X-Men ’97 Review

To be honest, even though it might not seem like it, I never really grew up on X-Men, the same way I did with Spider-Man and Batman. X-Men was a late introduction to my life, and even that was through the comics. I never really watched the Fox X-Men movies except for the Wolverine stuff, and the cartoons were after I was older, with X-Men Evolution & Wolverine and the X-Men. The original 90s show? In passing, never fully because it never quite clicked with me. Coupling that with a lot of comments by executive producer Beau DeMayo (who has been taken off the show for reasons unknown) about X-Men ’97 that I either did not agree with or was straight up against had left me concerned, and not at all excited about the return of the beloved cartoon from the 90s.

Yet, upon having watched the first two episodes, I am pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it!

Off the ringer, the first question one might have is, “Is this easily accessible for new viewers?” and it is. It helps that I’ve read a good portion of the Claremont run, so I could pick up what stories were adapted through context clues, but the show does a good enough job of getting you into the speed of things – the caveat being that you have some understanding of these characters, either through cultural osmosis (although with the way the X-Men were adapted, that leaves a lot to be desired) or through having read some X-Men comics.

That being said, it’s not perfect, and there are four reasons for that. Firstly, the animation during the more “mundane” conversations is weak. I understand they’re saving the budget for the flashy action sequences, which are phenomenal (more on this later), but the difference is far too jarring. Secondly, Wolverine’s voice actor should have been changed. I understand that they wanted to bring back the original voice actors, but in the way some of them came back for new roles, Wolverine should’ve had that change too.

The same goes for Storm. She sounds old, much older than she should be, and a new voice actor could’ve helped mitigate that change. It’s a problem when the rest of the cast does sound how they should, and that jarring shift took me out of some scenes. Speaking of Storm, my third problem lies with the way Storm is written. There’s a clip posted online about her talking to Jean as the latter has anxiety over how she would explain being a mutant to her son, and while I’m not opposed to Storm sympathizing, it’s the way she goes about it that just goes against what her character is about. 

But speaking of character writing, the big elephant in the room is the fourth problem: Sunspot.

Before the release of the show, there was discourse surrounding him for two reasons: one being that he was originally lighter skinned, which was fixed following backlash, and another being about the voice actor for Sunspot aka Roberto Da Costa, a character who is a black Brazilian, yet portrayed by a white Brazilian voice actor. During this discourse, showrunner DeMayo stated, “So now you’re erasing his Brazilian heritage in favor of him being just black? How does that work?” which put me off, given that Roberto being a black Brazilian who suffered a hate-crime is key to his origin. From there, seeing him in the show confirmed my fears, where they ended up changing his character. 

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with changing characters in an adaptation, but for something like X-Men: The Animated Series, where most of it was straight from the comics, just more streamlined, it feels odd that it was changed. But even more so than that, it’s the fact that they take away that important context from the character. It’s a key moment, one that defines him, and seeing that taken away is just wrong. Who knows, maybe later on they’ll dive deeper into his origin and prove me wrong, but as it stands, I’m not particularly confident on that front.

Aside from that, X-Men ‘97 is a gem. 

I’m a big Scott Summers guy. Cyclops is my favourite member of the X-Men alongside Storm. He’s part of why I got turned off from watching a lot of X-Men adaptations, because they didn’t adapt him right, when to me in many ways, he is the X-Men. X-Men ‘97 gets Cyclops. It understands that he is a leader holding up a lot of pressure leading this team and being one of Xavier’s first students, but also understands that he’s cool, effectively balancing him perfectly.

The other standout character for me was Magneto, who’s my second favourite member of the X-Men. I love how he’s written here, making him come off as sympathetic, showing how he’s trying to be better in the wake of the death of his old friend, Xavier. His speech during his trial in the second episode is absolutely phenomenal, and one that’s stuck with me since I watched it.

The animation when it comes to fights and the important bits is phenomenal. I was reading on Twitter (formerly, now called X), about how the animator in that scene wanted to show off why he plays Cyclops in Marvel vs Capcom 2, and you can really tell with the way he moves in that scene. So effortlessly cool, and it’s something that’s represented through all of the characters during every action beat. It makes you wonder why Marvel Studios’ What If? is the way that it is, when this is what they’re capable of.

Story wise, sans Sunspot, I’m really into how they’ve been presenting it. It’s paced really well, and doesn’t feel overwhelming even as it concludes plot beats while setting up future threads to pick up on. To go back to something I previously said, it does a great job at streamlining a lot of comics storylines. But I do wish – and I have this critique with other adaptations too – that they at least listed what comics they’re pulling from, so that people who are interested in the source material can go and read them, especially with one like this that is so close to being like the comics. 

So then the final question lies, “Should you watch X-Men ‘97?”

I think it depends. The Sunspot of it all is such a key factor that I totally get if people don’t watch the show because of it, so maybe wait until we know more and dive in if that is important to you. Other than that, if you’re into X-Men, absolutely. The first two episodes are really good, and it’s left me with confidence with what’s to come.