In X-Men ‘97, Marvel’s Best Superhero Team Is Finally Given the Respect They Deserve

Since Disney bought 20th Century Fox in December of 2017, diehard fans of Fox’s X-Men franchise have been anticipating the arrival of the superhero team to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While there are some notable duds in the franchise, this leather-clad version of the X-Men were the team that essentially put superheroes on the map. This is true for the comics too, with Chris Clermont’s iconic run on X-Men boosting Marvel’s popularity in the 1970s. From decade to decade, the group’s popularity has continued to soar, with the films making them even more popular than their comic book counterparts were, for better or for worse.

It’s now been seven years since Disney bought Fox, and other than Patrick Stewart returning briefly in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness (2022), and a post-credits cameo from Beast in The Marvel’s (2023) there have been little to no hints of when these characters will make their big on-screen debut. It appears that, with a franchise as bloated as the current MCU is, the suits don’t see a feasible way to introduce this team to a wider audience than to take it back to where it all began. 

Retitled X-Men ‘97, Disney+’s new animated series is a direct spinoff of the popular 1992 show X-Men: The Animated Series. While older fans remember this highly revered classic, the younger generation of superhero fans may not be so familiar. It’s perfect then that the series picks up just months after the original show’s finale, with Charles Xavier dead and mutantkind’s status at a crossroads. In the wake of his death, mutants’ place in the world is more precarious than ever, and with a band of right-wing extremists aiming to take down the X-Men for good, the show’s stakes are immediately high. 

The aspect that has made the X-Men so popular is the way these characters are able to coexist as not just a group, but a team. For me, this is how the group was able to set themselves apart from other superhero squads like The Avengers and even DC’s Justice League, who oftentimes feel like disgruntled coworkers who don’t enjoy each other’s company. The X-Men have always felt like a tight-knit family, and thankfully, this continues in X-Men ‘97. The characters mesh well together, aided by the return of most of the original voice cast, and it becomes quite easy to forget that some iterations of these characters haven’t been on our screens together since a brief cameo in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). 

Here, even in just the first two episodes of this new series, characters who were either ignored or discarded too early in the Fox films are given the respect—and screen time—they deserve. Cyclops (Ray Chase) and Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) in particular are finally able to become the main players they were always meant to be, and it’s with them that we not only get two of the best action scenes in the show, but get to witness just how much of a leader each of them are. Instead of being relegated to the background like their live-action renditions were, these two propel each mission in a way which rivals Charles Xavier himself. And you can’t help but wonder if maybe Charles’ absence is a good thing, as it finally allows the people he trained to become heroes and leaders step into their own.

Towards the end of the series’ first episode, a pregnant Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) tells Cyclops that “maybe it’s time to think of a life beyond the X-Men.” On one hand, she’s thinking of their child’s future, but here, it feels like the creators themselves are speaking directly to the audience as well. As the years have gone on, it’s become nearly impossible to think of a place or time in the MCU where the X-Men can not just simply exist, but co-exist with a decades-spanning franchise that has moved forward without them. Despite this, X-Men ‘97 is an animated show unrelated to what is currently going on in the reality-sprawling live-action franchise, but this new series feels like it could be a step in the right direction. 

What Jean and the writers are proposing with this line is that X-Men ‘97—and whatever other iterations of the group follow—needed to change in order for this team to survive. In leaving Charles dead and picking up this specific storyline after a nearly 20 year hiatus, the series gives way for the team to be reinvented not only for a new generation, but for older fans as well. Instead of Charles taking up all the screentime, his students, young and old, get to flourish, not only using their powers together but building the foundations of relationships that were not nearly explored enough in previous adaptations.

Watching these characters grapple with a significant death is a welcome change from the world-ending trials of something like X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). Frankly, a smaller, more personal scale is not only what this spinoff needed, but what the superhero genre at large needs as well. Sometimes, less is more, and the live-action X-Men films understood this, which is why installments like X2 (2003) and Logan (2017) are still so well revered. In a time where audiences are clamoring for a connection with the characters on screen, X-Men ‘97 is the breath of fresh air the superhero genre has so desperately needed.

The X-Men have withstood decades of re-workings and spinoffs because they and the villains they’re fighting are all ultimately striving for the same thing: mutant survival. This makes way for relationships between heroes and villains to become more grounded, and compels the audience in a way that their rivals’ teams aren’t necessarily capable of. Instead of titans from other planets or AI powered robots, the X-Men have always been a team firmly anchored in the harshness of reality that the likes of The Avengers never truly faced. Thankfully, in this new iteration, this trend continues, and what comes of it is a series that feels confident in its place in not only television history, but the superhero genre as well. 

But, of course, it wouldn’t be an X-Men property if its fate wasn’t hanging precariously in the balance at some point, and while the series has already been ordered for a second season, creator Beau DeMayo was fired in the week prior to the series’ premiere. While it may seem like this team is destined to be shrouded in on-set and behind-the-scenes issues, as of right now, we can only bask in the glory of a Disney+ show that finally gets it right. While the X-Men’s animated fate remains in limbo, we can only hope that, when they are inevitably introduced to the MCU—in five years… or ten—this much care and respect will be granted to them as well. If X-Men ‘97 is anything to go by, it is clear that the hands their fate lies in are not only capable, but are destined to create something great.

Kaiya Shunyata is a freelance pop culture writer and academic based in Toronto. They have written for Rogerebert.com, Xtra, The Daily Dot, and more. You can follow them on Twitter, where they gab about film, queer subtext, and television.

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