"X Marks the Spot"
Episodes Included: "Turn of the Rogue"; "Spykecam"; "Survival of the Fittest"
Month Released: September 2003
Average Price: $10 (U.S.)
DVD Extras: Episode Introductions with Boyd Kirkland; Tales of the X-Men; and an X-Men: Evolution Trailer
Packaging: The art on the front of the DVD case this time around is... decent, but I'm not going to go any farther than that. Basically, it shows Wolverine and Cyclops about to face Sabretooth downtown. The colors and shading are excellent, but some of the proportions are off slightly, and Wolverine's in a rather odd pose. Still, it's rather eye-catching. The back of the DVD shows the episodes contained, a few screen caps, and a short description of the basic premise behind Evolution and the episodes contained. Not TOO corny, although not something I'd certainly praise as awesome. The DVD itself inside contains a pic of Mystique (in her Season 1 costume, of course). Overall, not too bad.
Episode Introductions with Boyd Kirkland: The intros to the episodes on this disc are pretty nice- and somewhat lengthy for introductions, averaging about two minutes each. The intro for "Turn of the Rogue" covers quite a lot. Namely, it talks about Rogue herself, her personality, the first confrontation between Magneto and Xavier, why Mystique can morph into animals in this series (since she couldn't in the comics), and the whole "Should I use my powers in the open or keep them undercover?" question. The intro for "Spykecam" actually doesn't talk about Spyke at all, which I found kinda funny. It talks about the idea behind the daily life of the X-Men, and the increased focus on Sabretooth in this episode. It also mentions what the writers thought was the best part of the episode- Kitty "teaching" Rogue how to dance- and how the writers "broke their own rulebook" a bit by having Rogue take on Sabretooth's physicality when she touched him near the end. In the intro for "Survival of the Fittest", the writers talk about why they think this ep is a fan favorite- namely, the introduction of Juggernaut, who was always a popular character, and the teaming up of the X-Men and the Brotherhood for the first time. They also spend a little bit of time talking about all the different security measures Mystique had to bypass in the beginning.
Tales of the X-Men: The main extra on this DVD is a little less than six minutes long, and chiefly focuses on the process behind how the stories are written and put together. Some really nice insight is given into the main premise behind the series, and we even get a little bit of comment from some of the voice actors- namely, Neil Denis (Spyke), Scott McNeil (Wolverine), Meghan Black (Rogue), and Michael Dobson (Blob). Also mentioned are the main arcs of Season 1 (Rogue and Magneto), as well as what stories are pitched around, their structure (A and B stories), and the teen aspect of the series.
X-Men: Evolution Trailer: This "trailer", which is on all the Season One DVDs, isn't really a trailer at all- it's just a commercial that was aired on TV that advertised the Season One DVDs, which is pretty pointless, since you already HAVE the DVD anyways. Lame.
Last Words: With the exception of the X-Men: Evolution trailer, this is a pretty nice DVD- pretty solid extras that give you a good insight to the effort that goes into each episode, and two out of the three episodes included on this DVD are pretty good to boot. Although I do wish that the DVD contained more than just three eps, at least it's pretty cheap at $10. I'd recommend it to any enthusiastic X-Men: Evolution fan.
Overall Rating: 8/10 Great