ANY sense of worry due to the first trailer of X-Men ‘97 has been washed away now that all 10 of Disney’s latest Marvel series is out. A sequel to the original X-Men: The Animated Series that aired from 1992 to 1997, X-Men ‘97 is the invigorated and updated sequel for the modern 21st century.
The series 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 with 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 series, and takes it to dark corners for such a brightly-coloured piece of animation.
Though the initial episodes are centred on the friction between the X-Men and them having to follow the orders of Lensherr, who was a major antagonist in the original cartoon, the story line 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 10 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, while setting up future seasons.
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 is par for the course.
The X-Men, from their genesis on the pages of comic books in the 1960s, have always been a representation of social issues.
In X-Men ‘97, the series is unsubtle with its writing, drawing a vivid parallel between its fictional issues involving humans and the friction with their evolved brethren, the super-powered mutants, with 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.
A slight change in the wording for the anti-mutant sentiments in X-Men ‘97 and it could be mistaken as an incendiary speech often heard in the real world.
Fatal attractions
For all its social commentary and rhetoric, up to the final two episodes, there was an obvious flaw with the series. What was being shown was too sanitised and failed to match what was being said.
Halfway into the season, Genosha – a sovereign island state for mutants – is attacked by Sentinels. Other than the covered bodies, rubble and tears, it was all too clean.
X-Men ‘97 felt like it was being reigned in by Disney, forced to be family-friendly, but then it happens. At the end of the ninth episode, blood is finally spilled in strokes of brutal violence.
Where were these moments of shock and horror earlier in the show?
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 to 2024 with stellar voice acting, animation and storytelling as its foundation.
X-Men ‘97 is streaming all 10 episodes exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar.
