This is a DynaMic Network podcast.
Welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate
the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations.
I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are reviewing
X-Men 97. It's Marvel's first X-Men project since acquiring the rights to the characters
from Fox. I remember watching this show in the mid-90s as a kid. Was this 25 years worth the
wait? Yes it was and I can't wait to talk about it later on this episode. Before that we're
going to break down the comic book movie news from the past week of which it was a pretty
slow week. All we learned was that Vision Quest, the upcoming television series for Disney+,
has gotten a 2026 release window and a showrunner. Well to be fair we are recording this episode
a little bit early in lead up to the Memorial Day holiday weekend. So there might be more
news that drops that we'll get to in the next episode, if that's the case. As always, we
list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if
you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. Our artificially intelligent duel simulator,
AJ9K, has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up. Why, hello there. Do you love
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Thanks AJ9K, and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Be sure to tune into the shows
in the DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction, which pitched your
The show is currently on a season break, but hosts Ken and Scott are releasing bonus episodes,
and this Thursday they will be reviewing The Matrix. On the Sendrow World podcast, host
Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan-favorite anime and manga characters. This
Thursday, we'll find out who would win between Jura Nikus from Fairy Tail and Diane from Seven
Deadly Sins. On the Console Combat podcast, Hosts John and Dean find out who would win
in fights between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they found out who
would win in a battle between Samanosuke Akechi from Animusha against Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja
Gaiden. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of
the shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network. But with that out of the way, quick! To the no
prize! A No Prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic
duel No Prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave
the best answer to our question of the week. Last week, we asked you guys, what celebrity
voice actor for a Marvel or DC animated film would you like to see play the character in
live action? And this was coming off of the news that Nicolas Cage will be starring in
a live action Spider-Man We got a lot of answers for this question and they were all great But
let's break down our three honorable mentions as well as the no prize winner Our first honorable
mention goes to Matt Estes who said Hey fellas, Matt Estes here. Hey, this is probably the
easiest question y'all have ever asked for question of the week It's gotta be Dove Cameron with
Spider-Gwen Yeah, Dove Cameron played the character of Spider-Gwen in the animated Marvel Rising
movies And the actress looks exactly like Spider-Gwen. I don't know what else there is to say about
that. She should definitely play the character because she definitely has the look. But she's
also a really good actress. Actually, my daughters are a fan of her from her working descendants.
She was on some Disney channel show where she played like two different characters, twins,
I think. She has the acting chops. I was actually rooting for her for a while to play Supergirl.
But yeah, Spider-Gwen would also work. She was actually also in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
television show for a while as well. No one cares! She's no stranger to Marvel, that's
all I'm saying. So this could definitely work. Great answer Matt. Our next honorable mention
goes to Miggy Matagian who said, Hey what's up guys, this is Miggy and I would love to
see Lou Diamond Phillips play Spectre in live action. I mostly went with this because he's
half Filipino and I got to represent. But I think he also has a good look for Jim Corrigan,
like a weathered, tired police detective. Some other answers that I was leaning towards but
didn't go with is Jason Isaacs as Sinestro, Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon, John Noble as
Brainiac, and Jamie Chung as Cheshire. Thanks guys. Yeah, all of those were great answers.
I especially loved Lou Diamond Phillips as the Spectre for two reasons. One, Lou Diamond Phillips
does not get enough work. The guy's a good actor. And two, the Spectre... is an awesome character.
Ever since I saw his DC showcase animated short, I've always thought that the Spectre would
make for a really good film. For sure, and I remember hearing his voice as the Spectre and
totally being blown away that it was even Lou Diamond Phillips voicing him, because it doesn't
really sound like him, but if he can pull off that voice for the character of the Spectre
as well, yeah, that's just great casting. Great answer, Miggy. Our next honorable mention goes
to Cyrus Moore, who said, Hi guys, Cyrus Moore here, and my answer would be either Shamar
Moore for Cyborg or Josh DeMoll from Batman the Long Halloween. Those are two actors from
animated movies I would love to see in live action. Shamar Moore does a great Cyborg voice,
but I do think he's a little too old to play a Teen Titan personally. I do love Josh DeMoll
as Harvey Dent Two-Face though, because honestly I thought he nailed the voice performance for
the character. And you know, he's a really good actor in live action as well. So yeah, I think
that would just be. almost perfection. I don't know if he's like that great of an actor as
you're claiming he is, but he's certainly solid enough to pull off the role of Harvey Dent
and Two-Face, I agree. You make him sound like freaking the next Daniel Day-Lewis or something,
the way you're describing him. Perfection, I don't know. I don't think I implied that at
all. I didn't imply that. I just said he's a good actor. No, he could totally pull it off.
I could totally see him in that role. And you're right, his performance in... Batman the Long
Halloween was pretty impressive. He was almost unrecognizable voice wise. So great answer,
Cyrus. We want to give a quick shout out to the other answers. Brandon Estregard, who said
Matthew Gray Goobler should play the Riddler. That's awesome. The twins, Travis Bailey and
Travis Herndon both gave answers. Travis Herndon said Keith David should play Tombstone and
Travis Bailey said Hailey Steinfeld should play Spider-Gwen. Gil Camacho chimed in and said
that Naji Jeter should play Miles Morales. Daniel Alonso said AJ Locasio should play Gambit.
and Colby Hentges said that Laura Bailey should play Lois Lane. Those are all great answers.
A lot of them didn't get picked because maybe the voice actor wasn't a big enough name to,
we think, successfully pull the star power necessary for that type of character in live action.
Yeah, great answers, guys. But the winner of this week's no prize is Christopher Minotti,
who said, Hi, guys, Christopher Minotti. I know a lot of people are probably going to say this,
but I want Jen Snackles as Batman. He does a great voice for the character in the Tomorrowverse,
and he's a great actor as well, having starred as Dean Winchester in Supernatural and Soldier
Boy in The Boys. I think he could do a great job, and yeah, I just think I'd love to see
that. Not only do I think that Jensen Ackles could pull off a convincing Batman and pull
in the crowd necessary for that type of role, I'd also like to see him perform against David
Cornswat as Superman. Yeah, I mean, we've been told that Robert Pattinson is not going to
be the Batman in James Gunn's DC Universe. And I hear the name Jensen Ackles a lot for who
people want to see play Batman. And I would not hate that at all. I think the Tomorrowverse
has proven that he has a good grasp of the character. Yeah, he also played Jason Todd in Batman Under
the Red Hood. But now that he's a little bit older, yeah, I think he's graduated into the
role of Batman for sure. Absolutely. So great answer, Christopher Menotti, you win this week's
No Prize. If you, the listener, want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to
later on in this episode when we'll be asking another Question of the Week. And now that
that's done, onto the news.
Alright this past week we learned that the Paul Bettany Vision Quest series is still on and
that it now has a release date set in 2026. Marvel has signed Terry Metalis to serve as
the showrunner for that series. Who has an impressive resume, he's currently the executive producer
on Star Trek Picard which has gotten great reviews. Now the last time we saw Vision was in WandaVision
and at the end of the series the vision manifestation that Wanda created disappeared and the real
Vision, which had been rebuilt by Sword and he was all white in color, he just kind of
disappeared to go, I don't know, figure shit out. And this Vision series will allegedly
take place as he kind of comes back into the fold. Yeah, it's kind of in a way a sequel
perhaps to Wanda Vision. Yeah, we don't know what's going to happen, but one of the most
celebrated story arcs from the comics was written by Tom King and is about how Vision tries to
create his own synthzoid family and try to live the normal suburban lifestyle. And WandaVision
kind of touched on those themes, but it would be kind of interesting to see the Vision Quest
series kind of continue that. If you guys haven't read Tom King's run on Vision, I highly suggest
it. Yeah, won a couple of Eisner Awards, I believe. Yeah, it was really good. Really dark. We've
been waiting for a release date for this show for a while now, you know, ever since 2021,
when WandaVision first came out in the middle of the pandemic. So it's nice to kind of get
that closure that the series is indeed happening and it's happening relatively soon in terms
of movie and TV production time. Yeah, it's one of the MCU's current loose threads that
people have definitely been interested in seeing be picked up because he's an Avenger, not one
of the original Avengers, but he plays an important part on the team. Yeah. The first sequel to
Wandavision that's coming out later on this year though is Agatha All Along, which is the
true title of that series. None of the House of Harkness or Covenant of Chaos bullshit is
just Agatha All Along. All those fake titles were part of the marketing, I guess. Just kind
of showing like, oh, Agatha's being wacky, she's messing with the titles, it was Agatha All
Along. Which I do think is a great name. I'm hoping each of the episode titles actually
are like Covenant of Chaos and House of Harkness and stuff like that. I'm hoping Kevin Feige
uses that show to explain all of the shittiness that's been going on with MCU lately and all
the stuff that fans haven't been liking. You'd be like, oh, blame Agatha. It was her all along.
First of all, you don't know what you're talking about. But secondly, that would be funny. It's
like, oh, you don't like Secret Invasion. Blame Agatha. Oh, you didn't like Modok. Yeah, it
was Agatha that did that one. Yep. Bow, the god of dumplings. That was actually Agatha.
So good. Yeah, Agatha All Along premieres this September, and again we'll wait a couple years
for Vision Quest. Actually, we don't even know if the series is still called Vision Quest
because according to Variety, the series is still unnamed. So it'll probably be called
Vision is what I'm guessing, but definitely looking forward to it. And speaking of Vision,
that brings us to our question of the week.
Who is your favorite robot superhero or villain from Marvel or DC and why? A lot of great robot
characters out there guys, let's hear your favorite. Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking
on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen which will prompt
you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long and don't forget to
leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and
award that person the Dynamic Duel No Prize that will post to Instagram. Be sure to answer
before June 1st.
But I think that does it for all of the news for this episode. Now let's move on to the
main event, where we review the Marvel Studios animated television series X-Men 97.
Okay, X-Men 97 is a Marvel television animated series created by Bo DeMaio, the continuation
of the 1990s X-Men the animated series, which ran from 1992 to 1997 and has long been celebrated
by fans as one of the greatest superhero cartoons ever made. The long awaited questions we all
had, especially us 90s kids, was whether this new effort could even hope to live up to the
original, which was known for being incredibly faithful to the source material. and not being
afraid to tackle the more weighty themes of prejudice and identity. Would this continuation
series carry on that level of quality, or would it fall short of the lofty standards set by
its predecessor? Well, it brings me so much unbridled joy to say that not only does X-Men
97 rise to the challenge, it clears the bar, I think, for animated superhero television.
And here's your spoiler warning right up top, this is a spoiler review for season 1, so don't
even th- think about continuing to listen to this episode without watching the show. You
don't want to spoil all the greatness in store for you, so I would suggest and even demand
that you watch the series before continuing on. You won't regret it. The show is kind of
like the quintessential X-Men experience, I think. Oh yeah, I wholeheartedly agree. I loved
the show. I remember watching it as a kid in the mid-90s, back when I was still a Marvel
fan, and I don't remember... too much about it. I definitely haven't seen all of the episodes,
but just watching this new season, I felt like it went way harder than it even needed to because
I don't remember like any of the mature topics back when I watched it as a kid. And I just
have to say, if it was as good and mature and relevant back then as it is today, I would
not mind like going back and watching all of those old seasons with my daughters. Yeah,
the first couple of seasons of the 90s show were solid. It kind of dropped off a little
bit after that. In the series finale for the 90s show, Professor X gets shot by Henry Guyric
and he goes up into space. So this X-Men 97 series continues right where that one left
off, which was really nice. But yeah, you and I were six years old when the X-Men animated
series first debuted and it was a huge influence on us as children, you know, inspiring our
love of superheroes until the show ended when we were 11. Like I remember turning on X-Men
every Saturday morning on Fox Kids with our breakfast cereal in our lap. All the kids back
then watched the X-Men television show. And I remember we used to play X-Men on the playground
with the other boys. The kid with glasses was always Cyclops. And I liked pretending to be
Wolverine or Bishop or Gambit. And I think you used to like to be Professor X because you
could just say like, I shut down your mind to everyone no matter what. No, I was Colossus,
bro. I was classes. Okay. It's good times, though. I completely tried to put aside all the nostalgia
while reviewing this series, although I will say there was something magical about hearing
that opening theme once again for like a new episode. It was just it was so bizarre, very
surreal with that nostalgia kick. Oh, yeah. I didn't skip a single intro. Like it gave
me the option to skip intro and I was like, no, I'm enjoying this. I will say that the
nostalgia wasn't that heavy though. I mean, like the show certainly evokes a sense of nostalgia,
but like not as much as you'd think. Considering this X-Men 97 series feels pretty modern and
upgraded from the animation styles we had back in the 90s. It feels like there were two different
animation teams working on the show. You know, one for the talking stuff and then one for
the crazy awesome action stuff with the dynamic camera work and the hyper flashy visualizations.
I loved the action style of X-Men 97. This was a perfect blend of both cerebral writing and
kinetic action. It was perfection. Well, I do think that the animation could have gone even
further. They were largely constrained by the animation style of the 90s show, but you could
tell they really cut loose during the action. Yeah, for sure. But more than the action, I
really loved how the series seemed to be targeted toward those that enjoyed the original show
30 years ago and are now grown-ass adults, like us. You know, like not to say that kids couldn't
watch X-Men 97, but I would say that because it doesn't really hold back in terms of violence
and death and you know, even adult relationships compared to what you and I were used to seeing
back on the Fox Kids channel, I guess I would be a little bit hesitant showing this to kids.
Like it's not TVMA or anything, I would place most of the episodes at probably TV14 and maybe
some of the lighter ones at TVY7. I don't know if people outside the US know what these ratings
mean, but I think basically anyone younger than teenagers aren't probably going to get much
out of X-Men 97. It might even be put off by parts of it. Yeah, again, I don't remember
the old show too much, but this definitely felt more mature, and I don't know if that's just
because I understand more as an adult or not, but I definitely do feel like this is the first
time I ever saw Wolverine cut into someone human and them showing blood as a result. Oh for
sure, I mean, Wolverine was notoriously never allowed to cut anybody in the 90s cartoon,
you know, he always had to go up against robots and shit, but never really human beings, because
you just couldn't, it would be too violent. You know, Stan Lee was famous for wanting to
gear his stories for more mature minds and you know, John Byrne and Chris Claremont, the famous
X-Men writers, were right there with him. I think the X-Men and Marvel in general, but
the X-Men in particular, were always a little more weighty and intense than your standard,
you know, super friends fare. Oh, absolutely. DC set the bar in terms of targeting children
for their animated fare. I don't think it was really until Batman the Animated Series and
the X-Men Animated Series that things started to get a little bit darker, I guess you could
say. Yeah, the writing just got better. Comparing the writing of the previous cartoons with the
writing of an X-Men episode, both the 90s version and this show, The X-Men episodes were always
inherently weightier than the other cartoons because of the heavy themes of prejudice, discrimination,
identity, acceptance. You know, you have civil rights in there, social justice, trauma. All
those ideas are baked into the concept of the superpower team that fights for those that
hate and fear them. And that's on top of, you know, other standard hero themes that you usually
get of power and sacrifice. But the X-Men have always been more than a power fantasy. They've
always had this moral message. And that's what makes the X-Men animated series and X-Men 97
so great is that they understand that. They get that there is a lesson here. Yeah, no,
I absolutely appreciate that. I love stories with messages. To me, that's what storytelling
is all about. And when it comes to this X-Men show, like it just feels incredibly relevant
right now. As you know, like every day in the news we're hearing about Russia and Ukraine
or Israel and Hamas or even, you know, Republican versus Democrat. Lines are drawn and enemies
are declared. But the truth is that every group in history has at one point or another been
victimized by another group. And what's great about the message of the X-Men is that its
heroes inspire us not toward defeating those we consider our enemies, but toward working
with them to build a tolerant future together. I think everyone can relate with the X-Men
and that's why they're so incredibly popular and relevant. Yeah, I mean, DC only wishes,
right? I'm sorry, there's no prejudice and the DC Universe are better than that. I really
hope that however they tackle these X-Men stories in the MCU in live action. I hope that the
filmmakers remember that the X-Men are more than just a power fantasy. And, you know, this
X-Men 97 series gives me 100% faith that Marvel knows what they're doing with the franchise
down the line. Absolutely. Holy cow. If the X-Men movie that they make is not as good as
this show, I'm gonna kinda be disappointed because they set a really, really high bar right out
the gate. Beyond the themes though... The X-Men 97 show, like its predecessor, has some of
the most badass, captivating dialogue I've ever heard. Like usually the dialogue is the boring
stuff in these superhero cartoons, right? But like when almost every line is written like
a profound piece of poetry, you yearn for the boring stuff almost as much as the action.
Dude, it's like Shakespeare level good, right? Right. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration.
But it's really, really damn good. I love the drama of everything. My wife, you know, she
caught snippets of this as I was watching it, as I was just like riveted by it. And she actually
got into it as well. She was like, this is kind of like a soap opera. I was like, hell yeah,
it is. Yeah. Like, yeah, I'll admit sometimes the proceedings can get a little melodramatic,
especially the romantic relationship stuff. But like as an adult, I don't care. Maybe as
a kid I would have cared, but as an adult I don't. I'm like, give me that soap opera shit.
I crave the drama. Like when Gene caught Scott psychically kissing Madeline in his bedroom,
I was like shoveling popcorn in my mouth. Like, oh damn, I'm gonna be gossiping about this
at tea time tomorrow. This is some juicy shit. For real, for real. But regarding the dialogue,
I just wanna go over some of my favorite lines from the show. Kind of like a poetry reading.
I am trying to be better, do not make me let you down. There is no love without sin, for
love is best measured in what we forgive. Every moment is a new and shocking evaluation of
all we have ever been. Blood is blood, family is a choice. Make them mind your weather, sister,
and them weather your mind. You best pray our children read their textbooks more than their
Bibles, for only history could be conned into forgiving us. Like who writes this? That's
all fantastic. And the best part is that somehow it doesn't come across as overwritten either,
which shouldn't work for a seeming adolescent cartoon, but it does. I'm not gonna lie, as
I was watching this, I was kinda hella jealous about Marvel's animation.
This was way better. I think the only thing that could kind of be compared to the X-Men
animated series that I know of, because I've actually never seen the show, I might be talking
out of my ass right now, but what I've heard about Young Justice actually comes pretty close
to this stuff. Like it also deals with like weighty themes and stuff, right? Yeah, yeah,
I've seen Young Justice. It is really good, especially thematically. But I wouldn't say
that the dialogue is as good because you're right. It's written in a way that should feel
overwritten, but the performances were just so good that they totally sold me on every
line that they said. There was not a single line that I thought was delivered poorly. No,
for sure, and we should talk more about the actors and characters in our character breakdown.
Starting with Cyclops, aka Scott Summers, played by Ray Chase, who's not the original voice
actor from the 90s. That was Norm Spencer, who died in the year 2020. But I think Ray Chase's
voice was spot on, I didn't even know it wasn't the original voice actor when watching, so
kudos to Ray Chase. I loved seeing Cyclops front and center with like a whole lot of screen
time as not only the team leader of the X-Men, but as a character that was vital to the season's
narrative. After so many years out of the spotlight in the X-Men movies, where he was largely relegated
as a side character, it was really nice to see Cyclops have his time to shine. Yeah, Cyclops
is my favorite X-Men character. I know everyone loves Wolverine. I've always been about Cyclops.
And yeah, it was really great to see Marvel do the character justice in a way that they
have never been able to in the movies. Yeah, I mean, like a lot of people will say Cyclops
is boring, but I think this season in particular helped show how these Boy Scout characters
like Cyclops, you know, like Captain America, and even Superman, they can still be complex
while adhering to a set of simple principles. Cyclops, you know, he's not a brute like say
Wolverine, but that doesn't make him a pushover. You know, he's still strong and assertive and
really his strength that is in his ability to never waver in the face of adversity while
convincing other people to do the same and follow his lead. Absolutely. Yeah, he is a great example
of leadership and a beacon for the rest of the X-Men. What's also interesting is that he's
still trying to be fully on board with Xavier's ideals himself. You know, Cyclops went through
a lot this season, dealing with the weight of taking over the team, after the loss of his
mentor, trying to lead the X-Men to follow Professor X's dream, while dealing with his own personal
beliefs, you know, his slight lack of idealism, and his anger at humanity. You know, tie that
into becoming a father, and the emotional hardships regarding his infected son, and his cloned
wife. Dude went through the emotional wringer this season. But it was nice to see him come
out the other end, having connected with his adult son Cable, and choosing to believe in
Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence by extending an olive branch to Bastion in the very last
episode. Yeah, what a fantastic arc. Really, really solid. He's almost not a static character.
I guess he is, but he definitely still has a journey that he goes through. Yeah, he kind
of discovers his own place amongst Xavier's ideals and Magneto's realism, and The comics
explores that so much more, especially Cyclops within the last decade of X-Men comics. And
it'll be interesting to see how the character progresses with his arc in subsequent seasons
of this animated show. Let's go ahead and move on to Jean Grey, who is played by Jennifer
Hale, who is new to the series. She replaces the original actress, Katherine Disher, who
actually voiced Valerie Cooper in this season. Now, Jennifer Hale did a good job here. She
did... previously voiced Jean in the Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon, so she sounds pretty
familiar. Jean played largely a supporting role to Cyclops Arc, though she certainly went through
a lot on her own, you know, discovering that she was cloned and that clone bore a child
with her husband. Now, you could base an entire season on that emotional conflict, but, you
know, as being part of an ensemble, surprisingly, I still felt the weight of what Jean was going
through to the show's credit. In the end, she chose to accept her circumstances, you know,
empathizing with Madeline Pryor and really embracing Cable as her son, who in turn also embraced
Jean as his mother. And that all really came full circle when she manifested the Phoenix
Force again when her son was about to be killed, you know, reaching into the deepest part of
herself to protect her family, even though he wasn't technically her son. Yeah, she went
through a really interesting dilemma. Her and Scott and Madeline Pryor. It was a weird kind
of love triangle because like she was jealous of herself in a way because she retained all
of the memories of Madeline Pryor even though she didn't commit the actions that Madeline
Pryor did like give birth to Nathan. It's a profound circumstance and I thought they did
a great job exploring it with the characters of both Jean Grey and Madeline Pryor. Yeah,
you really felt for them. Really good stuff. Let's go to move on to Magneto. aka Eric Lencher
played by Matthew Watterson who was also new to the series. He takes over from original
voice actor David Hamblin who unfortunately also died in 2020. I think Matthew Watterson
was spot on in terms of how he sounded. Like again, I didn't even know this wasn't the original
actor until I looked it up. But the character of Magneto was a massive player here taking
over the X-Men on behalf of Professor X, trying to do things against his standard MO out of
respect for his seemingly late friend. He had to kind of adopt a new perspective for a time
as mutants were starting to become more accepted among humanity, only to have that illusion
shattered by Genosha's destruction, proving to himself that he was right all along, and
having his initial belief system reinforced that prejudice and otherism will always exist
within humanity. I'm not entirely sure that he was right. despite the fact that Operation
Zero Tolerance was secretly backed by the UN, because the UN had no real idea what Bastion
was up to. But the problem, I think, with both Professor X's and Magneto's viewpoints is that
it's nearly impossible to describe humanity in general terms. I would say that there were
enough Prime Sentinel volunteers to prove Magneto's standpoint, and probably enough shock at Bastion's
actions to justify Xavier's hope. Yeah, Magneto has always been one of the most interesting
Marvel villains. You know, people for a while were saying Thanos was right in terms of what
he did in the MCU films. I don't know about that. To me, I think Magneto has always been
a character whose actions are more, I don't know about justified, but understandable for
sure. Yeah, it's just one of the great thought experiments that the X-Men poses as a concept.
Everyone has the sense of justice within them. And I think Magneto really speaks to that as
compared to Professor X, who speaks to a sense of grace, I would suppose, that's probably
not as natural as the sense of justice. You really have to fight for that and push for
that. So in a way, you could say Magneto is more relatable than Professor X, but it would
be nice to be as idealistic as Professor X, because it's just so much more hopeful. For
sure. Yeah. I remember in the comics in the 90s when Magneto went good for a while and
I think he went under the name Joseph. That was a clone. Actually, I think that was a clone.
Yeah. But I love how this show adapts storylines from the X-Men comics and it's always done
a great job at that. Yeah, there was definitely a time when Magneto was in charge of the X-Men
when Professor X was thought to be dead. He came around to lead the New Mutants characters
shortly after they were introduced. But let's go ahead and move on to Bastion. aka Sebastian
Gilberty, played by Theo James. Theo James crushed it, man. His voice was so unique and terrifying,
yet intelligent. I had no idea it was him. And like with this performance, I could totally
honestly see him playing the character in live action if the MCU ever goes with Bastion as
a villain. Dude, I didn't know this was Theo James. I thought it was recognizable. Motivation-wise,
Sebastian is not terribly complex. He wants to destroy mutants because he was born. part
sentinel, essentially, which is a change from the source material where he's the techno-organic
fusion of Nimrod and Mastermold, but I actually liked his origin more here because it made
more sense having him as a human-sentinel hybrid than having him just manifest through a magical
portal. Yeah, I agree with that. Having him grow up different in the same way that mutants
do, but also very much pro-humanities side was... Very, very interesting. I think they did a
great job adapting that. Yeah, it was a dichotomy that existed with his own mind because he hated
mutants, but he also struggled with humanity. You know, he was seen as different by humans.
He had abilities. And he was even considered for inclusion with the original X-Men, though
his mother denied it. Ultimately, he belonged with neither humans nor mutants. And by the
end, he was content to destroy them all, given that he probably already likely felt very alone.
He rejected the X-Men's offer for mercy at the end, being far too cynical that he and mutants
would ever be accepted, essentially being proven right in his last moments when the Magneto
protocols were implemented. You know, his last lines were, humanity would rather die than
have kids like us. So he's just a tragic figure who was just terribly fascinating. My major
gripe with this show was that they introduced Bastion way too late. That's true. That's true.
I mean, he was like working behind the scenes. but you're right, he wasn't introduced until
the latter half of the season. But I also kind of like that, you know, he kind of came out
of nowhere to be this powerful influence. Yeah, I mean, the show definitely didn't suffer from
any kind of lack of conflict throughout the whole season, but I think I would have liked
to have felt Bastion's influence a little bit earlier. Not just with the Sentinels, but him
specifically. Let's go ahead and move on to Storm, aka Aurora Monroe, who is played by
Alice in Seelie Smith. Now she is the original actress from the 90s show. And Alice in Seelie
Smith's take on the character was always more grandiose and operatic than I ever thought
the character needed to be. And that's an issue that I had with Storm's characterization even
from the 90s. You know, they really leaned heavily into the goddess perspective where she was
once worshipped in Africa as a weather controlling deity. But since her time with the X-Men, I
always read Storm in the comics as a little bit more approachable, I guess. I just imagine
it would be hard to communicate with Storm from the cartoon because she's so theatrical. Yeah,
I guess. Although I don't hate that interpretation of her character, I think I certainly prefer
it more than the movie versions that we've received. Oh, for sure. And, you know, you could argue
that she wasn't too hard to talk to considering the relationship she had with Jean Grey, which-
I thought was great. They definitely seemed like really close friends. Yeah, I think the
perfect storm lies somewhere in between this cartoon version of Storm and the movie Storm.
There's got to be a balance there, I think. She was definitely humbled this season. Oh
yeah, I liked Storm's arc here. It was basically the life-death arc from the comics where she
temporarily lost her powers due to a weapon created by Forge and she had to re-examine
and redefine herself as a human for a time. It's a quintessential arc for her character
from the comics and you know it's an easy go-to for character building. She basically learns
that she doesn't have to fear being a human or a mutant and she can overcome her fear to
embrace who she is regardless. The scene right after she lost her power when she's in her
room and she's frightened by a lightning strike outside was so profound to me. Like that's
right she probably has never encountered weather that she couldn't control. I don't know if
that scene was from the comics, but I loved it. I don't know if it's from the comics, but
it was a quiet, profound moment that I really loved for sure. And her letter to Jean was
so well written, too. Like the X-Men are incredible writers. Let me just say, like Nightcrawler's
eulogy for Gambit. Oh, dude. Holy shit, man. I just want a series of Nightcrawler performing
at like living funerals or something like that, just breaking down all these heroes to their
core. and just explaining what makes them so special and stuff like that. It was so touching
and yet still managed to incorporate so many gambling and card playing terms. But I was
like, holy shit, get this guy a Pulitzer in terms of like obituaries, because that was
a masterpiece. For sure. Yeah. All the X-Men need to quit their day jobs and become writers,
I guess. See, if it was me, I would have just been like, you got to know when to hold them.
You got to know when to fold them. Not Nightcrawler. He's above that. Yeah. Let's go ahead and move
on to Rogue, AKA Anna Marie, played by Lenore Zan. And she is the original actress here.
And that was very clear. It was like, oh, this is just, you know, the older version of Rogue.
If anything, I think Lenore Zan's voice sounded too old to me. I guess it didn't matter because
I did become more accustomed to it as the show went on. But for a long time there, I was like,
Rogue really needs to stop smoking. Yeah. I will agree with that. Although to be fair,
maybe she's older than we thought she was, considering the fact that she did have a relationship with
Magneto, who also was like way too old to be in the show if he was a Holocaust survivor.
Yeah, well you would think that he was born in the mid-30s and this show takes place in
the year 1997, so he's got to be like mid-60s here. And I'm guessing that when he and Rogue
had their thing, she must have been really young. 18, 19, late teens, maybe early 20s. That all
being said, Rogue had so much to do in this season. You know, in the comics, like we said
earlier, Magneto had a clone named Joseph and she had a fling with him for a time in the
books. I like how they brought elements of that here, where she had the secret past with Magneto
and that instantly brought attention to her relationship with Gambit, whom she loves, but
unlike Magneto, she can never touch. It just drips with drama. And I'm here for it. especially
as she weighed her options in ruling alongside Magneto. In her heart, she longed to make a
difference in that global way. But also in her heart, she truly loved Gambit more. And in
the end, she did choose to be with Gambit right before his tragic death, which, holy shit,
man, that was heartbreaking. I did not see that coming. That really pumped up the stakes for
this series. I was like, holy cow, if Gambit could die, is anyone safe? Yeah, anybody could
die. Yeah. Friggin' Leech! I know. How could you kill Leech, man? He's such an innocent
character. And that's just part of the whole tragedy of the attack on Genosha. Yeah, yeah,
that was super tragic. From that moment, Rogue's arc was about revenge, which reaches its climax,
I think, when she seemingly kills Bolliver Trask, which was shocking, but I wouldn't say it's
necessarily out of character for Rogue, considering she used to be a villain. and she was acting
out of tremendous grief, having lost two men she loved. And also, you know, Bolivar Trask
was about to commit suicide anyway. And also he didn't really die because he was a prime
sentinel. But it was a fascinating character moment in the moment. I that felt very out
of character to me. And I for a time was wondering if she was being manipulated by Sinister or
by Bastion, but I guess not. I mean, it was interesting to also get the reactions of the
X-Men. You had Nightcrawler who was completely shocked and totally against what Rogue had
just done. And then you have someone like Wolverine who was like, she just did what we were all
wanting to do, you know? Kind of ran the gamut in terms of approval. But yeah, if you read
the comics, I think you'd find that it wasn't necessarily too out of character for Rogue.
Again, she did used to be a villain. She was raised by Mystique. She's no Boy Scout. We'll
say that. Okay. Let's go ahead and move on to Wolverine, aka Logan, who was played by Cal
Dodd. the one and only Cal Dodd. He will always be the voice in my head when I think of Wolverine.
Although he didn't get a whole lot to do here. Outside of some awesome action scenes, he really
only served to add some additional drama to the Gene and Scott situation. But you know
what? I liked that he kind of took a backseat to let the other X-Men shine. Yeah, I think
fans of the character got what they wanted from the character. It blew my mind that they incorporated
the fatal attraction story arc from the comics. where Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine's
bones. Yeah. I did not see that coming. In the comics in the aftermath of that event, Wolverine
underwent this sort of physical trauma that left him more feral looking. And of course,
you know, he had the bone claws and stuff like that. I wonder if they're going to go with
that look for next season. I could see them going with the bone claws. I'm not 100% sure
about the whole feral look because he looked a lot like a shaved beast to me during that
era of the X-Men. Yeah. I didn't love it. Yeah, it was an ass look. Let's be honest. It's like
Superman with long hair. It just is not right. Let's go ahead and move on to Jubilee, aka
Jubilation Lee, who was played by Holly Chow, who was a new actress taking over from Alice
in Court, who voiced the character in the 90s series. Though Alice in Court did play a role
here. She played Epsisa, who is the future version of Jubilee. I thought it was a spot on performance
by Holly Chow. I think she sounded just like Alice in Court Jubilee's arc largely dealt
with her relationship with Sunspot. You know, she spent most of the time trying to convince
him to accept his mutant self and teach him what it means to be an X-Man. Beyond that,
she did get a nice half episode to herself in Mojoverse, where she learned that life can't
be all fun and games, which was a good moment of growth for her, especially on her 18th birthday.
I thought it was really cool how she saw like the full potential of her power through her
future self. I think that definitely helped in the end fight. And yeah, for a character
that's always seemed kind of weak with just, you know, shooting fireworks this season definitely
showed how powerful a character like her can be. I mean, we've all been shot with a Roman
candle, right? We've all had a firework go off in our hands. Like Jubilee is not that powerful.
But when she does shit like that spiraling, whirling firework that cut through the sentinel
and everything like that, that was pretty bad ass. That was cool. She definitely got a power
upgrade. Yeah. Let's move on to Beast aka Hank McCoy who is played by George Buzza who is
the one and only George Buzza. He's so good in this role. He is the voice that I always
hear when I think of the Beast character. He was a minor character too this season but like
everyone else he got his own moments in the spotlight doing science stuff like determining
which gene was real or developing the headband that stopped the Prime Sentinels. Beast is
a great character. Moving on to Gambit aka Remy LeBeau. He was played by AJ Locascio, who is
new in the role, taking over from Chris Potter, who actually did the voice of Cable. And Chris
Potter sounded exactly like Josh Brolin in the role of Cable. So I thought that was pretty
interesting. Yeah. AJ Locascio was a great replacement. I think he sounded a lot like the version of
the character in the 90s show. He also didn't have a lot to do this season. But one could
also say that he had the biggest moment of the season when he died saving Genosha. Yeah, sacrificing
himself. to destroy that giant three-headed master mold was so unbelievably epic and touching.
I don't know what else to say about it other than one for me and one for my homie. I didn't
actually spill something on the ground because I don't want to ruin my floor. Well, that's
just incredibly insincere then. I think you should actually spill something on your floor.
It's all right. It does look like Gambit's gonna come back next season as Apocalypse's horseman
of death, according to the mid-credits scene. that we had. What? Which is- There was a mid-credits
scene? Yeah. Fuck! You didn't see it? No. Yeah, there was a mid-credits scene with Apocalypse
and he's going through the ruins of Genosha and he is talking about how there was so much
death and he like emphasizes death as he's holding one of Gambit's playing cards. Oh, dude. I
wish I would have seen that. I need to go back and watch that because that just sounds awesome.
Yeah, it's great because Gambit actually was the horseman of death in the comics for a time.
And you know, he's too good of a character to leave dead. So absolutely. I'm super happy
he's coming back. Nice. Well done, Marvel. Holy shit. Let's go to move on to Morph, AKA Kevin
Sidney, played by J.P. Karliak, who is new in the role. He was previously voiced by Robin
Rubin in the 90s, who actually does the voice of President Robert Kelly in the show. Morph
was an entirely different character this season from the 90s, but I like how they based his
new look off of the Exiles comics version, which was this more neutral looking figure. In the
original 90s show, Morph was based off of the character of Changeling, but Morph was never
really in the mainstream Marvel universe until the Exiles comic books. They made him non-binary
in the show, which totally I think makes sense for Morph. He actually stood out more to me
in X-Men 97 than he ever did in the 90s show, I think. He didn't have too much to do outside
of his friendship with Wolverine, but they have a great friendship and that goes back to the
90s show. And I like how they gave a great moment of closure with Morph and Mr. Sinister. I loved
seeing all of the different transformations that Morph had throughout this season, not
only as different X-Men like Magic, but also like the Hulk. That was wild. That was crazy.
Yeah, he was kind of like a cameo machine. He played Archangel, Blob, Lady Deathstrike, Colossus,
Psylocke. Sabertooth, Quicksilver, Juggernaut, like you said, the Hulk, Sauron. Oh, Mr. Fantastic
was the other one. That was outside of the X-Men. It was awesome. It was really cool. For some
reason, I always forgot that he was able to do that. So sometimes I would just randomly
see a character and be like, oh, where did they come from? Only to realize it was more, it
was fun to watch. Let's go to move on to the final character to discuss, of course, Professor
X, aka Charles Xavier, played by Ross from John Kolikos who was another voice actor that died
in 2020. Dude, 2020 was a horrible year! Well, for many reasons, but yeah, especially for
the X-Men voice actors. Ross Marquand has now, I think, cemented himself as the greatest impressionist
of all time because holy shit, I didn't even realize that was him. I thought it was the
original voice actor. Not only can Ross mimic voices to near perfection, but he also retains
all the nuance and the depth of the voice through his acting. It's incredible. Honestly, is this
the same guy who replaced Hugo weaving as Red Skull? Yes, in Avengers Endgame. Damn crazy.
He's like a real life morph. Yeah, he is. He probably could have done more of the voice,
too. But Professor X shows up later in the season, abandoning his life in space to be with his
X-Men when they need him the most. I thought it was nice that he was gone for a time because
it let the team grow in an organic way, especially with their former sworn enemy, Magneto as the
new leader. But when he came back, I thought it was just, it was epic. I often find Professor
X a little bit too idealistic for his own good, but I will say that he is always inspiring.
You need someone like that, though. Yeah. I've always loved the dichotomy between Professor
X and Magneto. You know, they're often compared to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, but I
also love that they're like best friends. Like despite their ideological differences, Charles
will always fight for Magneto. They're just iconic in that way. They're one of literature's
great characters, honestly. Yeah, I will not disagree with that. What was nice this season
was that we finally got to see Professor X cut loose with his powers. Like we did hear when
he took over Magneto's mind, that moment where they're like clashing against each other face
to face, two Titans going head to head. I thought that was just awesome. But that covers all
the main characters. So let's go ahead and discuss. the episode highlights.
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Episode 1 was called To Me, My X-Men. A year after Professor X's assumed death, the X-Men
continue fighting for his dream of peaceful mutant and human coexistence. Led by Cyclops,
the team save Sunspot from the Friends of Humanity anti-mutant group who have acquired sentinel
technology. The team probes Henry Geirich's mind to learn the location of Bolivar Trask,
the creator of the Sentinels. The X-Men travel there and destroy all the Sentinels and Mastermold
and remit Trask into UN custody. Cyclops and Jean Grey announce they're leaving the team
due to Jean's pregnancy, but they're interrupted by Magneto, who reveals that Professor X left
him the Xavier Institute in his will. Uh, we haven't talked about Roberto da Costa, but
damn he was annoying. I think we've talked a few times when doing reviews about characters
who we know are heroes who spend a majority of their runtime not wanting to be heroes.
That was definitely the case with Sunspot. It was nice in the end to see him come into his
own in his battle against Bastion, but it took a hell of a long time for him to get there.
Yeah, to me, he was really just there as someone for the character of Jubilee to play off of.
I don't know if it needed to be Robert da Costa. I think I would rather see him appear along
with the other new mutants at some point. Yeah, I really didn't care for any time he was on
screen. I'll say, though, that his scene with Jubilee dancing in the club was pretty surreal.
There were a few dance scenes within the course of this show that went on for a while. They
were stylistic, but it felt very 90s, you know. That being said, I always like when mutants
use their abilities outside of fighting bad guys and, you know, letting off sparks while
dancing at a nightclub seems like a great use of power for sure. Yeah, Jubilee could change
her name to Raver and that'd be okay. Dude, the action scene at the end of this episode
when they're going up against the sentinels, everything from when the blackbird gets destroyed
and they're all finding ways to land safely on the ground, including Cyclops who uses his
optic blasts to cushion his landing and everything like that. I squealed. I was so happy. It was
everything I've ever wanted to see, ever. I was so pumped. It was a great scene. The only
thing that would have made it better is if it was in live action. I still get the whole Cyclops
using his power to land safely. He was falling really fast. Well, if you were holding a fire
hose and you were falling from the sky and you shot the fire hose at the ground, would it
not slow your descent? Not enough to not die. I still have to fight against gravity. Except
he can spread out his force blasts to cover a wider area and it's more powerful than a
fire hose. So yeah, it would totally work. I mean, I know that ties into his origin. when
his optic blasts first formed when he was falling out of a plane and he used it to save him and
his brother Havoc from dying when they hit the ground. So I appreciated that, but still seeing
it like in motion, I was like, I don't know. It works. It works. It was cool. He had that
superhero landing. Then it was like to me, my X-Men. And right after that was Storm just
like walking across the desert, just like turning all the sand to glass. That was awesome, too.
It was incredible, the whole scene and like how Beast took over one of the Sentinels. That
wouldn't be the last time that he does it this season, but it was such a great way for the
character to fight the Sentinels, you know? Yeah, absolutely. At this point in their superhero
careers, Sentinels are just like paper people, and it's great to see superheroes just kick
ass in that way. Episode 2 is called Mutant Liberation Begins. Magneto begins saving humans
as a way to prove to the X-Men that his intentions are genuine. However, he is arrested by the
UN to face trial for his past crimes. Magneto surrenders, however the trial is ambushed by
Friends of Humanity protesters led by Executioner who tries to shoot Magneto with a power dampening
blast. Storm gets in the way of the blast and gets depowered. Magneto peacefully stops the
assault by carrying Executioner and the UN Special Committee into low orbit to help show his new
perspective. Magneto is pardoned and the mutant populated island of Genosha is considered for
admission to the UN. Meanwhile, Jean Grey gives birth to Nathan Summers. Storm leaves the team
and the group is surprised by a visit by another Jean Grey. Great episode. My favorite moment
here was when Jean Grey was at the mansion and she tells Wolverine he's here. And he's like,
who? Apocalypse? And sheaths his claws, you know, she's like, the baby. He's like, oh no.
It's like a sitcom or something. Yeah. You'd think in all of his years that Wolverine would
have encountered a situation like that before. Justin can drive on sidewalks and stuff like
that. It was just comedy gold. Let's go ahead and move on to episode number three, which
was called Fire Made Flesh. Running experiments, Beast deduces that the new visitor is the real
Jean Grey, and the woman who just gave birth to Nathan is a clone. To strut over the news,
Jean's clone is visited by Mr. Sinister, who reveals himself as her creator, manipulating
her mind and turning her into the Goblin Queen. She makes the X-Men experience frightening
telepathic hallucinations based on their worst fears before leaving the mansion to give her
son to Mr. Sinister. Having been previously manipulated by Sinister, Morph leads the team
to the Villain's lab where Sinister infects Baby Nathan with a modified techno-organic
virus in an effort to make the child invincible. The X-Men face off against the Goblin Queen,
including Jean Grey who convinces her clone to save the baby. Though Mr. Sinister escapes.
Cyclops begrudgingly lets Bishop take the child into the future to save his life from the techno-organic
virus, and the gene clone, now going by Madeline Pryor, leaves the mansion for Genosha. Meanwhile,
Forge meets Storm at a bar. This was a fascinating episode, how they merged the Inferno story
with the Mother Iscani story, substituting Bishop for Mother Iscani. It was just a great streamline
of multiple story arcs in a way that completely made sense. Oh yeah, I loved this episode.
It was one of my favorites. And I think I definitely appreciated it more as an adult than I would
have watching it as a kid. As a father, I totally related with Cyclops. Just, you know, that'd
be really hard to give up your kid to go to a place where you don't even know where they're
going. And I loved all of the metal and prior stuff, too. The battle scenes here with her
purple and green flaming depictions of power was just really well animated. For sure. Yeah,
I agree how child endangerment stuff hits a little bit different when once you become a
parent, I just felt so bad for that baby. But, you know, we know he's capable now, so we knew
that he was in good hands anyway. The Goblin Queen's visions that she induced in the X-Men
were borderline TVMA. Like I was like, what the fuck? I thought this was a kids show. Yeah,
you know, you had Gambit's vision of rogue and Magneto, like mostly nude fusing together.
That was horrifying when Jubilee and Sunspot were watching TV. and the girl crawls out from
the TV and they slice her in half and like you see her brain and shit. I was like, what is
happening here? Yeah, this was the moment when I was like, oh damn, this is not my childhood
X-Men cartoon. And I'm here for it. Episode 4 was called Motendo. That was the first part
of the episode. The second part of the episode was called Life Death Part 1. In the first
part, Jubilee wants to go to the arcade on her 18th birthday, but Magneto refuses. Sulk-ing
in her room with Sunspot, the two get sucked into a video game console called Montendo,
which takes them to Mojo World, where Mojo forces Jubilee and Sunspot to play out her previous
adventures with the X-Men in front of the spineless ones, providing Mojo with ratings to feed off
of. The pair is saved repeatedly by a mysterious hacker who turns out to be Epsisa, an older
digital version of Jubilee created by Mojo for the video game's initial testing. Epsisa convinces
Jubilee that life is a grander adventure than gaming. the two team up to take down Mojo.
Returning to the real world, Jubilee kisses Sunspot. Meanwhile, Forge takes Storm to his
ranch and tests his power restoring machine on her. It seemingly fails, and Forge reveals
to Storm that he was behind the mutant power dampening tech that stole her mutant abilities.
Storm leaves in anger, but is brought back by a demon known as the Adversary, which poisons
Forge. So this was probably my least favorite episode. As much as I appreciated the callbacks
to the old X-Men arcade game, I did think Mojo was pretty funny. I didn't really care for
the whole Forge storm adversary thing though. I wasn't expecting to see the adversary here,
but I was totally blown away when I saw that he made an appearance because he's always been
Forge's greatest. adversary, as it were. You know, the adversary was the demon that Forge
summoned during his time in the military when he thought he was going to die. He summoned
the demon to attack the enemy and the demon actually ended up killing everybody and had
been haunting him ever since. I don't know if you remember Forge's backstory in the duel
episode against Mr. Terrific, but Forge was actually somewhat of a studied shaman before
he developed his mutant abilities which steered him in the direction of science. And so, you
know, he had that kind of conflict at an early age. But Magic and science has always been
an interesting mix for the character of Forge. One thing I noticed about the voice actor for
Forge, the sound quality of his voice was not as good as the other characters. So much so
that it was noticeable and distracting to me. Yeah, it was a little bit more condensed, I
think. And also, it didn't really sound like Forge to me, or would I imagine Forge to sound
like this voice actor sounded a little bit older than I would think his voice sounded like.
That said, I am glad we got to see Forge, because he is an interesting character. I love Forge,
yeah. Episode 5 is called Remember It. In it, the UN formally admits the mutant nation of
Genosha, which Rogue, Gambit, and Magneto visit. There, Magneto is asked by the Council to lead
the country as its Chancellor, and he agrees on the condition that Rogue rules alongside
him. Meanwhile, Cyclops has an angry outburst during a television interview after being asked
about his son, and telepathically confides in Madeline Pryor, which Jean Grey finds out about
escalating tensions between her and Cyclops. Rogue admits to Gambit her past with Magneto,
that his electromagnetic manipulation allows her to touch him, and that she is considering
his offer. Dancing with Magneto at a celebration gala, Rogue ultimately decides that she loves
Gambit too much to be with Magneto. Suddenly, Cable appears and attempts to warn Genosha's
citizens of an impending attack by a wild mastermold before being pulled away through time. Everything
turns to chaos as Magneto, Rogue, and Gambit try to save as many people as they can. Enraged
at the apparent death of Magneto, Rogue attempts to take Master Mold head on. Gambit prevents
her and saves her life. In the end, he is killed when the Sentinel impales him, but he detonates
it in his last act, saving the remaining survivors. Rogue weeps as she holds his body.
So the episodes from this season were released week by week, correct? Yeah, I'm so glad I
did not watch the show that way because I would have been devastated all week if I couldn't
immediately watch the next episode. I would have been depressed. I would have been like,
don't talk to me, anybody. I'm just I'm destroyed. If this episode doesn't win an Emmy, I would
actually be very surprised because the writing, the drama, I thought was immensely palpable
throughout this whole episode. It deserves every award it's going to get. Did you notice that
the Watcher was in the sky above Genosha right before everything went down? No, I did not
see that. That was pointed out to me by people on the Discord. That was really cool because
it insinuates, if you've seen the What If animated television show, that Genosha's destruction
was an absolute point in history, which is something that Beasts references in a later episode.
Basically something that couldn't be prevented. Yeah, because Cable tried to prevent it 200
times. Yeah. I like the cameos that were in this episode of all the mutants that were at
Genosha. You had Sebastian Shaw, you had the White Queen, multiple man was there, Dazzler,
Leech, Pixie, Glob Herman. It was great to see all those Easter eggs basically. But let's
go ahead and move on to episode 6, which is called Life Death Part 2. Shiar Empress LeLondra
announces to her people her engagement to Professor X, who was healed from his wounds with alien
technology. Meanwhile, Storm cares for Forge's poisoned wound. when the adversary attacks
her. Forge uses shaman magic to expel the demon and Storm confesses her love for him. Back
in space, Lelandra's sister Deathbird sees Professor X as an unworthy consort due to his Terran
heritage and invokes the Rite of Amdasha, which challenges him to erase all of his Earthbound
memories. Storm takes Forge to a cave to find a cactus to heal his poison when she is confronted
by the adversary once again. Admitting that it was more than the executioner's neutralizer
holding her powers back, but her fear of living is a mutant once more, Storm abandons her fear,
restoring her mutant powers, and she saves Forge. Back in space, Professor X refuses to give
up his memories of the X-Men and tries to teach the Shi'ar about coexistence when he receives
a psychic vision of the attack on Genosha and decides to return to Earth. Meanwhile, Mr.
Sinister tells Bolliver Trask that the attack on Genosha was just the beginning. This one
was actually my least favorite episode, not because it was bad, but it was strange going
through these plot detours after the devastating previous episode. I wanted more answers about
what happened at Genosha. So I guess just sequencing it after episode five fell off to me. Well,
I think they had to tie up some loose ends about what was going on with these characters while
what happened at Genosha happened, because you see Storm's reaction to what happened, you
see Professor X's reaction. And in a way, it kind of made you relive the horror of what
you saw in the previous episode. I didn't mind this episode. It was kind of a nice break from
the intensity that was the attack on Genosha, I thought. Plus, it was just really interesting
to see that Professor X was still alive. I didn't know that he was going to be in this show.
It was cool to see the Imperial Guard. It's always cool to see the Shi'ar, I think. Eh,
they're just Legion knockoffs. I was not impressed. Legion is superheroes, right? Not Legion, Professor
X's son. Yeah, no, you know what I meant. Episode 7 was called Bright Eyes. The X-Men hold a
funeral for Gambit, but Rogue skips it as she angrily seeks out Bolivar Trask. She comes
into contact with Captain America, who helps her find Henry Gyric in Mexico, but claims
he can't help her bring him in without causing an international crisis. Rogue absorbs Henry
Gyric's memories to find Trask, but only gets a glimpse, and Gyric is murdered later that
night. The X-Men travel to Genosha to help search for survivors. and they find the White Queen
who is saved by her diamond skin secondary mutation. The team gets a message from Bolliver Trask
who tells them to go to Madripoor. They pick up Rogue on the way and discover a suicidal
Trask hiding at the UN secret Operation Zero tolerance division. Rogue drops Trask off a
building in revenge for the Sentinels killing Gambit and thousands on Genosha, but he comes
back as a Prime Sentinel. The team is rescued by Cable who uses an EMP grenade and explains
that Mr. Sinister was behind the Genosha attack along with a greater threat which is revealed
to be Bastion who has captured Magneto. My big takeaway from here was that the Prime Sentinels
are far more scary in motion than they ever were in the comic books. The way they were
presented in this show was almost like techno zombies, which I absolutely love. In the comics,
Prime Sentinels just felt more like human sized Mark 2 Sentinels, you know? Yeah, it's always
scary when a bad guy could be anybody. You know, they did that with agents in The Matrix. They
have that with OMAX in DC Comics. And I remember you mentioning Prime Sentinels in the Bastion
backstory from last week's episode. It was interesting to actually see them. This show successfully
pulled off what Secret Invasion could not, which was a feeling of tension and paranoia. Absolutely.
Especially in like a later episode when you had people like the news reporter lady all
of a sudden become a Prime Sentinel. Yeah. And Sunspot's Butler and stuff like that. It was
like, holy shit, who isn't a prime sentinel? All these people are going to kill the X-Men.
And they were really cutting into them and there were humans. That was wild to me. Yeah. What
did you think of the Captain America cameo? I thought it was good. I loved Rogue's reaction
to Captain America refusing to take official action with her in Mexico. She just fucking
yeeted his shield and it was like, fuck you. And then peaced out. I think Captain America
deserved it. I think. in general, Marvel's other heroes don't do enough to stand beside their
fellow heroes in the X-Men. That was something the Avengers kind of came to terms with in
the comics when they formed the Avengers Unity Division, which was a team of both Avengers
and X-Men. I'm just really hoping that Captain America had like an apple tag on that shield.
He's gonna have to go find it. That's his lesson. Again, characters like the Avengers should
be doing a whole lot more to stand alongside the X-Men. Although, you know, this season
planted the seeds for a second season to incorporate Avengers vs X-Men if they decide to go the
onslaught route for season 2. Oh that'd be sweet! That'd be really cool. That'd be sick, yeah.
Episode 8 is called Tolerance is Extinction, Part 1. Cable explains to the X-Men that Bastion's
Prime Sentinel program upgrades and evolves humanity toward a future where mutants are
enslaved in a seeming utopia. Going off of one of Cable's leads from the future, Cyclops and
Jean Grey visit Bastion's where they learn that the time traveling sentinel Nimrod infected
Bastion's father with nanotech that resulted in his wife giving birth to a son with the
powers of technopathy. After Valerie Cooper and the rest of Operation Zero Tolerance express
concern with the Genosha massacre, Bastion explains to them that the attack was only to buy time
and whittle the mutant population as he prepares to activate the prime sentinels. Human volunteers
outfitted with Mr. Sinister's modified techno-organic virus. They are activated around the world
and attack the X-Men and all mutants, burning down the Xavier Institute. Valerie Cooper releases
Magneto from Beshyn's imprisonment, admitting that Magneto was right. He flies to the Magnetic
North Pole where he causes a worldwide electrical blackout that shuts down the Prime Sentinels.
Professor X returns to Earth and telepathically summons the X-Men. This was a fantastic episode,
a great first act to the three part finale. I thought it was really interesting how Operation
Zero Tolerance included members such as Dr. Doom and Baron Zemo. Those were some sweet
ass cameos for sure. Yeah, that was interesting. That I feel like even more so than like the
cameos from Captain America and stuff really opened up the world that this X-Men cartoon
takes place in. I mean, I know they had like a cameo with Spider-Man back in the 90s, but
it was cool to see all these different characters pop up. I liked the part with Jubilee when
she was going shopping with Sunspot and she got that like black wetsuit. Really that was
just a way to get her into her more modern look from the comics because up until that point
she was still wearing her denim shorts and her pink t-shirt. Yeah, they all went through look
changes in these last three episodes. Did they go back to their 80s costumes? Most of them?
Yeah, they went back to the costumes they wore when they had Muir Island as a base because
the X-Mansion was destroyed. So they had to go to Muir Island off the coast of Scotland,
and they put on the costumes that they had stored there. I like those costumes. Yeah, they're
great. Marvel Girls, not so much. I don't like the Marvel Girl outfit. I prefer Jean Grey's,
actually I prefer the Phoenix outfit for Jean Grey. Yeah, that's true. My favorite line from
this episode was when the Prime Sentinels invaded the Axe Mansion and were about to kill Rogue
as she was comatose on the bed, and Wolverine barges in, and the Prime Sentinel lady is like,
And he's like, lady, I got six reasons why. And then all of a sudden Nightcrawler showed
up and he's like, no, my friend, nine. It was like a great pun, great action scene, which
was followed almost immediately by the let's show them why you don't mess with the summers
part where Cyclops blasts through the mountain while Gene drives and Cable shoots the sentinels.
Yeah, so good. So good. Good writing. Yeah, it's probably my favorite episode, I think.
Episode nine is called Tolerance's Extinction Part Two. In it, the X-Men regroup in the destroyed
X-Mansion where they decide to split into two teams, Blue Team and Gold Team, to deal with
both Bastion and Magneto. Beast and Forge develop a headband to block Bastion's technopathy,
while Magneto restores his old Asteroid M base. Magneto confronts the X-Men, telling them to
join him, which Rogue and Sunspot do. On their old Muir Island base, the X-Men don their old
costumes and set upon their missions, Gold Team going to Bastion's headquarters on the Galapagos
Islands, and Blue Team going into space. The Gold Team fights Bastion-controlled Sentinels
as Mr. Sinister takes over Cable's mind, forcing him to attack Jean Grey. She psychically reaches
out to Cyclops on Asteroid M, who prevents Professor X from taking over Magneto's mind to restore
Earth's power. Wolverine impales Magneto, who subsequently rips the adamantium from Wolverine's
body. There was a lot of buildup in this episode until the big action-packed third act, but
I thought it was worth it. Gene fighting Mr. Sinister was epic. And I think the show had
a lot of balls to go there with the Wolverine versus Magneto stuff, where he got the adamantium
ripped out. I did not think that they would go there. I actually kind of saw it coming.
Like right when he impaled Magneto, I was like, OK, obviously Magneto is not going to die here.
What's going to happen next? The obvious. It was quite the image, though, that the episode
finished on. Yeah, for sure. Episode 10 was called Tolerance is Extinction Part 3. In it,
Professor X controls Magneto's mind, forcing him to restore Earth's power and its magnetic
field. This reactivates the Prime Sentinels, but Jean Grey, seeing Cable about to be killed
by Bastion, reaches out to the Phoenix Force, who temporarily gives her the power to free
Cable. She places the headband that blocks Bastion's connection to the Prime Sentinels on his head,
disabling the Prime Sentinels, and she removes Mr. Sinister's stolen mutant powers, reverting
him to his centuries-old self. Bastion rips off Cable's arm and technoforms it into a pair
of wings to fly to Asteroid M and try to crash it down to Earth. In space, Rogue and Sunspot
intercept Bastion where they fight him in the blue area of the moon, though Bastion fights
his way into the asteroid. Blue Team pilots a sentinel robot to join the fight in space,
and the X-Men overpower Bastion, preventing him from destroying the asteroid's gravity
core. However, Earth's leaders activate the Magneto protocols to blast the asteroid out
of the sky and the missiles hit the gravity core, creating a singularity that swallows
Bastion. Cyclops and Jean Grey telepathically say goodbye to Cable as they try and stop asteroid
M from crashing into Earth, but Professor X is able to restore Magneto's mind from his
earlier psychic assault in enough time for Magneto to reverse the asteroid's fall and send it
back into space. At that moment, however, The asteroid and the X-Men disappear through a
time portal that sends Cyclops and Jean Grey into the future to raise their son Cable, and
the rest to ancient Egypt where they meet Apocalypse. Bishop and Forge resolve to rescue the team.
In a mid-credit scene, present-day Apocalypse finds one of Gambit's playing cards in the
ruins of Genosha. At the start of this episode it seemed like they were totally setting up
onslaught, but by the end of the episode it seems like they're definitely setting up Age
of Apocalypse. But either way, yeah, it's clear that Gambit's coming back as the horseman of
death. Yeah, that's really cool. I love the climax between the X-Men and Bastion. Again,
such a great message in how Cyclops decided not to destroy his enemy, but to reason with
him. I think they did a terrific job with Bastion, and you can almost see Cyclops and Bastion
almost having their own kind of Xavier Magneto relationship. The characters were both just
so well done. Some of the characters were friggin' fighting in space? Yeah, that was weird. Well,
I mean, you do have to remember that the bluer area of the moon does have oxygen. That's where
the inhumans used to live. But like, Sunspot taking Jubilee down to Earth from Asteroid
M didn't make any sense to me. He would have brought back a corpse. Yeah, I did like the
fight against Bastion though. Rogue, Cyclops, Sunspot, Jubilee, they all got their time to
shine. Beasts coming in and piloting the Sentinel stomping on Bastion, I thought that took the
prize. I thought that was really great. I don't know if I loved the time portal jump at the
end. You always kind of want to give the team a little bit of breathing room between their
big adventures. It would have been nice to get some kind of closure with the team celebrating
their win. But when it comes to the X-Men, they rarely ever get a chance to breathe here. It's
being pulled into one adventure after the other. And that was always the nature of the 90s X-Men
cartoon. Those seasons rarely ended with closure. They were always setting up the cliffhanger
for the next season. Yeah, honestly, when that time jump happened, I thought they were setting
up for something to tie in with the Deadpool movie in some way. And maybe like that's how
they were going to get into the MCU universe. Like it was this group of X-Men specifically
that were going to be our MCU X-Men. They were just going to make the jump from animation
to live action. Obviously interesting. Didn't play out that way. But right when that happened,
that's what I suspected. That would have been cool. I was wondering who was behind the time
jump. My first thought was that it was Kang because he played a role in ancient Egypt as
Ramitat and also maybe it was a mortis or something like that. It could have even been someone
like Fitzroy who is Bishop's enemy and he's able to drain life forces from people to create
time portals. I also wonder if it might have had something to do with Bastion getting pulled
into the Singularity since he also had Cable's arm with him which had the time sliding technology.
There's a lot of options here, I guess. Do you hope Bastion comes back some way in the next
season? I don't think so. I think he was done really well here. And I'd hate for them to
revisit that and make it feel repetitive and not give another villain a time to shine. I
am really looking forward to Apocalypse. I think that'll be cool to me. Apocalypse is sort of
like Super Bastion, just in terms of like his techno morphing and stuff like that. So I think
it'll be exciting. But that does it for the series overall. I. find little to no flaws
with this entire season. To me, it was the quintessential X-Men experience. I thought the season perfectly
captured the complex themes and the characters of the comic book series in a way that no other
project has. I'll be surprised if any forthcoming X-Men movie comes close to touching this season.
I know that the show was certainly better than what came previously with the Fox X-Men universe.
It just captured everything that I love about the X-Men and was thought-provoking and action-packed
and everything good. I'm giving it five out of five stars, a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Yeah, honestly, I feel like by episode three, I felt like this was going to be a five star
show because right off the bat, it was just so phenomenally well made in terms of the visuals,
in terms of the writing, in terms of everything. I was just insanely jealous, as I mentioned
earlier, you know. DC fans will often say that DC has the edge when it comes to animation.
And I think that may be the case prior to the Spider-Verse films. But I got to say, I think
I'm enjoying Marvel animation a lot more than DC animation as of late, which is heartbreaking
to admit. But I have to. Well, the Tomorrowverse isn't anything impressive, you know, so I can
see where you're coming from there. You know, we usually reserve five star ratings for things
that. are transcendent and that they transcend normal superhero tropes and trappings. Yeah,
or they're groundbreaking. Yeah, the X-Men in themselves, I think, as characters are transcendent
in that they deal with so many more heavy themes than most other comic book characters. It's
just inherent to the franchise. And when you have a series that so perfectly captures the
essence of who the X-Men are and how their stories go, then yeah, you have something that feels
transcendent. So while some people may balk at the idea of this getting a perfect rating,
I think a lot of X-Men fans out there would agree with this rating. It's just really well
done in a way that would be hard to surpass if ever. Yeah, no, I wouldn't call it groundbreaking
in terms of bringing something new that we haven't seen before. In a way, this took me back to
when I was a child. But I would call it groundbreaking in that it was so unbelievably true to the
spirit of its creator Stan Lee, who wanted to create content for not just kids, but really
smart kids who are growing into adulthood. And, you know, they would have stories like this
to help them get there. I feel like a lot of animated fare is either very kiddy for little
kids like, you know, Teen Titans Go, or it's very mature, like, you know, some of... DC
stuff that they've put out. This to me was a perfect blend of the two, where it wasn't too
kiddy and it wasn't too mature. It was perfect. I really have no other way to describe it.
There were minor things that I didn't like or were like, whoa, what's up with that? But ultimately,
I agree with you. It's the best X-Men project that I've ever seen on screen. DC animation
fans beware, Marvel's coming for you. Yes, you. Oh no. But that does it for this review guys,
let us know what you thought about X-Men 97 Season 1 by writing to us at dyna or by visiting
us on Instagram, which you can find a link to in our show notes, or by going to our website
at dynamicduel.com. And on our site you can also find a link to our Patreon page, where
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And please don't forget to rate the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Podchaser or on
our website. Our next episode is going to be a X-Men tie-in where we pit Warpath, who was
a member of X-Force, against the Native American DC hero Black Condor. But that does it for
this episode, we want to give a big thanks to our executive producers Ken Johnson, Jon Strosky,
Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom. Miggie Mathengian, Brandon Essergard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yaiten,
Austin Wieselowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew Shunk, Dean
Mielewski, and Devin Davis for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you
guys next week. Up up and away, true believers. There is no love without sin. Cause I'm freaky
like that.