogue a bit more.
4. Till Death Do Us Part: Part 2 (Episode 2): The second part of all of the crazy and madness that started with episode 1. This episode continues from where everything left off with episode 1. In this episode, our X-Men learn about Morph’s return and what happened to him. I thought this was handled very well, especially from Wolverine’s point of view. Where he’s the one that’s most excited about his return. He’s the one that wants Morph to return to the mansion. It makes you care about the group dynamic more. I don’t know if there’s anything specifically bad about this episode, it’s just a really solid episode.
3. A Rogue’s Tale (Episode 9): This was a Rogue focused episode and I thought they did some very cool stuff here. First up, it was nice seeing Rogue’s life before joining the X-Men. We saw how her family reacted to her powers, we saw sympathy for her along the way. They brought in Carol Danvers as part of Rogue’s origin story that was very interesting. I didn’t expect that to happen, but it was a nice touch. I like how we got other Marvel characters joining in. You have the mother, daughter bond between Rogue and Mystique in here. All of it really worked for me and I thought this was a very solid episode.
2. Time Fugitives: Part 1 (Episode 7): I found this to be a nice clever episode for the show. Where they took ideas from season 1 involving the Bishop story line and continued that into this season. In season 1, Bishop was sent into the past to stop an assignation on Senator Kelly; that doesn’t happen and Kelly lives. But now that Kelly lives how would the change the future. This episode explores that, they changed one conflict but then started another one. I find time travel stories to be fun and interesting. Plus it deals with the ideas of society, the city not liking mutants and being scared of them. All around, this was a pretty fun episode.
1. Till Death Do Us Part: Part 1 (Episode 1): This was a pretty wild way to kick off the season. Right out of the gate, we get our villain for the season. Mister Sinister is this mastermind using Morph as a way to tear the X-Men apart. So we get the X-Men turning against each other, splitting up the X-Men. It really establishes Sinister as this threat that needs to be taken out. So from the very beginning, there’s a ticking clock. I appreciate that the season starts off with a bang. They didn’t build up to the epic episodes, it just makes the season have more urgency from beginning to end. So all around, this was a really good start to season 2.
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