10 Best X-Men: The Animated Series Episodes

7. One Man's Worth

Alternate timelines are a common narrative trope in the history of the X-Men, and 'One Man's Worth' made brilliant use of it to explore how different a world without Charles Xavier would be.

After Forge discovers a temporal shift has occurred in the past, he orders Bishop to go back and figure it out (accompanied by his sister, Shard). When they materialise in 1995, however, they find the world is at war, with mutants and humans battling for supremacy. Why? Professor X was killed at some point in the past, and without his dedication to harmony, everything has gone south.

While history is put right by the time the credits roll, 'One Man's Worth' delights in showing us alternate versions of the characters we know so well. Wolverine and Storm are part of a team headed by Magneto, and are actually married. Storm also wears her hair in the well-loved mohawk style from the 1980s X-Men comics.

More time travel takes place when the team travel back further to 1959, to save a young Charles Xavier from being assassinated and, as a result, ensuring a brighter future. This is a well-written episode that has fun showing twisted incarnations of such iconic figures, and lets us meet a younger version of Xavier before he was the cool, level-headed leader we've seen for three full seasons.