X-Men '97: First look sees the spine-chilling nostalgia grounded with strong characterisation
X-Men '97 picks up right where the original series left off.
It's 2024. But the year we really want to be living in is 1997 - the year when X-Men: The Animated Series ended its final season.
Come 20 March, the series roars back to life like the Phoenix (rest assured, it won't be anything like the Dark Phoenix) as X-Men '97, and picks up right where the original series left off.
Who are the X-Men?
Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), before 2008's Iron Man, even before Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man debuted in 2002, there was the first X-Men film in 2000. It told the tale of mutants — a small percentage of the human population born with superhuman powers — and the hatred and prejudice they faced, being a marginalised minority. Being a superhero movie, it focused on two groups — the heroic X-Men, who used their powers to help humanity, and a villainous team who wanted to oppress humankind. And when the X-Men finally join the MCU proper, the 2000 X-Men movie can be said to truly be the first MCU movie.
The genesis of that first X-Men film was due in part to the success of the 90's X-Men: The Animated Series.
What is X-Men: The Animated Series?
Spanning 76 episodes across 5 seasons, the animated series brought popular comic book storylines to life. It ran from 1992 to 1997. The team roster for the animated X-Men included:
Wolverine: A feral, metal-clawed fighter with fast healing and an unbreakable adamantium-laced skeleton.
Cyclops: The field leader of the X-Men, who can fire powerful energy beams from his eyes.
Jean Grey: The telepathic and telekinetic partner/girlfriend/wife of Cyclops.
Storm: A weather-controlling mutant whose powers make her akin to a goddess.
Other characters include Rogue (who could steal mutant powers with a touch, and had flight, super strength, and invulnerability), Gambit (who could charge objects and make them explode), Jubilee (who could shoot fireworks), Beast (a super genius with the strength, agility, and appearance of a blue monster). and Professor X (the founder of the X-Men, who was a vastly powerful telepath). They were opposed by Professor X's friend-turned-enemy, Magneto (who could control magnetism).
But what made viewers tune in week after week to the series was that it was basically a soap opera with super powers. The X-Men didn't just tangle with other evil mutants, they had to content with their own family members (who could be allies or villains) as well as old friends and villains — some of whom could change sides in the blink of an eye. In fact, the X-Men family tree is an intensely complicated affair, with clones, children from the future, and individuals from alternate realities.
What happened at the end of X-Men: The Animated Series?
In the series finale, Professor X, is badly wounded in an assassination attempt by a human bigot, paving the way for his archnemesis Magneto to lead an all-out attack against humanity. Ironically, the only person who can help him is Magneto, who is forced to decide between achieving his dream of mutant dominion and helping his oldest friend.
It's only when they ask Magneto, "How much do you love Charles Xavier?" that he relents. With his help, they send a message to Professor X's outer space girlfriend Lilandra (long story, it's a soap opera remember?) (she's also this writer's favourite character), who takes him away to be rejuvenated by her advanced alien technology.
The final shot in that episode sees the X-Men and Magneto standing together, as they watch Professor X departing with Lilandra on her spaceship.
That episode aired in 1997, and served as the finale of the series... until now.
X-Men '97: First look
The continuation of the series will have 10 episodes in its first season (or 6th season, if you count it as the next season of the animated series). The X-Men see their team roster broadened with the addition of Magneto, Morph (a shapeshifter), and Bishop (a time traveller who can absorb and redirect energy blasts).
Yahoo Life Singapore had the privilege of watching a preview of the first three episodes — and it doesn't disappoint. The series carries on the spirit of the original, giving us super-powered action as the X-Men use their powers in spectacular fashion to defeat their foes, while still retaining the soap opera dramatics of the beloved series with a cliffhanger in every episode. The opening sequence is an updated version of the classic opening that will send shivers down your spine, with some welcome changes.
Like the original, plots unfold at a fast pace (since the episodes often adapt storylines spanning multiple issues of a comic), while still grounding the stories in character relationships. Being a soap opera, it's all about the relationships between characters - ex-lovers meeting in the face of new partners, struggles to keep promises made to the departed, and balancing duty with family, among others.
Since X-Men '97 takes place in a different continuity as the comics, it can't always adapt comic book storylines beat for beat. However, it still manages to depict key story arcs and moments from the comics, giving us visuals that hearken back to the comics. The fact that it manages to combine and squeeze so many of them into each episode, alongside the rapid plot developments, is testament to the solid writing team behind the series.
And of course - cameos. Thanks to character machinations, there's no lack of cameos in every episode, allowing us to see more mutants than just the X-Men, and giving us callbacks to earlier episodes.
The series boasts the following voice cast: Ray Chase as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, JP Karliak as Morph, Lenore Zann as Rogue, George Buza as Beast, AJ LoCascio as Gambit, Holly Chou as Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, and Matthew Waterson as Magneto.
X-Men '97 debuts 20th March on Disney+
Watch X-Men '97 on Disney+ now
