I mean, jeez louis, people. What an intense and amazing two months this has been. My expectations were very tempered when this show was first announced, and then we go those first few trailers. But from episode one, I have been hooked and completely on board with this insane idea that worked far, far better than it had any right to work.

TV Show Rating: 10/10 – Fantastic

I was a huge fan of the original X-Men Animated Series when it came out in the 1990s. I was the perfect age for it and was already solidly versed with the comics — though not the comics that were current at the time. The show introduced me to characters like Gambit, Rogue and Jubilee, and then so much more beyond them. The original show was everything. And now this new continuation is everything again. It’s so damn good. They did everything right and then some. X-Men ’97 is so good, I wonder if it will affect the MCU plans for the X-Men going forward…

Anyway, the finale aired yesterday and I’m ready to talk about the show! Expect FULL SPOILERS for the whole show. Seriously! DO NOT READ THIS LIST if you haven’t watched X-Men ’97! But if you have, join me after the jump for my thoughts! And please feel free to share your thoughts and review in the comments below!

6. Next level show

Every time my brother and I get together, we always talk about what we’ve been watching and get caught up on our thoughts on the various great TV shows out there. He said he hadn’t found any great shows after Andor, nothing else that reached that level. I told him that X-Men ’97 was that show. X-Men ’97 is a next level show. It’s not just a kid’s cartoon show. It’s a rich, deeply thought out, perfectly animated and acted superhero show. It’s everything the original cartoon was trying to be and wished it could be. It’s everything every single superhero project wishes it could be. This show took the characters and their world and translated them perfectly on screen, telling a story that was both original, while also tied in a multitude of classic stories from the comics.

X-Men ’97 knows exactly the story it wants to tell from the very beginning, and expertly tells that story with individual episodes that each feature their own adventure and story. This isn’t one big, long, serialized movie. This is still the classic show, with each episode a near stand alone, all while feeding the bigger, bolder season-long narrative. And each character is used so expertly when needed, while also finding fresh things to do with them. The very first episode starts out with Cyclops using his power in a way that’s never been done before, but makes perfect sense! Granted, not everybody gets that treatment, but the whole team is used well in telling the story, and it’s a damn good story on top of that. The showrunners really looked at prejudice and bigotry in the 2020s and how it compares to the X-Men core concept, and then really weaved it all together. X-Men ’97 is top tier on every level.

5. Episode 5 is an all-time great TV episode

Ho. Lee. Shit. You guys. Episode 5 of X-Men ’97 is one of the all-time great TV episodes, from anything, be it drama or cartoon or whatever else you got. I didn’t see it coming. I know the Genosha Genocide storyline. I’ve read those comics. But I still didn’t see it coming. And they served us up so well. The episode begins as a celebration, and this geek was just marveling at all of the character cameos! Multiple Man made his X-Men ’97 debut in this episode! He was right there, front and center, even if it was for a few seconds! And then all the other Easter Egg cameos sprinkled throughout, from Marrow to Glob Herman to a return of Banshee and Moira! It was so wonderful! And the episode was bursting at the seems with classic X-Men soap opera relationship drama.

It was the perfect way to blindside us.

Showrunner Beau DeMayo came out immediately after Episode 5 aired and said he based it on the Pulse nightclub shooting, in which he knew people. And it works perfectly. The Genosha Massacre was written years prior in the comics, and DeMayo and his people took that moment and updated it to be something even more real, even more visceral. And a ton of those awesome X-Men Easter Eggs they led with were turned into grim horrors as real, named, comic book characters died this time around. And then Gambit…jeez louis. What else can be said about sacrificing Gambit like that? Brilliant move, brilliant character moment. I remember his line from the original show, but I didn’t remember it when I saw the episode title…so again, I didn’t see it coming. The episode did not skimp on the horror — nor should it have.

4. So much packed into every episode

X-Men ’97 is so well-crafted. A lot of people have complained online about the pacing, how comics that stretched several years are packed into a single, 30-minute episode. But I did not mind that in the least! These episodes are perfectly paced for me. They’re stuffed to the brim with content. As much as I love downtime, I don’t think the show missed the chance to include plenty. Like I said above, the biggest episode of the season, episode 5, has plenty of downtime content. They go to the mall, they go to the club, they play basketball; X-Men ’97 is filled with great character development and great story and plot development. Every single episode is bursting at the seams with quality writing, storytelling and voice acting, and it’s wonderful!

3. I loved the evolution of the team

One thing that will always stick with me from the original show was how willing it was to change the status quo. Morph is killed in the first episode (then later comes back, complete with full redemption storyline). Beast is arrested in the opening episodes and spends the entire first season in prison. I watched a lot of cartoons as a kid, and few of them offered actual changes to the status quo like that. And I love it in this new version as well. I loved how members left the team and joined, and how it was reflected in the opening theme song (which still rocks, obviously). I loved how characters grew over time, like Cyclops and Rogue. I loved them adding Nightcrawler to the lineup, correcting the wrong of the first show when it only used him maybe twice as a random guest star. I loved adding Morph as a full and prominent member of the team following his rehabilitation in the original. I love that the cast and characters can evolve.

2. Cameo heaven

I am a man who loves obscure characters. My favorite X-Men are not Cyclops, Wolverine and Storm. My favorite X-Men are Multiple Man, Mimic and Maggott. And we got appearances from all of them in this show! Heck, arguably, every single character on my Favorite X-Characters List of Six made an appearance this season (correction! I’ve since realized that one character wasn’t Cecilia Reyes. Oh well). Some of them were very, very blink-and-you’ll-miss it frames, but some characters got dialogue and jokes and extended appearances! The show really went out of its way to populate its mutant crowd scenes with real characters from the comics, and I loved it! Granted, a lot of them got killed off on Genosha, but a lot didn’t and still got to appear! Yeah, it was fun seeing Spider-Man that one time, and 90s cartoon Iron Man in the finale was a hoot, but Strong Guy got a line of dialogue, people! And Mimic appeared in the present day, normal reality! And Multiple Man survived Genosha! I was in heaven every episode!

1. Go everywhere

I knew the first season would end with a tease for the next, but I definitely didn’t see that finale coming. Ancient Apocalypse?! And Future Askani?! Heck yeah! I thought the tease would be Onslaught, but I think they’re saving him for something else in the future. We did get the Gambit as Death tease though in a mid-credits scene, so that prediction was true. But still, this show can go anywhere and do anything. They successfully weaved Operation: Zero Tolerance, Inferno, E is for Extinction and so many other comic book storylines together into a brilliant plot about Bastion and Sentinels coming for the team in a big way. There is nothing this show can’t do and nowhere they can’t go. Avengers vs. X-Men! Onslaught! The 198! X-Factor Investigations! Jean Grey School for Higher Learning! So many options! I can’t wait to see what they do next!

Seriously, just imagine what this show could do to correct and improve on Onslaught. It will be insane!

——————–