Welcome, true believers! We’re continuing our summer TV binge here at Multiversity and I’m here to tell you more about the strangest super-heroes of all, or rather about their beloved 90s animated series. That’s right, I’m here with five thoughts on X-Men: The Animated Series‘s “Slave Island” and “The Unstoppable Juggernaut.” I probably shouldn’t need to give this warning for a twenty-plus-year-old-show but, as always, beware of spoilers.
1. The Box
One thing X-Men: The Animated Series did well, though not always consistently, was to keep plot threads and character beats running throughout the show. In “Slave Island” Storm’s claustrophobia is once again touched on. As Gambit stops her from being “disposed of permanently” by revealing her powers she’s put into a containment box and her screams in this moment are actually quite disturbing for a kids show.
There’s also a bit of foreshadowing given with Gambit’s supposed betrayal of his teammates. Once the double-cross is revealed and the team is saved Jubilee remarks she should have known he wasn’t a traitor, to which he replies “How do you know that, petite? Maybe you been fooled again, non?” Gambit will later be accused of being the traitor from Bishop’s future when he and his glorious mullet make their appearance.
2. X-cellent cameos
X-Men: The Animated Series is loaded with cameos throughout but “Slave Island” really packs them in. Blob, Sunfire, and Wolfsbane all have speaking parts within the episode but we also see Northstar, Aurora, Domino, Rictor, and Warpath. In addition this episode sees returns of Peter Gyrich, Bolivar Trask, and Cameron Hodge. Hodge was not fleshed out to a more comics-like counterpart until the fifth season where he is assimilated into the Phalanx.
“The Unstoppable Juggernaut” also features Colossus, in addition to that titular big fella. As a kid, I always wondered why Colossus wasn’t part of the team as he was such an integral part of the comics. He’d only be used in one additional episode, “Red Dawn” but would cameo often throughout the show. It’s a damn shame though, Piotr Rasputin really deserved better.
3. Master Mold
“Slave Island” also shows us the villainous device Master Mold, which will be used later on in the season finale. But this episode provides yet another moment of unintentional humor in the form of a line from MM. Once Storm has broken the dam and the facility begins to flood the giant sentinel attempts to flee but is stopped by a wire and exclaims “I am still plugged in!” How the voice actors of this show were able to get their lines out without laughing at times is completely beyond me.
4. The Wild Man of Borneo
One thing that is a bit odd about “Slave Island” is the characterization of Cable, who will be used quite a bit in later episodes. Here, however, he is described as having been a member of The Leader’s army of mercenaries before turning on him. Cable seeks to free the island and its mutant captives and absolutely nothing is said about him being from the future. Apparently there are actually some fan theories out there that speculate this Cable not from the same reality as the one we later see, explaining the differences. While that may smooth out the issues in canon its a bit of a flimsy theory with little to back it up. As I mentioned earlier the show may be great at keeping some characters developed it isn’t always consistent.
5. The Unairable Juggernaut
When you watch X-Men: The Animated Series today the episodes are actually in a different order from their chronological releases. This is due to production issues that occurred at the time, causing some episodes to not be released when they were intended. “The Unstoppable Juggernaut” is one such episode. But what sets this episode apart is that pushing it back actually affected the ending of the previous episode as well, causing “Slave Island” to be altered. Originally the team returns to a mansion that is intact and in all future airings and home video releases the proper ending was put back in.
Spotting errors like this and other odd quirks is half of what makes watching X-Men: The Animated Series so fun today. Spots like the radio looking like its emitting electricity because kids seemingly wouldn’t recognize static from sound and Cyclops pointing it out alone, it needed an extra visual cue.
We’ll keep finding those funny little bits as we continue our summer TV binge of one of the greatest comic adaptations ever. I’ll see you next week for that. Exelsior!
