It’s been a couple of weeks since the three-part finale to X-Men ’97 aired on Disney+, making this review a little bit late… again. However, this break was needed for a couple of reasons, one of which I’ll talk about later. The main reason is that it took time for me and many others to process the season as a whole and the baiting for Season 2. So, let’s jump into the final three episodes of the best reboot/sequel in animation.
Title: X-Men’97
Production Company: Marvel Studios Animation & Studio Mir
Distributed by: Disney+
Directed by: Jake Castorena
Produced by: Danielle Costa & Sean Gantka
Written by: Beau DeMayo
Starring: Ray Chase, Jennifer Hale, Alison Sealy-Smith, Cal Dodd, J. P. Karliak, Lenore Zann, George Buza, A. J. LoCascio, Holly Chou, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Matthew Waterson, & Adrian Hough
Based on: X-Men by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Release dates: March 21, 2024
Running time: 28 minutes per episode
Episodes: 10
X-Men’97: Going out with a Bang!
X-Men’97 “Tolerance Is Extinction” Story Summary – SPOILERS
Story Review – Some Vague Spoilers
My god, how do you summarize “Tolerance Is Extinction”? With three words: Magneto was right.
Everything that Magneto warned everyone about has come home to roost. Genosha has been destroyed, with millions of mutants wiped off the face of the Earth, and the Government does not care. The X-Men recoil in horror, unable to do anything as it happened, and even less afterward.
Rogue has lost the men she loved most in life, and goes on a rampage against the builders of the Sentinels, thinking that she is attacking the right targets in order to stop what happened to her from happening again, only to be knocked out herself by Bastion, leaving her in a coma as Bastion’s legions of converted human/Sentinel hybrids begin to attack the remaining mutants.
Magneto, captured by Bastion and Mr Sinister, gets released when Val Cooper speaks the historic words: Magneto was right. Leaving Magneto to resume his previous version of what mutant kind needs to survive, bringing Asteroid M into Earth’s atmosphere, threatening to bring it down and destroy part of America as well as make a threat to the X-Men: Join him or join humanity in extinction… With a reawakened Rogue joining him (as well as Robertro/Sunspot, but who cares about him).
Of course, this happens alongside the return to Professor X, reuniting the X-Men and setting out to do two things: Stop Magneto from destroying the world, and stop Bastion from taking over the world. These two paths lead to the same thing: Kick-ass action sequences, character moments that will leave you breathless, and a philosophical debate that will determine the future.
What makes Tolerance Is Extinction a great story is that it is a battle on two fronts, with these events leading to some of the greatest, and most horrific moments that any long-term X-Men fan will remember. We get to see the moment Magento rips the adamantium from Wolverine’s bones, we get to see the psychic events that could lead to the creation of Onslaught, and we get things teased (both good and bad) for others in the Marvel universe.
This story is one that has to be watched, multiple times, for you to get every single little nod, speculation, fact, easter egg, and amazing moment that it shows in these three episodes. If you have been a fan of what X-Men’97 has brought us so far, this finale will leave you wanting more but satisfied at the same time.
A Dedicated Cast of Characters
Surprisingly, there was only one replacement with these episodes, and it only happened at the end of Part 3. All the other characters that have been added or had cameo appearances in this three-part event are either new to the series or have speaking roles for the first time in this animated universe.
Overall, the voice acting for X-Men’97 has been phenomenal! The mix between returning voice actors for a majority of the lead roles, to the replacements being 100% on point with their versions being fresh while keeping things to as close to the original voice actors as can be, to the new characters getting a chance to shine in the small moments they are on screen.
All of this added up to one of the best casts since the original 90’s era of animation. For those of us who grew up with these voices, it was good to hear them again, bringing back the childhood nostalgia that this series relied on. For newcomers, I hope that these voices become THE voices of the X-Men characters as they read comics going forward, much like we did as we did the same.
A big thank you to the casting agents who went out of their way to make sure that they get this series as accurate to the original show as possible with the talent pool they chose. Without those people making the decisions, this show could have turned out very differently.
X-Men’97: A Thrill Ride of Exceptional Expectations
Tolerance is Extinction will go down as one of those moments in animation and comic book history as something that is required viewing from start to end forever and ever. X-Men’97 did a great job of adapting many of X-Men’s stories into animated form in a way that will keep people wanting to come back and rewatch them over and over again, much like the original series did when it debuted back in 1992.
The animation itself has come a long way since the first episode, where it looked more like a concept piece than a full run of a series. Hopefully, this means that Disney decided to put some extra capital into the budget once the ratings of the first two episodes were released. From the special effects for Xavier’s mental powers to Magneto knocking out the world’s power, everything that was displayed just looked and felt EPIC.
We got to see things that we never saw properly before. The prime example is when Xavier and Magnus are sitting in a bar inside Magnus’ mind, with a rising sea of issues right outside the window. Such an example of how people hold onto their past traumas till they crash in and drown them is something that, psychologically speaking, should be shown as an example in medical studies for years to come. This is something that no one thought a cartoon could tackle so well, and yet, here we are.
The action scenes were top notch as always, with special mention to the scene of Pheonix making her return and ripping all the stolen DNA out of Mr Sinister. That sequence looked amazing, displaying the power of the Phoenix and some interesting ideas on how DNA could look on the psychic landscape.
Then we have the teases. I’m not going to mention too much here, but seeing (and knowing the comic versions of) these future plans for where X-Men’97 goes leaves me on the edge of my seat, waiting with bated breath as to when we are going to see these storylines play out with the characters we have seen that will be involved.
That One Scene… You Know the One…
Yeah, here comes the bitch session you know was coming…
In every review of X-Men’97 that I have done since episode 1, I have been BEGGING for one thing: A follow-up to the ending of Spider-Man’94 Season 5. In that finale, we see Mary Jane ripped away from Peter and left somewhere in the multiverse, with Spider-Man being led by Madam Web to find her.
All Spider-Man’94 fans have wanted was to see the adventures that lead up to Peter reuniting with Mary Jane and getting his happy ending, something that comic fans have since been denied (Thanks Joe Quesada, you marriage-hating bastard!). While X-Men’97 did tease us with the good old webhead appearing in New York as Asteroid M was being brought into Earth’s atmosphere (Why that event didn’t do more damage is weird by the way), what happened next leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.
During Tolerance Is Extinction, we get a single moment during the finale episode where people are panicking and fleeing New York as Asteroid M descends towards the surface of the planet, and who do we see standing in front of a TV watching the events unfold on the same streets they should be fleeing on? PETER PARKER, MARY JANE, AND FLASH THOMPSON!!
Ok, Flash appearance aside, which was pretty cool. Seeing Peter and MJ together again did two things for me:
- It confirmed that Peter and MJ found each other, which is good.
- We’re probably never going to see Spider-Man’98 happen
X-Men’97 takes place in 1997, meaning that this takes place BEFORE the events of the ending to Spider-Man’94, in which the events of the ending to Season 5 do not happen for another year in that timeline.
Many people took this to mean that we got a conclusion, but all we got was another tease of something that fans are wanting now that X-Men’97 has finished its first season and we know that Disney is willing to put effort into ventures like this… But we might not see it, still leaving the events of the show unfinished!
If there is one thing that X-Men’97 does poorly, it’s handling cameos of other characters outside of the X-Men franchise. Captain America got slapped around like a ragdoll by Rogue, then only appears to try and stop the President of the United States from firing nuclear missiles at Magneto, which is ignored and fired anyway!
Don’t get your hopes up fellow Marvel fans as we will probably never see a revival of Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Avengers, or any other 90s Marvel cartoon for a long time to come, if at all.
X-Men’97: It’s Not Done Yet!
Not too long after X-Men’97 Season One wrapped up showing, the news of Season 2 was confirmed, and with good reason. This show did something that no other revival, reboot, remake, or sequel has done in the last 2 decades: Make a good series that paid attention and respect to the show that came before it and did everything possible to recapture the spirit that made the show successful, to begin with.
There was no pandering to the mythical “Modern Audience”, changing characters’ identities to suit the current social-political “requirements” that online scream they want to see and then never bothering following up on anyway (See just about any big video game or movie these days… Or just Marvel Phase 4 and beyond). There was a bunch of people who were involved in the original showing a new generation how to make a great show without that pandering bullshit
X-Men’97 will go down as one of the best new shows of the current age, a sequel that will bring new fans into the fold alongside pleasing those who made the original show such a classic to begin with. Fandom should be about embracing new fans and bringing them into the fold, showing them what made the fandom great while appealing to them with a fresh cost of paint on an old structure that we know works.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thank you modern Disney and modern Marvel for allowing X-Men’97 to be what it is: A great cartoon that will last generations.
X-Men'97
Summary
X-Men’97 shows that from start to finish that the stories that were selected to be adapted were done with purpose and reverence to the original source material, both in story and animation. Tolerance Is Extinction gives fans the high paced action thrill ride that they have earned over the previous 7 episodes, leading to a tease of what is to come. A highly-recommended must-watch cartoon for new and old Marvel and X-Men fans alike.
Pros
- Great animation
- Amazing reverence to the source material
- Best voice casting in decades
Cons
- Teasing me with a Spider-Man sequel that might never happen
- Cameos that meant nothing
- Asteroid M not doing any damage when entering Earth’s atmosphere
