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X-Men '97 was always destined to be a hit with 1990s kids, but the Disney+ animated series has ultimately proven to be one of the surprise standout entries in Marvel's Multiverse Saga. In an era where a glut of content has arguably diluted the Marvel brand, X-Men '97 offers pure, concentrated comic book greatness. The show is dedicated to celebrating the entire history of X-Men and squeezing in as many fan-favorite characters and team-ups as time and budget will allow.
In X-Men '97 Season 2, there's not just one X-Men team in operation but two, as the band of mutant heroes have been scattered across two different timelines. What's more, the absence of an X-Men team in their native 1997 means that other mutants have to come together to protect the Earth and mutantkind in their stead. The result of this shake-up to the status quo is that Season 2 almost has the format of an anthology series, as each episode focuses on a different team of characters. The season has maintained an impressive quality throughout, but, of course, some teams have proven better than others, whether that is due to a more interesting roster of heroes, stronger team dynamics, or just because they are more entertaining to watch.
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5 Team X Lineup: Wolverine, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, Maverick, Garrison Kane, and Morph
Image via Marvel Animation
Episode 5 of X-Men '97 Season 2, titled "Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs," offers a thrilling homage to The Thing (seasoned with some Aliens allusions for extra flavor) as Wolverine leads a band of old friends and enemies to break into a Weapon X facility in the snowy Canadian wilderness. This is Logan's equivalent of a college reunion, as each of these allies is a former Team X member, the group of mutants experimented on by Weapon X scientists. Also along for the ride is Wolverine's best buddy (and secret admirer), Morph.
While there are plenty of heavy hitters in this lineup, it shouldn't be surprising that such a collection of renegades proves ill-equipped to work together as a team. After they discover that the Weapon X facility has been taken over by the alien Brood, the execrable extraterrestrials make swift work of Team X, with both Maverick and Kane losing their lives during the mission. The final nail in the coffin for this team's performance comes when it's revealed that Wolverine was lying to his crew all along about his true reason for breaking into the facility. Although he hadn't known about the Brood infestation beforehand, when it came down to it, Team X were more like cannon fodder for Logan's secret plan than a proper team in their own right.
4 X-Factor Lineup: Polaris, Havok, Multiple Man, Wolfsbane, and Strong Guy
Image via Marvel Animation
In Episode 2, "A Force To Be Reckoned With," fans learn that the government has assembled its own mutant superhero team in the X-Men's absence. Dubbed X-Factor, the derivative nature of the group is lampshaded by the fact that they have two less famous relatives of X-Men members on their roster. Namely, Polaris (Magneto's daughter) and Havok (Cyclops' brother). Havok is ostensibly the team leader, but unlike his brother Scott, he appears unable to inspire total loyalty in his teammates.
While they mean well and seem to be serving as a useful PR tool for mutant relations, X-Factor are ultimately toothless as a superhero team because they simply do what government official Valerie Cooper tells them to do — and Cooper herself is taking orders from anti-mutant president Robert Kelly. In essence, the team serves as little more than super-powered jailers for a government facility incarcerating young mutants that have been deemed as potential threats to national security. Polaris does end up betraying her team to aid Jubilee and X-Force, and eventually joining the X-Men once more, but that just shows how fragile this ersatz X-Men group really is.
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3 X-Men 3960 AD Lineup: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Storm, Morph, and Forge
Image via Marvel Animation
When the X-Men were displaced in time, half of them ended up in the distant past and the other half were transported to the far future, where the world had become a desolate wasteland ruled over by Apocalypse. This wasn't exactly a new experience for the gang, as the X-Men have visited more dystopian futures than Wolverine could count on his fingers and claws. Maybe that's why these X-Men seemed to adjust to their new place in the timeline with ease, even if they weren't entirely victorious in defeating Apocalypse once and for all.
In Season 2, Episode 1, the playfully titled "Days of Past Future," Forge travels to the year 3960 to rescue this batch of X-Men. Upon locating them, he discovers that they have gone pretty native, joining a rebel force opposing Apocalypse's lackeys and even finding a new elderly mentor for themselves. Mother Askani, an enigmatic wise woman and leader of the Askani tribe of survivors, was able to help them acclimate to this time zone. It is ultimately revealed that Mother Askani was the one who sent the X-Men into the past and the future in the first place.
By the end of the episode, the X-Men 3960 team have a mixed success rate. On the one hand, they were able to protect young Nathan Summers from becoming Apocalypse's next host, freeing the future from the despot's grasp in the process. On the other, they weren't able to stop Apocalypse from traveling back in time and escaping their clutches once more.
2 X-Men 3000 BC Lineup: Professor X, Magneto, Rogue, Beast, Nightcrawler, and Bishop
Image via Marvel Animation
While Mother Askani brought some of the X-Men to the future to end Apocalypse's reign of terror, those who were sent to the distant past had an even bigger task to achieve: avert the villain's origins in Ancient Egypt. Sent to 3000 BC, this half of the team — as discovered by Bishop, when he travels back to the past to retrieve them — became unlikely allies with a young, idealistic En Sabah Nur in Episodes 3 and 4, the two-part "Rise of Apocalypse."
Nur, unaware of his destiny as Apocalypse, served as the leader of a legion of freed slaves known as the Sandstormers and rebelled against tyrannical pharaoh, Rama-Tut (a variant of Kang the Conqueror). Interestingly, it was Magneto who most took Nur under his wing and attempted to impress upon him morality and ethics. However, Nur proved to be too vengeful to redeem and, with a little help from some rediscovered Celestial tech, transformed into Apocalypse. Apocalypse's first evil act was vaporizing Magneto.
On the face of it, the X-Men 3000 team are far less successful than their counterparts in the future as they not only thoroughly failed to prevent Apocalypse's creation, but they also lost one of their own in the process. Still, the 3000 BC team gain points for having the more compelling storyline out of the two splintered X-Men groups and for the novelty of having an X-Men lineup led by both Professor X and Magneto.
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1 X-Force Lineup: Cable, Jubilee, Sunspot, Psylocke, and Archangel
Image via Marvel Animation
As enjoyable as it has been to have so many separate teams operating across X-Men '97 Season 2, the biggest breakout among them has got to be X-Force. The ultimate example of 1990s comics' love of all things grim 'n' gritty, X-Force ironically didn't feature in the original run of X-Men: The Animated Series, so it's only right that X-Men '97 has finally fixed that egregious error. X-Force makes such a mark on the show that they even hijack the title sequence of Episode 2, with the series being temporarily rebranded as X-Force '97.
What makes X-Force the standout team of the season is the dramatic conflict in their storyline. Despite being the child of Scott and Jean, Cable has a different methodology than his parents and the X-Men at large, and his clashes with Jubilee over the lines they should and should not cross make for some excellent scenes. Contrasting her youth and principles with the grizzled grey morality of Cable results in arguably the best use of Jubilee in an X-Men adaptation to date. In addition, it's always welcome to have more screen time for underrated characters like Archangel and Psylocke. A decade on, and fans are still not over X-Men: Apocalypse's treatment of that duo.
In a world where fans lost out on an X-Force movie starring Josh Brolin, Marvel Studios dedicating an entire episode of X-Men '97 to the tough-as-nails team is a welcome consolation prize. Episode 2 almost feels like a backdoor pilot for a more mature spin-off focusing on the group's exploits, although that may just be wishful thinking. Audiences will likely happily settle for more from X-Force as X-Men '97 continues to expand its highly populated corner of the Marvel multiverse.
Release Date March 20, 2024
Network Disney+
Directors Jake Castorena, Emi Yonemura, Chase Conley
Writers Charlie Feldman, Anthony Sellitti, Beau DeMayo, JB Ballard
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