X-Men '97 Season 1 Review

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This is a DynaMic Network podcast.

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Welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are reviewing X-Men 97. It's Marvel's first X-Men project since acquiring the rights to the characters from Fox. I remember watching this show in the mid-90s as a kid.

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Was this 25 years worth the wait? Yes it was and I can't wait to talk about it later on this episode. Before that we're going to break down the comic book movie news from the past week of which it was a pretty slow week. All we learned was that Vision Quest, the upcoming television series for Disney+, has gotten a 2026 release window and a showrunner. Well to be fair we are recording this episode a little bit early in lead up to the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

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So there might be more news that drops that we'll get to in the next episode, if that's the case. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. Our artificially intelligent duel simulator, AJ9K, has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up. Why, hello there. Do you love listening and chatting about Marvel and DC? Then become a part of the dynamic duel community on Patreon, where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic 2.0 tier,

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The Fantastic Four tier gives you that and more with two bonus episodes each month, including bloopers and top ten shows where Johnny and Joe count down your favourite Marvel and DC subjects. The X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of Dynamic Duel, where every month you help the host choose what to review and who to fight against each other. And finally, the Dynamite Podcast Network tier allows aspiring podcasters to create their own battle-focused show using this Monte Carlo simulator.

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Thanks AJ9K, and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Be sure to tune into the shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction, which pitched your

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The show is currently on a season break, but hosts Ken and Scott are releasing bonus episodes, and this Thursday they will be reviewing The Matrix. On the Sendrow World podcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan-favorite anime and manga characters. This Thursday, we'll find out who would win between Jura Nikus from Fairy Tail and Diane from Seven Deadly Sins. On the Console Combat podcast,

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Hosts John and Dean find out who would win in fights between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they found out who would win in a battle between Samanosuke Akechi from Animusha against Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network. But with that out of the way, quick! To the no prize!

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A No Prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic duel No Prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week, we asked you guys, what celebrity voice actor for a Marvel or DC animated film would you like to see play the character in live action? And this was coming off of the news that Nicolas Cage will be starring in a live action Spider-Man

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We got a lot of answers for this question and they were all great But let's break down our three honorable mentions as well as the no prize winner Our first honorable mention goes to Matt Estes who said Hey fellas, Matt Estes here. Hey, this is probably the easiest question y'all have ever asked for question of the week It's gotta be Dove Cameron with Spider-Gwen Yeah, Dove Cameron played the character of Spider-Gwen in the animated Marvel Rising movies

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And the actress looks exactly like Spider-Gwen. I don't know what else there is to say about that. She should definitely play the character because she definitely has the look. But she's also a really good actress. Actually, my daughters are a fan of her from her working descendants. She was on some Disney channel show where she played like two different characters, twins, I think. She has the acting chops. I was actually rooting for her for a while to play Supergirl. But yeah, Spider-Gwen would also work.

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She was actually also in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television show for a while as well. No one cares! She's no stranger to Marvel, that's all I'm saying. So this could definitely work. Great answer Matt. Our next honorable mention goes to Miggy Matagian who said, Hey what's up guys, this is Miggy and I would love to see Lou Diamond Phillips play Spectre in live action. I mostly went with this because he's half Filipino and I got to represent. But I think he also has a good look for Jim Corrigan, like a weathered, tired police detective.

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Some other answers that I was leaning towards but didn't go with is Jason Isaacs as Sinestro, Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon, John Noble as Brainiac, and Jamie Chung as Cheshire. Thanks guys. Yeah, all of those were great answers. I especially loved Lou Diamond Phillips as the Spectre for two reasons. One, Lou Diamond Phillips does not get enough work. The guy's a good actor. And two, the Spectre...

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is an awesome character. Ever since I saw his DC showcase animated short, I've always thought that the Spectre would make for a really good film. For sure, and I remember hearing his voice as the Spectre and totally being blown away that it was even Lou Diamond Phillips voicing him, because it doesn't really sound like him, but if he can pull off that voice for the character of the Spectre as well, yeah, that's just great casting. Great answer, Miggy. Our next honorable mention goes to Cyrus Moore, who said, Hi guys, Cyrus Moore here, and my answer

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would be either Shamar Moore for Cyborg or Josh DeMoll from Batman the Long Halloween. Those are two actors from animated movies I would love to see in live action. Shamar Moore does a great Cyborg voice, but I do think he's a little too old to play a Teen Titan personally. I do love Josh DeMoll as Harvey Dent Two-Face though, because honestly I thought he nailed the voice performance for the character. And you know, he's a really good actor in live action as well. So yeah, I think that would just be.

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almost perfection. I don't know if he's like that great of an actor as you're claiming he is, but he's certainly solid enough to pull off the role of Harvey Dent and Two-Face, I agree. You make him sound like freaking the next Daniel Day-Lewis or something, the way you're describing him. Perfection, I don't know. I don't think I implied that at all. I didn't imply that. I just said he's a good actor. No, he could totally pull it off. I could totally see him in that role. And you're right, his performance in...

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Batman the Long Halloween was pretty impressive. He was almost unrecognizable voice wise. So great answer, Cyrus. We want to give a quick shout out to the other answers. Brandon Estregard, who said Matthew Gray Goobler should play the Riddler. That's awesome. The twins, Travis Bailey and Travis Herndon both gave answers. Travis Herndon said Keith David should play Tombstone and Travis Bailey said Hailey Steinfeld should play Spider-Gwen. Gil Camacho chimed in and said that Naji Jeter should play Miles Morales. Daniel Alonso said AJ Locasio should play Gambit.

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and Colby Hentges said that Laura Bailey should play Lois Lane. Those are all great answers. A lot of them didn't get picked because maybe the voice actor wasn't a big enough name to, we think, successfully pull the star power necessary for that type of character in live action. Yeah, great answers, guys. But the winner of this week's no prize is Christopher Minotti, who said, Hi, guys, Christopher Minotti. I know a lot of people are probably going to say this, but I want Jen Snackles as Batman.

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He does a great voice for the character in the Tomorrowverse, and he's a great actor as well, having starred as Dean Winchester in Supernatural and Soldier Boy in The Boys. I think he could do a great job, and yeah, I just think I'd love to see that. Not only do I think that Jensen Ackles could pull off a convincing Batman and pull in the crowd necessary for that type of role, I'd also like to see him perform against David Cornswat as Superman.

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Yeah, I mean, we've been told that Robert Pattinson is not going to be the Batman in James Gunn's DC Universe. And I hear the name Jensen Ackles a lot for who people want to see play Batman. And I would not hate that at all. I think the Tomorrowverse has proven that he has a good grasp of the character. Yeah, he also played Jason Todd in Batman Under the Red Hood. But now that he's a little bit older, yeah, I think he's graduated into the role of Batman for sure. Absolutely.

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So great answer, Christopher Menotti, you win this week's No Prize. If you, the listener, want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on in this episode when we'll be asking another Question of the Week. And now that that's done, onto the news.

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Alright this past week we learned that the Paul Bettany Vision Quest series is still on and that it now has a release date set in 2026. Marvel has signed Terry Metalis to serve as the showrunner for that series. Who has an impressive resume, he's currently the executive producer on Star Trek Picard which has gotten great reviews. Now the last time we saw Vision was in WandaVision and at the end of the series the

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vision manifestation that Wanda created disappeared and the real Vision, which had been rebuilt by Sword and he was all white in color, he just kind of disappeared to go, I don't know, figure shit out. And this Vision series will allegedly take place as he kind of comes back into the fold. Yeah, it's kind of in a way a sequel perhaps to Wanda Vision.

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Yeah, we don't know what's going to happen, but one of the most celebrated story arcs from the comics was written by Tom King and is about how Vision tries to create his own synthzoid family and try to live the normal suburban lifestyle. And WandaVision kind of touched on those themes, but it would be kind of interesting to see the Vision Quest series kind of continue that. If you guys haven't read Tom King's run on Vision, I highly suggest it. Yeah, won a couple of Eisner Awards, I believe. Yeah, it was really good. Really dark.

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We've been waiting for a release date for this show for a while now, you know, ever since 2021, when WandaVision first came out in the middle of the pandemic. So it's nice to kind of get that closure that the series is indeed happening and it's happening relatively soon in terms of movie and TV production time. Yeah, it's one of the MCU's current loose threads that people have definitely been interested in seeing be picked up because he's an Avenger, not one of the original Avengers, but he plays an important part on the team. Yeah.

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The first sequel to Wandavision that's coming out later on this year though is Agatha All Along, which is the true title of that series. None of the House of Harkness or Covenant of Chaos bullshit is just Agatha All Along. All those fake titles were part of the marketing, I guess. Just kind of showing like, oh, Agatha's being wacky, she's messing with the titles, it was Agatha All Along. Which I do think is a great name. I'm hoping each of the episode titles actually are like Covenant of Chaos and House of Harkness and stuff like that.

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I'm hoping Kevin Feige uses that show to explain all of the shittiness that's been going on with MCU lately and all the stuff that fans haven't been liking. You'd be like, oh, blame Agatha. It was her all along. First of all, you don't know what you're talking about. But secondly, that would be funny. It's like, oh, you don't like Secret Invasion. Blame Agatha. Oh, you didn't like Modok. Yeah, it was Agatha that did that one. Yep. Bow, the god of dumplings. That was actually Agatha.

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So good. Yeah, Agatha All Along premieres this September, and again we'll wait a couple years for Vision Quest. Actually, we don't even know if the series is still called Vision Quest because according to Variety, the series is still unnamed. So it'll probably be called Vision is what I'm guessing, but definitely looking forward to it. And speaking of Vision, that brings us to our question of the week.

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Who is your favorite robot superhero or villain from Marvel or DC and why? A lot of great robot characters out there guys, let's hear your favorite. Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person the Dynamic Duel No Prize that will post to Instagram. Be sure to answer before June 1st.

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But I think that does it for all of the news for this episode. Now let's move on to the main event, where we review the Marvel Studios animated television series X-Men 97.

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Okay, X-Men 97 is a Marvel television animated series created by Bo DeMaio, the continuation of the 1990s X-Men the animated series, which ran from 1992 to 1997 and has long been celebrated by fans as one of the greatest superhero cartoons ever made. The long awaited questions we all had, especially us 90s kids, was whether this new effort could even hope to live up to the original, which was known for being incredibly faithful to the source material.

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and not being afraid to tackle the more weighty themes of prejudice and identity. Would this continuation series carry on that level of quality, or would it fall short of the lofty standards set by its predecessor? Well, it brings me so much unbridled joy to say that not only does X-Men 97 rise to the challenge, it clears the bar, I think, for animated superhero television. And here's your spoiler warning right up top, this is a spoiler review for season 1, so don't even th-

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think about continuing to listen to this episode without watching the show. You don't want to spoil all the greatness in store for you, so I would suggest and even demand that you watch the series before continuing on. You won't regret it. The show is kind of like the quintessential X-Men experience, I think. Oh yeah, I wholeheartedly agree. I loved the show. I remember watching it as a kid in the mid-90s, back when I was still a Marvel fan, and I don't remember...

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too much about it. I definitely haven't seen all of the episodes, but just watching this new season, I felt like it went way harder than it even needed to because I don't remember like any of the mature topics back when I watched it as a kid. And I just have to say, if it was as good and mature and relevant back then as it is today, I would not mind like going back and watching all of those old seasons with my daughters.

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Yeah, the first couple of seasons of the 90s show were solid. It kind of dropped off a little bit after that. In the series finale for the 90s show, Professor X gets shot by Henry Guyric and he goes up into space. So this X-Men 97 series continues right where that one left off, which was really nice. But yeah, you and I were six years old when the X-Men animated series first debuted and it was a huge influence on us as children, you know, inspiring our love of superheroes until the show ended when we were 11.

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Like I remember turning on X-Men every Saturday morning on Fox Kids with our breakfast cereal in our lap. All the kids back then watched the X-Men television show. And I remember we used to play X-Men on the playground with the other boys. The kid with glasses was always Cyclops. And I liked pretending to be Wolverine or Bishop or Gambit. And I think you used to like to be Professor X because you could just say like, I shut down your mind to everyone no matter what. No, I was Colossus, bro.

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I was classes. Okay. It's good times, though. I completely tried to put aside all the nostalgia while reviewing this series, although I will say there was something magical about hearing that opening theme once again for like a new episode. It was just it was so bizarre, very surreal with that nostalgia kick. Oh, yeah. I didn't skip a single intro. Like it gave me the option to skip intro and I was like, no, I'm enjoying this.

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I will say that the nostalgia wasn't that heavy though. I mean, like the show certainly evokes a sense of nostalgia, but like not as much as you'd think. Considering this X-Men 97 series feels pretty modern and upgraded from the animation styles we had back in the 90s. It feels like there were two different animation teams working on the show. You know, one for the talking stuff and then one for the crazy awesome action stuff with the dynamic camera work and the hyper flashy visualizations. I loved the action style of X-Men 97.

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This was a perfect blend of both cerebral writing and kinetic action. It was perfection. Well, I do think that the animation could have gone even further. They were largely constrained by the animation style of the 90s show, but you could tell they really cut loose during the action. Yeah, for sure. But more than the action, I really loved how the series seemed to be targeted toward those that enjoyed the original show 30 years ago and are now grown-ass adults, like us.

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You know, like not to say that kids couldn't watch X-Men 97, but I would say that because it doesn't really hold back in terms of violence and death and you know, even adult relationships compared to what you and I were used to seeing back on the Fox Kids channel, I guess I would be a little bit hesitant showing this to kids. Like it's not TVMA or anything, I would place most of the episodes at probably TV14 and maybe some of the lighter ones at TVY7.

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I don't know if people outside the US know what these ratings mean, but I think basically anyone younger than teenagers aren't probably going to get much out of X-Men 97. It might even be put off by parts of it. Yeah, again, I don't remember the old show too much, but this definitely felt more mature, and I don't know if that's just because I understand more as an adult or not, but I definitely do feel like this is the first time I ever saw Wolverine cut into someone human and them showing blood as a result.

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Oh for sure, I mean, Wolverine was notoriously never allowed to cut anybody in the 90s cartoon, you know, he always had to go up against robots and shit, but never really human beings, because you just couldn't, it would be too violent. You know, Stan Lee was famous for wanting to gear his stories for more mature minds and you know, John Byrne and Chris Claremont, the famous X-Men writers, were right there with him. I think the X-Men and Marvel in general, but the X-Men in particular, were always a little more weighty and intense than your standard, you know, super friends fare.

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Oh, absolutely. DC set the bar in terms of targeting children for their animated fare. I don't think it was really until Batman the Animated Series and the X-Men Animated Series that things started to get a little bit darker, I guess you could say. Yeah, the writing just got better. Comparing the writing of the previous cartoons with the writing of an X-Men episode, both the 90s version and this show,

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The X-Men episodes were always inherently weightier than the other cartoons because of the heavy themes of prejudice, discrimination, identity, acceptance. You know, you have civil rights in there, social justice, trauma. All those ideas are baked into the concept of the superpower team that fights for those that hate and fear them. And that's on top of, you know, other standard hero themes that you usually get of power and sacrifice. But the X-Men have always been more than a power fantasy. They've always had this moral message.

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And that's what makes the X-Men animated series and X-Men 97 so great is that they understand that. They get that there is a lesson here. Yeah, no, I absolutely appreciate that. I love stories with messages. To me, that's what storytelling is all about. And when it comes to this X-Men show, like it just feels incredibly relevant right now.

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As you know, like every day in the news we're hearing about Russia and Ukraine or Israel and Hamas or even, you know, Republican versus Democrat. Lines are drawn and enemies are declared. But the truth is that every group in history has at one point or another been victimized by another group. And what's great about the message of the X-Men is that its heroes inspire us not toward defeating those we consider our enemies, but toward working with them to build a tolerant future together.

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I think everyone can relate with the X-Men and that's why they're so incredibly popular and relevant. Yeah, I mean, DC only wishes, right? I'm sorry, there's no prejudice and the DC Universe are better than that. I really hope that however they tackle these X-Men stories in the MCU in live action.

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I hope that the filmmakers remember that the X-Men are more than just a power fantasy. And, you know, this X-Men 97 series gives me 100% faith that Marvel knows what they're doing with the franchise down the line. Absolutely. Holy cow. If the X-Men movie that they make is not as good as this show, I'm gonna kinda be disappointed because they set a really, really high bar right out the gate. Beyond the themes though...

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The X-Men 97 show, like its predecessor, has some of the most badass, captivating dialogue I've ever heard. Like usually the dialogue is the boring stuff in these superhero cartoons, right? But like when almost every line is written like a profound piece of poetry, you yearn for the boring stuff almost as much as the action. Dude, it's like Shakespeare level good, right? Right. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration.

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But it's really, really damn good. I love the drama of everything. My wife, you know, she caught snippets of this as I was watching it, as I was just like riveted by it. And she actually got into it as well. She was like, this is kind of like a soap opera. I was like, hell yeah, it is. Yeah. Like, yeah, I'll admit sometimes the proceedings can get a little melodramatic, especially the romantic relationship stuff. But like as an adult, I don't care.

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Maybe as a kid I would have cared, but as an adult I don't. I'm like, give me that soap opera shit. I crave the drama. Like when Gene caught Scott psychically kissing Madeline in his bedroom, I was like shoveling popcorn in my mouth. Like, oh damn, I'm gonna be gossiping about this at tea time tomorrow. This is some juicy shit. For real, for real. But regarding the dialogue, I just wanna go over some of my favorite lines from the show. Kind of like a poetry reading.

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I am trying to be better, do not make me let you down. There is no love without sin, for love is best measured in what we forgive. Every moment is a new and shocking evaluation of all we have ever been. Blood is blood, family is a choice. Make them mind your weather, sister, and them weather your mind.

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You best pray our children read their textbooks more than their Bibles, for only history could be conned into forgiving us. Like who writes this? That's all fantastic. And the best part is that somehow it doesn't come across as overwritten either, which shouldn't work for a seeming adolescent cartoon, but it does. I'm not gonna lie, as I was watching this, I was kinda hella jealous about Marvel's animation.

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This was way better. I think the only thing that could kind of be compared to the X-Men animated series that I know of, because I've actually never seen the show, I might be talking out of my ass right now, but what I've heard about Young Justice actually comes pretty close to this stuff. Like it also deals with like weighty themes and stuff, right? Yeah, yeah, I've seen Young Justice. It is really good, especially thematically. But I wouldn't say that the dialogue is as good because you're right.

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It's written in a way that should feel overwritten, but the performances were just so good that they totally sold me on every line that they said. There was not a single line that I thought was delivered poorly. No, for sure, and we should talk more about the actors and characters in our character breakdown. Starting with Cyclops, aka Scott Summers, played by Ray Chase, who's not the original voice actor from the 90s. That was Norm Spencer, who died in the year 2020.

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But I think Ray Chase's voice was spot on, I didn't even know it wasn't the original voice actor when watching, so kudos to Ray Chase. I loved seeing Cyclops front and center with like a whole lot of screen time as not only the team leader of the X-Men, but as a character that was vital to the season's narrative. After so many years out of the spotlight in the X-Men movies, where he was largely relegated as a side character, it was really nice to see Cyclops have his time to shine.

25:32
Yeah, Cyclops is my favorite X-Men character. I know everyone loves Wolverine. I've always been about Cyclops. And yeah, it was really great to see Marvel do the character justice in a way that they have never been able to in the movies. Yeah, I mean, like a lot of people will say Cyclops is boring, but I think this season in particular helped show how these Boy Scout characters like Cyclops, you know, like Captain America, and even Superman, they can still be complex while adhering to a set of simple principles.

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Cyclops, you know, he's not a brute like say Wolverine, but that doesn't make him a pushover. You know, he's still strong and assertive and really his strength that is in his ability to never waver in the face of adversity while convincing other people to do the same and follow his lead. Absolutely. Yeah, he is a great example of leadership and a beacon for the rest of the X-Men. What's also interesting is that he's still trying to be fully on board with Xavier's ideals himself.

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You know, Cyclops went through a lot this season, dealing with the weight of taking over the team, after the loss of his mentor, trying to lead the X-Men to follow Professor X's dream, while dealing with his own personal beliefs, you know, his slight lack of idealism, and his anger at humanity. You know, tie that into becoming a father, and the emotional hardships regarding his infected son, and his cloned wife. Dude went through the emotional wringer this season.

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But it was nice to see him come out the other end, having connected with his adult son Cable, and choosing to believe in Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence by extending an olive branch to Bastion in the very last episode. Yeah, what a fantastic arc. Really, really solid. He's almost not a static character. I guess he is, but he definitely still has a journey that he goes through. Yeah, he kind of discovers his own place amongst Xavier's ideals and Magneto's realism, and

27:24
The comics explores that so much more, especially Cyclops within the last decade of X-Men comics. And it'll be interesting to see how the character progresses with his arc in subsequent seasons of this animated show. Let's go ahead and move on to Jean Grey, who is played by Jennifer Hale, who is new to the series. She replaces the original actress, Katherine Disher, who actually voiced Valerie Cooper in this season. Now, Jennifer Hale did a good job here. She did...

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previously voiced Jean in the Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon, so she sounds pretty familiar. Jean played largely a supporting role to Cyclops Arc, though she certainly went through a lot on her own, you know, discovering that she was cloned and that clone bore a child with her husband. Now, you could base an entire season on that emotional conflict, but, you know, as being part of an ensemble, surprisingly, I still felt the weight of what Jean was going through to the show's credit.

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In the end, she chose to accept her circumstances, you know, empathizing with Madeline Pryor and really embracing Cable as her son, who in turn also embraced Jean as his mother. And that all really came full circle when she manifested the Phoenix Force again when her son was about to be killed, you know, reaching into the deepest part of herself to protect her family, even though he wasn't technically her son. Yeah, she went through a really interesting dilemma. Her and Scott and Madeline Pryor.

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It was a weird kind of love triangle because like she was jealous of herself in a way because she retained all of the memories of Madeline Pryor even though she didn't commit the actions that Madeline Pryor did like give birth to Nathan. It's a profound circumstance and I thought they did a great job exploring it with the characters of both Jean Grey and Madeline Pryor. Yeah, you really felt for them. Really good stuff. Let's go to move on to Magneto.

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aka Eric Lencher played by Matthew Watterson who was also new to the series. He takes over from original voice actor David Hamblin who unfortunately also died in 2020. I think Matthew Watterson was spot on in terms of how he sounded. Like again, I didn't even know this wasn't the original actor until I looked it up. But the character of Magneto was a massive player here taking over the X-Men on behalf of Professor X, trying to do things against his standard MO out of respect for his seemingly late friend.

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He had to kind of adopt a new perspective for a time as mutants were starting to become more accepted among humanity, only to have that illusion shattered by Genosha's destruction, proving to himself that he was right all along, and having his initial belief system reinforced that prejudice and otherism will always exist within humanity. I'm not entirely sure that he was right.

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despite the fact that Operation Zero Tolerance was secretly backed by the UN, because the UN had no real idea what Bastion was up to. But the problem, I think, with both Professor X's and Magneto's viewpoints is that it's nearly impossible to describe humanity in general terms. I would say that there were enough Prime Sentinel volunteers to prove Magneto's standpoint, and probably enough shock at Bastion's actions to justify Xavier's hope.

30:32
Yeah, Magneto has always been one of the most interesting Marvel villains. You know, people for a while were saying Thanos was right in terms of what he did in the MCU films. I don't know about that. To me, I think Magneto has always been a character whose actions are more, I don't know about justified, but understandable for sure. Yeah, it's just one of the great thought experiments that the X-Men poses as a concept. Everyone has the sense of justice within them.

31:02
And I think Magneto really speaks to that as compared to Professor X, who speaks to a sense of grace, I would suppose, that's probably not as natural as the sense of justice. You really have to fight for that and push for that. So in a way, you could say Magneto is more relatable than Professor X, but it would be nice to be as idealistic as Professor X, because it's just so much more hopeful. For sure. Yeah.

31:31
I remember in the comics in the 90s when Magneto went good for a while and I think he went under the name Joseph. That was a clone. Actually, I think that was a clone. Yeah. But I love how this show adapts storylines from the X-Men comics and it's always done a great job at that. Yeah, there was definitely a time when Magneto was in charge of the X-Men when Professor X was thought to be dead. He came around to lead the New Mutants characters shortly after they were introduced. But let's go ahead and move on to Bastion.

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aka Sebastian Gilberty, played by Theo James. Theo James crushed it, man. His voice was so unique and terrifying, yet intelligent. I had no idea it was him. And like with this performance, I could totally honestly see him playing the character in live action if the MCU ever goes with Bastion as a villain. Dude, I didn't know this was Theo James. I thought it was recognizable. Motivation-wise, Sebastian is not terribly complex. He wants to destroy mutants because he was born.

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part sentinel, essentially, which is a change from the source material where he's the techno-organic fusion of Nimrod and Mastermold, but I actually liked his origin more here because it made more sense having him as a human-sentinel hybrid than having him just manifest through a magical portal. Yeah, I agree with that. Having him grow up different in the same way that mutants do, but also very much pro-humanities side was...

32:57
Very, very interesting. I think they did a great job adapting that. Yeah, it was a dichotomy that existed with his own mind because he hated mutants, but he also struggled with humanity. You know, he was seen as different by humans. He had abilities. And he was even considered for inclusion with the original X-Men, though his mother denied it. Ultimately, he belonged with neither humans nor mutants. And by the end, he was content to destroy them all, given that he probably already likely felt very alone.

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He rejected the X-Men's offer for mercy at the end, being far too cynical that he and mutants would ever be accepted, essentially being proven right in his last moments when the Magneto protocols were implemented. You know, his last lines were, humanity would rather die than have kids like us. So he's just a tragic figure who was just terribly fascinating. My major gripe with this show was that they introduced Bastion way too late. That's true. That's true. I mean, he was like working behind the scenes.

33:53
but you're right, he wasn't introduced until the latter half of the season. But I also kind of like that, you know, he kind of came out of nowhere to be this powerful influence. Yeah, I mean, the show definitely didn't suffer from any kind of lack of conflict throughout the whole season, but I think I would have liked to have felt Bastion's influence a little bit earlier. Not just with the Sentinels, but him specifically.

34:16
Let's go ahead and move on to Storm, aka Aurora Monroe, who is played by Alice in Seelie Smith. Now she is the original actress from the 90s show. And Alice in Seelie Smith's take on the character was always more grandiose and operatic than I ever thought the character needed to be. And that's an issue that I had with Storm's characterization even from the 90s. You know, they really leaned heavily into the goddess perspective where she was once worshipped in Africa as a weather controlling deity. But since her time with the X-Men, I always read Storm in the comics as a little bit more

34:46
approachable, I guess. I just imagine it would be hard to communicate with Storm from the cartoon because she's so theatrical. Yeah, I guess. Although I don't hate that interpretation of her character, I think I certainly prefer it more than the movie versions that we've received. Oh, for sure. And, you know, you could argue that she wasn't too hard to talk to considering the relationship she had with Jean Grey, which-

35:12
I thought was great. They definitely seemed like really close friends. Yeah, I think the perfect storm lies somewhere in between this cartoon version of Storm and the movie Storm. There's got to be a balance there, I think. She was definitely humbled this season. Oh yeah, I liked Storm's arc here. It was basically the life-death arc from the comics where she temporarily lost her powers due to a weapon created by Forge and she had to re-examine and redefine herself as a human for a time. It's a quintessential

35:40
arc for her character from the comics and you know it's an easy go-to for character building. She basically learns that she doesn't have to fear being a human or a mutant and she can overcome her fear to embrace who she is regardless. The scene right after she lost her power when she's in her room and she's frightened by a lightning strike outside was so profound to me. Like that's right she probably has never encountered weather that she couldn't control.

36:08
I don't know if that scene was from the comics, but I loved it. I don't know if it's from the comics, but it was a quiet, profound moment that I really loved for sure. And her letter to Jean was so well written, too. Like the X-Men are incredible writers. Let me just say, like Nightcrawler's eulogy for Gambit. Oh, dude. Holy shit, man. I just want a series of Nightcrawler performing at like living funerals or something like that, just breaking down all these heroes to their core.

36:37
and just explaining what makes them so special and stuff like that. It was so touching and yet still managed to incorporate so many gambling and card playing terms. But I was like, holy shit, get this guy a Pulitzer in terms of like obituaries, because that was a masterpiece. For sure. Yeah. All the X-Men need to quit their day jobs and become writers, I guess. See, if it was me, I would have just been like, you got to know when to hold them. You got to know when to fold them. Not Nightcrawler. He's above that.

37:07
Yeah. Let's go ahead and move on to Rogue, AKA Anna Marie, played by Lenore Zan. And she is the original actress here. And that was very clear. It was like, oh, this is just, you know, the older version of Rogue. If anything, I think Lenore Zan's voice sounded too old to me. I guess it didn't matter because I did become more accustomed to it as the show went on. But for a long time there, I was like, Rogue really needs to stop smoking. Yeah.

37:33
I will agree with that. Although to be fair, maybe she's older than we thought she was, considering the fact that she did have a relationship with Magneto, who also was like way too old to be in the show if he was a Holocaust survivor. Yeah, well you would think that he was born in the mid-30s and this show takes place in the year 1997, so he's got to be like mid-60s here. And I'm guessing that when he and Rogue had their thing, she must have been really young.

38:02
18, 19, late teens, maybe early 20s. That all being said, Rogue had so much to do in this season. You know, in the comics, like we said earlier, Magneto had a clone named Joseph and she had a fling with him for a time in the books. I like how they brought elements of that here, where she had the secret past with Magneto and that instantly brought attention to her relationship with Gambit, whom she loves, but unlike Magneto, she can never touch. It just drips with drama. And I'm here for it.

38:31
especially as she weighed her options in ruling alongside Magneto. In her heart, she longed to make a difference in that global way. But also in her heart, she truly loved Gambit more. And in the end, she did choose to be with Gambit right before his tragic death, which, holy shit, man, that was heartbreaking. I did not see that coming. That really pumped up the stakes for this series. I was like, holy cow, if Gambit could die, is anyone safe?

39:01
Yeah, anybody could die. Yeah. Yeah. Friggin' Leech! I know. How could you kill Leech, man? He's such an innocent character. And that's just part of the whole tragedy of the attack on Genosha. Yeah, yeah, that was super tragic. From that moment, Rogue's arc was about revenge, which reaches its climax, I think, when she seemingly kills Bolliver Trask, which was shocking, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily out of character for Rogue, considering she used to be a villain.

39:29
and she was acting out of tremendous grief, having lost two men she loved. And also, you know, Bolivar Trask was about to commit suicide anyway. And also he didn't really die because he was a prime sentinel. But it was a fascinating character moment in the moment. I that felt very out of character to me. And I for a time was wondering if she was being manipulated by Sinister or by Bastion, but I guess not. I mean, it was interesting to also get the reactions of the X-Men.

39:57
You had Nightcrawler who was completely shocked and totally against what Rogue had just done. And then you have someone like Wolverine who was like, she just did what we were all wanting to do, you know? Kind of ran the gamut in terms of approval. But yeah, if you read the comics, I think you'd find that it wasn't necessarily too out of character for Rogue. Again, she did used to be a villain. She was raised by Mystique. She's no Boy Scout. We'll say that. Okay. Let's go ahead and move on to Wolverine, aka Logan, who was played by Cal Dodd.

40:24
the one and only Cal Dodd. He will always be the voice in my head when I think of Wolverine. Although he didn't get a whole lot to do here. Outside of some awesome action scenes, he really only served to add some additional drama to the Gene and Scott situation. But you know what? I liked that he kind of took a backseat to let the other X-Men shine. Yeah, I think fans of the character got what they wanted from the character. It blew my mind that they incorporated the fatal attraction story arc from the comics.

40:51
where Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine's bones. Yeah. I did not see that coming. In the comics in the aftermath of that event, Wolverine underwent this sort of physical trauma that left him more feral looking. And of course, you know, he had the bone claws and stuff like that. I wonder if they're going to go with that look for next season. I could see them going with the bone claws. I'm not 100% sure about the whole feral look because he looked a lot like a shaved beast to me during that era of the X-Men. Yeah. I didn't love it.

41:20
Yeah, it was an ass look. Let's be honest. It's like Superman with long hair. It just is not right. Let's go ahead and move on to Jubilee, aka Jubilation Lee, who was played by Holly Chow, who was a new actress taking over from Alice in Court, who voiced the character in the 90s series. Though Alice in Court did play a role here. She played Epsisa, who is the future version of Jubilee. I thought it was a spot on performance by Holly Chow. I think she sounded just like Alice in Court

41:49
Jubilee's arc largely dealt with her relationship with Sunspot. You know, she spent most of the time trying to convince him to accept his mutant self and teach him what it means to be an X-Man. Beyond that, she did get a nice half episode to herself in Mojoverse, where she learned that life can't be all fun and games, which was a good moment of growth for her, especially on her 18th birthday. I thought it was really cool how she saw like the full potential of her power through her future self. I think that definitely helped in the end fight.

42:19
And yeah, for a character that's always seemed kind of weak with just, you know, shooting fireworks this season definitely showed how powerful a character like her can be. I mean, we've all been shot with a Roman candle, right? We've all had a firework go off in our hands. Like Jubilee is not that powerful. But when she does shit like that spiraling, whirling firework that cut through the sentinel and everything like that, that was pretty bad ass. That was cool. She definitely got a power upgrade. Yeah.

42:44
Let's move on to Beast aka Hank McCoy who is played by George Buzza who is the one and only George Buzza. He's so good in this role. He is the voice that I always hear when I think of the Beast character. He was a minor character too this season but like everyone else he got his own moments in the spotlight doing science stuff like determining which gene was real or developing the headband that stopped the Prime Sentinels. Beast is a great character. Moving on to Gambit aka Remy LeBeau.

43:10
He was played by AJ Locascio, who is new in the role, taking over from Chris Potter, who actually did the voice of Cable. And Chris Potter sounded exactly like Josh Brolin in the role of Cable. So I thought that was pretty interesting. Yeah. AJ Locascio was a great replacement. I think he sounded a lot like the version of the character in the 90s show. He also didn't have a lot to do this season. But one could also say that he had the biggest moment of the season when he died saving Genosha. Yeah, sacrificing himself.

43:39
to destroy that giant three-headed master mold was so unbelievably epic and touching. I don't know what else to say about it other than one for me and one for my homie. I didn't actually spill something on the ground because I don't want to ruin my floor. Well, that's just incredibly insincere then. I think you should actually spill something on your floor. It's all right. It does look like Gambit's gonna come back next season as Apocalypse's horseman of death, according to the mid-credits scene.

44:08
that we had. What? Which is- There was a mid-credits scene? Yeah. Fuck! You didn't see it? No. Yeah, there was a mid-credits scene with Apocalypse and he's going through the ruins of Genosha and he is talking about how there was so much death and he like emphasizes death as he's holding one of Gambit's playing cards. Oh, dude. I wish I would have seen that. I need to go back and watch that because that just sounds awesome. Yeah, it's great because Gambit actually was the horseman of death in the comics for a time.

44:38
And you know, he's too good of a character to leave dead. So absolutely. I'm super happy he's coming back. Nice. Well done, Marvel. Holy shit. Let's go to move on to Morph, AKA Kevin Sidney, played by J.P. Karliak, who is new in the role. He was previously voiced by Robin Rubin in the 90s, who actually does the voice of President Robert Kelly in the show.

45:00
Morph was an entirely different character this season from the 90s, but I like how they based his new look off of the Exiles comics version, which was this more neutral looking figure. In the original 90s show, Morph was based off of the character of Changeling, but Morph was never really in the mainstream Marvel universe until the Exiles comic books. They made him non-binary in the show, which totally I think makes sense for Morph. He actually stood out more to me in X-Men 97 than he ever did in the 90s show, I think.

45:28
He didn't have too much to do outside of his friendship with Wolverine, but they have a great friendship and that goes back to the 90s show. And I like how they gave a great moment of closure with Morph and Mr. Sinister. I loved seeing all of the different transformations that Morph had throughout this season, not only as different X-Men like Magic, but also like the Hulk. That was wild. That was crazy. Yeah, he was kind of like a cameo machine. He played Archangel, Blob, Lady Deathstrike, Colossus, Psylocke.

45:56
Sabertooth, Quicksilver, Juggernaut, like you said, the Hulk, Sauron. Oh, Mr. Fantastic was the other one. That was outside of the X-Men. It was awesome. It was really cool. For some reason, I always forgot that he was able to do that. So sometimes I would just randomly see a character and be like, oh, where did they come from? Only to realize it was more, it was fun to watch. Let's go to move on to the final character to discuss, of course, Professor X, aka Charles Xavier, played by Ross

46:24
from John Kolikos who was another voice actor that died in 2020. Dude, 2020 was a horrible year! Well, for many reasons, but yeah, especially for the X-Men voice actors. Ross Marquand has now, I think, cemented himself as the greatest impressionist of all time because holy shit, I didn't even realize that was him. I thought it was the original voice actor. Not only can Ross mimic voices to near perfection, but he also retains all the nuance and the depth of the voice through his acting. It's incredible.

46:54
Honestly, is this the same guy who replaced Hugo weaving as Red Skull? Yes, in Avengers Endgame. Damn crazy. He's like a real life morph. Yeah, he is. He probably could have done more of the voice, too. But Professor X shows up later in the season, abandoning his life in space to be with his X-Men when they need him the most.

47:13
I thought it was nice that he was gone for a time because it let the team grow in an organic way, especially with their former sworn enemy, Magneto as the new leader. But when he came back, I thought it was just, it was epic. I often find Professor X a little bit too idealistic for his own good, but I will say that he is always inspiring. You need someone like that, though. Yeah. I've always loved the dichotomy between Professor X and Magneto. You know, they're often compared to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, but I also love that they're like best friends.

47:43
Like despite their ideological differences, Charles will always fight for Magneto. They're just iconic in that way. They're one of literature's great characters, honestly. Yeah, I will not disagree with that. What was nice this season was that we finally got to see Professor X cut loose with his powers. Like we did hear when he took over Magneto's mind, that moment where they're like clashing against each other face to face, two Titans going head to head. I thought that was just awesome. But that covers all the main characters. So let's go ahead and discuss.

48:12
the episode highlights.

48:21
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49:06
Episode 1 was called To Me, My X-Men. A year after Professor X's assumed death, the X-Men continue fighting for his dream of peaceful mutant and human coexistence. Led by Cyclops, the team save Sunspot from the Friends of Humanity anti-mutant group who have acquired sentinel technology. The team probes Henry Geirich's mind to learn the location of Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels. The X-Men travel there and destroy all the Sentinels and Mastermold

49:35
and remit Trask into UN custody. Cyclops and Jean Grey announce they're leaving the team due to Jean's pregnancy, but they're interrupted by Magneto, who reveals that Professor X left him the Xavier Institute in his will. Uh, we haven't talked about Roberto da Costa, but damn he was annoying. I think we've talked a few times when doing reviews about characters who we know are heroes who spend a majority of their runtime not wanting to be heroes. That was definitely the case with Sunspot.

50:02
It was nice in the end to see him come into his own in his battle against Bastion, but it took a hell of a long time for him to get there. Yeah, to me, he was really just there as someone for the character of Jubilee to play off of. I don't know if it needed to be Robert da Costa. I think I would rather see him appear along with the other new mutants at some point. Yeah, I really didn't care for any time he was on screen. I'll say, though, that his scene with Jubilee dancing in the club was pretty surreal.

50:30
There were a few dance scenes within the course of this show that went on for a while. They were stylistic, but it felt very 90s, you know. That being said, I always like when mutants use their abilities outside of fighting bad guys and, you know, letting off sparks while dancing at a nightclub seems like a great use of power for sure. Yeah, Jubilee could change her name to Raver and that'd be okay.

50:53
Dude, the action scene at the end of this episode when they're going up against the sentinels, everything from when the blackbird gets destroyed and they're all finding ways to land safely on the ground, including Cyclops who uses his optic blasts to cushion his landing and everything like that. I squealed. I was so happy. It was everything I've ever wanted to see, ever. I was so pumped. It was a great scene. The only thing that would have made it better is if it was in live action.

51:19
I still get the whole Cyclops using his power to land safely. He was falling really fast. Well, if you were holding a fire hose and you were falling from the sky and you shot the fire hose at the ground, would it not slow your descent? Not enough to not die. I still have to fight against gravity. Except he can spread out his force blasts to cover a wider area and it's more powerful than a fire hose. So yeah, it would totally work. I mean, I know that ties into his origin.

51:48
when his optic blasts first formed when he was falling out of a plane and he used it to save him and his brother Havoc from dying when they hit the ground. So I appreciated that, but still seeing it like in motion, I was like, I don't know. It works. It works. It was cool. He had that superhero landing. Then it was like to me, my X-Men. And right after that was Storm just like walking across the desert, just like turning all the sand to glass. That was awesome, too. It was incredible, the whole scene and like how

52:18
Beast took over one of the Sentinels. That wouldn't be the last time that he does it this season, but it was such a great way for the character to fight the Sentinels, you know? Yeah, absolutely. At this point in their superhero careers, Sentinels are just like paper people, and it's great to see superheroes just kick ass in that way. Episode 2 is called Mutant Liberation Begins. Magneto begins saving humans as a way to prove to the X-Men that his intentions are genuine. However, he is arrested by the UN to face trial for his past crimes.

52:48
Magneto surrenders, however the trial is ambushed by Friends of Humanity protesters led by Executioner who tries to shoot Magneto with a power dampening blast. Storm gets in the way of the blast and gets depowered. Magneto peacefully stops the assault by carrying Executioner and the UN Special Committee into low orbit to help show his new perspective. Magneto is pardoned and the mutant populated island of Genosha is considered for admission to the UN. Meanwhile, Jean Grey gives birth to Nathan Summers.

53:18
Storm leaves the team and the group is surprised by a visit by another Jean Grey. Great episode. My favorite moment here was when Jean Grey was at the mansion and she tells Wolverine he's here. And he's like, who? Apocalypse? And sheaths his claws, you know, she's like, the baby. He's like, oh no. It's like a sitcom or something. Yeah. You'd think in all of his years that Wolverine would have encountered a situation like that before.

53:45
Justin can drive on sidewalks and stuff like that. It was just comedy gold. Let's go ahead and move on to episode number three, which was called Fire Made Flesh. Running experiments, Beast deduces that the new visitor is the real Jean Grey, and the woman who just gave birth to Nathan is a clone. To strut over the news, Jean's clone is visited by Mr. Sinister, who reveals himself as her creator, manipulating her mind and turning her into the Goblin Queen.

54:12
She makes the X-Men experience frightening telepathic hallucinations based on their worst fears before leaving the mansion to give her son to Mr. Sinister. Having been previously manipulated by Sinister, Morph leads the team to the Villain's lab where Sinister infects Baby Nathan with a modified techno-organic virus in an effort to make the child invincible. The X-Men face off against the Goblin Queen, including Jean Grey who convinces her clone to save the baby. Though Mr. Sinister escapes.

54:41
Cyclops begrudgingly lets Bishop take the child into the future to save his life from the techno-organic virus, and the gene clone, now going by Madeline Pryor, leaves the mansion for Genosha. Meanwhile, Forge meets Storm at a bar. This was a fascinating episode, how they merged the Inferno story with the Mother Iscani story, substituting Bishop for Mother Iscani. It was just a great streamline of multiple story arcs in a way that completely made sense.

55:10
Oh yeah, I loved this episode. It was one of my favorites. And I think I definitely appreciated it more as an adult than I would have watching it as a kid. As a father, I totally related with Cyclops. Just, you know, that'd be really hard to give up your kid to go to a place where you don't even know where they're going. And I loved all of the metal and prior stuff, too. The battle scenes here with her purple and green flaming depictions of power was just really well animated. For sure.

55:37
Yeah, I agree how child endangerment stuff hits a little bit different when once you become a parent, I just felt so bad for that baby. But, you know, we know he's capable now, so we knew that he was in good hands anyway. The Goblin Queen's visions that she induced in the X-Men were borderline TVMA. Like I was like, what the fuck? I thought this was a kids show. Yeah, you know, you had Gambit's vision of rogue and Magneto, like mostly nude fusing together. That was horrifying when Jubilee and Sunspot were watching TV.

56:07
and the girl crawls out from the TV and they slice her in half and like you see her brain and shit. I was like, what is happening here? Yeah, this was the moment when I was like, oh damn, this is not my childhood X-Men cartoon. And I'm here for it. Episode 4 was called Motendo. That was the first part of the episode. The second part of the episode was called Life Death Part 1. In the first part, Jubilee wants to go to the arcade on her 18th birthday, but Magneto refuses.

56:34
Sulk-ing in her room with Sunspot, the two get sucked into a video game console called Montendo, which takes them to Mojo World, where Mojo forces Jubilee and Sunspot to play out her previous adventures with the X-Men in front of the spineless ones, providing Mojo with ratings to feed off of. The pair is saved repeatedly by a mysterious hacker who turns out to be Epsisa, an older digital version of Jubilee created by Mojo for the video game's initial testing. Epsisa convinces Jubilee that life is a grander adventure than gaming.

57:04
the two team up to take down Mojo. Returning to the real world, Jubilee kisses Sunspot. Meanwhile, Forge takes Storm to his ranch and tests his power restoring machine on her. It seemingly fails, and Forge reveals to Storm that he was behind the mutant power dampening tech that stole her mutant abilities. Storm leaves in anger, but is brought back by a demon known as the Adversary, which poisons Forge. So this was probably my least

57:33
favorite episode. As much as I appreciated the callbacks to the old X-Men arcade game, I did think Mojo was pretty funny. I didn't really care for the whole Forge storm adversary thing though. I wasn't expecting to see the adversary here, but I was totally blown away when I saw that he made an appearance because he's always been Forge's greatest.

57:56
adversary, as it were. You know, the adversary was the demon that Forge summoned during his time in the military when he thought he was going to die. He summoned the demon to attack the enemy and the demon actually ended up killing everybody and had been haunting him ever since. I don't know if you remember Forge's backstory in the duel episode against Mr. Terrific, but Forge was actually somewhat of a studied shaman before he developed his mutant abilities which steered him in the direction of science. And so, you know, he had that kind of conflict at an early age. But

58:26
Magic and science has always been an interesting mix for the character of Forge. One thing I noticed about the voice actor for Forge, the sound quality of his voice was not as good as the other characters. So much so that it was noticeable and distracting to me. Yeah, it was a little bit more condensed, I think. And also, it didn't really sound like Forge to me, or would I imagine Forge to sound like this voice actor sounded a little bit older than I would think his voice sounded like.

58:53
That said, I am glad we got to see Forge, because he is an interesting character. I love Forge, yeah. Episode 5 is called Remember It. In it, the UN formally admits the mutant nation of Genosha, which Rogue, Gambit, and Magneto visit. There, Magneto is asked by the Council to lead the country as its Chancellor, and he agrees on the condition that Rogue rules alongside him. Meanwhile, Cyclops has an angry outburst during a television interview after being asked about his son, and telepathically confides in Madeline Pryor,

59:22
which Jean Grey finds out about escalating tensions between her and Cyclops. Rogue admits to Gambit her past with Magneto, that his electromagnetic manipulation allows her to touch him, and that she is considering his offer. Dancing with Magneto at a celebration gala, Rogue ultimately decides that she loves Gambit too much to be with Magneto. Suddenly, Cable appears and attempts to warn Genosha's citizens of an impending attack by a wild mastermold before being pulled away through time.

59:50
Everything turns to chaos as Magneto, Rogue, and Gambit try to save as many people as they can. Enraged at the apparent death of Magneto, Rogue attempts to take Master Mold head on. Gambit prevents her and saves her life. In the end, he is killed when the Sentinel impales him, but he detonates it in his last act, saving the remaining survivors. Rogue weeps as she holds his body.

01:00:17
So the episodes from this season were released week by week, correct? Yeah, I'm so glad I did not watch the show that way because I would have been devastated all week if I couldn't immediately watch the next episode. I would have been depressed. I would have been like, don't talk to me, anybody. I'm just I'm destroyed. If this episode doesn't win an Emmy, I would actually be very surprised because the writing, the drama, I thought was immensely palpable throughout this whole episode. It deserves every award it's going to get.

01:00:46
Did you notice that the Watcher was in the sky above Genosha right before everything went down? No, I did not see that. That was pointed out to me by people on the Discord. That was really cool because it insinuates, if you've seen the What If animated television show, that Genosha's destruction was an absolute point in history, which is something that Beasts references in a later episode. Basically something that couldn't be prevented. Yeah, because Cable tried to prevent it 200 times. Yeah.

01:01:13
I like the cameos that were in this episode of all the mutants that were at Genosha. You had Sebastian Shaw, you had the White Queen, multiple man was there, Dazzler, Leech, Pixie, Glob Herman. It was great to see all those Easter eggs basically. But let's go ahead and move on to episode 6, which is called Life Death Part 2. Shiar Empress LeLondra announces to her people her engagement to Professor X, who was healed from his wounds with alien technology. Meanwhile, Storm cares for Forge's poisoned wound.

01:01:42
when the adversary attacks her. Forge uses shaman magic to expel the demon and Storm confesses her love for him. Back in space, Lelandra's sister Deathbird sees Professor X as an unworthy consort due to his Terran heritage and invokes the Rite of Amdasha, which challenges him to erase all of his Earthbound memories. Storm takes Forge to a cave to find a cactus to heal his poison when she is confronted by the adversary once again.

01:02:06
Admitting that it was more than the executioner's neutralizer holding her powers back, but her fear of living is a mutant once more, Storm abandons her fear, restoring her mutant powers, and she saves Forge. Back in space, Professor X refuses to give up his memories of the X-Men and tries to teach the Shi'ar about coexistence when he receives a psychic vision of the attack on Genosha and decides to return to Earth. Meanwhile, Mr. Sinister tells Bolliver Trask that the attack on Genosha was just the beginning.

01:02:36
This one was actually my least favorite episode, not because it was bad, but it was strange going through these plot detours after the devastating previous episode. I wanted more answers about what happened at Genosha. So I guess just sequencing it after episode five fell off to me. Well, I think they had to tie up some loose ends about what was going on with these characters while what happened at Genosha happened, because you see Storm's reaction to what happened, you see Professor X's reaction.

01:03:06
And in a way, it kind of made you relive the horror of what you saw in the previous episode. I didn't mind this episode. It was kind of a nice break from the intensity that was the attack on Genosha, I thought. Plus, it was just really interesting to see that Professor X was still alive. I didn't know that he was going to be in this show. It was cool to see the Imperial Guard. It's always cool to see the Shi'ar, I think. Eh, they're just Legion knockoffs. I was not impressed. Legion is superheroes, right? Not Legion, Professor X's son.

01:03:35
Yeah, no, you know what I meant. Episode 7 was called Bright Eyes. The X-Men hold a funeral for Gambit, but Rogue skips it as she angrily seeks out Bolivar Trask. She comes into contact with Captain America, who helps her find Henry Gyric in Mexico, but claims he can't help her bring him in without causing an international crisis. Rogue absorbs Henry Gyric's memories to find Trask, but only gets a glimpse, and Gyric is murdered later that night. The X-Men travel to Genosha to help search for survivors.

01:04:02
and they find the White Queen who is saved by her diamond skin secondary mutation. The team gets a message from Bolliver Trask who tells them to go to Madripoor. They pick up Rogue on the way and discover a suicidal Trask hiding at the UN secret Operation Zero tolerance division. Rogue drops Trask off a building in revenge for the Sentinels killing Gambit and thousands on Genosha, but he comes back as a Prime Sentinel. The team is rescued by Cable who uses an EMP grenade

01:04:29
and explains that Mr. Sinister was behind the Genosha attack along with a greater threat which is revealed to be Bastion who has captured Magneto. My big takeaway from here was that the Prime Sentinels are far more scary in motion than they ever were in the comic books. The way they were presented in this show was almost like techno zombies, which I absolutely love. In the comics, Prime Sentinels just felt more like human sized Mark 2 Sentinels, you know?

01:04:55
Yeah, it's always scary when a bad guy could be anybody. You know, they did that with agents in The Matrix. They have that with OMAX in DC Comics. And I remember you mentioning Prime Sentinels in the Bastion backstory from last week's episode. It was interesting to actually see them. This show successfully pulled off what Secret Invasion could not, which was a feeling of tension and paranoia. Absolutely. Especially in like a later episode when you had people like the news reporter lady all of a sudden become a Prime Sentinel.

01:05:25
Yeah. And Sunspot's Butler and stuff like that. It was like, holy shit, who isn't a prime sentinel? All these people are going to kill the X-Men. And they were really cutting into them and there were humans. That was wild to me. Yeah. What did you think of the Captain America cameo? I thought it was good. I loved Rogue's reaction to Captain America refusing to take official action with her in Mexico. She just fucking yeeted his shield and it was like, fuck you. And then peaced out. I think Captain America deserved it. I think.

01:05:55
in general, Marvel's other heroes don't do enough to stand beside their fellow heroes in the X-Men. That was something the Avengers kind of came to terms with in the comics when they formed the Avengers Unity Division, which was a team of both Avengers and X-Men. I'm just really hoping that Captain America had like an apple tag on that shield. He's gonna have to go find it. That's his lesson. Again, characters like the Avengers should be doing a whole lot more to stand alongside the X-Men. Although, you know, this season

01:06:24
planted the seeds for a second season to incorporate Avengers vs X-Men if they decide to go the onslaught route for season 2. Oh that'd be sweet! That'd be really cool. That'd be sick, yeah. Episode 8 is called Tolerance is Extinction, Part 1. Cable explains to the X-Men that Bastion's Prime Sentinel program upgrades and evolves humanity toward a future where mutants are enslaved in a seeming utopia. Going off of one of Cable's leads from the future, Cyclops and Jean Grey visit Bastion's

01:06:54
where they learn that the time traveling sentinel Nimrod infected Bastion's father with nanotech that resulted in his wife giving birth to a son with the powers of technopathy. After Valerie Cooper and the rest of Operation Zero Tolerance express concern with the Genosha massacre, Bastion explains to them that the attack was only to buy time and whittle the mutant population as he prepares to activate the prime sentinels. Human volunteers outfitted with Mr. Sinister's modified techno-organic virus.

01:07:22
They are activated around the world and attack the X-Men and all mutants, burning down the Xavier Institute. Valerie Cooper releases Magneto from Beshyn's imprisonment, admitting that Magneto was right. He flies to the Magnetic North Pole where he causes a worldwide electrical blackout that shuts down the Prime Sentinels. Professor X returns to Earth and telepathically summons the X-Men. This was a fantastic episode, a great first act to the three part finale.

01:07:49
I thought it was really interesting how Operation Zero Tolerance included members such as Dr. Doom and Baron Zemo. Those were some sweet ass cameos for sure. Yeah, that was interesting. That I feel like even more so than like the cameos from Captain America and stuff really opened up the world that this X-Men cartoon takes place in. I mean, I know they had like a cameo with Spider-Man back in the 90s, but it was cool to see all these different characters pop up.

01:08:14
I liked the part with Jubilee when she was going shopping with Sunspot and she got that like black wetsuit. Really that was just a way to get her into her more modern look from the comics because up until that point she was still wearing her denim shorts and her pink t-shirt. Yeah, they all went through look changes in these last three episodes. Did they go back to their 80s costumes? Most of them? Yeah, they went back to the costumes they wore when they had Muir Island as a base because the X-Mansion was destroyed.

01:08:44
So they had to go to Muir Island off the coast of Scotland, and they put on the costumes that they had stored there. I like those costumes. Yeah, they're great. Marvel Girls, not so much. I don't like the Marvel Girl outfit. I prefer Jean Grey's, actually I prefer the Phoenix outfit for Jean Grey. Yeah, that's true. My favorite line from this episode was when the Prime Sentinels invaded the Axe Mansion and were about to kill Rogue as she was comatose on the bed, and Wolverine barges in, and the Prime Sentinel lady is like,

01:09:14
And he's like, lady, I got six reasons why. And then all of a sudden Nightcrawler showed up and he's like, no, my friend, nine. It was like a great pun, great action scene, which was followed almost immediately by the let's show them why you don't mess with the summers part where Cyclops blasts through the mountain while Gene drives and Cable shoots the sentinels. Yeah, so good. So good. Good writing. Yeah, it's probably my favorite episode, I think. Episode nine is called Tolerance's Extinction Part Two.

01:09:41
In it, the X-Men regroup in the destroyed X-Mansion where they decide to split into two teams, Blue Team and Gold Team, to deal with both Bastion and Magneto. Beast and Forge develop a headband to block Bastion's technopathy, while Magneto restores his old Asteroid M base. Magneto confronts the X-Men, telling them to join him, which Rogue and Sunspot do. On their old Muir Island base, the X-Men don their old costumes and set upon their missions, Gold Team going to Bastion's headquarters on the Galapagos Islands,

01:10:10
and Blue Team going into space. The Gold Team fights Bastion-controlled Sentinels as Mr. Sinister takes over Cable's mind, forcing him to attack Jean Grey. She psychically reaches out to Cyclops on Asteroid M, who prevents Professor X from taking over Magneto's mind to restore Earth's power. Wolverine impales Magneto, who subsequently rips the adamantium from Wolverine's body. There was a lot of buildup in this episode until the big action-packed third act, but I thought it was worth it.

01:10:40
Gene fighting Mr. Sinister was epic. And I think the show had a lot of balls to go there with the Wolverine versus Magneto stuff, where he got the adamantium ripped out. I did not think that they would go there. I actually kind of saw it coming. Like right when he impaled Magneto, I was like, OK, obviously Magneto is not going to die here. What's going to happen next? The obvious. It was quite the image, though, that the episode finished on. Yeah, for sure. Episode 10 was called Tolerance is Extinction Part 3.

01:11:09
In it, Professor X controls Magneto's mind, forcing him to restore Earth's power and its magnetic field. This reactivates the Prime Sentinels, but Jean Grey, seeing Cable about to be killed by Bastion, reaches out to the Phoenix Force, who temporarily gives her the power to free Cable. She places the headband that blocks Bastion's connection to the Prime Sentinels on his head, disabling the Prime Sentinels, and she removes Mr. Sinister's stolen mutant powers, reverting him to his centuries-old self.

01:11:36
Bastion rips off Cable's arm and technoforms it into a pair of wings to fly to Asteroid M and try to crash it down to Earth. In space, Rogue and Sunspot intercept Bastion where they fight him in the blue area of the moon, though Bastion fights his way into the asteroid. Blue Team pilots a sentinel robot to join the fight in space, and the X-Men overpower Bastion, preventing him from destroying the asteroid's gravity core.

01:12:01
However, Earth's leaders activate the Magneto protocols to blast the asteroid out of the sky and the missiles hit the gravity core, creating a singularity that swallows Bastion. Cyclops and Jean Grey telepathically say goodbye to Cable as they try and stop asteroid M from crashing into Earth, but Professor X is able to restore Magneto's mind from his earlier psychic assault in enough time for Magneto to reverse the asteroid's fall and send it back into space. At that moment, however,

01:12:30
The asteroid and the X-Men disappear through a time portal that sends Cyclops and Jean Grey into the future to raise their son Cable, and the rest to ancient Egypt where they meet Apocalypse. Bishop and Forge resolve to rescue the team. In a mid-credit scene, present-day Apocalypse finds one of Gambit's playing cards in the ruins of Genosha. At the start of this episode it seemed like they were totally setting up onslaught, but by the end of the episode it seems like they're definitely setting up Age of Apocalypse.

01:12:57
But either way, yeah, it's clear that Gambit's coming back as the horseman of death. Yeah, that's really cool. I love the climax between the X-Men and Bastion. Again, such a great message in how Cyclops decided not to destroy his enemy, but to reason with him. I think they did a terrific job with Bastion, and you can almost see Cyclops and Bastion almost having their own kind of Xavier Magneto relationship. The characters were both just so well done.

01:13:27
Some of the characters were friggin' fighting in space? Yeah, that was weird. Well, I mean, you do have to remember that the bluer area of the moon does have oxygen. That's where the inhumans used to live. But like, Sunspot taking Jubilee down to Earth from Asteroid M didn't make any sense to me. He would have brought back a corpse. Yeah, I did like the fight against Bastion though. Rogue, Cyclops, Sunspot, Jubilee, they all got their time to shine. Beasts coming in and piloting the Sentinel stomping on Bastion, I thought that took the prize. I thought that was really great.

01:13:57
I don't know if I loved the time portal jump at the end. You always kind of want to give the team a little bit of breathing room between their big adventures. It would have been nice to get some kind of closure with the team celebrating their win. But when it comes to the X-Men, they rarely ever get a chance to breathe here. It's being pulled into one adventure after the other. And that was always the nature of the 90s X-Men cartoon. Those seasons rarely ended with closure. They were always setting up the cliffhanger for the next season.

01:14:24
Yeah, honestly, when that time jump happened, I thought they were setting up for something to tie in with the Deadpool movie in some way. And maybe like that's how they were going to get into the MCU universe. Like it was this group of X-Men specifically that were going to be our MCU X-Men. They were just going to make the jump from animation to live action. Obviously interesting. Didn't play out that way. But right when that happened, that's what I suspected. That would have been cool.

01:14:49
I was wondering who was behind the time jump. My first thought was that it was Kang because he played a role in ancient Egypt as Ramitat and also maybe it was a mortis or something like that. It could have even been someone like Fitzroy who is Bishop's enemy and he's able to drain life forces from people to create time portals. I also wonder if it might have had something to do with Bastion getting pulled into the Singularity since he also had Cable's arm with him which had the time sliding technology.

01:15:18
There's a lot of options here, I guess. Do you hope Bastion comes back some way in the next season? I don't think so. I think he was done really well here. And I'd hate for them to revisit that and make it feel repetitive and not give another villain a time to shine. I am really looking forward to Apocalypse. I think that'll be cool to me. Apocalypse is sort of like Super Bastion, just in terms of like his techno morphing and stuff like that. So I think it'll be exciting. But that does it for the series overall. I.

01:15:46
find little to no flaws with this entire season. To me, it was the quintessential X-Men experience. I thought the season perfectly captured the complex themes and the characters of the comic book series in a way that no other project has. I'll be surprised if any forthcoming X-Men movie comes close to touching this season. I know that the show was certainly better than what came previously with the Fox X-Men universe. It just captured everything that I love about the X-Men and was thought-provoking and action-packed and everything good.

01:16:16
I'm giving it five out of five stars, a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah, honestly, I feel like by episode three, I felt like this was going to be a five star show because right off the bat, it was just so phenomenally well made in terms of the visuals, in terms of the writing, in terms of everything. I was just insanely jealous, as I mentioned earlier, you know.

01:16:39
DC fans will often say that DC has the edge when it comes to animation. And I think that may be the case prior to the Spider-Verse films. But I got to say, I think I'm enjoying Marvel animation a lot more than DC animation as of late, which is heartbreaking to admit. But I have to. Well, the Tomorrowverse isn't anything impressive, you know, so I can see where you're coming from there. You know, we usually reserve five star ratings for things that.

01:17:07
are transcendent and that they transcend normal superhero tropes and trappings. Yeah, or they're groundbreaking. Yeah, the X-Men in themselves, I think, as characters are transcendent in that they deal with so many more heavy themes than most other comic book characters. It's just inherent to the franchise. And when you have a series that so perfectly captures the essence of who the X-Men are and how their stories go, then yeah, you have something that feels transcendent.

01:17:35
So while some people may balk at the idea of this getting a perfect rating, I think a lot of X-Men fans out there would agree with this rating. It's just really well done in a way that would be hard to surpass if ever. Yeah, no, I wouldn't call it groundbreaking in terms of bringing something new that we haven't seen before. In a way, this took me back to when I was a child.

01:17:57
But I would call it groundbreaking in that it was so unbelievably true to the spirit of its creator Stan Lee, who wanted to create content for not just kids, but really smart kids who are growing into adulthood. And, you know, they would have stories like this to help them get there. I feel like a lot of animated fare is either very kiddy for little kids like, you know, Teen Titans Go, or it's very mature, like, you know, some of...

01:18:27
DC stuff that they've put out. This to me was a perfect blend of the two, where it wasn't too kiddy and it wasn't too mature. It was perfect. I really have no other way to describe it. There were minor things that I didn't like or were like, whoa, what's up with that? But ultimately, I agree with you. It's the best X-Men project that I've ever seen on screen. DC animation fans beware, Marvel's coming for you. Yes, you. Oh no.

01:18:55
But that does it for this review guys, let us know what you thought about X-Men 97 Season 1 by writing to us at dyna or by visiting us on Instagram, which you can find a link to in our show notes, or by going to our website at dynamicduel.com. And on our site you can also find a link to our Patreon page, where you can join our Dynamic Duo tier and chat with us and fellow listeners, our Fantastic Four tier, which gets you bonus content each month, our X-Force tier that makes you an executive producer of this podcast,

01:19:24
or our newest tier that lets you join our Dynamic Podcast Network. And please don't forget to rate the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Podchaser or on our website. Our next episode is going to be a X-Men tie-in where we pit Warpath, who was a member of X-Force, against the Native American DC hero Black Condor. But that does it for this episode, we want to give a big thanks to our executive producers Ken Johnson, Jon Strosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom.

01:19:53
Miggie Mathengian, Brandon Essergard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yaiten, Austin Wieselowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew Shunk, Dean Mielewski, and Devin Davis for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers. There is no love without sin. Cause I'm freaky like that.