A band of mutants use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them; they're challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future. Taking place a year after the events of the original X-Men series finale, X-Men ‘97 deals with the X-Men facing new threats and challenges without the leadership of Professor Charles Xavier. First off, this is going to be more of a spoiler filled recap of my thoughts on essential events and moments from these 10 episodes. Getting the obvious out of the way, the animation is crisp, fluid, colorful, and oftentimes there are images that look like they’re pulled straight out of the comics. The animation style is less so a full revamp of the original and more so an updated and fine tuned refurbishment of it. With the power of advanced technology, the action sequences pack a far more visceral punch than they did in the original series, and it’s quite violent at times. Some episodes are TV-PG while others are TV-14, so there definitely is some bad language, on screen blood, and suggestive themes that were not so prevalent in the more family friendly original show. With that out of the way, I’ll begin by saying that Magneto taking over as leader of the X-Men is something I did not see coming, nor did I expect Xavier to hand him over the team in his dying will. Immediately, this sets the stage for a much different dynamic than we are used to seeing.
The first five episodes deal a lot with Magneto’s Genosha, an island in which mutants can live peacefully and away from the persecution of humans. What this show does so right that the X-Men live action movies got so wrong is how it rightfully portrays Cyclops as the main character and leader of the X-Men. As much as I love Wolverine, and he’s great here, Wolvie is much more of a supporting character when it comes to X-Men ensemble stories. There is also lots of respect shown towards the original 60’s X-Men team, with Cyclops and Jean often peering at an old photo in Xavier’s office. Speaking of Scott and Jean, I’m so happy we finally got to see them both interact with their son Cable (it gets complicated with the whole Madelyn Pyor thing), and there is a team up moment with the three of them in the last couple of episodes that had me grinning ear to ear. Rogue and Gambit’s relationship gets quite complex and it turns into a love triangle with Magneto that ultimately results in one of the most shocking moments in the series. As Genosha is attacked by sentinels courtesy of the villainous Bastion, Gambit is tragically killed and Genosha is devastated, leaving countless mutants dead. It’s a moment that made me forget this was a show on Disney+ and provided a big emotional gut punch, with lasting consequences.
All of the female characters are genuinely fabulous here, whether it’s Storm, Jubilee, Jean, or Rogue. Storm and Jean’s friendship is genuinely beautiful. Storm has an arc in which she temporarily loses her powers and later regains them in a totally badass way. Jubilee strikes up a relationship with newcomer Roberto (Sunspot) and I loved their natural youthful chemistry. Rogue is extremely powerful here and after the death of Gambit, she displays some of her most impressive feats of strength and fury, the likes of which we have not seen before from her character. As I said before, Wolverine is not the main character, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get some incredible moments to shine. There is a scene in one of the later episodes where Wolverine and Nightcrawler are both taking on these advanced sentinels and it’s gratifying to witness. There is also a shocking scene in episode 9, taken right out of the comics, where Magneto unleashes a brutal attack on Wolverine, almost to the point of killing him. It’s insane. Loved Morph’s friendship with Wolverine, too. Do I think Morph is gay for Wolverine? I don’t know, but little things like that don’t matter when the show is as good as it is. In fact, the camaraderie between the entire team is so rich and believable that you feel like they’re a family.
Now, as much as I love what the live action movies have done with the relationship between Magneto and Professor Xavier, it almost doesn’t compare to levels of sheer depth and emotional weight of how it’s portrayed here. The scene with Magneto and Charles first meeting at a bar and talking about their similar yet different philosophies on the mutant struggle, chills. I am also glad the writers didn’t forget that Magneto’s canonically a Holocaust survivor and carries that extra burden with him. The season ends on a cliffhanger with the X-Men being displaced across various points in time and we get a glimpse of Apocalypse in ancient Egypt, who no doubt is being set up to be the main villain of Season Two. Although I liked Sinister and Bastion as the antagonists of this season, it looks like Apocalypse will be a terrifying force to reckon with come next season. Scott and Jean’s goodbye to Cable had me welling up and so did the potential restoration of the friendship between Erik and Charles in episode 10. In the last couple of episodes, there are some cameos from Spider-Man, members of the Avengers, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, and other Marvel characters who will likely factor into future seasons. I definitely screamed when I saw Spider-Man from the 90’s show and I so look forward to that follow up series. They are absolutely setting up Avengers vs X-Men, I can tell you that.
The entire voice cast knocks it out of the park and the writing by series creator Beau DeMaio is truly sublime. Concerning the controversy of DeMaio being fired, I have this to say: I do not care that he had an OnlyFans account and shared explicit photos of himself. So long as said explicit content isn’t being shared with minors, I’m not sure what the issue is. Hollywood is a very dirty industry and producers/actors have NOT been fired for doing much worse and others GET fired for not doing anything wrong at all. So no, I don’t care about his private life. The fact is, this show is one of the best things Marvel has produced in years. So, in a time when the comic book genre’s future is uncertain, we need quality content like this that gives fans the sort of entertainment they want, regardless of behind the scenes drama. There are of course things I did not mention here, but I just wanted to cover certain aspects and story beats that are essential to talk about. Overall, X-Men ‘97 is not just a stellar continuation of the classic 90’s series, but it’s also one of the most dramatically gripping, emotionally engaging, and compelling feats of storytelling that Marvel has likely ever produced, whether it’s live action or animation. A triumph that rivals Marvel’s best movies.
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