The long-running and much-loved X-Men franchise started by Marvel Comics got its own animated series in 1992. The show aired as part of the Fox Kids Saturday morning lineup and brought the vivid, complex world of mutants to the small screen. X-Men followed the plotlines and themes laid out in the comic book fairly closely, which may have been one factor that propelled it to instant popularity.

The comic books explored a world of humans and mutants living together but not getting along; mutants were persecuted for no other reason than their mutation that caused different groups of them to react to humanity in different ways.

Professor Charles Xavier was the voice of reason in the mutant community. Intelligent, insightful and possessing formidable mental powers, Xavier set up a school for teenage mutants who were alienated and driven away from their families and peers. The professor taught his students to control their powers and use them in defense of humanity. Xavier knew all too well that angry teenagers that can melt your face had to be guided and molded.

Xavier's group--the X-Men--contained mutants from widely diverse backgrounds, ethnicities and faiths. The core group consisted of Cyclops (who could felt your face and everything else with the energy beams shot out of his eyes), Storm (controller of weather), Beast (intelligent, articulate and super-strong), Wolverine (indestructible tough guy with claws), Rogue (able to absorb other mutants' powers), Jubilee (electric personality) and Gambit (wielder of kinetic energy and hurler of playing cards). Together with Professor X(avier) and his telepathic assistant Jean Grey, the X-Men donned their colorful costumes and jumped into the fray.

In addition to various humans out for their blood, the X-Men had to battle against mutants who were out to destroy humanity. The leader of that evil faction was Magneto, childhood friend of Xavier. Magneto was all for mutant rights but the only way he saw to effect that was through the domination and/or annihilation of regular humans. He had his own followers who clashed with Xavier's crew on a regular basis.

The series--like the comic books--dealt with some heady issues like discrimination, bigotry, abuse of science and religion. The mutant world was as diverse as the human world, featuring mutants of both sexes, all colors and many faiths, so the two races had many things in common and only one thing making them different: the mutant X gene. Tolerance, justice and cooperation were the lessons to take away from the cartoon, which didn't flinch away from some tough storylines.

X-Men was one of the most successful animated programs in the 90s and paved the way for many other comic books' jump to television. It also generated enough interest for a trilogy of live-action films that took the box office by storm.