'X-Men 97' Season 2: Episodes 1-3 Recap and Review
Now that we’re one-third into season 2, X-Men 97 has the potential to be the yellow-clad mutant crew’s best on-screen iteration.
Where the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe still struggles to part with the ”Foxverse” and its X-Men, everybody’s favorite slew of mutants thrives on the small screen via X-Men 97. A revival of 1992’s X-Men: The Animated Series, X-Men 97 (which debuted in Spring 2024), finally returns for a second season—one with potential to be better than its predecessor. Season 1’s celebration was quickly cut short by the firing of creator Beau DeMayo for alleged sexual misconduct, jeopardizing the show’s future. Thankfully, under the new leadership of showrunner Matthew Chauncey, X-Men 97’s structural integrity has yet to wane. Judging by the first three episodes, season 2 of X-Men 97 (so far) is ironclad proof of the series’ upward trajectory.
After the defeat of Bastion, Professor Charles Xavier (who was thought dead until episode six), Magneto, and a slew of the X-Men are cast across space and time; two spaces and times, to be exact. Sent to the year 3960 A.D., Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Storm, Morph, and Forge stumble upon Nathan (soon-to-be Cable), Cyclops’ and Jean’s John Connor-esque son that they sent to the future. Professor X, Rogue, Beast, Nightcrawler, Magneto, and Bishop, however, find themselves in ancient Egypt, 3000 B.C. Together, they must stop their longtime foe, Apocalypse, from gaining absolute power in both timelines. With the mutants scattered across the cosmos, the X-Men must find their way back to the 90s to stop Apocalypse.
Picking up after the explosion of Asteroid M—Magneto’s secret orbital lair—Bishop and Forge are the only X-Men left at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Everyone else is either presumed dead or M.I.A., though Bishop, a time-traveling, energy-redistributing mutant, has a plan: travel forwards and backwards in time to find the X-Men. It would’ve been nice to see exactly how Bishop found them (all we get for an explanation is “time ripples”), though I suppose that doesn’t support modern television’s single-digit episode counts. Nevertheless, Bishop and Forge venture to the past and future respectively, with episode one—”Days of Past Future”—following Forge into 3960 A.D. in a world starkly reminiscent of Terminator 2’s opening scene.
Don’t let the title’s riff on Days of Future Past (either the 2014 film or the 1981 comic run) fool you; X-Men 97’s first episode is basically Terminator 2 but with Nathan Summers (a.k.a. Cable) serving as John Connor, while Jean and Cyclops divvy up Sarah Connor duty. “Days of Past Future” gives us our first glimpse into the future Cable comes from, which isn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows. This episode ties up the “Cyclops and Jean send Nathan to the future” and “Cable is Nathan” threads from season one, serving as both bildungsroman and origin story in one fell swoop. After Apocalypse's unsuccessful attempts at possessing Nathan, his path to becoming Cable is officially set.
Meanwhile, in the 1990s, Cable recruits a skeleton crew of mutants—Psylocke, Archangel, Jubilee, and Sunspot—to join his “X-Force” strike team (if this moniker sounds familiar, you probably remember it as Wade Wilson’s short-lived squad in Deadpool 2) in episode 2: “A Force to be Reckoned With”. Hunting down Apocalypse’s “horsemen,” the X-Force set their sights on War, who hopefully has information regarding Apocalypse’s weaknesses. After Archangel executes war (much to Jubilee’s dismay), they’re led to the prison base of “X-Factor,” a group led by Havok and including Emma Frost, Polaris, Wolfsbane, Strong Man (seriously?), and Multiple Man. This continues the overarching narrative of escalating tensions between humans and mutants, paralleling ICE detentions in Daredevil: Born Again season 2.
After a classic Emma Frost backstabbing, Jubilee is imprisoned alongside a plethora of other mutants in the X-Factor base. X-Men 97 has always had standout action setpieces, with Jubilee’s prison breakout—set to Veruca Salt’s “Volcano Girls”— being one of the season’s best so far. Jubilee’s “firework” powers (which are actually some form of plasma) have a flashy, poppy flair to them, sometimes illuminating the action when the players are in pitch-blackness. It further establishes Jubilee as one of the series’ beating hearts, plus her powers are insanely cool. Back in 3960, Scott, Jean, and the rest of the mutants (who all have awesome future-fugitive outfits) say goodbye to Nathan, now on the path to becoming Apocalypse’s ruin.
Conversely, episode three, “Rise of Apocalypse - Part I,” follows the 3000 B.C. gang as they try to prevent a younger Apocalypse—En Sabah Nur—from ever rising to power. It’s the classic “killing baby Hitler” thought experiment, as the X-Men wrestle with the morality of potentially pre-rehabilitating the man who would later become one of their most dangerous adversaries. Centralizing the relationship between Xavier and Magneto sets the stage for a collision of ideals between mutant existence (as always), rewriting the past, and nature and nurture, hoping to save Apocalypse’s soul from the darkness that encroaches. Apocalypse’s volatility proves a tightrope walk for the X-Men, with Magneto (of all people?) taking on the task of mentoring the would-be supervillain.
Egging Apocalypse on in the background is Kang the Conqueror, this time in the form of the pharaoh Rama Tut. It’s unclear whether or not Kang will be a season mainstay (I’m leaning towards “no”), though it’s pretty cool to see the character onscreen after the Jonathan Majors fiasco. Serving as the antagonist’s antagonist, the X-Men quickly learn that the enemy of their enemy is not their friend. Apocalypse even spares one of Kang’s generals, Logos, nudging things in the right direction for the X-Men. That said, once Apocalypse catches wind of the X-Men’s true intentions, he executes Logos in cold blood, shattering Magneto’s hopes of quashing anti-mutant stigma before it can flourish.
As with season one, X-Men 97 remains impeccably drawn and voice-acted, with Holly Chou’s Jubilee quickly climbing the ranks of my favorite team members. Additional highlights are Ray Chase’s fan-favorite performance as Cyclops, Matthew Waterson’s brooding portrayal of Magneto, and Ross Marquand’s double-duty as Xavier and Apocalypse. Speaking of Apocalypse, the villain has already been done far better justice here than in X-Men: Apocalypse, begging questions of how far X-Men 97 can surpass its live-action counterparts (a joke from season one took a shot at the Foxverse). Ample time remains for X-Men 97 to screw the pooch in the coming episodes, but, at the risk of speaking too soon, this remains my favorite on-screen iteration of the yellow-spandex-wearing mutant crew.