X-MEN '97: Destroying Nostalgia for the Greater Good 

What are your favorite comic book animated series?

This one show did with 10 episodes what fox couldn’t do in 20 years. Show the X-Men proper respect

This show needs to be studied by anyone who wants to bring back an old IP. It’s faithful to the original, while also moving it forward.

If we get a Daredevil show with this animation style, adapting the Miller, Nocenti, or Bendis runs... His will be done 🙏🙏🙏🙏

One thing I really loved about X-Men `97 was how it effectively used one of the worst tropes of most revival series to play with expectations. In Remember It, Nightcrawler comes in at the last minute to make a save, gets hit, and you're left thinking "Oh great, here we go again. They've brought in a fan favourite minor character from the old show for one episode only to kill him off for some easy shock value". But then they hit you with the relief that he's alive, only to then turn around and kill off Gambit instead! One of the main cast members! And he doesn't go out in some sudden stupid shock death either. He gets to go out in a truly epic moment that is all his own, making a meaningful sacrifice. And he isn't just dismissed right afterward. His memory lingers across the rest of the season.

I bought that Claremont comic with my very own money and read it over and over, as a teenager. I couldn't be prouder of this story. X-Men forever.

Another fun fact. The director and storyboard artist of the original intro Larry Houston was also the storyboard artist for the new sequences in X-Men 97's intro. So anytime you see new character titles such as Magneto, Morph, Bishop, and Nightcrawler its Larry doing them.

Episode 5 was one of the biggest "oh wait Marvel is back" moments I've had in a while. It's clear the team loves the source material so much, we need more Marvel projects with creatives like this!

Pour one out for my favorite Cajun. I was not expecting the show to hit that hard.

I love the Cyclops Renaissance brought on by this show.

The “I hope these cameos don’t take the eye off the X-me- OH MY GOD IT’S DAREDEVIL” comment got me, and was exactly how I felt too. For real though, this show was surprisingly outstanding, and I hope the show continues to push the envelope and keep the surprises and character evolutions coming rather than fall into the trap of tropes and treading the status quo. Great analysis as always, MD!

One of the best reboots ever staying true to the foundation but modernizing it as well

13:36 I felt your excitement seeing a wild Daredevil

Not liking xmen in space is crazy to me, i think X-Men already have enough ti be standalone characters, stretching their influence to space is just as cool as time travel imo

I never grew up with X-Men TAS and only watched it in my 20s so there was no childhood nostalgia to pander to with me but I was absolutely blown away the show and its depth and emotional maturity. Not every story was adapted perfectly but the focus on character combined with a wider scope and beautiful animation was a sight to behold, especially "Remember It". While I'm personally hoping for a revival of the Silver Surfer show because that was a beautiful gem that's often overlooked, I really just hope Marvel starts remembering to take animation more seriously and to give people other than the Avengers the spotlight.

"Destroying nostalgia for the greater good." You need to get this on some shirts man. That tagline is hard.

What I love about this show is how it managed to bring together people who grew up with the original 90s X-Men: The Animated Series and those who may have been to young to initially see it and manages to show both what makes the X-Men who they are and why they still remain culturally relevant today.

This show converted me from a Claremont X-Men skeptic to a true believer.

It's uncanny how peak good this how is. It is a revival done damn well and then some, right next to DuckTales 2017.

It's Wednesday. You know what that means, a Matt Draper banger

It's such a weird show lol, it's cool definitely, but I think the best adaptation has to be X-Men Evolution, done with class, self respect, and really well written especially seasons 2 to 4.

Gotta love our good old Daredevil trying to fight an enemy that's way above his pay grade, getting his ass beat and still getting back up. Also, yeah, this show was amazing and episode 5 will go down in history as some of the best superhero media ever made.

Yes, Morph is a cameo machine, but they’re also lowkey my favorite character. They’re rediscovering themselves after the torment of Sinister’s mind control, learning how to have fun with the people they love. And their love confession in the finale, only able to admit their true feelings to Logan while hiding behind Jean’s face, is the most heartbreaking moment of the season for me. I hope Morph gets more time to sort through all these feelings next season.

X-Men 97 will go down as one of the best marvel shows ever made since Daredevil everything was so great episode 5 show everyone that the handcuffs was off and they'll have to worry about censorship anymore this is a full-on mature adult show and I'll be hearing to go to bring back the Spider-Man 90 series and I hope so too

I like that there weren’t many distracting cameos tbh. It really shows that everyone else is counting on the X-Men

fun and a little nostalgic seeing you talk about cape stuff again! you were my favorite comictuber once upon a time, though now i guess that spot goes to favorite horror/film youtuber? lmao

The original series had cameos all the time also. So cameos in new series is inline with what came before.

Matt back again talking about mainstream cape? I’d say we’re back but we were never gone

17:03 The show writers understand it's about the X-Men as a whole team. As good as Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is the Fox movies that weren't his 3 solo films ended up being Wolverine films featuring the X-Men rather than X-Men films.

The theme for the 92' show was just so awesome. There was no way you didn't get hyped up for the episode. And yes Matt, 'previously, on X-Men!' was nicely done👍😎

I absolutely love most of all, that Marvel was like oh, the general audience thinks Fox studios X-Men is what X-Men is really about.. "hold my Scott and Jean photo frame.." and straight Cooked em with Xmen 97'🔥😎

Matt : I hope season two doesn’t go full non stop cameos through ou- Daredevil cameos: omg it’s daredevil by the way when’s born again

Thanks for the amazing video Matt. Big xmen fan ❤

As someone who became a fan of superheroes mainly through the X-Men films, and as someone who hasn't watched the 90's animated series (having started after seeing '97), this show was just all kinds of amazing. This show helped reignite my love for comics and superheroes after suffering some fatigue for a few years. And this show helped make the X-Men my favourite superhero team. The moment it started, I was hooked and it left me feeling real highs and lows with what happened with the story and characters. I'm beyond excited for season 2.

The Claremont omnibus is so good! I borrowed it from the library!

SO READY FOR THIS

Dang I have yet to fully watch the show but now I really need to. This show keeps being faithful by adapting the classic stories. Thanks Matt I didn't even know you made this video. Keep making more my friend

The series finale pioneered the method of onslaught. That powers synergy.

Matt Draper covering X-Men 97?? But he’s not a comic book channel!

Its concerning to me that we *still* dont know why exactly Beau DeMayo was fired. I want to commend his work on the show, as his writing IS excellent, but until we know which of the two parties was the asshole, I feel the need to hold my tongue But I will say, critical as I am of disney as a company, the stories of how DeMayo acted behind the scenes of his previous projects and the fact that disney fired him RIGHT before the show came out (bad PR right off the bat, not something done lightly) do not spell confidence in DeMayo

Episode 5 filled me with such a sense of awe and dread that I had not felt in a long time. And I knew right then and there that this show was the best thing Marvel Studios ever greenlit.

I just finished watching your apes video this second, and BAM, another one about something I like! I'm a sub now.

It is a good adaptation, rushed storylines notwithstanding, but my main gripe was getting rid of Roberto's backstory as a victim of antiblack racism (the reason his mutation manifested in the comics). The intersectionality between real life and scifi minorities (the mutant metaphor) is one of the biggest points of X-Men and it's pretty shitty they got rid of that with Sunspot

Godzilla '98 (animated series) needs to have its revival next 😏

97 does what I want to see more, not revel in nostalgia for the sake of itself, but understand why the nostalgia exists and use that as a jumping off point and continuation. So many revival or nostalgia properties seem to only understand themselves through memes and what's persisted through the zeitgeist and are just vehicles to simply shout "hey remember this thing you liked! Here's its shambling corpse drug out to oggle at and recognize". Great nostalgia revivals capture the soul but feel like the first time by knowing how to be fresh and novel. I think 97 did that. My only knock is the length. It was a little to breakneck and economical in its story telling and I'd have liked to see a little more breathing room and not burn through so much material so quickly. This could have been 30 episodes to cover the same stories and not felt plodding.

Season 4 of the original series basically became the Wolverine and Beast show with cameos from a different X-Man every episode so I didn't mind Wolvey and Beast taking a back seat in 97 so the other team members could get more focus. Especially Cyclops who was done so dirty in the movies.

Personally, I don't know if a DC Animated Universe revival is possible with the absence of the late great Kevin Conroy and Arleen Sorkin (as well as the subsequent retirement of Mark Hamill as the Joker), but it might be done through the introduction of solo TV shows featuring other members of the Justice League and other superheroes. Examples would include a Superman revival with either Tim Daly or George Newbern as Clark, a solo Wonder Woman cartoon, a Green Lantern cartoon featuring John Stewart and Kyle Rayner, a Flash cartoon, a Nightwing series set in Bludhaven, and a Legion of Superheroes show featuring Supergirl and Brainiac 5. They could also use this opportunity to revive their cancelled projects, such as the DCAU Teen Titans series, the Lobo series (if they're wanting to compete with the Deadpool films), and both the Catwoman and Gotham Girls series (don't know how either would work without Conroy and Sorkin though) These are just my thoughts, but I'm curious to see what you think and what other ideas could potentially be at DC Studios' disposal.

"In the past few years, superhero movies/tv shows have been looking more and more to the past, in search of something to reignite audiences...." Let's not lose sight of the timeline and perpetuate a false narrative; this show went into development during the (first) height of the MCU's popularity, and therefore could not possibly have been a response to the post-Endgame, pandemic-created and Disney greed-motivated loss of box office dominance and s'media group-think "fatigue" narrative.

Magneto's arc genuinely made me happy. I was expecting them to so completely villanize and brainwash him considering the comics it was adapting. To see them subvert it in such a powerful way brought tears to my eyes.

Awesome new vid, fantastic revival.

Geez had no idea you felt the way about superhero content that you did I feel it's still awesome

I can only hope this show remains good beyond Season 1. I would hate for people to say X Men 97 is a show that starts off right then goes extremely wrong.

When it comes to Comics, I'm a Marvel Maniac. When it comes to my bread and butter in Marvel there are two. Spider-Man and the X-Men. This show is what it means to do something with heart and devotion. Something you don't see in Comic Book media as much now When it comes to cranking out movie after movie to make money and Expand a uncertain Cinematic universe. But this show knew how to treat the material of the source. The death of fan favorite Gambit was a sucker punch to the gut. The Genosha incident was a flash back of 9/11. The teasing of the Age of Apocalypse storyline in season 2 and the blueprint of the coming of Onslaught is brilliant.

Ofc a show this good would make Matt talk about comics again in some form 😂

i feel the creators of '97 were extreme x-men comicbook fans and did all they could to cram their favorite stories into this show because it could be the only chance they get to adapt these extremely risky arcs. I'm hoping for an AVX in the future but this season 1 made me proud to be an x-men fan again.

The only time i was really taken out of it were those goofy ass 3d skeletons in the astral realm

So good, cant wait for season 2.

The revival of this show and making it feel more adult gives he hope that Marvel animation will continue this more adult approach. I also hope other studios see this and can perform a similar job for other shows that can be brought back and be made more serious and mature *cough* Teen Titans *cough*

If they never give us live action X-Men, this is sufficient enough for me.

This is an amazing video I loved it :)

Remember when this guy made videos about comic books yeah me too

I think they can get away with a Spider-man 98 but only if they have the BALLS to give us the original Clone Saga ended with MJ and Peter having a baby while Ben Riley takes up the roll of Spider-man.

Sorry babygirl, Matt dropped a new vid. I’ll call you an Uber

I was depressed when the only time rouge could touch gambit without hospitalizing or killing him is when he's dead

When I first watched it, I thought it was the 90s series but with better animation, but with this...I'll try watching again....but more glad, they're taking off classic comics

The animated series scripts inspired the age of apocalypse in the comics. The animated series did some new stuff. The comics were published before the script episode aired. But the script was first.

Remember it will be one of my favorite episodes of any show this year live action or otherwise.

I love x-men 97 this show gave me everything I ever wanted also even cooler I was so happy this show did my favorite team justice in my opinion.

When the show creators said Bastion appears in the background of multiple episodes, it lead me to want to rewatch them all to try and find him. I kept hoping Mystique was somewhere hidden too, when it became apparent that she wasn't Val Cooper.

Nice use of that Tangerine Dream piece from Risky Business.

Another great video on a surprisingly great show. I never finished the 92 series, and didn't expect much from 97, but absolutely fell in love with it - to the point where I think it might just be the best X-Men adaptation we've gotten. Can't wait for more.

Great video bub!

Matt I have to ask based on when you were touching on how the best medium for comics adaptations is animated tv ( I hugely agree btw) I have to ask if you have seen the invincible show and if so what thoughts you have on it?

Dude. You kill it 👏

That's an interesting filter you had over the OG show. Was that to obscure the poor video quality or just avoid copyright strikes?

You’ve mentioned being burnt out on superheroes, but is there any chance you’ll cover some non-superhero comics in the future? It would be great to see you talk about that medium again. I don’t know if you’ve ever read it, but I would love to hear your thoughts on IDW’s Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye/Lost Light for example.

My hope for Marvel animation is Daredevil TAS. I can't get enough of the comic accurate DD aesthetic in motion.

Been a week but wow quick response to end of the series. Need to rewatch everything. Will you be doing films like Transformers or Heavens gate 1980s?

If they bring the Krakoa x Arakko storylines in the next season, I'll lose my entire existence lol, since I already lost my mind during the first season.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation on Netflix does a similar approach. Especially with the "safe and familiar" first episode that's most like the old show leading to big changes and modern sensibilites

Hope this means more X-Men Comics related videos from you in the Future!

I would love it if they continued the Spider Man animated series too!

18:15 correct me if i'm wrong but isn't that outta Krakoa X-Men with Orchis and Nimrod? Human s evolve with tech while mutants are vastly depleted and in a thousand or two thousand years, they're gone?

I feel this show is the best reboot I've seen. While it does welcome old viewers by returning the actors, the callback to the opening and ending, as well as the animation being the best I've ever seen. I've never watched the original, but this show is the best in returning to the story. Also Cyclops is the GOAT.

Masterpiece of a show

we need a modern day ff show that focuseson the family dynamic, also are the original creators still supervisoring the show I heard they were fired

Never saw the og series but I have always been an x men fan and I thought it was perfectly fine since I priced it all together

Love the Batman Returns reference 😅

Nostalgia is very dangerous This series has a lot in common with the works of ZS MOS and bVs share the same idea of taking story beats but adapting it into a different story of its own. That is what adaptions do right? Beau has stated online he is a fan of ZS. Nostalgia is great in what it does. And, bad when used improperly and as a basis for new works Considering we are talking about comics where cannon has become cannon fodder it is strange isn't it?

I'm torn, the adult tone is working so well but they still try to cram so much stuff in with recontextualized classic comic plot points and scenes everytime they can. The show is good the story make sense but it is very very full by the end I was wondering if they would be any comic storyline to pull from if they use only the best bits of everything like this.

Ooohhh!!!!Yes !! *#JLA* !!!

Oh I missed you talking about comic stuff matt

Watched any Disney TV Animation shows that might be worth making a video about? May I suggest Gravity Falls, Amphibia or The Owl House?

any new or old X-fans out here who haven't checked out X-Men Grand Design should give it go. Its a sweet spot of all the classic good stuff in one place.

Well, Vivzie did say that Hazbin Season 2 might take a year or so to make, so here's hoping for a Spawn revival in the meantime!

when are you going to make another video on a comic book again like animal man,house of x/powers of x,doom patrol by grant morrison, I really miss those

I'm pretty sure about the three source material books they are implying with the finale. The end credits scene being the lesser of the three. Seriously all these people chanting "Gambit as Death" haven't actually read Blood of Apocalypse. If you did, you wouldn't want it. I also think the handling of that scene with Xavier and Magneto has all but negated Onslaught, to be fair. I am curious/concerned where they go from there? While Apocalypse does get his best story ala The Twelve, after OZT. They basically covered those beats in the show with Beyond Good and Evil. I would recommend they skip everything after OZT til Grant Morrison's All-New X-Men. Post-OZT, X-Men is quite aimless heading into the 2000's. A surprisingly bad returning run from Claremont hammering that home. I really wouldn't want to see the Neo or the Goth animated...

yo matt draper it would be cool to see you cover frank millers wolverine comics one day if you ever get the time

I don't know if I agree a decade ago Wolverine was a main focus in comics the X-Men comics have been pretty fair would the screen time of everyone it's not like the movies where its wolverine and the X-Men

DC will have Batman Caped Crusaders as the closest thing to X-Men 97