But an argument could be made that Evolution truly changed more so then the 90's series or the Fox Films as a LOT of elements from the show have now become main part of the series and changed several elements. Case in point X-23 was created in this series. Yeah, Logan's opposite gender clone was first introduced in Evolution and her personality has largely remained intact from what we first got. Another point is that this is the first X-Men series I can think of that completely dropped the love-triangle between Cyclops, Jean Grey & Logan and the love triangle that replaced it is, IMO a Million times better then the CJL one. And it eventually ended once the canon couple was established and Rogue found new love with Gambit.
There's also the fact that this series played a big part in Kitty Pryde aka Shadowcat's rising popularity. Sure, Kitty was popular in fan circles but this show is what brought her into the main stream and is the main reason why she got to play a role in not one but Two of the X-Men films. Likewise Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler's popularity also spiked after this series and again his popularity in the show is a major factor as to why he showed up in the second X-Men film. Even Kurt's love interest from the comics, Amanda Sefton, got a major boost in popularity when she showed up in the show and I seem to recall the comics changing her to fit her characterization in teh show and, last time I checked, these changes stuck with the character.
It also made good use of Logan's Mysterious back as it did answer a couple of questions and expanded on it by the inclusion of the aforementioned X-23 and changed it up by only having Logan forget PART of his past (pacifically the part involving the Weapon X Program) but had him remember his history before that like how he worked with Captain America During WW2.
Even the character of Spyke, who was at first HATED by fans, went on to become a recurring character once he joined the Morlocks and gave Storm and Callisto a more engaging dynamic in the comics because of Spyke. And finally this was the first X-Men series to really push to have more humor which has caught on with the rest of the series.
So, why is that a series that so greatly changed X-Men in ways that we're still seeing to this day was mostly forgotten?
I think this mostly down to the first two seasons. Both aren't bad but it spent WAAAY to much time in the High-school setting and even though I think the Love Triangle between Scott, Jean and Rogue was well handled many others felt it was taking up to much time. This just isn't what fans come to X-Men for and it's likely played a big part in why the series ended after 4 seasons.
However, without those first two seasons I don't think Season 3 would have been as good as it was. Showing the X-Men in normal world, blending in with no one being the wiser only for them to be, for lack of a better term, forced out of the closet and then to see people they had once gotten along with shunning them was Heartbreaking. I honestly think Evolution handles the subject of Discrimination better then both the 90's series and the live actions films as both kinda only show the surface level elements with people just generally being needlessly cruel to the Mutants but because we got to see everyone treat them like normal people only to change when they learned something they saw as a terrible thing or was something they sought to misuse for their own benefit it managed to drive home how things can change, sometimes for the worst, when something you want to keep hidden, something you shouldn't need to feel shame for, is shown to the world and those you knew will mistreat you.
After Evolution X-Men tried to tried it's run at another animated series with Wolverine and the X-Men but this likewise has seem to have been forgotten and aside from the Cyclops and Emma Frost Relationship, didn't really effect the series that much, at least not to my knowledge.
So, now that I've brought this series up again what are your thoughts on X-Men: Evolution? Do you, like me, see it as a underrated gem or are you okay with just forgetting about it again? Let me know.
