Marvel Animation's X-Men '97 | Official Trailer | Disney+

[MinistroRaven]

After watching the latest episode, and seeing what Magneto did, do you think we are going to see Onslaught in the final chapter?

[The Letter M]

That was an INTENSE finale. The very end has me very shocked and even more excited to see what happens next. This might be my favorite thing Marvel Studios has done since Endgame. Just great writing, great character arcs, some astonishing vocal performances, and just an over-all good vibe throughout that just matches and exceeds what I remember of the original animated series.

-Marc.

[Adami]

It was really good. Not as good as the last few episodes, but it's always hard to wrap things up.

I think there were a few too many cases of powerful thing taking care of things. But yea, this whole season has been fantastic and I can only hope other Marvel shows/movies put as much effort into the writing.

[The Letter M]

The "Assembled" episode for the series' first season is up on Disney+ today. I caught it earlier this afternoon and what a joy to watch everyone speak to highly of the original animated series, especially the creatives that returned.

And no, Beau DeMayo is not featured in the documentary.

-Marc.

[Zantera]

I rewatched all of the original series in the last few weeks leading up to watching X-Men '97 in the last few days or so. Some thoughts on the original series at first:

*I still remembered pretty much every episode from the first 2 seasons despite not having seen the show since the 90s. Those two seasons still held up really well for me with some classic stories in them such as Days of Future Past.
*S3 was a mixed bag for me. The Dark Phoenix storyline was cool and having a few multi-episode story archs was a big deal but the season felt too cosmic for me. Not enough of what X-Men really is for me (mutants and humans being in conflict)
*After this the show was starting to lose steam for me and S5 in particular was really rough to sit through because the animation had just dropped so much by this point.
*Overall I still had nostalgic fun watching the show again but as an adult I could definitely see the cracks I did not see as a kid. I also think a lot of the legacy of the show hinges on the first 2 seasons (and maybe to a lesser extent some episodes in S3).

Which brings us to X-Men '97:
*I love that they both manage to stay true to the original but also update the visuals significantly. From a visual standpoint the show ruled, and seeing that updated intro was a joy, characters getting a new updated look felt appropriate in most cases.
*The one exception I'm torn on is Morph. I'm not sure why they changed Morph's appearance and the new look kinda just made me think of Chameleon from Spider-Man. Just felt a bit like a different character than compared to the original run.
*First 3 episodes start off really strong and while I was familiar with the Scott-Madelyn-Nathan lineage from the comics I was surprised (in a good way) to see how they dealt with that here.
*4th episode kinda sucked in my opinion, no way around it. But I find Mojo to be maybe the most annoying character from the original run and more of him was bound to get on my nerves. Just felt like a filler episode.
*As a big Gambit fan I'm torn on what they did with him this season, and I'll leave it there.
*6th episode was my second least favorite and again mostly because the cosmic stuff reminded me of S3 and the stuff I didn't care for that much with the show. The Storm stuff was fine.
*I do think the last run of episodes were mostly great and as someone who got into X-Men comics around the time they started doing the prime sentinel stuff, I really enjoyed this.

Overall I'm quite hyped for a potential S2 and I guess we'll see what happens!

[The Realm]

Which brings us to X-Men '97:
*I love that they both manage to stay true to the original but also update the visuals significantly. From a visual standpoint the show ruled, and seeing that updated intro was a joy, characters getting a new updated look felt appropriate in most cases.
*The one exception I'm torn on is Morph. I'm not sure why they changed Morph's appearance and the new look kinda just made me think of Chameleon from Spider-Man. Just felt a bit like a different character than compared to the original run.
*First 3 episodes start off really strong and while I was familiar with the Scott-Madelyn-Nathan lineage from the comics I was surprised (in a good way) to see how they dealt with that here.
*4th episode kinda sucked in my opinion, no way around it. But I find Mojo to be maybe the most annoying character from the original run and more of him was bound to get on my nerves. Just felt like a filler episode.
*As a big Gambit fan I'm torn on what they did with him this season, and I'll leave it there.
*6th episode was my second least favorite and again mostly because the cosmic stuff reminded me of S3 and the stuff I didn't care for that much with the show. The Storm stuff was fine.
*I do think the last run of episodes were mostly great and as someone who got into X-Men comics around the time they started doing the prime sentinel stuff, I really enjoyed this.

Overall I'm quite hyped for a potential S2 and I guess we'll see what happens!

Totally agree! That episode was so bad and felt completely out of place with the rest of the season - I nearly gave up on the show after that but glad I stuck with it as overall it was really well done.

[Lonk]

Re: Gambit, I'm almost certain what happened to him is setting a story for season 2 with Apocalypse. I could be wrong though.

[Adami]

Also regarding Morph, I am not 100%, but I think this version of the character (and possibly the original version) actually started with the TV show*. Then eventually they would become a main character in Exiles, playing a version much closer to what the new show has. So I'm guessing they just stuck with the Exiles look for Morph. Which, I'm fine with. I'm a little confused as to how their powers work. They can not only look like whomever, but has their powers too? Fine, morph into Phoenix or Sentry, or Molecule Man or something and become a god. I also don't love how sidelined they are. I did like the little line they had with Wolverine when they turned into Jean Grey, but I wish they had more of a character arc in future seasons and not JUST be a quick means to tons of cool cameos.


* who was apparently a repuprosed version of a different character called Changling. I'm not super familiar with Changling or his impact on the X-Men comics, so I have no idea how similar they are beyond a similar power.

[Zantera]

I do agree there are some inconsistencies with Morph's powers - and I'm trying to remember if it's the same with Mystique in the original series, but I don't remember. Looking like someone is one thing but being able to mimic their powers is pretty insane. Why not permanently take on the appearance of one of the unstoppable villains or something?

Also I forgot to bring it up in my first post but another negative for me was the new character Roberto Da Costa. He got slightly better as the season went on but he didn't feel fleshed out enough, interesting enough or like he had a purpose. I get what they wanted to do, they wanted a new Jubilee, someone who enters this crazy world and is introduced to everything that comes with it. However Jubilee didn't really get much character development from the original run and was still viewed as the "new one who can't really be trusted yet" and so bringing in another newbie felt like a missed opportunity. It would have been cool to see Jubilee become a stronger member of the X-Men and not the rookie anymore, and that way introducing a new member would have been a cool way to make her a mentor to a new mutant.

[The Letter M]

I believe it was explained, perhaps by (former) showrunner Beau DeMayo, that Morph only shapeshifts into other people who have physical powers only. You can see them as Hulk, Mr. Fantastic, and other heroes/villains whose abilities are physical attributes and strength, rather than anything with energy or mystical abilities and powers.

-Marc.