The third season of X-Men: The Animated Series is a showcase of all the qualities that make the series memorable in their distilled, purest forms. Season-long plots? Here in spades. Multi-episode story arcs? We’ve got four of those, including adaptations of both The Phoenix Saga and The Dark Phoenix Saga told across nine episodes in total, almost half the season. Inconsistent animation that signals the budget and time constraints that plagued the series from the beginning? You better believe it. All of these emblematic highs and lows were possible thanks to the show’s season one success, which resulted, per showrunners Eric and Julia Lewald, in a massive order of 39 episodes from Fox “before [the writers had] seen a foot of animation” from season two. That kind of commitment meant room for the series to take huge swings, to tackle grander and more operatic stories from X-Men history without fear of the imminent guillotine of cancellation. And so, the scale and stakes of season three are the highest they’ve ever been. [Read more…] about X-Men: The Animated Series Season 3 Rewatch!