Back in the 1990s I spent a lot of time with Patrick and Katie watching animated TV shows. One of the shows was X-Men: The Animated Series. Even at an early age, Katie–who was eight years old–questioned the title of the series: “Dad, if Jean Grey, Rogue, Jubilee, and Storm are women, how can they be called X-Men?” “Limited thinking on the part of the writers,” was my answer then. Today, you’d have to say: sexism.

Now on Disney+ there’s X-Men ’97, a retro animated television series created by Beau DeMayo based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the X-Men. It is a revival of X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1997), continuing the story of the X-Men who face new challenges following the loss of their leader, Professor X.  By retro, I mean the style of animation, the storylines, and even some of the voices are the same as X-Men: The Animated Series. Looks the same, sounds the same.

X-Men ’97  has DeMayo as head writer for the first two seasons, followed by Matthew Chauncey for the third season, and Jake Castorena as supervising director. The quality control operates at a high rate insuring the new animated series looks just like the 1990s version.

I always enjoyed the various forms of The X-Men–animated series, comic books, movies–with the theme of Being Different Has Consequences. The mutants–most of them–try to work with humanity while many humans fear the mutants and want to exterminate them. In this rendition, Cyclops, Jean Grey, The Beast, Wolverine, Jubilee, Rogue, Gambit, and some surprise mutants battle against the forces who want to eliminate them. Unlike the 1990s series, some X-Men get killed in X-Men ’97. I’ve watched six of the 10 episodes. Just as much fun at watching this series 25 years ago! Are you a fan of the X-Men (and women)? GRADE: INCOMPLETE, but trending towards a B+