X-Men: Volume 5 – DVD Review

DVD Reviews, Reviews

The X-Men are back with the fifth and final volume of their mid-’90s animated series.

The series was initially concluded at the end of season four with the “Beyond Good and Evil” Saga. However, Fox ordered one more season and the last six episodes were produced by a different animation house and the quality fell tenfold. On top of that, Jubilee now has very uncharacteristically black hair and Jean Grey is back from the dead with no explanation. They even changed the sound of the opening theme song… for the worse.

So with this collection you get four episodes that should have aired during seasons 3 and 4 including the very out of place “No Mutant is an Island” which is about Scott dealing with the death of his beloved Jean Grey at the end of the “Dark Phoenix Saga.” You also get these last six episodes that are all really bad. It’s just sad really. Fox should have left well enough alone and not bothered with a fifth season cause it doesn’t add anything to the series and forces it to go out with a whimper rather than a bang.

As with the previous releases, the episodes are shown in the order that they were aired and not the order they were intended to be aired. The only highlight of the last group of episodes is “Old Soldiers” wherein Wolverine teams up with Captain America to fight Nazis, even the bad animation can’ ruin this episode.

You get some interesting characters showing up in these episodes such as Warlock, Cannonball and Captain America amongst others, but over all this is the weakest collection of episodes from this series.

Episodes:

Here is a key to which episodes should have been in which season. The numbers represent the order they should have been aired in.

Season 3: 34, 36, 47
Season 4: 59
Season 5: 67-76

Disc 1:

67 & 68 The Phalanx Covenant, Parts 1 & 2 9-7-1996

An evil alien techno-organic being known as Phalanx attacks the X-Men. They also meet Warlock, who is also techno-organic and he teams up with out heroes to stop this creature from destroying all life on earth.

47 A Deal with the Devil 9-14-1996

The U.S. Army thaws Omega Red to retrieve a sunken nuclear submarine. Stupidly they think they can bargain with him and now Wolverine and Storms lives are in danger.

34 No Mutant is an Island 9-21-1996

Mourning the death of Jean Grey, Cyclops leaves the X-Men, however a solo adventure shows him where he belongs.

36 Longshot 10-5-1996

Longshot lands himself on earth with Spiral and Mojo’s henchmen hot on his trail. Mojo decides that fighting Longshot and the X-Men on their home turf should make for great ratings and the show it on!

59 Bloodlines 10-26-1996

Nightcrawler learns that his mother is Mystique and his brother is Graydon Greed (NOTE: in the comics Creed and Nightcrawler have no relation whatsoever!)

Disc 2:

69 & 70 Storm Front, Parts 1 & 2 9-2, 9-9-1996

Arkon, an alien from another planet, kidnaps Storm and brings her to his home planet to save it from destruction. But he’s not as nice as he seems and it takes the X-Men chasing after her to wake her up.

72 Jubilee’s Fairy Tale Theater 11-16-1996

Jubilee distracts a group of kids from fear when hey are trapped in a cave by telling them a fairy tale using her fellow x-men and villains as characters. For example, Wolverine is a troll.

71 The Fifth Horseman 2-8-1997

Fabian Cortez and the hellhounds kidnap Jubilee to help Apocalypse return from the astral plane where he was trapped.

73 Old Soldiers 2-22-1997

In a flashback, Wolverine teams up with Captain America to fight Red Skull and his Nazi army.

75 Descent 9-6-1997

In this Victorian era story, Dr. James Xavier and Dr. Nathaniel Essex debate natural selection. This is the origin of Mr. Sinister.

74 Hidden Agendas 9-13-1997

Rogue goes to the south to meet Sam Guthrie and teach him the ways of the mutant while shadowy Army officials seek Sam for their own agenda.

76 Graduation Day 9-20-1997

In an attack from Henry Peter Gyrich, Prof. Xavier is badly hurt and only by going with Lilandra to the Shi’Ar Empire can he survive. All the X-Men and Magneto bid Charles farewell as he takes off into space to be cured.

The episodes are presented in fullscreen 1:33.1. Sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Despite the bad animation the show looks fantastic. It’s very crisp and clean, as you’d expect an Iron Man cartoon to look. The sound it really good too.

Trailers: Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Wolverine & The X-men, The Superhero Squad Show and marvelkids.com.

I loved this show when I was younger and I’ve enjoyed revisiting the series as these DVDs have been released and this was the first disappointment I’ve had. If you own the other volumes you’ll probably buy this to complete your collection, but if you’re looking to rent, most of these aren’t worth your time.


Buena Vista Home Entertainment presents X-Men: Volume 5. Created by Larry Houston and Frank Squillace. Starring: Cal Dodd, George Buza, Iona Morris, Alyson Court, Lenore Zann and Norm Spencer. Running time: 308 minutes on 2 discs. Not Rated. Released on DVD: May 4, 2010. Available at Amazon.com.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years