X-Men’97 - Season 2
Stream on Disney+
Episode: 10 Episodes (29 - 33 minutes each)
Rated TV-PG
Based on the beloved Fox cartoon.
This is an ongoing review and will be updated as episodes are released. This article covers eight episodes.
Picking up where Season 1 left off, the X-Men are scattered across different points in time and must find a way back to one another before history is changed forever. With Cable leading the fight across a bleak future ruled by Apocalypse and his deadly Horsemen, the team faces a race against time to prevent a future where mutant kind and humanity are doomed. Spanning multiple eras, the X-Men must reunite for their most ambitious adventure yet to stop Apocalypse before his reign reshapes history forever.
Themes:
Mutants, time travel, Apocalypse, destiny, prophecy, the future, the past, family, government, authority, technology, psychics, cost, leadership, change, trust, abandonment, loss, A.I., training, failure, cults, hatred, survival, X-Force, love, aliens, and rage.
Language:
B*stard - 1 Dang - 2 D*mn - 9 Heck - 3 Hell - 17 Mein Gott - 2 Screw - 2 Religious Exclamation - 1
Name-calling such as mutant, mall cops, and barbarian.
Stuff to be aware of:
Alcohol/Drugs -
Episode seven - characters are seen drinking from bottles in what looks like a bar.
Episode eight - two characters drink what appears to be champagne.
Gross -
Episode five - an alien is dissected. Organs are seen being removed from the corpse.
Episode seven - a withered body and skull of a character can be seen.
Episode eight - the same withered body and skull of a character are seen again.
There is a sword that has blood on it, and a drop of blood drips off.
Scary -
Episode one - there is a woman who opens her mouth wider than humanly possible, and smoke comes out of it.
Episode four - a psychic vision with a large person and floating eyes is a bit intense.
Episode five - there are birds and a bear that have been mutated. The bear has long, sharp teeth on an unnaturally sized mouth.
There is a group of aliens that bond to characters that give them sharp teeth and make them look more like an alien insect.
Episode eight - A character kills multiple people and seems to possess them.
Sexual -
Episode one - Forge calls Storm “honey” and kisses her.
Episode two - a woman tells a man, “I wouldn’t mind making you bark, woof.” Jubilee and Sunspot share a quick kiss.
Episode five - there are aliens that breed with the “best” of their kind.
Episode six - a man and a woman are seen in a locker room in towels.
Violence/Gore - There is plenty of comic book-style fighting and action like season one.
Episode one - there is a scene with a bunch of dead bodies of mutants; some look human, and some do not.
Episode two - a man is shot point-blank and killed. This is done off-camera, but his body is seen lying on the ground.
Episode three - a character chops off a man’s head off-screen. This act is not seen, but blood splatters on a character’s face.
Episode four - a man is seen dead. He has gashes on his face and blood.
Another man is shown with a projectile beam. This is seen in silhouette.
Episode five - a character is briefly seen impaled on a tree after a helicopter crash.
A bear monster is stabbed multiple times, bleeding green blood.
Multiple scientists are seen dead. They have huge claw marks, and some are missing limbs.
An alien busts out of a human, spewing green slime everywhere.
A dead man is seen with spikes shoved through his head.
Episode six - A death from a previous episode is shown over and over again.
Episode seven - a flashback of Genosha shows some fighting from season one and a character dying.
A character is shot and killed. The wound is seen, and a bit of blood is splattered on his face.
Episode eight - a character is stabbed all the way through with a blade made of energy. No blood is seen, but the blade is seen going in the person’s torso and out their back.
Episode nine - a character starts to lose the top layer of flesh on their arms. Later, other spots of her skin burn off.
A person gets shot point-blank and is seen bleeding on the floor.
Religion
Episode six - there is a group of enemies that want to kill all mutants and refer to their leader as “reverend.”
Several tarot cards are seen representing the horsemen of the apocalypse.
Episode eight - there is a summoning ritual that takes place by allowing a drop of blood from a sword to drop into the water.
Episode nine - characters are seen reading a Bible.
Other -
Episode one - a robot mentions that Apocalypse is their lord and savior.
Episode four - there is a man sold into slavery.
Overall:
Seeing It With Your Family
If you watched season one, this season is similar in violence, but language is turned up a notch. It does feel a bit more tame (thus far) on the sexual front, but there are some intense deaths and violence (especially in episode five).
What I Thought
One of my favorite things about X-Men ’97 continues to be the little details. I love how the show updates the intro throughout the season, changing which characters and events are highlighted based on what is happening in each episode. It’s a small touch, but it shows how much care goes into the series.
Season One was amazing, and Season Two started out just as strong. Unfortunately, somewhere around the middle of the season, it began to lose its way. The Wolverine-centric episode and a couple of episodes that feel more like old-school “villain of the week” stories seem out of place considering everything happening with the larger Apocalypse storyline. On their own, some of these episodes are enjoyable, but with only nine episodes in the season, they take valuable time away from the main story.
That’s one of the biggest differences between X-Men ’97 and the original series. The original had much longer seasons, which gave it room for standalone adventures and episodes focused heavily on individual characters. With only nine episodes to work with, X-Men ’97 has to be much more selective about which stories it tells. There is a lot to juggle. Even when focusing on one particular character, the writers need to find ways to involve the rest of the team or connect that episode to the larger story.
Because of that, the Apocalypse storyline never felt as focused or developed as it should have. The first half of the season seemed to know exactly where it was going, while the second half felt much more scattered. Some of that could potentially be connected to the change in leadership behind the scenes following Season One, but whatever the reason, the difference in the storytelling was noticeable.
Overall, I still enjoyed Season Two, and there is plenty that I liked. It just didn't reach the incredibly high bar set by Season One. The first half was much stronger than the second, and hopefully Season Three can bring back some of the tighter, more focused storytelling that made the first season so great.
And one final thought: I’m starting to feel like Celestials are sometimes becoming an easy shortcut for Marvel writers when they don’t know how to move the story along.