X-Men 97 is fantastic. It hits all the nostalgia notes, while looking way better and being more relevant and poignant than the 90s cartoon ever was. Gyrich’s speech about tolerance as a fad in the first episode is genuinely chilling. The January 6 riff in the second episode works perfectly, and the stand in for a Republican Senator saying “wait, what did I do?” as a mob of bigots closes in with murderous intent is chef’s kiss. Also, 97 pulls off the feat of making Cyclops cool as hell (dope ass fight choreography helps). Recommend bigly.
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Nice, got some deal on D+ to watch the Lion King. Will have to check this out
These guys totally nailed the vibe of the Arrowverse TV shows, it was just too far ahead of its time back in 1997.
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Episode 5 of X-Men '97. You know shit is going down when you get a cameo by the Watcher.
The season one showrunner said that he partied at the Pulse Nightclub, that it was his club, and that informs his work on this season.
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Magneto was right.
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The social commentary in X-Men 97 is damn bleak and woefully accurate to our times.
I’m going full SPOILERS so don’t read if you don’t want, but obv the human sentinels are Trump (/Bibi/Orban/Putin) supporters, fascists. The show makes a point of having Bastion say they all volunteered to join his movement. There are a bunch of crowd shots and half of every crowd is a human sentinel. Bastion’s entire hometown, which is generic small town USA whitepeopleville: human sentinel.
Just in case you were hoping the other half would oppose fascism, nah. Like Sunspot’s mom, they’re mostly feckless liberals ready to accept fascist lies to keep things quiet and orderly. The dark cherry on top is Cable’s revelation that Bastion’s future is in fact a utopia for regular humans. Turns out you can build a prosperous society off the backs of an oppressed minority group. Who knew?!
Semi-related, I read the first two issues of a comic series called Avengers Twilight. It’s an alternate future where America has become an authoritarian police state. The resistance, led by Steve Rogers, manages to break into state-controlled media and broadcast their message of freedom. The fascist leaders are pleased because they know what’s about to happen. The regime’s approval rating goes up, and the population turns even more against the resistance.
I feel like social commentary in popular fiction has reached a turning point. In the early Trump era, you would see a lot of cult-like figures duping an unwitting populace into surrendering their civil rights. They had some willing support, but those people were backwater hicks or alt right weirdos, not members of the civilized majority. Now the type of committed liberal who writes speculative fiction has a clearer idea of the right-wing populist phenomenon. They understand that huge masses of normal people support fascist policies. They see that liberal values are not commonly shared and need committed supporters to fight for them. It’s bleak, but I do see this correct diagnosis as progress.
Anyway, I have no idea how the X-Men come back from this without becoming militantly antihuman. Magneto was right, and even Gyrich was right. Tolerance was a fad. Xavier looks to be drawing dead, but I guess we’ll see.
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Good post. Really enjoyed the show, playing on all the classic tropes and comic book characters from 30 years ago while being very relevant politically. I vaguely remember reading the x- men and the sentinels storyline way back when and loving it. No idea if they’re sticking close to that story or not.
I’m watching the documentary about x- men 97 now, and apparently it picks up fight where the original animated show stopped way back when. Definitely worthwhile use of 45 mins if you enjoyed the show!
I’ll say that I didn’t quite like the ending of X Men 97. The finale became a lot of light show punching and less combining weird soap opera drama with cool fights like the earlier episodes were.
I think this is a fair criticism but resolving the Big Bad Guy plot for the season is always hard.
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Sort of agree, but not entirely. The final fight with Bastion was pretty anti-climatic, agreed. Rogue and Sunspot switching teams for all of…2 minutes? was pretty useless as a story vehicle. Plenty of soap opera in the Magneto and Prof X scenes though, as well as with Cyclops/Jean/their son.
Should the next season be X-Men '97 season 2 or X-Men '98?
x-men 3500/3600 (ish) bc/ac ldo
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Going off the first two, this looks okay.
That’s a really hideous update.
Do not want.
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