The familiar debate, which is better, X-Men the Animated Series or X-Men the Fox Movie Universe
In today's episode, we'll let the facts do the talking and come out with a clear winner
It's going to be a bloodbath. This is Versus, a head-to-head competition in order to answer the age-old question
who's the best? Let's rumble. In case you're unfamiliar, the X-Men were created in the 60s by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
but didn't really find their stride until Chris Claremont and an army of artists like Dave Cockrum
John Byron and Jim Lee propelled them into a global phenomenon. Eventually, they landed their own animated TV series and feature film franchise
which is exactly what we're going to be debating today. Which is better
Category 1, Money. This one isn't even close. The show lasted five years and 76 episodes
The movies lasted almost 20 and 13 feature films. Any guess what the ballpark number of the Fox movies took home in terms of money
One billion? Two billion? Four billion? You'd be off. It's generated $6.067 billion in box office results for Fox
So, you know, not even remotely close to the admittedly very impressive results of XTAS
Because it made millions of dollars in toy and ad revenue. But that's just simply nowhere near close to $6 billion
6 out of 10 XTAS. 10 out of 10 Fox movies. Winner, Fox movies
Category 2. Number of successful direct comic story adaptations. First airing in 1992 and running until 1997
X-Men the animated series lasted for 76 episodes and sparked a massive cultural interest in
the merry mutants during the 1990s. The same could be said of Fox's live action franchise, which ran for close to 20 years
produced 13 films, and raked in literal billions of dollars. However the question isn fiscal success It a question of literal and direct adaptations from X stories to the screen The Fox movies only really did two and a half adaptations of actual stories from the comics
Dark Phoenix, Days of Future Past, and God Loves Man Kills. And very loose adaptations of the Wolverine miniseries for The Wolverine
and Old Man Logan for Logan. Which honestly, none of them really work as adaptations
Most of them make semi-okay to pretty good movies. But as adaptations, they're not very strong
But in terms of actual adaptations, I'm sorry, seeing Silver Samurai done that dirty still hurts
The animated series had direct adaptations of the Apocalypse storyline. The Final Decision, Sanctuary, Weapon X, The Phalanx Covenant, Days of Future Past, and Dark Phoenix Saga
You just can't compete, Fox. You just can't. 7 of 10 XTAS, 4 out of 10 Fox
Winner, XTAS, Category 3, Gateway Drug. Everyone finds their path into a massive, sprawling fanbase like the X-Men in their own way
It's so large and maze-like it can be hard to find your place or just get your bearings
So, which of these two juggernauts conscripted more people to be fans of the franchise as a whole
Let's examine. The movies definitely exposed X-Men to more people. However, the animated show basically convinced an entire generation that the X-Men were cool
The animated show also worked in tandem with the speculator bubble to balloon the X-Men comic sales to still-yet-untouched heights
Jim Lee's Adjective List No. 1 sold 8.18 million copies, and Rob Lieflitz's X-Force No. 1 sold 5 million copies
Frankly, it depends on how you catalog it. The movies made the X-Men a globally recognized brand
but that didn't flow back into the comics or the toys or the video games like XTAS did
XTAS was a conveyor belt right into the middle of fandom. An entire generation fell deeply in love with the X because of the animated show existence so honestly it a tie 8 out of 10 XTAS 8 out of 10 Fox Winner tie
Category 4, toys. Let's call a Senator Kelly a Senator Kelly. A lot of the toys for movies and shows from the 90s and 2000s sucked
But with X-Men the movie, you're pretty much getting the bottom of the barrel. The XTAS, that s*** ruled
Yeah, their anatomy is a little chunky. And yeah, their faces are a little weird sometimes
But overall, they're way better quality-wise. Plus, the animated show had toy lines that included deep-cut characters like Fitzroy
Forearm, and Maverick. You didn't get no Maverick in the movie toys. You just got weird, puffy Wolverine
4 of 10 movies, 6 of 10 XTAS. Winner, XTAS. Category 5, Wolverine overdosing
Wolverines, Wolverines, Wolverines everywhere, but not a drop of Cyclops. We all know that Slim got the short end of the stick in the movies
But they also just quadrupled down on the Wolverine in the movies. And honestly, in the show, too
He was everywhere. Like, Wolverine was everywhere in the 90s and 2000s
Some of it was great. Laniel Francis Yu, Jim Lee, Marvel vs. Capcom, all great Wolverines
Wolverine from X-Men Origins Wolverine? Not so much. Basically, he was just omnipresent in both versions of the X-Men
But which version of him was the most overdone? While considering Days of Future Past was rewritten completely so that Wolverine could be sent back in time
I think you know the answer, bub. 7 out of 10 XTAS. 10 out of 10 Fox Movies
Winner. Fox Movies. Category 6. Theme song. The theme song for XTAS was created by Aime Saban and Shuki Levy
And it's undoubtedly the most iconic and well-remembered aspect of the show. Coupled with intro cards of all the primary X it set the tone and vibe for the show As far as the score for the live movie goes yeah it good Written by Michael Kamen of Iron Giant Frequency and Band of Brothers fame it has a classic timeless feel to it
However, it's not anywhere in the league of the perfect metonymy that the XTAS theme song is
XTS all the way. 9 out of 10 XTAS. 7 out of 10 Fox movies
Winner, XTAS. Category 7. Least cringy tie-in comics. Let's just put it this way
The X-Men movie adaptation comic is one of the most hated comics ever, and if that wasn't bad enough
Then you had the X-Men the movie comic that came with the X-Men the movie trading card game
which showcased a bunch of D-list X-Men villains in the movie-accurate would-be black leather
At least the cover to this issue was done by Art Adams. It's the small things in life, isn't it
Across the aisle, we have the X-Men Adventures comics, which were the X-Men comics made to tie into the success of the show
But they didn't actually look like the show. They just looked like cheap knockoffs of the actual X-Men comics
They're not horrible, just kind of bland and tasteless. They're like the graham crackers of X-Men comics
which is distinctly better than weirdo comic within a TCG starter set within a marketing push gimmick Fox was rocking with
3 of 10 XTAS. 1 out of 10 Fox movie. Winner, XTAS
So there you have it. We've covered the age-old debate from the usual perspectives
like money, weirdness of Senator Kelly toys, and tie-in merch, and then some of the more off-the-beaten-path points of view
like Wolverine overdosing and quotients of Mavericks per Senator Kelly's. It's very delicate math
Speaking of math, if you've been paying attention, you'll be aware that we have come to a final, concrete
and definitely not subjective decision regarding the topic of the day. Who wins in a head-to-head matchup
X-Men The Animated Series or X-Men The Fox Movies? And the answer is X-Men The Animated Series