X-Men '97: Review
May. 19th, 2024 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBackground: I have not seen the original 1990s animated show this new series is a successor of, though I have seen its praises sung a lot in X-Men fandom, not least by andraste, and since had watched and liked this new series, I decided to use the circumstance that I'm paying the Mouse anyway and watch this, too. I can therefore certify that it's absolutely comprehensible if you, like me, came to the X-Men via the movies and then branched out to reading a few of the comics in trade collections, though not that many. Also? It's much more emotionally satisfying and fun than any movie effort since Days of Future Past.
Firstly, back in ye olde days when the very first X-Men movie starring Gandalf and Picard was released and made me ship them and get interested in this X-Men thing, I do remember one regular complaint by people who'd come to the movies from either the comics or the original animated 90s show or both was that movie!Rogue was a completely different character, aside from the moniker and the powers. Which I can now see is absolutely true. Mind you, I also still think it should be possible to like both. But they, their circumstances and relationships are really completely different. (Thoiugh I have to say I'm glad Anna Paquin didn't have to try a heavy southern accent and call people "sugar" when portraying a then contemporary teenager.)
I was already familiar with the entire Cable and his background saga not from any later movies but becauselikeadeuce was into him back when we were all rping at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
theatrical_muse, but with Remy/Gambit only via general osmosis and reputation, ditto Jubilee (I know she had some cameos in the newer movies, but I can't say I remember what they were), and Roberto/Sunspot and Forge were completely new. But like I said: it was no problem to follow the story and adjust to everyone's personalities in this particular incarnation. Another thing I had osmosed because of likeadeuce's Cable thing was the Jean Grey/Madelyn Pryor weirdness, which sounds lke a narrative clusterfuck of the non- fun kind as written in the comics, so let me congratulate the scriptwriters of this animated series for doing it in a way that doesn't make Scott Summers or either of the ladies look bad. I'm all for Clone angst by Clones who didn't know they were Clones, and combining it with the twist that neither Jean nor Madelyn now ever find out when they were switched or whose memories are whose (up to the point Jean showed up in the X-Mansion again) means Jean gets to angst about non-Phoenix now, too. And you know, if Farscape hadn't avoided giving Aeryn the problem of having to live with two Johns who both have equally valid claims to be the one she fell in love with by first having her on a ship with only one of them and then killing off that one, she'd have been in exactly Scott Summers' situation mid this season.
But let's be honest, while I like Scott and Jean, they're not who I was most curious about going in. This version of Magneto gets to do the storyline I had osmosed but not read where Magneto is for a while the head of the school courtesy of Xavier being temporarily dead (as you are in comics every now and then) and having expressed the with for sit to be so, so I was delighted the show chose to go with this. And then inevitably brought back Xavier for the last third. And while both of them had vaild relationships with the other sex (Magneto with this version of Rogue, Xavier with Lilandra), they were indeed as slashy as promised. Both when Magneto still thinks Charles is dead and when it turns out he's not. They were the very first pairing I fell for which combined great affection for each other with vaild ideological opposition to each other with willingness to hurt each other because of that if needs must with willingness to save each other, and this series offered all of that, and then some. Sign me up for characters who do the "i'm willing to fight you to save a greater number of people than if I didn't, but then I will immediately risk life and limb to save you because your life means more to me than mine" to each other on a regular basis, then and now!
Let's see, what else:
- Storm's losing and regaining her powers arc felt quite familiar by now (not for my exposure to Storm, for stories about superpowered folk in general), but I really liked the series showcasing her friendship with Jean the way it did
- Morph as the resident shape changer and his ability to turn into just about anyone including the Hulk made me wonder why Mystique in the movieverse never did that, in universe I mean, on a Doylist level, Fox obviously did not have the right
- Osmosis tells me poor Scott had a rough time in the hands of various writers these last few years, so let me assure you that romantic troubles caused by evil Sinister and his cloning aside, he's showcased as an excellent team leader throughout the series and respected as such.
In conclusion, I'm definitely there for the next season.
andraste, and since Firstly, back in ye olde days when the very first X-Men movie starring Gandalf and Picard was released and made me ship them and get interested in this X-Men thing, I do remember one regular complaint by people who'd come to the movies from either the comics or the original animated 90s show or both was that movie!Rogue was a completely different character, aside from the moniker and the powers. Which I can now see is absolutely true. Mind you, I also still think it should be possible to like both. But they, their circumstances and relationships are really completely different. (Thoiugh I have to say I'm glad Anna Paquin didn't have to try a heavy southern accent and call people "sugar" when portraying a then contemporary teenager.)
I was already familiar with the entire Cable and his background saga not from any later movies but because
likeadeuce was into him back when we were all rping at theatrical_muse, but with Remy/Gambit only via general osmosis and reputation, ditto Jubilee (I know she had some cameos in the newer movies, but I can't say I remember what they were), and Roberto/Sunspot and Forge were completely new. But like I said: it was no problem to follow the story and adjust to everyone's personalities in this particular incarnation. Another thing I had osmosed because of likeadeuce's Cable thing was the Jean Grey/Madelyn Pryor weirdness, which sounds lke a narrative clusterfuck of the non- fun kind as written in the comics, so let me congratulate the scriptwriters of this animated series for doing it in a way that doesn't make Scott Summers or either of the ladies look bad. I'm all for Clone angst by Clones who didn't know they were Clones, and combining it with the twist that neither Jean nor Madelyn now ever find out when they were switched or whose memories are whose (up to the point Jean showed up in the X-Mansion again) means Jean gets to angst about non-Phoenix now, too. And you know, if Farscape hadn't avoided giving Aeryn the problem of having to live with two Johns who both have equally valid claims to be the one she fell in love with by first having her on a ship with only one of them and then killing off that one, she'd have been in exactly Scott Summers' situation mid this season. But let's be honest, while I like Scott and Jean, they're not who I was most curious about going in. This version of Magneto gets to do the storyline I had osmosed but not read where Magneto is for a while the head of the school courtesy of Xavier being temporarily dead (as you are in comics every now and then) and having expressed the with for sit to be so, so I was delighted the show chose to go with this. And then inevitably brought back Xavier for the last third. And while both of them had vaild relationships with the other sex (Magneto with this version of Rogue, Xavier with Lilandra), they were indeed as slashy as promised. Both when Magneto still thinks Charles is dead and when it turns out he's not. They were the very first pairing I fell for which combined great affection for each other with vaild ideological opposition to each other with willingness to hurt each other because of that if needs must with willingness to save each other, and this series offered all of that, and then some. Sign me up for characters who do the "i'm willing to fight you to save a greater number of people than if I didn't, but then I will immediately risk life and limb to save you because your life means more to me than mine" to each other on a regular basis, then and now!
Let's see, what else:
- Storm's losing and regaining her powers arc felt quite familiar by now (not for my exposure to Storm, for stories about superpowered folk in general), but I really liked the series showcasing her friendship with Jean the way it did
- Morph as the resident shape changer and his ability to turn into just about anyone including the Hulk made me wonder why Mystique in the movieverse never did that, in universe I mean, on a Doylist level, Fox obviously did not have the right
- Osmosis tells me poor Scott had a rough time in the hands of various writers these last few years, so let me assure you that romantic troubles caused by evil Sinister and his cloning aside, he's showcased as an excellent team leader throughout the series and respected as such.
In conclusion, I'm definitely there for the next season.
