10 Best X-Men: The Animated Series Episodes

5. Days Of Future Past

'Days of Future Past' is one of the most popular stories in the X-Men's long history. Involving time travel and genocide, it's a pretty heavy tale for a Saturday morning cartoon, but the series' adaptation manages to be great even if it does take serious liberties.

Dropping Kitty Pryde and many of the other aspects from the original story, 'Days of Future Past' instead sees Bishop travel back through time to avert a dark future. Beginning in 2055, this two-part episode sees Wolverine grabbed by Bishop, with plans to have him terminated. Of course, things soon go wrong and Bishop ends up helping Wolvie to escape, before they meet Forge and the time-hopping begins.

There's plenty of plot packed into these two episodes, and even if it does differ from the comic a fair bit, the core elements are still there: Sentinels, a future dystopia, and time travel. The two-parter also brilliantly set up further action, with the X-Men finding that Senator Kelly has promptly been kidnapped after they've saved his life, leaving the story on a neat cliffhanger.

Again, the script keeps all the narrative plates spinning nicely, fleshing the characters out without slowing the action down.