Whereas Marvel’s mutants have had their highs and lows all through the various many years they’ve been round, one factor stays fixed: the X-Males are timeless. That’s not due to the cool costumes and creative powers the solid has. It’s as a result of at their core, X-Males’s themes of prejudice and humanity’s capability to hate simply as a lot as — if no more than — its capability to like are at all times related. Which is why X-Males ‘97, the continuation of X-Males: The Animated Sequence, delivers a shocking debut in its two-episode premiere now streaming on Disney+. It’s traditional X-Males, and that’s at all times going to work.
Inside a matter of seconds, X-Males ‘97 makes it really feel like no time has handed since its predecessor went off the air practically three many years in the past. The long-lasting authentic theme track begins up and the intro scene performs out precisely because it at all times has. Properly, not precisely. It performs out as you keep in mind it. The crisp animation is extra vivid and expressive, and there are a couple of new characters that get a highlight within the intro. This can be a working theme for X-Males ‘97: it’s the X-Males cartoon not because it was, however as you keep in mind it.
That begins with the animation. Whereas the unique’s 2D animation is beloved, it doesn’t fairly maintain up on rewatches. As a substitute, X-Males ‘97 opts for 3D animation that’s shaded and coloured to resemble the unique 2D model. It’s a way different tasks have used earlier than, and it by no means fairly works for me. As somebody who dislikes the animation of What If…? I used to be anxious that the 2D styling would really feel off. I used to be greater than pleasantly shocked, then, by how good the animation appears to be like in X-Males ‘97. Exterior of some awkward sequences within the first two episodes, the animation works splendidly. That goes for its near-perfect replication of the intro in addition to its hectic motion scenes. Episode one actually goes exhausting on the visible splendor in its climactic combat scene, which incorporates Storm turning a desert into glass after which shattering it into items. It’s spectacular.
However sufficient about how good the present appears to be like. What have our loveable solid of mutants been as much as since we final noticed them? A yr after the loss of life of mentor and chief Charles Xavier, Cyclops (now voiced admirably by Ray Chase) struggles to fill Professor X’s sneakers. Cyclops and Wolverine (voiced by Cal Dodd, one in every of a number of returning voices from the unique sequence) nonetheless butt heads. Jean and Scott expect a son. Jubilee continues to be cool as hell. Regardless of some development in mutant-human relations, lots of people who hate mutants and need them to be exterminated nonetheless exist, just like the Mates of Humanity. It’s a mixture of acquainted and new components.
The primary episode “To Me, My X-Males” doesn’t do something narratively bold. It tells a easy X-Males story about rescuing a younger mutant (Hey, that’s Sunspot!) and combating off some evil people, ending with that beforehand talked about spectacle of a combat. It’s consolation meals and it makes for a simple return to the sequence, one which’s good for everyone irrespective of your stage of familiarity with The Animated Sequence. In fact every part will get upended within the remaining moments of the episode when none aside from Magneto (you already know, the X-Males’s archenemy) reveals as much as break the information that Xavier’s Final Will and Testomony provides every part to him.
That units up the true star of X-Males ‘97’s two-part premiere: the second episode, “Mutant Liberation Begins.” Xavier has left the varsity and the X-Males to Magneto as a remaining problem to his closest buddy (facet be aware: these two are by no means beating the “ex-lovers who can’t recover from one another” allegations and this present is aware of that) to try to think about a extra peaceable approach ahead for mutants and people. This contains making amends for his previous crimes towards humanity, for which he willingly goes on trial on the UN. Whereas he’s on trial, disgruntled people protesting exterior the UN break in and stage a violent assault, concentrating on Magento and the three judges. “What within the blazes did we do?” shouts one choose. “You gave a monster a trial, “ replies Magneto. “Now you might be traitors to your sort.”
What shocked me most concerning the scenes on the UN is how a lot they really feel like a transparent allusion to the January 6 rebel within the U.S. Capitol in 2021. However this story wasn’t invented complete fabric for X-Males ‘97, it’s closely adapting The Path of Magento from Uncanny X-Males #200 by Chris Claremont. That got here out in 1985, although like so lots of the X-Males’s finest tales, they at all times appear to talk to the present cultural second. X-Males ‘97 makes that story its personal, however the parallels are already there, which is why—regardless of the present state of the X-Males within the comics being principally dire (with one shining ray of hope)—X-Males ‘97 is ready to showcase the characters at their finest. Like The Animated Sequence, X-Males ‘97 is ready to attract on many years of tales and select the cream of the crop to repackage and tweak for a brand new viewers.
Whereas Magneto is on trial, Jean is coping with her being pregnant. It’s a quieter storyline than the UN assault however equally vital. Jean confesses to Storm that she is scared to offer delivery to a mutant for concern that her youngster should undergo the ache she has. Storm confesses that she’d typically struggled with ideas of what life would have been like had she been born human, however that she’s pleased as a mutant due to the household she has discovered. This dialog, and one other between Sunspot and Jubilee about hating your individual identification within the first episode, make the X-Males’s capability to face in for marginalized teams as sharp as ever. The episode ends with a shocking monologue from Magneto which solidifies “Mutant Liberation Begins” as a narrative that delivers each single factor a great X-Males story ought to.
Like the primary episode, “Mutant Liberation Begins” ends on a fairly dramatic cliffhanger. As a longtime fan of the X-Males, I’m intrigued by how the present goes to place its personal mark on this iconic story. X-Males ‘97 has made it really feel like I’m falling in love with the characters for the primary time once more. The present completely balances the superhero motion and private tales simply as deftly because it balances nostalgia with contemporary perception into the characters. It’s X-Males by means of and thru. What else might you ask for?
