Pryde of the X-Men

Acting as a pre-X-Men launcher, Pryde of the X-Men is a standalone episode that let audiences get to see our favorite mutants in action on television.

Narrated by a rather excited Stan Lee, we follow Kitty Pryde as she is introduced to the X-Men and is offered a place amongst them. Wary of the whole idea, Kitty takes a bit of a disliking to Nightcrawler which will act as a small subplot for the next 20 minutes.

Not all is well though as Magneto is released from containment and attacks Xavier's mansion, stealing an important chip. His plan is to stay safely aboard his asteroid base with his Brotherhood as he redirects a comet to strike earth, thereby wiping out humans. I had a small problem with this, wouldn't it also affect mutants? Perhaps this Magneto isn't quite as smart as the version we will later get in the proper series.

Of course, the X-Men and Kitty are on the job as they blast off to the asteroid to save the day! Fighting back against the evil mutants, Kitty and Nightcrawler manage to destroy the asteroid base and become friends in the process. However, Magneto and his group manage to escape for next time.

This standalone episode, despite it's flaws, does have a few perks. The main thing I enjoyed about this episode was the various characters used. On the X-Men we get the rarely seen Dazzler, as well we get Nightcrawler, Colossus and Kitty who make the rare appearances here and there in the later series but in this episode are part of the team. For the villains we get a rather enjoyable Brotherhood, even with Emma Frost substituting for Mystique.

Some flaws, animation aside, include the corny narration and poor choice on vocals for Kitty and Wolverine. However, it's still a bit of fun to watch even if it has nothing on later shows.