X-Men: The Animated Series Season 5 Review

Hey, bub, I keep telling ya... DON'T CALL ME

WOBBY! Snicked. Previously on X -Men... What's

the matter? Teacher's pet got cold feet? Anytime,

pretty boy. Cyclops! Hello and welcome to episode

81 of ToonCast Beyond, brought to you by the

Geekcast Radio Network. I am one of your hosts,

DFT1Mike. Joining me once again is Eduardo for

our final journey into the X -Universe. If this

was Transformers, I would quote Simon Furman

and say, it never ends. Kind of does. I mean,

there was a graduation day. Hey, at least I won't

be making any Jubilee Twilight references this

time around. Or maybe I will. Who knows? No,

you won't. No, you won't. Oh, God. Jubilee and

Twilight Sparkle. I can just see it now. Making

vampires sparkle all over Ponyville. Nope. Nope.

Nope. We're going to get to Optimus Solo and

Just the Facts. We'll be back after this. Hey

gang, it's Optimus Solo and I'm here to give

you Just the Facts on X -Men The Animated Series.

X -Men The Animated Series is an American animated

television series which debuted in 1992 and ran

to 1997, lasting five seasons and airing 76 episodes.

It aired on the Fox Network as part of its Fox

Kids Saturday morning lineup. This was Marvel

Comics' second attempt at an animated X -Men

TV series, following the pilot X -Men Pride of

the X -Men, which was not picked up. Saban Entertainment

was contracted to produce the show and hired

a small studio, Graz Entertainment, to produce

the episodes as it did not have the sufficient

staff at the time to handle production in -house.

Graz employed the creative staff, wrote and designed

each episode, and even drew the storyboards.

The voice work was done using Canadian studios,

and the animation was done by the South Korean

studio, ACOM. The plot was loosely adapted from

famous storylines and events in the X -Men comics,

such as the Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future

Past, the Phalanx Covenant, and the Legacy Virus.

The show features a team lineup similar to that

of the early 1990s X -Men comic books. The lineup

largely resembles that of Cyclops' Blue Team,

established in the early issues of the second

X -Men comic series. The series' first 13 episodes

were notable for being possibly the first time

ever that an American animated series had a full

season of episodes flow one into the next, i

.e. a continuity -based show, something the series'

producers fought heavily for. However, starting

with Season 3, most episodes were shown in random

order. Each episode was assigned two different

numbers internally. One is for script order,

which indicates the number assigned by the production

company. The other is the production order, which

are the official episode numbers assigned by

Fox Children's Network, indicating the order

that they actually received the episodes from

the production company. These both vary from

the order in which the series actually aired,

especially after season three. So we have three

different sets of orders in which these episodes

could be organized. According to series writer

Stephen Melching, the script order is the best

guide in terms of overall series continuity,

as this is how the stories were originally envisioned

to flow together. The X -Men animated show was

the longest running Marvel Comics animated series

for 18 years. It lasted six years during its

five -season run, which was the record until

it was eventually beaten by The Ultimate Spider

-Man when its 77th episode aired on October 17,

2015. So from 96 all the way until 2015, X -Men

was the longest -running Marvel Comics animated

series. The series, though, was canceled after

the episode Graduation Day, which aired on September

20, 1997. And now for some Toon trivia. The Acolytes,

a group of mutants who are led by Magneto and

reside on Asteroid M, are never referred to by

name in the series, because broadcast standards

and practices forbade the writers not to call

them by that name in the dialogue. Also, since

this is the final season of X -Men, interesting

to note some of the acclaim the series got. In

2009, IGN ranked X -Men as the 13th greatest

animated show of all time in their top 100 animated

series list. the third highest standing for a

comic book adapted show on the list. The show

also ranks in at number 152 on IMDb's highest

rated TV shows with at least 5 ,000 votes. Today's

episode specifically focuses on Season 5. Season

5 includes two two -parters, The Phalanx Covenant

and Stormfront. Season 5 lasted 14 episodes in

total and aired from September 7, 1996 to September

20, Interesting to note that Beyond Good and

Evil was meant to be the ending to the series,

until Fox decided to buy more episodes at the

very last minute. As such, the final six episodes

produced have a different animation style. To

save money, Saban produced the final episodes

of the series in -house, rather than involving

Graz Entertainment, who had outsourced production

of the series to until that point, and hired

instead a studio in the Philippines simply called

the Philippine Animation Studio. which also worked

on the second season of the 1994 Fantastic Four

series, because the animation studio ACOM, the

company that had done the previous four seasons,

was unavailable due to other projects in the

pipeline. No Mutant is an Island, A Deal with

the Devil, and Longshot episodes were originally

part of season three. However, due to animation

problems, as we stated before, they were held

back. This case for two years, and consequently,

Jean Grey's resurrection was not properly explained

as it should have been. Instead, we get that

here in season five. So that's just the facts

for today, and now let's toss it over to TFGO

and Mike and company as they discuss in detail

the final season of X -Men. the animated series.

All right, folks, we are back. Thank you so much.

Optimus solo for those, just the facts as last

time around where we were able to use the new

hit acclaim, amazing, you know, word of God book

called previously on X -Men by Eric Lewald. We're

going to be using that to talk about the episodes,

the final episodes for X -Men, the animated series,

1992 season five starts with the phalanx covenant

parts one and two. Yep. Phalanx Covenant, which

introduced, well, first of all, once again, it's

like taking a comic book storyline and doing

the animated version. And hey, introducing Warlock.

Warlock from the New Mutants. I was glad to see

him. I like Warlock. He's like Jar Jar if Jar

Jar wasn't an annoying piece of shit. I don't

know who's more annoying. Jar Jar or Boss Nass?

Jar Jar. Really? Yeah. I don't know. Hey, at

the very least, Boss Nass was voiced by Brian

Blessed, okay? And Brian Blessed is awesome.

Like, I'm willing to give it a pass. Like, it's

one of those things, if I saw Brian Blessed at

a con, I'd be like, you know what? I don't blame

you for Boss Nass, man. You had to do a paycheck.

You did your job. It's not you, man. It's not

you. I forgive you. I forgive you, man. I do

not blame you. And then, oh, after. The episode

after, I mean, we have, you know, yeah, we have

the Phalanx Covenant, but then my, you know,

and then afterwards, once again, my geekdom.

uh was very happy the um the two -parter stormfront

yeah which arcon arcon is a is a guy that he's

he's another one of these characters that a couple

of times he's shown up as the villain a couple

of times he's shown up as a as more of a an ally

to the heroes but oh man just um you know having

him show up i'm like oh wow cool they're using

arcon so i'm just i'm like wow nice okay cool

cool we got Archon I'm happy now um and hey I

think that's also lifted from the comics where

I think yeah he did he did bring Storm over and

it's like hey can you you know use your powers

do this um and then I think we get into and then

yeah we get into the final five don't we yeah

six we get we get it's weird because these these

episodes they were the ones that had like a change

in animation company Yeah, because they changed

from, I think it was ACOM to something else.

I could be completely wrong with that. I'm, you

know, I love, you know. We kind of start with,

we're going on to 71 here, The Fifth Horseman.

Eric in the book says, again, looking back, the

last season change in design of the series bothers

me, as does the change of all things in the opening

titles for the last 10 or so episodes of The

Run. I know networks like to quote -unquote refresh

and quote -unquote update series after a while,

but why mess with one of the real highlights

of a hit? Oh, well. The story itself is not at

all bad, bringing Beast and Jubilee into a South

American jungle complete with ancient temples

and hints of human sacrifice. Very Indiana Jones

feeling. Having a cult wanting to release Apocalypse

from his bonds is properly creepy, and they're

needing to capture a sacrificial quote -unquote

vessel to do it, which becomes Jubilee. So, yeah.

Poor Jubilee. She doesn't really... Doesn't really

get at all a good happy ending. Well, hey, she

avoided becoming a vessel of Apocalypse. It's

interesting that these were supposed to be the

end, the ending episodes, because it ends on,

I don't want to say a cliffhanger, but it ends

for a great setup because Apocalypse is back.

after what happened to Young, Good, and Evil.

So it sets up that if you want to do it, you

can do a rematch. But yeah, it never comes to

pass. We never have the big rematch, which has

me going, okay, I kind of wonder if anybody ever

thought, hmm, should we revisit and have Apocalypse

kind of be like, oh, X -Men, I kind of owe you

a can of whoop -ass. for what happened at the

end of time. Yes. Apologies to John Koulikos.

That was a almost interesting impersonation of

Apocalypse. And then we get Jubilee's fairy tale

theater. Yeah. You know what? This is one of

the things about being a comic fan. Because this

was kind of the animated series doing an old

X -Men issue that was actually called Kitty Pryde's

Fairy Tale. The same kind of basic idea, which

was that in this case, in the case of the comics,

it was Kitty Pryde making up a fairy tale and

telling it to Colossus' little sister, Ileana.

But in this case, it's Jubilee and just some

random kids. But same thing, you know, just kind

of doing this goofy, you know, fairy tale parody

featuring the X -Men characters. Gotta say, though,

the comic book version is kind of poignant because

this was at the time when Jean Grey was thought

dead because of Dark Phoenix Saga. Yeah. So you

have, like, sort of a reinterpretation of the

Dark Phoenix thing for the fairy tale with a

much happier ending. So it kind of makes me feel

like when these books came out and people were

reading it, did it kind of hit in the feels area

a bit? Because it's like, oh, you know, we kind

of wish that this happened. Interesting thing,

though. Interesting thing that I don't know if

you're aware of. Later on in the comics, they

revealed that the world that Kitty Pryde's fairy

tale takes place in, is actually a real world

in the Marvel multiverse. Oh, cool. That it actually

does exist out there. I'm trying to remember.

See, I had this written down somewhere. I would

have to find the folder where I kept that information.

Looking at, thanks to the Marvel handbooks, the

Marvel handbooks did have, the most recent ones,

did have a list of worlds in the Marvel multiverse.

And, yeah, Jubilee's fairy tale is Earth 961116.

Oh, Lord. So, yeah, that's it. And, by the way,

while we're on the subject, I mean, if you want

to, in case you really wanted to know, let's

see. Okay, Cable's future from the animated series,

that is Earth 121193. Okay. Xavier, the world

that was created by Xavier getting killed in

One Man's Worth, that is Earth 95099. Is there

an Earth 90210, please? Thank you. You know what?

I would have to go to my handbook library shelf

in my bedroom and find out. We don't have that

much time. The X -Men cartoon, by the way, like

the main 90s cartoon, the one we're talking about,

the main timeline is Earth 92131. Oh, cool. So

yeah, just in case you have a machine and you

need to program in which Earth, there you go.

I just helped you out there. I just helped you

and everybody else out. Those are the Earths.

You can go visit them. Wouldn't recommend the

one where Xavier was killed in the 1950s because

then you'll probably get Sentinels and all that

stuff. Yeah, and Master Mold and everything else.

Yeah, never fun visiting a crapsack world. Nope.

Episode 73 is by far the best so far of Season

5, Old Soldiers, written by Len Wein. Here is

what Eric says in the book. Despite the hit and

miss nature of the final dozen episodes, this

story is one of the ones that makes me grateful

we got to go past the usual 65 episode order.

We were allowed to use an icon from comics history,

Captain America, created by Joe Simon and Jack

Kirby in 1941, and we got to tell a very personal

one. Wolverine story written by his co -creator,

Len Wein. Please see Len's thoughts on the episode

and his interview. So the other thing about Previously

on X -Men, folks, Eric Lewald did interviews

with almost everybody dealing with the series,

from the cast to the writers to just everybody.

And that's all in this book. I mean... If you're

an X -Men 92 fan like we are, and obviously Eduardo

already has the book, I still have to get the

book myself, but for $40 on Jacob's Brown store,

the official website of the publisher thing here,

$40 for this book, that's a damn deal to me.

The making, you know, previously on X -Men, the

making of an animated series by Eric Lewald.

Like, an insider's look at the landmark worldwide

hit. Like, we have never had this. Like, we always

guessed. We always just assumed. We always did

this. We always did that. But, old soldiers,

I love this episode. Oh, yeah. No, and I gotta

give kudos. I gotta give kudos to... to eric

and and everybody behind the scenes that they

were able to get like the ability to use cap

yeah absolutely let's just yeah because this

just feels like one of these things that it's

like you know just throw a hail mary and be like

oh man i hope we get this because i could i could

just as easily you know in this world with rights

issues and oh this goes to this and this goes

to that I could just as easily see a scenario

where they just go, nope, nope, you don't get

Cap. We want to do stuff with Captain America,

and so we don't want him in X -Men, so no, you

can't use him. And just them having to be like,

shit, we can't do this episode then. But yeah,

the fact that they were able to do this, I'm

just like, wow, that's cool. I mean, that is

an accomplishment. Not only that, but not only

were they able to get him, but just the way that

they used him, it's like just win across the

board. Just solid winning. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah, I love it. It's an amazing Wolverine story

with Captain America as kind of like the guest

star in it. And kicking some ass, too. Absolutely.

And it's got Red Skull and everything else. Just

absolutely love it. And it shows Wolverine, you

know, before he was an X -Man, before all this

character development and growth that they had

him do in his story arcs from Season 1 to Season

4. You know, this is before all of that. This

is, you know... I mean, this was before his...

Weapon X lies in... This was before his... They

had to actually get him the claws that weren't...

Those claws were just... He's like, oh, these

are pretty useful. And I'm like, sure they are,

Wolverine. Absolutely they are. So, yeah. Absolutely

love Old Soldiers. Any thoughts on Hidden Agendas

or Descent? Those are 74 and 75. Um, well, Hidden

Agendas, it was cool seeing Cannonball. I mean,

I know that they, I know they had Cannonball

kind of in a little cameo on screen in the very

first episode, but it was cool seeing him actually,

you know, an actual part of the show. Not the

best introduction in the world. I will kind of

give kudos, though, to the fact that they did

a nice little nod to his origin in the comics,

which kind of involved a little bit of the same

thing, including getting under the influence

of a villain. You know, it's not the best, but

I mean, I can't... I don't know. It's, it's like,

I don't hate it, but on the other hand, it's

like not one of the best, you know what I mean?

It's one of these things where, Oh, if I, if

you only gave me like a handful of episodes that

I could show somebody to kind of like show them

how cool the X -Men cartoon was, this would not

be one of them. Yeah. You know, um, uh, dissent,

uh, interesting. I mean, it was an interesting,

uh, Interesting idea and taking off, a great

takeoff from actually a comic book called The

Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, which

was like Scott and Jean Grey kind of doing some

time travel thanks to the group that Cable is

associated with, the Clan Ascani. And there it

was Cyclops and Jean Grey going back in time,

but the fact that we don't have the time travel,

instead it's just, oh, we're going to have this

kind of flashback tale. you know not not a bad

not a bad idea not a bad idea it's it's something

we had been asking when we did a season one season

well season two specifically with the the introduction

of mr sinister and until death do us part like

we had been wanting like what is his like i even

asked you why does he have this fascination with

scott and gene and genetics and all that like

Descent is the episode that gives Mr. Sinister's

origin. Like, I didn't think they, again, I hadn't

seen this in forever until we started doing these.

Like, I had not watched these, I had not watched

season five at least in 17, like, last time I

saw it was like 2000, 2001. So, you know, finally,

you know, we get why Sinister, at least in this

universe, at least in this cartoon series, is

the way he is. And that is what makes that episode

really cool. And then the series finale, graduation

day. Nobody's graduating. Not really. Yeah. Xavier

dies. Sorry, folks. 25 years of spoilers right

there. No. Well, no. Okay, let's be fair. He

doesn't die, but he does have to take kind of

a vacay off Earth. You know, his alien girlfriend

is like, oh, my poor Charles. You know, you've

been so, you know. One thing – again, it's like

it's taking – it's interesting that it takes

something from the comics and adopts it to TV.

In this case, yeah, there was a point in the

80s where Xavier was dying. Lalandra showed up

and is like, okay, I'm going to take my boyfriend

here, and I'm going to take him out into space.

She actually shows up with Corsair. Xavier hangs

out. with the Starjammers for at least years.

I don't know how long he did it for comic time,

but I know that at least in real time, it was

years. It was like from 85, 86 to 90 -something

that he was just not on Earth. He was stuck with

the Starjammers. Like, I think that was even

a plot point that, you know, he had been healed

and they're like, OK, let's get you home. And

shit, the Stargates are way too heavily guarded.

We can't do it. You're kind of stuck here. And

Xavier is just like, OK, well, you know, that

sucks. But, you know, my students are big boys

and girls. I think they can handle things by

themselves. I'm just going to have to, you know,

I'm just going to have to chill here till we

can figure something out. Yeah, absolutely. I

wondered, though. I've always wondered, though,

because like with the Apocalypse episode, like

the one with Jubilee and Beast and Apocalypse,

like the Fifth Horseman episode, I just always

wondered like this ends on kind of a, not a cliffhanger,

but it has such an open ending. were there ever

any thoughts of like, Oh, are we going to, you

know, could, was somebody, you know, if not Eric

was Larry Houston or somebody else, or we'll

mention you was somebody thinking, Oh, we'll

come back and, you know, we'll bring Xavier back

and do this and that. Like, I always wondered,

I mean, was this something that somebody had

in the back of their head or was it simply just

supposed to always end with, okay, Xavier's gone,

but you know, his students will. keep up the

good fight so to speak yeah absolutely yeah this

to me i think you'll like this at least i hope

okay this to me is similar to the end of beast

machines it's similar it's similar in the fact

okay yes Professor X is the one that's dying

and he says goodbye to Magneto. It's not where

in Beast Machines it's Optimus Primal and Megatron

going off and being away. But basically, the

end of Beast Machines in... I can't remember

the episode until I left it off the top of my

head. But in the end of that, after Cybertron

is reformatted into a technorganic planet, you

have Cheetor as... I've said this for years now.

If you look at Beast Wars and Beast Machines...

It is the consistent evolution and aging of the

character of Cheetor. Cheetor is essentially

the Hot Rod Rodimus Prime of the Beast Wars Beast

Machines era. By in this, I mean he grows up

through the series. Because there's a point where

he goes Transmetal 2. And there's a point that

he goes Transmetal 1 and Transmetal 2 after his

original body. So I did this whole thing about

where I think each age progression is for each

of his changes. And by the time we get... to

beast machines i would say he's mid 20s early

30s like he's a full -grown adult bot at that

point and at the end it's basically optimus and

megatron going off and optimus is like you know

you lead them cheetor you know he's optimus is

optimus primal is basically passing the torch

um And that's what this essentially is. Because

Eric says at the end of this, he says, As Lalandra

takes Charles flashing across space, we see those

who loved him watching their hearts going with

him on his final voyage. What will happen in

a world without Professor Charles Xavier? As

our series ends, we are all left to wonder. Like,

oh my god. Like, yeah, what would it be like?

Everything that he taught. all of these, all

of his team, all of his X -Men in these five

years, obviously those are, you know, that's

all going to stick with them, but are they going

to continue the fight? Are they going to continue

his dream of, you know, having mutants and humans,

you know, live together in harmony and all of

that? Yeah. Well, it's, well, I think to be actually

a little, Well, not darker, but a little bit

more serious. It's not, you know, will they continue

his fight? It's not that. It's will they succeed?

Yeah. Because, I mean, it's one thing having

a great public speaker like Charles Xavier stand

before a bunch of protesters and rioters and

going, you know, can't we all just get along?

It's quite another if it's Scott doing it or,

you know, Wolverine doing it or Gene doing it

or even Hank. I mean, I could see. Beast or Jean,

maybe not Beast because, and I'm not putting

any prejudicial thing in this, but they've, they

showed that in the series of how Beast looks,

you know, but maybe Jean, I mean, we're so advanced

of a, of a, of a race at this point where women,

I mean, look at last year and this year, women

are, I'm not just saying women are everywhere,

but like in media, like look at the Wonder Woman

movie. Okay. All women worked on that thing.

it wasn't it wasn't like all women producers

and yada yada yada with a male director no all

women worked on the wonder woman film that was

recently you know out um you know so like i mean

yeah i could see gene leading the x -men i could

see you know basically Gene would take Professor

X's role. Scott can still have his blue team.

Storm can have the gold team. And Wolverine can

just run around and berserk whatever the hell

he wants to berserk. Well, because Wolverine,

of course, he said it in the first episode. He

said it in the first season. I go where I want

to go. So why are you coming with us? Because

I want to come with you. Are you sure? You're

going to 7 -Eleven, right? I want a slushie.

Uh -huh. Absolutely. No guess between me and

my slushies, bub. Schnick. Schnick. Schnick.

So, talking briefly about, since we've wrapped

up Season 5, briefly before we close this and

do all the other stuff that we have to do here.

The filmography was Chapter 15, the 76 episodes,

which is what we've kind of gone through here

for Season 5 and what we did two weeks ago for

Season 4. After that, the literary quotes of

Beast, our resident philosopher. Chapter 17 is

talks with the cast. 18 is talks with the crew.

19 is talks with the writers. 20 is talks with

the executives. 21 is television critic remembers

22 is fan testimonials. And then there's an epilogue.

Um, but yeah, like you, you and I will probably

be back with a full on discussion of after we,

you know, fully read the book. Um, yeah. Uh,

yeah. So, and, and by the way, uh, I just have

to say, um, the, the picture that they have for

George Booza, uh, the voice of beast, he looks

a lot like, a lot like um sheriff hopper in uh

stranger things oh my god yeah like i just i

even i even actually took a picture of that i

tweeted that i tagged uh eric and julius twitter

and they liked it so i mean i guess they saw

the same thing i did because i just took one

look and i'm like sheriff hopper but hey nice

to have something to do uh nice to have something

to do other than get uh chased by Demogorgons

in The Upside Down. Uh -huh. All right. You need

to watch Stranger Things, dude. Yeah, I know.

You need to. I know. It's got horror elements,

and I'm not too big on horror, so I don't know.

Yeah, but it's also a lot of... 80s stuff like

it's a love letter to the 80s without being like

too without going too far and the soundtrack

is fucking badass like seriously awesome soundtrack

very cool very cool alright so season 5 going

through our thing here about how the season held

up The season did keep my interest, but as I

said two weeks ago, I was kind of already satisfied

with the ending of Beyond Good and Evil. Like

we already said so far, we liked Old Soldiers,

we liked Descent because we finally get a Mr.

Sinister thing. The Phalanx Covenant was interesting.

I thought that was really cool. A really cool

story. Thoughts on... keeping interest for this

season yeah uh you know what it's hey yeah it

i will say this i'm looking at it okay i'm gonna

i'm gonna do it from two perspectives one from

younger me another from me now uh younger me

the whole thing with having like another season

i did not know about beyond good and evil being

the end i did not know uh the new animation kind

of weirded me out for a Nice little things in

the season that I'm like, okay, yeah, that was

cool. Being a huge Captain America fan, I love

old soldiers. The season, it's kind of like,

you know what? I think the great analogy is it's

the dessert buffet. You've already had the big

meal. You're satisfied. They say, oh, there's

a dessert buffet. You're like, no, no, I'm full.

But then you're going. You know what? Maybe I'll

try like a little something. Maybe I'll find

like a little chocolate tart or a brownie or

something. And, you know, you grab a couple of

things, a couple of things are, you know, a couple

of the things you grab, a couple of them are

yummy. And a couple, you're just like, you know,

like you're, you're starting to feel full and

you're just like, I can't, you know, like, I

want to enjoy this. I can't. So, so, you know,

it's the kind of, it's like that, you know, it's,

it's very much a pick and choose. Yeah. It's

kind of like choose your own adventure kind of

thing. Admit it. Admit it, though. You read those

as a kid and you cheated. I remember reading

them as a kid, but I don't remember if I cheated

or not. That was so long ago. I remember reading

the Berenstain. My reading history goes from

whatever early childhood fairy tale, like the

little golden books, to the Berenstain Bears,

to the Hardy Boys Case Files, to John Grisham.

I mean, John Grisham, R .L. Stine, all that kind

of, like, R .L. Stine, Fear Street, not Goosebumps,

because that, I love R .L. Stine, I love his

Fear Street stuff, but Goosebumps is just not

my thing. Oh, that's fine. You know, but, like,

yeah, no, like, I remember reading Choose Your

Own Adventure, but I don't ever, like, I don't

remember anything of, like, no. Yeah, my formative

years, my formative years were definitely Choose

Your Own Adventure. Like I, from, from like,

from like age seven or eight to about like 11

or 12, I was all, I was all about choose your

own adventure. I actually found, I went to a

used books, uh, like a local used bookstore and

I found a copy of the very first choose your

own adventure. I bought it. It's actually in,

I'm looking at it right as we're, as we're speaking,

I'm looking at it on my shelf and I'm just like,

yep, that, that takes me back. And yeah, I, I

gotta admit, I try to be good and I try to like

follow the rules. But, you know, a couple of

times I'm just like, you know, let me I'm not

too sure. Let me check. OK, I don't want to go

there. So, yeah, let's go to this page. Of course,

sometimes it would bite me in the ass because

neither choice was really good. And I'm like,

OK, damn it. All right. This is what I get for

trying to cheat. This is what I get for trying

to peek into the future. Yep. You're not supposed

to exist outside of time, dude. Oh, I don't know.

Hey, you never know. You never know. Because

remember, I said it in the season four write

-up. You have Kang the Conqueror who has at least

one or two alternate future selves. You never

know, man. Maybe one day I'll end up somewhere

outside the time stream in limbo and somebody

will be like, hey, you want to watch Overtime

for 2 ,000 years of it? I'm like, sure. Yeah,

no. I'll indulge by popping into the 1930s, grabbing

a copy of Action Comics No. 1, and just being

like, wow, these new four -color funnies look

really good. Oh, but it probably won't make much

money. And then just jump ahead to 1990 and be

like, oh, I have this mint copy of Action Comics

No. 1. I can't believe I found it. You're talking

about the 1938 debut of Superman, right? Yeah.

Okay, it's so funny you bring that up. Uh -oh.

Oh, this is good. Okay. So I'm currently preparing

and reading for The Pull Bag's return for episodes

155 to 159 of The Pull Bag, our comic podcast.

Right. We're going to be covering volumes one

through three of IDW's Back to the Future. We're

going to be covering... Back to the Future, Citizen

Brown, and Back to the Future, Biff to the Future.

Okay. No, it's good. It's very good. I've read

the first two volumes already, and oh my god.

super fit because it's got john barber on writing

but it's got bob gale like bob gale is there

like he is helping out so no this isn't just

idw trying to do a this is them faithfully taking

these characters and telling stories that are

around the movies and and everything else and

and whole continuities but basically the reason

why i'm saying this is at one point doc brown

went back to the time when that was published

and he bought like a million copies of it because

he he needed money he needed liquid money and

he needed it so if he needed money he would just

sell one of his various cop you know he bought

like all the copies he could find at the time

and that's how he would get money in the future

so hilarious oh that's hilarious yeah absolutely

awesome So this is our last episode for X -Men,

the animated series, because it is season five,

and this is our last one here for this. One of

the questions is on how the season held up. Would

you show your children this show? Now, the reason

why I'm bringing this up is I don't have kids,

and I have no plans. Karen and I don't have plans

to have children right now. I'm 37. I'll be 38

in February. And, yeah. she's a few years older

than me um it's one of those things where there

are certain episodes i would show my kids if

i was having kids would i let them watch this

entire series from beginning to end not necessarily

binge it but like each like basically take them

okay three you know after your homework's done

after school you can watch two episodes of it

like no probably not but like to show them lessons

of humanity and things like that and working

together like yeah i could see showing several

episodes of this to children um because kids

today need to learn proper you know way to deal

with stuff um but in general no i would not show

x -men the animated series to kids what about

you um i would say yeah yeah i mean okay i'm

not gonna show it to a four -year -old obviously

but yeah if we're talking like you know if we're

talking pre -teen you know i would and i would

i would show it to them if anything what i'd

do is i'd get them into the comics first then

i would show them the cartoon and just be like

okay you know which you know here here's an adaptation

yeah but yeah i would i mean i would show it

to my kids hell anything okay anything that is

on any like cartoon that is in my collection,

whether it's on my DVD shelf or, you know, I

have it like electronically, like on my phone

or whatever, I would show it to them. I would

show it to them and I'd be like, hey, and even

if they're like, you know, even if it's something

that just uses, you know, it's very anachronistic,

I'd just be like, oh no, but look at this, look

at this. You know, I would definitely be showing,

you know, I would not show it to them. And, yeah,

they could watch it from beginning to end. Maybe

in a couple of places we'd hop, skip, and jump.

You know, just be like, okay, we gotta skip over

here right now. But, yeah, I would. I definitely

would. Heck, I'd show them X -Men before I get

to fucking United They Stand. Oh, God. You do

know that Eric and Julia worked on that, right?

I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know

they've worked on it. We're sorry, Eric and Julia.

We're sorry. Eric, I'm sorry. Eric, if you're

listening, I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I love X

-Men the Animated Series. I really do. I'm sorry.

I can't get it to United. They stand. I just

can't. I'm so sorry. I really am. I really am.

It's not you. It's definitely not you. I'm not,

it's not you. I don't know what happened. I just,

I couldn't, I couldn't, I'm just so sorry. Yeah.

Seriously. This is not, you know, this is, uh,

uh, may have to, may have to actually do a one

-on -one with them about, uh, about that. Do

a one -on -one, find out what, what happened

there. Like, what was the deal? What was the...

What? That's funny. Yeah, I would... That is

something I would want to... Yep. Alright, so

folks, this is... It's kind of funny that...

Have yourself a Merry Morlock Christmases in

here. Because this is the Christmas episode for

ToonCast Beyond this year. This will air December

20th, 2017. This will be the last episode of

the year for ToonCast. We will come back in 2018

with the final episode of ToonCast Beyond, which

is episode 82, Back to the Future of the Animated

Series. Optimus Alu will be joining me for that.

And after that, next summer, relaunch back to

ToonCast Classic with episode 230, where we kick

off the Disney afternoon. We're going to take

a quick break, come back to close the show after

this. Do you like retro cartoons? Then Saturday

Morning Rewind is the podcast for you. Join them

each month as they talk about classic cartoons

and interview legendary voice actors like Jim

Cummings. I am the terror that flaps in the night.

Corey Burton. Rob Paulson. Nancy Cartwright and

many more. So grab a bowl of Lucky Charms. Put

on your hammer pants. Go to SaturdayMorningRewind

.com. And be prepared to feel like a kid again.

Once again, that's SaturdayMorningRewind .com.

Saturday Morning Rewind was voted best podcast

ever by its host, Tim Nydell. So it's got to

be good. On the Simplistic Reviews podcast, we

talk movies. We talk TV. We talk... Hello, Julie,

what the heck are you doing? Trying to make our

spot sound more exciting by adding explosions.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could have got the

point across with sound effects, not the real

thing. Download the show on iTunes or at simplisticreviews

.blogspot .com. I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that. No, they won't. No, they probably

won't. Say, Jarvis, is it that time? The house

party protocol, sir? Correct. The Pull Bag is

the GCRN's comic book review and discussion -based

podcast. Join your host, DFJ1 Mike, and the rest

of the GCRN crew as we make our way through the

comic book world. Inside the Pull Bag, you'll

also find back -issue classics, Origins episodes,

After Darks, and so much more. You can find the

Pull Bag every Wednesday on iTunes, on Stitcher

Smart Radio, Blog Talk Radio, and of course,

geekcastradio .com. Make your great escape into

comics and jump into the Pull Bag today! To see

and to superhero webcomics. We are back, and

it is time for last words, final memories, and

all that other stuff for X -Men the Animated

Series, because we are done with X -Men for now.

Might be interesting to take a look at Wolverine

in the X -Men. the Steve bloom voiced Wolverine

series. Yeah. That'd be cool. That might. Yeah.

At some point. Um, who knows? Uh, any final thoughts,

anything you want to say, uh, before we get out

of here? Nope. Just, you know, this is, this

is one of those. I mean, if I have to, if I have

to choose like a top 10, top five, like animated

series that just really had an influence on me,

this would be in there. Absolutely. most definitely

and just and it was i mean hell i still remember

just being uh you know kind of being um a kid

and you know seeing this and just being like

oh this is this is like my books come to life

this is uh you know i just feel oh yep absolutely

This, you know, this for me, as I said when we

did season one last year and when we did the

others this year, this for me made me want to

read X -Men comics in the 90s. I see this as

the definitive version of the X -Men in animation.

It's just so fun, so awesome, just absolutely

love it. So, that's going to do it for us. You

want to talk about your Let's Be Reels podcast

really quick? Well, yeah. Let's Be Reels is a

Facebook page where we just talk all about all

types of fandom. Gaming, cartoons, comics, things

like that. Keep It At Reels is the... Okay, that's

what it is. Yeah, it's not... It's actually a

live radio show. That is usually it's on 9 p

.m. Eastern, 6 p .m. Pacific every Saturday.

You know, sometimes we do take breaks because,

you know, A. Life. life you know vacation comes

around vacations come around and you know things

like for example you know as as we uh as we record

this thanksgiving is around the corner so you

know we do want to like celebrate with family

we don't want to be like in the middle in the

middle of like thank you know the weekend after

thanksgiving and like oh excuse excuse us grandpa

we gotta go talk about you know thor ragnarok

you know it's we we do you know we do want to

take breaks um The episodes, however, are, if

you go to Blog Talk Radio, the episodes are,

like, saved. And so you can listen to the old

ones. It's, yeah, I mean, we just, we go all

across. You know, we do all across. I mean, we

did, heck, I mentioned Larry Houston. Got a chance

to talk to him and Buzz Dixon when I talked about

G .I. Joe the movie. So got to hear some great

stuff. And it's not as much of a guest thing,

but we do talk about a variety of topics, and

sometimes we do have people on who might not

be – it's not like having Eric Leewald on or

Larry Houston or one of the actors or writers

from Doctor Who, but we'll do have another fan

on to kind of bring their voice in. And it's

a call -in. It's a call -in radio show. So, you

know, you can actually, when it airs, you can

actually call in and say, you know, and bring

your voice to the discussion. In fact, I even

encourage it. If anything, just go to Facebook

slash Let's Be Reels and just like the page and

keep an eye out. I usually, I myself, you know,

this is something I create. I usually do little...

teasers that i just i post on facebook to kind

of promote the episode you know and i do that

at least three times a week so you'll know when

something's coming very cool very cool awesome

So that's going to do it for us. Visit the website

geekcastradio .com. Leave the show's feedback

in iTunes. Please do this. I will say as well,

folks, if you're listening to the ToonCast Beyond

feed, please make sure you're still listening

to the ToonCast Classic feed on iTunes. So we're

going back to the old feed. Follow us on Twitter.

You can follow at ToonCast Beyond or at GCR and

ToonCast. Those are both show Twitters for the

show. I am at TFG1Mike. You can follow at GeekCastRadio

for all your network updates. What is your Twitter?

My Twitter, once again, WhiteBalloonKing, but

it's spelled W -H -T -B -L -L -N -K -I -N -G.

If anything, or just put Eduardo M. Fryer, and

you could probably find it. Awesome. Hey, hey,

hey. Become a fan of Facebook. Go to Facebook

.com slash GeekCasterRadioNetwork. We hope you

enjoyed this episode of Tooncast Beyond, and

wish you'll join us next time when we will be...

Yeah. We're going to go back, folks, because

next Saturday night we're sending all of you

back to the future with the animated series with

Optimus Solo's return to ToonCast. For now, I

am TF2 and Mike with Eduardo and Friar. Thank

you for listening. Until next time. Back to the

future. Your favorite characters from the enormously

successful feature films and the hilarious network

cartoon series are on home video for the first

time ever. Price to own. Each cassette features

at least two entire episodes of exciting animated

fun. Plus, there's a live action segment with

Christopher Lloyd. Doc Brown here. As you can

see, I'm visible once again. These time -hopping

cartoons are filled with adventure. I hope you're

not too bored, Artie. So fire up the DeLorean.

Hold on to your flux capacitors and join Marty

McFly, Doc Brown, and all their friends in the

exciting animated series that has won the hearts

of millions. Back to the Future. It's here today

and available on videocassette. Collect the entire

series.