Can Hoang Tran
The upcoming animated series X-Men ’97 is a continuation of X-Men: The Animated series that aired from 1992 to 1997.
Thanks to the Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox, we’re looking forward to a revival of X-Men: The Animated Series on Disney+. The revival is called X-Men ’97 which is supposed to continue from when the previous series, which aired in 1992, had ended in 1997. The original series aired on the Fox Kids programming block that had cartoons or live-action kids shows such as the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (MMPR).
In X-Men: The Animated Series, Jubilee is introduced as the show’s viewpoint character.
The rift between humans and mutants is the crucial plot of the first season. Jubilee has been outed as a mutant and her adoptive parents have registered her into the Mutant Registration System without knowing that this is a secret program to commit genocide against mutants. She is rescued by the titular X-Men but with serious consequences, the death of Morph and the arrest of Dr. Hank “Beast” McCoy.
Beast is imprisoned for the entire season and has a brief recurring role. The remaining lineup consists of Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, Gambit, Storm, and Jubilee.
Jubilee is brought into some serious s — t as tensions between humans and mutants continue growing, which doesn’t make it easier as Magneto tries to escalate the war between the two groups. The X-Men also have to deal with the anti-mutant crusade that’s being led by Senator Robert Kelly.
The second season has two plots with the first centering on the X-Men’s battle with the human supremacist group called the “Friends of Humanity” and the second centering on the battle against Mr. Sinister who has an obsession with Jean Grey.
Smaller plots involve origin stories of Wolverine, Storm, Gambit, and Rogue. We get to see their pasts before they were recruited into the X-Men.
Morph is brought back from death as a “darker” version of himself.
The third season introduced notable villain Lady Deathstrike, one of Wolverine’s former lovers, as an opening to the “Phoenix Saga” that takes the X-Men to outer space. There is also a subplot that involves Archangel seeking a way to kill Apocalypse once and for all.
Season four centers on a plot where the X-Men, with the help of Cable and Bishop, must protect the time stream from Apocalypse. It also reveals an answer as to WHY every attempt made by Archangel to kill Apocalypse failed.
There is a two-episode crossover in the 1994 show Spider-Man: The Animated Series where the titular Spider-Man is struggling with his new mutation. He breaks into the Xavier Mansion and requests help in finding a cure for his mutation which Professor Xavier is unable to do and explains that his role is to help mutants fit in.
Spider-Man recruits Storm in the season five arc “Secret Wars.”
The series ends with Professor X suffering an injury at the hands of Peter Henry Gyrich and needing to be taken off-planet to be cured. The X-Men and Magneto agree to a temporary ceasefire where they stand outside the Xavier Mansion where Professor X is taken onto a Shi’ar Ship by Lilandra.
Since then, X-Men has adapted into two non-related shows such as X-Men: Evolution and Wolverine and the X-Men.
We can expect that the upcoming X-Men ’97 will continue the events after Professor X was being treated by Shi’ar technology.
It should also be known that the voice actor of Cyclops, the late Norm Spencer (who passed away in 2020), would voice the same role outside of the animated series. He is credited as voicing Cyclops in the fighting games X-Men: Children of the Atom, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes.
X-Men: The Animated Series also aired in Japan with opening intros that differed from what we would see in the United States.
Many characters part of the X-Men franchise would make recurring or guest appearances such as Iceman, Polaris, Banshee, Black Tom Cassidy, Gladiator, Sauron, Cameron Hodge, Omega Red, and more.
If you’re wondering why it took so long to reintroduce the X-Men, you have to know the history of licensing rights. Fox purchased the license to anything that was related to the X-Men but the main loophole was the characters of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. In the MCU, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were not called “mutants” or it would be a violation of licensing rights.
Marvel sold character rights to multiple studios to avoid going bankrupt. Sony Entertainment still owns the rights to anything related to Spider-Man but a partnership allows the titular hero to appear in MCU films.
The inability to include anything X-Men related hurt the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) which is the plot of Captain America: Civil War deviated from the original “Civil War.” Fox’s refusal to sell back the rights to X-Men led to Marvel Entertaining making the unpopular decision to gradually kill off the X-Men and replace them with the Inhumans.
That also affected the trajectory of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and The Inhumans.
