X-Men '97: The Animated Series

[Grunty]

I also think bc of the internet, fans are alot more knowledgable about the canon from the comics. Wiki pages, Marvel Unlimited, illegal means to access books, etc... I remember watching the show as it aired i the 90s, and had no reference from what was changed bc I never read the original books or had an awareness for the minor characters that appeared. Thats context to keep in mind when comparing the series. Most of us are 20-30 years older and going into this with a more knowledgable mindset

Indeed.

Becomming a new reader of the comics back then also often required the mindset of being willing to just go with the flow and a piece together what happend in the past via snippets of informations from editor notes, dialoges and the occasional flashback scene.

After all back issues or trades weren't always available and handbooks were expensive to those who merely decided to give those things a try. The publishing system and market simply made it very difficult for anyone who only had a casual interest in the comics, to start out with the number 1. Perhaps it could be argued that actualy puzzeling together past plots this way, was a form of reward for those being new.

Hence Stan Lee's philosophy: "Every comic book is someone's first."

Nowdays things are a way much more easier but also much more difficult.

Because while a newly interested reader is now only a single google search away from finding the entire history of the X-men comics and their characters in a currated form, they will also right away be exposed to just how massive and byzantine the entire thing is.

i forgot her name but the lady who put her job on the line to get the show on air said the fan mail was stacked to the ceiling in the offices.

eric lewald said he considered morph the second most popular because of the fan mail being upset over his death and wolverines lost. he was just a thunderbird replacement who they couldn’t use over optics then fox caved and made him bring morph back to life.

Was it Margaret Loesch perchance?

Though good point on how fan mail back then actualy carried some weight. Likely a lot more than stuff being posted online these days, since writing and sending a letter involved a lot more commitment, especially by children.

[ChildOfTheAtom]

.



Was it Margaret Loesch perchance?

Though good point on how fan mail back then actualy carried some weight. Likely a lot more than stuff being posted online these days, since writing and sending a letter involved a lot more commitment, especially by children.

yup that’s her forgot her name god bless her. she fought so hard for this ip.. but ye i read the lewald part in his book about X-MEN TAS (got the signed edition)… ppl complaining now would have hated his original season 4 ending the team was gonna be vastly different cyclop & jean leaving with bishop shard psylocke (+ angel I think) joining after beyond good and evil

[Havok83]

Who do you think wrote S2?

Has it ben animated and voice acted? With that answer most likely being no, my point remains. Many of the characters hown were cameos and there in the background. A nw showrunner can call to have them animated in scripts can be tweaked when the material is not finished. Like if Beau wrote a whole plotline revolving around Moira for example being dead then that will be hard to get around but if not even mentioned at all beyond these Twitter confirmations then it can be ignored

[Refrax5]

Has it ben animated and voice acted? With that answer most likely being no, my point remains. Many of the characters hown were cameos and there in the background. A nw showrunner can call to have them animated in scripts can be tweaked when the material is not finished. Like if Beau wrote a whole plotline revolving around Moira for example being dead then that will be hard to get around but if not even mentioned at all beyond these Twitter confirmations then it can be ignored

Apparently, the animation is pretty far along in production and I doubt they're going to throw away the stuff this guy already did, considering how popular his work is. I don't know why they fired him, but clearly his writing has been popular with fans.

Also, I think there's merit in the guy talking about what the intention of the story is as it was written, even if another writer retcons it later. I wondered if Moira and Dazzler, for example, were dead or merely injured in that scene, so it's helpful to know that those were shots of their corpses. If some writer decides to retcon that, whatever, but that's true of pretty much any serialized fiction. There's always the chance some subsequent writer is going to undo what the previous writer did.

[ChildOfTheAtom]

Apparently, the animation is pretty far along in production and I doubt they're going to throw away the stuff this guy already did, considering how popular his work is. I don't know why they fired him, but clearly his writing has been popular with fans.

animation finished is finished!

[Confuzzled]

I loved what the episode directors had to say about the new generation of kids being able to stomach much darker storylines as they've grown up under the threat of gun violence at school. The most dystopian take ever, but sadly, that's the reality we live in.

[staptik777]

animation finished is finished!

no, it is not

"Brad Winderbaum has confirmed that the animatic phase for Season 2 'X-MEN '97' is complete."

The animatic phase is a rough sketch or storyboard that serves as a blueprint for an animation. It's typically created using still images, rough sketches, or low-quality video footage to give an idea of how the final animation will look and flow.

[ChildOfTheAtom]

no, it is not

"Brad Winderbaum has confirmed that the animatic phase for Season 2 'X-MEN '97' is complete."

The animatic phase is a rough sketch or storyboard that serves as a blueprint for an animation. It's typically created using still images, rough sketches, or low-quality video footage to give an idea of how the final animation will look and flow.

well i still hope that means 2025 release keep the train moving

[marhawkman]

LOL it never did.

The X-Men act like they've never met Warren... and then it's revealed he's an original X-Man.

Rogue meets Pyro and Avalanche for the first time in Muir Island... and then it's revealed they've been in the same team when she was a teen.

Cable is a mercenary in Season 1... and then he's a time traveler in Season 2.

X-Men 97 has been way more consistent than the original series.

I'm so happy I love both.

Yeah, those are all examples of the same thing: the writers introduced a character before deciding what the backstory for this version should be. That backstory was often in a later season that hadn't even been greenlit yet.

Cable's case is particularly unimportant since we don't really have a good reason to think he wasn't there as a time traveler. We don't know exactly WHY, but it's nebulous enough to have enough wiggle room that they could rather easily explain it. And the Warren one? knowing someone as Angel... then seeing him as ARCHangel... that's different.

What does this have to do with 97? It was advertised as a direct continuation. It's NOT a new self-contained universe. So it has an obligation to care about what TAS laid out.

I'm starting to suspect marhawkman is confusing Asteroid M with Genosha, because I do not remember any Acolytes in the brief moments we saw of Magneto rebuilding Genosha.

This is why I said "Magneto's Followers" most of the time and not specifically Acolytes. The show doesn't really explain the status of that organization after the Asteroid M disaster. We DO see the Red V uniform on several characters... including in '97, but we don't know what the organization status is.... But in 97 we have Magneto acting as the lead for the X-Men... and no Acolytes? We briefly see Exodus, so perhaps the intent is that Exodus is Acolyte leader at this time, but there's no discussion at all.

[Zoks]

This is why I said "Magneto's Followers" most of the time and not specifically Acolytes. The show doesn't really explain the status of that organization after the Asteroid M disaster. We DO see the Red V uniform on several characters... including in '97, but we don't know what the organization status is.... But in 97 we have Magneto acting as the lead for the X-Men... and no Acolytes? We briefly see Exodus, so perhaps the intent is that Exodus is Acolyte leader at this time, but there's no discussion at all.

The last time we saw any Acolyte interact with Magneto was Amelia Voght. And she found Magneto when he was living alone in seclusion after she returned to civilian life. The only other Acolyte we saw since Asteroid M was Fabian Cortez, and he was working with Apocalypse. Looks like they all went their separate ways after Asteroid M. Exodus is irrelevant because he never appeared in the 92 series, so he has no official connection with the Acolytes. That final episode had a different studio animating it and took liberties on who was on Genosha island (basically shoved all the mutants that showed up before in the series) in the background, and the presence of some of those mutants was immediately retconned in the second episode when Magneto saved the Morlocks. Like I said earlier the only real mutants we can consider as canon on Genosha were Sunfire, whose voice actor died, and what's maybe Feral, who had a such a tiny role I cannot figure out who voiced her. Like I said earlier there's no reason to assume they should have showed up again, as no mutant in the 92 series was established as an actual member of Genosha.

[marhawkman]

The last time we saw any Acolyte interact with Magneto was Amelia Voght. And she found Magneto when he was living alone in seclusion after she returned to civilian life. The only other Acolyte we saw since Asteroid M was Fabian Cortez, and he was working with Apocalypse. Looks like they all went their separate ways after Asteroid M. Exodus is irrelevant because he never appeared in the 92 series, so he has no official connection with the Acolytes. That final episode had a different studio animating it and took liberties on who was on Genosha island (basically shoved all the mutants that showed up before in the series) in the background, and the presence of some of those mutants was immediately retconned in the second episode when Magneto saved the Morlocks. Like I said earlier the only real mutants we can consider as canon on Genosha were Sunfire, whose voice actor died, and what's maybe Feral, who had a such a tiny role I cannot figure out who voiced her. Like I said earlier there's no reason to assume they should have showed up again, as no mutant in the 92 series was established as an actual member of Genosha.

You left out a few things though.

1: Moira finding Magneto was stated to be the result of Magneto isolating himself. IE Magneto felt like a failure and abdicated leadership. Notably Moira is seen in civilian clothes in this episode, while she was in the red V uniform earlier..... But this hits what I was saying about murky status quo. Several characters WERE seen in the red V outfit, including Senyaka at Skull Mesa, who wasn't seen on Asteroid M. Which makes the comment about Cortez seem like maybe he'd taken over, or tried to? But the Mutants at Skull Mesa didn't work for Cortez... most of them worked for Solarr, some unwillingly. The fact they are later seen on Genosha might mean they saw Magneto's leadership as preferable to Cortez and Solarr. And yes, some of the Mutants on Genosha were among the Acolytes. But in TAS Mutant Force, and the MLF kinda sorta work for Magneto or something. It's not explained in enough detail to know why.

2: In TAS not all the Acolytes actually wore the red V uniform. Roo is one of them. He wore the same look he has in the comics... which is to dress like Crocodile Dundee. Roo was on Asteroid M and at Genosha! Which raises the question of which of the Mutants on Genosha should be considered Acolytes. So it's possible that this group was meant to be a new collection of Acolytes, just not in the red V outfit... cause the comics did that a lot. Random's look on Genosha was the SAME look he had in the comics in the 200s when he eventually joined the Acolytes. Yeah... Random was associated with the Acolytes in TAS BEFORE the comics.

It's not that I'm expecting ALL of them to show up... it's just that it feels like an intentional omission to have NONE of them show up. We even DO see the red V uniform worn by Gargouille on Genosha in '97? Hunh? The majority of the people on Genosha during the attack in episode 5... are instead nameless randos.

[Gnostic]

I found it hilarious how Marvel wanted to end the House of X era to (mostly) have X-Men 97 synergy. Then X-Men 97 adapts elements of House of X. So it was all for nothing. It would be even funnier if House of X is adapted in live-action.

[Omega Alpha]

I found it hilarious how Marvel wanted to end the House of X era to (mostly) have X-Men 97 synergy. Then X-Men 97 adapts elements of House of X. So it was all for nothing. It would be even funnier if House of X is adapted in live-action.

The comics people have zero ideas what the plans for the movies and TV shows are, but rather than do their own thing, they keep trying to imitate what they think will happen

[Thirteen]

I found it hilarious how Marvel wanted to end the House of X era to (mostly) have X-Men 97 synergy. Then X-Men 97 adapts elements of House of X. So it was all for nothing. It would be even funnier if House of X is adapted in live-action.

Did they? I thought Hickman's departure motivated the wrap up of his concept with a few other creators stepping in to transition...

[Hypestyle]

If Iceman shows up in the new show, I hope the writers remember that Jubilee and he bonded somewhat in that episode where he finally showed up, "Cold Comfort".

I don't think it was ever resolved that Havok and Cyclops found out that they were brothers, either. Seeing Forge, Strong Guy, Polaris, Wolfsbane and Quicksilver show up in that episode was good, though all of their traditional comics history was upended/pushed aside, however.