TL;DR – This is a solid opening to the final arc of the season.  

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ Service that viewed this series.

X-Men ’97 Review –

Over the last week, I have finally had the chance to dive into the heart of X-Men ’97. I did come into it a bit wearily because X-Men: The Animated Series was my first introduction to all things X-Men and Marvel. There was this concern that maybe this new series would dent those old memories, or what if I was living in the world of rose-tinted glasses? So far, it has been mostly fantastic, but the truth is in the landing, and we look at the first part of that today.  

So to set the scene, in last week’s episode, we discovered that Mister Sinister (Christopher Britton) is not the main villain pulling the strings because Bastion (Theo James) has returned. But as the X-Men still try to pick up the pieces after the Genosha genocide and discovering who Cable (Chris Potter) is. But there is no time for that because there is a more significant threat moving, a threat that might be closer to home than anyone knows. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there may be [SPOILERS] ahead.  

Well, if you are going to start a three-part final episode, you need to set the stakes, and if nothing else, this episode does that in spades. I think we all knew the second that Beast (George Buza) looked to see how many androids were out there that that map was going to turn red. But I was honestly surprised just how many characters they had turned into the creatures. It also perfectly sets up how disastrous this will be in the next two episodes, especially when they end with Magneto (Matthew Waterson) going to war and everyone pretty much feeling that he’s got a point. It is also the right time just to flood your show with as many cameos as you can muster, and there are a lot of them that even surprised me.

This is also the episode where we get some seriously good action scenes. They are all keeping in the style of the old cartoons, with lasers and blasters, and no one is really dying. However, they have taken that framework and done some neat things with it. The highlight for me was, of course, the Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough)/ Wolverine (Cal Dodd) smackdown with Nightcrawler bamf-ing while waving three swords around. Also, I would be remiss not to talk about family bonding while under fire for that final frame alone.   

However, as with all good X-Men, it is the story under the action that genuinely draws you in. I think some of the themes they have been exploring this season have been entirely un-subtle, and I think that might be needed in this day and age. How fears of the unknown are weaponised, how when you don’t have skin in the game, you don’t really care all that much, the dangers of hidden chatrooms on the Internet fomenting rage, and you will throw your own children under the bus to save the bottom line. If nothing else, the line “Blood is Blood, Family is a choice” is one that cuts through everything. This, of course, gets put to the test with Roberto da Costa (Gui Agustini) and Jubilee (Holly Chou), and someone instantly fails, like X-Men 2’s ‘call the cops on your brother’ bad.

In the end, do we recommend X-Men ’97 – Tolerance Is Extinction – Part 1? Yes, we do. It hit most of the right notes that it needed to do, including getting you hyped for the next episode. Indeed, even though Lifedeath – Part 2 was the low part of the season, seeing Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) and Professor X (Ross Marquand) in those closing moments made you giddy to see what could happen next. Well, I hope whatever it is, it lands as well as the rest of the season has so far.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen X-Men ’97 yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of X-Men ’97
Directed by – Chase Conley
Written by – Beau DeMayo & Anthony Sellitti
Created by – Beau DeMayo
Based On – Stories by Marvel Comics, X-Men Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby & X-Men: The Animated Series Developed by Eric Lewald, Sidney Iwanter & Mark Edens
Production/Distribution Companies – Marvel Studios, Marvel Animation & Disney+
Starring – Jennifer Hale, Ray Chase, Matthew Waterson, Cal Dodd, Holly Chou, Adrian Hough, George Buza, JP Karliak, Ross Marquand, Isaac Robinson-Smith & Alison Sealy-Smith with Gui Agustini, Chris Potter, Theo James, Catherine Disher, Donna Jay Faulks, Anjali Bhimani, Christine Uhebe, Kari Wahlgren, Travis Willingham, Rama Vallury, Jeff Bennett, Eric Bauza, Chris Britton & Morla Gorrondonna