X-Men '97: Don't Call It A Comeback

Previously on X-Men, the original animated series ran from 1992-1997 on Fox’s Saturday morning lineup. After three more animated series, including an underrated anime, a follow-up to the 90s show was finally picked up. Since the first cartoon aired, Marvel Comics and Fox had both been bought up by the unshackled juggernaut of Disney. The Witcher screenwriter Beau DeMayo mapped at a new 10-episode TV series exclusively for the Disney+ streaming service. This revival was titled X-Men ’97.

Premiering in 2024, the first season brought back the iconic theme song that had fans from all over headbanging but this time with a rotating cast during the opening credits. Like Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the X-Men lineup for each episode matched which characters were officially on the team roster at the time. Instead of Saban Entertainment, the production is handled by Marvel Studios which doesn’t suffer from the horrid CGI that their What If show had. The actual animation is provided by Tiger Animation along with Studio Mir which was the Korean creators who did The Legend Of Korra. Ten episodes were made for the opening season with two more seasons in the works.

A large majority of the original voice actors returned including Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, George Buza as Beast, Lenore Zann as Rogue, and Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler. The rest of the cast is filled out with replacements as some of the actors from the former show had either retired or passed away with the brightest example of this has Holly Chou replacing Alyson Court as Jubilee allowing an Asian American play the firework-shooting mutant even though Court did get to play an older virtual version of her.

Season One takes place about a year where X-Men: The Animated Series left off, Professor Xavier left control of the X-Men over to their old nemesis Magneto all while Jean Grey is about to give birth to her and Cyclops’ baby. It’s revealed that Jean is a clone as the original shows up after fake Jean gives birth to Nathan Summers who is immediately captured by Mr. Sinister and infected with a virus. Bishop, who had joined the X-Men since last time, takes the young Nathan to the future where he can be cured and eventually become the time travelling Cable. The clone Jean changes her name to Madeline Pryor and leaves the team. The Friends Of Humanity continue their anti-mutant terrorism, and their chief assassin X-Cutioner causes Storm to lose her powers which she regains after help from Forge. All this while the cybernetic Bastion plans on using Sinister and an entire population of human Sentinels to first wipe out the mutant island of Genosha, and then later the rest of the mutants. Gambit dies on Genosha, Rogue briefly hooks back up with Magneto, and the recruit Sunspot joins the team. Xavier returns to Earth from the Shi’ar Empire and helps the X-Men stop both Magneto and Bastion separate missions. The final battle has most of the core X-Men being split into two parts in time, some in a post-apocalyptic future while the others are sent to ancient Egypt.

X-Men ’97 was not only a return to form for the franchise, but it was also unbound by the limits of a network cartoon show intended for kids. Its new streaming run allows room for more character introspection, conflicting romances, mature themes, and dramatic reveals. Much more ground from the vast history of X-Men comics is covered in these ten episodes which is helped by the extra minutes of airtime. The core message of observing mutants as a prejudice and various forms of discrimination is still present, so nothing is lost from the huge generation gap between this and the original series. The animation goes through a major evolution with crucially upgraded battle scenes that take serious hints from numerous anime titles such as Dragonball and Evangelion. Season Two is due out in 2026 with all of the Season One cast returning, so you can bet your adamantium bones that it will be as awesome as its predecessor.