Wolverine and the X-Men

Sniktbub and some other guys.

Wolverine and the X-Men is the newest Animated Adaptation of the X-Men franchise, premiering in America sometime in 2009 and everywhere else in the world mid-2008.

The show begins with the destruction of the Xavier Institute, and Professor Xavier and Jean Grey missing, apparently dead. A distraught Cyclops disbands the team, and everyone heads in their own directions. After a run-in with some token anti-mutant villains, Wolverine decides the X-Men must be reassembled, and begins locating the missing members.

As the title may have told you, this show heavily focuses on Wolverine, even becoming the leader of the X-Men. Other characters do suffer from the switch in focus: Cyclops is pretty much a wreck after he loses Jean, Storm doesn't do much of anything after her introduction, and the Professor spends most of his time as a psychic vision. That said, there were more than enough A Day in the Limelight episodes to prevent things from being too repetitive, and the show explores the "Days Of Future Past" and "Genosha as Mutant Refuge" concepts in more depth than any other adaptation. Forge and Emma Frost are made part of the main cast for the first time.

Despite early reports of plans for Season 2, it was canceled after just one season, joining The Spectacular Spider-Man, which was canceled not too long before.

Tropes used in Wolverine and the X-Men include:
  • Abandoned Warehouse: In the second episode, Avalanche levels an entire street of what the news conveniently announces as "empty warehouses".
  • After the End: the Bad Future Xavier is stuck in and the rest of the X-men are trying to prevent
  • Air Vent Passageway: Averted and even lampshaded in Thieves Gambit, when Logan and Remy are sneaking into Bolivar Trask's warehouse.

Wolverine: What now? Airducts?
Gambit: Only in the world of cinema. In real life, they never hold.

Wolverine: Oh, you gotta be kidding me, Fury. Mystical curse my a- * violently grabbed by Hulk*

  • Dark Is Evil: The Shadow King.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Nightcrawler, as always.
  • Dark-Skinned Blond White-Haired Pretty Girl: Storm.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: When introduced, Emma acts pretty much like anyone familiar with the comics would expect. Compare that Emma with the one we see in the end. Hoo boy.
  • Demonic Possession: The Shadow King.
  • Demoted to Extra: Storm. Yes, Storm is shoved in the background to give Wolvie a bigger role. In fact, there's no real reason for her presence at all: she doesn't factor into any of the storylines, and the episode where she rejoins the team has nothing to do with the overall plot. It's possible that the writers only threw her in because viewers are used to seeing her.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Dust, namely she's the dirt.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Apparently, one of the longest sentences in Genosha's prison is for people who kiss Lorna.
  • Ditzy Genius. Forge, and how.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Hmmm, Tamara Evans voices a shape-shifting villainess who's secretly in love with the show's male protagonist. Or at least the man he used to be.
  • Downer Ending: Due to Executive Meddling.
  • Empathy Doll Shot: A scene of two children running from Sentinels, and one dropping a teddy bear is in the opening theme.
  • Face Heel Turn: Rogue, after an apparent Reverse Mole. Though ultimately revealed to be a double-Reverse Mole.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: Some episodes used lasers, though in episode 18 the Brotherhood are attacked with firearms that resemble, and sound like, real life weaponry. The trope is immediately played straight again though, as Toad is caught in a net. However, when you think about it this makes more sense as the MRD's purpose is mainly to capture and not to kill. Despite this, Quicksilver is able to scavenge a handgun and use it to cause a Sentinel to fall down to its destruction.
  • Fastball Special: However, because Colossus has hardly appeared, some interesting variations (like Wolverine being thrown by the Blob or propelled by one of Cyclops' laser blasts) have occurred instead.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: Rover, a reprogrammed Sentinel. Although he's pretty nice to his True Companions, and Marrow especially becomes very attached to him.
  • Gambit Pileup: Let's see: Kelly's working an angle, Magneto's working an angle against him, the Inner Circle is working the X-Men, Xavier's working the X-Men too, and then there are people like Sinister and Weapon X, who were planning for the season 2 that never happened.
  • Genghis Gambit: Magneto plans to have Genosha razed by Sentinels as a pretext to rally all of mutantkind to a war with humanity.
  • Genius Bruiser: Beast, as usual.
  • Goth: Domino's fashion style. She rocks the look.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: One episode featured Nightcrawler teaching a groups of mutants with "useless" powers this.
  • Hello, Nurse!: Emma Frost. Her introduction into the series has practically every male at the X-Mansion (aside from Wolverine and Beast) gawking over her.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Emma Frost. Had the second series happened, she would apparently have returned.
  • Heel Face Turn: Semi-used. Mid-season, Rogue reveals that she only joined the Brotherhood in order to infiltrate them, because she learned some unpleasant things from Toad's mind. And while Emma may not have been working for the X-Men per-se, her goals were always good (stop the Phoenix). It's the Inner Circle who had a Face Heel Turn when they decided to use the Phoenix as a tool for their own power.
  • Heel Realization: Warren Worthington II has this epiphany right after he loses what he truly cared about most due to his own actions.
  • Hulk Speak: The Hulk in his guest appearance, naturally.
  • Hypocrite: Wolverine chews out Cyclops for running off by himself to hunt for the missing Jean Grey amongst the cronies of Sinister and then the bad man himself instead of working with the team, and then goes off and does the exact same thing in the next episode! This is repeatedly lampshaded, though, and Rogue straight up calls him out on it repeatedly.
  • Instant Expert: Rogue, but just temporary.
  • In the Blood: Commented on by Gambit when he steals Magneto's helmet and break's Polaris's heart (well, kinda) by revealing he was leaving without her. This, understandably, pisses off Polaris and she uses her powers to take back Magneto's helmet and almost sinks Gambit's boat.

Gambit: Of course, she has her daddy's powers... and her sister's temper.

  • Intangible Man: Shadowcat.
  • Jumped At the Call: Iceman and Shadowcat; literally, in Shadowcat's case.
  • Kick the Dog: Selene revealing that Emma is the one who accidentally caused the explosion that broke up the team, and then stole Xavier's body so that she could plant it on Genosha and buy her way onto the team. All while Emma begs her not to say it. Plus, Selene is clearly enjoying it.)
  • Killer Robot: Sentinels.
  • Knight Templar: Magneto. In order to let mutants roam free, he plans to have millions of mutants and humans alike killed.
  • La Résistance
  • Laser-Guided Karma: In "Hindsight", a camper calls MRD about Wolverine, and then rats out on his neighbors just for showing kindness to him for saving their daughter. His RV ends up getting smashed by a MRD helicopter, thanks to Wolverine.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: The X-Men cast is large enough that some of them don't actually get anything to do. The series throws in villains and secondary characters so often that few of them get any buildup or development, even some characters that are important to the plot aren't introduced until the very last minute (such as the Inner Circle, who don't appear until the last three-parter), or appear to have monumental importance for a single episode before being relegated to extras (Tildie).
  • Love Redeems: Emma Frost falls for Cyclops hard; as mentioned elsewhere, standard rules apply.
  • Love Triangle: Wolverine/Jean Grey/Cyclops and Emma Frost/Cyclops/Jean Grey.
  • Man Behind the Man: Apocalypse to Sinister, though if you're familiar with many other versions you probably guessed that.
  • Meanwhile in the Future: Taken to a very, very, ridiculous degree. What happens in the past directly affects the future in real time. Even worse when you realize that the future affected the present that affects the future.
  • Mechanical Evolution: The future Sentinels begin copying the powers of captured mutants.
  • Mind Control Eyes: Lampshaded. Scarlet Witch can't believe Nightcrawler is serious when he states that Wolverine is no longer under Mojo's control because of a change in his eyes.
  • The Mole: Emma Frost. After accidentally causing the explosion at the Xavier Institute, she stole Xavier's body so that she could buy her way onto the team and eventually have another chance to find Jean. Or more precisely, the Phoenix. Though she did have good intentions...
  • Mood Motif: The music from the three movies is threaded throughout the show's theme music.
  • Most Common Superpower: When those costumes come complete with plunging necklines, makes no sense for most of the women to NOT be blessed up top.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Emma Frost, whose costume design has gone completely unchanged from one of her comic looks. And considering how she usually dresses... they sure were lucky for being able to do so.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • A lot of background mutants are cult favourites such as Dazzler; Wolverine wearing his silly original costume in the flashback in Wolverine vs The Hulk.
    • The number of mutant cameos is frankly ridiculous(ly awesome). Seriously, there was a whole action sequence in one episode that was just dealing with Fever Pitch.
    • And when the Marauders Blockbuster and Vertigo are first seen, they're harassing the Morlock Berserker, in reference to their part in the infamous Morlock Massacre storyline.
  • Never Say "Die": Averted with a few uses of the word "kill", but most notably when in episode 17 when the theme is a duel to the death between Logan and the Silver Samurai. Other instances Kurt and Wanda run from a mind controlled Wolverine and when Logan and Beast try getting Bobby to rejoin. In episode 16 Polaris in the bad future explicitly refers to Magneto as dead, and we almost see the firewave rush over him and burn him to death. This trope can pretty much be considered averted.
  • Not as You Know Them: Not as prevalent as one would expect. Besides Cyclops and Wolverine's role swap, and Storm's Demoted to Extra, the rest of the cast is pretty much spot-on.
    • Depending on which media you were introduced to them. Rogue and Kitty seem to be movie versions, Emma is the comics version, Forge is no version we've ever seen, Poalris is a Daddy's Girl, etc.
  • Oblivious to Love: Nightcrawler seems to have no idea just how badly Scarlet Witch is into him.
  • Oh Crap: Nightcrawler's reaction to Mojo sending a brainwashed Wolverinie after him and Wanda. "Oh, dang."
  • Overprotective Dad: Magneto, but only to Lorna.
  • Parental Substitute: Rogue thinks of Logan as this. Or at least, as an absentee-version of it, since he keeps leaving for days or weeks at a time.
  • The Phoenix: As a motif.
  • Pokémon-Speak: Rover, a Sentinel that Polaris built out of scrap, only says the word "Destroy".
  • Power Strain Blackout: Christy faints after using her powers to save Wolverine and her father.
  • Rebellious Princess: Polaris.
  • Recursive Adaptation: The Ultimate Marvel, Movie, and X-Men: Evolution versions of many characters seem to have more influence on their portrayal here than the mainstream Marvel Universe characterizations.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Poor Emma Frost...
  • Reverse Mole: Played with. Initially, Rogue looks like this in Hindsight Part 2. She pretends to join the Brotherhood, but is working with the X-Men against them. But this is all a ploy. She's really working with the Brotherhood to use the X-Men to help push the anti-mutant agenda, thus justifying further anti-human activities by the Brotherhood and pushing along the path to war.
    • Later, in Battle Lines, Rogue reveals that all of that was part of her plan; she was on the X-Men's side all along. She read some disturbing things from Toad's mind, so she decided to hook up with them to keep an eye on them. She even tried to tell the X-Men about it once in a prior episode, but Logan wasn't there, which pissed her off enough to not bother.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Xavier seems to have it. Or does he? As a telepath in contact with people from the past he can read from their minds what he told them to avert, even when it no longer happened.
  • Robot Buddy: Rover.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: Jean Grey in the first episode. At least, that's what they wanted us to believe.
  • Say My Name: Cyclops: SINISTER!!!!!!!!
  • Screwed by the Network
    • What makes this infuriating is the fact that Nicktoons Network often advertises marathons of the show,which makes one wonder why they even canceled it in the first place if it was apparently so popular.
      • It was probably that pesky habit that anyone associated with making a show tends to have: demanding payment for services rendered.
        • Maybe the fact Disney bought Marvel has something to do with it? The show is based on characters belonging to a direct competitor!
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Prof X sends them messages from the Bad Future, in the hope they can stop it.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Nightcrawler says this about the Scarlet Witch. She is visibly sad.
  • Ship Tease: Angel and Storm. We only get to see it in one episode, though, thanks to the show's cancelation. And it's the episode where Angel is brainwashed and turned into Archangel, no less.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Logan calls Hank Chewie in the first episode.
    • In the episode that focuses on Jean, there is a scene where Bobby Drake (Iceman) is clearly playing a Real Life Iron Man game. More specifically, the main console game based on the first film.
  • Spider Tank: The Sentinel Prowler.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Title: Wolverine and the X-Men. You might not notice the second part at first on some posters.
  • Sunglasses at Night: Cyclops, as usual, to contain his otherwise-uncontrollable mutant powers.
  • Supporting Leader: In the future it's Xavier, but in the present Magneto (oddly enough) cites Nightcrawler as one of these characters. One episode shows that he actually does have fantastic leadership skills and his time with the X-Men has made him well-respected in the mutant community.
  • Teleportation Sickness: In "Hunting Grounds", the Scarlet Witch when Nightcrawler teleports both of them repeatedly.
  • This Is Reality: See Air Vent Passageway above.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: The way time changes in the future from the present.
  • Token Good Teammate: Domino, to the Brotherhood.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Nightcrawler is decidedly more badass than he appears in other adaptations.
  • Took a Level In Dumbass: Quicksilver, as noted below.
  • Too Dumb to Live; Oh sure Inner Circle go ahead and try to probe Phoniex's mind without Emma Frost, the one who know what she's doing. I'm sure nothing will go wrong.
  • Trojan Prisoner: Gambit is able to get onto Genosha by admitting that Senator Kelly sent him there to steal Magneto's helmet. Turns out he's actually there to cripple their infrastructure and leave them open to invasion.
  • Undying Loyalty: Toad stands by the Brotherhood, no matter what. Even during the aforementioned battle with the Sentinels, he stayed with them.
  • The Unfavourite: Magneto makes it very clear which of his three children he has the least regard for. It's Quicksilver.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Despite his best efforts, Quicksilver can never get daddy to cut him any slack, or even recognize he might be useful at anything. To be fair though, he is a complete idiot.
    • Though he does manage to set up the X-Men in a clever fashion in the second episode of the three part Series pilot.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Despite what she had done, Emma was never evil at all, and she was far from what you could call a villain. Everything she had done was in order to save the world from the Phoenix Force. Too bad the rest of the Hellfire Club has other plans...
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Subverted in the episode where Nightcrawler saves a sinking ship with help from a bunch of mutants with marginal-seeming powers.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Quicksilver.
  • Window Pain: Cyclops puts Wolverine out, forcibly, via optic blasts, through a window in Episode 2.
  • Wolverine Publicity: The title and the posters show him prominently.
  • The Worf Effect:
    • Juggernaut only makes two appearances in the series. In the first he was clobbered to demonstrate how powerful another character was. His second sequence is barely a cameo, where he escapes entirely off-screen. He doesn't even get to say a word. Commented upon in his first appearance when he gets launched halfway across a city and knocked out cold.

Kitty Pryde: Juggernaut? As in, "The Unstoppable Juggernaut?" What could do that to him?
Cue giant monster.
Kitty Pryde: Never mind.

    • Wolverine, despite having his name in the title, is not slacking on his indestructible punching bag duties. Against anyone with a name he either loses, stalemates, or gets a beatdown before winning. The hazards of having blades as your main offense when you aren't allowed to cut anyone.
  • You're Insane!: Scott to Sinister in Shades of Grey.
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