Rating:

Marvel and Disney almost finish out the 1990’s X-Men animated series with this release of X-Men Volume 4. Containing 14 episodes from Season 4—it’s the weakest set of the four existing volumes.

As the show neared its fifth and final season, more and more obscure stories were being adapted from the comic, but the end results weren’t always great.

“Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-Mas” was a great Christmas episode that in typical Christmas episode fashion, attempts to show the real spirit of the holiday – this time using the young X-man Jubilee.

Unlike other seasons (Phoenix, Dark Phoenix), the multi-part episodes this time are less entertaining that the single episodes. After adapting many of the classic storylines, writers were left with fewer gems to polish and it shows.

Both “Sanctuary” and “Beyond Good and Evil” fail to capture the excitement and drama of the Phoenix storylines. With “Sanctuary,” I think a longer arc would have helped. Magneto building a mutant haven is a good idea, but trying to cram in Fabian Cortez’s bid for control hurt this story that would have been better with more time to build.

On the other hand, “Beyond Good and Evil” was too long and too convoluted. Time travel makes my head hurt and combine that with two characters I don’t like (Cable and Bishop) and you see why I don’t like this convoluted plot of 4 episodes featuring the villain Apocalypse. At least Part 2 features a nice battle between Archangel and Psylocke.

“Proteus” does a good job of adapting the great Claremont and Byrne storyline, although it could have been condensed to one episode. Look for some great visuals when dealing with the reality warping villain.

Like other seasons, we get a few solo episodes as well. Wolverine, Rogue, Cyclops, and Xavier all get the solo treatment this season. The Wolverine episode “The Lotus and the Steel” is an attempt to show his time in Japan and meld it to present continuity—rather than Wolverine’s past. It’s a nice attempt and it does a nice job of showing a side to Wolverine that was few and far between in the animated version.

The Rogue episode “Love in Vain” is a one note look at Rogue’s inability to touch another and the Cyclops centric “Secrets, Not Long Burried” is the episode where I realized the show wouldn’t be around much longer. Cyclops as a “walking tall” bringer of justice in a small western town is just odd. It’s a very generic premise that features an extremely odd cast on mutant villains.

Finally, the set ends on a high note with “Family Ties.” This episode delves in Magneto’s history a little more and introduces his children, the future Avengers Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. I’m a sucker for cameos and I’ve always loved the Avengers—secretly wising for an Avengers too to co-air with X-Men. The episode does a great job of incorporating different parts of Magneto and his children’s past history into a present day story.

That finishes up Season 4 and leaves only Season 5 unreleased. Hopefully that set will appear in 2010 and finish up the set. While Season 5 in’t the best, it does feature appearances by Longshot, Captain America, Cannonball and the origin of Nightcrawler.

As with the other X-Men volumes, there are no extras on the DVDs. Here’s a list of the episodes included on X-Men Volume 4.

Disc 1
49.Proteus (1)
50.Proteus (2)
51.Sanctuary (1)
52.Sanctuary (2)
53.Beyond Good and Evil (1)
54.Beyond Good and Evil (2)
55.Beyond Good and Evil (3)
56.Beyond Good and Evil (4)

Disc 2
57.Have Yourself A Morlock Little Christmas
58.The Lotus and the Steel
59.Love in Vain
60.Secrets, Not Long Buried
61.Xavier Remembers
62.Family Ties