X-Men 97 Season 2 Spoiler-Filled Review

I will admit, I never watched the original 90’s X-Men cartoon. Not because I did not like it, but because it came out before I was born so I never had the chance to experience it. So when Disney announced the follow up series X-Men 97 I was intrigued but did not fully understand what it meant that this series was returning nor did I know what I was walking into. When I watched season one, I was blown away at the production quality in the animation, the maturity of the writing, as well as the music and voice acting.

I also found it refreshing to see an animated Marvel project that was literally adapting the comic arcs almost panel for panel at times. It was something that I had wanted for a long time from Marvel Studios and had not gotten since Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. After loving the first season and excited by the cliffhanger it ended on, I was pumped for when season 2 premiered. The question is, did it live up to its promise that the cliffhanger presented to us? That is what I intend to answer in this review. As the title suggests, this will contain spoilers for all of season 2.

There is a lot I loved about this season, particularly the character work that they did with the core cast. It is clear the writers of this show have read the comics as most of the main X-men get a chance to shine throughout the season. The standouts for me personally were Nightcrawler, Magneto, and Xavier, especially in the first four episodes. And this is one of my biggest issues with this season, the first half starts so strongly and then becomes a tangled mess of side plots the second half. The biggest example of this is the big bad Apocalypse himself, who I will address in bit.

I loved the dynamic we had in the first three episodes as the show built up just how big of a threat Apocalypse is to not only mutants, but all mankind, and the effect it was having on those fighting against him. We got to see Jean and Scott reunite with their son Nathan before he becomes Cable which was heartbreaking, especially as they contemplate disrupting time itself in order to be with their son longer. As a parent it hit me like a gut punch. I do wish they got more to do besides that though as it feels like this the one plot they had for them this season. Meanwhile Xavier and the other half of the X-Men interact with En Sabba Nur before he becomes the dreaded villain everyone fears. It is here where the writing really shined the most for me.

Magneto trying to live up to his friend’s ideals by mentoring Nur in order to change history and destroying their enemy, not with fists but with words, was done excellently. The tension of the group having to walk that fine line of not revealing the truth of where they were from while also getting Nur to trust them was done brilliantly. I appreciated that the show was willing to show that in the end, Nur was destined to become Apocalypse, not because of circumstances, but because of his own choices and evil within himself. It was a sobering reminder of how Charles’s dream for mutants to coexist with humans would always be met with resistance from both sides. And the way they killed Magneto (who will return I am sure) was shocking and a good payoff to that arc along with Charles’s monologue to Apocalypse afterwards which was brutal and raw. You can see something inside him break (Onslaught is definitely coming). To then see how that experience pushed Xavier to create X-Corp and use the Danger Room to deal with the trauma, just chef’s kiss. Lastly getting a Rama Tut/Kang appearance in this was cool and felt natural rather than a forced easter egg.

The problem is after that initial buildup we do not really see Apocalypse again as the show deals with the other plots it wants to set up. This could have possibly worked better if the season was given another episode or two in order to really allow those plots to breath before being pushed aside for the Apocalypse plot again, but because they are just thrown in it feels more like a detour rather than a well-earned set up and pay off. Season one was smart by having each plot build on top of the next one while here the focus shifts from Apocalypse to Wolverine getting his adamantium back, Sunspot and Jubilee joining X-force (which at least was Apocalypse related), Polaris joining back up with the X-Men after leaving X-Factor, and Nighcrawler saving his half-brother from Exodus and Colossus. Don’t get me wrong, they were fun as standalone stories but it felt really jarring to suddenly shift the focus back to Apocalypse the last two episodes.

I think they could have cut the Polaris standalone episode and maybe combined it with the Nightcrawler/Exodus episode in order to allow more room for build up to the final confrontation with Apocalypse while allowing the Wolverine meets Aliens episode (love how we even have someone say game over man) be the one detour this season had. It just felt like there was a lot of ideas the writers wanted to run with so they shoved them in where they could which meant some were underdeveloped, with the biggest one being the build up to the final fight with Apocalypse as I mentioned before. Offscreen we have X-Force join forces with X-Factor against the X-Men when they were opponents a few episodes ago which I found jarring. Meanwhile, the X-Men themselves do not seem to be focused on finding Apocalypse until X-Force finds him for them. This seemed weird considering how much they worried about him at the beginning of the season.

It also felt like the way they defeated Apocalypse was too easy at the end. Rogue just goes super sayian and beats him. Was it cool? Yes. Did it feel like all that buildup was was for nothing? A little bit yes. Though the reveal that Nighcrawler sacrificed himself was really well done and emotional. The speech he gives the celestial felt right off the page. He was my favorite character with his episode probably my favorite of the season. They nail his character and it was nice to see his faith written in an intelligent and genuine way. That is the part of the finale that worked for me along with Rogue reconnecting and trying to save Gambit. But at the end I found myself going, “Was that it?” It just felt a little lackluster.

Before I end this review there are a couple of other things that I liked which I wanted to mention. I really enjoyed the Black Widow (in her comic accurate 90’s outfit) and Captain America cameo with Wolverine. That being said, I do wish they were more consistent on which episodes were given after credits scenes but this is a small complaint.

With that Wolverine episode, I thought they rode that line of making it violent enough without feeling edgy. This feels like a show that knows its audience is teens/adults and I appreciate that it approached that with maturity. Also Morph was a great way to have easter egg appearances from the wider Marvel universe (though I still don’t understand how his powers work). And that setup with Mystique at the end of the season has me excited for what comes next. I really do think the groundwork is being set up for Xavier to become Onslaught next season, especially after losing Magnus and Kurt in a short time frame.

Lastly, the music by the Newton Brothers is stellar. They also did the music for Daredevil Born Again and I love all the synths they use for the X-Men. It gives me Blade Runner/Terminator vibes which fit perfectly with the story being told here. I would not mind them doing the score for the MCU X-Men movie when that comes out. Either way, when that Marvel Studios logo pops up for that movie this X-Men theme is showing up, I would bet my last dollar on that.

It may sound like I did not enjoy this season but that would be a lie. It’s not perfect and is unfocused in the second half but man did I have a blast watching it. It gave me the same feeling I get when I used to pick up my monthly comic haul and then starting reading the next issue of X-Men, only to then lament having to wait to see what happens next. This is a really fun show and I hope Marvel uses this as the template to make other shows just like this. Also just continue to adapt storylines from the comics. It would be really cool to see them get ten seasons in and doing their version of Hickman’s X-Men run or Avengers vs. X-Men or Whedon’s X-Men run with the cure. No matter what, count me in for season 3!

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