September 19, 2009

Comic book heroes and villains return to your living room this week in a big way. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, X-Men Origins and now the next addition to my Marvel library, the Marvel Comic Book Collection: X-Men, Volume 3 (2-Disc) hits stores. Starting off once more at the end of the last volume we take a trip back down memory lane with a return to the Savage Lands. Sauran is up to no good and an even more troublesome presence is upon the X-Men.

A few of my favorite episodes are “Weapon X, Lies, and Video Tapes” and “Nightcrawler.” Wolverine must confront memories that are coming to the surface and is reunited with old friends and an old enemy in “Weapon X, Lies, and Video Tapes”. The Weapons X Project has always been one of my favorites over the years. Several cool characters came out of that story arc including the mercenary Deadpool who you don’t see. In “Nightcrawler” we meet the amazing Kurt Wagner for the first time. This misunderstood “devil” faces adversity from his land and from within the sanctuary that he has taken.

The best part however is the 4-part “Dark Phoenix Saga.” Jean Grey is loosing the battle over her mind with the desire hungry Phoenix. It is up to the X-Men to stop her as well as The Inner Circle. This band of timepiece mutants with the aid of Emma Frost tries to control the Dark Phoenix, but with little avail. This saga is also where we meet the mutant singer known as Dazzler.

Filmmaking: 8
The Marvel Comic Book Collection: X-Men, Volume 3 (2-Disc) DVD set brings back all the memories and the cool factor that I remember. I was a big fan of the show when I was younger and nothing has changed that. The carefully picked material that was chosen from the actual comic books is what made this show so good.

Visuals: 9
The X-Men TV series was done in a time when Widescreen just wasn’t an option so you’ll be watching all the action in 1.33:1 full screen ratio. The show has aged well and has transferred well to DVD. I remember when you could get these episodes on VHS so having them in DVD form is so much cooler. The colors are just as I remember them and show no loss of quality at all.

Sound: 8
The sounds of the episodes are quite good and are presented in Dolby Digital Surround Sound with French and Spanish Language tracks available. The voice acting for the X-Men is still amazing after all these years. They picked an excellent cast and it shows.

Value: 7
The Marvel Comic Book Collection: X-Men, Volume 3 (2-Disc) set features 16 episodes of the one and only X-men TV series from the 1990s. There are no special features to be had in this DVD set so the value section does take a hit. But on the plus side this first volume retails for around $16-18 dollars at most stores so you can have this set for pretty much a dollar an episode give or take. Not to shabby and it’s a must buy for any fan of the X-Men.

Overall: 8.5
Overall, The Marvel Comic Book Collection: X-Men, Volume 3 (2-Disc) set is entertaining and fun to watch. I’ve been waiting for them to start releasing this series for a long time and at long last I’m getting my wish. In small Volume sized packages mind you but still its awesome to see them again. The action is good, the voice actors are the best and I wouldn’t have the X-Men any other way. I highly recommend picking up this DVD as soon as possible. You won’t regret it.