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Description
X-MEN '97
Created by: Beau DeMayo.
Produced by: Danielle Costa and Sean Gantka.

Starring: Ray Chase, Jennifer Hale, Alison Sealy-Smith, Cal Dodd, J. P. Karliak, Lenore Zann, George Buza, A. J. LoCascio, Holly Chou, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Matthew Waterson and Adrian Hough.

Based on the long running X-Men franchise published by: Marvel Comics.
Rated: PG (contains fantasy violence and illusions to adult talking points).

After turning Star Wars into a punchline, the MCU into a Z-List hellhole, and taking a blowtorch to their legacy films, the Walt Disney Corporation has finally turned to the only profitable franchises they have left at this point - the ones owned by 20th Century Fox. The first one out of the gate is X-Men ‘97: a continuation of the beloved ‘X-Men: the Animated Series’ that was a hallmark of 90s kids culture; right alongside Batman: the Animated Series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, McDonald’s Happy Meals, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Disney Renaissance, Pokémon and swapping football stickers on the playground.

Just to get this out of the way (so it doesn’t bog down the rest of the review) we recently marathoned all 5 seasons of X-Men TAS and it sort of holds up after all these years. There's lots of animation inconsistencies, characters acting out of character and it really should have ended after the Dark Phoenix Saga, but still worthy of its title of third best superhero cartoon ever made - and when Batman TAS and Spider-Man TAS are in first and second, third place ain't so bad.

Ever since ‘97 was announced, there's been this uncertainty and doubt regarding its overall quality and content. That’s likely a reaction and distrust of Disney due to their poor handling of their remakes, Marvel and Star Wars. I mean, if you gave people the choice between Disney and Michael Bay to make your entertainment these days, most people would choose Michael Bay. Sure, it would be terrible, but at least you’d get some big tiddies and explosions.

Let's address the elephant in the room: Is X-Men ‘97 “Woke” in any capacity? Based on the two episodes so far, I wanna say no. However, there’s 7 more episodes and a second season to go, so ‘the juries still out on that one.’ I know someone will point to the segment in episode 2, where the Friends of Humanity storm the UN building, as some kind of parallel to ‘recent events.’ Under normal circumstances, I’d be inclined to agree, but scenes like that were commonplace in X-Men TAS. I’m in a generous mood, so let’s just say it's a coincidence.

While you’ve got me on the subject of diversity, I was surprised to see the FoH have expanded their ranks to include women. Sure, there were black members in the original cartoon, but the inclusion of women is a nice way to show assholes come in all shapes and sizes… Okay, that came out sounding wrong, but you get my point.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, one of my biggest issues with ‘97 is that it's guilty of ‘Force Awakens Syndrome.’ Episode 1 is essentially, note for note, Night of the Sentinels Part 1. Both episodes involve a teenage Mutant being attacked by some Anti-Mutant entity, only to be rescued by Cyclops and the X-Men. They wake up in the mansion to see Beast conducting an experiment upside down. Then, the leader of the X-Men consults with a female political figure, who is currently doing her exercises in a zoom call. New kid enters the danger room where we meet Wolverine for the first time. The New Kid runs away which all leads to the X-Men fighting Sentinels. Like I said, the exact same premise. The key difference of course is that Jubilee was a much more likeable character.

Ever since Kevin Smith's ‘Masters of the Universe,’ people don’t trust trailers anymore, because they show you all the cool bits to lure you in, then replace everyone with Tumblr bloggers in the actual series. So when Alberto Del Rio flumped his way onto the screen, with his zoomer haircut and bad attitude, I said out loud: "You just couldn't help yourself could you, Disney?" Fortunately, for the viewing audience, he's quickly ejected by the end of the first episode; not before giving Jubilee a tacky looking business card. I know exactly where he can stick that piece of cardboard as well.

The first episode also shares another problem Night of the Sentinels had, and that’s the exposition dumps. Essentially a character will show up on screen and proceed to speak aloud their Wikipedia article, just so the audience knows what's going on. Gee, it's not like there is a TV series that consists of 5 Seasons on Disney+ these newcomers could watch or anything, but there I go again thinking out loud.

The second episode, however, is where things really pick up in quality and the show begins to flex its muscles. It’s something of a loose adaptation of ‘the trial of Magneto’ from the comics, but condensed for time and ends with the set up for Madelyne Pryor. The Marvel Animated Series has been resurrected after all these years, and the first they do is set up another fucking Clone Saga!

One thing I was heavily critical about was the rather piss-poor artstyle, as the previews left a lot to be desired. Having seen this thing in motion, it is actually better than the previews and trailers have suggested. Unfortunately, it's clearly not 2D cell animation, but a weird 3D hybrid to create the illusion that this was drawn like the original series. I looked up who the animation studio was for ‘97 and was shocked to learn it was Studio Mir: The same chaps behind Legend of Korra and My Adventures with Superman. How do you go from gorgeous 2D animation, to this pseudo-3D style?

Oh wait. Disney are cheap bastards. My mistake.

If Marvel’s What If..? was glorified GameCube cutscenes, then we've upgraded to Xbox 360 cutscenes with this series. I was also reminded of that TV series “Archer” by the art style. I should probably watch that down the road.

In terms of capturing the late 90s look and feel, X-Men ‘97, it doesn’t quite stick the landing. Cyclops’ backwards baseball cap and Gambit’s crop top are on point, but Jubilee uses a bit of modern slang and Bishop now looks like Drake.

“Started from the bottom, built myself a time machine, now we’re here!”

Characterization was more or less on point with the original cartoon. Not all of the original cast have returned, due to either being dead or not wanting to reprise their role. No offence to Alyson Court, I loved the shit out of you as Claire Redfield in Resident Evil, but your presence was severely missed in these two episodes. Holly Chou does an ok job anyway, so I can get over it.

Gambit remains the horn dog that I remembered, and Beasts’ endless need to quote famous people is present and accounted for. Bishop is just ‘kind of there.’ I get the feeling they’ve added him because they needed more black representation, which is weird since Storm is one of the strongest members of the time. Also, I’d have included Spike from X-Men Evolution, as he’s a very underrated character.

Speaking of Storm, I've actually missed the concept of her yelling at nature, like some regional manager yelling at shelf stackers at your local Tesco. Alison Sealy-Smith has not missed a beat as her performance carries some of the more emotional aspects of the story quite well. It was sad to see her taken out of the series by having her powers removed, but we all know she's gonna be back for the season finale. I did think at first it was an homage to the original cartoon, as Beast and Morph were removed from the series and didn't reunite with the team until later on. However, she also lost her powers in the comics, so nice reference.

Rogue may have lost her cake, but Lenore Zann retains that infectious southern accent we all adored back in the day. Sure, she sounds slightly aged, but that’s only natural, given that most of these actors are probably pushing their sixties now. Slide side tangent, but this is something that's always bugged me about X-Men in terms of Rogue’s powers. If she desperately wants to touch somebody and have a steady relationship with Gambit, couldn't they put one of those collars around her neck that neutralises her powers? Yes, it's slightly demeaning to use that, but if Scott can wear that ridiculous looking visor, then Rogue could use an adapted version of the collars technology.

Well, I know the reason why: Because the series needs more melodrama.

Probably the most underutilised character in these two episodes is Wolverine himself. While it is fantastic to hear Cal Dodd’s take on this character again, as it's my favourite Wolverine voice for the record, Father Time has not been kind to his vocal chords. Apparently they've asked him to do an impression of Charles Bronson for this performance, as it was apparently the original inspiration for Wolverine, but he sounds more like Greasepit from Biker Mice From Mars.

As for the Morph controversy, beyond a few utterances of the word ‘they,’ the whole non-binary thing wasn't really brought up in these two episodes. Still, I'd rather they do that than pull a High Guardian Spice where everything comes to a screeching halt, so we get a ten minute lecture on something people could easily Google in half the time and aggravation.

It was also nice to be reminded of a time when Cyclops actually did something besides dying or being cucked by Wolverine. While Norm Spencer sadly passed away, Ray Chase does a great impression of his performance and excels in the role. You can really feel the pressure on Scott’s shoulders as he’s now leading the Xavier Institute and the X-Men themselves… Well, he would have been, but we’ll get to that in a minute. He does get two of the best moments in episode 1, as more creative uses of his Optic Blasts are employed and it was beyond badass.

However, the absolute MVP of ‘97 is Magneto himself. While watching TAS, I noticed he was the least featured character (besides Deadpool) as the likes of Mystique and Mr.Sinister got more screen time than he did. These two episodes have more than made up for that in my opinion. The adaptation of the Trial of Magneto and his speech from orbit was a complete chef's kiss. Like Cyclops, this is also a new voice for the Master of Magnetism, as David Hemblen passed away in 2020. Matthew Waterson does fill the role nicely, though I'm honestly surprised they didn't adapt the voice to sound similar to Sir Ian McKellen.

I’m not too crazy about his new outfit as it looks beyond ridiculous. Then again, you could make the argument: “Yeah, but they ALL look ridiculous.”

The writers in particular have said that the series will be allowed to stand as its own thing and not be tied to the MCU in any way imaginable. However, given the appearance of the modern Stark Industries logo has me doubting that claim, for I believe it was called Stark International during the 90s. Not to mention the presence of the WHiH news network: a regular feature in the MCU, and the fact Avengers 5: [Name to be Determined] is just around the corner, tells me this incarnation of the team will be included in yet another 3 hour cinematic circlejerk.

Speaking of the MCU, I’m glad none of its trademark ‘humour’ was included in the formula for ‘97. There’s jokes, but none of them wanted me to pencil the writer’s in for a sudden visit from the Angel of Death. The closest you get is a gag about Apocalypse, but that actually made me laugh.

I’ve got my eye on you, ‘97.

I will say these first two episodes left me with more questions than answers. Things like why is Bishop back from the future? Why is it that allegedly 4 months have passed since the Season 5 finale, yet Jean Grey is suddenly 9 months pregnant? Why has Jubilee gone from looking like an adult Dora the Explorer, to finally looking like a Chinese teenage girl? Well, to be fair, we can blame that more on the ever-changing art style of the original series. My girl Jubilee looks correct now is all I'm saying. That's right. I like Jubilee. fucking blow me!

Where was I? Oh yeah, why is Bolivar Trask developing Sentinels again, despite the fact he vowed to never do so again when Master Mold tried to have him killed? How the hell in four months did Rogue go from hating Magneto, to suddenly: “I want me a piece of that!” Yes, I know it’s from the comics, but he’s an old man and she’s barely 20. A massive “dude, no!” situation right there. Also, I feel this relationship is a massive retcon, but I digress.

And the last question: Is Charles Xavier actually dead, or is his death certificate and eventual funeral a cover story for the fact he's gone to live with his space emperor waifu and probably doesn't want to come home? Then again, if you gave me a choice of staying on Earth, or living with a hottie like Lilandra, I would have packed my bags before I could finish saying: "I come in peace of that ass!"

(Current Conclusion).
If we judge this on the two episodes so far, I have a good feeling about this series. Apparently, if this is a commercial success, there’s the potential other properties could be given a revival; such as Spider-Man: The Animated Series, so it could finally get the conclusion it desperately needed. I say that because, out of the two of them, Spidey was left on a cliffhanger. I get it, X-Men was a VERY popular show, but the story was finished. It would be like continuing the 1980’s TMNT cartoon to guarantee the ratings, but now I'm just giving Nickelodeon ideas.

Though the biggest sin against X-Men ‘97 is the fact the very first seconds of the show did not contain the iconic quote: “Previously on X-Men.” Because of that, 0/10. Worst show ever made!!!

That's a joke in case you can't read between the lines

Overall, this is a solid start to a revival franchise. Good job, Disney... Now don’t fuck it up. Oh, who am I kidding? Wolverine’s gonna be joining the Pride Parade and Captain Marvel will be made the team leader by the end of episode four.

Description
X-MEN '97
Created by: Beau DeMayo.
Produced by: Danielle Costa and Sean Gantka.

Starring: Ray Chase, Jennifer Hale, Alison Sealy-Smith, Cal Dodd, J. P. Karliak, Lenore Zann, George Buza, A. J. LoCascio, Holly Chou, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Matthew Waterson and Adrian Hough.

Based on the long running X-Men franchise published by: Marvel Comics.
Rated: PG (contains fantasy violence and illusions to adult talking points).

After turning Star Wars into a punchline, the MCU into a Z-List hellhole, and taking a blowtorch to their legacy films, the Walt Disney Corporation has finally turned to the only profitable franchises they have left at this point - the ones owned by 20th Century Fox. The first one out of the gate is X-Men ‘97: a continuation of the beloved ‘X-Men: the Animated Series’ that was a hallmark of 90s kids culture; right alongside Batman: the Animated Series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, McDonald’s Happy Meals, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Disney Renaissance, Pokémon and swapping football stickers on the playground.

Just to get this out of the way (so it doesn’t bog down the rest of the review) we recently marathoned all 5 seasons of X-Men TAS and it sort of holds up after all these years. There's lots of animation inconsistencies, characters acting out of character and it really should have ended after the Dark Phoenix Saga, but still worthy of its title of third best superhero cartoon ever made - and when Batman TAS and Spider-Man TAS are in first and second, third place ain't so bad.

Ever since ‘97 was announced, there's been this uncertainty and doubt regarding its overall quality and content. That’s likely a reaction and distrust of Disney due to their poor handling of their remakes, Marvel and Star Wars. I mean, if you gave people the choice between Disney and Michael Bay to make your entertainment these days, most people would choose Michael Bay. Sure, it would be terrible, but at least you’d get some big tiddies and explosions.

Let's address the elephant in the room: Is X-Men ‘97 “Woke” in any capacity? Based on the two episodes so far, I wanna say no. However, there’s 7 more episodes and a second season to go, so ‘the juries still out on that one.’ I know someone will point to the segment in episode 2, where the Friends of Humanity storm the UN building, as some kind of parallel to ‘recent events.’ Under normal circumstances, I’d be inclined to agree, but scenes like that were commonplace in X-Men TAS. I’m in a generous mood, so let’s just say it's a coincidence.

While you’ve got me on the subject of diversity, I was surprised to see the FoH have expanded their ranks to include women. Sure, there were black members in the original cartoon, but the inclusion of women is a nice way to show assholes come in all shapes and sizes… Okay, that came out sounding wrong, but you get my point.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, one of my biggest issues with ‘97 is that it's guilty of ‘Force Awakens Syndrome.’ Episode 1 is essentially, note for note, Night of the Sentinels Part 1. Both episodes involve a teenage Mutant being attacked by some Anti-Mutant entity, only to be rescued by Cyclops and the X-Men. They wake up in the mansion to see Beast conducting an experiment upside down. Then, the leader of the X-Men consults with a female political figure, who is currently doing her exercises in a zoom call. New kid enters the danger room where we meet Wolverine for the first time. The New Kid runs away which all leads to the X-Men fighting Sentinels. Like I said, the exact same premise. The key difference of course is that Jubilee was a much more likeable character.

Ever since Kevin Smith's ‘Masters of the Universe,’ people don’t trust trailers anymore, because they show you all the cool bits to lure you in, then replace everyone with Tumblr bloggers in the actual series. So when Alberto Del Rio flumped his way onto the screen, with his zoomer haircut and bad attitude, I said out loud: "You just couldn't help yourself could you, Disney?" Fortunately, for the viewing audience, he's quickly ejected by the end of the first episode; not before giving Jubilee a tacky looking business card. I know exactly where he can stick that piece of cardboard as well.

The first episode also shares another problem Night of the Sentinels had, and that’s the exposition dumps. Essentially a character will show up on screen and proceed to speak aloud their Wikipedia article, just so the audience knows what's going on. Gee, it's not like there is a TV series that consists of 5 Seasons on Disney+ these newcomers could watch or anything, but there I go again thinking out loud.

The second episode, however, is where things really pick up in quality and the show begins to flex its muscles. It’s something of a loose adaptation of ‘the trial of Magneto’ from the comics, but condensed for time and ends with the set up for Madelyne Pryor. The Marvel Animated Series has been resurrected after all these years, and the first they do is set up another fucking Clone Saga!

One thing I was heavily critical about was the rather piss-poor artstyle, as the previews left a lot to be desired. Having seen this thing in motion, it is actually better than the previews and trailers have suggested. Unfortunately, it's clearly not 2D cell animation, but a weird 3D hybrid to create the illusion that this was drawn like the original series. I looked up who the animation studio was for ‘97 and was shocked to learn it was Studio Mir: The same chaps behind Legend of Korra and My Adventures with Superman. How do you go from gorgeous 2D animation, to this pseudo-3D style?

Oh wait. Disney are cheap bastards. My mistake.

If Marvel’s What If..? was glorified GameCube cutscenes, then we've upgraded to Xbox 360 cutscenes with this series. I was also reminded of that TV series “Archer” by the art style. I should probably watch that down the road.

In terms of capturing the late 90s look and feel, X-Men ‘97, it doesn’t quite stick the landing. Cyclops’ backwards baseball cap and Gambit’s crop top are on point, but Jubilee uses a bit of modern slang and Bishop now looks like Drake.

“Started from the bottom, built myself a time machine, now we’re here!”

Characterization was more or less on point with the original cartoon. Not all of the original cast have returned, due to either being dead or not wanting to reprise their role. No offence to Alyson Court, I loved the shit out of you as Claire Redfield in Resident Evil, but your presence was severely missed in these two episodes. Holly Chou does an ok job anyway, so I can get over it.

Gambit remains the horn dog that I remembered, and Beasts’ endless need to quote famous people is present and accounted for. Bishop is just ‘kind of there.’ I get the feeling they’ve added him because they needed more black representation, which is weird since Storm is one of the strongest members of the time. Also, I’d have included Spike from X-Men Evolution, as he’s a very underrated character.

Speaking of Storm, I've actually missed the concept of her yelling at nature, like some regional manager yelling at shelf stackers at your local Tesco. Alison Sealy-Smith has not missed a beat as her performance carries some of the more emotional aspects of the story quite well. It was sad to see her taken out of the series by having her powers removed, but we all know she's gonna be back for the season finale. I did think at first it was an homage to the original cartoon, as Beast and Morph were removed from the series and didn't reunite with the team until later on. However, she also lost her powers in the comics, so nice reference.

Rogue may have lost her cake, but Lenore Zann retains that infectious southern accent we all adored back in the day. Sure, she sounds slightly aged, but that’s only natural, given that most of these actors are probably pushing their sixties now. Slide side tangent, but this is something that's always bugged me about X-Men in terms of Rogue’s powers. If she desperately wants to touch somebody and have a steady relationship with Gambit, couldn't they put one of those collars around her neck that neutralises her powers? Yes, it's slightly demeaning to use that, but if Scott can wear that ridiculous looking visor, then Rogue could use an adapted version of the collars technology.

Well, I know the reason why: Because the series needs more melodrama.

Probably the most underutilised character in these two episodes is Wolverine himself. While it is fantastic to hear Cal Dodd’s take on this character again, as it's my favourite Wolverine voice for the record, Father Time has not been kind to his vocal chords. Apparently they've asked him to do an impression of Charles Bronson for this performance, as it was apparently the original inspiration for Wolverine, but he sounds more like Greasepit from Biker Mice From Mars.

As for the Morph controversy, beyond a few utterances of the word ‘they,’ the whole non-binary thing wasn't really brought up in these two episodes. Still, I'd rather they do that than pull a High Guardian Spice where everything comes to a screeching halt, so we get a ten minute lecture on something people could easily Google in half the time and aggravation.

It was also nice to be reminded of a time when Cyclops actually did something besides dying or being cucked by Wolverine. While Norm Spencer sadly passed away, Ray Chase does a great impression of his performance and excels in the role. You can really feel the pressure on Scott’s shoulders as he’s now leading the Xavier Institute and the X-Men themselves… Well, he would have been, but we’ll get to that in a minute. He does get two of the best moments in episode 1, as more creative uses of his Optic Blasts are employed and it was beyond badass.

However, the absolute MVP of ‘97 is Magneto himself. While watching TAS, I noticed he was the least featured character (besides Deadpool) as the likes of Mystique and Mr.Sinister got more screen time than he did. These two episodes have more than made up for that in my opinion. The adaptation of the Trial of Magneto and his speech from orbit was a complete chef's kiss. Like Cyclops, this is also a new voice for the Master of Magnetism, as David Hemblen passed away in 2020. Matthew Waterson does fill the role nicely, though I'm honestly surprised they didn't adapt the voice to sound similar to Sir Ian McKellen.

I’m not too crazy about his new outfit as it looks beyond ridiculous. Then again, you could make the argument: “Yeah, but they ALL look ridiculous.”

The writers in particular have said that the series will be allowed to stand as its own thing and not be tied to the MCU in any way imaginable. However, given the appearance of the modern Stark Industries logo has me doubting that claim, for I believe it was called Stark International during the 90s. Not to mention the presence of the WHiH news network: a regular feature in the MCU, and the fact Avengers 5: [Name to be Determined] is just around the corner, tells me this incarnation of the team will be included in yet another 3 hour cinematic circlejerk.

Speaking of the MCU, I’m glad none of its trademark ‘humour’ was included in the formula for ‘97. There’s jokes, but none of them wanted me to pencil the writer’s in for a sudden visit from the Angel of Death. The closest you get is a gag about Apocalypse, but that actually made me laugh.

I’ve got my eye on you, ‘97.

I will say these first two episodes left me with more questions than answers. Things like why is Bishop back from the future? Why is it that allegedly 4 months have passed since the Season 5 finale, yet Jean Grey is suddenly 9 months pregnant? Why has Jubilee gone from looking like an adult Dora the Explorer, to finally looking like a Chinese teenage girl? Well, to be fair, we can blame that more on the ever-changing art style of the original series. My girl Jubilee looks correct now is all I'm saying. That's right. I like Jubilee. fucking blow me!

Where was I? Oh yeah, why is Bolivar Trask developing Sentinels again, despite the fact he vowed to never do so again when Master Mold tried to have him killed? How the hell in four months did Rogue go from hating Magneto, to suddenly: “I want me a piece of that!” Yes, I know it’s from the comics, but he’s an old man and she’s barely 20. A massive “dude, no!” situation right there. Also, I feel this relationship is a massive retcon, but I digress.

And the last question: Is Charles Xavier actually dead, or is his death certificate and eventual funeral a cover story for the fact he's gone to live with his space emperor waifu and probably doesn't want to come home? Then again, if you gave me a choice of staying on Earth, or living with a hottie like Lilandra, I would have packed my bags before I could finish saying: "I come in peace of that ass!"

(Current Conclusion).
If we judge this on the two episodes so far, I have a good feeling about this series. Apparently, if this is a commercial success, there’s the potential other properties could be given a revival; such as Spider-Man: The Animated Series, so it could finally get the conclusion it desperately needed. I say that because, out of the two of them, Spidey was left on a cliffhanger. I get it, X-Men was a VERY popular show, but the story was finished. It would be like continuing the 1980’s TMNT cartoon to guarantee the ratings, but now I'm just giving Nickelodeon ideas.

Though the biggest sin against X-Men ‘97 is the fact the very first seconds of the show did not contain the iconic quote: “Previously on X-Men.” Because of that, 0/10. Worst show ever made!!!

That's a joke in case you can't read between the lines

Overall, this is a solid start to a revival franchise. Good job, Disney... Now don’t fuck it up. Oh, who am I kidding? Wolverine’s gonna be joining the Pride Parade and Captain Marvel will be made the team leader by the end of episode four.