X-Men ’97 Gives a Classic Cartoon a Fresh, Familiar Coat of Paint

The X-Men never die. In the comics, that’s sometimes more literal than metaphorical, more meta text than actual text. But it always means that, for the most part, no matter how long the X-Men wane, they always come back: the same but different, adapted to the latest age of a world that hates and fears them. X-Men: The Animated Series is now different with its own resurrection in X-Men ‘97.

Debuting today on Disney+, X-Men ‘97 is a literal and spiritual continuation of the beloved ‘90s cartoon series. Although given a little distance from the end of the classic show—which saw an assassination attempt on Professor X’s life whisk him away from Earth and into Shi’ar space to recover, leaving his dream of Mutant-Human co-existence in the X-Men’s hands—for the most part it picks up its core characters exactly where they were when the show left off, as they all try to navigate the last will and testament of Charles Xavier. This means it hits the ground running, and while there’s enough context for a mutant newcomer to have fun, it’s a show that is gunning for a very specific audience in the generation that grew up with the original—whether that was all the X-Men they ever experienced, or a stepping stone into the rich comics legacy that inspired it.

This means, in ways good and ill, X-Men ‘97 is more of that classic show, rendered in a modern, yet deliberately filtered style that gives it the air of trying to ape what you might remember the original series looking like (even if, in reality and modern production standards, it’s far from it). This commitment to the style and era it seeks to continue is one of ‘97‘s greatest strengths, but hardly its only one. It’s clearly not just loving the series that came before it, but loving X-Men at large: the comics of that era and earlier, and perhaps even slices of comics into the future beyond those halcyon days, the character dynamics and soap opera writ large that make the series as personal and compelling as it is, and of course the superheroic action it can now render in much more extravagant style.

It has its own unique spin on it, of course—‘97 is playing ball firmly in the court of X-Men: The Animated Series, so its characterizations and ethos are firmly driven by that particular continuity of stories, for better or worse. But the series understands that within these key, defining pillars of the X-Men at their very best, beyond metaphor and allegory, what makes these messages resonate is that our heroes are people with lives and wants beyond fighting against a world that wants them dead and buried. As important to ‘97‘s drama as Sentinels or governmental oversight is what Scott (Ray Chase) and Jean (Jennifer Hale) want for their future as they prepare to start their own family, how Logan (Cal Dodd) feels as the woman he loves prepares for a life with another man, or how the team at large sees itself beyond being the Children of Xavier in the wake of his absence and Magneto (Matthew Waterson) and his ascension to lead the team. And while yes, the action is fun and nostalgic and ‘97 at its most Saturday-morning-cartoon-esque, it’s this beating heart of drama and intimacy that makes it compellingly part of the rich legacy of X-Men, and even more so as it uses that to smartly dip and dive into elements of the comic book sagas that inspired it.

Unfortunately it’s in those intimate moments that occasionally X-Men ‘97 slips up. It’s here that the show reveals a choppily inconsistent approach to its animation at times, where characters can smoothly zip around fight scenes clawing and zapping at bad guys, but when it comes to putting a few of them in a room for a conversation they suddenly become stilted and awkward, with the frames of animation becoming much less smooth. It’s not every moment outside of the action, but it happens frequently enough that occasionally ‘97 just doesn’t look right, and not in a charmingly knowing homage to ‘90s animation standards. It’s also here that sometimes you see the cracks showing in the show’s decision to bring back multiple X-Men: The Animated Series stars to reprise their roles like no time has passed. For the most part, the cast works, and gels nicely with the new hires replacing stars who couldn’t or wouldn’t return—but there are enough cracks here and there in these first few episodes that it takes a little getting used to (and is, hopefully, something that becomes less of an issue as the series progresses) at times. It’s telling that these first few episodes provide much of the dramatic heavy lifting to characters voiced by new actors, but for the most part, the classic crew still hold their own.

Another odd, but notable weakness is that sometimes the series plays its hand too far in overreaching for certain ambitions. This is perhaps best noted visually in X-Men ‘97‘s decision to overlay a subtle, but noticeable filter of noise, giving every scene a gritty texture that is meant to evoke the feeling of watching an old recording on a VHS tape. It’s not as strong as that, but it’s strong enough that it’s distracting when it doesn’t need to be—and unnecessary for a show that stands much more strongly in how it evokes its ‘90s aesthetic elsewhere. It’s an issue that occasionally crops up narratively, too: the third episode of the series is a Hail Mary riff on the life and times of Madelyne Pryor. Scott Summers’ second love after Jean Grey seemingly perished forever in the Phoenix Saga, but in just 30 minutes it condenses almost the entirety of her history into a single plot—not just her identity twist, or her iconic villainous turn in Inferno, but all of it, even elements more recently as Maddie has returned in the Krakoan age of comics. It’s a lot, and it makes for an episode as intriguing as it is messy, but it really is emblematic of everything X-Men ‘97 is trying to do.

This is a show that is trying incredibly hard: to make you feel like no time has passed since X-Men: The Animated Series, to make you feel like this is a fitting continuation of its massive legacy, to make you feel like it understands the X-Men and their history as much as their diehard fans. And for the most part, that trying pays off, but it also does lead it to trip and stumble over its ambitions occasionally, too. The foundation laid here in X-Men ‘97‘s first three episodes is strong, and holds a lot of promise if it can smooth out some of these honestly relatively minor issues—and in turn deliver a fitting continuation of one of the X-Men’s most important legacies, one that looks to their past while embracing elements of what has come since.

X-Men ‘97 begins streaming on Disney+ today with a two-part premiere.

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