Nostalgia is one of the most popular ways to make money in the Entertainment Industry, offering a quick way to push and sell merchandise. Marvel Animation and Walt Disney looked to cash in by building it around fond memories of the 90s animated TV series, X-Men: The Animated Series. It may not be your X-Men series, but X-Men 97 succeeds in being a great continuation of the original series but stands alone on its own merits.
Essentially, X-Men 97 is best described as Season Six, but it served as a way for new fans to approach the show, even if they haven’t already. If you weren’t already familiar with what happened when the series left off, Charles Xavier went off-world to recover from injuries he sustained in the original series finale, leaving Cyclops and the X-Men to forge a new path going forward without Xavier. As you can imagine, this leads to a series of conflicts, even seeing the return of the Master of Magnetism, Magneto having to live up to the responsibility that was placed on his shoulderps. Speaking of new paths, Scott and Jean tackled a new path, the path of parenthood as the new season also focused on family themes and responsibility.
If anything, the new series focused on several key storylines from the Comic Books while keeping an extremely fast-paced main story. The Trial of Magneto, Lifedeath, and Operation: Zero Tolerance just to name a few being trimmed down for a ten-episode season consisting of 30-minute episodes. Episode 3 was a prime example of this Inferno, where it honed in on introducing a grieving Madelyne Pryor and the X-Men. (With well-animated fight sequences I might add.) the strengths of this new series were character-focused stories and a mutant soap opera that fans have come to enjoy. Episode five’s love triangle between Rogue, Magneto, and Gambit certainly drove a dagger into the heart of the viewers (Especially my heart!), especially with the episode’s crushing finale of the destruction of Genosha.
There were drawbacks to the show’s storytelling like not every character was given the attention they deserved. I get that there was a certain time budget to follow and I understand that aspect, but I felt that Morph would have had more attention when it came to bringing back a villain such as Mr. Sinister, I guess you take what you can get, and hope for more in the next season. Other than that, the core team got their character arcs through the first season, with Cyclops confronting fatherhood and life after the X-Men. Storm has to grapple with the loss of her powers, both physically and psychologically, and Magneto faces the most difficult challenge he has had to face, becoming the man he was meant to be that Xavier had seen in him. Rogue goes through the stages of grieving after losing Gambit and the Genosha tragedy pushing her onto a dark path.
One thing I would like to get off my chest before continuing the review is that if you haven’t noticed, there have been the usual critics making clickbait videos and headlines like MARVEL AND DISNEY MAKE X-MEN WOKE, or DISNEY PUTS WOKE AGENDA IN X-MEN 97 and while people are entitled to their opinions but I hate to break it to you, but the X-Men have always been Woke. I covered this in similar topics whether it was Transformers, or when a Florida Representative decided to show off his ignorance by comparing the Transgender community to Demon and Imps. The X-Men are heroes and a reflection of real-life issues that include Bigotry, Racism, Antisemitism, Diversity, and LGBTQIA+. It even had Larry Houston and Julia Lewald speaking out about it, some would say that the ones who like to cry foul or cry woke haven’t read an X-Men comic or just have a narrow-minded view of what entertainment should include.
As I have mentioned previously, it adapts iconic comic book storylines but in some ways, it does justice to most of them, while improving most of them along the way. X-Men 97 showed that you can honor the material it was adapted from while putting a unique twist to it. This includes the iconic animation style that the ’90s series was known for, but it was also the animators who worked in subtle nods to anime into fight scenes, it also even brought other ’90s Marvel Animated Heroes/villains for brief cameos.
Aside from a great script, and a great team of creators and animators, this series also brought back several members of the original animated series while introducing a new voice cast to voice our favorite mutants, Ray Chase (Demon Slayer, Baki, Jujutsu Kaisen) took on the role of Cyclops and knocked it out of the park. Norm Spencer was the original voice actor of Cyclops in the 90s animated series but passed away in August 2020, it was safe to say that Norm’s legacy lived on in Ray Chase’s portrayal of the X-Men’s leader. Theo James’ role as Bastion was one of the best moments of Season One, bringing a sense of charm, depth, and humanity to the villain.
X-Men’97’s first season is available now on Disney Plus, and it has been confirmed that Season Two is currently in production. Be sure to check out the X-Men Comic Series and X-Men’ 97: Great X-Pectations now on the Marvel Unlimited App, your Local Comic Shop, and e-retailer.
Final Grade:
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