But before Jean gets consumed by the entity known as The Phoenix and the X-Men go off into space, they have quite a few adventures back here on terra firma. The volume starts off with a pair of episodes that gives us some insights into Wolverine's past. The first, "Red Dawn," has an old nemesis of his, Omega Red, getting thawed out and deciding that the fall of the U.S.S.R. is not to his liking. The X-Men join forces with an old friend, Colossus, and also meet up with Darkstar in this episode. After that, Wolverine is asked to return to Canada but ends up getting caught in a trap by the people who infused his skeleton with Adamantium. In an attempt to free himself, Wolverine might have to go up against his old team, Alpha Flight, and their leader Vindicator.
But during these first two episodes, something strange is also happening. Professor Xavier has left the mansion and is flying to meet up with Magneto. What he doesn't realize is that both he and his old friend are being lured into a trap in a place known as The Savage Land, and The X-Men will expend quite a bit of effort trying to find him and make due without him until they finally meet up several episodes later in "The Reunion."
After Wolverine's episodes is a Gambit-centric one where the mutant-Cajun-thief has to return home in order to help his guild with some problems involving a former lover of his and his brother. Much to Rogue's dismay, the end result of this episode could end with Gambit being wedded to the leader of the Assassin's Guild (something his fellow thieves also find disturbing). But if he doesn't go through with the wedding, his brother, Bobby, could end up dead.
This is followed by the "Time Fugitives" two-parter where the changes that Bishop caused in "Days of Future Past" have unforeseen repercussions and Cable, a mutant from even further in the future, has to go back in time and keep Bishop from messing things up too badly. Interestingly enough, the first part of "Time Fugitives" has Cable running around watching Bishop do what he does and the second part has Cable in that time keeping those events from happening. I'm sure this helped the animators quite a bit since a lot of the same shots and sequences were used across both episodes.
Before the team is rejoined with Xavier, we get an episode that focuses on Rogue's past, one on Beast and we even get a new villain in Mojo. And during all of that, we get snippets of Xavier and Magneto working together trying to stay alive in a land where their mutant abilities are gone and Xavier can walk again. And it is here where the X-Men find their teacher and see how well they can fight when they don't have their mutant powers at their disposal.
Season 3 kicks off with a bang and a series of events that lead into one of the biggest sagas of The X-Men Universe. When an old flame of Wolverine's discovers a spaceship hidden by the Morlocks, she finds that the only way to get into it is to have her former lover and now hated enemy break into the ship. Unfortunately, this action releases a monster that consumes life forces and traps them within it. As the characters drop like flies (including Jubilee), The X-Men have to find some way to stop it without killing the people trapped inside.
It is this alien ship that reveals to Xavier a battle that is happening in space and that someone is calling to him for help. When he sends The X-Men in space, they are confronted by a massive empire bent on finding the M'Krann Crystal and when it is in danger, its guardian, The Phoenix, comes alive and possesses Jean. Jean, now called Phoenix, must work with The X-Men to repair the crystal before all the Universe is sucked in and they must put the rightful ruler in charge of the Shi'ar Empire. Obviously, this is a condensed summary of the saga's five episodes, and I didn't even mention the group of space-pirates known as The Starjammers, who are apparently led by Cyclops's father, but suffice it to say this is a major and pivotal portion of the entire X-Men animated series.
Like with Volume 1 this series is a must buy for anyone with a remote interest in the X-Men. While it isn't really required to have seen the shows in the first volume to know what is going on here, it is nice since quite a few villains from that DVD set re-appear.
Clips
SwamplandSinister
