How to End A Series?: X-Men- The Animated Series (1992-1996)

 Everyone- myself included- is excited to see more X-Men of the Animated variety.

However, as important as the continuation of the series is, we should also remember how it last ended back in 1996.

Let me break out my 'Last Season of a Show' DVD Pile (which includes TMNT and Smallville) to see their...

At the UN, Heny Peter Gyrich (looking different now) is calling for a Law to lock up all Mutants!

Professor Xavier (alongside Wolverine, Cyclops and Beast- in his hat and coat disguise) is arguing against him...by just kind of hovering up onto stage.

He activates an 'energy disruptor,' which sets off Xavier's powers (revealing him publicly as a Mutant) and causing vague, life-threatening harm.

The way it turns on his powers reminds me of how they did this better in Logan (with Xavier's literal brain failing him).

Wolverine thinks he's dead to send us to commercials, but he's wrong.

Xavier is, however, dying.  Again- I'm not sure why.

Beast thinks that they can call Lilandra (of the futuristic Shi'ar Empire) to help, but only Xavier can call her.

Thankfully, Morph- last seen going into self-imposed exile- is here to make Xavier look alive, temporarily preserving Mutant peace.

Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean Grey go to Genosha (which also looks different and cheap) to stop Magneto from uniting an army of angry Mutants.

In Comic Book Cliche #14, the Jet is blown up one last time and they sneak in.

Oh and ignore the News Report about how Mutants now occupy Tehran, Iran, a City in Mexico and, most randomly, Duluth, Minnesota!

They briefly fight Magneto, but soon reveal the truth.

During said fight, Jean's telekinetic blast is briefly amplified by Magneto's powers (just go with it!), so they realize that he can jump-start Xavier like an old car to call Lilandra.

In fairness to the Episode, the late David Hemblem gives a great, Shakespearean monologue about how he's about to achieve his 'victory,' but now must abandon it to save his friend.

The plan works, but Xavier still gives his sad, sendoff all the same.  

Poor Storm- who has no lines- at least gets a nice bit of praise.

Was their plan too late?

No, of course not!

Deus Ex Shi'ar arrive to save Xavier, but they say that he must be with them to live.

They act like this is a final good-bye for Xavier- which is odd to me.

Then again, I don't see mention of Xavier in any of the X-Men '97 materials, so...maybe?

The (odd) End.

An unfortunate, but also oddly fitting Ending for this Show.  There's a Story here.

The short version- Saban ordered 11 more Episodes last minute, despite the Show's clear ending being made.  Unfortunately, Marvel was going through bankruptcy and the usual Animation Studio took on other clients (since they too thought that the Show was over).  

As such, they farmed it out to a different Studio on the cheap, making this Finale look like, well, someone else trying to animate the Show...with one arm tied behind their back.

The plan was to end the Show with Apocalypse's big, insane plan and everyone saves the day.
The actual end involves a final villain of Gyrich (not Sinister or Apocalypse or even Mesmero!) nearly killing the Professor.

There are some decent attempts to milk drama from this, mostly done by the Voice Cast.  Norm Spencer should also get some praise for his work, as should Cedric Smith.  It's just a shame that the final Ending- like Ninja Turtles- is pretty meh.

Then again, they still went out fighting the big bad and, not, say, The Ratcatcher!  They also didn't kill off Splinter- that happened like two Series' later.

There's promise in this one, to be fair, but it also kind of sucks.  It just looks and feels cheap, kind of like these random mutants (although this version of Sunfire wasn't 'so racist' that it got cut from Disney +)...

A fitting end to the Show...if you consider how it was suddenly yanked back into action with less money and cheap Animation.  

I don't blame the Animators- I blame Saban making one last cash grab.

How to End A Series: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987-1996)

Ironically, this Segment about the end of something is actually returning after nearly a Decade!

I will be open- I was a HUGE fan of the Ninja Turtles as a kid.  I don't remember which one was my favorite, but it was probably Michelangelo.

What I also don't remember well is how the Show ended.  There's a reason: it died a long, slow death.

Fun Fact: the last Episode aired in 1996. 
No, really.

Like most kids, I had moved on by that point, so I finally saw the last Episode of the Series in 2019.
Long story short: found a DVD at a Thrift Store and watched all of the Episodes (all 8).

Let's begin, shall we?

Some quick info...
- This is the infamous 'red sky' run of the Series.  Basically, they were told to be darker like Batman, so it was always night and the sky was red.
- Shredder and Krang were replaced with Lord Dregg, an evil alien guy who wanted to conquer the Universe.

This one begins right in the action with the team battling a random alien.  He talks about 'lasting 90 seconds' and then teleports away.

It's all part of Dregg's latest (and last) plan.  

He was testing the aliens to find the best ones...

...for him to absorb the powers of.

At this point, he abandons his 'conquer the Universe plans' and just wants to kill the Turtles.

The suit gives more power than ever, making him nigh unstoppable.

Weirdly though, the physics here are bonkers.  He's giant, but a burst water pipe shoots him back like 100 feet and the gang escapes.

The only solution to stop him: retrieve Krang's robot body to battle Dregg.

It's actually a nice call back, even if they ruin it a bit later.  You see...

Their plan involves fighting Dregg until the suit will explode from using its power (the one Krang used 100s of times).

They use the super move of 'jump on his back' and toss him into a portal, seemingly killing him (for the 3rd time in 8 Episodes).

The only thing to signify that this is the end: Splinter declaring that they are now his equals.

Aw, that's...it?  That's the final Episode?  The f--k?!?

What a letdown.  

To note, half of this Season- assuming that the DVD Set is accurate- was taken up by one big Story.  After that, they just give you a few one-off Stories and...that's it.  

Why not do it the other way around?  

That Story involved big battles, giant robots, the return of villains like Krang and Shredder, time travel and two sets of Turtles.  That's not your Series Finale?  

Instead, you just have the villain go extra-mental and try to kill them with one last scheme.  

With no clear proof that he's dead, Splinter just decides that they are fully trained and he's their equal now.  

As noted, Dregg escaped seeming death twice already this Season alone, so why does this one seem final to them?  It's probably not the most anti-climactic ending to a Show like this- as you could maybe argue that the threat is over-, but it has to be up there.  

This is the culmination of 10 Seasons!  

For contrast, Justice League Unlimited ended with a two-part battle for Earth against Darkseid, a threat so big that they teamed up with the villains!  Now imagine if that was the culmination of the first four Episodes and they ended with a random one-off (for instance, The Great Brain Robbery).  

What a letdown, right?  

The Show had been on a bit of a downward slide, to be fair, as it faced a changing market- with Batman and others- and tried to change too much to match it.  

There's more silliness that I'll cover in a separate Post, but, trust me, this is a weird and dumb Season.  

To cap things off, they end with...an exploding popcorn bag!

What a sudden, abrupt end.  Considering that this was Season 10, this sure is...well, anti-climactic.  Cowabunga?

How To End A Series: X-Men (Animated)

Animated shows don't always have big endings. They usually just taper off and disappear due to the weird schedule for producing these shows and renewing them. Most shows don't plan a finale for every season, so it often ends up biting them in the ass. Only later shows like Justice League realized what they had to do on a regular basis. They were not the first to do this, however. This same thing was also done for one of the most iconic cartoons of the 1990s...

X-Men

How do you end a show that has had mutants battling in Washington D.C., Magneto attacking the Earth from space and Mojo's reality show (pre-dating so much of our modern ones)? By literally having someone try to rape the time-space continuum! Suck on that, reality!

The story involves Mr. Sinister kidnapping Jean Grey after her marriage to Cyclops- not again! This is inter-cut with not one, but TWO parallel stories- one involving Bishop and the other involving Cable in the future. They all tie in eventually (although the first one is done kind of lazily), but really just pad out the story into four parts.

A Saturday morning cartoon ends with what is basically an Animated Movie (with the total equaling out to around 80 minutes)- that is epic!

The whole thing really makes no sense, but I will do my best.

Apocalypse gets the help of nearly every major X-Men villain (Magneto, Mystique, Sinister, etc) and kidnaps all of the most powerful psychics in the galaxy. Why? It is part of an elaborate plan to stop time and rework it in his image.

How does this work? Your guess is about as good as mine. It has something to do with Psychics apparently having the will power to affect time (huh?!?), so, by killing all of them in one burst, it will undo everything.

You had me and then you lost me, Show. The whole thing is a pretense for some fan service, whether it is introducing Psylocke or giving us cameos by characters such as Mesmero and Stryfe. They also set-up Archangel joining the team, but, of course, this is the last Episode.

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Oh wait, apparently the studio ordered a bunch more after this. The only problem is that the Animation Studio behind the show had folded. This gave us several sub-par looking episodes made in-house by Saban. Oops.

Up next, a new version of the show tries a similar idea. Will it work twice? Stay tuned...

How to End a Series: M.A.N.T.I.S.

How to end a show is nearly as important as how to begin one. Take, for example, Bob Newhart's second show- very old spoilers ahead. In the end, he goes to bed and wakes up with his wife from his classic 1970's show. The entire show was a very long dream he had as the Bob from that show- genius. On the flip-side, you have Batman Beyond, which ends on a random episode of a kid learning Terry's identity and a flashback story. Unplanned finales are always the worst. Now, for today's study...

To the uninitiated, this show is about a paralyzed black scientist who develops an EXO Suit that allows him to walk and fight crime. The Pilot was a landmark production with an all-black cast of Leads and was made, in part, by Sam Raimi. When the show got picked up, everyone but the Lead was re-cast and show got generic. When the ratings went down, the show went all 'villain of the week' and got very strange. Recurring threatss included a group of inter-dimensional villains who viewed this one guy as the lone obstacle to their goal.

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On the positive side, the producers saw the cancellation coming as Season One (of one) ended. As such, they made this episode to end the whole series:

Ghost of the Ice

During a random test-flight, our hero's flying vehicle malfunctions and crashes. Why? Good question. So they wander around the woods for a while, one of them injured and the other running on tenuous battery power. The M.A.N.T.I.S. suit is much like the Sega Game Gear and barely has any battery life at all. Of course, he doesn't bring a spare set with him when he goes flying and could possibly get lost. They get stalked by a mysterious creature that is barely visible- that saves on the Budget!

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The whole thing is prefaced Sunset Boulevard-style by MANTIS' friend talking about how this was his last adventure. I wish that this was the beginning of a non-existent Season 2. Imagine if you knew that MANTIS would die, but you could not guess when. Unfortunately, he does in this Episode- chance lost.

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Our heroes run into a weird mountain man (played by the security chief from Club Dread) who has lived for almost 20 years with the monster. That's right- nearly 20 years. That sure takes a bite out of the 'deadliest predator ever' name, huh? Anyhow, the monster hears my commentary and attacks MANTIS. It shakes him about, but is scared off by some shotgun blasts. Okay, you're just digging your own grave now, beasty.

To cut a long story (or a 44 minute show) short, MANTIS and friend meet up with his young (read:30) assistant and his cop girlfriend. They are seemingly in the clear when the monster attacks again. It traps the guy and girl in their jeep & tries to tear its way in. They plan to use their ship's battery (note- they don't use it to power the suit) to stun the beast to death. Little do they (or the monster) know that their is a gas leak from the attack. The battery blasts and the car blows up. We finally get a real look at the monster...as a shadow...from dozens of feet away. If blacked-out dinosaur shots get you hot, this is a good episode for you.

Another failed comic book show dies on television- what a shame. Fortunately, the lead ended getting a much better superhero gig: the voice of Martian Manhunter on Justice League. One of the directors on this show was also the man behind the terrible two-some of sequels: Trancers 4 and 5. Also, to be fair, Sam Raimi's only superhero work at this point was *snicker* Darkman. I kid, I kid. His ability to turn from Liam Neeson into Arnold Vosloo was damn impressive! Even so, this show was certainly missed. A black superhero finally gets his due, even if he has to be shot in the spine to do so. Ah well, there's always Blade...oh crap, they cancelled that in one season too. Oops.

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Will there be more of these? Wait and see. Stay tuned...