Another incarnation of an X-Men cartoon series has hit the airwaves, and I am happy to say, it doesn’t completely suck.

Last night, the new series Wolverine and the X-Men debuted on the Nick Toons Network with an hour long premier. The two episdodes are the first two parts of a three part story arc called “Hindsight” that will be wrapped up next week, introducing us to this new X-Men universe, and what their continuity entails. In this series as we start off, the X-Men have disbanded due to the mysterious disappearance of Professor X and Jean Grey and the obliteration of the X-Mansion, flash forward a year later and the X-Men are in shambles. Wolverine is off being his rogue, reluctant hero self; Beast is still obsessing over find Professor X and Jean Grey in the basement of what used to be the X-Mansion; Colossus has moved back to Russia; Kitty Pryde is leaving for Genosha; Cyclops has sunk into deep depression due to the loss of Jean (of course, but Logan shows up to tell him he’s being a pussy); Angel is working from the inside, using his dad’s money to help fund the mutant cause and moonlighting as his hero alter-ego; Iceman is on house arrest thanks to his parents; and Rogue has joined up with the Brotherhood of mutants. What has happened to some of the others, such as Storm and Nightcrawler has yet to be seen.

The best part of the series is the lack of explanation of everything going on in this universe. They allow you to just figure it out as the main story develops. It really has an “Astonishing X-Men” feel to it, though, obviously “kidded down”, if you will. You have Senetor Kelly pushing for the Mutant Registration Act and heading up the Sentinal forces, and you have Mutant Response Division headed up by Trask constantly trying to round up every unregistered mutant they can get their hands on. You also have Magneto residing on Genosha, trying to convince mutants to come live there and fight for their cause and he of course has the help of his Brotherhood back in the states, lead by Quicksilver and Domino. All of this was introduced in just the first hour with more to come! Expect appearances by The Mauraders, Acolytes, Hellfire Club, Weapon X, and of course in typica X-Men fashion, some elements of time travel, so mutants from the future. It sounds like it is really going to be a who’s who of the X-Men Universe all participating in what looks like will be an awesome cluster-fuck.

I thought the series got off to a great start, and I hope it keeps the momentum. As is my complaint with most cartoons these days, especially those that air on the likes of Nick Toons, is how much the censor everything. It would have been nice to see this on Cartoon Network where they are not afraid to depict death and loss in a cartoon (i.e. Clone Wars), so expect a never ending supply of robots, not people, for Wolvie to cut into; but, none-the-less it is great to see the whole X-Universe back on the small screen and I think X-Men fans should be pretty pleased with this new series. I do have a few concerns about the series however, such as I am a little concerned with the sheer size of the cast that they plan to introduce, but let’s face it, I don’t take character development cues from cartoons on Nick Toons. Also, this series kind of gives itself a free ticket to do what they want with the X-Men mythos as it’s not directly based on any particular story line or era it seems, and putting Wolverine in a sort of co-lead position with Cyclops seems a little odd (but it works, Wolverine in my opinion has always been sort of a reluctant leader to some of the other X-Men), but I hope they tie in a lot of classic X-Men elements while putting their own spin on things, I’m totally open to new ideas, but let’s not get TOO crazy… I look forward to catching some more episodes and seeing if this actually stays good beyond this premier arc.

You can catch Wolverine and the X-Men on Friday nights on Nick Toons, and also online the following Saturday online at Marvel.com!

One final note – I am warning you right now, Nick Toons does this really annoying thing when coming back from a commercial where it’s like a group of kids hanging out watching the show “with you” and they tend to say really really annoying shit right as the show comes back like “Wolvering versus the MRD! Awesome!” or “The Brotherhood have set the X-Men up! It’s on!”. I hate those little fuckers.