Why X-Men 97 Succeeds where the Fox X-Men FAILED

previously on X-Men with one of the most popular ongoing comics of all time in one of the greatest animated shows ever made the X-Men defined Marvel in the 9s but more than that the era defined the X-Men throughout the ' 80s and '90s Chris Claremont redefined the status quo of the X-Men with iconic stories that rivaled the impact of stanlee and Jack Kirby's the X-Men were more popular than ever which eventually gave way to X-Men the Animated Series with extaz yeah I'm going there we're going to call it extaz because Batman the Animated Series just to be called baz so we're going to call this extaz with that show audiences were treated to faithful Renditions of Hallmark X-Men story lines and provided every kid and adult with a great entry point into these characters in 30 minutes or less this wasn't merely a surface level interpretation of the Jean Scott and Logan love triangle Fox X-Men or a dumb down version of the complicated relationship between Charles and Eric this was a mature and nuanced version of the X-Men that invited the viewer to get invested in the drama of their lives what this show understood was that the most important element in an X-Men story are the X-Men this show is serialized melodrama at its finest I mean xtaz was practically a soap opera for kids this kid's crying do something and as was the case with that original X-Men show X-Men 97 continues the legacy of its predecessor with another intimate look into the lives of our favorite yellow spandex Heroes X-Men 97 picks up right where it left off thanks in part to the return of most of the original cast members it's like nothing has changed and yet there's a bit more weight to the proceedings since last time while Xavier's best and brightest have always fought against intolerance for more equal and prosperous World there are pretty overt Illusions to current social issues that give the show a welcomed Edge just as mutants are the next form of human evolution X-Men 97 has wisely evolved the conflict facing mutants episode 2 for example directly invokes imagery associated with January 6th during the trial of Magneto with the human threat feeling very Maga adjacent that's the kind of unrestrained bite an X-Men story should have these issues Never Fade Away they mutate and evolve often times into something far are subtler and more nefarious X-Men stories should reflect that because they have always been stories about the experience of the other the oppressed and marginalized in our real world that balance of contemporary and Timeless is the mission statement of any great X-Men adaptation and it's amazing to see that something actually attached to Marvel Studios understands the X-Men before we get to see them reintroduced to audiences on the big screen in the MCU if there's one thing the MCU can take away from X-Men 97 success it's that a truly great adaptation of the X-Men doesn't rest solely on the shoulders of flashy visuals Nostalgia and Cameo porn but rather how it deepens the characters and Embraces the essence of the source material X-Men 97 should be the blueprint for adapting the X-Men in live action let's start with the obvious stuff the costumes the comic Booky nature of the X-Men themselves as opposed to the previous Fox era that was outwardly ashamed of having their films based on comic books X-Men 97 is proud of its comic book Roots you actually go outside in these things what would you prefer yellow spandex shut the up it Embraces the absurdity of those Concepts and instead of playing it off with the modern sodon aism of hey well that just happened it allows the stakes of the world to actually have me me it creates genuine drama regardless of how Fantastical it may be it Embraces the weirdo that you and I all love about the X-Men about comic books the sci-fi horror magic genre trappings that made us fall in love with superheroes in the first place they allow all of this to be grounded not through a wink and Nod about fighting giant robots like the Sentinels but by giving us distinct personalities for all of the characters and allowing us to be invested in their personal struggles X-Men functions best when it's able to utilize the fantasy aspects of the storytelling to emphasize the intense interpersonal drama romance and social commentary between characters The Firm grasp on character allows for these massive Blockbuster action sequences to pack even more of a punch because we know the characters and their relationship with one another we know which heroes are more likely to team up for a fatality how a leader like Cyclops can direct the actions of team and how the team at large can play off of one another in the thick of battle even more than that the drama outside of the battlefield intensifies the drama on the battlefield if Cyclops is struggling with stepping out of the shadow of Charles to be the leader the X-Men need we'll likely see it transfer over into the action scenes and because of how invested we are in that conflict and what it means to Scott it mutates these standard action beats into gargantuan character defining moments to me my X-Men even more than that these set pieces also play a part in defining how the world perceives mutants at large they can't simply lay waste to a corner of the city or in the case of Magneto let their emotions dictate how they deal with bigoted humans because it could backfire jeopardizing all the progress they've made in the fight for equality then there's the actual team element itself every member of the X-Men is strong enough to hold an entire series on their own I mean it's kind of the incredible thing about the X-Men as Heroes hell we've seen Hugh Jackman's Wolverine do this for over a decade at this point but the genius of X-Men is the restraint the creatives involved have in creating a well-balanced unit the X-Men are greater than any one here and some of the best moments across the fox X-Men films even the weaker entries are when the team acts together sure Focus can shift from character to character one week Jean can take Center Stage or the following week Rogue or Cyclops oh let's let's stick with Cyclops for a minute I really got to talk about this guy because woo this adaptation does him wonders Cyclops has always been a character I didn't like or at least I thought I didn't like him in large part due to how dirty the fox films did him for the better part of 20 years I realize now that the problem wasn't so much the character as it was the aversion to giving him any real Dimension like any square jaw Boy Scout type character like Superman or Captain America the trick to making Cyclops compelling is in challenging his altruism contrasting him against characters who call into question his sense of righteousness X-Men 97 has hasn't changed Scott as a character he's still the same Boy Scout he's always been but now his teacher pet demeanor isn't where the character begins and ends now it clashes with his wants and needs in interesting ways forcing him to look Inward and interrogate his sense of self highlighting each character episode to episode allows for audiences to fall in love with who they are audiences love them because of them they don't need to be cool or Wolverine for people to care they just have to be compelling which really seems like a no brainer but the fox films you know for as interesting as a lot of those films are and for as great as a lot of those films are we're so allergic to that idea these are stories about community and finding people who you can be yourself with and who will support you the visuals and characterizations should reflect that Mantra the X-Men is the story of found family and no one would know that better than the showrunner and Lead writer of X-Men 97 Bo Deo now recent controversy aside because genuinely it's a real bummer he was fired by Marvel deservingly or not I don't know because the dude has such a firm grasp on writing for the X-Men B really is the perfect person to Shepherd in this new era of mutants understandably anyone who's ever felt ostracized different alone unheard or unseen or othered in any capacity can relate to the X-Men we've all been teenagers and some of you still might be we all know what it feels like to not belong to lack a strong sense of self at a time when you're just trying to figure everything out to be an outcast I mean why do you think in the comics the mutations don't present themselves until the person is in their teens however there's something to be said about Bo being a gay black man from an adopted family his experience is drastically different and goes far beyond High School wo not that those aren't valid and into social inequalities arguably presenting a stronger attachment to the modern subtext of X-Men the characters and their plight are even more relatable because of how personal they feel to the writer in an interview with Entertainment Weekly executive producer Brad wbom said the following about Bo he really touched on something fundamental about the X-Men and that was a found family I think the X-Men because of who they are inherently make people feel seen make people feel like they're allowed to use their voice that conversation is at the heart of the show far from an accident this theme a found family was at the Forefront of Bose's mind from the very beginning growing up in a mixed race adopted family with white parents and Korean siblings the X-Men helped him make sense of his Unique Home life as he explained in an interview with the direct X-Men was my way of kind of making sense of this weird family where no one resembled me but you weren't blood but we were supposed to be family and then I think just watching that cartoon every weekend it ignited my passion for storytelling definitely and really helped me understand myself when adapting the X-Men Marvel should want to employ someone with a genuine connection to the source material who cares can relate and has the life experience necessary to tell a compelling X-Men story people who will do something exciting with the characters people who are more than just the run-of A- Mill comic book fan but rather someone who wants to use these characters as a vehicle to authentically explore truths often not represented on screen however while representation is Central to the X-Men perhaps just as important to a successful adaptation of Xavier's merry band of Misfits is a willingness to engage with the struggle for equality Central to all marginalized experiences just as an X-Men story needs the specificity that comes with living as part of marginalized group it also requires the willingness to take strong stance on the fight for civil rights this is something X-Men 97 just excels at beautifully maturely handling its political and social commentary in a way that is never preachy or patronizing and it doesn't mince words when it counts this is an area where the MCU has faltered in the past in trying to make four quadrant crowd Pleasers they have frequently avoided taking overt positions on political issues instead opting to safely straddle the center in hopes of not offending anyone perhaps the most egregious example of this being Falcon and the Winter Soldier a political thriller deathly afraid of being political or thrilling if Marvel Studios can take one thing away from the success of X-Men 97 it should be that you cannot afford to play it safe with the politics of the series something particularly brilliant about the way 97 goes about its messaging is that although it is adapting storylines from 30 40 years ago it makes a concerted effort to recontextualize the core themes of these stories for the political reality of our modern world a great example of this is episode 2 which revolves around the trial of Magneto this storyline draws heavily from an arc in Uncanny X-Men from the mid 80s but is told through an undeniably modern lens with the trial and subsequent riot at the UN building deliberately mirroring the January 6th Siege of the US capital but beyond these more overt Illusions to the current political moment moment 97 is also Smart in reflecting the ways in which bigotry and intolerance have evolved since the original series this is made evident immediately in episode 1 when storm and cyclops interrogate Henry Peter grick in his cell if the original series reflected the political reality for marginalized people in the early to mid 90s the 97 aims to update that Dynamic for the 2020s the apparent death of Charles Xavier has generated a lot of Sympathy for the mutant cause in the mainstream and resulted in a seemingly more tolerant world for mutant kind reflecting the way social justice issues have progressed in the real world in the nearly 30 years since the original series but this doesn't mean bigotry and intolerance have gone away no no no no no no they have just simply changed the more imminent threat facing mutants in these more tolerant times is regression a fear gyri probes at directly in his conversation with the team's leaders you're in Vogue storm a fad look at my Mutant friend but under all that fashionable sympathy normal people know the more room we make for your kind the less we leave for ours so we might wear Tolerance on our sleeves but we know the Naked Truth tolerance is extinction if gyri and the Friends of Humanity represents the constant threat of social regression then sinister is the embodiment of the way acceptance of marginalized groups open the door to demeaning fetishization he doesn't hate mutants per se in fact he purports to admire their gifts so much so that he wants them for himself in a way Sinister is kind of Bradley whitford's character in get out by the way I I would have voted for Obama for a third term if I could best president in my lifetime handstand I agree yeah yeah someone whose positive appraisal of mutants underlies a deeply selfish and dehumanizing view of them to Sinister mutants are specimens whose gifts he can appropriate at his leisure in order to improve himself the whole episode is built around this idea of appropriation with Sinister creating a clone of Jean Gray to appropriate the life of the real Jean so that she can conceive a child with Cyclops for his own nefarious ends and just like get out the episode used uses the Aesthetics and conventions of horror to convey how invasive and demeaning this kind of fetishization in appropriation is for marginalized people if the MCU X-Men series is going to work it needs to be willing to take a stand on the core issues at the heart of the series and it needs to do so unapologetically if it isn't clear already I think X-Men 97 is absolutely fan tastic I love this show it recaptures the serialized melodrama of the original series while delivering incisive social commentary and the most compelling rendition of these characters outside of the comics that sent me into a Serial induced sugar high it perfectly balances Nostalgia with Innovation and audiences are responding to it in a big way so it seems like a no-brainer to follow the example set by not only this series but the '90s series as well in the eyes of many fans my included this take on the characters is the definitive version of the X-Men and it would behoove Marvel Studios to grab a bowl of magnetos and emulate what has worked so well here in their liveaction reboot of the series it's right there you own it you green lit it I believe in you take advantage of the gift at your fingertips if Days of Future Past taught us anything it's that sometimes you have to go backwards to go [Music] forwards

Channel: FilmSpeak

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Id: OBjgM4Wd80o

Length: 17min 22sec (1042 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2024