X-Men '97 - continuation of 1992 Animated Series

Tuxedo Prime

Well-known member
Citizen
I think you're supposed to cringe. It's basically a dad using his kid's lingo.
Scott has the misfortune of being Older Than His Years (I recall that the contemporary 1990s comics run pegged the age of his 616 counterpart as "twenty-f--". Of course, Earth-616 has something of an elastic timeline, as do the rebooted Fox movies.). Burdens of team leadership and all that.
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
I honestly don't know enough about it, but I sincerely hope it wasn't for some petty reason. Too much of that in and out of Hollywood.

No one does from anything I've seen so far, but it has to be for something pretty substancal to not only be fired but to be scrubbed from any and all promotion for the series. They don't want him near anything for this show now, and Marvel Studios usually doesn't just fire people without good reason.
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
So, no reactions to the showrunner being fired?
Here are details and a (not informative) update from the head of Marvel Animation:

There is some…oddness…at play. There didn’t seem to be anything done or said or posted by DeMayo that would normally warrant the “napalming” of his social media and abrupt removal from press events. The lack of comment from Marvel may indicate it may have been a personal matter (ie, not something he or Marvel DID, but that DeMayo opted to part from Marvel for personal reasons).
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
The lack of comment from Marvel may indicate it may have been a personal matter (ie, not something he or Marvel DID, but that DeMayo opted to part from Marvel for personal reasons).

Except that goes against one part of the narrative I've heard which that it came out of the blue while he and the others were starting to discuss Season 3 ideas; which has apparently been green lit already.
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
Okay biggest nitpick: I really wish they explained why Morph and Bishop are on the team. Edit: I forgot they brought Morph back at the end of the last series.

Second Biggest: They slightly change the opening in the second episode to reflect Magneto on the team, but the end still has the old X-Men vvs Magneto clash.

That out of the way: The first episode is kinda Night of the Sentinels 2.0 It's been a year since Xavier's Death; no comment of him actually being in Space, just "gone" though I can understand the rest of the world thinking he's dead. FoH is using Sentinel tech to round up mutants, including Sunspot who sorta becomes the audience surrogate for this premier. We get introduced to the major players and the changes. Ends in an epic fight in a Sentinel Graveyard. Pretty much all the trailer footage comes from this episode.

The second episode is the better one of the two, which isn't to say the first episode is bad; just a standard good episode which is needed for those that didn't grow up/watch the old series. The plot, imo, really starts with this episode. Magneto is now head of the X-Men, though naturally the others are mostly chaffing at his being there. Though we get several really good scenes of Magneto in action, while tempering himself. This eventually leads to the Trial of Magneto where we really see the character stuff shine with Magneto expressing his desires and why he's doing this. While this is going on Jean goes into labor and has the best scene in the episode with Wolverine. Similationly We get an attack by X-cutioner, and I'm kinda surprised to see him this early on, which ends badly for one of the X-men and right when you think that is how the episode is gonna end; we get the real cliffhanger of another Jean showing up.

other points:

Magneto and Rogue apparently share a past? I don't recall that from the previous series, though I know from Comics she wasn't always on the side of angels; but I don't recal; the original series ever getting into that. Also, They maybe had a past relationship? I don't recall that from regular comics, but I do know they were a couple in AOA. Maybe they are hinting at that in case we get that down the line.

Rogue is the only one that bugs me, I know others have been recast; but she's the one that sounds... off to me... I'm also not fond of her hair design, too much white imo. Besides that, its rather amazing how faithful they try to be to the orginal series in not just design but animation, like even how they hang on location shots for setting feels right. They really are trying to make this feel like a natural "season 6".
 
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ZacWilliam1

Well-known member
Citizen
Watched the first two episodes. It was actually very good.

The writing really felt like the old Cartoon to me. It had the action and the over the top melodrama, and moral messages down pat in a way that really characterized the old show and made it feel like a real continuation.

Just with significantly better animation. Not perfect, but pretty good and occasionally really really nice. The animation was always the 90s show's big weakness so it was nice to see this look better.

The voices are good. Honestly I think the new ones work better in a lot of cases than the ones who have comeback but have aged 30 years. But it's all a good approximation given how much time has passed.

The character turnarounds at the end credits brought me back to the early days of cgi in a way I wasn't expecting.

Good cliffhanger on ep 2.

-ZacWilliam, it's interesting to see all the different bits of the comic from different eras being swirled in together at the same time.
 

The Predaking

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Woot! I need to go home and watch this with the kids! My oldest loved watching the original show a few years ago, so I am sure that we will all enjoy watching it.
 

ZacWilliam1

Well-known member
Citizen
Okay biggest nitpick: I really wish they explained why Morph and Bishop are on the team.

I only know this because I went back and watched the end of the previous show but Morph was back with the team at the end of that show. So it makes sense for him to still be there. Only Bishop is a new arrival. My guess is he'll eventually get more of a focus episode.


That out of the way: The first episode is kinda Night of the Sentinels 2.0.

Yeah it is that pretty exactly. I was surprised Bobby didn't stick around.

.
Magneto and Rogue apparently share a past? I don't recall that from the previous series, though I know from Comics she wasn't always on the side of angels; but I don't recal; the original series ever getting into that. Also, They maybe had a past relationship? I don't recall that from regular comics, but I do know they were a couple in AOA. Maybe they are hinting at that in case we get that down the line.

I don't remember if they did anything between them in the original show, but the Rogue-Magneto paring was something floating around the X-men books in the 90s even outside of AoA (which is why they used it in AoA). I believe it started in the Savage Land story where she wore the famously ripped up outfit. Part of the deal was they could touch because his Magnetic field could block her powers. Then there was the whole Joseph storyline. AoA where they were married and had a kid was definitely its biggest expression though. What we see with Gambit lurking jealously here feels like it was taken right from that book where he fought with Magneto and left the X-men due to Jealousy.

I'm curious where they go with that because in the comics Gambit and Rogue have been such a solid couple for years this feels weird here, even though it has precedence in the books. I mean those two have been happily married for a good stretch now.

It's weird but very on brand to have storylines from disparate eras happening at once. We have:

90s FoH and X-cautioner stuff
80s Lifedeath for Storm
80s Reformed Magneto
90s Rogue-Magneto-Gambit stuff
80s Cyclops and Jean, Baby and Maddie stuff

Oh and I'm curious to see if the baby name change is meaningful at all. Did they leave out Christopher just to not have to deal with Corsair...

ZacWilliam, it was good enough that I wish I didn't have to wait till next week to see what's next.
 


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