The Women of X-Men

What would you call the female X-Men on their own? X-Women?? Or they just all go by X-Men collectively anyway. I know the first animated series has been done to death by reviewers already, so aside from mentioning a couple of things they've already said, this review will mostly cover X-Men Evolution. In the first animated series we are introduced to Jubilee, with whom we are supposed to identify as kids. As some have mentioned this did not work out as well as planned. I didn't mind her all that much, but my favorite character early on has always been Storm. She was the one who explained to Jubilee that ordinary people fear and hate what they don't understand, and that includes mutants.
In an earlier blog post, I mentioned the role chauvinism plays in certain situations and that X-Men tends to fall into the same category. For instance, Linkara reviewed an X-Men comic during his origins month in which Jean Grey was introduced to the group. She was the first female member and all the guys were...shall we say, taken with her, including Xavier. This doesn't sit well with me, and certainly not out of jealousy. I would not feel comfortable in her position, especially since it's a very old comic.
And now for my favorite episode of X-Men Evolution, "Walk on the Wild Side." It begins with Jean training Amara in the Danger Room. Amara starts to lose control/focus of her power and a boulder nearly crushes them. Scott's there and blows it up with his laser eye beam before the two get hurt. However, they aren't grateful for the rescue as Jean was trying to teach Amara to fend for herself and solve problems on her own. Scott's miffed and the two walk out on him. Amara has class with Tabitha at their regular high school, and they later end up chasing down a car-jacker after witnessing the crime on their way to the mall. Jean follows them because knowing Tabitha they'd probably get into trouble. Together the three trap the guy but Jean gets them to leave before the cops arrive. The arrest winds up on the news, and Jean makes Amara promise they won't do it again because aside from mutants, this town also hates vigilantes (or at least the cops do). However, Tabitha is also in it for the thrills and gets them both along with Rogue and Kitty to form the Bayville Sirens, a female vigilante group. There's even a musical montage to go along with it. Meanwhile, Scott's suspicious of their activities and gets Kurt to go with him to spy on them and make sure they don't get into trouble without them being seen. He does end up saving them again like in the Danger Room, but they're too distracted by the flaming warehouse to notice his laser beam prevent an even bigger fire. In the end, a female police officer (voiced by none other than Louise "Stevie" Vallance - awesome!) says that what they were doing was dangerous and it needed to stop, but instead of arresting them she lets them leave before the rest of the cops show up. After everyone leaves, she turns out to be Mystique in disguise.
It seems like kind of a bulls--t episode with a bulls--t message, but I enjoyed seeing the women highlighted in action, and even the twist with Mystique helping them in the end was cool. The thing to point out in the beginning is that after Scott blows up the boulder he doesn't go, "Oh my gosh, are you two okay?" Instead he boasts about how it was a good thing he was there, prompting Jean to say "Scott, what'd you do that for?!" and Amara to add that he had some nerve. Vigilante-ism was kind of a mixed-message since these are super heroes we're dealing with, but added to that an all-female group of super-powered vigilantes with two male super heroes following them to make sure they didn't get into trouble...it's a lot to think about. It's especially mixed-up since mutants are never seen as heroes since they are rarely if ever seen in the public eye prior to the story arc in which they are exposed and discriminated against (prompting some parents to take their children and move, including Jubilee). Of course you can point out that it was Tabitha's fault for being a thrill-seeker and putting them in unnecessary danger, or they were only trying to help, or just showing female solidarity in a given activity - in this case fighting crime. However, it is still my favorite episode of X-Men ever. I'm sure the musical montage had something to do with that.