"X-Men '97" Is Marvel Animation Finally Back?


    Look, for as long as I have been alive it has always been, DC comics is superior when it comes to animation, while Marvel dominates when it comes to live-action. And well, up until recently, it seems the tide might be shifting. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still not exactly a fan of any other Marvel animated series outside of this one, while What If? was fine, I was never big on the animation style, and sometimes I felt that they could have explored cooler concepts. Even still, X-Men '97 impressed me. At first I just thought it'd be just some nostalgia show for people who watched the original while it aired, but even without any prior knowledge I really enjoyed the show. Frankly, like What If? the one thing that turned me off to this show initially was the animation style, it looked too similar to the old clunky ones before the millennium-turn, and so I was skeptical that it would live up to the animation standards set today. However, X-Men '97 has answered practically any questions I had about it.

    Let's start with the story, which in my opinion is pretty heavy handed with the messaging, but that's kind of the point considering the allegory that the X-Men are supposed to represent. I mean you'll hear a lot of the same rhetoric that other kinds of bigots use in real life being used against the X-Men, and if you already know all of them it can be a bit of an eye roll to hear Bastion talk about mutant-hating people uniting in online chat rooms. Not because I hate the messaging, just that it's a bit basic, but the truth is X-Men '97 is for children, it was always going to be this obvious, because it's important that the point gets across to children who might be learning about them for the first time. 

    Other than what some stupid people might consider "Woke" themes I would say the story makes do with its relative short run-time. If you were looking for any sort of deep character development or origin story than you'll be sorely disappointed but at the very least it tries to explore the interesting dynamics they have at hand, whether it be Roberto and his family(who's story very clearly mimics that of queer folk), the dreaded Logan/Scott/Jean love triangle, whatever the hell Rogue/Magneto/Gambit is supposed to be, Storm/Forge or whatever the Summers are. Personally, I thought Magneto was one of the more interesting characters in this show, and in particular him leading the X-Men was a dynamic that I wish sort of had more run but obviously they were limited by the series' length.

    In terms of animation, if you're turned off by the art style at first like I was, I implore you to give it another try. I saw someone online describe this series as the first time a Marvel series has looked as beautiful as it costs and I think it really rings true. Even if it looks a bit old-school, they add dynamic animations and layer it on top with vibrant colours to really let the series feel pastiche, while also flexing the abilities of their animation team. Why couldn't What If had anything as nice looking as this? I mean it just looks like CGI slop to me I'm not very excited to watch it. Frankly, it looks better than most of what most DC comics animated media is looking as of late. I mean the last season of Young Justice was really a slideshow simulator, and I suppose Harley Quinn is fine, but this just looks better.

Final Score: 77/100

    Surprisingly, this show felt a lot more solid than it should have. Most of the storylines feel kind of short, and you wish they would do more to explore the relationships between characters, but of course then you'd risk it becoming another monster-of-the-week show, and with it's limited number of episodes that's simply not feasible. There were some parts I kind of cringed at, but it was more at just the heroes/villains doing that really stereotypical hero/villain declares something lines, and not because I felt like something was truly that embarrassing. I mean it's certainly not my favourite animated superhero TV show, that would still go to either the first season of Batman Beyond maybe the first two seasons of Young Justice, or perhaps Teen Titans or Invicible. Nonetheless, this is the best showing I've seen from Marvel in quite a while, and it's proof that maybe Kevin Feige and Disney still have something to offer as they slowly squeeze every ounce of juice they can out of the fruit that is Marvel.

    

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