Normal humans live in constant fear of a race called mutants, and sometimes with very good reasons. Mutants are people who are born with special powers ranging from telekinesis, to manipulation of the weather. Humanity's fear causes them to act out in very negative and violent ways.
A mutant by the name of Charles Xavier has a dream. He believes that one day humans and mutants can coexist in peace, and to help see his dream realized, Xavier created the X-Men. A team of mutants who are every bit as determined to see the dream come to reality. But, there are humans and mutants who don't share the same beliefs, and they're every bit as determined to see their own dream realized.
Previous Volumes:
X-Men Volume One
X-Men Volume Two
X-Men Volume Three
X-Men Volume Four
X-Men Volume Five:
The Earth is under attack by an alien race that seeks to assimilate all life on the planet. The attack is subtle and very devastating. In a matter of hours, almost all life, both human and mutant has fallen victim to the aliens rampage. Escaping the initial attack is Beast of the X-Men, who finds aid from an unlikely source. Beast is aided by Warlock, one of the aliens own kind. Together, they search for any inhabitants who has escaped the onslaught in an attempt to save the world. -summary
Wow. What a complete disappointment. I find it hard to imagine that anyone could watch these incredibly flat episodes and actually believe they're good. Much less, on par with anything that took place earlier in the series. X-Men Volume Five is without a doubt the absolute worst of the series. In fact, it's the only really bad part of the series. This is very close to bottom of the barrel, because almost the entire season feels like throw away episodes. This was an obvious attempt to cash in on the name only.
There is almost nothing I like about this season. The visuals are a huge decline in quality. The artwork no longer resembles or has the feel of the comic. The bold and well defined color schemes have been degraded to a more cartoonish look. When compared to the rest of the series, the character designs and backgrounds are just plain horrible.
The action scenes were very boring to me. I mean each and every last one of them. There wasn't the slightest bit of fight choreography, imagination, or energy even close to the level found in the previous episodes; such as Out of the Past, The Phoenix Saga, Weapon X, Lies & Video Tape, or even One Man's Worth. Even the episode featuring Captain America called Old Soldiers has some of the most uninspiring hand to hand action scenes I can remember. This is actually a huge letdown, because he's an excellent hand to hand combatant. It would be a mis-match to compare any of this with Batman: The Animated Series. In all honesty, the entire series as a whole isn't on the level of Batman in any category. But this season almost feels like a parody of the entire series.
The single episodes bring back several villains and a couple of new ones. In the episode No Mutant Is An Island, I suspect the villain to be Mesmero, but he's never called by his alias. I can understand the writers keeping a villain in the dark. But in this case, he disappears and is never heard from again.
During the season, several members on the team also get their solo episodes, or a story is focused only on a specific individual. I didn't find any of these to really be interesting though. The episodes feel rushed and put together in a day, because they all seem to be missing something. There are two double episode arcs, The Phalanx Covenant and Storm Front. They have interesting stories, with some decent drama playing on the theme of blind love and trust, which takes place in the latter. However, these aren't episodes I can watch again either, in fact, I can never watch anything on this volume again.
The series still has good voice acting, but I don't think the actors are used to their full potential. The character interactions are lacking the pizazz that made several earlier episodes so gripping. Therefore, it was hard for me to feel an attachment, because everything felt so detached. The only real saving grace to this season is the final episode Graduation Day. In regards to fans of the comic, think back to The Uncanny X-Men #200: The Trial of Magneto, and you'll pretty much figure things out.
I was almost at a loss for words on how disappointing this release turned out to be. I missed all of these episodes from this season during their original run. I came into this with somewhat high expectations, because the first four seasons had some good moments. Unfortunately, this brings down the entire series and this season falls among the worse animated superhero related shows I seen to date.
The season also doesn't include any extras at all. But in all honesty, even if there were extras, I wouldn't have bothered with them because this season sucked so bad. Overall, I recommend the first four seasons because it's an entertaining series. Bother with this only for completion sake, or to satisfy your fanboy craves. This set contains the last 14 episodes:
Disc 1
63) The Phalanx Covenant Part 1
64) The Phalanx Covenant Part 2
65) A Deal With The Devil
66) No Mutant Is An Island
67) Longshot
68) Bloodlines
Disk 2
69) Storm Front Part 1
70) Storm Front Part 2
71) Jubilee's Fairy Tale Theatre
72) The Fifth Horsemen
73) Old Soldiers
74) Descent
75) Hidden Agendas
76) Graduation Day
Pros:
-At least the series has an ending, soundtrack
Cons:
-Poor animation and very boring stories
