My One Problem with X-Men 97 

I like how the fairly straightforward conclusion of “nostalgia bait probably won’t appeal to the kids” reads primarily as an excuse for Nando to ramble about his encyclopedic X-men knowledge for 8-ish minutes.

as a massive ninja turtles fan, that one thing i love most ab them. every generation has a ninja turtles movie or show that's pretty much just for them

I think Young Justice found a decent balance of old and new by season 2, and it was cool because even in season 1 the focus was on the youngsters and you saw them grow into mentors (and become the "old")

X-Men Evolution is also my favorite piece of X-Men media. It’s maybe one of my favorite series of all time.

Oh my GOD X-MEN EVOLUTION!!! That just unlocked something deep in my memories

A part of me wishes Wolverine and the X-Men was getting the revival, hate that Wolverine was center stage BUT it ended on a cliffhanger and all the characters were great 🥲

Discovering the original X-Men cartoon as a kid, changed my life. At 9 years old it WAS life. It started my lifelong love of both this franchise and of comics in general. I'm willing to give this new version a chance and reserve judgement until we get the first few episodes.

If marvel animation are looking to make more cartoons, I’d wish Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur could honestly get a whole animated universe spun out of it. I don’t know if Disney would do it, but I think it would go hard

Marrow would have predated Spyke, whose powers I think are the closest.

This one brought me back. Marvel’s cartoon line up in the 2000’s was legendary. Still watch Spectacular Spider-Man

I'd enjoy a new X-Men project that starred the New Mutants and Generation X characters. I'm all for it.

I'm 30, I grew up on the Animated series and Evolution. I'm beyond psyched for this!

i watched the trailer when it came out and the coments were all just "don't make it woke and it'll be good", "please don't be woke" and "disney will ruin this by making it woke". like, how oblivious do you have to be?

The dancing in X-men: Evoltion is actually directly pulled from Buffy. The craft is them walking around. So wild-I love it!

As a generation x fan growing up. i'd love to see them with a series. every generation should be able to say this is their team of xmen .

The problem with the MCU in general is that thats all there is. You can say whatever you want about DC but the fact that we were not without a Superman just because the movies abandoned him is awsome. We had Suparman & Lois, we had animated movies etc. It sucks that Marvel only focuses on the MCU and doesn't do solo animated movies or any stand alone stuff.

I love how animated shows based on Marvel and DC pretty much turn kids into fans of superheroes

I think any new concept for an X-Men cartoon won't happen until people are cast and they actually have a concept for the MCU X-Men. Meanwhile the Deadpool movie seems like it will reference the cartoon at least in asthetics so 97 makes sense as a placeholder. I do agree that we need something new and that Evo was the best

It's so refreshing to see a video on this that doesn't claim it's going woke lol. It's like people don't understand X-Men

Damn, this is so spot on. I never realized it but it's true. I'm obsessed with Wolverine and my little nephew asked me the other day "how did you meet Wolverine for the first time?" I showed him the 90s animation intro and he was unimpressed, like "ok, cool, I guess". It just hit me now, this kid has grown up without an X-men series, heck, there's even a new Teen Titans he grew up watching, but not an X-Men series, I'm 19 years older than this kid, I cannot expect him to like the ol' ass cartoons of my day and age, there should be new ones tailor to his generation.

The dance scene from Xmen Evolution with Rogue and Kitty is a reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayers scene of Faith Lehane and Buffy Summers dancing. Buffy was inspired by Kitty Pryde as a character so it was a full circle moment.

I'm starting to realize that pretty much all Disney is doing with xmen so far. Professor x in the illuminati has the 90s theme play, when kamala is revealed to be a mutant the theme plays, beast looks like 90s beast, and xmen 97 in general. I'm a big xmen fan so I'm not complaining but this video really brought that to my attention

I agree, although unlike what you said I'm actually not a big fan of the 90s show to begin with. I didn't grow up with it, and I have tried to go back and watch it but I don't think it has aged well at all. I've read the actual comics they've based on though, and they aged a lot better in my opinion. But to be honest, I just hate that the popular opinion now seems to be that the X-Men needs to be stuck being their 90s selves for all eternity when so many great X-Men runs have happened since then, even pretty recent ones.

I can agree with this for sure, I think the best of both worlds is to have this and a new team for younger fans

Bringing back X-Men 97 makes way more sense from a corporate brand perspective, but I completely agree. Despite how LEGENDARY Batman: The Animated Series was, Batman continued to get new animated shows for new generations after that show ended and they were great in their own right. The X-Men are WAY more adaptable for the reasons you stated, so it is kinda odd that we haven’t gotten a Gen Z/Gen Alpha X-Men show yet

spike in x-men evolution was an adaptation of the character Marrow, that in the comics are a woman with the same powers

X-men is also my favorite media franchise. Recently, seeing the fresh creative take of The Fantastic Four poster alongside a literally dusty trailer for Deadpool featuring an almost 25-year-old creative vision of Wolverine really drove home for me how much X-men needs to move on from that thing we loved 25 years ago. X-men as a franchise is about looking forward towards a bright future, not about always looking into the past for what was. We need new creative visions we can fall in love with all over again! I loved Jackman's take on the character and that era of the franchise, but I'm not nostalgic for it, and I'm eager to see a new creative vision for this amazing cast of characters.

My kids actually binge watched the 90’s cartoon without me😂 they are really excited for this one.

I think all the spikey mutants who turned up across TV, film and the Extatics comic were all based on Marrow, a female morlock who could generate extra bones from her body to use as weapons and was an X-Man for a while (mid 90's to late 90's)

It’s about time I see some love for X-Men Evolution! I freaking loved that show!

I think they should do a sequel series to Xmen TAS, call it “The NeXt Generation”. With characters who are the children of the old Xmen like Logan’s daughter X-23.

As a person who has not broken two decades of life yet, I am absolutely excited for this series! I watched through the original show on disney plus a while back and really loved it, and now i'm super excited to see more animated X-men. The show wasn't airing while I was a little kid, but I wouldn't have watched it back then anyway. I was a MLP kid. It feels like I've been watching it since then, though- that trailer music gave me absolute chills!

Chamber is my favorite X-person, Justice for Chamber. Put him in more things.

I think you explained why I've never really been an X-Men fan perfectly. I'm Gen-Z and I never had an X-Men animated show to watch when I was younger. I only really knew about the X-Men as a kid because my mom liked the movies & original animated show.

I completely agree. Turtles and even Star Wars do this expertly. Every generation has a jumping on point. I watched X-Men: Evolution when I was really young, then Wolverine and the X-Men came out when I was 7. Those 2 shows solidified my love for Kitty and Kurt. I agree that other generations deserve that.

They could use the New Mutant characters from the recent movie as the core cast in a new show. As new students at Xavier’s school, they spend each episode under the tutelage of a legacy X-Man hero. It could be like Marvel’s own Young Justice.

Yes! I loved X-Men Evolution too!

Every time a Reddit post comes up about ‘What Marvel show do you want/What is the X-Men project you want from the MCU?’ My answer is the same; Give us a show about the students being students. We don’t need the big names all the time, but make a show about a group of new students, you could have a couple bigger names like Kitty or Rogue, but the rest can be lesser known names or original mutants, and have the show be about school life with mutant powers. Have some of the big names like Scott, Jean and Logan show up every once and a while as teachers, but keep the focus on the students.

So glad you mentioned wolverine and the x-men, wish it had more

I'm a similar age to you and X-men Evolution was a major way that I connected with my younger sibling; we're 7 years apart in age and it was something that brought us together when most of our other interests varied wildly due to our ages. As much as I love reliving that nostalgia, I really wish my own kids had their own X-men (although my 7-year-old did enjoy the couple of episodes of Evolution that we watched together). I contrast that to things like Ninja Turtles, where I've been able to show them "my" Ninja Turtles and how they compare to "their" Ninja Turtles.

I have been thinking this same tbing since it was announced. I OGs are great but there are just so many other really cool characters out there like Manifold, Synch, X-23/Talon, Prodigy, Mone', Bling, Gentle etc.

I never really though about it that way regarding the teams. The animated series and trading cards/ comics borrowed from my uncle cemented a love for a lot of the classic lineup, but I was just out of high-school when I started with the New X-Men / Academy X stories and they're definitely among my favorites. All the stuff with my boys Glob and Beak in the B class was just so damn good, and damn did Beak come in clutch during Exiles, saving the freakin multiverse just by being a stand-up cool dude.

im excited for this but what we really need is a continuation of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes which never even got a finale before it was cancelled

I had just this discussion with my Comics friend, that it looks X-tremely '97. Cuz the thing is it's not '97 anymore - there's a lot of _amazing_ animated stuff around right now and I would have loved to see what contemporary X-Men could be. Like, is it actually aimed at Millenials? Cuz it doesn't look like it'll be _interesting_ for us - it looks outdated and young, but it sure as heck doesn't look like something the youth are gonna give a shit about. There's a part of me thinking there has to be a "twist" we haven't seen from the trailer, because if it's just played straight, I have no idea who exactly it's for.

I don't see a lot of people online who share my sentiments on X-Men: Evolution. I don't have a platform like others, but my idea has always been that the MCU movies should really try to emulate the beats that X-Men: Evo hit. They're in a high school living in Xavier's solely for their powers.. They are actual teens learning how to grow into adults as well as mutant superheroes. I do believe it's similar to what you're saying about the new animated X-Men team, and I agree. I suppose if X-Men '97 works Disney can make a 2000's New Mutants TV series, a 2010s Generation X/Hellions TV series and so on.. but when it comes to the MCU I believe your idea for a new animated show is the basis.

I am assuming that, as they adapt newer story arcs, new X-Men will be introduced hopefully being an entry point not only for new fans but for people who have been out of the loop

Im 18 I grew up with the mcu and wolverine i got into x men the animated series after my uncle gave me his old x men comics finisged it a month or 2 ago loved it personally this couldnt have been better timed

THANK YOU for showing Evolution some love! I always felt like an outcast for enjoying it!

Marrow...also a Morlock, also had a crush on Cannonball

This is so real cuz what got me into the X-Men was Evolution then Marvel vs Capcom and then I see the comics have almost none of the characters on the team I really like haha. I would LOVE to see more X-Men who are newer get more attention outside of the comics :-) my team would be like throw sunspot, karma, armor, x-23 and nature girl or something! They aren't even new but still😭 great video!!

Now that you bring it up, it strikes me that Generation Hope would be a great X-Men team for a cartoon. If you start in a post-Extinction world, you can have a team of young heroes entering a world where the dream is lost, everything seems hopeless, but then use that to show why you shouldn't give up. Using Hope as a lead could be great too, since she's a child born on the run and raised as a solider by Cable, meaning you can easily use her a cynical insert who learns to live up to her namesake.

What your saying does make alot of sense especially when we haven't had a new x-men animated series in 15 years (13 if you count the anime). I'm happy for existing fans of the 90s series and am not uninterested in going back and watching the old show in full myself but creating a sequel to five seasons of content for 30 years ago doesn't feel like a winning formula overall for creating new fans of the franchise.

That version of Xavier dying is directly tied to Cassandra Nova in the Deadpool movie somehow.

I feel like there's a good chance the actual show is very much for kids... the advertising is just playing on nostalgia either because kids don't watch trailers or in hopes of attracting a larger audience.

Born in 90 here. I appreciate TAS, and now that it's aired, I LOVED the first two episode of 97, but X-Men Evolution... if we ever get a continuation of that hoo boy I'd be all over that.

I remember from the days of X-men evolution that Spike was supposed to be a take on Marrow

Interesting take, never thought about it before.

I don’t understand why we don’t have multiple cartoons right now similar to the 00s and 10s animation and length of episodes

How cool would it be to have an X-Men series that has a two to five year time gap between seasons? Younger characters growing into leaders and leaders growing into mentors. The status quo of mutant prejudice and acceptance could meaningfully change. The time skip was one of the best things about Young Justice, and it would work even better with all the generations and team lineups of the X-Men.

This is a very smart take I would have never thought of.

So my background(before you read what I'm about say), is that I'm a 41 year old X-Men obsessive thats been reading since I was 6. Started reading X-Men Classic before reading the modern stuff and it was a year before he cartoon dropped(perfect firestorm). I agree with everything you've said here... I know I'm in the minority saying that I love Teen Titans Go!, and maaaan when I tell you what I wouldn't give to have a silly irrelevant cartoon like that that used X-men characters, I mean it. Of course I still want a more show aimed at a more mature audience, but I'm excited at the idea of having all kinds of X-Men content in the near future.

God I wish it was 1992 again when the only reviews were found in Comics Scene or Wizard magazine and they were brief and weren't lambasting every little detail, just grow the hell up people!!!

The Gifted and Runaways are proofs that you can have different types of X-MEN and mutants characters that can work.

Wasn't that weird dancing thing a scene by scene recreation of that dancing scene from Buffy?

I’m excited for the spin offs from this series: X-Factor Investigation, X-Force, New Mutants, Excalibur, and Alpha Flight would be really cool.

They already have made Marvel cartoons for kids “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends” & “Marvel Super Hero Adventures” Drastically different then what I grew up on

There was also an X-Men anime and a Wolverine anime, have you ever seen them?

You make a good point. However, I think bringing back us olds (people that grew up with this show) is the MCUs way to bridge the gap and get us excited for the X-Men and bring our kids. Those of us in our late 30s/early 40s are the ones with 10+ year olds that they’re targeting to have watch together.

I don't follow the comics but one thing I liked about Evolution was it focused more on the school life. While Jubilee is a teen in the original cartoon, and it was explicitly stated to BE a school, I don't recall ever really seeing it function AS a school or seeing much of them teaching mutants etc.

There's the thesis that the Avengers are ultimately a conservative force fighting for a return to normalcy. The only injustices they deal with are the ones that have "supernatural" origins. Otherwise, the Avengers characters are sanguine and passive about human-on-human injustice. Having a younger version of the X-Men point out that powers should be used to address human-on-human injustices would make the MCU more relevant and more interesting.

I read the comics in the late 80s early 90s and loved most of the books, but Excalibur's initial run was really my jam. It was weird, the art was fantastic, and Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde were front and center without most of the typical X-Men baggage.

Id love to see some Generation X appearances! Fun fact: there was a one off live action Generation X tv show that never went anywhere

Only thing bad about the 97 X-men is that most of the original voice actors are coming back to voice the characters

I’ve been an X-Men fan for a long time and what you said about your favorite x-men being the ones who were your age when you were first reading them never occurred to me and is certainly true in my case. I thought about it and my favorite team of X-people are the New Mutants from the first volume’s back half. Basically from The Mutant Massacre through the end of the run when they became X-Force. That ran from The Summer of 1986 - Early 1991 or basically from the summer before 8th grade through my senior year in high school (X-Force #1 came out just after I graduated). I think the reason they’re doing a continuation of this specific cartoon instead of a more modern team from the comics or a custom roster like X-Men Evolution had is because this is probably the most recognizable team in franchise history AND this is the specific team they’re bringing into the MCU. So bringing this cartoon back is a way to catch newer fans up on this version of x-men before they’re lighting up our local cineplex with yellow spandex. Great Video, keep up the great work.

I would love to be able sit down every Saturday morning and watch a kid-centric X-men cartoon.

I really wanted new mutants to work so bad

New Mutants should have been a new animated series for Gen Z, not a gritty, dark, horror themed YA romance film that almost no one saw due to poor marketing and studio monopoly buyout shenanigans.

Your proposal seems a lot like what Prodigy did for Star Trek

Well said, Nando! While I’m excited for the nostalgia trip, I agree every gen needs an X-Men team to call their own!

It does feel like (mostly millenial) writers of any new X-men wouldn't be able to write good Gen-Z X-men characters. Often, Gen-Z characters devolve into cringe stereotypes.

While I’m excited for this story to be continued and my son has liked watching it with me I totally l understand and agree with the sentiment

oh You're so right I love the Academy X students and the new X-men, I miss having Julian and Surge

But when do we get X-Men '89 ? Or whatever year that was supposed to happen, linked with the arcade game

Hmmmm - I guess what you said is true that 90s series was when I was a young teenager and got hooked. I will argue that the series from then is still watchable. The stories can be related to even if not modern time. My 5 yo son actually loves it even with topics that go over his head - but I read to him comic series. I also hope 97 will feel like a fresh start and be a favorite for younger audiences. I do think we will see more focus on other characters. Night Crawler is one of the select action figures. For sure though, would like to see more series after this.

Not really on topic but i just wanna share how excited i am whenever you drop a video. Even when i flat out disagree w what youre saying i still finish every video like “damn thats some high quality finger lickin youtube” Thanks for all the content Nando :)

3:31 The dancing scene was taken from Buffy the Vampire Slayer actually - you can compare it shot for shot to a scene where Buffy is dancing all flirty with Faith

That's always been the core behind the scenes struggle with X-men, I think. We war between pushing for modern and contemporary heroes and our nostalgia for the classics. It's why there are so many diverse X-men, but we usually just get Scott, Jean, and Logan over and over again. Different eras balance it better or worse, but it's a real struggle.

I was 13 in the mid 80s when I collected X-Men comics, and my favorite characters were Firestar and Kitty Pryde…so yep, that checks.

I wanna watch x-men evolution in the uk so bad, but it’s not available on anything.

I am a 80’s kid & grew up on all X-Men & X affiliated comics & the original X-Men Animated series which I cherished. It took a while but I eventually enjoyed X-Men Evolution as well. Especially the later seasons. It was a different interpretation which I learned to appreciate. Wolverine & the X-Men was ok. I’m just not a fan of Wolverine leading the X-Men ( I know why they did it) & I felt this would’ve been a great transition with Xavier missing, Jean presumably dead for Cyclops & Emma to lead the team. I do wish we would’ve gotten a 2nd season of that. Nostalgia is good but not at the expense of being antiquated. I say all of this to say that instead of bringing back an old series (which I loved) I wished they would’ve went down a similar path that Young Justice did & called it New X-Men similar to the comics. Have the New X-men students go out on covert missions maybe with a different X-men advisor from time to time. (Not every episode) That way you can get some insight from the new team’s perspective & history of the X-Men advisor to keep old fans engaged as well. Cyclops & Emma Frost as Headmaster & Headmistress Main instructors: Magneto, Storm, Rogue, Beast, Dani Moonstone, Angel, Gambit, IceMan, Bishop, Wolverine (Any X-Men) Have already established Teams: X-Force, X-Factor & Excalibur, Generation X Special Episodes Guest Instructors: Moira Mctaggert, Kitty Pride & Nightcrawler (reasoning because they are on Excalibur) Cannonball (X-Force) Banshee (Gen X) New X-Men Team 1st season X-23, Hellion, Surge, Prodigy, Rockslide, Dust, Mercury, Elixir 2nd Season Team (Expand roster examples) Anole, Wind Dancer, Icarus (Jay Guthrie) Honey Badger/Scout, Wither, Oya, Quentin Quire This way you’re bringing in new fans with a new young X-Men team & new stories that can be modernized as well as drawing & keeping older fans interested with the characters we grew up on. Flashback scenes can be used for teaching or if certain students want to learn about specific characters backgrounds & X-Men histories. That way the same stories aren’t being recycled repeatedly. (Phoenix saga, Wolverine’s origin for example)The “New X-Men” can be the bridge to bringing all generations together.

Honestly, do what Evolution did but better in the sense of Xavier's first class of Scott/Jean/the others are teachers, maybe some of the Giant Sized X-Men are teachers as well. Basically, the X-Men that get all the media attention and merch are put as mentors/sidelined so newer/lesser known mutants can take center stage. Let Kitty Pryde be a main player in an X-team alongside some of the New Mutants crew as the elder X-Men show them the ropes in Xavier's School and over comm links/Jean's mental links on the field. Maybe Armor can be a main player too or Negasonic, definitely Pixie and the twins that Gwen uses, there's alot of stories that can be told with them and room for alot of quality stories as well

X-Men Evolution was my introduction to the franchise proper as well!

My counterpoint is that me and a LOT of X-Men fans got into the X-Men from the 90s animated series and the Jim Lee run, which did NOT do what X-Men Evolution did to connect with kids. In the 90s the X-Men were all adults except for Jubilee, and it was melodramatic as hell. As kids at the time, it FELT like more grown up storytelling (less so in retrospect, obviously) and we were excited by that element of it. It didn't FEEL like kiddy stuff. If it worked the first time, I don't see why it wouldn't work now.

The trick to it that's easier to do in comics than movies is have multiple titles running at once. Scott and Jean and Emma and the grown ups do t just become teachers when academy X launches. They have a concurrent title telling their story as well as being present in the younger kids story.

You are the first person I seen that liked evolution the most

I am not a big X Men reader, but i read Avengers Academy when i was in highschool and i am now infinitely attached to a bunch of really deep cut characters

Marvel has a kids show right now, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, that could ABSOLUTELY introduce mutant characters that they could probably make spin-offs of.

X-Men: The Animates Series is how you do an ideal "faithful" adaptation. The melodrama and near-direct lifting of famous stories from the comics, the characters basically being the best refined versions of themselves (Beast in the series was particularly fantastic), and even the incredible use of sound to bring it all to life helped cover the poor animation (though not the visual character design) and very very limited ability to show combat thanks to 1990s cartoon fighting restrictions. X-Men Evolution is how you take an IP and make a high-quality, entertaining adaptation of its own. It had an angle (X-Men with most of the heroes and villains going to school together) that did not keep it from staying sufficiently true to the comics to be recognizable. It really didn't mess any characters up: mature high-schooler Cyclops, a Jean Grey who fittingly got to be one of the most powerful characters in the series (after TAS badly underpowered her), goth Rogue, bubbly Nightcrawler, a featured and ditzy Shadowcat, etc. TAS will always win for me as one of the best animated series I've ever enjoyed - the best "previously" screen ever, the theme song, the use of music in general, and most importantly just how they gave us the "best" version of so many characters. But, as someone who usually is not fond of adaptations that depart too far from the source material, I'll admit that Evolution really did things right!

Never really looked at it that way and you totally have a point. That being said, considering the rampant xenophobia, racism, etc I see in this community maybe the adults can sit down, shut up, and re-learn some of these lessons.

I think what would be a nice idea is making an X-Men: Unlimited series that works in the same vein as Justice League Unlimited worked. We can start where we already see the familiar characters and as the series goes on, we get regular features of the characters that are still being introduced to the wider audience and allow an opportunity to create one (or a few) spinoff series that focuses more on those additional characters.