Why Marvel are lucky to have the X-Men back - a X-Men '97 REVIEW

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Given the current state of the MCU after disappointing projects like Love And Thunder, Quantumania and Secret Invasion among others, the return of the Mutants in X-Men '97 was a much needed break from the MCU and return to form for Marvel.

My history with the X-Men

The X-Men movies were one of the first comic book movies that I watched. I remember watching the X-Men movies when Star Movies played them all back to back in a single day. I liked the X-Men to the point that I decided to check into the MCU after knowing that all these characters shared some history in the comics and were created by the same company.

When X-Men '97 was announced I was not excited. I thought having not watched the animated series would affect my enjoyment. I even tried getting into the original animated series but couldn't, due to time constraints and the story being too slow. When X-Men '97 premiered, I took my time to get to it but I was crying tears of happiness after watching just one episode because the X-Men WERE BACK!

Why Disney and Marvel are lucky to have the X-Men back?

It's no secret that the story of the X-Men resonates with marginalized groups. Disney and Marvel Studios are really lucky to have the X-Men back, especially when they are stumbling with their own toys in the MCU.

The X-Men have become rich and complex characters over the years and through their many adaptations have shown to provide everything from politics, drama and action to commentary on evolution, discrimination and representation. It is risky to comment on representation or politics in the current media landscape, but I trust that the X-Men as a brand can handle it with care.

There will surely be backlash, calling the X-Men 'woke' but the X-Men are nothing but woke and that is where their success lies. With this rich canvas of story and complex characters to pull from, the X-Men couldn't have made their return at a better time for Marvel, to give hope that the future can still be better.

The year of the X-Men

With the pandemic induced delays and writers strikes, adding to the overall bad decision making at Marvel, coming to a head with pushing back of various projects, leaving only one theatrical release for 2024. The stage is set, with X-Men '97's success for the mutants to prove their worth with Deadpool and Wolverine. Deadpool and Wolverine is set to feature huge cameos from returning X-Men actors - I cannot wait for this, my first loves are coming back for one last ride!

I would gladly call this year 'The year of the Mutants, and if Deadpool and Wolverine performs great, then the rumored Mutant Saga would definitely happen after Avengers: Secret Wars. While the rumors of X-Men '97 leading to Deadpool and Wolverine didn't come true, the critically acclaimed series has taken the excitement up a notch for the only MCU theatrical release of 2024 - from excitement of returning actors to the excitement of great stories and characters returning.

Deadpool and Wolverine has had an amazing marketing campaign so far keeping all secrets close to it's vest, it would need to drop the ball so hard to mess up all this good will going in its favor.

Let's keep the Deadpool and Wolverine chatter for when (hopefully), the movie gets the MCU back to its glory days and focus on X-Men '97.

The Writing

I wouldn't call the writing superior, but mostly if not always, it was. From great one-liners and monologues, to amazing sequences like the X-Men vs Sentinel Trask or the entire 'Remember It' episode, the writing reached peaks.

Some mentions off the top of my head, and that I really liked, because not mentioning them is like not appreciating how good they are:

Magneto's monologue in Episode 2

Please do not make me let you down

 Magento Was Right

Val Cooper's 'Magento Was Right' monologue in the awesome concluding moment of Episode 8, Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 1.

Gambit raising his cards from Episode 5

 The name is Gambit, Mon Ami. REMEMBER IT!

Sugar. I can--, I can't feel you

Rogue's 'I can't feel you' from Episode 5 that mimics Wanda and Vision from Infinity War and WandaVision, but also stands equal to those moments because of the scene where Rogue confronts Gambit earlier in the same episode.

 Humanity would rather die, than have children like us

Bastion's 'Humanity would rather die, than have children like us' just before humanity proves Bastion and Magneto right once again.

Storm and Jean's sisterhood

 Make them mind your weather sister

And them weather your mind

These moments, monologues and dialogues makes the show feel well written, majorly due to the lack of good writing we have gotten post Endgame. I love X-Men '97 for giving us these well written moments.

The Characters

The key to X-Men '97's success is the characters, their dynamics, the action, the drama and how the writing brings it all together in 30 minutes; every episode.

My favorite character is of course the MVP of this season - Rogue. Along with Magneto, Jean and Storm. The trio of Storm, Jean and Rogue dominated this entire season.

I also loved Morph being the cameo machine, turning into iconic X-Men characters and even the Hulk and Mister Fantastic in the last two episodes.

The show made me finally realize why Cyclops was so beloved, the actions scenes were really well done and made me love his powers.

Does Marvel solve it's villain problem with X-Men '97?

You might call me a sadist, but I feel the X-Men are the most interesting when they are vulnerable, pushed to the edge by the humans and their creation the sentinels - those mindless robots with the intent to terminate at all costs and they even adapt in the process to raise the stakes for some of Marvel's most powerful characters.

That brings me to the villain of X-Men '97, Bastion. While Bastion's reveal in Episode 7 was great and promising, his consciousness turned out to be his most uninteresting factor. While the character is realised great and has some good parallels with the present AI situation of the real world, he fails to be intimidating and live up to the phrase that they use to describe him - "future incarnate". Bastion is not a bad villain but he falls short in the intimidating category.

I would like to appreciate the final moments of Bastion though. The moment when Cyclops and Storm realized that they need to stop fighting and let evolution take its course was beautiful. We always see the Mutants as the heroes and the humans as the villains, but what happens when, AI, the future, the evolution after Mutants, stands right in front of them. It was really great moment in the finale.

Ranking the episodes

As I mentioned earlier, the first episode made me cry tears of happiness. The three part finale was great, each episode having interesting endings - like 'Magneto was right' monologue in Episode 8, Magneto ripping the adamantium out of Wolverine's body in Episode 9 and the X-Men displaced throughout time in Episode 10, setting the stage for season 2.

Despite having great endings, and amazing cameos - that made me more interested in this world than the MCU due to lack of interesting happenings in the MCU; Episode 10 was not able to give enough screentime to Storm or Jean who had just returned stronger than ever. While the focus on Jubilee, Sunspot and Nightcrawler, along with Cyclops and Rogue was nice to see, having two powerhouses sidelined left me dissatisfied.

I think its a no brainer when I say the Episode 5 was one of the best. I had read about the destruction of Genosha, but seeing it put to screen was devastating. And so, this is what the ranking looks like:

1. Episode 5: Remember It

2. Episode 9: Tolerance is Extinction - Part 2

3. Episode 8: Tolerance is Extinction - Part 1

4. Episode 10: Tolerance is Extinction - Part 3

5. Episode 1: To me, my X-Men

6. Episode 2: Mutant Liberation Begins

7. Episode 7: Bright Eyes

8. Episode 3: Fire made Flesh

9. Episode 6: Life Death - Part 2

10. Episode 4: Montendo; Life Death - Part -1

While we wait for Deadpool and Wolverine to officially make this year "The year of the mutants", leave your episode and character rankings in the comments down below!