So, how are we feeling about nostalgia these days?
Ever since South Park coined the concept of “member berries” and associated it with voting for old men and their regressive prejudices, it’s been commonplace in fan communities to rage against perceived pandering. The Rise of Skywalker is widely considered to have done it too much, and every surprise cameo in a Star Wars or Marvel show tends to annoy as many viewers as it pleases.
Perhaps, though, the problem is in who the alleged pandering is for. Gen X nostalgia is everywhere, but Millennial nostalgia? Could that be a different beast? Judging by the overwhelmingly approving response of the Millennial with whom I share my life to the first three episodes of X-Men ’97, it’s a perfect replica of the show that was so formative nearly 30 years ago.
Grab a Surge and Some Bubble Tape
Rest assured, X-Men ’97 isn’t just a modern continuation of the animated series that began in 1992. It’s a full re-creation, with only the tiniest of modern tweaks. It’s the same art style, the same limited animation and overly basic lip-sync, the same overly explanatory dialogue, and a ’90s period setting that includes references to pagers and “…Not!” jokes. This isn’t an X-Men cartoon geared to kids today, but one that reproduces what thirtysomethings remember, the way they remember it. You don’t even have to ask whether or not it includes that familiar Haim Saban and Shuki Levy theme song that the movies bizarrely eschewed. Of course it does, over what is still one of the best cartoon intro sequences ever.
It’s preceded by a new Marvel Animation logo which includes glimpses of their ’60s shows all the way through to What If…? And let’s face it, one of the biggest missteps What If…? has made is sticking to the same animation style throughout, when an animated multiverse ought to represent all styles of animation, as Sony’s Spider-Verse does. The addition of a retro-’90s style to the repertoire suggests that at least Marvel Studios may not be married to one house style for a medium as potentially unlimited as animation.
X Vaguely Marks the Spot
You could be forgiven if you don’t remember every plot point and nuance of a ’90s Fox Kids series, but the show quickly gets viewers up to speed, assuming they have a basic knowledge of who Cyclops, Wolverine, and the other major players are. Professor X is now dead, murdered by a racist terrorist. Jean Grey is pregnant, and she and Scott/Cyclops are considering leaving active superhero duty behind to raise a family away from the action. Cyclops is a weak leader as things stand, with a lot of pushback from Wolverine, Rogue, and Gambit.
As for the other primary team members, Storm and Morph are a bit more chill, the former because she has godlike powers, and the latter, well, just because they’re that kind of person. Yes, Morph is now officially they/them non-binary. It only makes sense, really, for a shape and gender-shifter. Jubilee’s still an enthusiastic teen, while Bishop mostly stands around waiting for genius Beast to fix his time-travel device so he can go home.
That’s about it for the major characters, though Morph frequently shape-shifts into other familiar beings. If you find yourself wondering why, say, Archangel or Spiral suddenly showed up, well, it’s usually Morph.
The continuity may be a touch off. It’s hard to recall every plot point from years ago, but it sure seems like some characters who ought to know each other, don’t. Best to not worry about that too much and see this as loose continuity. (Or maybe I’m remembering wrong. That can happen when you’re old enough to be nostalgic for 30 year-old things.)
What’s New?
We watch cartoons a bit differently nowadays than the classic Saturday morning block, and X-Men ’97 has adapted to that. While each of the three new episodes sent for review contains a stand-alone adventure, they also all end with a soap opera-like hook for the next one, a trend that will presumably continue through the streaming season. The show is also no longer bound by Fox Network standards and practices. While that doesn’t mean full-on sex scenes or anything, there are more innuendos and scary/dark moments than ’90s networks allowed kids to see.
Episode 103 in particular seems like one where the animators watched a lot of Akira first, and it there’s a sequence of shattering stained glass that looks like it got the sort of digital assist unavailable in 1997. These are small things that may ultimately build to transition the show more into the modern era, but it makes sure to firmly plant itself in comfort-food territory first.
Retro X-tacy
Not everyone will be down with that – look at all the fans who complained about Ghostbusters 2016 not being a sequel, then complained again when an actual sequel shoehorned in “too many” references to the original. Rated for what it is, though – a perfect continuation, in exactly the same style, of Millennial childhood bliss – it’s hard to find any fault with X-Men ’97, because even its “faults” are in character.
Grade: 5/5
X-Men ‘97 debuts with the first two episodes on Wednesday, March 20, exclusively on Disney+
