Karen L. Mead

I must have been living under a rock because I didn’t learn that X-Men 97 was airing on Disney+ until three episodes had already aired. I can’t overstate how exciting this is for me, because for me, the version of the team from the 90s cartoon–from my childhood– are the “real” X-Men, and everything else is just an alternate version; like a fanfic. I did read a lot of the comics and enjoyed some of the FOX live action films (which became increasingly difficult to do as the franchise wore on, but that’s a whole other topic), but these are MY X-Men.

This has made me realize what a novel experience it is for me to really be excited for something in the media. For years I’ve been reading comments online like “I’m really excited for Avengers: Endgame,” or “I’m really excited for the last season of Attack on Titan,” and it’s like I don’t quite…get it. Like, are you legit excited for that? What must that feel like? Now, I know. I don’t think I’ve been this excited for anything to air weekly since I was 11.

I’m not feeling up to the task of writing a composed essay, so I’m just going to do a list of things in the show that stood out to me so far:

–I love the fact that they choose to keep the original opening credits and just cleaned up the animation. Once the opening animation started, I knew this was a series that was going to respect what had come before. The series in general does a great job of mimicking the ’90s style while adding a bit more nuance and complexity. It’s just masterfully done, and I would not have believed it could be done this well had I not seen it. Also, it’s a subtle difference, but giving Jean Grey a higher billing more accurately reflects her importance in the franchise– it always seemed kind of dismissive that the original credits put her towards the end.

–The “mutant as symbol for LGBT/person of color” metaphor has been turned up to eleven, and it’s great. It was always about as subtle as a brick, and now it’s about as subtle as a ton of bricks plus a grand piano falling directly on top of your head, but not everything calls for subtlety. The rhetoric that the anti-mutant bigots spew on the show is exactly the same kind of rhetoric that you hear from people who are afraid of gay marriage or trans people, and the attack on the UN in Episode 2 is very obviously meant to remind you of January 6, 2021. I honestly wonder if some people who have TRUMP bumper stickers on their cars are watching this out of nostalgia for their childhood and are starting to wonder if they are on the right side here. Kudos to the writers for being so bold and taking a side in the (sigh) culture wars.

To be fair– and I’m not the first person to point this out– bigots in the X-Men universe actually have a lot more justification for their actions than real-life bigots do. When you have people like Storm and Magneto walking around who can do nearly the amount of damage as a nuclear bomb whenever they feel like it, you would hope there might be some kind of accountability system set up there, you know? Real-life bigots are more worried, “But what if my son wants to wear a dress?”

–Improved character design: Storm is actually black (as opposed to the original, where she looked more like a white woman with a tan), and Jubilee actually looks Asian. I don’t know why they refuse to give Rogue green eyes though.

–I have mixed feelings about the voice acting. On the one hand, I think it’s great that the show respected the original voice actors enough to let them reprise their roles. On the other hand, it is literally thirty years later and people’s voices have changed. I think they should have done what they did with Catherine Disher, the original voice of Jean: recast the character, but let the actor play another role more appropriate for their age. Disher is playing Valerie Cooper, for the record. The exception is Alison Sealy-Smith, who still sounds perfect as Storm.

–After being so mistreated in the FOX movies, it’s great to see Cyclops being given his due as the chosen leader of the X-Men. The first episode is basically a showcase of what Cyclops can do and why he’s the leader, and it makes a lot of sense to focus on him with Professor X out of the picture. Cyclops is unpopular with some X-fans, but like it or not, a lot of the major storylines revolve around him, so making him competent and likable helps build a strong foundation.

–I love the way they’ve treated Jean’s pregnancy. There’s that moment where she goes into Gyrich’s mind in her astral form, and her astral form is not pregnant, and she has this little moment of panic where she touches her stomach and thinks “OMG where did my baby go?” before remembering that she isn’t in her real body. This communicates the kind of horror show that pregnancy is; that constant fear that something, anything, could be wrong. Notice how she covers her stomach with her hands when Magneto shows up, always protecting the baby.

That said, I know we’re supposed to think badly of the doctor who didn’t want to deliver Jean’s baby because she’s a mutant, but is the guy so wrong? Jean telekinetically ripped the roof off of Logan’s car while enduring labor pains, whose to say she wouldn’t rip the doctor’s head off from a strong contraction? This is why it’s important to establish a strong relationship with your OBGYN, folks. You want them in your corner in case your telekinesis gets out of control.

–One of the only things I do not like about the show so far is the relationship between Magneto and Rogue. It’s not so much that I take issue with them being a couple, but it doesn’t make sense in this particular continuity. Magneto and Rogue crossed paths several times in the original series and he was just as happy slamming her into walls as everyone else, and there was no indication he had any particular interest in her. To reveal that they had a past relationship and he’s sort of been carrying a torch for her for many years is a bad retcon. This is exactly the type of thing that ruined a lot of the FOX movies, like how Professor X and Mystique went from not knowing or interacting with each other at all in the movies to suddenly being siblings. I do not want this show to make the same mistakes the movies made. If they wanted to pair up Rogue and Magneto, or even hint in that direction, they should have had that attraction happen in the present rather than invent a past relationship that was implausible.

–I know there were a lot of complaints about episode 3 and how they basically condensed an arc that was about 40 comics long into one thirty-minute episode. The pacing is super fast, but I prefer that to the alternative. The main reason why I stopped reading X-Men comics religiously in the late 90s was because it just took SO GODDAMNED LONG for anything to happen. I remember I was reading X-Men (vol. 2) 45 and we learn that Gambit received a mysterious vial from Mister Sinister, payment for dark and dirty deeds, and I thought “It’s going to be at least four years before they tell us what was in that damned vial.” Sure enough, it did take several years, and that reveal happened in another title entirely. Anyway, the original series always erred on the side of pacing things fast, and I think it’s appropriate, even though it does mean some of the characters get a little less love and development.

–Speaking of Gambit, AKA “An 11-year-old Girl’s Introduction to Sex,” he’s basically been delegated to a comic relief role, but I don’t mind it. Gambit’s original appeal was that he was mysterious and you didn’t know what kind of shady stuff he had done before joining the X-Men, but once he got really popular, they filled in all that backstory, and it was less interesting than one would hope. I think Gambit works better as a supporting character, the one with a questionable moral center who will say the things the other characters are thinking, like saying to Magneto “It should have been you who got shot.” Gambit as a main character just doesn’t work the way Wolverine does, although Fabian Nicieza gave it a good try.

As an aside, I think this is the problem (or one of the problems) with modern Doctor Who: the audience now knows so much about the Doctor, there’s no mystery there anymore. I think one of the reasons why “Blink” is considered one of the best DW episodes is because the Doctor is barely in it, so when he does show up, you actually appreciate him. But I digress.

–I like the reintroduction of Morph to the team, but I’m a bit divided on how they’re using him. Having him transform into other characters is fun, but he should be transforming into people he’s actually met. Turning into Magik, in an X-Men uniform, as he does in Episode 3 doesn’t make any sense because the New Mutants don’t exist yet in this continuity. Worse, the cameo seems like the show saying “We’re not really going to use this character in the story, so let’s have five seconds of them in action to pacify the hardcore fans.” I’m probably overanalyzing what’s meant to be just a fun little gimmick, but I’m concerned about the writers skipping over material that would actually be interesting to explore.

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Wow, that was a lot. Thank you to everyone who actually read all this. There was an X-Men anime that aired in 2011 (God, so long ago now) that I blogged episodically at Otakusphere, my old blog. I also blogged some of the original series episodes, but those got lost when that blog went down, sadly. Anyway, I’m not sure if I want to blog this show as it airs; it might be a lot of fun, but I’m not sure if I want to sully the experience by giving myself homework about it. I’ll watch episode 4 next week and see how I feel.