Monday, November 26, 2012

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Mutant X (2001)

Marvel Comics' film division decided to get into first-run syndication in 2001, partnering with Tribune Entertainment to produce Mutant X, which aired in primetime in some markets, but in others, it aired in the afternoon or morning, hence its inclusion.

Because 20th Century Fox had the license, via Marvel, to produce the X-Men movies, Marvel had to be very careful about how they marketed Mutant X. The ensemble cast was built around veteran actor John Shea (ex-Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), who starred as Adam Kane, the leader of Mutant X, which was created to protect a new generation of mutants, whose powers weren't granted as a result of genetics, but rather, illegal experiments performed on their parents years earlier. Marvel would produce a comics version of the series between seasons 1 & 2, but it didn't last very long. In fact, Mutant X, while it lasted three seasons, was meant to continue into a fourth, but co-producer Fireworks went out of business.

Here's the first season open:



20th Century Fox sued Marvel, claiming that, ironically enough, the series was too close to the X-Men, as if Marvel was covertly planning on incorporating Mutant X into the fabric of their comics universe down the road. The two studios settled out of court. Some people are just too sensitive, aren't they?

Rating: None. Didn't follow the show enough to rate it.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

This was a likeable show but it such a retread of X-Men, even it that wasn't the intent.

I think it was in Season 2 when the core group's powers were growing. I thought that was a great idea, except it was suddenly forgotten about half way through the series and never seen again.


I hated that they killed off the Emma character. It really killed the dynamic when the new actress was brought in.

It didn't help that the primary villan was an Andy Warhol lookalike either!

Victoria Pratt seemed to get a lot of work around this time. She'd been doing both stunts and acting for Hercules, Xena, Cleopatra 2525 and then this show. She seemed to fall off the map after that.

hobbyfan said...

You'd think someone like SyFy might've picked up this show to play periodically, but no.

I don't think too many of the cast, save maybe for John Shea, has been heard from since the show was cancelled.