X-Men '97 Review: A Straight Shot Of Animated Nostalgia (And All That Entails)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, one might argue, climaxed in 2019 with the release of "Avengers: Endgame," a massive, three-hour orgy of superhero mayhem that brought together several dozen characters to fight an evil, purple-skinned environmentalist warlord. The flick also featured a time-travel widget that allowed superhero characters to visit previous MCU movies, injecting the proceedings with onanistic nostalgia. "Endgame" was a pat on the back for a decade's worth of film audiences, congratulating them for sticking with the 19-film series. 

Since then, the MCU has felt like directionless falling action. The big hits in Phase Four have been fond farewells ("Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3") or mindless crossover action ("Spider-Man: No Way Home"). The only new concept introduced into the MCU since 2019 is the Multiverse, and audiences became bored with that notion pretty quickly; "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," "Morbius," "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," and DC's "The Flash" all proved that the Multiverse isn't assured box office gold. Scooping up old, familiar superheroes to reprise their roles 25 years after the fact — and then placing them next to their new, youthful counterparts — was almost instantly tiring. The ever-contracting MCU is floundering.

Beau DeMayo's new animated series "X-Men '97" — while constructed to be a straight shot of nostalgia for kids born between, say, 1980 and 1985 — does, at the very least, abandon the multiverse angle, hoping to score back an aging audience with the retro-familiar. "X-Men '97" is presented as a direct continuation of 1992's "X-Men: The Animated Series" as if no time passed between its last episode (which aired on September 20, 1997) and now. 

Just like classic rock, "X-Men '97" is familiar and comforting. Also like classic rock, it lost its edge a generation ago. 

The animation in "X-Men '97" is designed after the 1992 series, although it lacks the authentic sloppiness and plentiful visual mistakes of the original. If DeMayo really wanted to recreate the look and feel of the 1992 series, he would have given his animators low budgets and unfair time crunches, resulting in mysteriously disappearing noses, color-changing ties, and background characters that vanish between edits. A generation of kids was obsessed with the 1992 series, and many tout it as the pinnacle of 1990s superhero entertainment, but it's worth remembering that it was a shabby, rushed affair. For some of us, the shabbiness was part of the show's charm. 

To the credit of "'97," the series does include a lot of extreme close-ups and scenes of characters who speak with their backs turned to the camera, a clear reference to the 1992 show's cost-cutting animation techniques. Why animate a mouth when a drawing of Wolverine's back is so much easier? 

"X-Men '97" is tighter and cleaner, a brushed-up version of the '92 series, complete with the Jim-Lee-era X-Men costumes that mutant fans seem to be the most fond of. It's trying to recreate in 2024 your memories from 1992. 

Luckily, that semi-insufferable nostalgia carries with it an efficiency of storytelling that has been lacking in the previous 15 years of superhero entertainment. With 30-minute episodes and a dozen main characters, "X-Men '97" doesn't beat around the bush, assuming we all know the backstory, and that we're willing to accept the show's crazier elements. Magneto (Matthew Waterson) sports a big "M" on his outfit, and the series doesn't preciously point out — as the MCU might — how silly it looks. That's Magneto's outfit.

Indeed, "X-Men '97" affects a little kid's attitude toward superheroes, allowing them to merely exist in a weird world. The X-Men and the audience merely roll with the appearance of giant robots, assassination attempts, time-traveling psychics, and villainous clones.

All of those things, by the way, happen in just the first three episodes of "X-Men '97." This series covers more massive superhero lore in 90 minutes than any MCU flick does in a single 130-minute feature. Indeed, some of the more familiar X-Men crossover stories from 1980s and 1990s comics will be covered in "X-Men '97," although which stories I will leave for you to discover. Needless to say, X-Men fans will not be disappointed with the references and cameos. Thanks to a character named Morph — who can shape-shift into other people — many ancillary X-Men characters will visually pop in for cameos.  

The biggest change from the original series is that Professor X has died and willed his mansion — and leadership of the X-Men — to his old nemesis Magneto. Magneto considers his new leadership a challenge, attempting to reform himself from villain to hero. In his charge are the aspiring leader Cyclops (Ray Chase), his wife Jean (Jennifer Hale), the grumpy loner Wolverine (Cal Dodd), the feisty teen Jubilee (Holly Chou), the time-traveling warrior Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith), the weather goddess Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith), the cartoonishly Southern belle Rogue (Lenore Zann), the hairy beast Beast (George Buza), the lascivious Cajun Gambit (A.J. LoCascio), and the shape-shifting Morph (J.P. Karliak). Dodd, Sealy-Smith, Buza, and Zann have returned from the original series. 

"X-Men '97" is in a huge rush to get as much story and character crammed into its 30-minute runtime as possible. The pacing is appropriate for little kids hopped up on sugary cereals, which is, I assume how much of this show's target audience first consumed the original series. Beau DeMayo, infamously fired from the project, did accurately capture a certain ineffable quality about the original series despite its plot updates and visual cleanliness. In brief; it doesn't talk down to a kid audience. "X-Men '97" knows that little kids are on the same page and doesn't feel the oppressive need to belabor its own premise or over-arching continuity. For once, fans will be able to watch a modern Marvel entertainment without having to wonder how this is all going to tie into a larger interconnected narrative.

That disconnect from the MCU is immensely liberating. We are free. The MCU is dying (thank goodness), but we can still have fun with light, silly retrograde entertainments like "X-Men '97." 

Is "X-Men '97" also a case of men in their 40s hiding under childish blankets, weeping for their lost youths and satisfactorily enjoying their own odors? Yes, it's that too. It's odd that Marvel should, through their purchase of Fox, be granted access to hundreds of X-Men characters, only to immediately churn out sequels and nostalgia bait. "X-Men '97" is a sure sign that Marvel Studios doesn't really know what to do with the X-Men in relation to the MCU. 

Something tells me that mutant fans might want to savor "X-Men '97" while it's with us. It's possible this may be the last outing for the heroes for many, many years. 

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10

"X-Men '97" debuts with the first two episodes on Wednesday, March 20, exclusively on Disney+.