We’ve just re-watched all the original 90s X-Men cartoon, followed by the new series and I have thoughts to capture!
I will preface this with the disclaimer that I am a casual viewer and very casual comic book enjoyer. I did once have a Marvel Unlimited subscription about 8 years ago but my memory is terrible, and I don’t think I read any X-Men books then aside from ‘House of M.’ But my partner has some in our library and I might be in the mood to give some a read!
First of all, I loved watching the original again. It was my Saturday mornings as a kid. The nostalgia was strong, but I also really did enjoy the breakneck yet breezy pace and soap opera storytelling of the episodes! Honestly it’s nice to watch something short and kind of silly!
Here are a random smattering of thoughts on the 90s animation!
I loved every time Wolverine had a tantrum or croaked out an anguished “Jean” 😢 (Why did he carry multiple different photos of Jean and Scott around? Where did he get them from? It’s so creepy, honestly psycho behaviour).
I loved that the top half of his suit would always get ripped off (was it made of paper?).
I loved that seemingly (in my mind at least) the only way Wolverine can exit a building is through a giant hole in the wall… And they always had fights in rooms with exterior walls.
I loved everything about Mr Sinister and his Nasty Boys.
I loved Master Mold.
I loved that Prof. X claims that he’d never invade someone’s mind without permission and yet does it all the time.
I loved that Cyclops is actually pretty cool (unlike in the 2000s movies). And that he’s always meeting long lost Summers family members (Dad, brother, son!) and without knowing it!
There were also some really fucking weird episodes.. like the one where Rogue’s highschool boyfriend Cody is for some reason working for lizard aliens, has been turned into a lizard and then they all turn into lizards inside a space whale…
The whole thing is a wild ride and I highly recommend rewatching it.
Now, onto X-Men ’97
🚨 Spoilers ahoy!
Overall I thought it was fucking great! It captured the spirit of the 90s one, but did feel like the writing was a little bit more consistent.
I loved that Morph was back to their old self, and being pals with Wolverine (heavily hinted Morph’s feelings are more than friends). It’s nice that someone makes Wolverine laugh!
I also loved that every episode I would forget all about Morph and turn to my partner to ask where the fuck The Hulk/Spiral/Mister Fantastic/Quickersilver/Juggernaut etc came from! I’m not kidding, I did this for at least half the season..
I liked how the Jean/Madelyne plot played out, and I do love the strength of Jean and Scott’s relationship and I believe they can (and should) make it work. The scene with them and Cable and the car was actually very cool, cheesey as it was!
In fact there were lots of very cool action scenes! I really love it when we get to see the X-Men work as a team and combine their powers!
I also liked Storm’s story from being de-powered, to getting cosy with Forge (Forge is cool) and finding herself again, including a new look (apparently her powers include creating a new outfit).
What I didn’t like so much was everything they did with Rogue… I absolutely hated the Rogue and Magneto “thing” they threw in completely out of the blue. It never made sense given the many times they met previous series with zero sign of this. Last we saw Magneto he was all mopey over his dead wife (mother of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver), and the very idea of a past relationship with Rogue is very disturbing.
They may have given him an extra ripped redesign (he’s as built as Captain America!) but he’s still an old man.. he was a boy in WW2 so he’s at least in his 60s in ’97. Rogue ran away from home as a teenager, a child, and apparently they started a sexual relationship (it seems with her “mother” Mystique’s blessing…) with him some time around then… Generously that would make her 18-19 at the time, not to mention incredibly emotionally vulnerable and there was a huge power imbalance?!
The whole thing is so icky. I hated every single second of it!
Not least because it broke up her relationship with Gambit..
I could have gotten on board with exploring Rogue’s need for physical contact, and the fact that Gambit doesn’t seem to respect how she feels about that and the danger of her hurting him, even if he is willing to risk it. At least they had her realise that loving Gambit does mean more to her … And then they fucking killed him off!!!
I was glad I’d seen spoilers for that (thanks official Marvel Instagram for posting all that fan art giving it away!) because it gave me time to emotionally prepare for how pissed off it had me!
I always liked Gambit! I felt bad for the way the others always seemed to have some distrust in him, just because he used to be “the king of teeves.” And I always loved him and Rogue, even if he was a bit sleazy at times it worked with the way she’d brush him off.
I will admit I did enjoy vengeful Rogue smashing alllll the shit up and really displaying her powers but I hate it was at the expense of Gambit.
It also felt odd to me how isolated X-Men ’97 had Rogue, she was always by herself or with Magneto. In the end she only really had Kurt emotionally in her corner, I suppose so it could make sense for her to defect from the main crew. Whereas in the original series she palled around with Storm, and they often went shopping together. It seemed like they shifted focus to a close relationship between Storm and Jean, and totally sidelined Rogue.
This makes me sad because Rogue was always my favourite character!
Terrible Rogue “romance” (literally nothing romantic about it, which made it even weirder) aside, I always love some Magneto. I was never clear when or why he switched to that hilariously camp new outfit – skin tight purple with a giant M and a rather scarf-like cape. I guess that’s his “good guy” look because he switched back to his regular get up once he reverted to vengeful villain.
Honestly that relationship did damage to both Magneto and Rogue as characters. I’m still mad about it.
I kept hoping – given all the “what if” comments about the path Bastion’s life could have taken – we were going to mess about with time again and get Gambit back, and Wolverine’s adantium skeleton (!), and maybe not have Prof X inexplicably leave his school to notorious human hating villain causing a lot of the mess… But alas!
Still… The finale had the team split up at different ends of time.. apparently ready to tangle with Apocalypse… So maybe there is still time to fix things…?!
I have made my complaints but overall I thought the revival was awesome, and generally a lot of fun! I wish there were more episodes, the season was way too short! I need more!!
