Was Gambit always this shirtless? (No complaints!)
Spoilers follow for the first two episodes of X-Men ’97, which premiered today on Disney+.
The warning “you can’t go home again” does not apply to X-Mansion. The palatial boarding school and training facility for gifted mutants was a refuge for Saturday-morning-cartoon watchers of X-Men: The Animated Series, and nearly 30 years after that series ended, it’s still the same place of belonging, bickering, and hypercompetitive basketball.
The new, endearingly backward-looking X-Men ’97 understands what now-adult viewers of the classic cartoon want, which is very little change. Yes, nostalgia is easy viewer bait, but it’s so nice when it delivers exactly what we want. X-Men ’97, set a year after X-Men: The Animated Series ended with the assassination of Professor Charles Xavier, does just this with its many nods to the original series’ plots, character tensions, and sick soundtrack. The dialogue is stilted, the plots are sprinted through, and the allegory about humans being exclusionary racists has never been more on the nose. It’s exactly as you remember X-Men: The Animated Series, and it absolutely rules. Here are 12 moments from the season’s first two episodes, “To Me, My X-Men” and “Mutant Liberation Begins,” that will validate your nostalgia.
The theme song still goes so hard.
That guitar riff! Those synths! The bombast! The iconic Animated Series theme by Ron Wasserman is reused here (though credited to Haim Saban and Shuki Levy following a recent lawsuit) to excellent effect. The theme song is still metal as hell, especially when paired with character introductions and illustrations for this series’ ensemble: They begin with Cyclops, and then after Magneto joins the team at the end of X-Men ’97’s first episode, he gets top billing in the second episode. It’s a thoughtful touch to bump Magneto to the top, as is the clunky metallic sound effect when the “’97” text drops in at the end of “X-Men.” (The rest of the series’ score from the Newton Brothers is pretty good, too.)
Remy LeBeau in a crop top, cooking beignets.
Our favorite Cajun going all Emeril in the kitchen is actually canon; personally, I definitely would have preferred his well-spiced holiday meal to Jean Grey’s. And I’m grateful to whoever decided that Remy’s culinary instincts should shine through while he’s sluttily frying beignets in a crop top, ripped jeans, and aggressively sideswept hairdo. Child me, who didn’t quite understand her crush on Gambit, and adult me, who is now quite comfortable with that thirst, both appreciate this very much.
Morph trying out what it’s like to be Professor X.
Morph is a divisive Animated Series character, given that most of the time he was somewhat annoying. But it’s also a completely correct understanding of Morph that he would transform into Professor X just to tease Scott Summers for being so self-serious about leading the X-Men. Morph’s powers will not be constrained by grief, etiquette, or good taste! Also solid: The series rejuvenates Morph and Logan’s friendship, in particular with a quick scene where Morph cheers up a “despondent about Jean Grey” Logan by transforming into Sabretooth so the two can goof around.
Some X-cellent ’90s vernacular.
Jubilee insulting someone by calling them an “arrogant yuppie”; Cyclops busting out a “… not!” when getting sassy during a fight; the anti-mutant vigilante named “Executioner” spelling it “X-Cutioner.” (Using “X” as a stand-alone letter to signify something as extreme really was a signature of the decade.) It’s all very quaint.
Storm telling people they suck.
I am hoping the Mistress of the Elements’ loss of power at the end of “Mutant Liberation Begins” will be temporary, because it would be very disappointing if she really spends the whole season absent from this narrative. Storm imperiously insulting people and telling them to shut up whenever they dare talk to her is always a delight, and we should have more of it!
“To me, my X-Men!”
It’s pleasant when Scott, in his new role as the X-Men’s leader, repeats Professor X’s catchphrase as they prepare to take down Bolivar Trask and the reanimated Sentinels and Master Mold. That’s nice for him, to get everyone’s respect. But it’s rad when Magneto shows up at the end of the premiere episode and informs everyone that Charles left X-Mansion and his fortune to former bestie turned frenemy Erik Lehnsherr. The way Magneto voice actor Matthew Waterson drawls out, “Everything he built, everything he fought for, now belongs to me … my X-Men,” is a wonderful twist on the phrase that Scott fought so hard to say. Magneto being thoroughly unimpressed by Scott is going to be fun to watch.
Let me repeat: Magneto is hair here!
Look at this voluminously maned anti-hero — he kind of looks like a hot version of John Noble’s Denethor, no? That is praise! Magneto is a fan favorite because, well, he’s mostly right that humans in this universe are not especially deserving of the turn-the-other-cheek treatment Professor X gave them for so long, but he’s also principled enough that he’ll honor Charles’s wishes and pick up the mantle of leading the X-Men. (I’m assuming that this was actually Charles’s wish, rather than a long con by Magneto, but time will tell.) “Mutant Liberation Begins” is such an engrossing dive into Magneto’s new “mutant terrorist turned hero” arc because he both saves humans and Morlocks and gets the opportunity to be a messy bitch by smirking to the X-Men that maybe they didn’t really know Charles as well as he did. “You have finally realized what I did ages ago: Even Charles Xavier can make a mistake” is a really catty thing to say to the people Charles loved like a family, but that’s Magneto for you.
Rogue and Magneto are a thing.
This development might be more nostalgic for readers of various X-Men comics, in which Rogue and Magneto were romantically involved, than watchers of Animated Series, in which Rogue and Gambit were pretty consistently together. For the rest of us, this is at least a solid source of future intragroup tension as Rogue and Erik share meaningful, doubtful looks when Scott insists that the X-Men’s goal is “de-escalation” and have secret romantic meetings in Charles’s old office. Rogue, Magneto, and Gambit; Jean, Scott, and Logan — so many love triangles!
Genosha is back on the map.
Remember how the mutants have their own nation? Magneto reminding the X-Men, and us, with a little sigh before the word “coexistence” is a good time.
Another X-Men member stands trial.
Beast spent a solid chunk of the first season of Animated Series waiting to stand trial for an X-Men raid on the Mutant Control Agency, and the criminal-justice system popped up a lot in that series as Charles tried to prove to humans that mutants posed no danger to them. Magneto being brought before the U.N. Commission on Superhuman Activities in chains to defend himself is an echo of those story lines, as is the fact that the human protesters at the trial are far more violent than the mutants themselves. And Magneto crying a single tear in space while facing away from the restrained X-Cutioner and U.N. judges, whom he chastises for their ignorance and hatred, is a beautiful moment of animation.
Mutants can amplify each other’s powers.
Here’s another idea that pulls from various comics; “mutant circuits” are teamwork at a higher level, with mutants working together to amplify each other’s powers and combine abilities. They make the animation more creative — Wolverine’s claws glowing bright pink thanks to his transmission of Gambit’s kinetic energy is neat — and, like the Rogue-Magneto pairing, open up exciting places for the season to go now that the mutants can accentuate each other’s skills. Can all the mutant circuits have an era-appropriate neon color palette, please?
Logan and Scott still hate each other.
It’s not an X-Men joint without these two wanting to rip each other apart over their love for Jean, their different leadership styles, and their contrasting personalities. Nothing feels more right about X-Men ’97 than the loathing these men share. Welcome home!
