X-men ‘97 Review
Holy cow. I know how I feel but I’m not sure I know how to put it into words. X-Men ‘97 was phenomenal. This series is kind of a reboot of the series that ran from 1992-1997. I wasn’t sure about it going in, but it exceeded all expectations that could’ve been made. Simply put, this was a great start for the X-Men as they become a bigger part of what Marvel Studios has planned.
Truthfully, this follows generally the same plot as most other X-Men content out there. The X-men are faced with an impossible task: find peace between humans and mutants. Somehow this story never gets old, no matter how it’s told, and it can usually be done very, very well. Magneto has taken control of the X-men as Professor Charles Xavier was killed at the end of the original series, and it’s a dynamic we haven’t seen before.
Now, I haven’t read any X-Men comics at all so my understanding of the lore and everything like that is not all that deep. However, the X-Men I have seen have always known how to write some great characters. In the early 2000s trilogy, it was Wolverine who took the main stage, in the 2010s it was Professor X, Magneto and Mystique, and now it’s Cyclops. The Fox movies did Cyclops so incredibly dirty because he is such a great character. He struggles with wanting to leave the X-Men to start a family and leading the X-Men the best he could in honor of Professor X.
The complex relationship that Professor X and Magneto have is huge in this show. Xavier’s want to have a peaceful world with Mutants and humans alike is obviously the ideal world, but Magneto’s world has mutants dominating. Like any good X-Men story, these two beliefs go back and forth throughout the entire show. Is Magneto right and justified as someone who has been at the hands of humans at their lowest and most evil, or is there a peaceful solution to all of this?
The moral conflict in X-Men media is what makes it so good, but with this show in particular, the animation sets it apart. For me, animation is always the ideal way to tell a story. There are simply no limitations to what can be done. It’s the reason why I love the Spider-Verse movies and the TV show Invincible so much. Those, along with X-Men ‘97, push the boundaries of animation. Bright colors, and fast paced action make this impossible to look away from.
I think I’ve talked enough about how amazing this show is, so it’s time to talk about the one mediocre thing in this show. Warning, there will be spoilers from now on. For me, the worst thing about this show was its villain. He felt very underdeveloped and kind of like a surprise during the last three episodes. The classic X-Men villain is obviously Magneto, but with Professor X gone in space for the majority of the show, Magneto was given the keys to the X-Men. He tried to be good and did an okay job at it. For a lot of the show there was no clear villain, Mr. Sinister showed up in a few episodes but he was just a pawn. When the true villain did show up, he was almost overshadowed by Magneto going back to his old way of wanting mutants to be dominant over humans.
Even humans were somewhat a villain as they always are in X-Men media and they definitely played their part here, but a character named Bastion was the main villain, the mastermind behind it all. Like I stated before, I am not deeply immersed in the lore of the X-Men so I had never heard of this character before. Bastion was born with the ability to talk to machines so naturally Professor X tried to recruit him to be a part of the X-Men. Bastion’s mother denied Xavier the chance to teach Bastion, but she never told Bastion. This made Bastion despise the X-Men and what they stood for. His plan was for human domination and to wipe out all of the mutants.
Now, this is a story that has been told and one we’ve seen on the big screen, most notably in X2: X-Men United, and X-Men: First Class, but this might’ve been the best way it’s been told. Instead of doing it all himself, Bastion turned ordinary humans into sentinels. During the final two episodes, we see Bastion fleshed out as not even the X-Men knew who was behind everything, but I think I would’ve liked it a little more if we could’ve seen Bastion the whole way through the series.
Overall, Marvel has done a great job with the X-Men after Disney acquired Fox a few years ago. If this is a taste of what we’re going to see from the X-Men franchise going forward, I cannot wait. I did leave out a lot in my review, so please go watch this yourself. It’s not a long series, but it is definitely worth your time. The first season of X-Men ‘97 gets a 95 from me.
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