Well, it’s finally upon us. The last building block in that nostalgic trip known as “X-Men: The Animated Series”. Volume Five has been released, and it calls to an end a series that defined Marvel’s Mutants for any child who grew up in the early ’90′s. That gruff voice Wolverine sports became a staple of his character (especially considering how terrible “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends” butchered the voice,) Cedric Smith practically paved the way for Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, and you get the idea. This era was a solid time for animated comic book series’, with the only show of that ilk being better was “Batman: The Animated Series”. Perhaps it’s fitting both are similarly suffering the same cinematic fate, no?

That’s another discussion for another day, but let’s talk about the quality of these episodes. Truthfully, this was during the series’ latter years and villains began to be recycled, and they even paved the way for WWE’s “Monday Night RAW” with the way they would bring on guest characters. It was a gimmicky attempt to spark new life into the series, which partially worked in the case of Captain America and Longshot, and only slightly in the case of Longshot. The show began to suffer from muddled stories and just an overall blandness it could never escape, even with the new gimmick.

Thankfully though, while things may have regressed, the show never went from decent to terrible and always remained at a certain quality (something that can’t be said for ol’ Web-head’s turn in the animated world) and, chief above all, continued to remain true to Marvel lore. It may not be perfect, nor is it the crowning achievement of the series, but Volume Five is still culturally important to a point and nostalgically important all the time. Any die-hard X-Fan is going to buy this, and for those who wanted to see where Homo-superior picked up it’s identity, it’s worth a watch.

6 out of 10

The Video

Well, it looks better, but that’s not really saying too much. The other volumes didn’t overwhelm (nor was the expectation that they would,) but this appears to be the cleanest of the bunch with the flaws really kept to a minimum. It comes int the 4:3 “fool” screen aspect ratio, but that was also expected.

7 out of 10

The Audio

Are you going to demo this disc when compared to the Avatar Blu-ray? No, but this is a relative step-up from what came before. Dialogue appeared cleaner, effects played much smoother, and none of the audio flaws like scratching cropped up here. As stated, it’s not mind-blowing, but it’s a good track and at the end, that’s all that matters.

7 out of 10

Packaging and Extras

It’s a two-discer that comes in the standard black amaray case housed in a cardboard slipsleeve. Happy? Well good because that’s the closest thing to an extra you get!

0 out of 10

Overall

The final leg of the “X-Men: The Animated Series” leg as made it’s presence known, and like any formidable classic rock band, it’s nice to see the old tunes while relishing in what a splash it’s made in pop culture. Even if you are watching the band perform ‘The Division Bell’ (as is the case with this Volume Five,) one can’t help but still get entranced by how much care and effort was lauded into this franchise. X-Fans, Marvel fans, and newcomers alike; own it. Love it.

DVD Overall Rating – 6 out of 10