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August 27, 2026

X-Men ’97 – Season Two Wrap-Up

By Joe

It’s been two weeks since X-Men ’97 aired its season two finale, which in the entertainment world might as well be two years. As a culture, we move on from things real quick, but I’m still letting that second season simmer in my brain as I collect my thoughts on the season as a whole. The second season of X-Men ’97 was a success, but it was a different experience from season one. That season put the human and mutant conflict at its center. There were other subplots, but the season built to a major climax with the X-Men taking on Bastion and his army of sentinels. The second season centered its conflict on Apocalypse. The X-Men taking on a literal god is going to lead to a different kind of story. Over the decades, the X-Men have done all kinds of stories. Some are more grounded than others while plenty take the group to strange and fantastic destinations. There have been successes and failures with both approaches, but for me personally I do prefer when the X-Men keep mutant persecution at its core. As such, I was predestined to like the show’s second season less than the first, but there are other reasons why season one was the overall stronger of the two.

Season two picked up where season one left off with the X-Men scattered across time and the rise of Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) in focus. In true X-Men fashion, things moved quickly. Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith) and Forge (Gil Birmingham) had already deduced where each member of the team had ended up and already had a plan to bring them all home when the second season started. The future flung X-Men were returned to the present in short order and the past dwelling mutants made their way back home in episode four after a slightly elongated stay. During that fourth episode, Magneto (Matthew Waterson) was executed by Apocalypse and Xavier (Marquand) left a broken mess in the desert sand. I did a mid-season check-in which I’ll link to at the end of this post so I don’t want to spend too much time on the season’s first half, but it provided a good setup for the Apocalypse conflict. It introduced multiple plot lines including both the existence of X-Force and X-Factor and let us know that Apocalypse was not the sort of villain the X-Men could ever hope to reason with.

I did miss the sentinels this year.

The second half of the season (which was actually four episodes so less than half) was less focused. We received the one-off Wolverine (Cal Dodd) centric episode in the fifth spot where Logan was able to lead a team of friends and foes alike to check out a Weapon X facility only to come face-to-face with the Brood. It was all a ruse by Wolverine to get his adamantium back and his actions claimed the lives of two former comrades in Maverick and Kane. What followed was an episode centered on a newcomer, Polaris (Carolina Ravassa), and another that reintroduced the mutant-hating Graydon Creed (Ben Pronsky). The finale gave us the long anticipated resurrection of Gambit (A.J. LoCascio) and the eventual confrontation with Apocalypse which resulted in victory for the X-Men, but at great cost.

Rogue got a substantial power-up in the finale.

My initial thought is to blame the shift in focus from Apocalypse to more condensed stories as the cause for the season losing some of its momentum. The only problem with that theory is I consider the Wolverine episode the best of the season. In that, we got a good character study that also introduced some new conflict between Morph (JP Karliak) and Wolverine. It’s the sort of story that I think X-Men does best. Had the other episodes done something similar I think the season would have felt like a bigger success. Instead, the episode “Danger.exe,” while addressing the PTSD Xavier was feeling over the death of Magneto was a welcomed addition, the conflict felt very small. Danger (Rachel Kimsey) as a character was uninteresting. It sprung up out of no where and was dispatched of with relative ease. Polaris was also properly introduced in that episode and while I think the character is fine, it’s a bit tough to get the audience to care about a new character when so many of the existing ones are not being well serviced by the show. “Strange Land, Savage Heart” made some attempt to refocus the show on the Genosha fallout and the mutant/human conflict, but also felt almost inconsequential. It also brought Colossus (Robert Cait) back into the fold, though he was immediately sidelined following the conclusion of that one.

So…what did everyone think of Gambocalypse?

And the bulging cast was a problem. The original series had a large, but manageable, cast of characters. Even so, some would go several episodes with little to do or say. Most episodes would try to break the team off into smaller squads to better spotlight a few as opposed to trying to focus on many. X-Men ’97 doesn’t seem to care and is happy to shelve characters if it serves the story’s purpose. Beau DeMayo was the showrunner for season one and the writer and architect for much of season two. As a big X-Men fan, he understood what made the engine go. He also, as a fanboy, seemed to want to race through several moments and events from the comics and I feel that lead to tunnel vision, at times. Some episodes in both seasons felt superfluous in the moment, but they often did serve a purpose in advancing a longer running plot. We had to speed-run Inferno in season one to understand where Cable (Chris Potter) came from as it had importance later on. On the flipside, Wolverine had to get his adamantium ripped out in season one because DeMayo just thought it was cool. Season two, despite it being what I consider to be the season’s best, had to devote an episode to Wolverine getting his adamantium back because the show was uninterested in exploring a de-powered Logan. And I think some moments and actions had to happen in season two because DeMayo was building towards Onslaught, which was then aborted. The show didn’t need to add Polaris, but maybe she was going to play a role with Onslaught?

This still hurts.

With the cast becoming unwieldy, it was no surprise that some needed to be culled. And the chosen method for that seemed to be death. Magneto was taken out in the fourth episode. While Onslaught on the horizon was likely to be his way back to the land of the living, it’s now possible he’s gone for good. Or, at least, gone for longer than Gambit. Magik (Courtenay Taylor), who never got a chance to be a character, was killed off to further her brother’s plot which was a shame. Heading into the finale, it still felt like more needed to go. Since the original series ended, we have added Morph, Bishop, Nightcrawler, Sunspot, Forge, and Polaris to the X-Men while only subtracting Gambit. Colossus was sort of added, though he never made it into the title. X-Force brought back Psylocke (Naoko Mori) and Archangel (Christopher Barger) while X-Factor also returned, but really didn’t get any character development outside of Havok (Teddy Sears) and even that was only slightly. X-Men ’97 decided someone had to go (and really, more probably do) and that someone ended up being Nightcrawler.

Many may hate that it happened, but Nightcrawler’s death was handled pretty well.

Nightcrawler’s sacrifice in the finale was both shocking and heartbreaking. It was also beautiful and really a proper send-off for the character. I don’t think anyone wanted to say goodbye to the fuzzy, blue, elf, but it would have been harder to find a better way to do so. In the episode, Rogue (Lenore Zann) makes a bargain with the celestial Eson (Waterson): her life for the power to take down Apocalypse and save Gambit. After she departs with her new glow-up, Nightcrawler realizes what she has done and offers himself up in her place. It’s done well as the show didn’t telegraph Nightcrawler’s choice. And this is a show that isn’t exactly subtle about much. Having Rogue save the day and look at her hands in bewilderment that she’s still alive only for the camera to pan to show a sad looking Beast (George Buza) standing alone clutching Nightcrawler’s Bible to his chest was a true gut punch moment. Nightcrawler’s contented narration as he explains to the god why he is choosing to give his life for his sister is well written (Brian Ford Sullivan is the only credited writer on the episode) and well performed by Adrian Hough. The images we see of the X-Men back home living their lives could be interpreted as Nightcrawler’s hope for his comrades, but I choose to see it as what did happen. It’s such a good way to close the book on Nightcrawler that I hope it isn’t undone. When Gambit died in season one it felt like there was unfinished business so I didn’t hate the show bringing him back, but with Nightcrawler there’s a finality here. That and if the show keeps cheating death then it will cease to have meaning. It took a season and a half’s worth of episodes, but the show basically exchanged Nightcrawler for Gambit and that’s forgivable regardless of who the favored character is.

I’m not a religious person, but I didn’t take any issue with Rogue choosing to remember her brother in this way.

Where the show has never faltered is with the production end. The animation is a huge step up from the original series. Action scenes remain inventive and perhaps the greatest tragedy in Nightcrawler dying is we won’t get to see his skills on display again. He got a nice send-off in that respect first with his dual against Exodus (who I am a bitter was dispatched unceremoniously) and then when under the control of Apocalypse as he damn near took down the entirety of the X-Men and X-Force by himself. The soundtrack by The Newton Brothers also remains excellent and they know just when to turn to that bombastic main theme. They also do a great job of weaving in the old themes from the original series like using Gambit’s theme during his dinner scene with Rogue. And there’s nothing that gets me more excited these days than that opening kicking in before each episode. I hope there never comes a day when I experience that opening without getting goosebumps all up and down my body.

Apocalypse went out like a chump in the end, but at least it was at the hand’s of a fellow god.

Season two pinned its success on the confrontation between the X-Men and Apocalypse as well as the minor conflict of the X-Men vs X-Factor. Was that a wise decision? I think so, but the results weren’t quite there. Apocalypse was really sidelined following that fourth episode. The show tried to keep him on the viewer’s mind with little moments at the end of episodes six and seven, but it wasn’t really enough. He spent the bulk of the finale inside Gambit, and once he emerged, he looked ridiculous and was quickly dispatched by a powered-up Rogue. The show really could have used a tenth episode to let the conflict simmer. Actually have the mutants fight Apocalypse for more than a minute. The issue there, and it’s one that has always existed with Apocalypse, is that he’s just too damn powerful. There usually isn’t a believable way for the X-Men to go toe-to-toe with him, but that’s also a problem of the show’s making. I’ve always loved the concept of Apocalypse, but his stories often end unceremoniously. At least here there was a plausible end to the conflict, even if it felt like the Power Rangers summoning the Megazord and quickly dispatching of a previously insurmountable foe. Or a Dragon Ball Z power-up that reduces a previously unstoppable opponent to a punching bag.

A happy ending?

That was season two. Overall, I enjoyed my time with it and I’ll miss having an episode to look forward to each week (let’s not do the three-episode premiere again, please, it only hastens the end), but the season was not without its problems. For season three, it looks like we’ll be heading back to a human/mutant conflict and that bodes well for the future. It’s also the true end of the DeMayo era (had it continued, we would have been getting a form of the Age of Apocalypse) which gives the season an uncertain feel. One of his strengths as showrunner was his willingness to be uncompromising in calling out bigotry within the show’s universe. That’s something it will need with a President Creed, but in the hands of someone else will that be softened? The finale marked the return of Mystique (Randall Carpenter) and the only clip shown of season three so far featured her Brotherhood of Mutants tangling with some sentinels. Will Creed be a season-long conflict, or will this be something that gets taken care of as quickly as our time-displaced heroes this season? The road ahead is less certain and I am looking forward to it, but the lack of a major cliffhanger this year makes the wait a little more palatable. And as of right now that wait is only supposed to be a year so here’s hoping that come summer 2027 we’ll have more X-Men ’97 to talk about.

See you next year!

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Survival of the Fittest”

We have reached the end of season two of X-Men ’97, albeit probably sooner than we would have liked given the nine episode order. Ten already seemed short compared with the 13 the original series used to get so nine is borderline cruel. All that said, before we dig into the review for the season…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “The Dead Man’s Hand”

This was the episode of X-Men ’97 we all knew was coming eventually. I don’t think I need to provide a spoilers warning given the episode title before I say this is the return of Gambit. This was all setup in the closing moments of the first season when Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) found the queen…

Keep reading
by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

August 12, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “Survival of the Fittest”

By Joe
Original premiere date August 12, 2026

We have reached the end of season two of X-Men ’97, albeit probably sooner than we would have liked given the nine episode order. Ten already seemed short compared with the 13 the original series used to get so nine is borderline cruel. All that said, before we dig into the review for the season finale I do just want to say how happy this show has made me. It still blows my mind that I’m watching a continuation of something I loved as a child. When that theme song starts up, I get goosebumps all up and down my arms and the feeling that comes over me is something akin to a high. It’s fantastic, and I hate that it’s all over so quickly.

“Survival of the Fittest” is the culmination of the season long arc involving Apocalypse (Ross Marquand). Even though the big guy was somewhat put on ice after the fourth episode, he’s back and ready to go for the finale and caught in the crossfire is Gambit. Last week, Gambit (A.J. LoCascio) made his long telegraphed re-debut as he rose from the grave with an all new look, but an all new mind set as well. Gambit quickly set out to putting together a crew and he turned to his roots for that as he returned to Louisiana to corrupt the assassins and the thieves. Gambit choosing to return home should have been a tell for all who love him because Gambit vowed to never return there and by episode’s end we found out he wasn’t the one calling the shots: Apocalypse was. X-Force had found the withered husk of the mighty Apocalypse in the previous episode and the conclusion everyone seemed to draw was that Gambit had been resurrected as his horseman of Death and he made his maker his first victim. Oh, how foolish for Apocalypse cannot be killed so easily, and especially not by one of his own making. He likely needed a new host body and Gambit was his chosen vessel, but before he could resume his crusade against all he deems weak he needed to visit someone from his past: Candra.

The X-Men have a whole bunch of foes to deal with, but the big one is still Apocalypse.

Candra (Debra Wilson) is who we were introduced to during the second season of the original series as the X-Ternal. She is the apparent deity the thieves and assassins aim to please in exchange for their supernatural powers. We saw Candra make an appearance in the past as part of Rama-Tut’s court, but at the time it wasn’t clear why? It turns out, she and Apocalypse would meet sometime after the events in Egypt and the big guy apparently took a liking to her so much so that he bestowed upon her some of his awesome power. She took it and ran and Apocalypse has been trying to reclaim it ever since. Now, it makes sense why he’d have interest in Gambit. If he knows about Gambit’s connection to her via the thieves (and why would he?) then posing as Gambit could bring her out of wherever it is she goes when she isn’t in that swamp and allow him to reclaim what he once gave up. And that’s exactly what happened and the only challenge Apocalypse faced came from a likely expected source in the X-Men. In particular, Xavier (Marquand) and Rogue (Lenore Zann). Xavier chose to battle Apocalypse in Gambit’s mind in what was nearly a 1:1 recreation of a similar battle for the soul of Jean during The Dark Phoenix Saga. Only this time, Xavier failed and it was Rogue who somehow was able to enter Gambit’s mind and make the save. I say “some how” because she and Gambit have never demonstrated a psychic rapport before, but he also handed over the power he took back from Candra to her. Perhaps that’s doing the heavy lifting here?

Val Cooper’s villain turn has been pretty gradual this season.

Speaking of, why did Apocalypse do that? Does this all go back to that conversation he and Rogue shared in the past regarding love? That’s one of the questions I had going into “Survival of the Fittest” where the X-Men need to free their friend from Apocalypse’s control, but also contend with recently allied X-Factor and the remnants of X-Force. Jubilee (Holly Chou) and Sunspot (Gui Agustini) defected from Cable’s (Chris Potter) team when it became obvious that Cable’s only objective is destroying Apocalypse even if that means killing Gambit in the process. X-Factor has it out for Charles and his X-Men and their choice to get involved on US soil has put them in the crosshairs. Will the supposed good mutants all figure out they have a problem bigger than each other or will everything just fall apart and play into the hands of Apocalypse?

If the X-Men are going to save Remy, then you know Rogue is going to have to play a big part.

For the finale, Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) is given the honor of stating the “Previously,” line, though if you think that’s a tip for how the episode will go I will say it most certainly is not. Jubilee and Sunspot are back in the roll call this week, though Colossus still remains on the sidelines. Perhaps he’ll be a season three addition? The ending clash has also been changed to feature Xavier’s X-Men on one side and Val Cooper’s (Catherine Disher) X-Factor on the other. The X-Men remained in their Jim Lee era costumes for this clash all season and I wonder if that will be changed next year? Or maybe leaving them in those looks will always be a way to celebrate the original series? I wouldn’t mind a return to those looks, personally. I’ve never been a fan of the black and yellow which, like the original movie suits, seemed to be born out of the idea that the old, colorful, costumes were something to be embarrassed by.

X-Factor being accompanied by Sentinels is a perversion of what they should be standing for.

The episode wastes no time in getting to the conflict. X-Factor, along with Cable, Archangel (Christopher Barger), and Psylocke (Naoko Mori), are knocking on Xavier’s door while Gambit remains unconscious. He’s a ticking time bomb though and about the only answers anyone can come up with rests miles below the water’s surface. There, Beast (George Buza), Rogue, and Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough) have come upon the celestial ship of Apocalypse, last seen in the past as a temple, but last seen in this era back in the episode “Obsession” from the original series. Beast still has a small fragment of the ship’s A.I. and it’s enough to revive it and reactivate the portal to the celestial realm we saw En Sabah Nur enter and emerge from as Apocalypse in “Rise of Apocalypse.” The ship warns the group that entering such a place requires a price, but Rogue is determined to do whatever it takes to save Gambit while Beast and Nightcrawler can do little but watch.

On Genosha, we get to watch as Cooper’s forces storm the X-Corp building in a bid to get Cable close enough to take out Gambit. They are convinced that destroying Gambit is the only way to eliminate Apocalypse and it’s only a matter of time until he takes over Gambit’s mind and body, as he’s done to so many before. There is some good action spots including Jubilee and Havok (Teddy Sears) battling it out in airplanes, Wolverine (Cal Dodd) and Morph (JP Karliak) taking on the duo of Archangel and Psylocke, and a big showdown between parents and son. There’s a lot to pack into 30 minutes (it would have been nice to get an extended ninth episode given they axed the tenth), but the pace felt solid. The action was satisfying and the character moments were also present. I might have preferred to have more character moments to go out on, but I also can’t critique the ending. Without spoiling anything, it was beautiful.

There were some fun pairings in this one, like this confrontation between Psylocke and Wolverine that doesn’t go how Betsy imagined it would.

I went into this episode unsure if X-Men ’97 could stick the landing. The whole season had been building towards this confrontation, but along the way it reminded me that the big spectacles aren’t really the draw with X-Men. It’s the team dynamics, the inter-character conflicts, the soap opera elements that make the show unique among a litany of other options these days. It’s similar to how the draw with Spider-Man is less about Spider-Man and more about Peter Parker which was really on display in Brand New Day which appears on its way to be the most successful film at the box office ever in terms of number of dollars spent. Hopefully there is a lesson in there for Marvel. X-Men ’97 found a way to stick that landing and found it in an unexpected source. Should I have seen it coming? Perhaps, but I was content to just sit back and let the show take me on a ride this week and I never really found myself trying to forecast the end. I was concerned at the onset it would feel too much like the Dark Phoenix Saga because it certainly did the prior week. In a way, it did borrow elements from that this week, but with a different resolution. There was also the elephant in the room that is Apocalypse. I like Apocalypse as a villain, but my problem with him going back to the original series is that they never found satisfying ways to stop him. He would just sort of leave and the one time they really stopped him was at the end of “Beyond Good and Evil” when it was kind of a goofy, unsatisfying ending. One thing they absolutely get right with this finale is that it’s only sort of about Apocalypse, but it never loses sight of the fact that it’s primarily about Rogue and Gambit and the family they’ve acquired who will risk it all to help them. Even when it means, in the case of Cyclops (Ray Chase) and Jean (Jennifer Hale), taking on their actual family.

Cable arrived on Genosha amid literal fireworks and now he returns amid a hail of gun fire.

Like the end of season one, there is a post credits scene setting up season three so do make sure you stick around for that (or use the skip credits option). I’ll likely make a season two wrap-up post to get more into spoilers, but suffice to say I like what they’re setting up for season three. I just hope we don’t have to wait longer than a year this time (they showed a clip at San Diego Comic Con and could conceivably show another this weekend at D23 so that’s a positive sign) as that can really derail momentum. X-Men ’97 is one of the best things Disney and Marvel have going right now so I hope they don’t do anything to stifle that. This finale was terrific. If you felt the season was losing some of its momentum coming into the last episode then rest assured, this one is the payoff you likely hoped for. I do think it will be controversial and it will have some major lasting impacts on the show, but in the moment I found it satisfying even if a bit painful. Sometimes, that’s a mark of good art.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “The Dead Man’s Hand”

This was the episode of X-Men ’97 we all knew was coming eventually. I don’t think I need to provide a spoilers warning given the episode title before I say this is the return of Gambit. This was all setup in the closing moments of the first season when Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) found the queen…

by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Strange Land, Savage Heart”

If you were hoping for a quick follow-up on the closing moments of last week’s episode featuring Apocalypse and a certain resurrected cajun, I’m afraid I have some bad news. The show is going to slow walk that plot as this week we’re dealing with more Genosha fallout. Considering the magnitude of the event, I’m…

by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Danger.exe”

After last week’s side trip up north to get Wolverine his skeleton back, this week’s episode of X-Men ’97 brings us back to the mansion which we really haven’t seen much of so far this season. The season’s sixth episode is centered on survivor’s guilt and the sins of a parent. For the guilt portion,…

by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 21, 2026

What Can We Expect from the Second Half of X-Men ’97 Season Two?

By Joe
X-Men ’97 appears to be building towards one hell of a finish.

With the airing of last week’s episode “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs” the second season of X-Men ’97 passed the halfway point. And after tomorrow when this goes live, we’ll be 2/3rds of the way through the season since it’s only nine episodes. Since I am away (again) for the sixth episode, I figured I’d do a little recap post and offer up some of my thoughts on where we’re heading from here. There’s a lot of stuff we know is likely to happen, but a lot we don’t, and it sounds like the plans for season three have been changed since they were originally mapped out. It should probably go without saying, but just in case, there are spoilers ahead for the first half of X-Men ’97’s season two and I’ll also be talking about the potentially scuttled plans for season three so you have been warned.

Season two of X-Men ’97 has been a lot of fun so far. The actual episodes have been pretty tight focusing on just select squads of the heroes involved while also laying the groundwork for a big finale against Apocalypse. With the most recent episode, we got a deviation where Wolverine and a select group of mutants ran off to Canada to shut down the latest Weapon X lab. Or at least that’s what the squad signed up for, but in reality Wolverine was just looking to get his adamantium skeleton back which Magneto had stripped from him in season one.

Wolverine is left to wonder, “Was it all worth it?”

We might as well start there. That episode was a pretty interesting look at Wolverine and it also really put a spotlight on his relationship with Morph. It’s been a little divisive in some circles from what I’ve seen and that goes back to how the story was presented in the comics. Any X-Men show or movie is going to run into issues where fans compare what they’re seeing on their screen to what already happened in the comics while writers and showrunners aren’t always looking for a direct adaptation. In the comics, Wolverine went years without his adamantium skeleton and even had a botched attempt at it during that time period which brought about the feral Wolverine era. We got a slight taste of that in episode one as Wolverine’s look was evocative of that one, but that was it. The comic book story put Wolverine before Apocalypse with a choice: battle Sabretooth for the right to become Death, or let Sabretooth assume that mantle. Whoever became Death would have an adamantium skeleton courtesy of Apocalypse which was kind of like a little bonus. For Wolverine, it meant letting someone else turn him into a weapon as the Weapon X program had done years before against his will. On the other hand, letting Sabretooth get basically a power-up and a new job that was all about killing didn’t exactly sound appealing either. Wolverine’s choice was presented as a sacrifice and he had faith in himself that he’d eventually beat Apocalypse’s programming and ultimately cause the world far less harm than a powered-up Sabretooth and that’s just what he did.

In X-Men ’97, Wolverine lead a group of allies and enemies into a hornet’s nest under false pretenses. During the first episode and in this one, we saw how Wolverine’s effectiveness had been reduced thanks to his new, fragile, bone claws. He had a tough time taking down the robotic foes in the distant future and was unable to takedown a Brood-infested polar bear in this one. And in that moment, Sabretooth had to bail him out and he was all too happy to let him know. Wolverine ended up getting infected by the Brood which caused him to murder his ally Maverick who wanted to bail on the mission as soon as they realized what they were up against. He very nearly killed Morph, but Morph was able to distract him by morphing into Jean (that always works). Sabretooth and Deathstrike saw through what Wolverine was doing, but Morph was the last one to cross the finish line. Morph refused to see Wolverine as a monster, but in the end, they found out that even Wolverine thinks he has no worth unless he’s a monster. It must have been a pretty devastating episode for Morph who we know has feelings beyond just friendship for Wolverine. Morph presenting as themself to Wolverine to try and get him to stop failed, but Jean? Apparently she has enough of Wolverine’s heart to pull that off and Morph likely never will. There could be a rift forming here and it will be interesting to see how this plays out. For fans, I get it that some were upset that Wolverine’s sacrifice in the books was turned into a selfish act, but I think this aspect of his personality that X-Men ’97 is shining a light on is also a worthwhile avenue. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

As for the rest of the season, we know the episode titles for what’s to come starting with the episode that airs the day after this post goes live “Danger.exe.” I am expecting this one will feature the enemy Danger (duh), and based on the newer trailers, it could also feature an X-Men and X-Force team-up. Or a fight, either sounds enjoyable. It should be a good opportunity to bring in the Grant Morrison era costumes we’ve seen featured in the trailers (they thankfully have not featured Wolverine’s look from that run which I have never liked) and I think it will also be a chance to get most everyone in the same place. We have not had an episode where the whole team is together. It would also be a chance to see the first bit of fallout from the time jumping adventure the X-Men went on as well as the loss of Magneto. I wonder if it will stick with the Danger plot, or maybe jump around? We haven’t really had an episode like that this season apart from briefly jumping to the future in episode two and starting episode 3 in the present.

Could this episode be where the show brings back the Genosha fallout?

The next episode is titled “Strange Land, Savage Heart” which is a play on the episode title from the original series “Savage Land, Strange Heart.” It would seem to suggest the presence of the Savage Land and perhaps that is where the shrine for victims of Genosha has been erected? We also saw shots of Nightcrawler battling with Exodus and perhaps that takes place in the Savage Land? Or we’re just going to split up with Nightcrawler and Rogue heading to Genosha and the rest heading to the Savage Land. Beyond that, I’m not sure, but I think this is the episode that brings everything back to focus on those lost at Genosha. And based on the trailer, it looks like the body count has gone up since season one ended as Magik and possibly Iceman were added to the death toll despite appearing on Forge’s board as being alive and accounted for. Colossus was also in his Acolytes costume and if the Acolytes have a new leader it’s almost certainly Exodus. Colossus is likely to be in a bad headspace following the loss of his beloved sister. We know of some similar scenes with Polaris returning to the mansion and taking sight of how everything has been destroyed and one shot in the trailer shows a picture of her and Bobby which seems to further hint that he may have been among the casualties. This all leads me to speculate on some big things in the next episode.

Or maybe they are just going on a Savage Land adventure?

“Dead Man’s Hand” sounds pretty self-explanatory. When Gambit died in season one, few expected it to be permanent. That’s just not how comics work. When Apocalypse was shown at the end of season one finding a playing card in the rubble of Genosha that basically cemented it. Gambit is coming back as Apocalypse’s horseman of death, but what of the other three? Horsemen always come in fours and we have not seen any shots in any trailer suggesting who could be among the horsemen. In the comics, Polaris became one at one point and could her anger towards humanity over the loss of Bobby and others drive her to Apocalypse? She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s also lost a father in Magneto though that one is complicated by the fact that it was Apocalypse who killed him. Then again, that could be what the X-Men use to pull her out of his clutches. Rogue is another possibility. She was devastated by the loss of Gambit, could this be a way to be with him? I don’t know if she would go willingly, but there’s a darkness in her brought about by Genosha. Archangel also reminded us in episode two that it was Rogue who took away the evil within him and allowed him to break free of Apocalypse’s control. That evil has been dwelling inside her ever since perhaps ready to come out. She could also attempt to do the same for Gambit, and maybe that backfires? In the scene where it looks like the X-Men and X-Force are bracing for a fight from the trailer, I don’t think Rogue is seen, though that might not be them getting ready to tangle with Apocalypse too. Colossus is another candidate. Devastated by the loss of his sister, he could certainly turn towards Apocalypse if he thinks the Acolytes aren’t doing enough.

Rogue is definitely going to feature heavily in the climax of this season.

The other possibility for the horsemen that I envision is the show using it as a way to undo some deaths. We know Gambit is likely one such character, but then there’s others who perished in Genosha like Magik, Iceman, Marrow, and Banshee. Many others fell as well and if they indeed decided to add Magik and Iceman to the death toll between seasons then virtually anyone is on the table if we have yet to see them alive. And it could also be a way to bring back Magneto. Perhaps when Apocalypse nuked Magneto’s body he preserved his essence to put into a new body and control? I personally think it would be a mistake to bring Magneto back yet again, but I can’t rule it out. After all, these are comic book characters and they seem to never die. There’s also opportunities to introduce new or forgotten characters to fill out Apocalypse’s ranks. Characters like Nemesis, Mikhail Rasputin, Deathbird, or Tyler – Cable’s son he essentially abandoned in the future. We’ve also never really had Stryfe in the animated universe as he’s only ever made cameos. We have not heard from Sinister at all this season and it’s been even longer since we’ve seen Mystique, the Brotherhood, or anyone from The Nasty Boys. And can we fully write-off Wolverine as a horseman? Maybe his opinion of himself as only a weapon and his actions up north create a bigger divide with the team than expected and it allows Apocalypse to corrupt him somehow? Maybe a character like X-23 or Daken gets introduced as a horseman and Wolverine has to find his worth as a human being in order to convince one of them to suppress what Apocalypse has done to them?

Either way, I see the finale “Survival of the Fittest” as being the battle for Gambit’s soul and anyone else corrupted by Apocalypse. They’ll also have to actually defeat Apocalypse and I don’t know how they’ll do that. I do hope it’s something satisfying as the ways in which those confrontations were settled in the original series were never satisfying for me. That’s the Apocalypse problem – he’s made to be so strong and so powerful that there’s almost no believable way to stop him. He kind of just runs for no reason or you get something a bit more abstract like the ending to “Beyond Good and Evil.” One possibility for taking him down is Onslaught. In the comics, when Charles Xavier wiped the mind of Magneto during the Fatal Attractions arc it meant Magneto’s consciousness remained with Xavier’s mind. It basically tormented him and eventually it caused Onslaught to emerge. Now, few fans seem to actually like that arc. The setup is fine, the character certainly has a 90s cool factor, but it basically lead to the temporary deaths of a lot of Marvel’s non-mutant heroes and brought about the controversial Heroes Reborn era. I, like many, am not a fan of the Onslaught saga, but I’m also not afraid of it. The way I see it, X-Men ’97 could be a way to redeem the character, but that may not happen.

If this represents X-Men and X-Force getting ready to duke it out with Apocalypse, it could be more telling to focus on who isn’t there rather than who is.

According to former showrunner Beau DeMayo, Marvel axed his plans to introduce Onslaught in episode ten of this season and that’s why we ended up with nine episodes instead of ten. I would guess he knows this to be true because he probably lost a credit over it. Onslaught was going to be a season three enemy and somehow that was going to lead to an Age of Apocalypse in the animated universe. That might also explain why Hasbro decided to reissue their own Onslaught figure (review coming soon) since this was all stuff being worked on years before this season premiered. Does that mean Onslaught is completely off the table? No, as there’s been plenty of time to reconsider if they wanted to. They could have decided to kick the can further down the road as opposed to bring it into season two. There’s certainly plenty of foreshadowing with how Xavier ended episode four. Perhaps he even “saved” Magneto from death by psychically downloading his mind into his own? Such a thing sounds like absolute nonsense, but for X-Men? Nah, that could be sold. And from there it could be that which brings about Onslaught. How this would have created an Age of Apocalypse when the previous show already went down the rabbit hole of “What if Xavier were killed before forming the X-Men?” with the two-parter “One Man’s Worth,” is also something I can’t wrap my head around. Maybe the show was just going to forget about that? I’m pretty sure it was referenced in the opening title during season one so DeMayo likely wanted us to remember it for a reason. Either way, I could see Marvel not wanting to set an entire season of the show in an alternate present thereby throwing a wrench into the whole thing. Comic fans seem titillated by it, but would the casuals want to see another season where Magneto leads the team and characters like Beast and Cyclops are villains?

Onslaught not being the ultimate end game for season two has one obvious benefit in that it makes it really hard to predict what could follow instead. It could simply be a cleaner ending, but I can’t imagine them not teasing another villain or plot to come. Perhaps Krakoa? That seems to be something a lot of fans would take in place of Age of Apocalypse. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see Generation X being formed and maybe a reshuffling of some cards where X-Force and X-Factor are concerned. The mere fact that I’ve written over 2,000 words on the subject should be enough of a tell that I’m pretty excited and eager to see where things are heading. There’s so much for the show to cover or not and it feels like we’ve barely spent time with most of the characters. I hope the show is doing really well with whatever metrics Disney uses to evaluate these streaming shows so that it ensure we get even more beyond a third season because this is just too much damn fun each week.

Some prior X-Men ’97 musings and reviews if this wasn’t enough for you:

X-Men ’97 – “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs”

When X-Men went into development for the Fox Kids Network, it didn’t take the writing staff (who was unfamiliar with the property going in) long to figure out that Wolverine was their ticket to television royalty. The character really took off in the 1980s and helped the X-Men storm into the 1990s as the most…

Keep reading
by Joe

The Return of X-Men ’97

The return of the ’92 era X-Men featured in the classic animated series could not have gone any better. I was extremely excited for that show’s continuation via X-Men ’97, but at the same time a bit fearful. Could it really live up to my own expectations even as I tried to tamp them down?…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3”

Today, X-Men ’97 dropped the curtain on its first season and what a way to bring it to an end. Last week’s episode was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I couldn’t go into much detail of my review of “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2” without wading into spoiler territory, so allow me…

Keep reading
by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 7, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “A Force to be Reckoned With”

By Joe
Original premiere date July 1, 2026.

The title of this post says X-Men ’97, but in some respects it should read X-Force ’97 because that’s what the opening title presents. Yes, boys and girls, we have ourselves an X-Force on television. Cable made numerous appearances in the original series, but never as the leader of X-Force. This surprised me as a kid since if you went to a toy store during that era you would find action figures featuring an X-Men cardback as well as those with an X-Force one. Cable was basically the Wolverine of that line as he received quite a few figures, though never as many as the more famous Canadian. The line lasted for a few years, but it always was less popular than the X-Men one. In my home town we had a big warehouse store that was literally located in an old warehouse that was family owned. Even though the place looked like a dump and was most associated with cheap products, the toy section was often pretty current and sometimes they would get stuff before even Toys ‘R Us. However, they would also get some of the more unwanted figures and when it came to X-Men there was a long drought because they couldn’t get rid of their X-Force figures. G.W. Bridge, Gideon, Shatterstar, and Kaine seemed to linger forever. It’s why I had a Shatterstar because he felt like the coolest of the ones available. Cable was rarely there, same for Deadpool and Fourarm. Maybe the stink of that store is what kept me out of X-Force because I think the only other X-Force figure I would own from that Toy Biz line was a later Cable who had Terminator-like tare-away flesh for some reason. And that one was given to me by my friend.

When the first season of X-Men ’97 ended with the majority of the team flung through time, but Cable remaining in 1997, it seemed like the time was now for X-Force to make its animated debut. The first episode ended with a tease as Cable (Chris Potter) is seen in the present telling two familiar faces in Archangel (Christopher Barger) and Psylocke (Naoko Mori) that they need to focus on recruitment. When the second episode, “A Force to be Reckoned With” opens, it comes as a cold open which is unusual for the show. It depicts a group of young mutants on the run being lead by some kind of energy bird to the remains of the X-Mansion. It’s in ruins, and one of the kids has an “I told you so,” attitude about the discovery because everyone knows the X-Men are gone. These kids are just the start of the cameos as this is going to be a big one for those who like to scan the background. There are more cameos in this one than there were during the segments in Genosha from the original series (and from last year’s episode, for that matter) so I’m not going to bother to list them all. These ones are rather prominent as among them are Kid Omega (Thomas Dekker) (sporting a Phoenix shirt) and Penance (Miatta Ade Lebile).

X-Factor has entered the chat.

Who are these kids running from? That would be X-Factor, the government backed version of the team that briefly showed up in the original series episode “Cold Comfort.” There, they were lead by Forge, but now they’re being directed by Val Cooper (Catherine Disher) to round up mutants in a bid to turn down the current temperature where human-mutant relations are concerned. The actual makeup of the team is still pretty much the same as we have Havok (Teddy Sears), Polaris (Carolina Ravassa), Strong Guy (Adrian Hough), Wolfsbane, and Multiple Man, the latter having no lines and thus no credited voice actor at this time. Following that scene, we catch up with Jubilee (Holly Chou) and Sunspot (Gui Agustini) at an arcade, but they’re soon visited by an old friend: Cable. Here we get the recruitment pitch, and when Jubilee asks if this team he’s putting together has a name, we smash-cut to the opening title only it’s X-Force! Each member of the team gets their own segment which is headlined by Cable and there are a lot of similar shots to the standard intro. There are throwbacks to the first season of the show as well as the original series including the scene of Cable encountering Apocalypse in his temple and one of the creation of Archangel. The ending sequence has X-Force colliding with the forces of Apocalypse with the mutant kids caught in the middle. It’s an awesome sequence that is almost sure to put a smile on the face of every viewer, even those not necessarily familiar with X-Force.

This is pretty awesome.

With the fun intro over, the rest of the episode can focus on X-Force chasing leads, the first of which concerns the horseman War (Lawrence Bayne) from the first season of the original show. He was the green guy with the bowl cut who I don’t think has ever been seen again since that episode, but Cable lets everyone know that this guy has been pretty busy spreading death and genocide wherever he goes. Our team is indeed Cable, Psylocke, Archangel, Jubilee, and Sunspot with the latter two getting a costume change. Jubilee now has her longer hair and red Generation X costume while Sunspot is sporting his X-Force blue and orange. Curiously, Archangel is back in the blue and pink which we knew from the trailers and Hasbro figure, but why he ditched his Angel look is not addressed. Psylocke is in her ninja look from the 90s and now sports a British accent despite not having one in the original series. Since this is more accurate, I can let that inconsistency slide. This is a hodgepodge assortment for X-Force, but in the confines of the animated series, I think it makes sense. The cast is already bloated and introducing the likes of Warpath, Shatterstar, and Kaine would just be like adding to the pile.

This group may not scream “X-Force,” to 90s comic readers, but for this show I think this squad makes sense.

The mission to capture and interrogate War reveals to Jubilee just how Cable envisions this squad working which stands in direct opposition of what Charles Xavier would do. Cable rationalizes them as soldiers, not students or teachers, and Xavier’s pacifist methods are not going to cut it. He’s more ruthless, and yes we do get our answer as to why the Marvel Legends Archangel comes with Cable’s gun, though I still think it was a mostly worthless inclusion. From there, the focus pivots based on what Psylocke is able to extract from War’s mind by force and telepathy to an old foe in Emma Frost (Zehra Fazal). This puts our squad on a collision course with X-Factor that also leads to Jubilee getting separated which is where the episode really kicks it into high gear.

It’s time for Jubilee to truly graduate.

During the original series, Jubilee was featured a fair amount, but often as the kid who got in over her head and needed the other X-Men to bail her out. Her most independent episode might have been “Jubilee’s Fairy Tale Theater” in which she keeps a group of students calm with a story we see acted out in animation while they wait for rescue. It’s not exactly the sort of spotlight someone like Wolverine would get. In this episode, Jubilee gets her moment as she’s captured and tasked with not just breaking out, but also freeing all of the captive mutants being held by X-Factor on what looks like a SHIELD helicarrier. It’s set to a very era appropriate song which has Beau DeMayo written all over it, but I don’t know for sure who is responsible. The sequence shows Jubilee really cut loose with her powers and skills and the nice thing was that during the new opening title we were treated to a sequence of Psylocke training Jubilee. It’s just a nice, tidy, way of saying this is something that’s been going on for a little awhile and we’re seeing the fruits of that labor on display. What I really appreciate though is that before Jubilee can bust out, we get to see Sunspot and Cable argue over what to do about her capture. Sunspot, being the heroic boyfriend, wants to set everything aside to rescue her, but Cable tells him to trust her. He knows she can take care of herself, or at least he wants to see if she can. When Jubilee does eventually cause a commotion, there’s a moment where we see Cable smile, but it’s not some cocky, “I told you so,” smile. It’s the kind of smile a teacher might feature when a student demonstrates that they’ve absorbed the material they’ve been taught. And he said they weren’t students.

I didn’t necessarily need to know where this thing came from, but it was pretty cool.

The episode does end back in the future to wrap-up the events of the first episode. In doing so, the origin of Cable’s computer cube (Rachel Kimsey) is revealed in a rather clever way. I have no idea if this is something born from the comics or if it was created for the show (this episode was written by Anthony Sellitti and Mariah Wilson), but I do like it. It also sets up the events for the third part of this season premiere where we will check in on the squad sent to the distant past. Even though this is deliberately woven into other threads, this episode of X-Men ’97 X-Force ’97works really well as a stand-alone adventure. It ties into the core mission of the X-Men through a different lens and putting this X-Force team up against X-Factor is another great way to put the focus on just what the X-Men (and X-Force) are out to do. Jubilee’s escape is a ton of fun and should be a highlight of season two when all is said and done, assuming it’s not overshadowed in the 8 episodes to follow. There is some foreshadowing contained in this one via Psylocke’s observations in the mind of War that are certainly intriguing. I think anyone who watched how the first season ended can guess what’s coming, but it’s still fun to see the show tease it. I just wonder when it will pay off?

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Days of Past Future”

At last, X-Men ’97 has made its return to airwaves with not one, not two, but three episodes for the premiere which means there’s a lot to talk about. Truthfully, too much for one post which is why we need to keep things to one episode per entry as is the style of the time.…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3”

Today, X-Men ’97 dropped the curtain on its first season and what a way to bring it to an end. Last week’s episode was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I couldn’t go into much detail of my review of “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2” without wading into spoiler territory, so allow me…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2”

Magneto was right. That was the realization many characters seemed to share at the end of last week’s episode of X-Men ’97. As we roll into the penultimate episode of the show’s first season, a lot is on the line and the show is drawing inspiration from several different sources related to the X-Men over…

Keep reading
by Joe

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July 6, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “Days of Past Future”

By Joe
Original premiere date July 1, 2026.

At last, X-Men ’97 has made its return to airwaves with not one, not two, but three episodes for the premiere which means there’s a lot to talk about. Truthfully, too much for one post which is why we need to keep things to one episode per entry as is the style of the time. It’s been a long two years since the first season ended with the X-Men scattered through time. When that episode ended, it was tough to know just where everyone landed, but with the first episode of season two that is at least resolved along with a whole bunch of other things. And structurally, the three episode premiere makes sense because each episode is going to take place at a different point in time and focus on a different group of mutants with the very first taking place in the far off future of 3960 where we know Cyclops (Ray Chase) and Jean (Jennifer Hale) wound up, but will soon learn it’s also where Storm(Alison Sealy-Smith), Wolverine (Cal Dodd), and Morph(JP Karliak) landed as well.

As we basically knew going into this one based on how season one ended, season two is going to focus on Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) as the big antagonist of the season. At least, that’s the setup and I suppose he could be dispatched before the season ends, but it sure feels like he’s going to have a presence throughout. When the show begins with that fantastic intro, we find Forge (Gil Birmingham) and Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith) taking stock of where the X-Men are. Forge has utilized his mutant powers of invention to create a crude version of the time portal seen in the very first season of X-Men and through that they have been able to pinpoint where everyone wound up. Because Forge’s love interest, Storm, resides in 3960 he draws the task of traveling to the future to bring back the X-Men there while Bishop will be tasked to heading to ancient Egypt to retrieve the rest.

Expect Apocalypse to have a presence throughout this season.

In 3960, we’re properly introduced to Nathan Summers (Michael Johnston) and Mother Askani (Gates McFadden). Askani leads a tribe of individuals who are resisting Apocalypse in this future. There, the immortal mutant has pretty much taken over and successfully enslaved much of the world. The Atlantic ocean is dried up and his fortress looms large. Cyclops and Jean have been training Nathan who does not know that they’re his parents for a few months while the other X-Men are just along for the ride. When Forge arrives, he finds a Wolverine sans his adamantium skeleton who is forced to tangle with Apocalypse’s robotic Dark Riders with bone claws that shatter upon impact, but soon regrow thanks to his mutant healing ability. Because the episode is heavy on the Summers family dynamic, we don’t get any insight on how Wolverine has been coping with that very traumatic moment from the penultimate episode of season one and Morph is mostly there for a little window dressing. Forge has the unenviable task of convincing the Summers family to separate and return to the present despite getting this unexpected opportunity at a life with their son.

The main focus of the episode is on the Summers family.

As such, the episode is heavy on the soapy elements X-Men is known for. Cyclops distrusts Mother Askani who declines to reveal her origins, though the episode is not shy at hinting at it. She feels Nathan is destined to take down Apocalypse and that takes precedent over the whims of his long lost parents who are struggling with the idea that their kid needs to go on without them. We also learn just why the X-Men are where they are, and even though there’s a lot of drama there’s also no shortage of action in this opening episode. It also leads directly into the second episode as we briefly touch base with Cable in 1997, one of the few heroes from season one not sent through time, and even see the origin of a second season of X-Men character.

Claws of bone have limited effectiveness against machines.

“Days of Past Future” is written by Brad Ford Sullivan, Anthony Sellitti, and JB Ballard which does call into question if anything former showrunner Beau DeMayo had planned for this one made it in. Since he will be receiving writing credits in future episodes (and is an executive producer on the series still), I suspect that isn’t the case and the larger picture he had for the show is still intact. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is not something I can say, but since he oversaw the excellent first season I can only assume it’s good despite how his time on the show came to an end. The visuals in the show have only improved, if anything, with bright, vibrant, colors even in this dystopian future dominating the palette. I especially love the little touches like how Wolverine can be seen wincing in pain every time his claws snap and the way this show really makes Storm’s powers resemble those of an actual goddess. The soundtrack by The Newton Brothers, which borrows heavily from the original series score, is thumping and there’s a great use of Cable’s old theme as well when Nathan enters a scene. If I have anything to criticize it’s that the episode resolves itself rather quickly. It’s not necessarily unexpected as we can’t have a big showdown with Apocalypse right out of the gate, but it did bring the episode to a bit of a screeching halt. It’s not unsatisfying as the character interactions work especially well, but perhaps felt a bit too neat and tidy.

Young Nathan will be forced to grapple with his own destiny.

As a return to the world of X-Men ’97, “Days of Past Future” works exceptionally well. I love the callbacks and the minor tweaks to the opening title. This is a show that is rich in lore for longtime viewers of the show and readers of the comic books from which the show draws inspiration from. And in this case, we’re talking about The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix which was written by Scott Lodbell who probably should have received a credit on the episode. It’s a good setup for the next several episodes and the season to come and if it had arrived all by itself I would have absolutely been frothing for more, but since it didn’t I got to go right into the second episode which might be even better.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3”

Today, X-Men ’97 dropped the curtain on its first season and what a way to bring it to an end. Last week’s episode was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I couldn’t go into much detail of my review of “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2” without wading into spoiler territory, so allow me…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2”

Magneto was right. That was the realization many characters seemed to share at the end of last week’s episode of X-Men ’97. As we roll into the penultimate episode of the show’s first season, a lot is on the line and the show is drawing inspiration from several different sources related to the X-Men over…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 1”

Ever since the episode list was released for X-Men ’97 I’ve been looking forward to what reads like an epic, three-part, season finale. In truth, given that X-Men ’97 is a serialized show you could basically call every episode “X-Men ’97 Season 1 Part 1” and so on, but the titles do add a dramatic…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 1, 2026

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Archangel

By Joe
“Behold my angel of death!”

On July 1st, 2026, our long wait ends. X-Men ’97 returns to Disney+ with its greatly anticipated second season a little over two years after the conclusion of the first. It’s something I have been looking forward to pretty much ever since credits rolled on the finale and the only thing that stinks about it is that it arrives when I’m on vacation. As a result, I likely won’t have any thoughts up on this blog for a little while where that debut episode is concerned, but to tide things over we do have a toy to look at and it’s of a character that figures to be featured somewhat prominently in the second season of X-Men ’97: Warren Worthington the third, also known as Archangel.

Archangel made his debut in the first season of the original series. He’s ambushed by Cable over his funding for a cure for mutation and winds up being the first victim of said cure when Mystique turns him into a slave of Apocalypse. In the process, Worthington’s feathery, angelic, wings were replaced with cold steel and his skin turned blue. He’d break free of Apocalypse’s control by the next episode, but his quest for revenge consumed him in his next appearance, “Obsession,” before a slightly milder version of the character appeared during the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc. That story was intended to be the show’s finale and at the end of it Archangel was to join the X-Men where he belonged, but a surprise order for new episodes extended the show and such plans were scuttled. During that arc, Archangel had returned to his Angel persona of blue and white, but for some reason when we meet him in X-Men ’97 he’s going to be sporting his original blue and pink Archangel look which is what this figure is based on. Will a reason be given in the show for the switch back? I don’t know. It could be whoever was in charge of the character designs just likes this look better, but I guess we’ll have to watch to find out.

Archangel is a pretty standard height for a superhero.

Archangel is considered a deluxe offering so he comes at an inflated sticker price and in a box as opposed to a blister card. The base figure is the same as the previously released Angel of a couple of years ago which is essentially just a modified version of the Vulcan sculpt. The only difference from that mold is that the torso had to be redone to exclude the butterfly joint in the shoulders in order to fit the ports for the wings. The body even still has the grooves in the forearms intended for characters with long gloves because it’s apparently too much to ask for Hasbro to just sculpt some smooth forearms. The costume is very similar to its appearance in the original series which is also quite similar to the look from the comics. It’s still blue with a pink design painted onto it and the application is pretty clean. The opacity of the pink varies as it transfers to different types of plastic which make up the body. It looks pretty damn good on the torso where the paint has a nice matte appearance. It gets a little thin on the thighs, but it’s not as noticeable as it was with the Gamerverse Venom and its white logo. The only difference between this version of the costume and the one from the 90s series that I can see is that the hands are the same color as the rest of the costume. In the older show, the sleeves ended at the wrist and Archangel’s hands were bare and matched the shade of blue of his face. He also tended to have dark, black, lines under his eyes which are not present here, but that’s probably for the best. They also decided to give him clawed hands which is an interesting choice. I would have preferred that they didn’t, but this (and the color of his hands) all appears to be part of the character design in X-Men ’97 so these aren’t critiques of the figure, but of the design.

The two wing setups available.

Archangel’s distinguishing feature is the pair of big, steel, wings on his back. For the show, Archangel’s wings are fairly simple and are represented by two somewhat triangular pieces of metal. In the comics, he could have all kinds of panels and metallic feathers and there are definitely some designs that are quite busy. This is a simplified look and it’s one I prefer. The wings clip into the figure’s back, but there’s also a joiner piece in the center they port into. The center piece basically just exists to match the look of the show, but it does provide some stability as well. There’s a hinge close to the center for flapping, but otherwise this central piece basically holds the wings in place. If you want to shift them up and down you’ll have to remove that piece, though it leaves behind something ugly. The wings are basically a light gray plastic and there’s no metallic paint applied. It would have been nice to see them fully painted to better reflect their look on television, but that’s not really how Hasbro does things. They do look fine, though I’m torn on how much I like the curve sculpted into them. Maybe something a little less severe would have looked better? If you don’t like them, Hasbro did include Archangel’s retracted wings. Resembling a tuning fork, this just plugs into the back like the standard wings and will take up far less shelf space. It’s a nice option to have, though I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist posing him with his wings out in a flying pose.

He comes with an alternate version of Cables’s gun for some reason.

The other accessories are a bit minimal. Archangel has two portraits: neutral and a teeth gritting one. Both are cowled and it’s a shame we didn’t get an un-cowled look. If Ka-Zar wasn’t so expensive I’d consider buying one and painting the face blue as I always preferred Archangel with his blonde locks showing. By default, Archangel has a trigger finger right hand and a left fist. He also comes with a set of open, clawing, hands which are okay, but I already mentioned how I’m not a fan of his new talons. I’m also irritated we don’t get a right fist, despite one appearing on the back of the box. What would that have added to the budget? A penny’s worth of plastic? If that? The trigger finger hand is unusual, but they did decide to include a gun. Cable’s gun, to be exact as it’s the same one that came with the X-Men ’97 figure. It’s the bigger of the two guns and it has a new deco. The colors are more matte where as the original used a shiny plastic Hasbro loves for metallic objects. This new deco makes it a bit more animated looking, but it’s an odd accessory to include with Archangel. I assume he wields the gun at some point in season two, but getting it over a third head option, extra fist, or some feather blade accessories kind of sucks. A flight stand would have also been nice and, honestly, should be standard issue for a deluxe figure that has big wings on its back.

It’s like they gave him two fists on the back of the box just to call attention to the fact that we’re missing one.

Archangel’s articulation is pretty standard for the line. If you have a figure on this Vulcan body (like Cyclops), then you know what to expect for the most part: hinged neck, ball-hinged shoulders, ab crunch, waist twist, bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, wrist hinge and swivel, ball-socket hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, shin swivel, ankle rocker and hinge. As stated earlier, the only change is the removal of the butterfly joint which does kind of suck for a flying character. Range otherwise is fine at all of the joints though the various swivels break-up the sculpt of the pink linework and musculature in a rather ugly fashion so they have limited utility. If you want Warren to wield the gun, the trigger hand does have a vertical hinge though the open, clawed, left hand is only so-so as as a stabilizing hand for the barrel. The wings have a hinge where they plug into the back and towards the middle so they can “flap,” and they can also wrap around to the front of the figure. As I mentioned earlier, you can take out the central mount to get swivel articulation, if that’s your preference. The joints are the usual tolerance for a Legends release with the exception of the left elbow. Mine is a touch on the loose side, but not so much that it can’t hold a pose or support the weight of the gun. I’ve never seen a loose elbow joint on a Legends release since they moved to the pin-less design so I’m thinking it’s a one-off with mine and likely not something afflicting all copies.

He should mix in fine with other characters from the animated universe.

This X-Men ’97 Archangel is not an unwelcomed addition to the collection. As a reoccurring guest character in the original series, it always made sense to do a figure of Warren. While I don’t think any of the subtle changes to his look are an improvement, it’s not far enough removed from the 90s look for me to care all that much. What I do care about are the lackluster accessories and Hasbro getting cheap on us with the hand assortment while simultaneously upping the price. They’ve been doing that more and more with releases and it’s getting pretty annoying. Most Legends figures pull from the same pool of already sculpted hands so we’re just talking about the cost of plastic in most cases which is pretty damn negligible with something as small as a hand. And at the asking price of $40 it’s not as if this is a basic release. We’re paying an extra charge just because this guy has wings which is honestly kind of ridiculous. Back in the old days, Archangel was the same price as anyone else, but Hasbro likes to take any excuse it can to raise the price which is why they recently solicited a Doc Samson figure for $35 even though he’s really not deluxe sized and only comes with one extra head and one extra set of hands. I shudder to think what the X-Men ’97 Beast is going to cost since he actually has a backpack accessory – they’re practically breaking the bank! As a result, I’m far more excited for the return of X-Men ’97 than I am for this figure of Archangel. It’s not an underwhelming release, nor does it overwhelm the synapses. It merely whelms. He’ll slot into my animated X-Men collection, though I’ll always wish he had an unmasked head or another fist.

For more X-Men ’97 and ’97 adjacent releases from Hasbro, check these out:

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Cable

Today we finish our look at wave 3 of X-Men ’97 Marvel Legends action figures and I think I saved the best for last. Cable was one of the non-members of the X-Men to play a pretty substantial role in the original animated series. He showed up in multiple episodes in both the first and…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Rogue

Previously, on X-Men reviews we looked at Magneto from the upcoming series X-Men ’97. The animated series may have been delayed into 2024, but the action figures from Hasbro are already here. And if you were collecting Hasbro’s line of figures based on the animated series from the 90s, this new line offers a chance…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men Retro Card Series Apocalypse

It is Halloween and that means it’s time for costumes, candy, and spooky fun. It’s also Halloween 2022, a pretty important date if you grew up loving those mutants who ran around in colorful spandex fighting for a better tomorrow. That’s because 30 years ago on this very night, the animated series X-Men premiered on…

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by Joe

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November 30, 2025

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Cable

By Joe
Say “Hello,” to the Wild Man of Borneo.

Today we finish our look at wave 3 of X-Men ’97 Marvel Legends action figures and I think I saved the best for last. Cable was one of the non-members of the X-Men to play a pretty substantial role in the original animated series. He showed up in multiple episodes in both the first and second season and was a key player in what was to be the show’s big finale, “Beyond Good and Evil.” It wasn’t a surprise to see him return in X-Men ’97 where he once again was a soldier displaced by time, only this time the show actually showed interest in explaining just who the heck this guy is.

They fed him well in the future.

In the episode “Time Fugitives – Part 2,” there’s basically a blink and you miss it moment where Jean Grey mentally probes the mind of Cable. We see images of Cyclops and Jean when she does, but the show doesn’t bother addressing that at any future moment leaving most of the characters in the dark, save for Jean, apparently. Obviously, if you’re a fan of the comics then you probably knew all that, but he must have been a pretty confusing character for those who were only exposed to the X-Men via the cartoon. In X-Men ’97, we finally find out that Cable is the son of Cyclops and Jean from the future. Only there’s a twist as Cable is actually the son of Cyclops and the clone of Jean, who decided to adopt the alias Madelyne Prior. Cable plays a large role in the back-half of the first season and appears to be set to play a big role in the upcoming season. Might we finally see him form X-Force? I kept waiting for him to do that in the old show so it would be long overdue if he does.

I suspect we’ll see something like this in season two. Only Apocalypse will be much taller.

This depiction of Cable is his traditional look. It mostly conforms to what we saw in the ’92 series as well as the first chunk of X-Men ’97. By the finale, Cable (like everyone else) gets a costume change meaning X-Men ’97 is perhaps the most action figure friendly show we’ve ever had. We’ve already seen one of those finale outfits via Jubilee in this wave while others have been reserved for some two-packs that I didn’t pick up. I’m most interested in figures that fit in with my ’92 display and this Cable accomplishes that.

Cable, like Morph, is an all new sculpt. Initially, I thought he might share some parts with the Bishop from the first wave, but if he does I can’t find them. He’s pretty tall as well standing a little over 7″ making him the tallest in the line thus far. His sculpt is pretty intricate with lots of straps, pouches, and other assorted details pulled from the show. He has that animated look to him via a lot of flat colors, but there’s also a slight touch of realism to the face like Hasbro knew comic collectors would want to add this Cable to their display. Cable has a pretty distinct face in the show and it’s not quite captured here. It’s almost like it’s halfway between the ’92 version of the character and the ’97 one.

This is the “little gun.”

As is the case with most of the wave, there isn’t a lot of paint to be found on Cable. It’s mostly reserved for his face which looks good. Hasbro elected not to go with a glowing eye which is fine. The X-emblem is painted onto the collar as well as the red lines on his suspenders (I guess that’s what they are). Perhaps the best paintwork and nicest little detail is the dark blue piping on his chest and abdomen. A lot of the other colored parts are just plastic. The green straps are bands of plastic and they even run under the chest which is an odd look. The arm band on his left arm is plastic as are the thigh straps. The dark gray on his shoulders pads is paint as are the yellow rectangles on the boots, but they’re not that clean. There’s no slop, but they don’t quite reach the edges of the piece. He looks pretty good, all things considered. Obviously, more paint is best, but this muted color palette works better in plastic than some of the brighter offerings. The only aspect of the presentation that bothers me is the left arm. For that, we get Hasbro’s swirly, twirly, silver plastic. It would look so much better if it had a painted finish and since it’s such a small area it’s disappointing that they didn’t go that extra mile, but not surprising.

And this is the Big Gun.

Cable further blows the budget by having some unique accessories as well. I could be wrong, but I don’t think even his hands are recycled, but I also don’t buy every Marvel Legend release that comes out. He has a trigger hand for each arm plus a right fist and a wide, gripping, left hand. That one is intended to support his big, freakin’, gun. It’s a big hunk of plastic with some nice, sculpted, detail and a little bit of red paint. He also has more of a sidearm which too has that futuristic look to it and a little bit of red paint detail. Both guns can utilize a blast effect and Hasbro so kindly provided two. They’re yellow with some red at the base giving it a nice transition. These are recycled from many releases, but they work just fine here and they’re nice to have.

It too has its own blast effect.

The one area that may leave collectors disappointed with this Cable is the articulation. Big guys don’t always articulate the best, but Hasbro made some curious choices here. He does have a double ball peg at the head and a single joint at the base of the neck. Maybe Hasbro is finally figuring these joints out because his range there is terrific. It goes south pretty fast from there though as the arms feature your basic, Marvel Legends, articulation with no butterfly joint. That’s not the problem though, what is are these shoulder pads. Hasbro made no effort to work them into the articulation. Like Emma Frost’s cape, you just have to deal with it. Only in this case, you can’t remove them if you so desire. Cable can raise his arms out to the side, but he can only raise them out front so far. The shoulder pads are a softer material, but not soft enough to just get out of the way. It makes it hard for Cable to hold either gun out straight. For the big one, he has to hold it across his chest while the smaller one is always going to be pointed out at an angle.

“The name’s Cable, Apocalypse, remember it!” “I shall not forget this IMPUDENCE!”

It’s a shame, because the rest of the articulation is solid. He has a ball-jointed diaphragm that provides some forward and back, tilt, and rotation. The straps don’t get in the way because they’re separate pieces between the chest and the abdomen. There is a waist twist and it’s basically hidden by the belt. The legs are pretty standard with the thigh swivels hidden behind the straps on his legs and the only other shortcoming really is the lack of a boot swivel. You don’t really need it, but since he has such big boots that are clearly a separate piece why not have it there anyway?

Is the poor articulation at the shoulders a deal-breaker? For me, no. I like the look of this Cable and it’s a character I’ve wanted to add to the collection for a long time so I’m mostly content. The sculpt and the accessories are great by Marvel Legends standards and I can finagle the figure into a pose that suits me. More than the shoulder range, I think I’m more disappointed by the lack of weapon storage.. All them pouches, but not a single holster for either gun. I know in the show he wore the big gun on his back most of the time, but I don’t know if he actually had a holster like Bishop or if it just attached via cartoon magic. I couldn’t spy one in any of the screenshots I looked at, but Hasbro could have at least given us a peg hole or something. At any rate, Cable is the standout of X-Men ’97 wave three. If you like the show and you’re collecting the figures, then you probably already have him. If you’re someone more into the comic-based figures then I’d still give this one a look. If Cable is missing from your display I think this one works just fine as more of a classic Cable, but that’s just me.

For more action figure reviews from X-Men ’97 look no further:

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Logan

I knew who the X-Men were when the show premiered in 1992, but I didn’t know much about them. That show really was the proper introduction to the franchise for me and one thing I couldn’t wrap my head around as a kid was that these were heroes who didn’t really have a secret identity.…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Morph

I’m always going to have a soft spot for Morph. It was rare to see a character killed off in a children’s show, but that was the fate of old Morph who didn’t make it out of the show’s second episode. I wouldn’t call it traumatizing, but there was definitely a haunted quality to that…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Emma Frost

If you have seen the first season of X-Men ’97 then you may be wondering why Emma Frost, aka the White Queen, is receiving an action figure in the show’s companion toy line. She didn’t play a big role in the show having a speaking role in just one episode and then what amounted to…

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by Joe

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May 15, 2024

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3”

By Joe
Written by Beau DeMayo and Anthony Sellitti.

Today, X-Men ’97 dropped the curtain on its first season and what a way to bring it to an end. Last week’s episode was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I couldn’t go into much detail of my review of “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2” without wading into spoiler territory, so allow me to indulge myself before we get to this week’s episode. When one thinks of childhood trauma baked into media, the death of Bambi’s mom is probably the most often cited. If you’re an 80’s kid it might be the death of Optimus Prime in the first Transformers movie or the death of Littlefoot’s mother in The Land Before Time. The 90s kid has Mufasa while the comic book readers like me have X-Men #25. No one truly died in that issue, but it’s the infamous issue where Magneto decides he’s had enough of Wolverine and uses his magnetic powers to rip the metal off of his bones and force it through his pores and open wounds. It’s all anyone wanted to talk about concerning X-Men when it happened and it changed the character of Wolverine in a big way. Like basically all things in comics, Wolverine eventually regained his awesome adamantium skeleton, but it took a surprising amount of years for that to happen.

They did it. I can’t believe they did it.

Despite being one of the most singular, powerful, moments in X-Men history, that confrontation with Magneto has really just been confined to the page. The original X-Men animated series had just kicked-off its second season when it happened, but never touched it during the rest of its run. I remember feeling anxious during the Asteroid M episodes, “Sanctuary,” out of fear it might happen, but Wolverine escaped that arc unscathed. I remember my friend jumping in his seat when we saw the first X-Men movie in theaters when Magneto lifts Wolverine up on the train and asks “Does that remarkable metal run all through your body?” He thought, and I too, that Magneto might give a tug in that moment and I certainly thought it could be him laying the groundwork for a future confrontation that never arrived. Other animated efforts and movies that followed never did go to that well, but in its ninth episode X-Men ’97 did.

For a brief moment I thought we may be jumping straight to the mind wipe Xavier inflicted upon Magneto in response to his attack on Wolverine.

When Magneto emerged from Bastion’s imprisonment in the eighth episode and used his magnetic powers to attack the whole planet’s electrical grid is when I first felt X-Men #25 was on the table. It was similar to his attack to open that issue on the planet’s satellite defense system which knocked out power all across the globe. Even though much of the events of last week’s episode were mirroring the events of New X-Men from 2001, there was always the possibility of multiple plotlines converging. As I said in my review of last week’s episode, that “Greatest Hits” approach the original series and this one is able to take is part of what makes it so successful. When it was Wolverine who was tabbed to deliver the opening, “Previously…on X-Men,” line I pretty much knew what we were in for. It became even more obvious when Rogue basically assumed the role of Colossus from the Fatal Attractions plotline X-Men #25 is a part of by joining Magneto (along with Roberto) midway through the episode. It made it hard to enjoy all of the fan-service leading up to the final act with the return of the old costumes, the Hulk cameo, or Cyclops’ return dig at the film costumes as I was expecting the worst for old Wolverine. And even during the episode, my X-Men animated Wolverine figure decided to take a shelf dive. I’d love to say it was during that scene, but I don’t remember because I was engrossed in the show and only after it was over did I check to see who fell. He knew.

Wolverine’s claws covered in blood – something we never could see in the original series.

The final scene of the episode was done exceptionally well, though it still left a glimmer of hope that Wolverine would not be subjected to his worst injury to date. When he removes Magneto’s helmet to allow Xavier a chance to attack him with his telepathic powers, the imagery was evocative of Xavier’s answer to Magneto’s brutal assault on Logan from X-Men #25. For a brief moment, I thought he might be spared. Then Cyclops blasted his mentor, not because he was turning on him or anything, but because Gold Team had not yet taken down Bastion and they couldn’t risk Xavier, through Magneto, re-activating the Prime Sentinels.

“Been in a lot of wars, bub – the brave always die first.” A great callback to Magneto’s line from the season finale of the original show’s first season, “The Final Decision.”

That’s when Wolverine struck. In actually more graphic fashion compared with the comic from which the story was taken, we get to see a flash of his claws and then the ends protrude through Magneto’s torso. At that moment, I could only watch with both dread and awe since there was no going back now. The attack was brief. We got just a quick shot of each character’s reaction, friend and foe alike, at Wolverine’s attack. It was like all of the participants in the melee up to that point were just made aware that violence has consequences, like a bunch of kids play-fighting in the yard until someone gets really hurt. The final image of Wolverine in mid-air with the adamantium oozing out of his body was a near 1:1 recreation of Andy Kubert’s artwork. It was chilling and a hell of a way to end an episode of television. I was riding an exercise bike on my first viewing and I wish I had thought to check my heartrate readings on my fitness app when it was all said and done. I was covered in sweat, more than usual after a workout, and that same pit in my stomach I felt as a 9 year old in 1993 had returned.

The plot with Wolverine made me completely forget that we may have witnessed the death of Jean. Again.

The moment was so captivating that it practically erased everything that came before it. I had to watch it again to be reminded of the fact that Morph and Beast had been defeated and were at the mercy of Bastion last we saw them. Sinister had taken control over Cable like he did his mother before him unleashing his telekinetic powers on Jean. She was able to make psychic contact with Cyclops, and through her, he saw what was going down just long enough for her to tell him she loved him before Cable’s blast engulfed her. And at Asteroid M, Magneto is likely mortally wounded or damn close to it while Xavier had Magneto’s helmet basically crushed around his skull neutralizing his psychic powers. This concept is new to the show as when the original aired the idea that Magneto’s helmet was designed to protect him from Xavier had not been invented yet. You can even see in the show’s fourth episode Xavier attack him with the helmet on, but I don’t mind it being a new wrinkle for this show as basically every version of the X-Men has done the same.

We open on a flashback we’ve heard about before.

As a kid, I don’t know how many times I read X-Men #25 and its follow-up, Wolverine #75, so I had a good idea what was going to happen in this season finale (in case you forgot, that’s what we’re here to talk about today) in space. I was less certain about the Bastion plot, but I had some ideas. Given the nature of how the last episode ended, there isn’t much I can say about the plot of this one that doesn’t spoil something, but I’m sure I can find something to talk about. The “Previously…” line is delivered by Magneto and our opening credits contain few surprises. More Dark Phoenix, more Apocalypse, but also a new scene of Magneto and Xavier unleashing their powers for the first time in front of each other on some terrorists from “Enter Magneto.”

Wolverine will not be doing much this episode.

And we’re shown that flashback because that is essentially where the episode begins. A young Xavier and Magneto having some drinks in a bar in a war torn country chatting about the potential for mutants. The war setting is even established by the opening chords of the famous song by The Byrds “Turn! Turn! Turn!” which I thought we all agreed we were done with? That and Credence Clearwater Revival. It’s at least brief which probably saved Disney a few bucks. Outside of the flashback, the episode is going to pick-up right where we left off with Wolverine in bad shape and the Earth heading for catastrophe. The only one who can heal the Earth’s magnetic field is Magneto and he needs some convincing.

Gold Team! This is no time for a nap!

At ground level, we last saw Bastion essentially victorious. And he will be ready for his victory lap that villains are so fond of, but as is often the case, the celebration is premature. Again, I’m not here to spoil anything, but I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that the X-Men will need to deal with this guy. If last episode was more of the Magneto conflict, then this one is definitely more on Bastion. He is pretty set on eradicating mutants, and once that is done, he intends to rule over humanity since they can’t exactly be trusted either. And if he can’t do either, well, let’s just say that’s something he won’t respond to very well. And if that weren’t enough, the world super powers are left mulling what to do about the Magneto Protocols. Should the grid get restored, not only will the Prime Sentinels be reactivated, but President Kelly will have access to the missile defense system crafted especially for targeting Asteroid M.

Okay, perverts, happy now?!

The X-Men had split into Blue and Gold teams last episode, but it’s going to take all able-bodied X-Men to stop Bastion. A large portion of the episode is devoted to the battle that you knew was going to happen and, as has been the case with this show, it’s quite satisfying and spectacular. The action direction continues to be a strong point and the animation staff is up to task. Since we’re dealing with a finale here, there is an effort to give everyone some time to shine, provided they were able to stand at the conclusion of the last episode. The episode also pays more than lip-service to actual character growth and this is the episode that is able to cash in on the smaller moments (and some big ones) that we saw throughout this first season.

Sunspot has been allowed to cut loose these past few episodes which has been fun to see.

Where this episode did stumble a bit for me is that it’s basically a small portion of fallout from the previous episode, then a whole bunch of action, and then setup for next season. It’s become routine in the streaming age for shows to be serialized and include a lot of cliffhangers and X-Men ’97 is no different. I received some Game of Thrones vibes from the show when watching this one as the penultimate episode was where a lot of the spectacle was while this one felt a bit more like clean-up followed by setup. They left no room for the characters to really respond to what happened last week. It’s mentioned only in passing and we see Wolverine’s banged up body a few times, but we get almost nothing from the characters. How is Jubilee processing this? She and Wolverine were tight. Is anyone mad at him for pushing Magneto as far as he did by getting all stabby on him? Again, we don’t know and the way the episode ends makes it seem like it’s a thing we’re just not going to address at all and that feels like a real missed opportunity for a show that loves the soapy drama.

At least Morph seems to care.

Like last week, expect to be tickled by several cameos. Some are repeat cameos, but many are all new. Sure, it can feel like stunt-casting or something akin to it, but considering the plot in this episode has worldwide ramifications it makes sense to get a look around the globe. It’s certainly interesting and makes me wonder if X-Men ’97 will turn into a launching pad for an animated universe set in the 90s. Nostalgia for the period will likely never be hotter than it is now so it wouldn’t be Marvel and Disney’s worst idea. As long as my X-Men show doesn’t become overrun by non-mutant superheroes I’m all for it. Even if I personally have little interest in revisiting the other 90s Marvel cartoons.

I love everything about this shot.

I may seem a little down on this episode, but that’s only because the prior two were so strong. This is indeed a good episode, and it’s a long one at that, and DeMayo and Sellitti do some great stuff with their dialogue. There are certain characters they write so well and it’s on display in this episode. There’s also more callback lines to the original series and its woven in effectively and with purpose. There’s some heavy stuff intermingled with the action concerning Xavier and Magneto and this episode is one of the first pieces of X-Men media that really convinces the audience that Xavier and Magneto care deeply for each other. They’re not just paying lip-service to the “old friend” label they like to toss around so casually.

This episode concludes what has inarguably been a successful first season for X-Men ’97. The second season is in production so the wait should not be as long as it was from announcement to premiere. I suspect we will hear more at San Diego Comic Con this summer. Series creator and showrunner Beau DeMayo was heavily involved in the second season and it can be assumed much of his vision will make it to air. Following that, we’ll be heading into some unchartered waters with the show. Disney and DeMayo have remained tight-lipped on why he was let go from the series just before the premiere which is unfortunate because it would be nice to know if fans should be advocating for Disney to reverse that decision. If he was fired because of an OnlyFans account or creative differences, then that was probably a stupid decision given how well this show has turned out (and for the record, the OnlyFans thing would be stupid if the show sucked too). If he was fired over workplace misconduct or something (and full disclosure – I have no idea why he was let go and I’m just tossing out examples) then all right, that’s not someone I’d want to go to bat for. This stuff has a way of getting out so it’s more probable than not we’ll know in time, but for now, I’m extremely satisfied with how X-Men ’97 turned out. I’m also extremely bummed about not having a new episode to look forward to next week. This is going to be an intolerable wait.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2”

Magneto was right. That was the realization many characters seemed to share at the end of last week’s episode of X-Men ’97. As we roll into the penultimate episode of the show’s first season, a lot is on the line and the show is drawing inspiration from several different sources related to the X-Men over…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 1”

Ever since the episode list was released for X-Men ’97 I’ve been looking forward to what reads like an epic, three-part, season finale. In truth, given that X-Men ’97 is a serialized show you could basically call every episode “X-Men ’97 Season 1 Part 1” and so on, but the titles do add a dramatic…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Bright Eyes”

When we last saw our beloved X-Men, their world had just been destroyed. An idyllic place set to the soundtrack of the very on-the-nose choice of “Happy Nation” by Ace of Base in Genosha was laid to waste. Mutants of all backgrounds were slaughtered including our beloved Gambit and less beloved Magneto. In the aftermath…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

April 12, 2024

X-Men ’97 – “Remember It”

By Joe

Last week’s episode of X-Men ’97 saw the show take a breather with a fairly low stakes plot involving Jubilee and Roberto getting sucked into a video game. The last 7 or 8 minutes of the episode concluded with a more serious tone as Storm and Forge found themselves at odds in the wildlands of Texas. It ended with a shocking visual and if you wanted immediate closure on that thread you’re going to be left wanting by this week’s episode, “Remember It.” I don’t think that will bother many because “Remember It” is the most impactful episode of the season so far and has a lot of people already declaring it the best episode yet.

The phrase “Remember It” is a callback to a particularly bad ass line delivered by not one, but two, characters from the original series. Interestingly, those two characters now have a real world link as the former voice actor of Gambit, Chris Potter, is now the voice of Cable who makes his X-Men ’97 debut this week, albeit in a brief manner.

It’s a bit hard to tell, but I think this week’s “Previously,” is delivered by AJ LoCascio, otherwise known as the current voice of Gambit. The opening title features a lot of clips that we’ve seen before as someone really wants the Dark Phoenix plot to be at the forefront it would seem. Newly added is a recreation of Cable’s encounter with Apocalypse from the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc and it’s nice to see that Apocalypse still has his unique to the show color combo of blue and purple.

It seems Madelyn has found a new purpose.

“Remember It” features an A and a B plot in a more traditional manner as the episode isn’t split like last week’s. At the mansion, reporter Trish Tilby (Donna Jay Fulks) is on-hand to interview the X-Men for television to give them a chance to humanize themselves in front of the world. At least, she’s interviewing the few willing to go on camera which seems to be limited to Beast, Cyclops, and Jubilee. Elsewhere, Jean is still trying to sort out her memories while Wolverine is ducking the cameras and checking up on her. Magneto, Gambit, and Rogue are enroute to Genosha as they’ve been invited by the new council there for unknown reasons.

That trio will land to discover that Genosha is a pretty happening place. Mutants parade out in the open in a Mardi Gras like atmosphere of music and dance. Gambit takes notice of the incredibly high prices at street vendors and seems to be the only one who thinks maybe not everything is as it seems. Magneto is expected to meet with the council of Genosha while Rogue and Gambit get to do some sightseeing with an old friend. Returning from X-Men is voice actor Adrian Hough reprising his role as Nightcrawler. The fuzzy, blue, elf is a much happier and high spirited character now that he’s in a place that accepts him. He’s eager to reconnect with Rogue and Gambit and happy to be their escort on this day. Also in attendance on Genosha is Madelyn Pryor, aka the clone of Jean. She has accepted a position on the council and is Magneto’s introduction to the rest.

Everybody is happy about the return of Nightcrawler!

And that council is comprised of a lot of old faces, some more welcomed than others: Sebastian Shaw (Todd Haberkorn), Emma Frost (Martha Marion), Moira McTaggert (Marion), Callisto (Courtenay Taylor), and Banshee (David Errigo Jr.). Valerie Cooper is also present, but not a part of the council, and if she was she would object to what Magneto has been summoned here for. They wish to make him chancellor of Genosha by reason that since Xavier entrusted him with the X-Men, they can entrust him with Genosha. Magneto requires little convincing, but has one requirement for accepting the position: that Rogue be his queen.

There aren’t many people on this council I’d call trustworthy.

This puts the love triangle at the forefront that’s been percolating a bit since the second episode between Rogue, Gambit, and Magneto. If you have been waiting for some resolution there, as well as more info on just what happened between Rogue and Magneto before the events of the original series, your questions will at last be answered. At the mansion, we will similarly see Cyclops and Jean start to address their own issues as a couple, as well as the fact that Cyclops had to bid his newborn son farewell. It gets heavy at times and certainly adds to the soap opera nature of the show (Nightcrawler even has a quip about that), but it’s what we’re here for.

There’s a lot of good character detail in those moments, but what everyone is going to talk about where it concerns “Remember It” is really just the last seven minutes or so. I do not want to spoil anything, but there is an attack on Genosha and it leads to a spectacular action sequence. X-Men ’97 has firmly established that it knows how to stage flashy and creative action pieces with its cast. If you’re someone who has been waiting for Gambit to do something in this show, you’ll enjoy this section as he gets to go into full bad ass mode in a way that we’ve never seen. The original show had far more restraint when it came to the powers of basically everyone on the X-Men, but X-Men ’97 is breaking those chains. And it’s not just action on display as there are some very emotional moments captured in the chaos and you may need to keep some tissues handy for this one.

How does he do that? With style!

“Remember It” is a spectacle and an episode that is getting a lot of just praise. It’s a pivotal episode as well, and once you’ve watched it I would advise you to check out the Twitter handle of series creator Beau DeMayo as he has shared a lot of thoughts on this one. It’s an episode that will stay with you, especially those who grew up on the original series, and it’s one I needed to let gestate a little longer than the last few before sharing my thoughts. There is an undeniable heaviness to the episode, though there are some light elements and fun portions. Genosha is a setting designed for cameos and there’s plenty of that to be found. There’s even a really well choreographed dance scene too, but virtually all of that is overshadowed by the final act. This is one we’ll be talking about for a long time and is a prime example of why the weekly release schedule is so much more rewarding than the drop even if the wait for next week is going to be excruciating.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Motendo/Lifedeath Part 1”

X-Men ’97 continues on into it’s fourth episode with a bit of a change-up. The first three episodes were rather weighty dealing with the fallout of Xavier’s death, Storm losing her powers, and the whole clone situation of the third episode. And that third episode did reveal a few cracks in the foundation of the…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Fire Made Flesh”

Well, that was a long wait! After the two episode premiere of X-Men ’97 on March 20th I was ready for that third episode. The week long wait felt both excruciating and exhilarating. It’s been a long time since we’ve had an X-Men show to get excited about, or really an X-Men anything, and it’s…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Mutant Liberation Begins”

The first episode of X-Men ’97 left me grinning from ear to ear and eager to see what would happen next. I’m happy to say, the show’s second episode left me feeling very much the same. “Mutant Liberation Begins” starts off right where the previous episode ended. Magneto, has revealed that it was the wishes…

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by Joe

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November 13, 2019

24 Hours of Disney+

By Joe

disney+_welcome.jpgIt’s a bit funny to me what we get excited for in our modern era. If you had told me when I was a kid that people would be geeking out over new phones, subscriptions, and chicken sandwiches I probably would have wanted time to slow down even more than I already did. That’s where we are though and on November 12, 2019 the world paused for Disney+, the first dedicated streaming service from the massively popular (and just plain massive) Walt Disney Corporation.

We’re now well into the streaming era for entertainment consumption. The old days of Netflix sending a DVD in the mail feels like the stone age by comparison. Netflix helped push us into this new frontier, with an assist from rapidly rising cable costs and a government-sanctioned monopoly, and the concept of chord-cutting is no longer a radical one as more and more streaming platforms keep coming. Netflix was initially just a means to an end as it licensed content people wanted and then delivered it to them. It’s no surprise that the content producers were taking notice and weighing the pros and cons of licensing out its media to a third party versus just creating the infrastructure to deliver it themselves. Netflix was quick to notice as it got into the content producing business and now has a whole bunch of shows and movies under its umbrella as it battles with other providers for non-Netflix content. Meanwhile, the biggest media creators are striking out on their own.

Disney is no stranger to production and delivery. Gamers will recall when Disney decided to stop licensing its characters for video games instead taking things in-house to create its own product. Eventually, game production grew too costly and Disney shuttered its studios to go back to licensing. With a streaming platform, costs are more fixed and Disney can charge whatever it wants to consumers. Some might question why Disney decided to create Disney+ since it already had a controlling stake in Hulu, but it’s all about branding. Disney+ is now the home for all things Disney. Those 20th Century Fox productions not named Star Wars can go to Hulu. Oh, and don’t forget they also own ESPN which has its own streaming platform as well. Yeah, there really are a lot of options out there now.

Since this is hardly uncharted territory, consumers have expectations of what a streaming platform should look like and how it should function. Disney was able to basically just do what Netflix did before it and give it a new coat of paint. Disney+ is a very boring interface, though hardly ugly, as it just lays everything in front of the user in a familiar form. Users can browse by genre, media type, character, brand, and so on. Everything is accompanied by a thumbnail image and a larger splash image meant to attract eyes. There are trailers for some films and new series and a summary of the program as well.

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Disney+ means access to classic movies and new shows, but it also means some older shows that never got the DVD treatment are finally viewable in their entirety.

Even though this is all well-trod territory, Disney+ still has a few odd quirks or missing features. For one, it’s not obvious what the runtime is for anything you’re looking at or considering. It’s not a big deal for old television shows which are fairly standard, but I had no idea how long any of the new programs were or some films. I had to start them and then pause them to see the counter displayed on the screen. The app also doesn’t remember where you left off with a given series. This is a standard feature on other platforms and it’s puzzling to see it not present here. Basically, it’s on you to remember how many episodes of a show you just watched and where to go next. You’re probably thinking that’s not a particularly difficult thing to remember, but it’s a lot trickier to remember where you kids left off watching a show you don’t care about. And they typically have no idea until the episode starts forcing you to embark on a series of trial and error until you get it right.

Those are small quirks that I expect will be remedied fairly soon. Others may take longer. By far, the biggest issue consumers encountered on launch day was performance-related issues. Slow buffering, shows disappearing, or the app completely crashing were frequently cited problems across social media. That was to be expected given that Disney didn’t allow users to preload the app before launch and is also giving curious consumers the option to partake in a free trial. Demand was going to be high, though that doesn’t absolve Disney as the company should have been prepared for this and able to address it quickly. Shows disappearing may have been part of that corrective action just to shrink the library temporarily. I saw quite a few complaints from users that Gargoyles wasn’t available for a period of time, though I didn’t encounter this. I did view the new documentary Imagineering and then found it unavailable after viewing when I went to go back and add it to my watch list. Aside from that though, I was actually rather fortunate to not encounter many issues. When I first logged in and got going around 6:30 AM EST I found the app slow to navigate. By 7:30, it was taking so long I gave up, but I was also heading out to work. My wife dropped our kid off at school shortly after and then resumed streaming with no issues. It was on basically all day with no further issues in my household.

I did a little research on social media and asked folks what they went to first upon signing up yesterday and got a variety of responses. A lot of folks were eager to view shows from their childhood, mainly those from the beloved Disney Afternoon. Some were also excited to check out the old Marvel cartoons like X-Men and Spider-Man. Many were eager to check out the Disney+ original The Mandalorian, a live-action series set in the Star Wars universe. There was certainly a lot of enthusiasm for the app, and most respondents had a list of things they wanted to check-out on day one.

img_0566Perhaps not surprising, the most frequent response I received was for The Simpsons. Disney made a pretty big deal about having 30 seasons worth of The Simpsons on Disney+ on day one. Unfortunately, the biggest complaint outside of technical problems from users was directed at The Simpsons. You may recall, when FXX started airing “Every Simpsons Ever” a few years ago they made the controversial call to crop the image on the seasons shot in 4:3 and adapt them for 16:9. The accompanying app did the same much to the annoyance of longtime fans. Eventually, the app was corrected and both versions were able to stream and they even added commentary tracks. As a result, fans expected the same on Disney+ and there were reports that the early seasons would be presented in the correct aspect ratio. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Not having the commentary is not a surprise, but the 16:9 presentation is horrid. If this were the first time those old seasons were being made available it would be temporarily excusable, as it was with FXX, but in 2019 it most certainly is not. I think Disney will correct this, but it’s something the company needs to get out in front of.

As for me, I have had a pretty good 24 hours at this point with Disney+. My first view was for The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. As it was 6:30 in the morning and my kids were up, it felt like a good way to start the day. My kids watched a lot of Disney Afternoon content during the day as well as some movies they’re more than familiar with. In the evening, I checked in on some of my own personal favorite cartoons and also was able to check out The Legend of the Three Caballeros, the previously UK only show starring Donald Duck (and it was great). When the kids went to bed, my wife and I checked out The Mandalorian as it easily is the most hyped original program on the platform right now. The production values are high, and while the story and character so far seem conventional and even cliché, it was entertaining enough that I’ll continue to check it out as episodes are added. We also watched the first episode of the Imagineering docuseries which focuses on the creation of Disneyland and goes up to the death of Walt and early concepts for Disney World. It was very familiar territory for me, but still enjoyable. I’m probably looking forward to episode two of that series more than I am for The Mandalorian.

3caballeros

We had to wait over a year, but now US audiences can finally (legally) view Legend of the Three Caballeros.

There is some other original content I intend to check out, in time. Lady and the Tramp is one of my favorite films from Disney so I feel obligated to at least give the live-action version a chance. I have low expectations, as it’s not something that needs to exist, but it’s there. There is also a collection of classic Mickey Mouse shorts which have been upconverted to HD that I’d like to see. I’m pretty sure they’re the same as what was present on the Blu Ray compilation released last year for Mickey’s 90th, but I passed on that set (since I have all of the DVDs) and I’d like to see how the conversion came out. I hope more classic shorts will be added, though I doubt that’s a priority for Disney right now. Hopefully we at least get the Christmas ones next month.

Disney+ launched with a few stumbles, but the framework is there for a successful existence. More importantly, Disney is rich in content and should have no issues getting people hooked at least in the short term. Right now, the service is cheap compared to Netflix and if you’re part of a Disney family like I am then you’re probably locked in for the next three years. Disney has been systematically pulling content from cable and streaming providers so my children’s addiction to Disney content will definitely keep Disney+ in my house for awhile. What will spur growth for Disney will be how the original content turns out. The platform is off to a good start, but it might take more to convince people adverse to multiple streaming subscriptions to drop Netflix in favor of Disney+. Disney will also have to make the difficult choice over what it releases on its cable channel versus what it reserves for Disney+. And how will competitors, and cable, respond? Disney+ is undercutting Netflix by quite a lot and I’m curious if Netflix will respond. I suspect it will wait it out at least a year to see if and when Disney ups the monthly rate, but if it starts losing subscribers it may have to do something about it. This is our new reality though and it feels like, if anything, the biggest casualty of all of this may be cable itself.

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