Streaming On: Disney+Episodes Viewed: 4 of 9
Getting the Marvel fandom to agree on anything is rarely easy, and in the wake of Avengers: Endgame it has become harder still. Yet X-Men '97 stood out as one of those rare titles almost everyone seemed to celebrate. The glowing reception and must-watch reputation it built up came down to far more than that iconic opening sequence nobody wants to skip. The show fused inventive, ambitious action with deep storytelling and sharp, quotable conversations about the limits of mutants coexisting with humanity.
The Best of Season One, Plus Something New
Happily, Season 2 serves up another helping of what worked the first time around, while adding a pleasingly intricate, many-sided portrait of En Sabah Nur, aka Apocalypse, one of the X-Men's most formidable enemies.
Season 1's huge cliffhanger, which left separate groups of X-Men marooned across different timelines, is picked up and expanded with real cleverness here.
Three Eras, Three Threads
The story first carries us into the future, at the very peak of Apocalypse's reign, where Cyclops (Ray Chase) and Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) wrestle with how much to reveal to their young son Nathan, aka Cable (Michael Johnston), about his heritage and what lies ahead.
Then, in an episode that arrives with its own striking, custom-made intro, we are dropped back into the '90s, where Jubilee (Holly Chou) and Sunspot (Gui Agustini) join forces with other mutants to fill the gap left by the X-Men's sudden disappearance.
After that, and most compellingly of all, the action shifts to Ancient Egypt. There, Professor X (Ross Marquand) and Magneto (Matthew Waterson) end up allying with an En Sabah Nur (a superb Adetokumboh M'Cormack) who has not quite become Apocalypse yet, as he leads a slave revolt against the wicked Pharaoh Rama-Tut (John de Lancie).
Big Ideas Underpin the Season
Beyond piling fresh nuance onto Apocalypse's backstory, this strand opens the door to the weighty ideological questions that anchor the whole season. Is the future fixed? Can destiny be rewritten? And if it can, what would that mean for mutantkind?
Pace and Balance
As in the first season, these episodes barrel through the plot at quite a pace. And while Season 1 had storylines that could clearly have used more room to breathe, these opening four episodes never feel like they are leaving too much on the bone. Pinning down Apocalypse so firmly as the overarching villain who spans multiple timelines turns out to be a real structural advantage.
A Feast for the Eyes
It all looks fantastic, too. The arrival of several new characters means more chances for the animation to show off, rendering powers in fluid, colourful and dynamic ways, while the various eras the show visits offer their own fresh visual treats. Taken together, this adds up to an exceptionally strong opening to the show's sophomore season. Whatever the future holds for these characters, it looks set to make for a thrilling watch.
