Season 1 - 10 episodes (2024)
Watch X-Men '97 on Disney+
Created by: Beau DeMayo
Starring: Ray Chase, Jennifer Hale, Alison Sealy-Smith, Cal Dodd, J. P. Karliak, Lenore Zann, George Buza, A. J. LoCascio, Holly Chou, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Matthew Waterson, Ross Marquand, Adrian Hough
Rated: TV-14
Watch the trailer
Plot
A band of mutants uses their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them. They're challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.
Verdict
This completely captures the nostalgia of the original series. It's a cartoon for a teen audience with story lines deeper than a typical cartoon and social commentary that adults can also appreciate. This season has a big story and caps it off with a multi-part conclusion. It's a satisfying season that promises more to come.
Watch It.
Review
Based on the Marvel Comics superhero team, this revives X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1997). Even the opening credits are largely the same. I didn't remember Morph in the credits, but that's because he wasn't in the original credits.
This starts in the aftermath of Professor X's death. He was in a coma at the end of the original series. The first episode does a good job of developing characters if you don't know their personal relationships. This show feels a lot like how I remember the original. This is a show that at first appears to be a typical animated kids series, but the story lines are more complex than you'd expect.
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| Magneto, Gambit, Jean Gray, Cyclops, Rogue, Beast, Wolverine, Storm, Jubilee Bishop |
Cyclops and Jean Gray are a couple which makes Wolverine jealous. Wolverine is the cynical one on the team, the dissenter as Cyclops tries to continue Professor X's legacy. There's an overarching plot with Jean Gray which also includes her son.
Magneto appears, looking much different than the original series. He plans to take the Professor's place and lead the X-Men. Surprisingly, he and Rogue have a past.
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| Wolverine, Morph, Beast, Cyclops, Jean Gray |
With so few episodes, the fourth one feels like an outlier focused on Jubilee and Roberto. I'd rather see the entire team. Episode six has a big guest.
The final three episodes form a multi-episode conclusion to the season, though we get the seed of a new idea that the next season could explore. Like the original series, this takes arcs from the comic books. They can be complicated, but it's only complicated for the typical animated series. This is more than that. You need to pay attention. As with comic books, you never know what could happen next. Any character is at risk, and just because a character dies, that doesn't mean they stay dead.
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