X-Men '97: The Animated Series

[marhawkman]

It started out solid enough. Then they just mashed too much crap together and it didn’t work. At least not for me personally. And I’m so bored by Magneto already. Xavier should’ve left his melodramatic ass in a coma like he did in the Fatal Attractions comic story.

Yeah, it's so much stuff to cram together it started to become nonsensical. The biggest issue is when he leaves out too many characters. Like... it's an Asteroid M story... that leaves out the Acolytes for the most part????

[MentalManipulator]

After seeing the last episode twice I think this is my ranking of the whole series 1:

1. Episode 5 - Remember It
2.Episode 10- Tolerance is Extinction Part 3
3.Episode 9 - Tolerance is Excrinction Part 2
4. Episode 2 - Mutant Liberation Begins
5.Episode 8 - Tolerance is Excrinction Part 1
6. Episode 7 - Bright Eyes
7. Episode 3 - Fire Made Flesh
8. Episode 6 - LifeDeath Part 2
9. Episode 1 - To Me, My X-Men
10. Episode 4 - Motendo / LifeDeath Part 1

I plan on seeing everything back to back again this weekend. It may change.

And again, I really have minor gripes. The only episode I didn’t love was the Motendo part of episode 4. Too silly and empty for my taste. That being said I lived Jube’s power upgrade in it. The rest are all almost perfect. The top 6 spots for me were perfect.

[whitecrown]

It's still a bit disappointing to me that they went out of their way to kill Marrow.

1997 to 1999 was arguably her only time of prominence and sole chance to become something of significance in the comics. It was squandered of course, but those were still her "golden years" with the X-men, her 15 minutes of fame for which the character is still remembered (for better or worse). Lingering in an, admittedly understandable, state of half existence ever since.

So here is a revival cartoon show that has '97 in it's title and heavily draws on 90's comic nostalgia, perhaps her only chance in a forseeable future to have any or even notable appearance in an on-screen medium (because the comics sure as hell aren't going to give anyone a chance to become something above their station anytime soon), even if it could just be as a minor villain role.

But no, she gets a notable scene of being vaporized on screen after having a total of 3 seconds appearing beforehand when Cable shows up and for what? Nothing.
Since she wasn't an allready established character like Banshee, Moira, Callisto or the Morlocks, nor part of the "all great on genosha" sequence at the beginning when Rogue and Gambit met Nightcrawler she didn't even had a chance for viewers to care about her when the attack happend.

She was a nobody who for some reason gets a notable and clear death scene. As if someone desired to make sure that anyone who actualy knows the character, knows that she won't have a role in the future despite being part of the comics at the time (even having the implication of not having her comic characterization either).

Of course there is no point in attributing malice, when much more neutral reasons are far more likely and logical.

Especially since it doesn't impact the quality and reception of the show, nor are many or any viewers likely to care or even notice.

Marrow was never a huge favorite of mine but she was the most important new character in the late 90s and primed for a significant role. I remember even the first X-Men Legends game gave her a big role (as a boss replacing Callisto as leader of the Morlocks) probably based on the goodwill towards the character from that late 90s period. Even the X-Men monopoly board game that came out in the early 2000s made Marrow one of the main X-Men over arguably more known characters like Jubilee or Psylocke, because Marrow was on the active team roster. If Claremont had liked her, I imagine she'd have stuck around for the Revolution period, in which case maybe she wouldn't have fallen into obscurity. It never made sense to me that a Morlock wouldn't be on the X-Men team anyway.

I would have preferred the show sticking to plots from the 90s or anything before that, so we could re-enter that era and experience this show like the original one never ended. I imagine Marrow would have benefited for sure.

[whitecrown]

She got boo'd....LOL

LOL.

They liked cameos. Often said cameos never contributed to the plot. Still I have seen many people just being amazed that X or Y appeared. So it works, apparently.

The cameos are basically just here so hardcore comic fans, like most of CBR, can spot their favorite. Many people are putting a lot of traction into those cameos and assuming this means their favorites will get primed for big roles later on but the emphasis is clearly always going to be on the main team.

[whitecrown]

In hindsight, the Rogue/Magneto stuff was unnecessary and did more harm than good to the characters (Rogue especially). It's pretty clear that Beau thinks daddy Magneto is hot, and I wonder if he only put this relationship in to live vicariously through Rogue

Not just Rogue, but Bastion too is someone Beau was living through vicariously. That intimate shaving scene and stripping Magneto down to his underwear.

[Jack The Tripper]

Yeah, it's so much stuff to cram together it started to become nonsensical. The biggest issue is when he leaves out too many characters. Like... it's an Asteroid M story... that leaves out the Acolytes for the most part????

I don’t think there was any worth including the Acolytes in these last couple of episodes - for one, they already adapted Fatal Attractions in part in the two part storyline ‘Sanctuary’ in the original series, where the Acolytes appeared. In fact, adding them in here just to be goons for the X-Men to fight would have held no dramatic impact in my opinion. Not to mention, adding them in so late in the series would have actually been cramming them in

[ChildOfTheAtom]

apparently storm, morph, wolverine are in the future with slim & red

[IllusiveGorn]

Seems rather possible that in season 2 team will Victorian era as well, adapting The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, maybe giving Apocalypse some role in Sinister's origin, since he did not have one in the original series.

[marhawkman]

Seems rather possible that in season 2 team will Victorian era as well, adapting The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, maybe giving Apocalypse some role in Sinister's origin, since he did not have one in the original series.

It would be amusing to see them try to shoehorn in Apocalypse v Dracula. Maybe shove Wolvie into the role of Van Helsing?

[marhawkman]

I don’t think there was any worth including the Acolytes in these last couple of episodes - for one, they already adapted Fatal Attractions in part in the two part storyline ‘Sanctuary’ in the original series, where the Acolytes appeared. In fact, adding them in here just to be goons for the X-Men to fight would have held no dramatic impact in my opinion. Not to mention, adding them in so late in the series would have actually been cramming them in

The problem is... the story is missing a lot of pieces without them. Magento is forming a new haven for mutants.... and only has Robue and Sunspot actually go there? Makes no sense whatsoever.

And... technically it's not introducing NEW characters. It's re-using the ones we already had. the thing that annoys me most is just how many TAS characters got left out entirely... but we have Exodus get thrown in....unh hunh...

[Confuzzled]

Where the heck is Emmanuel Da Costa? I gotta say, while I was open to this Jubilee romance despite it having no baring the comics, Roberto has some great canon stories, and his relationship with his father and mother were clearly defined, so I don't know what the heck they think they are doing here. He has been severely underserved this season.

I don't think there was any plan for Roberto beyond "Give Jubilee something to do, so let's pair her up with Sunspot who can have a mashup of Iceman/Pyro's arcs from the original Fox movie trilogy"

[Digifiend]

What are the odds that the season finale will end with a tease of Kitty Pryde’s introduction? I want to believe.

I think Kamala Khan is more likely. we've already seen PIXIE of all people.

Kitty was teased, Forge had a board showing the status of various mutants, and it included Shadowcat. Kamala wasn't on that board, which makes perfect sense to me - she's a Carol Danvers fangirl, and Carol's still in her coma. It doesn't make sense for Kamala to appear until Carol is out of her coma - then they can have her rebrand as Captain Marvel, and when Kamala's x-gene activates, she takes her old name. Maybe something they could do in future seasons, accompanying a plot about Rogue losing her flying brick powers (which came from Carol)?

[whitecrown]

I think X-Men fans would get really pissed if so many classic fan favs like Bobby, Warren, Piotr, Kitty, Illyana, Betsy, Lorna, Alex, and Ali were snubbed by someone who just became a mutant and is barely even an X-Man.

And casual audiences have shown they have zero interest in her. They are genuinely not interested. She starred in the biggest box office disaster of all time. Her show is the lowest watched Disney+ series. Her video game built on the Avengers branding was DOA. Marvel is already pulling the plug on her MCU future so they are not going to risk having her taint one of their more critically acclaimed projects.

[Jack The Tripper]

The problem is... the story is missing a lot of pieces without them. Magento is forming a new haven for mutants.... and only has Robue and Sunspot actually go there? Makes no sense whatsoever.

And... technically it's not introducing NEW characters. It's re-using the ones we already had. the thing that annoys me most is just how many TAS characters got left out entirely... but we have Exodus get thrown in....unh hunh...

I think that’s us assuming that he’s finished his recruitment drive? From what I remember time betweeen him offering the X-Men a place with him, and them making the journey there was fairly quick, not leaving a lot of space for him to go to every mutant in the world at that point

I think they were quite picky about who they wanted to re-introduce, which is smart. As much as this is a continuation, they did want it to stand on its own too. Introducing the Acolytes would have just served as re-hashing their appearance on Sanctuary, for no reason other than having more goons for the X-Men to fight.

To be fair Exodus was pretty much blink and you miss it, which is exactly how the original show operated too.

[whitecrown]

Didn't Fabian Cortez betray him in the original show as well? He's probably wary of anymore Acolytes or random mutant supporters. He's at least worked alongside the X-Men to know them as people and trust them if they elect to side with him.