The original 1997 show, ‘X-Men: The Animated Series’ is one of the all-time greats of super hero cartoons. Sure, it was only the second best comic book show on the air, but when first place was ‘Batman: The Animated Series’, second place is nothing to sneeze at. Unlike Batman, however, X-Men didn’t spawn an entire animated universe that would go on for years. It had its seasons, then it came to an end.
Until just a few short weeks ago, when out of nowhere, the show was rebooted on Disney+. I don’t even remember seeing an announcement for any sort of trailers! They seriously reboot an all-time comic book classic and shadow dropped it!
Or maybe they teased it in some mediocre MCU movie. Who knows? I’m sure not gonna watch ’em and find out.
Although I never did review Guardians 3… Well, maybe another time.
‘X-Men 97’ is nothing short of a miracle. A reboot of a beloved cartoon with great writing, phenomenal voice acting, and superb animation? In 2024? On Disney+?! It shouldn’t be possible, yet here it is!
Now, to be clear: this is not a review of the show. I will review it, don’t get me wrong, but not yet. As amazing as the series has been so far, as of me writing this article, we’re only three episodes in. Once the series comes closer to its conclusion, we’ll revisit it to see how it actually shook out as a whole.
Today, I want to talk about why the series has seen such success. Most of it is simply because it’s a really good show; amazing how people will choose quality over quantity when presented the option. The other reason is just as simple: timing.
I’ve seen plenty of discourse online that ‘X-Men 97’ is ‘woke’ and that it ruins the X-Men brand. Two statements so mind numbingly stupid that I am convinced they were either grifting or trolling. If not, then I only have one question for these people: what fucking planet are you living on?
No matter the era, be it the 90s or now, X-Men has always been a story about fighting prejudice. Mutants are a pretty blatant stand-in for people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. Sure, the X-Men have fought evil gods and aliens and all manner of weird comic book nonsense, but their true enemy has always been and will always be hate and prejudice.
And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in the last few years, there’s been plenty of hate and prejudice to go around in the real world. What better time to resurrect the superhero team that has always fought against them? The timing couldn’t be better!
There’s a fantastic moment in episode two that proves just how timeless a concept like the X-Men are. For reasons I will not spoil, the X-Men find themselves caught in the middle of a riot. One of the rioters is a masked vigilante calling himself the Executioner, a hateful, cruel, brutal bigot that hates mutants with a violent passion.
While fighting Cyclops, Executioner knocks off his signature visor and starts brutalizing the X-Men’s leader. As he does so, he monologues on why he hates mutant kind. In his eyes, regular people have it far worse than the mutants, yet they’re the ones constantly whining and complaining, whereas normal folks suffer in dignified silence. He goes on and on, shouting all the while as he beats Cyclops bloody.
But Scott doesn’t fight back. If he opened his eyes, he could instantly take down Executioner and every other rioter all in one go. Yet he doesn’t. Because he knows that if he does, he’ll only make things worse for him, for the X-Men, and for all mutant kind. He’ll prove that people who are afraid of them are right to do so. So he takes his beating in silence and listens to Executioner’s whining without argument.
This scene was a fucking gut punch. It’s such an accurate and powerful representation of the never-ending fight against bigotry that it actually hurt to watch. I was already on board with the show after episode one, but upon seeing this scene, I knew that this wasn’t just some cash-grab reboot, but genuine peak X-Men content.
Don’t even get me started on Magneto. I mean, I can’t; those are some major, major, major spoilers I’d be going into. But as a lifetime fan of the character, I can safely say that this show has thus far given us one of the greatest versions of him to date! Every single line of dialogue he has is masterfully written; his speech in episode two had me in tears!
‘X-Men 97’ fully understands what it needs to be. Yes, it’s a cool superhero show with badass fight scenes and awesome dialogue. But more than that, more than anything else, it brings the X-Men into the modern day perfectly! This show from 1997 fits 2024 like a glove, and the creative team behind it have done a downright masterful job of resurrecting it without losing the heart that made it so important in the first place.
Even if you’ve never seen the original run, I would highly encourage you to watch the reboot. So far it has been crushing it, and I have faith it will stick the landing. This is the best X-Men content we’ve gotten beyond the comics in a long, long time!
Although they did nerf Rogue’s… assets. But nothing is perfect.
Unless you’re Gambit.
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