The two-part season premiere just dropped on Disney Plus and I’m watching right now. It’s a direct continuation of the '90s animated series, picking up sometime after the series finale, with Professor X having been assassinated, Cyclops running the school in his absence, Jean Grey pregnant with his child, and mutant-kind enjoying a reprieve in public opinion.
Most of the original series cast are reprising their roles, and the animation style is definitely on point although definitely more sophisticated than in the hand-drawn era. They’ve definitely recaptured the feel of the original series and the mid-'90s setting, and I’m enjoying what I’m seeing so far.
I’m going to watch it later today and I’m looking forward to it. You might not be surprised that the internet seems to be focusing on the X-Men going woke and the size of Rogue’s butt.
I like the new character design and costume for Magneto. I guess they’re going for a Nelson Mandela-esque role for him right now. According to Google this episode was inspired by a story arc from the ‘80s, and most of the original series’ best episodes were directly adapted from the comics, so I’m looking forward to seeing whether Erik can keep this face turn going.
I read that Cable is going to be in the series, so presumably some time-travel shenanigans are about to be afoot with little Nathan Summers.
The costume is based on Magneto’s look from 85 when he did a face turn. I thought it was a pretty well done storyline back then though I don’t remember too much of the specifics. I also believe that it was ruined a couple years later when Marvel decided to make Magneto a bad guy again, or someone posing as him maybe (spoilers!). Again, I don’t remember the specifics and my comic collecting had lapsed in 89.
I do like the show so far. I can see some of the stuff they are setting up, which is cool, and I’m looking forward to seeing their take on some of these events. I do like seeing Morph again and also seeing him shift through all these X-Men related characters. I had a moment watching it where I was excited to see Archangel and then had a “Oh wait, that’s Morph” moment.
There was a run in New X-Men in the early 2000s, by Grant Morrison, that tried to reverse all of Magneto’s positive character development and turn him back into a moustache twirling super villain. It didn’t take, and it was later retconned that that was someone else impersonating Magneto.
Wow. This got weird fast. I don’t remember Mr. Sinister being this demonic in the original series, but then again that was a kid’s show and this show is presumably meant for aging Gen Xers and Elder Millennials like myself. I guess the Jean we’ve been following so far (who is gorgeously animated as the Goblin Queen) is actually Madelyne Pryor? I wonder at what point in the series she was supposed to have replaced the original - it’s heavily implied that Madelyne was the Jean who lived through the Phoenix Saga. (I swear you need a doctorate to make sense of the Summers family tree.)
I like how they’ve been making subtle changes to the opening credits with each episode. Sunspot running from the mob and getting caught in a chain-link fence like Jubilee did in the original intro is a nice touch.
Favorite moments; “And then there’s Morph”, Beast quoting Jabberwocky while fighting the demons, Cyclops using his eye laser to charge up Bishop’s kinetic blast followed by a simultaneous “You’re welcome”, Wolverine getting Real Jean to remember herself by alluding to their forbidden love, Cyclops eye-blasting the hell out of Mr. Sinister in the middle of his monologue.
Bishop’s going to the future to find a cure for Nathan - presumably this is going to result in his becoming Cable. Madelyne’s parting monologue to Nathan got me a little teary-eyed.
It speaks to how well these classic comic book story arcs were constructed that they can be retold in different mediums, with different versions of the characters at different points in their lives, and it still works just as well as the original. It’s almost got a folk-tale sort of quality to it.
This ep seemed so fast to me. They condensed years of story into one episode. I liked it and I know more stuff is coming but I feel like they could have slowed down a bit and extended the storyline for a couple episodes.
That being said, I think Morph is becoming my favorite character. I also liked seeing Forge’s intro into the story, I liked him as well back when.
Episode 4 is a twofer. Took me awhile to get to this one.
“Motendo”
This is a fun monster-of-the-week type episode. I barely remember the Mojo arc in the original series, but this seems like an entertaining followup to it, and I liked the references to the classic X-Men arcade game.
Jubilee and Sunspot make a cute couple.
“Lifedeath Part 1”
Can’t say I was familiar with Forge before now. Being able to invent any device you can imagine, without even entirely understanding how it works, is a very Rick-and-Morty-ish power to have, so seeing it played straight is unusual. Not really sure where this story is going yet, but “the Adversary” seems pretty terrifying.
I never watched the original cartoon, but I’m familiar with most of these plots from the comics, and have been enjoying it for that. I particularly like that they didn’t flanderize Magneto when he turned into a good guy. “Don’t make me let you down,” is a fantastic line.
One thing I’m curious about: Morph regularly turns into X-Men characters that don’t appear to be in the show, such as Majick, or Psylocke. Are they people Morph has actually met, or are they forms he “made up,” and thus, they don’t actually exist as individuals in the show’s universe?
I never saw X-Men The Animated Series (and in fact before googling today never knew it was a seperate thing from X-Men Evolution) but have decided to give the series a watch and then continue on to X-Men 97 if it interests me. According to Wikipedia Psylocke was in two episodes of TAS and Magik in one (though as a non-powered child).
I finally got around to see this and I’ve been enjoying it immensely even though it suffers a little from the stiffness of the original cartoon. They changed my mind with the last three episodes with only one more left. They have been pulling out the stops with the animation and fluidity of the fights.
I started buying the X-Men comics in the mid nineties and it’s been fun seeing some of the old stories come to life (but not old enough to make it in the original show)
