Hogan Reviews

Like many people I loved the X-Men cartoon growing up in the early 90s and so like many people I’m very excited for the upcoming “X-Men 97” series, which is weirdly a fancy name for a sixth season of the original show. So I thought I’d see if I can review the five seasons leading up to the release of 97 though given we have no concrete date other than late 2023 I can’t say if I’ll make it or not, but either way I’ve enjoyed this enough that I’ll want to carry on regardless! I still remember the opening two-parter vividly, seven-or-eight-year-old me was blown away by the more serious tone the show went for (same reason I loved the Batman animated series) so let’s see if that holds up several decades later…

The series kicks off with a great two-parter dubbed “Night of the Sentinels” which sees Jubilee’s parents fighting because her father registered her as “one of them”, i.e. a Mutant and now she’s being hunted by the giant Sentinel robots. The X-Men of Cyclops (fire beams from his eyes, dating Jean), Jean Grey (psi powers, dating Cyclops), Wolverine (super-healing, indestructible skeleton, retractable claws, fancies Jean), Beast (large hairy “monster” who is actually cultured and intelligent), Gambit (cocky Cajun who can charge items and make them explode), Rogue (has the power to steal other powers via touch), Storm (controls the weather) and Morph (can changes into anyone visually), arrive and help, eventually finding the people behind the mutant registration program and putting a stop to it. It’s in Part 2 though that things get grim (for a 90s cartoon anyway) as their escape attempt is blocked and they have to fight a bunch of Sentinels and during the battle Morph is seemingly killed and Beast captured, with Wolverine having to be pulled away from helping his allies. It’s Morph’s death that stuck with me when I watched the show with my brother, even if it’s sadly undone in the next season it’s was still a reminder that things aren’t as clear cut as most cartoons were at the time. The surviving X-Men find the Sentinel HQ, save a captured Jubilee and shut it all down, with Jubilee wanting to join the X-Men as the final part of the story and meeting Professor X.

Rogue moments away from being clonked on the head by a Sentinel.

The next two episodes form a sort-of two-parter as it introduces Magneto and his brotherhood of mutants, starting with him trying to break Beast out of prison and getting annoyed when he replies that he’d rather stay put and get out legally. During this Sabretooth is injured and brought back to the X Mansion by Cyclops, which leads to Wolverine warning everyone that his arch nemesis can’t be trusted. Magneto attacks a missile base and a chemical plant during these two episodes all to get his old friend Xavier’s attention but is stopped, and Sabretooth goes on a rampage in the X Mansion and beyond but is stopped by Wolverine, naturally. We then get an episode with the sewer-dwelling Morlocks (including some fun, very MCU-like banter between Wolverine and Cyclops about his love life that made me laugh) and an episode with Wolverine fighting Sabretooth in the Arctic with the help of local Inuit people before Episode 7 “Slave Island” shows Storm, Gambit and Jubilee traveller to the island of Genosha to see if it really was a paradise for Mutants only for it to be a prison for them instead. It features Storm revealing she has claustrophobia when she’s locked in a box, which I remember being mildly freaked out about (it was probably my introduction to the concept) as well as the first appearance of Cable, who helps Gambit free everyone before vanishing off.

… Yeah sorry, it’s an overdone meme but when it popped up I couldn’t help but screenshot it…

That episode ends with everyone returning to the Mansion only to find it destroyed so the follow up shows the X-Men blaming Russian mutant Colossus only for it to turn out to be Juggernaut instead. We then get a two-parter in all but name that sees a place called Muir Island claiming to be able to “cure” Mutants of their “condition” so Rogue heads there as unlike the other X-Men her power has meant she can’t have skin-on-skin contact with anyone so she feels its more of a curse. She meets some fellow Mutants like Warren Worthington (Angel) and the scientist in charge, Dr. Adler (with is actually Mystique is disguise) and it turns out instead of curing them the machine turns them into slaves of Apocalypse, the villain with perhaps the best booming, cliché-shouting voicework ever. As you’d imagine (if you’re familiar with the X-Men) this double bill once again features Cable, who all this time was after Dr. Adler in order to free his doomed future from Apocalypse. Worthington is turned into Archangel and along with three other mutants form Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen, and together they attack a peace summit but are stopped by the X-Men and Cable, who he himself is stopped from going too far by the X-Men. Apocalypse escapes (even though I’m pretty sure he could’ve killed everyone himself…) and Cable runs off to his own time period. Rogue learns to love who she is and that being a Mutant isn’t something to be “cured”.

I’ll get to the final three episodes in the Spoiler section (if you can really spoil a cartoon that aired 30 years ago…) but overall I was very pleased watching this season because I was worried it might not have aged well, instead it tackles issues such as racism and being comfortable in one’s own skin with careful tact while delivering plenty of fun 90s cartoon action (complete with guns and tanks firing red lasers instead of bullets and shells…) My memory tells me it only gets better from here for at least the next two seasons as well, so looking forward to it!

Overall Thoughts:

“None can overact more THAN APOCALYPSE!!!”

X-Men’s first season establishes the team well alongside the anti-racism message that the comics boasted from the start. Some of the wider storylines are actually quite mature and/or have some fun and quite deep sci-fi concepts (especially the two different time travel based ones!) and plenty of great lines and cheesy villain dialogue. It’s no wonder I loved this show as a kid, I still really enjoyed watching it now!

Episodes 11 and 12 are dubbed “Days of Future Past” but it doesn’t actually adapt the famous comic beyond the idea of someone from the future heading back to the past to try and subvert their doomed future, in this case Bishop (that’s right, they did two different time travellers coming from two different doomed futures to “alter them for the better” storylines back to back!) Bishop is trying to prevent the assassination of Senator Kelly by Gambit, an event that causes a massacre of nearly all Mutants, but Gambit and the X-Men remain unconvinced (especially Gambit!) Everyone apart from Gambit heads to Washington where the hit is due to take place and they confusingly stop “Gambit”, who turns out to be Mystique and save the Senator’s life (from another Mutant so it doesn’t really help his anti-Mutant prejudice) Bishop heads back to his own time hoping he’s made a difference.

“Wait, this guy is from a doomed future as well? They’re like buses…. um, bub.”

The finale shows us Senator Kelly was behind the Sentinels all along and instructs the Master Mold to finalise the plan but it achieves true sentience and decides to replace all of humanity, not just the Mutants, starting with Kelly himself. The X-Men end up teaming with Magneto to take down the Master Mold and his massive army of Sentinels, and due to this Kelly comes round to the idea that Mutants aren’t evil and even gives Beast a pardon from prison (yes he spent the whole Season behind bars!) A nice full circle moment.