Marvel Animation’s X-Men ‘97 Discussion Thread.

[Christopher]

Can someone fill me in though, was Cable in the original show? Did he know of his lineage, or is this only now coming up?

Cable did appear repeatedly in the original series, but his backstory was never addressed. In fact, in the first season (which I believe had different writers and used some characters in weird ways), he was used as a present-day mercenary, but later seasons depicted him more accurately as a time traveler without explaining the discrepancy -- and without revealing his parentage, though I think it was hinted at vaguely once or twice.

 

[JD]

Looks like this next episode is introducing a new character who could lead to some very interesting things in the future.

 

[Saul]

Hey guys so I'm late to the chatter. I have a friend who wants to watch X-Men '97 but she's never seen any marvel shows (not sure about movies but I doubt it, since she didn't know who the different X-Men were before I mentioned I was a fan). I was telling her about the different X-Men characters and she really liked Jean Grey, and asked me where she should begin watching. I have a feeling she will be lost starting with X-Men '97, so I want to introduce her to the original animated show first. I face the same issue as introducing friends to Star Trek: which episodes of the original animated series are required viewing to understand the gist of X-Men '97? I'd prefer a shorter list as I'm not trying to overwhelm her, maybe just a handful of episodes of only the most crucial storylines, as she is a restaurant server who works a ton of hours and also has a six month old baby. Any help you guys can provide would be appreciated. Thanks!

I'd probably start with the first 3 episodes of season 1 and then skip to the last 3 episodes of the same season. There is a lot of stuff going on in other episodes that will get referenced but I think it's a nice start. Then maybe episodes 7 & 8 of season 2 with Cable. Then the last 4 episodes of season 4 which serves as an end to the series. I would avoid the Dark Phoenix stuff and season 5 is a step down in quality from the rest. Maybe just the last episode of season 5 since X-men 97 picks up after those events.

Spoiler

And he'd have no reason to lie, right?

Also, in the comics Gambit literally became Apocalypse's Horseman of Death, which gives him a very easy road to coming back in some form. Sure it would have to be for a different reason then in the comics, but '97 has shown that they'll take interesting elements from newer comics and make them fit in the '97 world.

Now I don't know if either of them will come back, but I do know that this is the X-Men and very few characters stay dead, especially major ones.

The producer also pointed out those instances while addressing the same point.

Can someone fill me in though, was Cable in the original show? Did he know of his lineage, or is this only now coming up?

It's hinted at. You could join the dots but never is it explicitly addressed. The characters themselves aren't aware. Combining Scott and Jean's DNA by Mr. Sinister was also a plot from early on that seemed to go nowhere. It's something I find interesting about the old show. There are a lot of hints about relationships between characters but you wouldn't pick up on them unless you were familiar with the characters from the comics. It's pretty cool to see plot points from so long ago come to fruition.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Spoiler: barely

Is that the shadow of the Watcher in the stars at the opening of the episode?

Guess they're going to drag out the aftermath of the last one. I got bored halfway through, maybe I'll pick it up later and finish it up.

 

[Christopher]

Another powerful episode with a strong statement to make and some excellent dialogue writing. At first I thought it was rather a major swerve to a part of the story that's bound to be confusing to new viewers, but it ended up tying in quite strongly to the themes of the previous episode and the season arc.

I thought it might be anachronistic for someone in 1997 to use the phrase "say the quiet part out loud," but apparently it originated in a 1995 Simpsons episode. https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=43732 It's surprising how influential The Simpsons has been on the language. (But perfectly cromulent.)

 

[aquova]

Spoiler: Episode 6 Spoilers

Well... episode 5 got me interested in the series, but I think episode 6 made me lose that interest. It reminds me a bit of the later seasons of Young Justice, where the audience is there for a show exploring the dynamics between heroes, only for the writers to introduce a convoluted galactic storyline. As someone not very familiar with the X-Men show or Marvel in general, I'll admit I didn't have the slightest clue what was going on. Xavier isn't dead I guess, he's instead hooking up with the literal empress of the galaxy. So much for any exploration of Cyclops learning to live without Xavier, as he's coming back, and without a wheelchair no less.

 

[JD]

Spoiler: Ep. 6

I was curious how long it was going to be before we finally checked it with Xavier. I enjoyed his storyline here, and I'm not surprised he's going back to Earth, I knew there was no way they'd give us an X-Men series without Professor X or Magneto.
I liked Storm's storyline too, although I find it a bit odd that getting powers back made her hair and clothes instantly change. But I know that kind of thing happens a lot in comics and animation, so I'm willing to go with it.

 

[JD]

In this universe, are there any students at the Xavier School? In most of the other versions I've seen, there are usually tons of students all over the place at the school, with X-Men as either fellow students or their teachers, but so far the only people we've seen there in this are the X-Men.

 

[Christopher]

In this universe, are there any students at the Xavier School? In most of the other versions I've seen, there are usually tons of students all over the place at the school, with X-Men as either fellow students or their teachers, but so far the only people we've seen there in this are the X-Men.

In the comics, some periods have featured the school as an active concern with current students, while others have treated it more as just the X-Men's HQ using the school as a facade. (I wrote my own 2006 X-Men novel with a bunch of students at the school, but I later learned that the period I set it in was actually slightly before they started featuring students again, so it was a bit of an anachronism.) As far as I recall, the original animated series did not feature an active student population at the school, aside from Jubilee.

 

[JD]

OK thanks.

 

[Xerxes82]

Can someone fill me in though, was Cable in the original show? Did he know of his lineage, or is this only now coming up? I'm sure comic book readers knew the whole time, but as someone who has only seen some of the live action X-Men films, I honestly didn't know anything about Cable until this episode, and was surprised by the reveal.

To be fair, Cable's earliest appearances in the show actually predate the reveal of his lineage in the comics themselves. He was around for several years with no definitive backstory before they even started hinting at it, and it was even longer before they made it explicit. I don't think they actually spelled it out until '93-94, and since the show started airing in '92...

You can actually see the odd transitions Cable has gone through as a character played out in micro in TAS. He first appears as just a mercenary figure. Then later they add the time travel elements (and the show makes no attempt to reconcile the initial episode he appeared in with those later facts, either). And finally they tie it up with the Nathan Summers reveal.

 

[Christopher]

To be fair, Cable's earliest appearances in the show actually predate the reveal of his lineage in the comics themselves. He was around for several years with no definitive backstory before they even started hinting at it, and it was even longer before they made it explicit. I don't think they actually spelled it out until '93-94, and since the show started airing in '92...

Oh, that explains it. I always thought it was just because the first-season writing staff was less concerned with fidelity to the comics than the subsequent staff. But as with Mister Sinister, it's a case of the show having to adjust to keep up with the comics' evolving storylines.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Spoiler: Episode 6 Spoilers

Well... episode 5 got me interested in the series, but I think episode 6 made me lose that interest. It reminds me a bit of the later seasons of Young Justice, where the audience is there for a show exploring the dynamics between heroes, only for the writers to introduce a convoluted galactic storyline. As someone not very familiar with the X-Men show or Marvel in general, I'll admit I didn't have the slightest clue what was going on. Xavier isn't dead I guess, he's instead hooking up with the literal empress of the galaxy. So much for any exploration of Cyclops learning to live without Xavier, as he's coming back, and without a wheelchair no less.

You do realise that X-Men '97 is a sequel to X-Men the Animated Series right?

Which had those sort of plots since the third season (of five).

And the Xavier plot is literally follows on from both the series finale and drawns on a hybrid of a couple of different plotlines from the source material.

 

[Josh Kelton]

 

[JD]

Has Gambit ever died in the comics? I'm pretty sure Magneto has at least once, but I'm not sure about Gambit.

 

[Xerxes82]

Has Gambit ever died in the comics? I'm pretty sure Magneto has at least once, but I'm not sure about Gambit.

Not being a particular Gambit fan, I can't definitely answer this one. Not counting the currently ending Krakoan era, where resurrection was the entire point and quite a few characters died and were immediately brought back, often multiple times over the course of the story. Off the top of my head, he's actually one of the few X-men I can think of who HASN'T been dead for a while at some point. Along with Rogue (currently his wife, in comics). But that doesn't mean I haven't missed a story somewhere, as I don't follow the character closely.

Seriously though, the list of dead-then-got-better X-men is looong. Jean/Phoenix, obviously. At least twice, in fact. Colossus, Cyclops (again, at least twice), Cable, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Psylocke (both of them), Xavier, Angel, Beast, Thunderbird, Magneto on several different occasions, etc.

That said, Gambit was at one point a Horseman of Apocalypse. Which means there is probably a reasonably comic accurate way to resurrect him, should they choose to do so.

 

[Saul]

Quite a few cameos today from the Marvel animated universe.

Spoiler: In particular...

Captain America. But isn't he still trapped in locked combat with the Red Skulll when we last saw him on Spiderman? So I am assuming he escaped or it's not Steve Rogers.

 

[Tuskin38]

Cap was voiced by Josh Keaton who also voiced Cap in What If, though he’s not doing a Chris Evans impression here

 

[Christopher]

Another very good one with some terrific dialogue writing. I continue to be impressed at how they've managed to make this an authentic continuation of a decades-old show yet raise it to the next level.

I still have issues with the music, though. When Cable appeared toward the end, his leitmotif from the original show was briefly heard. So the current composers, the Newton Brothers, are aware of and able to use the character motifs from the original score; they just don't. This is an episode where they could've featured Rogue's musical theme in some big ways, and I think it would've enhanced her action and dramatic scenes. So why use Cable's theme and not hers?

So the purple guy is Bastion, huh? I thought he might have been a returning character from the future-set episodes in the original series, but it looks like this is his TV debut, which makes me wonder why they bothered to delay the reveal of his face (maybe to tease comics readers who'd recognize him?). I also could've sworn that was Jimmi Simpson doing the voice, since he sounds a lot like Dr. Hemlock in The Bad Batch, but it's Theo James.

 

[Tuskin38]

I also could've sworn that was Jimmi Simpson doing the voice, since he sounds a lot like Dr. Hemlock in The Bad Batch, but it's Theo James.

I thought the same thing