I enjoyed the X-men animated TV series growing up; it wasn’t my favorite like the Spider-man TV series, but I did like it and I was always dismayed that it ended on a cliffhanger. After watching this nostalgic show, I can safely say that it would have been better if it had not returned. I was loving this show all the way until Professor Xavier was revealed to be alive and going through some stupid coronation to marry some alien queen. Upon seeing this, my interest in the series heavily declined, because I knew at that point that it was just going in circles to return to the stupid, meaningless starting point of Professor Xavier being in charge and Magneto being the villain. I should have expected it, since I knew it was based upon the comics but I was enjoying watching Magneto be leader of the X-men and try to change his ways so much that I ignored my misgivings.

I want to make a point to say that I loved watching most of this story; loved the characters, the tense moments, the plots, the revelation of the main villain of the story, and the Genosha storyline; but what kills me inside is knowing that all of it has absolutely no permanent consequences whatsoever. Anyone who dies comes back, any change to the formula is immediately reverted back with the story going in circles to justify an overglorified reset button, and I can expect nothing to matter. It’s the same reason people stop watching the 90s Pokemon TV series. Everything is the same, everything is always the same, and no plot point is relevant after the story completes itself. It’s just so frustrating to see. I think this might be a major reason why people enjoy the independent superhero material more; The Boys and Invincible have permanent consequences that matter throughout the entire story and leave a lasting impact. Quite honestly, this is why I always enjoyed most anime more than Western comics; anime such as Dragonball Z had permanent, lasting consequences and story arcs that moved on from one specific time period such as Dragonball Z showing Gohan growing up between multiple story arcs and Yu Yu Hakusho showing Yusuke grow up as an individual into adulthood. And, to be clear, I believe this is why Justice League and Justice League Unlimited were some of the most highly praised shows of their time; the stories had meaningful life lessons and permanent consequences.

I think this show struck a nerve for me with something I’m sure many will vehemently disagree with; we “90s kids” have outgrown Marvel and DC’s formulaic and circular storytelling. For most of us, I don’t think it is because something is “woke” that we don’t enjoy it anymore; it’s because we’ve collectively become too intelligent for bad storytelling because we’ve seen the same, dumb shit too many times to not notice. Take the first major plot point of the X-men ’97 show for example. Jean Grey gives birth to the son of her and Scott Summers, Nathan, and she is then revealed to be the clone of Jean Grey, when the real one shows up with amnesia. Well, unfortunately, this was not the first time I saw this plot point. The Mary Jane Watson that Peter Parker married in the 90s Spider-man TV series was revealed to be a water clone of the real Mary Jane Watson. While the Jean Grey clone giving birth to a son might make for more intriguing conflicts to explore; in both cases, the attractive redhead character who marries one of the main protagonists is revealed to be a clone of the real redhead character. It felt like a rehash to me. Even when I attempt to read comics like Immortal Hulk, I can’t follow it because of how so many characters mention they’ve died and comeback at least three times; and this is not an exaggeration, they mention how they’ve returned from the dead at least three times. I can’t help but wonder sometimes, how on earth can Nightcrawler maintain his Christian faith, when people are just casually resurrected from the dead all the time in his world? Because the consequences don’t matter; the stories never ask the deeper questions. This brings me to another aspect that made me realize how far we’ve grown out of Marvel and DC stories.

Marvel and DC stories don’t really delve into broader questions. They ask them, but they don’t deal with them. The Genosha genocide and hatred towards mutants by humans out of fear . . . that was unquestionably, unambiguously the end of any hope for mutant and human co-existence and proof that Magneto was completely right. Yet, the moment Xavier comes back and Magneto puts his foot down to stop Mutants being victimized, the plot dumbs itself down to only focus on stopping the so-called bad guys. It blithely ignores the fact that Magneto made strides for peace repeatedly and was a victim of violence yet again. Scott even refers to him as a maniac as if Magneto had never changed. This is why the circular bullshit of Marvel / DC comic stories no longer work. In no realistic way could the genocide of Genosha result in the return to any semblance of a status quo and Xavier can no longer be called heroic for trying to return the world to a status quo that no longer exists. The X-men barely have any opinions before going into one-dimensional hatred for Magneto that is completely unwarranted; everything about Genosha is scrubbed or ignored to make Magneto seem like the villain again. The problem with this groundhog formula for writing is that it goes from amazingly compelling to completely pathetic. This is the real reason Invincible, The Boys, most Japanese anime, and off-shoots of the Marvel / DC animated formula like Justice League / Justice League Unlimited generate more interest, attention, and fanfare. Permanent, meaningful consequences that reverberate throughout the main plot of the story and don’t dumb it down to make a convenient reset button.

I don’t mean to sound like a hater and I’m sorry if I do. I really was loving the story up until that godawful Professor Xavier plot twist and had to watch this horrible character ruin the rest of the show with his stupidity; the show expects me to think of Xavier as a hero as he brainwashes a Holocaust survivor to force him to bend to his will, re-traumatizes the Holocaust survivor in order to brainwash the Holocaust survivor further into relying on Xavier, essentially rapes the Holocaust survivor’s mind because the Holocaust survivor no longer agrees that peace is feasible… after being re-traumatized experiencing yet another genocide in his lifetime, and tries to portray Xavier as a good person for brainwashing, re-traumatizing, and then attempting to groom a Holocaust survivor into his obedient puppet. Oh, but the Holocaust survivor is the bad guy, because he uh… wanted to protect his people from persecution and genocide and the other side refused to stop doing either. But uh… peace is still possible, right? Seriously, this is why reset buttons for stories are a terrible idea.

One particular line by Bastion really hit me hard: “Because when your skin’s not in the game, apathy’s your answer.” – judging from reddit forums regarding discussions about this quote; most people think of the Israel vs Palestine conflict. None seem to think about the Oliphant vs Suquamish 1978 decision by the US Supreme Court which effectively emboldened registered sex offenders to hunt down, rape, and kill Indigenous women, children, and even men living in Indigenous reservations for over forty years while Federal prosecutors refused to take cases that involved non-Native on Native crimes due to the decision causing confusion for prosecutors and making it more challenging to get convictions along with a refusal to even meet the victims or victims’ families in reservations. The US Federal government effectively gave, and still gives to this day, carte blanche access to registered sex offenders to rape and kill Indigenous people living in reservations while the entirety of the US public yawns in indifference. As I grow older, and see how stupidity runs rampant from so-called decision-makers in US government offices, I come to realize that any real-life version of Bastion (that is, someone who commits to Bastion’s schemes without fictional magic powers) would probably be far more successful in the US than most people will be comfortable with admitting. William Rehnquist and the majority of the Supreme Court that made the Oliphant vs Suquamish 1978 decision are still held as “controversial figures” instead of being recognized as the US’s moral, social, and political equivalent of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, after all. Ego and cultural pride matter more to most people than innocent people – even their own countrymen – becoming victim to unjust laws still in effect.

Anyway, I really did enjoy most of it… so, X-Men ’97 on Disney+ gets a solid 7 / 10 from me.