Unlike the first three episodes of season two of X-Men ’97, this fourth one is going to spend all of its time in one era. And as you could probably guess, that era is 3,000 BCE since that is where we left off last week. I consider these reviews that I do spoiler free, but even so, I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that Rama-Tut’s (John de Lancie) attack at the end of last week’s episode was not very successful. The show wanted us to believe that our beloved X-Men were in real danger, but that was pretty hard to believe considering it was just the third episode. As expected, Magneto (Matthew Waterson) was able to put up a forcefield just in time to spare our heroes. Also surviving, to no one’s surprise, is En Sabah Nur (Adetokumboh M’Cormack) who is basically some kind of super man and I think he just shrugged it off. As for the rest, they’re all dead and Nur’s fortress is in ruins. Among the dead is Baal, Nur’s adopted father, and it’s unlikely he’ll react well to that.
Much of last week’s episode featured Magneto trying to get En Sabah Nur to buy into Xavier’s (Ross Marquand) dream of human and mutant coexistence. Mercy was a big part of that lesson, but when Nur discovered that Magneto and the X-Men were sneaking around behind his back and working on a time machine, he grew pretty angry. He felt this was a betrayal, which seemed extreme to me at the time, but it’s hard to get a read on just how Magneto sold himself to Nur. Clearly, he doesn’t look like someone born in Egypt so he should have known that he was from somewhere far off (we’ll ignore the whole language thing, everyone speaks English because it’s just easier that way). Then again, Nur doesn’t really look like a typical Egyptian either thanks to his mutation and I suppose he may have assumed the same of Magneto. Either way, that door was shut by episode’s end, but now it’s Xavier’s turn to try to appeal to the would-be mass murderer. Since Xavier and pals survived Tut’s attack, Nur is forced to look upon him with respect since he does buy into that whole survival of the fittest mantra. Xavier is then able to convince Nur to allow him to probe his mind to find out just what it is they are both seeking.
You’re up, Chuck.
Xavier doesn’t really learn anything new, at least not to the audience. The temple they, and Rama-Tut, are seeking is quite literally calling out to En Sabah Nur. It’s clearly not of this world, but it’s a destination they all seek. It’s also made even more important for the X-Men to find this thing because Magneto is very much committed to his idea of reform for Nur so much so that he disables Bishop’s (Isaac Robinson-Smith) time traveling bracelet. He seems to think they’ll be able to repair it with the tech waiting for them at this temple, but that’s one Hell of a gamble. The rest of the episode is fairly straight-forward. We do get some character moments of which the most intriguing is between Rogue (Lenore Zann) and Nur while camping for the night. Xavier also receives a communication from Rama-Tut himself during which viewers not familiar with the character get the Cliff’s Notes version of just who he is. The most interesting aspect of the meeting is finding out that Tut is attempting to prevent the rise of Apocalypse (Marquand), though he seems to view it as inevitable. I mostly find it interesting because we know that he, as Immortus, will assist Bishop in doing just that some 5,000 years in the future during the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc. He had to wait an awful long time for that sort of satisfaction.
Well, that answers some questions.
And inevitable is certainly a theme with this one. What we’re seeing is a fatalistic approach to time travel on display where everything occurs in a loop. We saw that in episode two with Nathan obtaining the power of Apocalypse’s celestial ship, which was referred to simply as Ship in the X-Men episode “Obsession.” That entity manifests itself as Cable’s computer, a device which allows him to travel through time and a power Apocalypse seeks in “Beyond Good and Evil.” It first rested with Apocalypse until Cable essentially stole it before he reacquired it to embark on that particular quest. With the X-Men in the past attempting to prevent his rise, they have inadvertently become a part of it. Apocalypse is inevitable, and like Bishop trying to alter time to improve upon his future, it seems like there is little mere mortals can do about it. Everything has happened for a reason and for longtime viewers of X-Men and now X-Men ’97, it’s rewarding to see how everything intertwines.
Even this one finds time for some interesting character moments.
This episode does feature an action-packed climax and a resolution designed to land with a wallop. It is, unfortunately, undermined by the show up to this point as we have had numerous fake outs and lasting consequences seem to be in short supply when it comes to X-Men ’97. That is not unique to the show as it’s something of a failing for comics as a whole. Perhaps the fallout will land better in a future episode, but for me when this one was over I didn’t feel much of anything other than appreciation for how well everything was animated. To my surprise, the episode also didn’t really toy with the idea of the X-Men taking out En Sabah Nur before he becomes Apocalypse, assuming they could. There is a brief moment where it seems like Bishop is willing to do so, but he’s stopped and no discussion ensues. A pedantic complaint I also have is we see Xavier and Magneto secretly communicating via telepathy, but the whole time Magneto is wearing his helmet. This would not have been an issue in the original series because at that point it had not been established that Magneto’s helmet blocked psychic attacks. Unfortunately for the show, that retcon was adopted for the first season of the show so it should still be in effect now. It further annoys me because we didn’t need Magneto to put his helmet on. He didn’t have it in the previous episode and I don’t even know how he managed to recover it during all that happened on Asteroid M, so why even stick it back on his head now? The design is slightly different so maybe it’s not the exact same helmet and instead one he created during their time in Egypt. Even so, it sure looks to be largely the same so there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t possess the same benefits as his old one.
That helmet is bugging me way too much.
It’s not important, just something a very invested fan like myself needs to call out. “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 2” lives up to its name and it will likely prove to be a necessary step for the greater conflict with Apocalypse this season. Nothing is resolved here as far as that conflict goes, though other aspects of this early season are. For instance, we do learn who was calling out to Xavier in that vision he had in the prior episode, though the individual is never given a name (you’ll have to…search…that information out yourself). I should also point out that there is a stinger scene at the end of this one during the credits so don’t bail on it while the X-Men are spinning on their pedestals. It’s just a tease for next week’s episode and if you looked ahead at the episode titles then you can probably guess where we’re heading. I’m expecting it to be kind of a time out episode before we get back to the Apocalypse plot, but I obviously could be wrong. This is an episode of X-Men ’97 that largely keeps the train rolling and serves to be an exciting half hour of television with some time travel quirks, albeit one with an ending that doesn’t land as forcefully as the writing staff probably intended.
The premiere episode for season two of X-Men ’97 took us to the far off future where Apocalypse reigns supreme. The second followed that one up with a story set in the present time of the series: 1997 (Duh!). Now, for the third episode of this three-part premiere we head to ancient Egypt to meet…
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…
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.…
The premiere episode for season two of X-Men ’97 took us to the far off future where Apocalypse reigns supreme. The second followed that one up with a story set in the present time of the series: 1997 (Duh!). Now, for the third episode of this three-part premiere we head to ancient Egypt to meet up with the rest of the X-Men, only they’re not alone for in this time is the mutant En Sabah Nur who the X-Men know will one day become Apocalypse. They have been unknowingly sent here against their will by Mother Askani to prevent the rise of Apocalypse, but just how they’re supposed to go about such is a matter of debate. Beyond that is the debate of if it should happen at all?
The episode opens with the X-Men who were sent to the future now back in the ruins of the X-Mansion. They returned expecting to find the team Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith) was sent to retrieve there as well, but when no one appears they become concerned. This is time travel, after all, so the idea that they have to wait for their return doesn’t make sense if they were all set to return to a specific moment in time. All they can do is wait though, because Forge (Gil Birmingham) is unable to get a reading on their time bracelets. In 3,000 BCE, En Sabah Nur (Adetokumboh M’Cormack) is preparing to lead his forces against those of Rama-Tut (John de Lancie) who is a vicious ruler and slaver that once possessed Nur. Alongside Nur is Baal (Michael Dorn), the man he looks up to as a surrogate father for he is the one credited with rescuing Nur from a life of slavery. Nur is, as far as we know, the world’s first mutant with the tell-tale sign being his pale skin and blue lips. He also possesses incredible strength and durability and is something of a super man which is what makes him a natural leader of other former slaves.
The X-Men have been sent to the past to stop En Sabah Nur from becoming Apocalypse.
The X-Men trapped in this past are under no delusions who En Sabah Nur is, or rather, who he will become. Charles (Ross Marquand) feels their presence in the past is an affront to nature and they should do everything in their power to not interfere and instead focus on getting back home. Magneto (Matthew Waterson), on the other hand, sees this as an opportunity to set Nur on a different path. If he can instill in him the values of Charles Xavier then perhaps Xavier’s dream of human and mutant coexistence can come true before he’s even born to dream it himself. He views this as penance for his hand in what happened on Genosha, but Charles is not so certain this is the correct path. What no one seems to suggest is simply destroying En Sabah Nur before he can become Apocalypse. Such is the quagmire of the time traveler – if you can prevent an atrocity by taking out the orchestrator of such before it happens should you? En Sabah Nur as he exists in this moment in time is not the same man who committed countless atrocities as Apocalypse. Can he be sentenced for a crime he has not committed? This question doesn’t come up in this episode, but perhaps it will soon enough.
This isn’t the Egypt you read about in your textbooks.
As for the X-Men stranded here which includes Beast (George Buza), Rogue (Lenore Zann), and Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough) in addition to Magneto and Charles, their journey home is perhaps an impossibility. Beast is no Forge, but he has spent time working with Bishop’s time traveling device and has some knowledge of how it works. The problem is acquiring the power and resources needed to create a time machine and to do that they look to the forces of Rama-Tut. We may be in ancient Egypt, but the tech of Tut is certainly not of this era. He attacks with robotic minions lead by a human general named Logos (Chris Britton) and once the forces of Nur lay waste to them, the X-Men scavenge the battlefield for parts, but they’re not making much headway which is taking its toll on everyone, especially Beast. The plot takes a turn when Magneto is able to convince Nur to abandon his survival of the fittest mantra and take Logos hostage rather than kill him. With him in their clutches, Magneto hopes to convince Xavier to probe his mind and perhaps find a solution to their problems, but instead Xavier just finds more riddles. A disembodied voice that espouses a famous quote from Apocalypse appears before Charles alongside a massive, fiery, eye that looks like a galaxy being born. The presence of a shattered moon in the shape of Magneto’s helm leads me to believe this could be a foreshadowing for Onslaught, though I’ve seen some speculate that this could be a reference to Stryfe. I would have thought it was merely a vision of Apocalypse himself, but Xavier is the one who classifies this individual as a mystery and that would be a pretty lame mystery since we know that Apocalypse is the villain already in focus.
In this era, Rama-Tut rules, but I definitely wasn’t expecting to see the X-Ternal (credited as Candra) from the episode “X-Ternally Yours” to make an appearance.
The episode does end on a cliffhanger, though it’s a bit of a toothless one since these characters have quite a bit of plot armor at this point. Bishop will also make an appearance and, if anything, this cliffhanger may just explain why the X-Men were unable to rendezvous with their comrades in 1997. Perhaps we will find out the events of this episode caused the time bracelets to be damaged and the X-Men will have to seek out another way to return home. Of course, with me catching up and this going live the day part two drops that means these questions have likely already been answered (and maybe the identity of the mystery voice has as well), but I had to make sure I got my thoughts down before that episode dropped. I am guessing the technology of Rama-Tut hides a way for the team to get home and it would be a great example of circular story-telling since it was a future version of Rama-Tut that helped Bishop and the X-Men take down Apocalypse in the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc. There, he took the form of a cosmic janitor named Bender who only revealed himself to the viewer as Immortus at the end, but he’s basically a future version of Rama-Tut who is also an aspect of Kang the Conqueror. Yeah, it’s complicated.
A lot of capes in this picture.
“Rise of Apocalypse: Part 1” is a bit slower paced than the other two episodes in this three episode premiere. Being that it’s co-written by Beau DeMayo (along with JB Ballard), that’s not a surprise as he seems to like these more talky episodes and when you get Magneto and Xavier sharing scenes that tends to happen. It’s a necessary episode, though I do wonder if this is really how I want to see Apocalypse portrayed. I like origin stories and villain ones can be a lot of fun, but Apocalypse as a Spartacus figure is hard to square. Are we supposed to have sympathy for this character? Apocalypse is a genocidal monster, I’m not sure that I want or need to know that he wasn’t always bad. This is an adaptation of Rise of Apocalypse by Terry Kavanagh and Adam Pollina so it’s not a new story, but I never read that one to know if the portrayal of En Sabah Nur was quite the same. At any rate, I’m willing to see how things progress from here and since this is only part one it does feel a little incomplete. We’ve set the table, but the meal has yet to arrive.
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…
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.…
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…
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?
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.…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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:
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…
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…
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…
I’m guessing you already heard the news, but in case you haven’t: the X-Men are back.
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? It turns out that it absolutely could and I truly feel we were gifted something unique. Not many shows are allowed to grow up with its audience. Even long-running shows like The Simpsons or Sponge-Bob Squarepants mostly stay the same and rely on picking up new fans as older ones fall off. X-Men ’97 really did take a show crafted for 7-12 year olds in 1992 and age it up for that same audience 30 years later. And the fact that it worked was pretty remarkable. That first season ended two years ago so it’s been a bit of a wait for the show’s second season. For that first season, I reviewed every episode and intended on doing a season one wrap-up or overall review, but I never got around to it. As a warm up for this second season, now seems like the appropriate time to share my final thoughts on that first season while also getting hyped for what’s to come.
I watched quite a bit of the first season of X-Men ’97. When a new episode would premiere, I’d get up and watch it while riding my exercise bike which really helped get my heart rate going. My son also took an interest in the show so we’d usually watch it together after school and then I’d watch it again the next day to prepare for my review which I’d post on Friday. Recently, with the release of the new trailer for season two I went back and watched the whole season again in one sitting. It was a rainy Sunday so a perfect time to refamiliarize myself with the show again. Before that rewatch, my opinion of the first season was that it was quite good, but also felt rushed at times. Upon rewatching it, I felt it didn’t go by as fast as I remembered. Some stuff certainly did like the entirety of the “Inferno” plot being condensed into one episode. I still don’t like how that one ends with Cyclops declaring he won’t abandon his son and then immediately flipping or how the clone Jean Grey just pulls the name Madelyne Pryor out of thin air. The “Lifedeath” arc was the other one I felt got rushed, but upon reflection I no longer think so. It was probably my least favorite plot in the season so the idea of spending more time with Storm and Forge isn’t really a recipe for making the season better. Once the show hit the fifth episode, “Remember It,” it moves at a nice clip. The events of that episode are felt throughout the rest of the season and dedicating three episodes to the finale was also a smart move. The final episode of the season is more of an aftermath episode with a lot of character work. Cyclops and Jean seem to resolve their differences and have that nice moment with Cable while Xavier and Magneto reconcile with the damage they’ve inflicted upon each other over a lifetime despite their love for each other.
Effect shots like Nightcrawler taking Wolverine and this jerk on a ride through his teleportation simply were not possible in the original series.
The production values of the first season were also wonderful and the biggest upgrade over the original series. Much of the voice cast returned and while many sound a bit older, their acting chops have only been further honed over the decades. The redone X-Men theme is grander and worthy of cinema and I am delighted that Marvel seems to have settled on it as the theme for the X-Men from here to eternity. The animation though is the clear upgrade. Going from the original series to this one reminds me of the first time I saw the Star Wars prequels. No, not in terms of the quality as a whole, but just in what we were allowed to see the characters do. The technology is now available to match the imagination of the writers and storyboard artists. The old show would never have been able to pull off the action that this show possesses. The action sequences from that show are what have arguably aged the worst. And you don’t have to watch X-Men ’97 for very long to see this on display as in the very first episode we get that incredible sequence where Storm enters the battlefield and uses her powers to blast the desert sand with lightning turning it into a sheet of glass. She then unleashes a tornado on the same which shatters and grabs the shards of glass to create a violent, Sentinel-destroying, freak of nature. Such a thing would not have been possible in 1992 either due to the talent of the animators or the budget supplied by Saban.
The prospect of topping that first season is what really drives my excitement for the second season set to premiere on July 1st. Last year, attendees at New York Comic Con were treated to a new trailer to hype that season which was sadly never made public. While there were leaks, us regular folk had to wait until fairly recently for a proper trailer. A follow-up has already been released and the hype train is now traveling at full speed. When that first season ended, the X-Men were scattered across time. Some appeared to be stranded in the present like Wolverine and Morph, while a small group was sent to ancient Egypt where they meet En Sabah Nur, better known in the present time as Apocalypse. Cyclops and Jean were also shot forward in time where they meet Mother Askani and their son, Nathan, who is now a boy of about 10 by the looks of things. And if that wasn’t thrilling enough, the final stinger for that first season featured Apocalypse combing through the ruins of Genosha and uncovering a playing card while musing on the subject of death, an obvious foreshadowing for what is likely in store for the fallen Gambit.
The sister of Colossus, Magik, is an unexpected casualty of the Genosha massacre.
I’m not going to go through all of what is in the trailers for season two, but I wanted to touch on some things featured prominently. One, it sure looks like we have more Genosha fallout to deal with. One of the scenes featured in the trailer is Colossus, wearing for the first time his yellow and red costume, cradling the body of his sister Illyana, also known as the mutant Magik. We later see a scene where Colossus, now in his Acolytes outfit, is leading Rogue and Nightcrawler to a shrine where his sister’s picture is front and center among others lost in the attack on Genosha (and now that I look at it more closely, is that a picture of Iceman to the left of the Never Forget sign?). This is an interesting development as in one of the final scenes of the first season we see Forge and Bishop conversing in front of a wall of portraits of mutants as Forge is attempting to account for them. Magik is featured and is noted as being alive, but clearly something has changed since then if she actually fell in Genosha. It was a huge catastrophe and it’s reasonable to assume more bodies were still being recovered, though at that point they probably would have had a firmer idea on who was alive and who was presumed dead. Much of the second season had already been written by the time the first aired, but just before the show premiered the showrunner Beau DeMayo was fired by Disney. It stands to reason that a new showrunner would likely have ideas of their own and things may have changed.
Is this a bad sign for Bobby?
The Magik reveal further interests me because it calls into question other names on that bulletin board. My beloved Iceman is seen on it and seemingly fine, but there was also a blink and you’ll miss it moment in the fifth episode where an ice cream man on Genosha uses his mutant powers to make a treat for Leach. He certainly looks a bit like the Bobby character model from the original series so was he on Genosha too? With this show being far more willing to tackle social issues it would surprise me if the most prominent gay X-Man was unceremoniously killed off like that, but you never know. In the trailer, we see Bobby’s ex-girlfriend Lorna return to what appears to be the mansion and a photo of her and Iceman together is shown. Is she reflecting on the loss of him as well as the X-Men?
That you, Bobby Drake?
Lorna’s presence also coincides with the return of X-Factor and the apparent formation of Cable’s X-Force. Both teams are featured prominently in both trailers and it does make one wonder if the cast is perhaps getting too big? That’s a whole lot of people to follow, not to mention we see scenes of Wolverine and Morph paling around with the likes of Sabretooth and Deathstryke plus some young mutants including Kid Omega. In the old show, it wasn’t unheard of for groups of mutants to drop in and out so this could end up being nothing. We had episodes with Alpha Flight, X-Factor, The Morlocks, or episodes like “Slave Island” which were full of cameos. Not everyone is going to get the spotlight shined on them and that’s probably for the best with a cast as big as this one. I do think some characters will be featured more though and Polaris definitely seems to be one. The show also has yet to reveal that Cyclops and Havok are related and we saw their other brother, Vulcan, among the Shi’Ar in season one so that could come into play at some point.
During some part of the season it would appear that Wolverine will dawn a costume evocative of his feral appearance from the comics, but perhaps without the feral personality?
What does intrigue me perhaps the most is Wolverine’s arc this season. He is shown prominently in the trailer since he was given the line, “We’re back,” and he delivers it while striking a pose identical to the cover of his first mini series by Frank Miller. As he does, his claws pop out and they have been re-bonded with adamantium. What further intrigues me are the sequences we see where he’s in his skull cap look with bone claws. This harkens back to the “feral” Wolverine era in the comics. Some time after losing his adamantium skeleton during the “Fatal Attractions” arc, Wolverine is lured into a trap by Genesis, the son of Cable corrupted by Apocalypse. He tries to replicate the adamantium bonding process with Wolverine to turn him into a weapon for himself, but Wolverine’s body rejects it leading to this feral transformation. Perhaps that happens right after his skeleton is returned? It looks like he’s in his brown and tan costume in the trailer when he flashes those claws, but the feral look is yellow and blue so I think it’s something from later in the season. There’s also a group shot of Wolverine with his adamantium skeleton and brown costume that could take place anywhere in the second season timeline. We’ll just have to wait and see.
This feels like an homage to X-Men vs Street Fighter and I am here for it!
And then there’s Apocalypse. He’s obviously the big baddie this season and it looks like the X-Men will be confronting him across timelines. I can see this being the season long arc. Maybe not every episode will deal with that conflict (we know that Danger is featured), but I would be surprised if there isn’t some big showdown in the final episode with Apocalypse and perhaps a new set of horsemen. Nothing is teased about Gambit possibly returning as Death (unless you consider Rogue being handed a playing card foreshadowing) and that makes sense. They should refrain from such to preserve the surprise as much as possible so I think there is much that is still to come. I have seen some speculate that the events of this season could give rise to an Age of Apocalypse third season. That would be interesting since the original series already did something similar with the “One Man’s Worth” episodes, but that arc also didn’t involve Apocalypse so it wouldn’t be as redundant as it seems at face value. Those episodes were the genesis for the hypothetical “What if Charles Xavier were assassinated before starting the X-Men?” question that gave rise to the Age of Apocalypse in the comics which is why many of the character designs from that arc were featured in the episodes. And since we’re following the show’s version of “Fatal Attractions,” the prospect of Onslaught still looms. Hasbro even re-released Onslaught (or is set to) in its Marvel Legends line and they usually don’t do stuff like that with very specific characters unless there’s an outside reason for such. Perhaps that will be our season three which is right now scheduled to arrive in 2027 so we won’t have to endure an extra long wait to find out.
I am completely and utterly hyped about this second season and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it. Unfortunately, the premiere arrives while I’m on vacation so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to share my thoughts on it. I do plan to take time out of my vacation to watch it, but if I had been home I probably would have spent the Tuesday before binging the first season once again. Whenever I do get to it I am sure it will be a fun time and I plan on reviewing every episode right here on The Nostalgia Spot.
To help you get hyped for the return of X-Men ’97, here are the reviews of my favorite season one episodes:
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…
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…
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…
I don’t normally do this, but for once I figured why not try to emulate the box art with the pose?
Back in the old Toy Biz line, it felt like we had to wait a long while for an action figure of Beast, or The Beast as the opening title of X-Men: The Animated Series referred to him as. Perhaps that was due to the character spending the bulk of the first season out of sight and out of mind thanks to being incarcerated. And I say it was a long wait, but what is a long wait to a child? It may have been about two years, but Beast eventually arrived with flipping action and an accessory that let him hang off of a smooth surface via a suction cup. I believe I got my figure for Christmas in 1994 and it felt like a big deal as he arrived alongside Morph and nearly filled out the roster from the cartoon. All that was missing was a proper Jean (we’d have to settle for her as Phoenix) and Jubilee (who eventually received a figure in the Generation X subline) while Rogue would arrive shortly after, if memory serves (action figure producers in the 90s were quite reluctant to make women). When Hasbro returned to X-Men for its Marvel Legends line based on the show, they made sure to get to Jubilee and Jean pretty early, but never did release a Beast. For the X-Men ’97 line, once again Jean and Jubilee made it out along with Rogue, but Beast got the shaft yet again. Finally, Hasbro unveiled a ’97 version of Beast on June 8th which is set to go up for preorder in August and will presumably release at some point in 2026. And that very same week I got a shipping notification from Mondo for its take on Beast who will get us ever closer to completing the main roster from the original series.
If you stand him up as tall as he’ll go then he’ll look down on the likes of Wolverine, but I think this is about right for his posture.
Beast has the distinction of arriving before Storm despite going up for preorder after her. And in this case it was well after as Storm went up around Halloween while Beast went up in February, but for some reason the blue guy beat her out of the factory. Maybe it’s the soft goods needed for Storm’s cape? I’m not sure, but I’d be lying if I said I was disappointed for while I do look forward to getting Storm, Beast was a pretty sizable want for me (literally). He’s just a fun design and we really have never received a proper animated Beast. Even that old Toy Biz figure featured more of a comic look as Beast had his whited-out eyes while the animated version had normal, blue, human eyes. Most of the Legends versions have followed a similar pattern with perhaps the only deviation being the very first Marvel Legends Beast which, apart from the eyes, didn’t bare much resemblance to the cartoon version (not that it was aiming for that). This Beast unquestionably is and like most Mondo releases in this line it arrives first as a limited edition with a bunch of extra goodies thrown in the box. It is yet another wonderful sculpt by Alex Brewer with paint by Mara Ancheta and packaging artwork Dan Veesenmeyer. The packaging does follow the same design as Mr. Sinister with no flap on the front and a write-up by Eric and Julia Lewald on the back detailing their affection for Hank. It would seem this is the standard going forward which is honestly fine as the front flap on the old boxes revealed little since these figures ship wrapped in plastic to protect the paint.
“Eureka!”“Let me tell you about this wonderful resource.”
Beast is a big hunk of plastic coming in it at about 11.75″ per Mondo. Since he is a character often depicted standing with a bit of a hunch, exactly how much vertical space he’ll occupy on your shelf is certainly variable. He does pack some heft though as he’s solid. He doesn’t look out of place among the other figures and I do like that Mondo appears to have a mostly no compromises approach to size and scale with these releases. He’s also very much a ’92 design. While there isn’t much separating Beast from the original series and its sequel series, there are some subtle differences most notably in the shape of the face and the linework of the body. This Beast has the wide face of the original series with tufted bits of fur along the jaw line. His stark, black, eyebrows also sit more in-line with the eye as opposed to stretching well beyond them and his hair is a bit more unrestrained. It’s also reflected in the paint job as the original series was more likely to paint the inner lines of Beast’s musculature in a rougher manner. Instead of one, curved, line it was more like several shorter lines arranged in a curve shape to create a subtle illusion of fur. The ’97 art mostly goes with an all blue body with the fur only appearing as a means of breaking the silhouette in key places, something the original series also did. For this figure, Mondo did not sculpt any fur inside the body, but painted it withing the muscles such as in the base of the pectorals and basically along all muscle groupings. It means Beast has a slightly furrier appearance in plastic than he does on celluloid, but given the scale I think it’s a necessary touch to give him a bit more depth and the paint job is subtle enough that it doesn’t detract from the source material. Instead, it feels like this is how Beast is represented in the show on episode’s with the biggest budget or in close-ups as opposed to when he’s just lost in the background.
Beast is known for being well-read.He’s not really known for being well-dressed. This is as formal as he gets.
Apart from the paint job, this is just a really great looking take on the character. Initially, I thought the shoulders looked a little bulbous in the promotional shots, but in-hand I don’t see the same. Beast always had quite large shoulders on the show and sculpt reflects that rather accurately. My favorite X-Men character designs are the ones that bely the personality of the individual underneath. A great example is Nightcrawler, the character who looks like a demon but is actually a devout Christian. In the case of Beast, it’s a monstrous individual who is actually a scholar and medical doctor. What makes me prefer the animated design over all others rests with his face. Beast has this very gentle, human-like, visage as opposed to the more primal one he is often given by comic book artists. And for this one, Brewer really nailed the different expressions contained in this set. We get a neutral face by default that has a faint hint of a smile which feels like the perfect default Beast. There’s also an angry one, and a yelling one if you want more of a battle setup. We also get this humorous toothy grin which is the only face that might be from X-Men ’97 though it still reads as a ’92 look to me. Lastly, there’s sad Beast and this is likely pulled from his spotlight episode, “Beauty and the Beast,” though he does have moments of sadness in other episodes that it could work for. I really like that Beast is the chosen character to wear his emotions on his sleeve as he’s basically the first to cry in X-Men ’97 when things get heavy.
It’s not easy being a beast.A Howard the Duck shirt will be a smile on even the saddest face.
Those are just the expressions available, for hands we get a solid spread that includes sets of fists and gripping hands. There’s also another set of gripping hands that are asymmetrical, a very wide or style posed right hand, a pointing right hand, and an open left hand. He also has two books, one that is open and one that is closed. The closed book contains a shoutout to showrunner Erik Lewald and writer Julia Lewald as it’s titled Lewald’s Book of Words. The open book is The Genus of Genius, a bit smug for someone like Beast. For seeing that small print, Beast has his glasses which slot over his ears well enough without the need for any ugly cut-outs. They’re just black, plastic, frames without a lens and I think it serves the prupose here. He also has his tactical backpack which has a few different accessories all pulled from the original series. There’s a set of goggles that come up and over the head as well as a little blaster that pops out. These just plug into the backpack if you wish to use them or you could have the backpack appear closed. The goggles don’t slot into anything on the face, so you basically have to position his head and the pack itself to get it to sit right. Even so, you’ll probably have a hard time getting him to look in any direction other than straight ahead with these on. Beast also has a little handheld device that served as a communicator in “The Phalanx Covenant – Part One” in conjunction with a radio inside the pack, but that would have been a little too ambitious to include the whole thing. If you don’t want him out in the field though, there’s also an included lab coat accessory which he actually comes packaged wearing. This necessitates the swapping of arms as it’s setup just like the coats that came with Logan and Cyclops. It looks nice when in place and there’s even a little pocket with optional tongue depressor on the left breast, something that showed up in both shows. Because the coat adds a little more bulk to the shoulder area, I’d say it actually casts the slightly better silhouette as a result which was also true of the Cyclops figure. Lastly, Beast also comes with his Howard the Duck shirt as seen during The Phoenix Saga episodes. Unfortunately, it’s just a lump of painted plastic meant to represent the shirt folded up and it’s not something he can actually wear. An actual soft goods one he could wear would have been the icing on the cake. Beast also has the typical Mondo display stand. Unfortunately, they didn’t deem him worthy of the flight stand which is what I’d prefer to see become the standard for the line as these doll stands are pretty poor. If you think it’s a matter of heft my counter to that would be the recently solicited Goliath from Gargoyles comes with a flight stand so if it can support him then it could likely support Beast.
Beast is ready to head out into the field.
Beast has a pretty standard array of articulation for Mondo, but to my surprise, it’s among the most well-executed. For joints, we get a double ball head, hinged shoulder pegs, bicep, single elbow, ball-jointed wrist, diaphragm, ball-jointed waist, ball socket hips with swivel, double-jointed knees, ankle hinge and rocker, and a toe hinge. The head is perhaps the most limited as his sloped posture and large head means his range is a bit subtle and it’s easy to pop the head off by mistake when posing him. The shoulders have terrific range for what they are and the elbow hinge is pretty deep so Beast has no issues bending his arm 90 degrees, be it sleeved or not. The diaphragm joint actually works and he can arch back and crunch forward a bit and the waist enhances both directions. Both spots swivel and provide for a little rock. Nothing outrageous, but better than other figures in the line. All of the joints are also firm, but smooth, out of the box so I’ve had more fun messing around with Beast than a lot of figures from Mondo. The heads and hands are pliable enough to easily swap and all of the pegs are nice and thick so there’s no durability concerns here. Still, without a neck or butterfly joint, Beast will be confined to mostly simple poses. He can’t quite get down into a three-point stance nor can he look up well enough to emulate his pose on the cover of X-Men #1. He can crouch down and I was able to do so without the aid of a stand. I probably wouldn’t trust him on a shelf without one in such a pose (and I did have him take a dive already), but it is doable.
“Open your mouth and say, ‘Ahh,'”Like Nightcrawler, Beast can get into a crouch.
As a result, Beast is probably the most fun character to handle since Nightcrawler, with Nightcrawler being the only one that’s obviously superior to him in the articulation department. He fits in really well among his teammates and I do love the big splash of blue it adds to the shelf. Or rather I will when I find a way to fit him in. The Mondo shelf is getting extremely crowded and it only gets worse when figures are released. I’ll have to find a home for Storm as well at some point this summer and eventually there’s Jean. That’s all that’s been shown so far and with the release of Jean that essentially completes the default team from the ’92 show with the exception of Professor X. And honestly, I don’t know if I want a Professor X for this line given the likely size and cost of such a thing since he has to come with the hoverchair. I do absolutely feel that we need a Morph since he was in the first episode and is a full-time member in X-Men ’97. After that, there’s Bishop, Cable, and Archangel which would all be nice to have, but aren’t necessities for me. If Mondo thinks it can do Apocalypse justice without a massive price hike, then I’d certainly be interested in him as well. He is really the only villain I feel like I need. Juggernaut would be cool as well, but he really didn’t show up much in the original series and has yet to make an appearance in X-Men ’97.
That’s a lot of plastic.
All that is to say there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for this line, but also not. I just listed out probably a couple grand in “maybe” figures not to mention shelf real estate so I guess we may not be as close as I would like to think. With San Diego Comic Con on the horizon, I am sure we’ll see a new figure or two in this line, though it would not shock me if Mondo prioritizes Spider-Man a bit more since that line has only put out three characters so far. Then again, X-Men ’97 returns to Disney+ in just two weeks so they’ll want to strike while the iron is hot with some new reveals. For now, Beast is a clear enhancement to the collection and one of Mondo’s best. I feel like I say that a lot with new releases in the line, but Beast really does vault up to the top or near top of my personal rankings for the line. He’s definitely one to get whether you’re cherry-picking the line or looking to assemble a full squad. And best of all, this limited edition version is still available on Mondo’s website. He is not cheap coming in at $255 and Mondo charges a lot for shipping these days. He is also still listed as coming with a tariff surcharge even though they’ve been reduced dramatically. That’s probably to not enrage the customers who preordered and paid that upfront. With the limited edition of 1,500 units not selling out, it’s possible that a standard version is not inbound either and there’s no indication on the listing what is part of the limited version and what would not be in a hypothetical standard edition. I’m not sure if any of these figures are truly worth what they cost, but if any are then Beast is among them as he’s very well executed. I am certainly happy to have him in my collection.
For more Mondo X-Men figures, check out the below:
When the topic of X-Men villains is broached the first name that comes to mind is Magneto. And rightly so, he was on the cover of the very first issue getting pelted by a snowball from Iceman (and Marvel wonders why the kids of the day thought the X-Men looked lame). When the X-Men were…
Yes, I’m afraid this is another toy review that needs to begin with a word about tariffs. It was the talk of 2025 in the toy collecting community because it caused considerable delays, disruptions, and worst of all, increased prices across the board. One line impacted by the introduction of these new costs more than…
Back in 2021, Mondo unveiled for San Diego Comic Con a sixth scale Wolverine action figure based on the X-Men animated series from the 90s. It was a presale to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the show’s premiere and product went out in 2022 closer to that actual anniversary. At the time, Mondo wasn’t…
A figure some never expected to appear in Marvel Legends is the Spider-Man ally/foe Cardiac. For whatever reason, he was apparently off-limits at Hasbro. There could be a number of reasons for that, but whatever was in the way is obviously no longer an issue because Cardiac has now taken his rightful place in plastic. Had we never received a Cardiac action figure would that have been a great tragedy? No, but fans of the character certainly would have been disappointed. I’m personally not one. I barely remember the guy, but when I saw the reveal I thought the figure looked interesting. And then when I saw him hanging out on some pegs at my local store I said “What the heck?”
Cardiac is about average height for a superhero character.
Cardiac is basically a vigilante, like many heroes. He’s a cardiologist (get it?) who is basically angry at the insurance and pharmaceuticals industry for the unjust death of his brother and, man, that’s a guy who feels made for this moment in time. He’s basically a guy in a cool suit with a “pulse staff” that can shock dudes. He’s in a skin-tight, navy suit that’s adorned with an EKG down each side which is sculpted into the figure and painted silver. The rest of the figure is white plastic including his shoulder pads, knee pads, boots and gloves. And since Cardiac made his debut in 1990 he is adorned with pouches! They’re at the cuffs of both his gloves and boots and he also has them going around his thighs. It was just in the water at the time. What got me with this figure is I love the clean look of the white juxtaposed with the dark blue. The silver paint work adds a little something extra as well and it’s pretty clean. And I read a lot of 90s comics so I do have nostalgia for this type of look. It’s silly, in retrospect, but strangely effective.
“I find your lack of nose…comforting.”
That’s not to say everything is perfect. The paint isn’t perfect, but it’s surprisingly close. I wasn’t sure in the box what was going on with the torso, but it looks like the white is white plastic inserted into the blue torso. That helps to keep things clean and it also ensures that all of the blues match as well as the whites. There’s a little shading in the face around the eyes and in the creases of the brow which looks really good. I like the expression, a teeth-gritting one, though the paint is a little messier at the base of the mouth. Not distractingly so, but it looks off up close. One thing fans of the character have pointed out as being suboptimal is the nose. Cardiac was almost always drawn with basically a flat face and no nose. My guess is the sculptor here wanted to add a little realism so there’s a bump for a nose under the mask. It’s one of those inconsistencies with Legends that drives me crazy – are we matching the source art or going with this house style of realistic interpretations of comic book characters? Hasbro used to almost always go for the realistic interpretation, but over the past couple of years have started doing more source art looks. It seems almost universal that fans wanted a source accurate Cardiac, especially because this is likely the only one we’ll ever get. Not being a fan, it doesn’t bother me, but what does are the wrists. They’re puny and it’s weird looking. I’m not really sure what happened there (I have since seen images of people online putting the power effect over his wrists instead of the staff so maybe that’s a reason, though you could just use the wider opening on a thicker wrist), but his forearms look like they belong on a different body.
“Whoa! Don’t get that cotton candy on the threads, buddy!”
That’s a somewhat subjective critique, though a justifiable one if you’re someone who just wants their figures to look like the source. My only complaint concerns the articulation. Before we get to that, the accessory load-out for Cardiac is a set of gripping hands, a right fist, and a left relaxed hand. He also has his staff which has a blue effect orb that clips around one end. I think it probably looks as good as it could, it’s a translucent blue with some frosting inside the globe, but it does kind of look like cotton candy. Or blown glass. The actual staff is just gray plastic, but it’s new tooling and looks how it’s supposed to. The articulation though has one major flaw.
Those wrists are a bit dainty.
For the most part, Cardiac articulates like most Legends figures. He does have the double ball peg head and it’s one of their bad ones. The lower ball is seated too low in the neck so the range is poor looking up and down. He has standard arm articulation and the shoulder pads are looped through the shoulder pegs so they rotate with the arm. They may be the reason for it, but the arms won’t go all the way out to the side for a classic “T” pose. The bicep swivel, double-elbows, and wrists are all fine. The gripping hands have the preferred vertical hinge while the other two have a horizontal one. There is a diaphragm joint that works very well. The hips can nearly hit splits out to the side and kick forward 90 degrees. The thigh swivel is hidden by the thigh pouches, the knees are double-jointed, and the ankles hinge and rock. All work pretty well, so what’s the problem? The waist! There’s no waist articulation at all. No swivel, no ball, nothing. I saw some speculation it was because Hasbro didn’t want to break up the EKG lines, but they were fine breaking them up for the diaphragm joint so that doesn’t make sense. And it’s really missed. This is all new tooling so why not go nuts and give him a ball-jointed waist? What a bummer.
“Stay out of my way, web-head!”
Does that ruin the figure? No, but it keeps people from feeling like Hasbro nailed Cardiac. I didn’t review it, but a lot of people felt like they did just that with their ROM the Space Knight from last year. That’s a similar case where it’s a long requested character who is unlikely to ever receive another figure. With characters like that, you hope that Hasbro puts out something that is unlikely to be topped in their line. They went through the trouble of tooling a unique body, they just stopped too short. I don’t know what that joint would have cost, but I don’t think much. Ignoring that, this is a fun looking character design that will add a little something to your shelf. That’s why I got it and I didn’t even wait for a sale. I don’t know if I could have, but I’m okay with it since there isn’t another figure in the wave I have any interest in. I’m guessing if you are a Cardiac fan and were dying to add him to your collection then you’ve already got this in your hands. And I sincerely hope you’re satisfied with it, because it seems unlikely we’ll ever get another.
If you enjoyed reading about Cardiac here’s a few more from the world of Spider-Man:
In some ways, Secret Wars was bad for comics. Commercially, the 80’s event was hugely successful for Marvel even though it seems to have just a lukewarm reception by fans in some circles. It helped to establish the belief that events sell and Marvel seemed hellbent on taking that approach in 90s. One of Spider-Man’s…
We’re going to be doing a lot of 2025 catch-up here as Christmas always slows things down. Toy producers also like to push product for the holidays so I seem to always end up with a backlog at the end of the year. Especially when stores are doing generous sales and convincing me to buy…
I had a bit of an impulse buy a few weeks back with the Marvel Legends Spider-Man Unlimited action figure from the show of the same name. What I didn’t mention was that he was not alone for hanging on the pegs that day with him was The Chameleon. Like Spider-Man Unlimited, The Chameleon is…
Yes, I’m afraid this is another toy review that needs to begin with a word about tariffs. It was the talk of 2025 in the toy collecting community because it caused considerable delays, disruptions, and worst of all, increased prices across the board. One line impacted by the introduction of these new costs more than most was Mondo’s line of sixth scale action figures based on the Marvel cartoons X-Men and X-Men ’97. These figures, being around a foot tall and consisting of unique parts, extravagant paint apps, and numerous accessories already carried a hefty price tag. Most had settled into the $235 range, but with free shipping that made it slightly more palatable. That was all out the window once extraordinary tariffs were introduced. Mondo was forced to add a tariff fee to its products to help offset the costs which, for this line, typically ran $20. Then there was the removal of the de minimis exemption on shipments under $800 which blew up Mondo’s shipping policy to ship directly from the factory to your door. Now, they had to go the shipping container route, bring everything to port, truck it to a warehouse, and then ship it from there. Free shipping was gone replaced with an option totaling over $20 and then add on the usual sales tax and you end up with a line that now runs over $300 a pop.
Even at sixth scale, he’s a bit of a little guy.
Nightcrawler was the first victim of this new world. When he initially went up, it was the limited version with a price tag of $245. When I went to check out, the total came out to over $300 and gave me a great deal of sticker shock. Mondo’s line appeals to me as a fan of X-Men ’97, but it appeals to me even more as a fan of the original cartoon. That’s the collection I want to assemble on my shelf, but Nightcrawler wasn’t really essential to such a display. He appeared in a mere two episodes during that original run, and while I like both, the space requirements of such a display and the cost gave me pause. I wanted to think it over and also wondered what the standard version would cost, but before Mondo revealed that the limited one sold out. I guess others weren’t as indecisive as I was. Eventually, the standard version was put up for sale and it cost $230, a nice price break, but it came at a cost. The X-Men ’92 portrait that was included with the limited version was omitted making this standard version truly an X-Men ’97 release. I admit, this frustrates me. The line began as one based on the original show and it was a request by Marvel to add the ’97 branding. For most characters, Nightcrawler included, there isn’t a big difference between the look so it’s easy enough to please both customer bases, but locking the ’92 version behind the limited paywall betrays that spirit. I complain, but obviously I gave in because I do like Nightcrawler an awful lot and knew I’d regret not having him on my shelf.
Nightcrawler is so popular he even has his own in-universe toy.
Nightcrawler comes in the same box as the rest of the line with new artwork by Dan Veesenmeyer and production artwork behind that. Even though this figure is truly an X-Men ’97 release, all of the production art is from the original series episode “Bloodlines” which is kind of amusing. There’s a character bio from Eric and Julia Lewald on the inside of the cover flap and there’s the usual display window behind it. Nightcrawler is a sculpt by Alex Brewer with paint by Mara Ancheta. He is one of the smaller figures in the line just barely outdoing the most recent Wolverine at around 10.75″. He’s far less chunky than the Canadian and quite lithe giving him a similar in-hand feel to the line’s smallest release, Jubilee.
He’s also well-armed.
Nightcrawler is depicted in his classic red, black, and white costume which is true to both shows. Paint is clean and it’s accentuated with blue linework which is how he’s shaded in both shows. The face has an abundance of black shadows cast across it which looks excellent and is how every Nightcrawler figure should be done at any scale. He has that tuft of hair which is the most recognizable aspect of the ’97 look and the eyes are a bright yellow. His black hair has some streaks of blue in it which helps convey the highlights we see in the show and I love how the white hands and feet stand out against the darker colors of the costume. I don’t know if it’s said enough, but Nightcrawler really is one of the best designs in comics (hat tip to Nightcrawler’s creator, Dave Cockrum). There’s a reason why he’s rarely strayed from this look which dates back to his original appearance from the 1970s. I love that X-Men ’97 added him to the main cast partway through the inaugural season and it appears that he will remain in the main cast going forward. That’s a terrific pickup as, next to Morph, Nightcrawler is the one I would have most wanted to see added to the roster.
He passes the crouch test.
Mondo had a challenge in bringing a character like Nightcrawler to plastic. The other characters from this line can get away with being a little stiff when it comes to posing, but Nightcrawler is a literal acrobat. He needs to articulate better than the rest. Mondo had a similar challenge before it with Spider-Man and, in my opinion, mostly dropped the ball there. With Nightcrawler, I’m happy to say they faired much better. He doesn’t have much in the way of additional joints, but the functional ability of what’s there is improved. What’s not is the head and diaphragm. The head is still really tight as the lower ball joint in the neck doesn’t like to move. The diaphragm joint is similarly stubborn, though it fares a little better with Nightcrawler than it did with Spider-Man. What works well is the waist which rocks in all directions quite well. His hips have more range and the double-jointed knees and elbows are super smooth. The same is true for the ankle hinges which border on being so smooth they’re loose, but I never had any issues standing Nightcrawler. He can get into a crouch which is necessary for such a character and he’s even better at doing so than his Marvel Legends counterpart thanks to the addition of toe hinges. His tail is also done with a wire and it’s perhaps the most poseable wired joint I’ve ever encountered. These figures typically aren’t much fun to pose, but Nightcrawler is the rare entrant who actually is.
Bamf! effects in action.
To accentuate those poses we have a slew of alternate parts and accessories. For portraits, there’s a neutral one and a smiling one. While the neutral one is executed very well, it’s the smiling portrait that I am almost certain to display exclusively. The limited version came with the original series head as well as one based on the pilot of the original X-Men cartoon, “Pryde of the X-Men.” I really want that ’92 portrait, but oh well. For hands, he has a set of fists, gripping, open, and style posed hands. For effect parts, he has a trio of “bamf!” effects. These are all cast in translucent, pink, plastic with one intended to clip on his shoulder and the other two on each arm. You could probably put them on a leg too if that was your preference. They’re sculpted to resemble the smoke that appears when Nightcrawler uses his teleportation powers and if you got the limited version you would have received a fourth piece that’s intended as a base. They’re easy to make use of and add a nice visual splash to a display.
These two proved to be a formidable pair in X-Men ’97.
If you watched X-Men ’97 then you undoubtedly recall Nightcrawler and Wolverine’s defense of the mansion during the eighth episode. In it, Nightcrawler finally was given a sword to wield which. Even going back to his original Toy Biz figure, Nightcrawler has been associated with blades for quite some time. And in that scene he had a saber, or cutlass, that resembled that old figure and Mondo included it here. It has nice paint effects on the blade and slots into a gripping hand quite easily. Nightcrawler, being an ambidextrous acrobat and accomplished sword wielder, wasn’t content to just handle one sword. He also found some decorative fencing blades in a study and took them down from the wall. He has one to grip in his other hand, but that still wasn’t enough for Nightcrawler. That prehensile tail of his needed a weapon too so that’s where the third sword went. Mondo included an extra tail where the end is coiled like a fist. The third sword separates where the handguard meets the pommel and can slide effortlessly into the extra tail to outfit Nightcrawler with all three weapons. Even if I had that coveted ’92 portrait, I would have been hard pressed not to pose Nightcrawler with all three swords in hand (and tail).
The stand, plus Nightcrawler’s poofy hair, lends itself well to inverted poses.
Feeling that wasn’t enough to really capture the spirit of the character, Mondo also used this occasion to provide collectors with an improved stand. It’s a badly kept secret that Mondo’s doll stands it includes with all of its sixth scale figures is pretty crappy. I almost never use them and many have never even been removed from the package. For Nightcrawler, we get a new model that includes a poseable post and a gripping claw for the end. The base is still the standard circular base with the X-Men logo painted on. The post plugs into that and the claw…goes on somehow. I don’t know what the intention was, but I had to remove the crotch piece and unscrew the clip in order to get it onto the post. It was still a tight fit and I reassembled it once on the post. Some instructions would have been helpful. Once assembled, it works as intended. The claw has some nice tension and the gripping part is lined with a soft material that should protect the paint. The crotch piece adds some stability, though it might not really be needed though could come in handy with heavier figures. This is the stand we should have received with Spider-Man and I hope it’s the standard going forward even for characters that don’t necessarily need it. It’s unfortunately not coming with Mr. Sinister, but is with Storm. Lastly, Nightcrawler comes with a Bamf doll accessory. He’s fully painted and plenty adorable. I don’t know why Nightcrawler has small effigies of himself, seems to go against his religious convictions, but it’s a cute little detail from the comics and an appropriate accessory.
This guy just looks terrific. It’s an instant upgrade for any display.
While I was and likely will remain salty about the removal of the original series portrait for the standard edition, it’s hard not to be pretty happy with how Nightcrawler turned out. He’s simply one of the best releases in the line combining the incredible presentation qualities Mondo is known for with an unexpected fun component the line ordinarily doesn’t possess. While I do enjoy swapping in and out portraits and effects, I rarely enjoy the act of posing these figures. That’s not the case with Nightcrawler and I feel like I’m wasting the figure’s potential when I leave it in the same pose longer than a week. Nightcrawler is a fan-favorite and that’s likely partly why the limited version did sell out relatively quickly, even at an increased price. It’s a reputation that’s been well-earned over the decades since the character’s introduction. If you can get past that increased price, even for the standard version, you’ll find an excellent figure. Other retailers won’t have the $20 surcharge Mondo charges, or their shipping fee, though many have added an apparent tariff fee to the base price. Big Bad Toy Store currently has this edition of the figure priced at $245 while Entertainment Earth has it at $250. Both have cheaper shipping options than Mondo so you’ll save some money going through them instead, but if you want to buy direct form Mondo he’s still in-stock there for $230 with an additional $20 tariff charge. If you’re in on this line or just a big Nightcrawler fan looking for a nice one-off in your collection then I think it’s worth it. And if you intended to just be collecting the main cast from the ’92 show then I do think you should think long and hard about passing on Nightcrawler. You may come to regret it.
For more from Mondo’s line of sixth scale Marvel figures look no further:
Back in 2021, Mondo unveiled for San Diego Comic Con a sixth scale Wolverine action figure based on the X-Men animated series from the 90s. It was a presale to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the show’s premiere and product went out in 2022 closer to that actual anniversary. At the time, Mondo wasn’t…
It took a long time for Mondo’s Spider-Man to get to me. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to even buy it. I passed on the Mondo offering in 2024, debated the symbiote costume variant, but ultimately passed on that as well. The X-Men line from Mondo is my true love and…
After putting a real hurting on my wallet in 2023, Mondo decided to take it easy in 2024 with its line of sixth scale action figures based on the animated series X-Men which ran from 1992-1997 on Fox Kids. Two figures ended up getting released this year, Rogue and now the leader of the X-Men…
Before we got onto the conclusion of our big Christmas Special ranking, let me just wish all of you a merry Christmas! It’s cliche, but it only comes once a year and you never know how many you’re going to get in a lifetime. For my family, it’s a somber one as it’s the first Christmas without my mother-in-law. And she absolutely loved Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. If she knew I didn’t place that one in the top 10 she’d probably be angry with me, but you know, the top 25 ain’t too shabby either.
The Christmas Spot is a labor of love for me. I love Christmas and I love indulging in it as much as humanly possible each year. And that means watching as many Christmas specials as I possibly can. I love discovering new ones, especially so if they’re new and actually enjoyable, but I also can’t disagree that settling in with an old favorite isn’t a ton of fun too. And a lot of what makes up the top 10 can be described as an old favorite. I suppose that likely comes as no surprise considering the name of this blog is The Nostalgia Spot. With Christmas, a holiday that burns even brighter for children than it does adults, it’s pretty much impossible to separate nostalgia from the equation. I try to be as objective as possible, but I know that I can’t remove those childhood memories and affection from a lot of these. There is a drive to go against the grain, zig when others expect me to zag, but I also hate being a contrarian for the sake of being one. No one likes that guy. As a result, these ten are pretty familiar and not all that different from the last time I did this. It just couldn’t be helped, but their staying power in my heart and in my mind is also a testament to their quality. And I do think I have a couple in here that probably aren’t in a lot of top 10s and I even have two that aren’t even ten years old! That’s enough preamble though, it’s Christmas and you all have stuff to do and places to be, so let’s get to it:
Wayne (right) has to overcome disappointment and deal with a new partner in Lanny this Christmas.
It’s funny how the Disney holiday special Prep & Landing still feels new to me, even though it’s now old enough to drive in most states. When this one first came up I was averse to it for no particular reason. I just lumped it in with Disney Channel fair and assumed it was for little kids, if not outright bad. Boy, was I wrong. It was actually recommended to me by my parents, of all people, who had somehow made it part of their annual tradition. I say “somehow,” but this actually is the rare Christmas special to still get a showing on network television year after year. A lot of those have dried up, but so long as ABC is owned by Disney it seems like we can count on Prep & Landing to be shown every year.
And that’s a good thing because it’s pretty great. In this special, we’re introduced to the concept of Santa Claus having an entire division of elves called Prep and Landing. These elves arrive first and basically clear the area for Santa’s arrival. They’re like his own Secret Service. It’s a genius bit of lore because it opens the special up to spy type missions in addition to traditional Christmas special tropes. Wayne is a part of this division only he’s getting kind of sick of it and seeing his partner get a promotion instead of him basically sucks the life out of him. He gets partnered up with an excitable new recruit named Lanny on the big day (an odd time to announce promotions, honestly) following the bad news and basically tries to coast through the night. Nowadays, we call this quiet quitting. This results in disaster and Santa is forced to pass over the house where little Timmy lives (it’s always a little Timmy) and the shock of that realization forces Wayne back into form in a bid to save Christmas for this kid. It’s a unique setup and a pretty relatable premise about feeling unappreciated at work which honestly is something that likely appeals more to adults than kids. Not that there isn’t plenty for kids to latch onto. That relatable element, and the newness of it all, is what makes this original Prep & Landing much better than its sequels. A new installment was actually premiered this year and if you want my opinion on it it’s fine. Maybe better than Naughty vs Nice, but that’s a discussion for another day. When it comes to what I consider modern Christmas specials, this is the one I use as a measuring stick.
Donald elects to remain in the cold north for Christmas and the results are pretty dramatic.
This Christmas special is one of two in the top 10 that isn’t even a decade old. It also prominently features Donald Duck who appears in a whopping six of the top 10! I knew I was a big Donald Duck fan, but even I didn’t realize it ran that deep. One of those six was Prep & Landing where he just has a cameo, but six is six. This one features the famous duck in the starring role. He is the “duck” in Duck the Halls and that subtitle almost feels like it only exists to placate the ego of a certain mouse. If Mickey is in something, he needs to at least share top-billing with the rest of the cast. It’s like a rule they have at Disney.
This special comes from the most recent era of Mickey Mouse cartoons by Paul Rudish. It takes the classic characters and adds more of a mad-cap feel to them. They’re all allowed to be funny with no straight man to play off of. In this one, Donald wants to spend Christmas with his pals, but since he’s a duck that’s a no-no as he’s supposed to migrate with the rest of the flock. This happens every year, but this time is different as Donald opts to stay. The results are disastrous as the cold weather literally causes the poor guy to fall apart forcing Daisy and the other ducks to stage a rescue attempt. Meanwhile, Mickey and the gang is well aware of Donald’s deteriorating condition and vow to get him south, but Donald wants none of it and basically goes insane and runs around town naked with a tree skirt draped around his shoulders. It’s wonderfully funny with just some great visuals to go along with it. I suppose if you don’t like this non-traditional take on Mickey then Duck the Halls won’t change your mind, but I love everything about it. What it lacks in Christmas feels it more than makes up for with humor and outlandish visuals. I just wish Alan Young had been around to voice Scrooge McDuck.
It’s quite likely that the modern Disney company would prefer you forget this image exists.
I wanted to break these two up, but I just could not do it. Toy Tinkers is our other Donald Duck starring vehicle only this one is much older than Duck the Halls. This comes from the 1940s when Donald was on fire. Mickey may have been the mascot for the Walt Disney Company, but Donald was the star. And in this short, he gets paired up with perhaps his greatest rivals: Chip and Dale. The two chipmunks are going to infiltrate the duck’s home on Christmas lured in by the warmth, festive decor, and those nuts. A bowl of nuts may feel more decorative than anything these days, but to a pair of chipmunks it’s a feast.
Chaos ensues when Donald realizes the rodents have invaded his home. Not one for sharing, Donald essentially declares war which is probably why this Christmas short still remains absent from Disney+. Donald disguises himself as Santa and hands out presents to Chip and Dale, only for a revolver to emerge from one such gift that Donald gleefully shoves in their adorable little faces. Modern Disney probably isn’t crazy about one of its most famous cartoon characters brandishing a realistic firearm in such a manner. And from there, a firefight breaks out. While Donald is using a pop gun, it looks realistic and fires nuts and ornaments like a machinegun. There’s a bunch of war-like parody images as the chipmunks return fire and even explosives are introduced. It’s one of the most Warner-like of all the Disney cartoons. And it’s just a ton of fun and it’s all over in less than 10 minutes. I love this era for cartoons and I love a good Christmas themed short. There’s just one I prefer to this one, but Toy Tinkers is always a good time around the holidays.
Speaking of chipmunks, here we have A Chipmunk Christmas starring those lovable little rascals Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. The trio had been in a bit of a lull until the son of creator Ross Bagdasarian, together with his wife Jan Karman, paired up with the legendary Chuck Jones to bring us this animated classic. The chipmunks were given a makeover that is very evocative of the Chuck Jones style and the existence of their classic “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” meant the special didn’t need to come up with its own theme. All it needed was a purpose and a plot.
For that, we get a pretty typical Christmas special plot. Alvin needs to learn how to appreciate what he has and not focus on the “getting” aspect of Christmas. The twist here is he figures that out in the first act when he gives away his prized Golden Echo harmonica to a sick little boy. From there, it becomes a story about how Alvin feels a need to replace that harmonica before his adoptive father, Dave, finds out he gave it away. And in his quest to do so, he appears selfish and greedy in the eyes of his father because he doesn’t know what’s really going on. It’s all going to work out in the end and whatever ailed young Tommy even magically disappears once he gets the harmonica. What I also like about this one is that Mrs. Claus gets to get in on the act instead of her more famous spouse. It’s a delightful little reveal at the end that I can still remember seeing for the first time as a kid. The antics of Alvin and his brothers are fun and this one does register in the “feels” department. Plus, the chipmunks never looked this good before and really never will again making this Christmas special feel all the more special.
In this one, Grandma is going to steal the spotlight from the famed orange cat and that’s okay.
I often here people refer to A Charlie Brown Christmas as this very low energy, low stakes, Christmas special. The way it’s phrased is to imply surprise at its staying power and how universal the love is for the special. One holiday special that might be even more low energy by comparison is 1987’s A Garfield Christmas. In this one, Garfield, Odie, and John head to the farm where John grew up to celebrate Christmas with his family. They have dinner, trim the tree, sing, read a story, and that’s about it. A very ordinary Christmas that is held every year by countless families that are far bigger than John’s. The fact that A Garfield Christmas is so beloved is because it’s driven by its characters.
Garfield is a character that requires little explanation. He embodies the emotions we humans attribute to cats. He’s lazy, enjoys eating, and would prefer to spend Christmas in his nice, warm, bed. In some respects, we can all relate to Garfield. The rest of the family helps to round things out. John and his brother, Doc Boy, provide some humor via their apparent case of arrested development going so far as to try and get their parents up at 1 in the morning to open presents. A lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to the emotional side of this special is provided by Grandma. She’s a high energy grandma, but she’s also a sad character as she reveals in a long monologue how Christmas is the time of year she misses her late husband most. It’s the moment in this one where things kind of stop in their tracks. We were having fun just observing this family up to that point and now find ourselves all thinking about the people missing from our own lives this Christmas. If you can’t relate to that part, you will some day. The special has a sweet ending and it’s buoyed by some lovely animation and even some decent songs that do not overstay their welcome.
Homer bets it all on Santa’s Little Helper and it actually hits, just not in the way he expected it to.
The 1980s were a great time for Christmas specials and sneaking in right at the end of the decade is The Simpsons. You don’t need me to tell you about The Simpsons. They’re basically the most famous family in America, animated or otherwise. It will never stop amazing me that this show is still running, but we’re currently in season 37 of the show with no end in sight and it all started with this holiday episode. “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” wasn’t supposed to be the premier of the show, but it’s how it all ended up happening. And as a result no matter how many Treehouse of Horror installments the show does, it will always share a special bond with Christmas for as long as it lives.
Returning to this one annually is always a fun reminder of how this show began. The Simpsons wasn’t all that different from other sitcoms of the era with the main exception being that the family was kind of poor. The premise of this episode is that a thing like Homer losing his Christmas bonus could absolutely ruin the family’s holiday. It’s further compounded by Marge having to blow the family’s rainy day fund on getting Bart’s tattoo removed. Not wanting to let his family down, Homer tries to keep everything under wraps and secretly takes a second job as a mall Santa Claus, but when that ends up only paying out a measly thirteen bucks he’s forced to go to drastic measures and gamble his small sum of money at a dog track in a last ditch effort to raise enough funds to provide for his family. Since it’s The Simpsons, things can’t just work out for Homer in a nice, tidy, fashion, but he and Bart fall ass backwards into an even better present for the family: a dog. It’s also interesting going back to this one because the show is very much not at all concerned with preserving the Santa Claus myth for its audience. The writers definitely envisioned the show as more of an adult one that older kids and teens would probably also find interest in, but it ended up taking off most with a younger audience. As a result, this may be the only one in the top 10 of my list that you won’t want to expose the youngest viewers to, but for everyone else it’s a true classic and remains the best Simpsons Christmas episode.
When it comes to Christmas, this is as good as it gets.
I mentioned it already in the Duck the Halls portion, but Mickey needs to receive top-billing in anything he appears in. Take this cartoon for example which, by all rights, should be considered a Pluto short, but it’s actually considered a Mickey Mouse one. It follows a familiar premise when compared with Toy Tinkers and even comes after it, but I find this one just a bit more enjoyable. It’s also simpler and the violence is far more tame so you can find this one on Disney+ all year long.
Mickey and Pluto begin this one in search of a Christmas tree. While doing so they encounter the pair of Chip and Dale who enjoy poking fun at Pluto for some reason. I guess because he’s just a fairly normal dog while they are chipmunks of a much higher intelligence. Pluto chases them up a tree which also ends up being the one Mickey settles on and the two end up inadvertently infiltrating the mouse’s house. There, they find a lovely home among the well-decorated tree. There’s the allure of nuts as well, but Pluto is not having it. After trying and failing to get Mickey’s attention to point out the rascals, it turns into a chase sequence which basically destroys the tree and results in Mickey strangling his dog. Yes, he really strangles Pluto. Despite that bit of animal abuse, this cartoon short is quite enjoyable and it all starts with the beautiful backgrounds and animation. The interior shot of the titular Christmas tree is the most Christmas shot ever dreamed up in animation. If I had the money and the ability, I’d go to great lengths to own that animation cel of Dale taking it all in. It’s just gorgeous and I love indulging in this one several times a year.
This one could have easily been called Dewey’s Christmas. Or should I say Bluey’s?
This is likely the one that’s going to be the biggest outlier in my list and I am okay with that. When most people my age hear DuckTales they likely refer back to the series that began in the 1980s and was part of the inaugural Disney Afternoon programming block. That show did not have a Christmas episode despite featuring a main character named Scrooge. To make up for it, the 2017 reboot had two Christmas episodes and this first one is one of my most favorite things.
DuckTales is a modern animated series with a strong throughline. It’s not entirely serialized though in such that someone just jumping in at any point would feel lost, but those who have kept up will probably get a little more out of it. And the main plot of the show is that Donald Duck has been left to raise his nephews all on his own, but eventually needs a little help and turns to his uncle Scrooge. The boys have never met their mother and do not even know if she’s alive and what happened to her because their uncle and great uncle refuse to discuss the matter, but they know it caused a major rift in their relationship. And we also have Scrooge who, like his namesake, appears to hate Christmas only in this episode we find out that’s a ruse. He just pretends to hate the holiday (though he truly hates Santa Claus for other reasons) so people will leave him alone freeing him up to go galivanting through time with his friends the ghosts of Christmas. It would seem they visited the wrong Scrooge years ago, but enjoyed hanging out with this one. Using the powers of the Ghost of Christmas Past (who is a cricket in just one of many nods to Mickey’s Christmas Carol), the group travels to holiday parties past, only this year Past is plotting to make sure the night never ends as he’s pretty lonely.
When the group travels back in time, there also happens to be a stowaway: Dewey Duck. Dewey is able to drop-off and land at McDuck Manor back in a time when his Uncle Donald and mother Della lived there as children. It’s through this bit of time travel that the young duck gets to meet his mother for the first time, only he can’t tell her who he is unless he wants to risk his very existence. Even sharing his name could have unintended consequences. It’s a really powerful plot device that only time travel could bring about. We saw Marty McFly meet a past version of his own parents which is interesting, but in his case he at least knew both of them in the present. Dewey has never interacted with his mother and to first do it with her as a child is wonderfully creative. It’s also kind of heartbreaking. The episode is careful to balance this all out with plenty of humor and some action as well as the two plots converge for the climax, but it’s also the sort of plot where if one sits with it and digests it they’ll likely find it pretty affecting. I just love it and there’s some wonderful callbacks in it that even one-time viewers should get. If you have never experienced it then I recommend you right that wrong. It’s the rare holiday episode I watched in the moment and I knew I’d be returning to it for years to come.
Despite knowing how this one will turn out, it never fails to produce some happy tears.
I swear I didn’t set out to spotlight a bunch of Disney Christmas specials, it just worked out that way. Until doing this, I was almost unaware of how much enjoyment Disney has brought me over the years at Christmas time, but there’s no displacing the classics. Mickey’s Christmas Carol is my favorite version of Dickens and it’s not particularly close. Some love the Muppets (ironically, another Disney IP) while some love the more traditional, but for me it’s all Mickey and primarily Scrooge McDuck. This was my introduction to the character who would go on to star in DuckTales voiced by the wonderful Alan Young and I’ll never be able to separate him from Ebenezer Scrooge as a result. A huge tip of the cap goes out to my mother and her Christmas Tape she made in 1987 for me and my sister. On that famed relic, Mickey bats lead-off along with a trio of classic Disney shorts in Donald’s Snow Fight, Pluto’s Christmas Tree, and The Art of Skiing. A truly splendid way to fill an hour of television.
This version of A Christmas Carol quite simply has it all. There’s gorgeous animation, wonderful backgrounds, terrific voice acting, humor, and all the feels one would expect from this classic story. I love Disney’s version of the three ghosts and Marley and they will always be the first images that come to mind when speaking of those characters. The music is terrific and the sequence at the graveyard is both terrifying and heartbreaking. The resolution is as uplifting as it would have been if played by human actors and maybe it’s even better since these characters can emote in very specific ways. It’s kind of amazing what Disney can do with that duck visage which should be pretty rigid, but in the capable hands of Disney animators is capable of any expression needed. I already mentioned Alan Young by name, but this was also my introduction to Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse and he would go on to voice the character into the new millennium. He is probably my favorite Mickey voice actor for this particular take on the character and he’s wonderful here. It’s also the swan song for the original Donald, Clarence Nash, and while he doesn’t have a huge presence in this cartoon he sounds just as good as ever when called upon. My only disappointment with this one is that it disappeared from network television at some point in the 90s. Why? I don’t know, but it never should have. Especially with Disney owning ABC. I’d love to see that 80s block revived, but for now this one can at least be found on Disney+ and is also free to stream on YouTube.
As if it could be any other. Once again, I am declaring the animated classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas! the best Christmas special of all time. At this point, I can’t imagine anything dethroning it. It’s the perfect combination of story, visuals, song, and nostalgia that makes for the best Christmas special. How could one improve upon the Grinch? It plays to those who love Christmas and those who are exhausted by it. The Grinch is both relatable and a villain with a redemption arc. And in the hands of Chuck Jones he looks as good as he ever did and ever will, and we now have two feature length films to prove that point.
I honestly can’t remember if the Grinch was my favorite Christmas special as a kid. It was certainly up there, but I can also recall really loving Rudolph, Mickey, Frosty, and even ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. The Grinch was always there though, that really consistent player smack dab in the middle of my Christmas Tape. Working in his favor is the half-hour format. I love a good short, and if a special is special enough to command an hour that can work in its favor too, but the half-hour cartoon is certainly my preference. The songs in this one are simple, but oh so effective. We all know “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” but the songs sung by the people of Whoville are just as catchy and the moment when they all sing on Christmas morning still lands hard for me every time I return to this.
What will always please me the most though, are the visuals and the Grinch and Max dynamic. The Grinch is just so expressive in the hands of Chuck Jones. His scowls, his nervousness, that smile! I mentioned wishing I could afford an animation cel of the interior of the tree in Pluto’s Christmas Tree and right up there would be a cel of Grinch in full smile. Even though an image can’t do it justice since it’s the animation that sells it as the smile just keeps creeping up his face well beyond where you would have expected it to end. And the way his hair unfurls is just the icing on the cake. Max is also adorable as the poor pup victimized by Grinch throughout. He is the sympathetic core of the picture, but he’s also infectious in the few moments he’s excited. We root for the Whos to get their Christmas back, but we also really just want to see Max have a happy ending. I love this one and I will love it for the rest of my days. I cannot foresee a time in my life when I will get sick of watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas! I am always down for a viewing and it feels like I can’t possibly watch it enough each season.
If How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is not your favorite Christmas special then that is okay. It’s more than okay. It’s okay if your favorite isn’t even in my top 10, 25, or not in this countdown at all. Whatever your favorite is, I hope you feel as strong about it as I do the Grinch. I hope you have that one Christmas special that can turn your day around with a simple viewing. It just makes you happy and helps you to appreciate what a unique time of year Christmas is. I hope you enjoyed this countdown and that you have a wonderful Christmas this year and all the years to come!
If you can’t wait until next year for more Christmas then check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
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