Pryde of the X-Men
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Episode Guide:
Episode 1: Pryde of the X-Men
Air Date: September 16th, 1989
Writer(s): Larry Parr
Synopsis:
This series introduced the world to Marvel’s X-Men in cartoon form. With an opening introduction voice-over performed by Stan Lee himself we are introduced to the world of Mutants. Some, which use their mutant powers for good, like the X-men, and others, like the Terrorist Mutants who instead plan to destroy the human race.
The Terrorist Mutants are led by Magneto who breaks out of containment early in the episode to lead his group against the X-Men. The Terrorist Mutants in this series consists of, Magneto, White Queen, Juggernaut, Pyro, Toad and Blob.
The X-Men who make appearances here are, Professor Xavier, Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Dazzler, Nightcrawler and the new recruit, Kitty Pryde. We see Kitty Pryde introduced to the X-Men and their facilities early on as she tries to cope with her new found identity as well as her super power, which is that she can phase through solid matter.
The Terrorist Mutants wage efforts on multiple fronts, effectively splitting up the X-Men. Blob and Pyro go on a mission to obtain tracking coordinates for a comet that is near Earth while Juggernaut and Magneto break into X-Mansion to steal Cerebro (Xavier’s mutant tracking device). Xavier uses his superpower of reading people’s minds to learn of Magneto’s plan and what ensues is a race to save Earth from the incoming comet.
The mission allows us to see some isolated encounters between the rival mutants. Storm covers the breach the X-Men blow into Asteroid M, Dazzler takes on Pyro, Wolverine traps Toad, Colossus battles Juggernaut, and Cyclops confronts White Queen. That leaves Nightcrawler to face-off against Magneto.
Kitty Pryde, secretly stows away on the mission and in the end, saves the day by catching Magneto by surprise and using his power to re-direct the Coment. Nightcrawler serves a crucial role in the mission that seemingly costs him his life. In the end, however he is able to teleport out of danger just in the knick of time.
Setting up what was suppose to be a longer series, we are reminded at the end by Wolverine that Kitty Pryde has much training and learning to do before she could ever be, an X-Men.
Grade: 3/5
