I just finished watching X-Men ’97 on Disney+ and hoo boy do I have a lot of opinions. I don’t quite really know specifically where I stand on it on how good I thought it was, but this is where I’m hoping that writing out my thoughts might help me come to a conclusion.
This is also where I disclaim that there is the possibility that I give some things away by virtue of feeling unable to avoid specificity but hopefully I don’t, but it’s not like I have any readers at all, so this is just old habit of trying to be courteous when I really don’t have to be.
1.
First of all, regardless of where I land on my overall opinion, one thing is very clear in my opinion: the show operated at a breakneck pace, and there was basically no time to breathe throughout the season as the show went from storyline into the next into the next and into the next without any pauses in the action, minus one specific Jubilee mini-arc.
The show tackled numerous actual storylines that I could recall from the days when I was a massive X-Men reader, but it was almost laughable at just how little time was dedicated to what were epic arcs in the comics, rendered to literally 5-6 minutes in the show. Like for example Inferno, with Madelyne Pryor becoming the Goblin Queen; this was an epic event that transcended the X-universe and even bled into other Marvel properties, but in X97, Inferno literally starts and ends within a ten minute window, leaving me with this great big feeling of, wtf.
One of the most iconic moments from the Fatal Attractions storyline was tucked into one of the last episodes of the season, and given the sheer lack of context and time given to everything else, honestly probably didn’t even need to occur, but by this point of the show, they were clearly so determined to cram in as many X-storylines as possible and using as little airtime as possible to do so, so here we went.
The best way I would describe X97 is exactly what the title of this post is – it’s X-Men comics presented in a medium that caters to those most likely with ADHD and are incapable of sitting through multiple seasons worth of storytelling to get around several epic story arcs when they can all be crammed into the confines of a ten-episode season. I used to think that when I was a kid, I probably was an undiagnosed ADD kid because of my sheer struggles to pay attention and listen and follow directions, but after watching X97, I don’t really think that that could’ve been the case.
2.
The X-Men, and mutants in general seemed to have been nerfed as fuck throughout this show. All throughout the season, mutants were getting their asses handed to them by humans that had Sentinel tech, as well as Sentinels themselves, in contrast to the original 1992 series where Sentinels were about as capable as the Putty Patrol from Power Rangers at neutralizing their intended targets.
Gambit was always my favorite X-Man growing up, but he absolutely got the shittiest of shit sandwiches throughout this season, but in general throughout the season, not an episode went by where some or all of the X-Men were getting their asses handed to them on a silver platter. Ironically, in spite of all the memes about how 1992 Jean Grey was utterly useless, X97 Jean Grey seemed quite the opposite, and it’s almost like the showrunners acknowledged the old meme and did their best to run it back the other way.
3.
I think I would have enjoyed this show more if it weren’t billed as being a direct pick up from the original series. Yes, they make numerous references to the original series, but by and large, this is most definitely a completely different show, with a completely different vibe, and most definitely would be a completely different rating from the FOX Kids classic.
Yes, your primary audience has grown up, but a large part of being a nostalgia act is to not change the formula up, so that us boring ass adults can feel like a kid again and watch some kid-intended cartoons. But with X97, the violence is ramped up, they’re showing blood and some surprisingly graphic imagery for what originated as a Saturday morning cartoon, and despite thinking that the show as a whole was definitely positive, the fact that it was advertised to be a pickup of X92 does tarnish my general opinion of it, and there’s a sentiment of not-as-advertised that I feel when watching it, and wish it was just sold as a completely independent series.
Frankly, had they done that, it probably would have loosened a lot of plot shackles that the series was bound by, since they has solidified that it was going to pick up where the show left off back in 1996. But they didn’t, and ended up with this ADHD speedrun that left me feeling dizzy and exhausted after watching the last episode.
Overall, I know it sounds like I’m taking a lot of shit on X97, but I really did think it was a good show. It might not have been the children’s show from the 90s, but when I’m able to watch it without the nostalgia glasses on, it does have strong writing, albeit at 5x speed, and the more adult-handed approach to the show is a little refreshing from those expecting to see everyone who might get hurt get magically rescued by Rogue or Storm.
Wolverine doesn’t hijack the entire series like he tends to in every other portrayal and medium of the character, but unfortunately Cyclops and his exciting as vanilla ice cream Summers family still does; however there is some interesting growth within House Summers throughout the series, which goes back to the appreciation for more complex storytelling, meant for adults and not kids.
I would say Rogue was probably the breakout character of this season, and it fascinating that the show did a bit of a deep dive into her backstory way more than the kids cartoon did in the past.
And as much as I criticize the pace of the show, at the same time, it is a microcosm of where we are on society and in the world of television now, versus back in the 90s. No show gets the assurances of being able to tell stories through five seasons of weekly episodic television; people just don’t have that kind of attention span or ability to commit. Therefore, the show had to adapt to today’s standards and tendencies, and even if it weren’t necessarily my cup of tea or preferred pace of show, I do understand why it ended up in this manner.
I did like X-Men ’97 in the end, but not without several notable caveats. They wouldn’t stop me from watching moar X-Men ’97 in the future and to my knowledge they’ve already been greenlit for a second and maybe a third season. All of which is obviously part of the grander Marvel Cinematic Universe plan, to slowly integrate X-Men and mutants in general into the general lexicon of Marvel, to where they can then begin to start releasing X-movies and start phase whatever of the general MCU.
I just wish they’d slow it down in the future, although I doubt they will, but at the rate in which they’re chewing up source material, it might just happen organically. They burned through at least 5-6 notable story arcs in X97, and before we know it we’re going to have Jubilee the Vampire in animated form.
