Don’t get me wrong, I was a cartoon watching freak when I was a kid. Every time I read Rich Keller’s ‘Saturday Mornings’ posts, I find myself thinking, “yep, watched that thousands of times.” X-Men, though, was something I never got into, primarily because it didn’t debut until I was in college. I was into much more intellectual, quality programming instead, like Ren & Stimpy.

The first couple of volumes of X-Men was released this past Tuesday, containing 32 of the show’s eventual 76 episode total. I’m not sure yet why they bothered to release these in two volumes like this, on the same day, instead of packaging four discs together and calling that the first volume. Would they think people would want to buy the first volume but not the second?

So, why are these called “volumes” and not seasons? It’s because the first two seasons were actually 13 episodes each. If you’re a math genius, you’ll see that doesn’t add up to 32. So, they cut into season three a bit in these sets. At least they ended things off with the fantastic five-part “Phoenix Saga,” which originally headed the show’s third season.

Within the two volumes, we discover the origins of many of the X-Men and their enemies (and those who are shades of gray). There is, of course, the premiere two-part “Night of The Sentinels” and “Days of Future Past” within these two volumes, which must be an X-Men comic book geek’s dream to see animated. Back when I watched cartoons, there wasn’t so much of this continued storyline thing going on. X-Men plays out like a primetime drama, each story continuing the saga from where we left off. Each episode has a “previously on” segment to bring people up to speed.

While it’s incredibly awesome to have these shows on DVD and, for me, to see them all for the first time (oooh … should I do a Virgin Diary of it here?), it was disappointing that there are no special features at all to speak of on the DVDs: no interviews, no animation progression videos, no commentaries. What makes this even stranger is that, at the start of the DVD, it warns the “the commentaries expressed on this DVD…” bit, but there aren’t any!

So, if you simply want to have these episodes in your hands to re-live or pick up for the first time, not wanting for any extra features, then they’re there for the having. You can also catch a few of the episodes online to see if it’s something you’d like to see more of. If you’re not up to shelling out the cash for both sets, we’re giving away two copies of each volume to commenters to this post. Just tell us why you’d like to own the DVDs before next Thursday, May 7 at 5 PM ET. Only one entry per person and you must have a valid U.S.-based mailing address. Not following these guidelines voids your entry. Good luck!

Tags: giveaways, Marvel's X-Men, X-Men cartoon, X-Men DVD giveaway