There are many different entries I could make on this particular topic, focusing on the comics, the movies, the characters, or a little bit of it all. For the purposes of this Flashback, however, I just want to focus on the Saturday morning cartoon that ran from 1992 to 1997.
Actually, all I really want to focus on is the theme song from the cartoon, which was another of the themes discussed during the podcast mentioned in my last Flashback. Of all the cartoon themes from my adolescence, this is definitely on my list of Top Ten Favorites:
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/wZAhqEiq4cA
Not only did I love the theme, I adored the cartoon. It was 30 minutes of awesome every Saturday morning at 11 (I always suspected that Fox aired the cartoon so late in the morning because it was geared more toward teens than younger children…and we sure could sleep late when we were teens, eh?). This was also my gateway into the wide wonderful world, not just of this merry band of mutants, but of comics in general. This cartoon made me see comics as something more than silly drawings. The shows were smart and relevant, the characters believable (for the most part) and flawed and provocative, giving me a glimpse of how comics and cartoons had the potential to be something deeper, something greater. They could be full of social commentary, challenging notions, incendiary thoughts…hidden within the line art and primary colors of a cartoon world.
Funny how a half hour Saturday morning cartoon could open up such possibility, especially considering the fact that the show aired during the insouciance of my adolescent years.
Also, these were the character iterations of many of the primary X-Men I first met and, ultimately, the iterations with whom I fell madly, truly, deeply in love. No matter how different they now look, or even how different they looked in this cartoon from their original versions, whenever I think of these particular X-Men, I envision them just as they appeared in this cartoon…massive shoulder pads, yellow spandex, and all.
Maybe at some other point, I’ll say more on the X-Men. For now, though, I’m just going to leave this metal guitar version of the theme song right here, for your enjoyment. Rock on, my mutants. Rock on.
