X-Men 97’ Season 2

Warning: SPOILERS! AVOID IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED ANY OF SEASON 2. Major character deaths.

Once again, X-Men 97’ knocked it out of the park. From the slick animation style to the development of several characters such as Nathan, Magneto, Rogue, and Nightcrawler, the characters felt real and could feel the struggles/triumphs that they go through. Despite some complaints about the pacing, this season is just as good as the first season.

The main success of this season was the focus on each of the characters. My favorite journeys that I saw was Rogue and her dealing with the loss of Gambit. The way we got to see the full circle of grief and how it changes her. Often in MCU the theme of grief is showed in two different ways: well-executed (e.g. Spider-Man: No Way Home/Far from Home and Wandavision) or overlooked (e.g. Thor and slowly losing everyone/everything he loved). It’s such a complex theme that is no stranger to the Marvel Universe and in this show, they definitely were able to showcase the process of grieving someone in the most authentic way. It’s heartbreaking seeing Rogue who has never given up hope slowly unravel. There are multiple elements that layer her character to anger, where she is destructive and unpredictable, depressed where she can’t see anything better coming out of her circumstances. It’s sad but not uncommon when people do experience a tremendous loss. I love how they were able to showcase all the multiple layers of grief in Rogue without feeling the need to go in a much darker/mature route, which in this case the concept and the stakes she’s willing to go are intense, but glad we got what we got in this journey. The relationship that Gambit and Rogue have is underrated. Yes, its been only two seasons of the show, but the way they are able to showcase not only the verbal affection, as well as the body language is beautiful to see. Rogue’s journey is personally one of my favorite watch, as well as Nathan’s conflict with killing Gambit after he was resurrected by Apocalypse and Storm’s affliction when she sacrifices hersel for Magneto and loses her abilities.

Nathan, on the other end of the season 2 storytelling was interesting. We see more affliction in his character and his morals/values being thrown into question when he learns of Apocalypse reviving Gambit. Unlike Deadpool 2’s interpretation of Nathan, there’s a lot more emotion and background that we get into his character and how the upbringing away from his parents truly affected him. While we do see his conviction to kill Gambit, there’s also some humanity/internal conflict he goes through in going against the people he knows love him. I loved seeing this side because while we got to see more of his action, athletic side in season one, the layers of exploration and development of what he thinks will benefit society may end up costing him down the road. The theme of compromise and sacrifice heavily affect his character this season and the stakes of doing what he feels is right vs. losing what he gained through Scott and Jean was at times hard to see but necessary as we can’t always get what we want without it affecting those around us and Nathan learns this the hard way and our morals can get in the way of the bigger picture. It shows so much versatility in this character that I did not expect and I hope to see more of him in season 3. While I wish we could’ve seen the more of the conflict affect the relationship between him and his parents impact through more episodes, I like what we did get and continue to see more of those human morals vs rational thinking represented in the MCU (e.g. Captain America: The Winter Solider/Civil War).

Quick side note: I read the graphic novel of Marvel’s Civil War and I will just say that we were robbed of a bigger and more thought-provoking movie. Yes, at the time Disney didn’t own the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four but still…that graphic novel set the standard for Marvel graphic novels and I hope we get more of the political challenging settings and how the characters react to the world around them. Though we did get that in Falcon and The Winter Soldier but still.

Anyway, back to X-Men 97’ season 2. Another aspect of the season I loved was the action. The level of action we got was amazing. From the battles with Apocalypse and other mutants added a level of conflict that I didn’t expect them to get into. The action carried itself and didn’t drag on but never felt the action ended too quickly. Every character was able to show off their abilities and I love when we get to see everyone in action in that scene and not often we get to see Beast join in on the action as often he is, alongside Charles the brains of the operation, so to see him fight alongside everyone was a rare but enjoyable treat in my opinion. Also Nightcrawler, his abilities never fail to amaze me. The way he carries himself in a fight shows off his personality of teleporting through multiple areas and the fact we got more story on him was awesome to see, but tragic in knowing the finale and his fate is devastating and shocking. The conflict fits well into the action and I love how the animators were able to match it and balance the fight sequences with the story without it being too short and quick in order to keep the story moving, every action sequence felt right and the aftermath of Magneto’s death and Nightcrawler’s death post the fight with possessed Gambit had the right score.

Speaking of the deaths this season, they really pulled the punches. The shocking one for me was Nightcrawler, only because you would never expect it. While to some level, the love for Rogue is admirable, there’s so much affliction I had when I found out he died in order to reunite her with Gambit. Initially, I thought it was going to be her, however when the ending shows no Nightcrawler, my heart dropped and it was hard to see this ending for a character that has had so much loyalty towards X-Men. There was a nice balance of his humanity being shown when his brother, who was against mutants was about to be executed. There’s a subtly in his body language he shows for shame against his own flesh and blood while also showing empathy towards him and why he turned out the way he did. He demonstrates a great ability to be kind towards others without having it be his weakness and the way the writers showcased this was beautiful to see and I wish he would come back for season 3. However, we did get Gambit back after he died last season, so anything is possible. On the other end of the spectrum, Magneto’s death did shatter me. As much as he was portrayed as a villain in the old X-Men movies, this series allowed us to see him as an antihero and his views in a more accurate light. I loved his character in this series and rather than write him off as a villain, we got to see his humanity shine through as well as Charles. If anything, I mostly agreed with Magneto more than I did Charles so far in the show. He went so far as to try and reason with Apocalypse rather than killing him. There’s so much more Magneto had to offer to the series, but his sacrifice in order to save everyone was humbling to see, especially with the conflict he shared with Charles. In his final moments, we hear the wind and Charles’ POV come into focus and see the devastation through his eyes, which was hard to see. The final moments before the end of the episode is chilling and I love how we were able to see a character’s death through another character’s eyes was such a brilliant visual and hope we see more of those moments in the upcoming seasons.

One thing that did bother me a little was the pacing. While I was glad the multiple stories were balanced well, the pacing between them was way too fast in my opinion. One moment we are taking in the death of Magneto then the next we get the multiple post credit scene where we see Logan’s set up for the next episode and how he gets back his claws. The whole sequence was a littler jarring and I wish we got more time to process the episode before jumping to the next. Granted, we might’ve gotten a little confused had they not done this but there could’ve been a different way they executed this transition. The next point of interest was the X-Factor. While it was interesting to see a mutant team that works for the government (similar to the Thunderbolts/New Avengers), I still think we could’ve gotten into them a little later into the season. Only feel this because they went back and forth between the issues with Apocalypse and X-Factor and feel we could’ve gone into them after the whole gang returned from there different time periods and then slowly develop the group overtime. I did like the internal conflict within X-Factor, I think the whole concept could’ve waited until Apocalypse was taken care of because they built the season up to have Apocalypse to be the main villain, so to see this new mutant team and the government interference, while not far off from the comics, it still could’ve been balanced better and how Polaris’ change of heart developed overtime in the season.

This show is incredible and in my opinion, groundbreaking in terms of themes, character development, action, and storytelling! This is one of the strongest animated shows to come out of recent MCU and I highly encourage everyone who is a fan of X-Men to check this series out. Only request is watch season 1 so you know all of the intricate details/storylines in season 2.