I finally watched X-Men '97
To me, my fellow readers, as I praise X-Men ‘97!
When I first heard that a continuation revival of X-Men: The Animated Series, a product of the 90s, was being announced. I was skeptical at first and when I heard that it was going to be in the style of how animated show looked like with CG elements I really thought that it was going to be bad. How could I ever be so wrong about a show that I never thought I would love.
Growing up, I was really into X-Men. I remembered watching X2 when I was really young and my parents are obsessed with Hugh Jackman, and every time I think about who Wolverine is, I picture the actor’s beard features and metal claws, I also remembered watching the commercials for Origins: Wolverine and the movie tie-in toy commercials from 2009 and thought that was the coolest shit ever. I didn’t take until I turned 11 years old when I popped in the DVDs and watched X-Men(2000), X2 and The Last Stand back-to-back. I also have the First Class blu-ray somewhere in my basement. I remembered seeing Days of Future Past for the first time when I was 14 and really loved it, and I cried my eyes out when I saw Logan in theaters, it was a beautifully heartbreaking movie about a mutant running out of time and went out like a freaking G. RIGHT??
Anyway, I’ve always appreciated X-Men and didn’t think much about them because I was really into the MCU, I was very Avengers-pilled and I really love Spider-Man, he’s one of my favorite superheroes. Somehow this show makes me LOVE X-Men. I’m telling you, when you watch X-Men ‘97 it’ll make you appreciate the X-Men more and really love this superhero franchise like I do right now. These guys basically said move over, it’s time for the X-Men, baby. All of the X-Men characters independently have a time to shine, particulary Magneto here because what I love about X-Men is Magneto as a character. Seriously, this guy was dropping bars left and right in this show. What’s interesting about Magneto is that he’s a villain who wants the earth to be run by mutants and his mindset being that humans are a disease that has plagued mutants’ existence in stark contrast with Professor X’s dream of human-mutant equality. This show probably has my favorite version of Magneto and that’s because I prefer him with long hair and the big M on his chest with no sleeves, personally it goes so hard.
Other characters that stood out were Cyclops, Jean Grey, Jubilee, Gambit, Beast, Morph, and Nightcrawler. I wanna talk about Scott Summers/Cyclops real quick. This was a character that I was never really a big fan of, and that’s due in part because Fox X-Men did him so dirty. James Marsden differently had the look, but he unfortunately did not have anything to do especially when you consider the fact that he was killed off in The Last Stand for no reason. The core thing that makes a X-Men ‘97 a great show is that the people who made it really love X-Men and you can tell by the cool fights and animation style and how well they’ve written these characters. This show made Cyclops a great character, he’s more than just a mutant who shoots beams out of his eyes, he’s a character given a responsibility to become a leader of the X-Men without Charles Xavier, that is until Magneto comes knocking on their door and professes that he’s taking over Charles’ position, leaving Cyclops in a state of doubt, and he also learns that the mother of his newborn son is not Jean Grey, but Jean’s clone, Madeleine Pryor. My man’s been put through the ringer.
As I kept watching X-Men ‘97, it just gets better and better with each passing episode, I was really engaged with these characters, specifically the X-Men, and when a major death happened in the show, you actually feel it. Specifically in episode 5, “Remember It’, when Genosha is a attacked by a sentinel while some of the X-Men were vacationing. An allegorical statement on family members and loved ones being unexpectedly stripped away from you due to a tragedy that was unforseen. Showrunner Beau DeMayo specifically wrote in elements of real-world tragedies and cultural turning points in a superhero show that was dealt with so much care.
This is the show that really makes you say “Let’s fucking go.” Yeah, suck it, Deadpool & Wolverine!
Now I think it only has two flaws, one being that I think the episodes were a bit too short and that several character arcs were a bit rushed. I think in future seasons they might have longer episodes, but overall the show still serves up a bunch of perfect action scene after perfect action scene, and it ends with a set-up for more exciting stuff coming out.
Believe the hype, X-Men ‘97 rules
9.5/10
Thanks for reading.