X-Men '97 Episodes 1-3: a rambling review

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

The 90s xmen is so fascinating. People nowadays pretend everything is political meanwhile 90s shows had bigots protesting the existence of minorities.

[@Faction.Paradox]

Those people will never see themselves in the protesters. I've even seen some people try to say that minorites are the bigots bothering THEM

[@tmage23]

The comic was a mirror of the civil rights movement of the 1960s down to the philosophical differences of Xavier and Magneto representing MLK and Malcolm X. You can't properly tell an X-Men story without being political

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

​@@tmage23 Yes, xmen ARE civil rights. Also that's actually a misconception, Xavier and Magneto are actually based on Jewish leaders David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin, not MLK and MX. But the latter are more known civil rights movement leaders.

[@kevinpeterson6468]

@@HotDogTimeMachine385 if those two which one wanted coexistence and which one was more of a revolutionary?

[@nothx512]

It's fictional

[@theshadowdirector]

The line 'normal people have it hard too' stood out to me as I've heard that sentiment used before, not so much as a reason given for active expressions of hatred but as an excuse for people not to have to care or engage.

[@nightcrawler195]

While I agree the animation in the original is janky at times. The storylines and the depictions of characters were some of the best that have been done. I love the OG series even with it's flaws. But, this new one and the tones/themes they are exploring are why I love the X-Men.

[@pious83]

TAS was also at it's best when it did it's own stories, over the adaptations IE Time Fugitives or Beyond Good and Evil.

[@citrinedragonfly]

TAS is still the best adaptation of the Phoenix Saga and the Dark Phoenix saga, no contest.

[@pious83]

@@citrinedragonfly Something the movies consistently fail at.

[@borjankosarac3645]

“One Man’s Worth” is especially a good case for it, as it’s inception predates the “Age of Apocalypse” comic story that most people (incorrectly) believe it to be an adaptation of.

[@Starbush69]

As someone who has their nostalgia goggles permanently glued to their face when it comes to the original 90s X-Men Animated Series, I really enjoy this show so far. 😅 But I also appreciate how it feels like it’s grown up along with the audience who tuned into the OG series. The animation reminds me of Invincible a bit, which is another superhero show streaming on Amazon Prime. It still feels like X-Men in terms of its core message/themes. And speaking of themes, I friggin love the way they brought back the intro music. Like the Doctor Who theme, they kept the same familiar beats. But also added some enhancements.

[@nick5661]

The original cartoon was my introduction to the X-Men that's why it I love it so much. I think that storms voice actress was the only one I wanted because she is overdramatic and I love it.

[@citrinedragonfly]

I absolutely adored everything in X-Men '97. The original animated series was my first introduction to the X-Men, and it's so cool now, after decades of reading and trying to read as much as I can to watch this new iteration and be able to go "oh, they're going to pull from this arc!", and I'm so excited to see how they're going to adapt it. Mags running the school was a big thing in New Mutants after his trail at the Hague, which was what episode 2 was adapting. That's where Xavier was shot and nearly killed, but Lilandra took him into space to heal, and he made Magneto promise to watch over the New Mutants and the school. I love that he's wearing that era's costume now! I love how Morph is being properly utilized as a character now. Having Jean faint the moment we see her again is such a fun callback, lampshading what they used to do to Jean on the regular in the old series. I also really like how Scott's character is at least partially redeemed in the animated version of Madelyn's story, since he straight up says he doesn't want to abandon Nate the way he felt abandoned, and he hates that they have to send him to the future to keep him safe. I also appreciate the reconciliation between Jean and Maddie, and between Scott and Maddie, to a point. You'd think Scott would be more likely to believe the mother of his child, even if he ended up being wrong. I LOVED the horror-show mansion that the Goblyn Queen made, and I love that Roberto's kind of hanging out with Jubilee. Just please, don't call him Bobby - that's my one critique of more recent X-stories. Bobby is Bobby Drake. Roberto DaCosta was 'Berto when they called him by a nickname in New Mutants, at least in the beginning.

[@callistocharon]

I remember strongly as a kid latching onto X-Men because it was the only super hero movie with girl characters who had powers as strong or stronger than the boy characters, but then Jean Grey would be laid out with a migraine or something and Rogue or Storm would get knocked out or have to fly away from the action before they got going because Storm is OP and Rogue is a bit OP and a bit too much of a wild card. I was a bit disappointed when the first two episodes continued that tradition, I had hoped they would tweak it at least a little bit.

[@borjankosarac3645]

“X-Men ‘97;, or, The Rehabilitation of Scott Summers, Madelyne Pryor, and the Unfortunate Implications of the ‘Inferno’ Storyline”… and I say that with the utmost sincerity. I mean, it beats whatever the hell “Secret Invasion” was trying to do.

[@superkid801]

Good video. I'm enjoying the show. I watched the 90s series to get ready for 97, it does have flaws with the animation, but the stories is what interested me. These first three were good. I did think of January 6th when you mentioned that scene. Magneto I'm very interested to see where we go with him. I'm having fun with the show!

[@MrTanokki]

I loved the dig at comics!Cyclops when ‘97 Cyclops makes his mini-speech about not abandoning his son and being like his father.

[@xHx23x]

I am loving this so much. I was not a fan of the 90s cartoon. I liked it as a kid and it was my entry point but I think is the least good version of the animated series (Evolution is the superior of the 3 in my book). But 97 I feel is just doing a lot of special things. That I feel have been lacking in Xmen adaptions of the past (I like the Fox movies for the most part so this isn't even a diss at them). The team dynamics, the soap opera drama, the action scenes, the tone, the subjects they are tackling, this is all so perfect to me so far. I am very happy we are at least getting 3 seasons out of this. Especially if they'll be allowed to continue to push the envelope.

[@stephenwright5939]

I love the X-men I would love to see them do X-men vs avengers. Loving this continuation I just hope and praying that they do not screw up my favorite X-men Nightcrawler. Last episode was my favorite but magneto had the best one liner in episode 2 “Please don’t let me let you down”

[@halcyons2106]

I admit I'm liking this much more then the original run, but at the time I was also a "well actually!" comic book nerd and mad that they weren't translating the comics 1 to 1. I've gotten better at letting that kind of thing go and this has been a fun run so far even if I'd have killed for a 'larger' Inferno pulling in more characters and a REAL Magik cameo.

[@pious83]

TAS never did 1 to 1 translations of source material. Days of Future Past being a Bishop-centric story for example. Episode 3 was more rushed than it should have been though. Also later in the season to emphasise the fake Jean angle.

[@halcyons2106]

@@pious83 Oh trust me, I know they never did, but at the time my dorky brain got all huffy about how they had to. I got past that but at the time it made it harder for me to enjoy the original show.

[@pious83]

@@halcyons2106 The funniest aspect is the nebulous nature of the Original Five in TAS. They never encountered Magneto or Angel. The latter is very confusing.

[@docweidner]

I think you are selling some of the stories from the original series short. Or at least the themes of the stories. I reqatched the original series a few years ago when I found it on Disney±. As for BTAS, the creators basically took the approach we are going to take characters from Batman's history buy we are not going to let ourselves be burdened with all the Canon. We will take core elements and work them in so they fit our universe and cut what isn't needed. So you got a Clayface who incorpated bits of the 4 that had been in the comics, or you got a Clock King without some of the goofiness of the original source. Other than Morph, who really was Changeling, but rights issues, X-Men did not innovate or create the characters. BTAS,of course, gave us Harley and Montoya, among others.

[@theshadowdirector]

I am kind of thinking about it as the 90s show 'as you remember it' with many of the rough edges filed off and set free some of the heavy handed oversight.

[@n8mub813]

They drop new episodes at midnight pacific time zone

[@SpedeVesku]

This show is easily the best Marvel animated series, since Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, which isn't the highest praise, considering how awful the Jeph Loeb produced cartoons were and how hit-and-miss What if? has been, but I'm genuinely loving this so far. In fact, I'm more excited to see the next episode of this show than I ever was for the X-Men film franchise. People always talk about how X-Men comics are some of Marvel's most "serious" and directly political works, which the Fox movies arguably captured, but they are also some of Marvel's most bombastic, visually craziest and melodramatic stories, which the movies ignored basically completely (First Class and Deadpools as slight exceptions). Meanwhile, this show has both the hard hitting social/political commentary and big larger than life comic book spectacle. In the same episode, Magneto can both make a completely grounded speech about how the discriminated people should have the right to defend themselves and lift a part of the UN hq to the orbit, and the one doesn't feel out of place next to the other. I also like how unabashedly fast paced this show is. So far, all three episodes told stories which other shows, especially in this streaming era, would drag out as season long arcs or sub-plots, yet they don't feel rushed, simply packed. Now I have my nitpicks and the show isn't perfect. First of all, it might be the textbook example of “all the animation budget was used on the fight scenes” type of show. The action is fast and fluid, while the more casual scenes can get really stiff, with moments that look like they just dragged a still 2D drawing with a mouse. And because the show isn't constant action and wants me to pay attention during the dialogue scenes, I can't just ignore those parts and cringe a little when I see those stiff moments. Second, while I'm glad they are there, the returning voice actors have been a little hit-and-miss. Storm is basically perfect, you can barely tell the actress has gotten older, and the Beast is almost there, being obviously raspier, but not to a distracting degree. Wolverine and Sinister can't do their original voices anymore, but they still fit the characters in a "generic" sense (I.E. If this was a brand new standalone X-Men cartoon, which just happened to bring in some actors to play new versions of their old roles, I wouldn't think twice about it). Unfortunately that leaves Rogue as the weakest link, who just sounds like an older person trying really hard to sound younger. Lastly, and this point is admittedly the most nitpickiest, as a sequel series to TAS, the continuity is very inconsistent. Sometimes they get ton of small things, which a more casual fan wouldn't even remember, right, like Bishop getting stuck in the modern day at the end of “Beyond Good and Evil” four-parter (something which the original show's final season ignored) and Gambit's love of cooking , but other times they have forgotten things like Storm already knowing Forge or how the original series never did the story where Illyana gets stuck in a demon dimension and comes out as a teenager with demon powers, so Morph transforming into Magik doesn't really make sense. I get it that no long-going series will ever have perfect continuity, people make mistakes and forget details, but I'm a geek and couldn't help, but to notice these things. Still, overall really enjoying this show and hopefully Marvel is planning more animated shows, which don't need to be MCU related, because the freedom from their plans there is clearly good for this show.

[@Melaniy-un3kr]

Maddy got a happy ending!

[@Dunybrook]

Spoke too soon?

[@Melaniy-un3kr]

Little bit

[@pious83]

15:14 Mine too. He, via X-Men TAS, was my gateway character. My absolute favourite for decades. Which is why I can't read the narrative he has been involved in since the Krakoa Era began. Agreed that the second episode has been the strongest so far. When it comes to the voice cast, Magneto and Apocalypse were always the best two. The TAS equivalent of Batman's Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill etc Which is why it was so important that Magneto is so well written and delivered so far. To me, the weakest so far of '97 is Bishop. The original VA is still alive and gave enough of a distinctive voice that the new VA just falls flat.

[@Dunybrook]

People tend to look down on the 90s in a way but they were doing some stuff back them that was oddly more progressive than what is going on nowadays.

[@jellebaas6475]

I was born in the 2000s and had never seen the original show before (I did watch a few episodes to catch op to the story), so nostalgia wasn't as much of a draw to me, yet I still really enjoyed it and didn't mind all the obvious 90's stuff. I just simply thought of it as comical and fun, almost as if it was a period piece.

[@hypnoamber3248]

I watched all three episodes last night. I thought they were good enough. Definitely an improvement on animation style. I did like that they are sticking with the 90s animation just with an upgrade. I'm not that familiar with the comics but I did watch the cartoon with my then 2 year old. Along with batman and gargoyles. So yeah I'll keep watching it. It's not going to be something I'm going to fan out about but it's entertaining enough.

[@T-2856]

Great video, one issue. Morph's pronouns in X-Men '97 are they/them. They were he/him in the original though. I understand that they're a fictional character and it's not a huge deal because it's something you can miss. However, it still feels necessary to point it out here.

[@borjankosarac3645]

The creators have said also, that Morph uses he/him in the context of the show but only because that’s accurate to the time period: they/them would be accurate but as Grant Morrison noted, it wasn’t in the modern vernacular at the time.

[@alfje5492]

Never watched the 90s cartoon: I was into MC2 and non-mainstream Marvel at the time (yes, I was a snob, but Spider-Girl still rules!). Anyway, quite interested now in watching this new series, but will have to watch all 5 old seasons first.

[@BreakRoomofGeeks]

You really don't need to watch the original if you have at least the basics of the characters.

[@meander112]

Engagement for the engagement god!

[@JenniferFuss]

Nice recap. Though the sentinel prediction was slightly off ^^

[@Nicholas_is_my_name]

I wonder if the storm is going to get her powers back from just being a goddess

[@citrinedragonfly]

Introducing Forge will be a way for her to get her powers back, I think. In the comics, he's the one who created the power-neutralizer gun in the first place. If anyone can figure out how to neutralize the effects of the blast, it will be him.

[@williamhowe1]

Fantastic!

[@BloodyMary74]

I agree about the dialogue. Magneto's is really good. He has very interesting word choices for every situation. It's clearly scripted unnatural dialogue but it fits the character. Everybody else sounds like an AI wrote their dialogue or more probably like the second draft of their dialogue, not properly rewritten. Some people say if the characters are good the dialogue writes itself. No, writers write the dialogue.

[@kevinpeterson6468]

Spider-Man was the better show. I’m loving what I’m seeing with X-Men 97

[@pious83]

That's a redundant comparison. Spider-Man had three separate cartoons before TAS '94. They knew what they were doing out of the gate. X-Men had a couple of cameos and a pilot episode. Neither of which were set in the same era as TAS '92.

[@SpedeVesku]

IMO, Spider-Man TAS has aged way worse than X-Men. More recycling of old footage, worse censorships and way clunkier writing. Plus, X-Men TAS arguably is still the definitive animated version of X-Men, while Spider-Man TAS has been surpassed by Spectacular.

[@pious83]

@@SpedeVesku The (then) new computer animation style did hurt the show in the end. You can tell it was expensive, hence all the recycled footage. As for censorship: Morbius' suction hands and Punisher's "non-lethal ordinance" are the two examples I vividly recall. While I'm not a Spider-Man fan, even I can see Spectacular is/was a really good show. X-Men.. each show was progressively worse following TAS. Too much outside media (ala Movies) creeping in to the creative process. It is still a shame we never got to see where Pryde of the X-Men might have gone though.

[@ElectricEvan]

I like your review. They actually stole the opening music and were sued for it.

[@BreakRoomofGeeks]

While it's true they were sued, it was settled out of court with no change to the credit so while it's possible I'm hesitant to present this as fact.

[@lonewolf6884]

I hope Storm meets Black Panther in this revival (?) . They are one of my fav ships in comics

[@pious83]

Storm meets Forge over the next few episodes. Her most genuine relationship in comics.

[@thebitterfig9903]

My Storm OTP is her and Callisto. Throwing knives at each other is their version of flowers and chocolates.

[@HBHaga]

The animation style is fine, the performances are really good so far, the storytelling is a bit more mature (although the Goblin Queen thing should have been a two-parter, I can't wait to see how fast they run through Storm's troubles) but no Kitty Pryde. 0/10. I mean how can you remake Pryde of the X-Men without Kitty?! It makes no sense! ... What? There was ANOTHER hugely successful X-Men show?! And Toei didn't animate it?! What madness is this?!

[@borjankosarac3645]

Maybe they’ll make Kitty from the alternate future with Hope Summers, later?

[@borjankosarac3645]

Yes, that’s copium. But I’m happy to huff it, she’s essential to the X-Men story and her absence was always a sore point for me.