X-MEN 97 Review - Was it the Best X-MEN of All Time? 

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"Was it bad" in the thumbnail of what is arguably Marvel's top TV Show is nasty work 😭😭

Click bait title, it's one of Disney's best shows in a long time.

I'm gonna go against the grain - after having suffered through the latter seasons of things like the Arrowverse, I was extremely grateful for the quick storytelling and next to no filler. Straight to the point storytelling was a breath of fresh air.

Remember it broke me!!! When Magneto spoke German to Leach telling him don’t be afraid… man I cried ugly tears and then Rogue saying Suga I can’t feel you….that just did it for me.

To any fans who are not watching X-Men 97 i say good riddance! Tired of salty fanboys and fangirls getting triggered over trivial issues. Because the reality is that the mutant narrative has always been about racism. Along with that, they have always dealt with all types of bigotry. So, I fail to see why some "fans" are upset with the context of the series. It is a truly amazing series that dealt with real-life issues.

Marvel finally put out a disney+ show I liked more than wandavision and loki, I personally think it was incredible

And this is the problem with the fandom today.. we literally just witnessed marvel’s highest rated show ever and we are sitting here nitpicking trying to find anything wrong with it. The show was amazing why can’t we just finally accept something for what it is and appreciate it?? The show was amazing! Just appreciate it man..

I get that clickbait sadly works, but having Is it bad? in the thumbnail looks terrible.

Screen crush doesn’t need the trigger thumbnail. Show was awesome.

Me reading the thumbnail: Nuh uh

I'm going to disagree regarding the pace of the show being too fast. It was so refreshing to not have plotlines and story arcs stretched to the point of ceasing to care about them. It's the very frenetic pace of the show itself that gives it this manic, almost crazed energy that I love. It forces you to pay attention. I'm in the advanced class, though, being an old comic nerd. For those new to the media I imagine it may have been hard to follow. Now if it had not been so well written, the speed would have really worked against it.

Nit picking at its finest. As a person who lived through the cash grab of the 90s- Bravo. Many of the story lines in the 90s didn't need to be as long as they were. I hated buying 15 different titles to follow one story. This medium is telling the story in a condensed way. Allowing new people to be vested while satisfying old readers. Mission accomplished.

Gambit’s death was the high point because the entire 90s series set the back story of Rogue and his relationship making it that much more heartbreaking. Gambit was a lot of people’s favorite character.

Beau demayo , and his animated team deserves all the praise , and awards this year i hope when they make live action Xmen they learn from these writers ,and do it justice like the comics.

Gambit being the horsemen of death is going to be epic i hope wolverine become war too.

Honestly, for me, what really sold the show was episode 2. It was with Magento speech over the earth. Sure it wasn't action pack, but it had very strong dialogue. The way Magento describes how we should share this world was so impactful, like it was treating its audience as adults. Especially since it hits so close to home today. It was so similar to the Justice League ep, where batman was talking to Ace, very impactful with so little time.

To be fair comics notoriously draw out their stories to sell more copies. Just cause a story took 2 years irl for comics doesn't mean it needed to be that long. It's entirely possible to tell a story in 30mins.

Ryan in case you missed it. Apocalypse says so much death while holding gambit’s card. Referring to Gambit being resurrected as the horseman of death.

This show flipped me from a lifetime Wolverine guy to hardcore Cyclops Stan

There didn’t need to be any “fleshing out” for any character because we are literally revisiting every character we are already familiar with. All this was done in the original 90s animated show and this show is a continuation of that. If you want to have the odd episode that explores these characters further, you’ve got five seasons of content you can watch. This also the first time Marvel Studios were doing something like this so it makes sense they were skeptical going into it. That could be the reasoning behind only ten episodes. But at the end of the day even this is irrelevant because the storytelling within those ten episodes was perfect.

Everyone complains about filler and then we don’t get the how we complain about not enough lol

Really love this show! As someone who is almost 50, I’m just glad to be alive watching this show!!

As someone who hasn’t read a single comic other than the Storm storyline, I didn’t feel anything was rushed or shortened. But I would’ve loved one more episode of Bastion ruining the world to feel the doom more.

X-Men ‘97’s version of Inferno was much much better than the comic version.

You gotta be not paying attention to not know that Phoenix was going to show up and at the time she did. Also to not realized that Gambit will be back as Death from the ending shown and the way Apocalypse paused before saying "Death"

"Somehow, the Phoenix Force has returned."

Ummm Phoenix was literally foreshadowed since Episode 1 my guy. Madalyne/Jean talks about being Phoenix. Phoenix is in the literal intro for the show. Storm brings up to Jean how much seeing her as Phoenix and rise from the ashes inspired her. Jean and Cyclops talk about the fight on blue side of the moon as Phoenix against the Shiar and her sacrifice. Rogue... when she turned over to Magneto... laments how many times Jean had to die and return as the Phoenix. For as many times as they mentioned or talked about the Phoenix throughout the show, I would have been more shocked that the Phoenix didnt show up. In fact, I figured it would happen as soon as Cable "killed" Jean in episode 9. I mean, come on, pay attention fellas.

Xmen 97 is a continuation of the original animated series, which featured 22min episodes of rapidly paced storytelling for a young audience. I don’t think we have any right to be comparing it to comics. This isn’t a continuation of comics, and comics are NOT a prerequisite or a viable benchmark for judging this show. This show took its preceding seasons and vastly improved the weight of storytelling and animation. You cannot expect more.

Please learn from them, MCU! The shared universe before yours!

What Matt seem not to understand is those of us who never read those particular comics don't know the story. So with X-Men 97 presses all these comics together I wouldn't know the difference. I just follow the stories given, with no expectations of what story lines they crunch together. I must say expectations really kill perception. Lastly, If they took weeks to flesh out a story line like Life/Death how many episodes do you think Disney's gonna pay for? Less can be more so what you really want is fewer stories used per season.

No, there's no better filling than waking up on a Saturday morning, serving yourself a bowl of Lucky Charms and turning on the TV. 😊

Not only did they improve the animation and by extension the action but something that hit me and I've seen no on notice is the sound design. The sound effects on this show are way better than the original and the show is way better for it. I completely agree with Ryan. I thought this show was nearly flawless and maybe the best thing Marvel has done next to Endgame. But as you said I thought the phoenix scene was like "we are throwing everything at you now" and a little bit "Phoenix Ex Machina" I really loved everything else about the show but I really hope they don't keep writing Pheonix as Jean Grey's finishing move.

The pacing was great...literally the same as a Saturday morning cartoon. We moan about dragged out plots and this kept it tight so it worked still.

I really enjoyed that they cut the fat from the series, i dont really need filler. I dont need an episode about them letting drunk and fighting juggernaut. Ive waited since 96 for this i dont need a slow show

It really pained me to learn that "Echo", probably one of the worst shows Marvel has put out next to She-HULK and Secret Invasion didn't get better viewership numbers. I really must live in a bubble, because I kept seeing stuff for X-Men 97 online all over the place. I hope once the word gets out, the numbers will start creeping up to where they need to be. And when/if the bring the X-Men into the movie universe, Beau DeMayo needs to be in that writers room.

Is Mike's superpower the power of interrupting people?? Lol 😂😂

Some ppl are NEVER happy/satisfied. When we get shows like Daredevil (Netflix) where we GOT those “filler” episodes, ppl complained that the show was too dragged out & those episodes were NOT needed. Now we get X-Men’97 without those moments & NOW the complaint is that we “NEEDED the filler episodes”. Sounds like what was “needed” was something to complain about.

It's a fact that it was barely marketed. I talked to individuals in the Disney company about it and they barely put any money in compared to the other products to advertise the show.

Okay i want that full video essay juxtaposing Glee as an adaptation of the Xmen. Make it happen lol

It was as close to perfect as possible.

The A on Apocalypse isn't for his name, it's a Greek letter for he is the god of old, Alpha to the Omega mutants.

Ryan, Love this channel I have always been a fan of your content but I have been positively glued over the past few months! Got my friends to start watching too!

Ryan Arey and Mike Lawrence talking about something they disliked: *high pitch* 'Iiiiiiii dunno..' 'Aaaaactually...' 'Weeeeeeell...' 6/10 review, still better than the shirts.

What did you think of season 1?

If Rogue wants to be with Gambit, why doesnt she just wear an inhibitor collar.

Some of those deliveries of the dialogue between rogue, Jean, and storm for me was legendary. I don’t have a good memory but they definitely live rent free and I’ll never ask for it

Avatar is a masterclass in episode pacing. We will never have that happen again.

It is like they came up with a bunch of story lines on a white board then said fuck it, let’s do all of them. Lol

Xmen 97 joins Justice league, avatar, and btas in just amazing examples of animation being such a special medium

15 episodes. Let some stories breathe. This season was perfection as close as it gets, change nothing as it sets up more. Truly a study piece.

Man, if they did all of that with Sebastian, imagine what they could do with Onslaught!

About the show rating, I want to point out that the reason why we won't see animated show in most of top chart these day, becos a lot of steaming chart today based on Watch Hours. It super hard for animation that has only 30-40 mins run time per episode will beat series that has 1-2 hours of run time. Basically you must need double or triple of audiences to make it even hit top 10 which is super hard to achieve. A lot of higher up people also know this well, so they don't think this show is a failure by any mean, that's why they got green lit for 3 season. However, animation project, most of the time will be first that got chop off, if studio want to cut any cost, regardless of how good they are. :,)

Im glad this didn't drag. We didn't need everything to last forever

"Took those warm feelings of nostalgia and weaponised them to hurt us" Exactly.

X-Men 97 wasn’t just better than the last 3 X-Men movies (Deadpool doesn’t count IMO) it was better than every X-Men movie since 2000. The storytelling was more fleshed out, meaningful & no longer held back by the ridiculous constraints of 90s FCC & Fox Kids executives censorship. This show did what the entirety of the MCU continues to fail to do: faithfully adapt the comics while making it accessible for new fans. This show is redemption for what the movies could have been & I hope the storyboarding & writers are the standard that the MCU will follow in their next phase. The animated 90s verse doesn’t need to become part of the MCU, allow it to be its own thing. One retort to Ryan Arey: Professor X didn’t need to die… yet. When they re-tell Messiah Complex and lead into Avengers vs X-Men which I don’t think a movie can properly do, Cyclops/Phoenix killing Professor X is a pivotal nexus event that has to happen. Mutant terrorist Cyclops is exactly where his character needs to go.

Seeing and comparing the animation from the 90s to now was amazing!

I've said it once and I'm gonna say it again... Unless DeMayo did something that is or should be punishable by law, I'm gonna have to ask whoever is in charge to bring him back. He's clearly a talented writer; he cares for the characters, and he brings insight and experience that I feel goes perfectly with what it means to be a "mutant." I'm gonna have to agree with Ryan. I didn't like how they treated the Pheonix Force. However, I do think that we should get used to her making an appearance every now and then. The Pheonix is realistically the only reason why Jean is as popular or interesting as she is present day. I like to think of it as the Ninetales inside Naruto.

The thing I LOVE about MCU is that yes, Its ALL connected. I dont get why people complain about this. When I was a kid, I hated that movie stories would be confined to a trilogy. I also hated super hero movies being seperated. I love going through complex mythology with complex characters and DIFFERENT characters and the cross overs are fun when its done well. So that being said ... I hope they build to more animation series, Spider Man 98, X Factor, X Force/New Mutants, Excalibur, etc.

I get that things were rushed and/or jam-packed, but i get why and i also feel like this is the best example (animated or live actuon) of making the most out of the limited numbwr of episodes. No fat, no filler, all goodness

Click baity title and yeah the Phoenix was referenced in pretty much every episode in the beginning. It seems more like you're just not a fan of how the character is used. Since Jean hasnt been the host for the Phoenix for quite some time. Bastion's plan would be a threat to the Phoenix's who existence so it makes sense why she was in the episode. Just my take

Just as long as people don't go on about how this "saved Marvel" it's all good. Marvel ain't no h*@! It doesn't need saving. The show was great and needs to remain self contained.

I think this show reminded all of us why Magneto should be in the conversation for best comic book character, let alone “villain “

Great show! Loved it! I feel like if you need more than this, then you should pick up the comic. Bring on season 2!

This show deserves ALL awards for 2024!!! Simply incredible! Episode 4 was my least fav episode and that was even good lol

Rushed excellence.

Echo was also a binge so people have much more leaning toward sticking with it vs a weekly cartoon that spans a few months. I despise 20 min episodes once a week. I’m waiting for it to finish then I can watch it the way it should have been done.

Mike brings up a great point: when it comes to adaptations of the X-Men, no other medium has come as close to the source material as X-men 97. Great job to the show writers, directors, animators, and performers. It was a lot to shove 60 years in so few episodes but desperate times….

Definitely enjoyed it anything better than the live action

No to filler episodes, filler episodes make the ratings and the hype go down.

Great video as always. I hope the collabs with Lawrence will last forever on this channel. When he is talking about the storylines and at what age he read it, it pierced trrough my heart, remembering me of my first time reading comics. And hail Doug, the Supreme!

I'm Sooooo Happy you guys mentioned Cloak & Dagger totally Loved them on Freeform. Maybe in Marvel Heaven we'll see them in another show

FFS -This time last year we had Secret invasion... Stop Moaning!!!

Serious question.... xmen original seris had cable.come.back and use wolverine to cure the technovirus ... even called a texhnovirus by cable.... so how can sinister infect him again.. when we know that wolverine holds the cure..

Thanks! I love coming to this channel to get easter eggs after watching some of my favorite series. You guys offer a lot of insight that make me appreciate the shows more! Also, I know you sometimes recap older series before a new installment comes out, so I think it would be really cool if you did at least a few videos on Adventure Time ahead of Season Two of Fionna and Cake on Max. I really loved that series and I know it's full of hidden content! I'm also a little curious to know if you guys were able to book a stay at the X-mansion on Air BnB. Seeing you guys go through the mansion and discover physical easter eggs would be an amazing video! Anyway, keep up the good work!

They didn't advertise the show like Echo. Most my friends had no idea it was coming out

To any fans who are not watching X-Men 97 i say good riddance! Tired of salty fanboys and fangirls getting triggered over trivial issues. Because the reality is that the mutant narrative has always been about racism. Along with that, they have always dealt with all types of bigotry. So, I fail to see why some \

Video starts…….0.003 seconds later - Ryan: “BUY OUR MERCH BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY MERCH BUY MY MERCH BUY MERCH IN STORE MERCH BUY!!!”

I assumed that Jean always had an ember of the Phoenix burning inside her so the return was expected.

Folks literally said they didnt wanna see storm struggle to get her powers back the entire season

Noooo plz don't make whole seasons about Storm getting her powers back. No need to be stretching these out. That's you asking for the writers to write non comic stuff to fill up time. Those would all be fuller episodes. If Storm has no powers, wtf are we supposed to be excited about? Her fighting hand to hand? We don't know which direction they want to go. We can stop trying to control the narrative of the MCU. We never had power and never did. They didn't need us for endgame or Shang chi so why now? They didn't ask fans how to make Capt America winter soldier, they just did.

I'm sorry but hearing yall complain about a good show kills my want to watch this channel.

"Remember it..." was my favourite and best emotional scene

I grew up on X-men in the 90’s through comics and the tv series. Now I have a 13 year old watching 97 with me and feeling the pain of losing Gambit just like we all did. The nostalgia was amazing, and the added alterations were mostly satisfying…. Having Screencrush break it all down so my boy can understand more about this universe is a gift.

still no house of the dragon final trailer breakdown, the biggest show on the face of the earth.

I absolutely loved this show. After doing my homework and watching the OG series before hand, I adore it even more. My only gripe, if any, was the use of the phoenix. Jean is put in a position where she almost dies, then it’s used when supposedly she doesn’t have it anymore. The Phoenix said it left back when Jean died like the second time(?) after the blue moon battle, when the group gave a portion of their lives. It didn’t really make sense. Maybe we’ll get an explanation later on?

My only complaint is Wolvie didn't get enough screen time. Hopefully this will change in season 2

this is what a show looks like when you mostly remove "Filler" episodes. its crazy how much people complain about filler episodes and yet this the chief complaint about this show is that was essentially a 26 episode series in only 10 episodes. but most of that is because the shows had filler episodes that padded the length of a season and allowed them deep dive into other storylines aside from the episodes that pushed the seasonal plot along. though it seems what gets called filler and what doesn't is a matter of how interesting it was to the audience. though to be fair to the show i think saying it was rushed is a huge disservice as the word "rushed" has negative connotations of supply work, espeically supply worked done at the last minute due to various reasons. what we got was certainly not rushed. but it was very condensed and it was paced extremely fast. quite a few of the episodes could have been their own seasonal arc as was done in the comics. but one thing i have heard from many people is that most of the times what we got was done BETTER than the comics. inferno being a prime example. where we are able to get a sold storyline that just worked so much better than it did in the comics. i will say i much prefer the longer season format to short 6 - 10 episode seasons. yes that means we get filler but it lets us deep dive into the characters and the world they live more. it makes it feel like your getting fast food rather than going to a sit down restaurant. even if the fast food we're getting is 5 star Michelin star worthy food.

That moment when Cyclops breaks and becomes angry because he's tired of having to beg for tolerance...

Wow talk about missing the mark, I guarantee if they gave you more episodes or longer run times you would absolutely be making a video complaining about there are way too many "filler" episodes and the season was slow... Sorry but good animation takes forever to complete & I'd much prefer this than waiting 2-3 years between seasons. I'm sorry but you have some of the absolute worst takes imaginable not to mention you constantly get sooooo much wrong and that's not even getting into your terrible theory ideas, ie The Acolyte... talk about a terrible video.

Also remember Scott went off on the reporter. All the stuff happening to him made him go off. He would never done that in the old show. So they even made up for that.

that Saturday morning feeling. Nail on the head

Why do you insist on making stupid clickbait titles???

Starting to dislike when you say things like “ it wasn’t perfect “ like your beard isn’t perfect every morning dude chill out

Honestly I think they did Inferno better and I am glad they speed ran through it. Claremont was doing his best to appease the suits and bring back Jean Grey (Who he intended to stay dead) which was super awkward in the comics. It ruined Cyclops's character in the comics for a long time. In the comics Scott believed Jean was dead, but as soon as she returns he dumps his wife and mother of his child (Who he already knew wasn't Jean Grey).

I laughed I cried felt a lil rushed. All in all loved everything about it

My kid id named Wade... His older brother wanted to name him Deadpool. We had to compromise.

It was incredible; X-Men totally outdid themselves this one. And that’s what I said the previous three weeks!!!😊

Thanks for the video

Keeping episode jam packed means better watch time. I never felt like i could walk away to grab a snack or for board and wanted to skip ahead. I watched every goddamned minute of that show. 100% watch time.