The following review contains spoilers for the animated Marvel and Disney project, X-Men ‘97.
It’s difficult to describe the hype and excitement surrounding the release of X-Men ‘97, the newest animated show from Marvel Studios Animation. Marvel shows and movies over the Disney arm’s recent history have already achieved a frenzy level of fandom mania – consider for a moment when there’s been so much furor over a boring filing at the US Copyright office, as has been the case with many Marvel projects. Fans have been anxious, and X-Men ’97 carries with it the added cachet of not just being a product of recent Marvel hype, but also being accountable to the expectations of the show it is following up upon – X-Men: The Animated Series.
X-Men ‘97 meets these expectations and more, delivering a delightful animated show that feels fresh and societally relevant but with a healthy respect and reverence for the mutant shoulders it stands on. It is a much-needed win for Disney and Marvel, and the first two episodes, To Me, My X-Men and Mutant Liberation Begins promise us the audience smart and exciting adventures ahead. If you lived through and grew up watching X-Men: The Animated Series, watching X-Men ’97 feels like you’re back as a kid on Saturdays watching cartoons. The show is about childhood memories brought to life – everything from the animation style to the voice acting is touched with a good kind of nostalgia. Although these stories are new, watching the show feels like you’ve unearthed something from a childhood time capsule, an undiscovered treasure to be savored.
When you have IP, particularly long-running IP, there is always a concern about whether or not your work establishes the world enough in its own right to appeal to the person who perhaps hasn’t seen all 800+ episodes of Star Trek or all the Star Wars iterations, in X-Men’s case, the bazillions of Marvel stories. Does the story stand alone, or are the filmmakers requiring logical jumps and filling in the gaps based on some pre-existing franchise knowledge? Marvel, in particular, suffers from this – their recent works haven’t necessarily been successful as a standalone to casual viewers.
X-Men ’97 doesn’t suffer this fate. You won’t be lost watching the new one if you didn’t see X-Men: The Animated Series. There’s some necessary on-the-nose world-building to give us details about the characters, but it’s similar to what any other TV show has to do to bring us into the world. (And it’s way more subtle than the world-building of something like CBS’ recent Tracker.) The characters, the story, the stakes, and deep themes are all right there if you’re paying attention. Marvel expects its audiences to be able to catch on fast, and that audience respect allows X-Men to get into what really matters: the story and characters.
X-Men ‘97 is not just a happy family reunion where everything is good and well, but it is a story with huge stakes. Our main characters – Cyclops (Ray Chase), Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale), Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith), Wolverine (Cal Dodd), J. P. Karliak (Morph), Rogue (Lenore Zann), and Gambit (A. J. LoCascio) are still reeling from the loss of their beloved Professor Charles Xavier in Graduation Day from X-Men: The Animated Series. Life changes have characters considering their place in the world and with the X-Men, particularly with the almost too-close-to-reality pressure of the anti-mutant group Friends of Humanity.
The X-Men are also hit with a doozy of a dose of reality: it turns out Professor X’s will has left the Xavier Institute to Magneto. By the will of his dear friend, he’s now the one saying the iconic phrase, “To me, My X-Men.” Magneto is not known for being friendly to humans, so it’s a head-spinner when the super-magnet-powered mutant saves mutants and humans. Not only do the mutants question his sincerity, but so does the rest of the world. There’s a big trial, but not a Trial of Magneto like the comic book storyline. Is Magneto “good,” or is it just an act? X-Men ’97 promises we’ll explore this and more.
The trial is interrupted by the FoH, again in a moment that feels awfully close to reality. X-Men straddles the line between fact and fiction with grace, raising subtle questions. The violence from the FoH and one big-bad character called the X-Cutioner, wielding a big radiation gun, has huge implications for the whole team, but especially Storm. There’s the promise that this will play out over the rest of the season.
While all the voice talent for X-Men ’97 shines, and it’s a huge plus that so many of the original talent from X-Men: The Animated Series were able to return, Storm’s voice actress, Alison Sealy-Smith, embodies the character with both power and vulnerability. Matthew Waterson, the new voice actor for Magneto, also does an excellent job channeling the complicated character.
The voices on screen are elevated by animation that pops off the screen. It feels like the original show in every sense of what we see—I’m certain that if you popped on the last episode of X-Men: The Animated Series, the transition between styles would be seamless and feel as if no time had passed at all, let alone almost 30 years. It’s a pure 90s cartoon action hand-drawn aesthetic that works so well. The big and bold color palette, plus super crisp lines, enhances the powers and shows what a cool medium animation is for storytelling.
The X-Men theme is as iconic as any superhero theme. You can’t talk about the series without mentioning it. (Even if you didn’t like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, you likely sat up and paid attention when you heard those notes.) The new revamped theme, thanks to The Newton Brothers, carries the torch for the old series quite successfully. It builds on the legacy cohesively and bridges old and new.
The first two episodes of X-Men ‘97 are pure wins for Marvel’s storytelling and animation. They capture what is so special about the X-Men franchise, delivering animation that feels like grown-up comic books come to life while giving us interesting characters to love (and hate!) with entertaining stories with depth that get to the heart of the good and bad in humanity. Check the show out for yourself. New episodes of X-Men ’97 are released weekly on Wednesday mornings.
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