"X-Men: Days of Future Past" Week - Your ideal roster for a new cartoon?

[Stu]

To celebrate the release of X-Men: Days Of Future Past to theaters his week - opening Friday, May 24th, 2014 - both The Marvel Animation Forum and the Comic Book Culture forum will be hosting a week of special topics spotlighting our favorite time-traveling mutants. Check back every day this for a new X-Men-themed discussion thread!

Whenever a new superhero team cartoon is announced, discussion tends to erupt! Fans will inevitably discuss amongst themselves which of their favorite characters will make it onto the roster, who will suffice as guest stars, and who will wind up as a silent cameo appearance (doomed to obscurity forevermore).

So, if Marvel announced a new X-Men cartoon tomorrow, who would you like to see included on the roster?

 

[Medinnus]

What roster depends (for me) entirely on the theme of the new series - I'd like to see an X-Men show in similar style to Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, starting at the beginning, hitting the salient points of the X-Men history, while also updating it for the modern era (much like the way AEMH combined Zemo father and son into one Zemo). Maybe run classic X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel, and Iceman to start, progressing along through the Magneto/brotherhood days, and culminating Season One with Krakatoa and the formal introduction of the second generation of X-men.

 

[Frontier]

Huh... I guess ideally I'd want a roster that has mainstays but at the same time includes some fresh members that haven't had the spotlight in animation yet. Like maybe some of the New Mutants, or characters such as Pixie and Armor for more diversity/gender balance.

It'd be nice to have Colossus on the team, if only because I don't think he's ever been a consistent member in an X-Men cartoon .

The same goes for Angel, since he wasn't on the WaTXM team for that long until he transformed into Archangel.

I'd be interested in seeing a cartoon that, at least for a little bit, focused on the original five X-Men for maybe a season or for the first half of a season. But we're likely not going to get a series that doesn't have the most popular team members on the roster. People would probably think an X-Men series without Wolverine is suicide .

But yeah, you'd probably have Cyclops, Wolverine, Jean, Storm, and Beast with some others mixed and matched in there.

 

[RoryWilliams]

I'd start the story with the team already assembled and having been active for a few years. The classic roster was never as popular as the Claremont team so you kinda HAVE to start in the middle.

Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Psylocke (with a steamlined origin), and Angel. Jubilee would be the new recruit/kid sidekick. Various characters like Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Sunfire and Gambit would come and go as the story goes on. Season 2 would see the addition of Emma Frost and Colossus.

For a B-plot you could also focus on the various students at the school. Dani Moonstar, Armor, Karma, Prodigy, Dust...there's a lot of potential there.

 

[MCBT]

Starting in the middle would be a good idea. I'd probably have it take more elements from the Claremont stories and maybe some of the recent ones like by Brian Wood or Brian Michael Bendis and also play up the family angle of the entire team. Like my rooster besides Xavier would be this.

Wolverine
Rogue
Storm
Psylocke
Shadowcat
Cyclops
Jean Grey
Iceman
Firestar
Nightcrawler
Beast
Jubilee

Guest stars would have to include X-Force, X-23 and even Doctor Doom, he'd have to be a guest villain like in each season (it's an in joke reference to the Allies for Peace episode where the X-Men were in place of the Fantastic Four). One particular story arc would have to revolve around the parentage of Rogue and Nightcrawler, it'd combine the likes of the Forget Me Not storyline from the Rogue spin off comic and the actual story arcs that revealed Mystique as the mother of both of them.

 

[TheMadSlasher]

Professor X (of course)
Cyclops
Beast
Jean Grey
Iceman
Emma Frost
Storm
Gambit
Wolverine
Psylocke

Ideally, it would be set in an AU where Emma takes Angel's role on the Original 5 X-Men.

Bobby needs to be characterized in a manner similar to the "Cold Comfort" episode of XTAS, and both Gambit and Wolvie need to be basically the same as the XTAS version... which means awesome!BAMF!seducer!Gambit and rebel!loner!principled!Wolvie.

And everyone needs screen time and characterization. Let's PLEASE try and avoid Wolvie-Centric-Everything (for a change). I love a well-characterized Wolvie but there are other characters too and all of them need depth and BAMF-moments.

 

[RoyalRubble]

I don't really have an ideal team roster for a new X-Men show; I'd probably be alright with pretty much any line-up they can think of, as long as the characters are presented well enough. It would be nice to see a show go back to the very beginning, with the original five X-Men though I kind of doubt we'll see a X-Men cartoon without Wolverine as one of the main characters. A nice mix of both old and newer X-Men could also work, since there are so many possibilities and candidates to pick from the comics.

I guess a line-up of the more popular characters, like Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, Nightcrawler and others could work as the main heroes and a lot of others in supporting roles, somewhat similar to how it was done on X-Men: Evolution. I actually gave this a lot more thought a decade or so ago, when I was working on my own scripts for a potential new X-Men cartoon. But since then we've had two more shows.

If they appear, it would also be nice if Storm and Colossus would also get more stuff to do on the show, since their previous animated appearances have been pretty limited (especially in Colossus' case).

 

[Young Justice]

I would like a simpler roster of Cyclops, Wolverine, Jean, Storm and Beast with Xavier as mentor. Make it a simple show with villain of the week and special guest of the week to showcase other X-Men. Make one character be the spotlight in each episode. Make stories based on comic book classics. Good animation and updated visuals for uniforms etc. And please, a good characterization of Cyclops as X-Men field leader.

I liked how they handled the X-Men Anime. The ending was disappointing, Emma Frost characterization was a little off (She was too nice), and Storm was way underpowered, but in general the animation was nice. It should be something like that.

 

[Stu]

I personally liked the roster from Wolverine And The X-Men. It got a little large towards the end of the show, but it had a good mixture of most of my favourites, with 'guest stars' such as Angel and Nightcrawler appearing frequently enough to make them feel part of the team.

It would've been nice to see a little more of Collosus, and I believe this was planned for season two before the financial difficulties got in the way.

To cherry pick though

Xavier
Cyclops
Wolverine
Rouge
Beast
Angel
Kitty
Nightcrawler

I think anything more is asking for underdeveloped characters... I could stretch to include Emma Frost though. I admit to not missing Jean Grey in the Wolverine show and have never been especially fond of Storm...

 

[MCBT]

If I may make a minor correction, you misspelled Rogue.

 

[Captain Travis]

I'd like
Cyclops
Jean
Wolverine
Nightcrawler
Storm
Kitty
Armor
Prof X
Beast

Beast wouldn't be in the field a lot he's mainly there running things with Chuck. I guess I'm the only one who totally hates Emma Frost I wouldn't want her anywhere in a new cartoon