This month, fans of the original animated X-Men series will finally get to see those same characters continue on new adventures in X-Men ‘97.
Continuing our look back on the original X-Men animated series, I wanted to review the second part of the pilot episode “Night of the Sentinels.”
Now, I don’t think this episode is quite as strong as the first, but that’s something that can’t really think can be blamed on the showrunners.
I mentioned in my first retro review that this show didn’t have the largest budget. Apparently when these episodes first aired, they had numerous errors in them that had to be fixed afterwards. And to this day there are moments where it’s kind of hard to tell what’s happening sometimes because of the issues with the animation. But as I also said before, I can look past that because the show still has good writing for it’s characters.
READ: ‘X-Men ’97’ Getting Special New Prequel Comic
This episode focuses on the overall dynamic amongst the team as they try to find Jubilee and learn more about the sentinels. This leads to a moment that should be emotional, but doesn’t quite hit and that’s with the character of Morph. Morph isn’t a character from the comics. He was created for the show, and he was made for the sole purpose of allowing the writers to kill a character that didn’t have a fanbase that would get mad at his death.
Even if you’re not familiar with the comics, when Morph dies it’s not that surprising. We’re not given much about him beyond that he just annoys people and we know so little and see so little of him it’s a little hard to care. The episode also does this weird thing where it cuts away from his death to the team heading back to the school only to cut back to a flashback of it minutes later. It’s very odd. But even though the death doesn’t exactly land, it does set up the rivalry between Logan and Scott.
Cyclops is one of the characters who probably got it the worst in the film series. Yet here we start to see the tension properly build with Wolverine. And we also see him start to deal with his own doubts as the team’s leader.
Despite some of the animation issues, we still get a pretty good fight at the end with the team saving Jubilee. We also get one of the weirdest lines ever when Jubilee’s foster parents asks if she’ll visit, and her response is “Does a mall baby chili fries?” I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be “Does a mall baby eat chili fries?” but for some reason the word “eat” got edited out. Honestly even if it was included. it’s still such a bizarre and funny expression.
In all, while “Night of the Sentinels Part 2” isn’t quite as strong as its predecessor due to some budget issues and rushed moments, it still does a good job of establishing this world and these characters. Most importantly, it does a good job at making the viewer want to return to see the characters go on more adventures.
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