In the wake of Disney releasing “X-Men ‘97’s” first trailer back in February, there was certainly an air of worry about whether the show would be a cheap knockoff sequel to the original “X-Men: The Animated Series” from the mid-1990s, largely due to the choppy animation in the trailer.
This worry was quickly quashed with the release of the first two episodes on March 20, and now that the series’ ten episodes are out, it is safe to say “X-Men ‘97” is more than good.
“X-Men ‘97” picks up directly where the original ended, with Charles Xavier’s “death.”.
Due to the loss of their leader, the “X-Men’s” team dynamic is thrown into disarray.
Trained to lead the team, the line of succession temporarily falls on Scott Summers/Cyclops.
The first episode ends with Erik Lensherr/Magneto appearing with Xavier’s last will, which bequeaths the metal-controlling mutant not only the mutant school but also leadership over the X-Men.
Elsewhere, a mysterious figure begins a mission to kickstart a global mutant genocide.
Spinning an expansive tale
Creator Beau DeMayo has constructed arguably the perfect follow-up to the 1997 cartoon and takes it to dark corners for such a brightly-coloured cartoon.
Though the initial episodes are centred on the friction between the X-Men and they’re having to follow the orders of Lensherr, who was a major antagonist in the original cartoon, the series’ story naturally becomes much bigger than their inner squabble.
Viewers will go through a gauntlet of plot points, such as Jean Grey’s clone, the Rogue-Lensherr-Gambit love triangle, the reintroduction of the mutant-hunting Sentinel robots, Lensherr’s inner turmoil over how he thinks humans will never accept mutants versus embodying Xavier’s peaceful ideals, and so on.
In ten episodes, “X-Men ‘97” sets up a lot of characters and story arcs, and for the most part, it succeeds, with the season ending in a three-parter, titled “Tolerance is Extinction”, that brings everything full circle.
Vehicle for commentary
For those with the media literacy skills of a toddler, “X-Men ‘97” will certainly appear, in modern nomenclature, “woke” for its unabashed social commentary.
For the rest of us, DeMayo’s application and transposing of reality into the series are par for the course.
The X-Men, from their genesis on the pages of comic books in the 1960s, has always been a representation of social issues.
So much so that Professor X and Magneto became parallels of American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, respectively.
In “X-Men ‘97”, the series is very unsubtle with its writing, drawing a vivid parallel between its fictional issues involving humans and the friction with their evolved brethren, the superpowered mutants, with our real-world problems faced by different races, religions, nations, and genders.
“Under all that fashionable sympathy, normal people know the more room we make for your kind, the less we leave for ours. So we might wear tolerance on our sleeves, but we know the naked truth. Tolerance is extinction,” barks one of the series’ villains, Henry Gyrich, in an episode.
There was a slight change in the wording for the anti-mutant sentiments in “X-Men ’97”, and it could be mistaken for an incendiary speech often heard here in the real world.
Fatal attractions
For all its social commentary and rhetoric, up to the final two episodes, there was a very obvious flaw with the series.
What was being shown was too sanitized and failed to match what was being told.
Big events transpire, and major deaths occur, but there is no blood in sight.
Halfway into the season, Genosha, a sovereign island state for mutants, is attacked by Sentinels, evoking images and feelings of real-world mass casualties.
Other than the covered bodies, rubble, and tears, it was all too clean.
“X-Men ‘97” felt like it was being reined in by Disney, forced to be family-friendly, but then it happened.
At the end of the ninth episode, blood is drawn when an X-Men attacks a major character, and the impact is immediate.
Right afterwards, another moment of extreme violence, ripped straight from the comic books, splashes on the screen.
Where were these moments of shock and horror earlier in the show?
As “X-Men ‘97’s” real audience is men and women in their late 20s and early 40s who grew up watching the original cartoon as young children and teenagers in 1997, the series should have employed these moments more.
Minor nitpicks about the lack of violence aside, “X-Men ‘97” is still a feat in how a series from 1997 has been successfully imported into 2024 with stellar voice acting, animation, and storytelling as its foundation.
Though the reason behind Disney’s firing of DeMayo before the series premiere may still be a mystery if the second season does not soar as high as this, it will not be that much of a mystery.
“X-Men ‘97” is streaming exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar.
