All 5 X-Men Animated Shows, Ranked

The X-Men, Marvel’s iconic team of mutants, have appeared in multiple animated incarnations over the decades. Since their comic book debut in 1963, the X-Men evolved into an allegory for marginalized groups facing prejudice and discrimination, helping the franchise endure as one of Marvel’s most popular properties. While the superhero team has also found major success in live action on the big screen, some of their greatest screen adaptations were made for television.

To date, every full TV series centered on the X-Men themselves has been animated. The franchise’s only live-action TV adaptations have been the spin-off shows “Legion” and “The Gifted,” both of which feature mutants outside the main X-Men’s roster. Though the team made sporadic cartoon appearances in prior decades, 1992’s “X-Men: The Animated Series” served as their true breakout on television, building a fanbase and legacy that continues today. Since then, four more series starring the X-Men have debuted, putting new spins on Marvel’s merry band of mutants.

In 2010, Marvel collaborated with Japanese anime studio Madhouse on an anthology of four anime series reimagining different Marvel characters. In 2011, the anthology’s third entry, “X-Men,” premiered.

The series sees the X-Men reassembling after disbanding following Jean Grey’s death while possessed by the Dark Phoenix. Over the course of the series’ 12 episodes, the team is sent on a mission to Japan to face the U-Men, a group harvesting mutants’ organs in an attempt to steal their powers. The anime also sees Emma Frost as an unlikely new addition to the X-Men’s ranks, and ends on the surprisingly upbeat note of a new era of peace between humans and mutantkind.

“Marvel Anime: X-Men” offered a fresh visual and tonal take on the franchise, but the series was hindered by sluggish pacing and several underdeveloped central characters. The use of the U-Men as the primary antagonists was also an odd choice. While they tied into the body horror themes more common in anime, they are relatively minor villains in the X-Men canon who have garnered little fan interest in the past and this adaptation did little to change that.

This 2009 series brought the X-Men back to the small screen in a punchy, action-heavy show aimed at a younger audience than the anime that would follow. Interestingly, the two series began with surprisingly similar premises. While “Marvel Anime: X-Men” sees the mutant team rebuild following Jean Grey’s death, “Wolverine and the X-Men” centers on Wolverine reuniting the X-Men after the disappearances of both Jean Grey and Charles Xavier. Emma Frost also joins the team as a new telepathic ally, much as she does in the anime series.

Though perhaps not as fully developed as earlier animated series, “Wolverine and the X-Men” was generally a hit with X-Men fans. Combining an overarching serialized storyline with “adventure of the week” standalone episodes, the series pulled from a wide range of X-Men and Marvel lore. The mutant nation of Genosha is shown under the control of Magneto; Nick Fury, SHIELD, and the Hulk all appear in one episode; and organizations such as the Mutant Response Division and the Hellfire Club — renamed the Inner Circle — play prominent roles.

Despite showing plenty of potential, “Wolverine and the X-Men” was canceled after just one season amid financing issues, leaving a promising story arc unfulfilled. The series’ choice to put Wolverine front and center also felt a little hollow, rooted in the character’s commercial appeal over any plot necessity.

Debuting in 2000, shortly after the release of the first X-Men movie, “X-Men: Evolution” updated Marvel’s mutant team for a new generation. The series focused on a younger team of X-Men who split their time between Xavier’s Institute and Bayville High. Xavier and the X-Men contend with Mystique and Magneto while attempting to guide young mutants toward peaceful coexistence with humans before they can fall under the influence of the Brotherhood of Mutants.

The series’ modern redesigns of the X-Men’s world and radical reimagining of its characters were a breath of fresh air after the 1990s’ long-running, more comics-faithful adaptation. The show featured major villains like Apocalypse and even the Scarlet Witch, now more commonly considered a hero thanks to the MCU. “X-Men: Evolution” also introduced new X-Man Spyke, a younger member of the team with the power to extend bone spikes out of his body. Spyke was one of several younger members of the team in this series, including a reimagined Nightcrawler, who was more energetic and less pious than previous incarnations of the character, using an image-inducer watch to hide his blue-skinned appearance behind a human disguise.

27 years after “X-Men: The Animated Series” concluded, the series received an all-new continuation on Disney+. “X-Men ’97” gave fans of the original series a hearty dose of nostalgia, bringing back much of the show’s classic roster and distinctive ’90s aesthetic. The first four episodes of “X-Men ’97” indulged wholeheartedly in joyful nostalgia, sending the team on colorful adventures reminiscent of the original series. Then, in the revival’s fifth episode, things took a darker turn.

A Sentinel attack at a mutant gala on Genosha saw several mutants massacred — among them, the X-Men’s own Gambit. From this point on, the series was set on a far more intense and tragic trajectory. The X-Men were pitted against the overwhelming efforts of the world’s most extreme anti-mutant groups, a new breed of human-machine hybrid Prime Sentinels, and a worldwide blackout caused by Magneto in a renewed effort to wage war on humanity.

“X-Men ’97” proved a wildly successful revival of the original “X-Men: The Animated Series,” delivering both campy fun and devastating drama. The new animation lacked some of the character and vibrancy of the original, and it is yet to be seen whether the series can endure without original showrunner Beau DeMayo, who was controversially fired by Marvel Studios. Thus far, though, “X-Men ’97” has proved a resounding success.

While the X-Men have enjoyed many successful TV and film adaptations, no adaptation is ever likely to touch the popularity of “X-Men: The Animated Series.” This classic debuted in 1992 with perhaps the catchiest theme song of any animated series. Though broadly faithful to the comics, the series carved out its own versions of beloved storylines and also reimagined a minor comic character into the mutant Morph. Initially believed to have been killed at the start of the first season, Morph was later revealed to be alive and under Mister Sinister’s control.

The series excelled in fleshing out every corner of the X-Men’s world, giving every major character at least one episode focused on their backstory. It also perfectly captured the complexity of Xavier’s and Magneto’s relationship as ideological rivals whose friendship endured beneath their conflict. The show faithfully adapted major X-Men villains like Mister Sinister, Apocalypse, Sauron and Omega Red, but where it truly excelled was in portraying anti-mutant hatred as the X-Men’s greatest threat. Groups like the Friends of Humanity, alongside figures like Bolivar Trask and Henry Peter Gyrich, embodied the fear and extremism at the heart of the franchise’s themes.

“X-Men: The Animated Series” successfully translated the franchise’s social themes, as well as delivering blockbuster-scale fantastical storylines, all in a format that was accessible and exciting for young audiences — and did a good enough job that fans’ love for the show stayed with them into adulthood.