X-Men '97 Episode 5 - Remember It Thread

[Ra-El]

I can't agree with this. Invincible definitely made an impact with it's first season, inverting a lot of enshrined superhero tropes, but I went and read the entire comics run, and while the show is making small improvements to the source material in its adaptation, once you get past the shock value of the gratuitous violence, the concept is actually pretty thin. Even from a production standpoint, visually, musically/sound, action scenes, etc, '97 is the vastly superior show, nevermind things like characterization and storytelling, or deeper levels of social commentary.

I feel like Invincible is already boring, and lost the momentum the first season was building. Much like with The Walking Dead, Kirkman is a masterful businessman, but creatively a bit bankrupt. It's just repetitious after a while. Hollow. He goes on and on, but says nothing. Beau is packing in so much story with each 30 minute episode, it's insane. I get why some people say he's moving too fast, most storytelling in shows these days is highly decompressed so it feels very fast in comparison, but I much prefer the density. It's an embarrassment of riches, instead of stringing out one little nugget ad infinitum. I have watched every single episode of '97 multiple times already, like at least 4 or 5x each. Invincible episodes are one and done for me.

Let's agree to disagree here. But...

X-Men 97 have the advantage of most of it's audience already having an emotional attachment and basic understand of it's core characters, even those who didn't watched the original show or ready the comics have some idea of who each character is and how they related. To us who already are fans the smallest moments can carry a lot of weight, I mean, Cyclops is my favorite and the first episode alone already gave me more than I could expect.

Invincible have to make a lot of ground work that 97 doesn't need to do. And as someone who read the Invincible comics before the show was even announced, Kirkman and company are improving in a lot of aspects, the main one is Debby's arc, she is gaining a lot of agency.

[marhawkman]

Let's agree to disagree here. But...

X-Men 97 have the advantage of most of it's audience already having an emotional attachment and basic understand of it's core characters, even those who didn't watched the original show or ready the comics have some idea of who each character is and how they related. To us who already are fans the smallest moments can carry a lot of weight, I mean, Cyclops is my favorite and the first episode alone already gave me more than I could expect.

Invincible have to make a lot of ground work that 97 doesn't need to do. And as someone who read the Invincible comics before the show was even announced, Kirkman and company are improving in a lot of aspects, the main one is Debby's arc, she is gaining a lot of agency.

Then you have guys like me who make a serious effort to identify every background character in every episode of TAS... and then wonder why 97 doesn't have ANY of them.

[Klaue's Mixtape]

Seeing so many misogynistic comments all over the internet re: Jean and especially Rogue. I keep forgetting how sexist the comics community is.

Is it me or has Nerdrotic, Geeks and Gamers, etc etc totally ignored how positive the reception episode 5 of X-Men is?

I mean Gambit was a trending topic A DAY LATER and still no one has said anything. It's like they only care about negative news.

[Psy-lock]

Is it me or has Nerdrotic, Geeks and Gamers, etc etc totally ignored how positive the reception episode 5 of X-Men is?

I mean Gambit was a trending topic A DAY LATER and still no one has said anything. It's like they only care about negative news.

That's exactly what grifters care about.

[marhawkman]

That's exactly what grifters care about.

Which is basically a given since Youtuber....

[Gray Lensman]

Is it me or has Nerdrotic, Geeks and Gamers, etc etc totally ignored how positive the reception episode 5 of X-Men is?

I mean Gambit was a trending topic A DAY LATER and still no one has said anything. It's like they only care about negative news.

If they do talk it will be to backpedal and claim they were right all along. One Youtuber referred to the lot of them as Wokespotters, and it rings true. Which seems especially stupid when dealing with the X-Men - they weren't woke from Day 1, but they were when they were at their peak.

[Tank]

Then you have guys like me who make a serious effort to identify every background character in every episode of TAS... and then wonder why 97 doesn't have ANY of them.

They’re literally background characters and mostly easter eggs. Having them or not doesnt change the quality of the show.

[Confuzzled]

Which is basically a given since Youtuber....

Yeah, I don't get why anyone here takes Nerdrotic and his ilk with even a shred of seriousness. Their only job is to make bigoted videos and thumbnails for the YouTube algorithm, which is designed to show such videos on the feeds of even liberal users for hate clicks and $$. That's all there is to the grift system.

[marhawkman]

They’re literally background characters and mostly easter eggs. Having them or not doesnt change the quality of the show.

Actually it DOES. You can show a guy in a group shot in one ep then later have him actually do something later and people will know who it is because they saw him before. Or, in this case, make it feels more alive by giving the audience that "hey I know that character" vibe when seeing people scattered around Genosha. Everything about how Genosha was depicted here made it feel like it was ephemeral. It telegraphed that they were gonna blow it up with the lack of detail and careless way everything was displayed.

[marhawkman]

Yeah, I don't get why anyone here takes Nerdrotic and his ilk with even a shred of seriousness. Their only job is to make bigoted videos and thumbnails for the YouTube algorithm, which is designed to show such videos on the feeds of even liberal users for hate clicks and $$. That's all there is to the grift system.

Oh I don't take him seriously at all.... But some of the time he's right. I have no idea how often since I rarely watch him.

[Bunch of Coconuts]

Am I reading this right?

People are upset about which background characters were not shown?

[marhawkman]

Am I reading this right?

People are upset about which background characters were not shown?

The Acolytes weren't actually background characters..... well not all of them anyways.

Seriously... the fact someone like Amelia Voght isn't there is... very very strange.

[Askani's Flame]

The Acolytes weren't actually background characters..... well not all of them anyways.

Seriously... the fact someone like Amelia Voght isn't there is... very very strange.

But Amelia left Magento after Asteroid was destroyed and no longer was an Acolyte. The last we saw her was during the Phalanx event and she was on her own. Like it's totally plausible that she, like other mutants migrated to Genosha, but it's not because of Magneto or that she was an Acolyte.

[marhawkman]

But Amelia left Magento after Asteroid was destroyed and no longer was an Acolyte. The last we saw her was during the Phalanx event and she was on her own. Like it's totally plausible that she, like other mutants migrated to Genosha, but it's not because of Magneto or that she was an Acolyte.

Yeah, well the point I was making is that she wasn't a background character.

[BobbysWorld]

I mean, sometimes cameos/Easter Eggs and background stuff does make a difference. Like I think it was a mistake to show Exodus in Genosha if they weren't going to let him matter in the battle at all. Or people speculating that Bobby was the guy making ice cream in the opening Genosha scene.

If you include specific background characters BECAUSE you expect the nod to mean something to ppl, based on their familiarity with the character in prior episodes like Bobby's TAS appearance or knowledge of Exodus as an omega in the comics, then you open the door for people to be like.....okay so why have them there if they're not going to matter in contexts in which they very much SHOULD matter.

BUT all that said, I think that particular line of discussion is mostly just relevant to including characters in the background whose established presence in a story location SHOULD make a difference or matter more than the story allowed for. Not so much in terms of 'these characters from this endless list of potential cameos should have been present' - because we certainly all have those thoughts, but subjectivity and the sheer volume of potential characters who COULD be relevant cameos in any given scene is like, not a particularly productive conversation since there's no real endpoint to it.