X-Men

[Thad]

Notably the MasterMoldipede also stopped detecting an Omega Level Mutant threat while Magneto was clutching the child who suppresses mutant powers.

I did catch that. I also thought for a second that the line of German dialogue was Nightcrawler bamfing in to save everybody, but you see him a little later and he seems as shocked as everybody, so I realized it was Magneto talking and a callback to a couple of conversations earlier in the episode.

Another detail I really like is the bits in the opening titles that change every week and show scenes from TOS that are pertinent to the coming episode but have been re-done in the new animation style. (And they're not necessarily reproduced shot-for-shot, like in the latest opening they zoom in on Forge like "Marvel's Merry Mutants previously encountered Forge in season 3, episode 15, 'Cold Comfort', true believers!") Reproducing existing scenes probably isn't a huge hit to the ol' budget but it's still a visible effort put into what amounts to a couple of blink-and-you'll-miss-them Easter eggs at the top of each show that a significant portion of the audience is going to skip over and not see at all (but I suspect a smaller portion of this audience skips the titles than most shows').

[KingRoyal]

Is Cassandra Nova getting the love she deserves? Time will tell

Caught up with X-Men 97, and what a success the show it. It perfectly captures the original show's ability to capture the current state of the X-Men at the time (those Blue and Gold team costumes and lineup) while adapting classic X-Men storylines rather faithfully for a kid's TV show. Only now they're doing it while reflecting the nearly 3 decades of change since the show went off the air while catching up right after where the show left off.

Things like going from Lifedeath in one episode to E is for Extinction two episodes later and have it work together. And being free of the restrictions of Fox Kids is also working out for them

[Büge]

I started watching X-Men '97, and my wife (a lawyer) went on a five-minute rant about how no one bookbinds a will, no lawyer would notarize it, and every judge would declare it null and void

She also explained how Magneto and Prof. X sharing a mental connection constitutes Undue Influence, and as such, the will could be struck down

What I'm saying is that after the first episode, we should have gotten a five-episode arc of Cyclops contesting the Professor's will

[Thad]

fuck you

i don't need more estate disputes in my life; i watch this race-war show to get away from that stuff

[KingRoyal]

The time for Charles Xavier to have done things above board, legally speaking, was before he formed the child paramilitary group. At this point, sticking his last will and testament into one copy of a bound novel that he only sends to Magneto is just how ol' Professy X rolls

[Thad]

Caught up with X-Men 97, and what a success the show it. It perfectly captures the original show's ability to capture the current state of the X-Men at the time (those Blue and Gold team costumes and lineup) while adapting classic X-Men storylines rather faithfully for a kid's TV show. Only now they're doing it while reflecting the nearly 3 decades of change since the show went off the air while catching up right after where the show left off.

Things like going from Lifedeath in one episode to E is for Extinction two episodes later and have it work together. And being free of the restrictions of Fox Kids is also working out for them

One thing I've praised TOS over and over again for is its economy of storytelling, its ability to wrap up meandering, years-long stories in an episode or two. The "traitor to the X-Men" storyline and the "mutant plague" storyline each got wrapped up the episode after they were introduced, whereas they took most of the decade in the comics. And similarly, last week's episode ended with the reveal that Mr. Sinister did Mutant 9/11 and this week the X-Men found out about it.

And...well, I'm not that surprised to see Bastion, but man, that seems like a dead-end of a '90s storyline if ever there was one. At least, it's right about the point where I finally quit reading.

And also they strongly imply that Bastion is somebody we've seen before -- Apocalypse would be the most obvious guess, but OTOH we've seen repeated images of Nimrod so I wouldn't rule him out either -- and was that a thing in the comics? I don't remember that being a thing in the comics. If it's original to the show, then it's probably a good way of taking a dead-end of a '90s storyline and fitting it into the arc.

I was also going to snark on Beast quoting something Mr. Rogers said after 9/11 even though it's supposed to be 1997, but I looked it up and apparently there are published references to Mr. Rogers saying "Look for the helpers" at least as far back as 1986, so he's good.

I'm still gonna snark on Morph somehow gaining Quicksilver's powers because he made himself look like Quicksilver, though. Like, okay, Angel I get, his power is wings, but how the hell does shapeshifting into Quicksilver give you super-speed?

[Niku]

Caught up with X-Men 97, and what a success the show it. It perfectly captures the original show's ability to capture the current state of the X-Men at the time (those Blue and Gold team costumes and lineup) while adapting classic X-Men storylines rather faithfully for a kid's TV show. Only now they're doing it while reflecting the nearly 3 decades of change since the show went off the air while catching up right after where the show left off.

Things like going from Lifedeath in one episode to E is for Extinction two episodes later and have it work together. And being free of the restrictions of Fox Kids is also working out for them

One thing I've praised TOS over and over again for is its economy of storytelling, its ability to wrap up meandering, years-long stories in an episode or two. The "traitor to the X-Men" storyline and the "mutant plague" storyline each got wrapped up the episode after they were introduced, whereas they took most of the decade in the comics. And similarly, last week's episode ended with the reveal that Mr. Sinister did Mutant 9/11 and this week the X-Men found out about it.

And...well, I'm not that surprised to see Bastion, but man, that seems like a dead-end of a '90s storyline if ever there was one. At least, it's right about the point where I finally quit reading.

And also they strongly imply that Bastion is somebody we've seen before -- Apocalypse would be the most obvious guess, but OTOH we've seen repeated images of Nimrod so I wouldn't rule him out either -- and was that a thing in the comics? I don't remember that being a thing in the comics. If it's original to the show, then it's probably a good way of taking a dead-end of a '90s storyline and fitting it into the arc.

I was also going to snark on Beast quoting something Mr. Rogers said after 9/11 even though it's supposed to be 1997, but I looked it up and apparently there are published references to Mr. Rogers saying "Look for the helpers" at least as far back as 1986, so he's good.

I'm still gonna snark on Morph somehow gaining Quicksilver's powers because he made himself look like Quicksilver, though. Like, okay, Angel I get, his power is wings, but how the hell does shapeshifting into Quicksilver give you super-speed?

I don't know from Bastion because I was definitely not reading around that time, but I guess he comes about by being some smooshed up version of Nimrod and Master Molds and stuff squirted through a dimensional wormhole or something, so Nimrod's a good bet (especially with all his appearances in the intro lately and the flashy bit with Guyrich).

I really fucking loved the writing choice of Trask getting called something like a dime-store Oppenheimer BEFORE he does the quote.

[Thad]

waaaaaaait a minute Emma can't use her telepathy when she's in diamond form!

[KingRoyal]

Gotta admit, the writing and voice lines must have been done months ago but that conversation between Cyclops and President Kelly sure felt like it was talking about shit going on today

[Mothra]

This latest ep of X97, “Bright Eyes”, was an absolute banger. This show’s been on a hot streak recently.

[KingRoyal]

The Judgement of Magneto for Defector*

This is the setup for Resurrection of Magneto, an ongoing miniseries by Al Ewing and Luciano Vecchio. In it, Marvel’s master of magnetism, who is also the company’s most famous Jewish character, counts his many sins,tortured by the fear that he’s wasted his life on a poisoned dream. The comic arrives at a fraught time. When it debuted earlier this year, Israeli bombs had been falling on Gaza for three months; 25,000 people were dead. That number has now topped 34,000, and the bombs are still falling.

*PDF shared by the author on Bluesky

[Thad]

I don't remember Bastion being any fun in the comics; my recollection was that he was a bog-standard preachy anti-mutant X-Men villain and I hated him.

I like him a lot better this way. He's got the "supervillain who's having so much fun" thing going on; he reminded me so much of Malcolm Merlyn that I thought he was voiced by John Barrowman until I watched the credits.

Of course, then they get into the last scene and do a pretty direct Reservoir Dogs reference, and man, this show gets how to use references. They're there for a reason; they're not just there for that cheap thrill of recognition, they're there to evoke something specific about the era and what it says about those of us who were there. They're more Fargo than Family Guy, more American Pie than We Didn't Start the Fire. (I mean, say what you want about Don McLean, at least he could come up with more than one metaphor.)

X-Men '97 isn't just about looking back at when we were kids; it's about looking at the stuff that shaped us and what it all means. It's a show that knows that if you watched X-Men in 1992 then you also watched 9/11 in 2001. And less crucially but still significantly, there's a good chance that sometime in the mid-'90s you rented a Tarantino movie you were too young to be watching and became obsessed with it, or at least knew somebody who did.

[KingRoyal]

okay, serious talk time

where are the X-Men getting all of those SR-71s? you don't exactly walk up to a Lockheed Martin dealership and drive one off the lot

[Mongrel]

Clearly they're just buying cheap knockoffs. They don't even leak fuel all over the place on the ground like a real SR-71!

[Thad]

I like that Wolverine and the X-Men where Wolverine goes off so half-cocked that Forge is fixing the Blackbird in flight.

[Thad]

I guess we've finally reached the point where you can open a Disney cartoon on a shot of the Twin Towers.

In hindsight I should have realized this was foreshadowing.

[KingRoyal]

Still deciding if "No, my friend. Nine" was a German joke

...but AFAICT Magik is the first character he's turned into who's never been on the show.

Morph has turned into not just Magik but also Darkchilde and Colossus in his X-Men costume specifically, which afaik never happened in the original run. Since the first episode shows Xavier died on November 11th, 1996, and "Bright Eyes" has Rogue in Mexico on Dia de los Muertos, and I think there's one month between Inferno and "Remember Me", was there a 4-5 month period where Colossus joined and then left?

[Thad]

Still deciding if "No, my friend. Nine" was a German joke

I don't see how there can be any doubt.

Morph has turned into not just Magik but also Darkchilde and Colossus in his X-Men costume specifically, which afaik never happened in the original run.

No, he just wore a tank top in the '92 series.

Since the first episode shows Xavier died on November 11th, 1996, and "Bright Eyes" has Rogue in Mexico on Dia de los Muertos, and I think there's one month between Inferno and "Remember Me", was there a 4-5 month period where Colossus joined and then left?

There's a thought.

I guess there's a comic that fills in the missing year. I haven't picked it up but it's crossed my mind.

...you know what was fun? The X-Men manga. It was like a reverse-Voltron; Japanese people taking an American cartoon and writing their own dialogue for it.

In particular I remember the bit from the first episode where Morph turns into Senator Kelly and says "My fellow Americans, I am an idiot" got changed to "People of America, how many hairs are in my nose?"

...hm. Now I wonder if Lewald and the other writers ever got to see it. I bet they'd get a kick out of it.

[Upthorn]

"People of America, how many hairs are in my nose?"

Potentially of interest, over the years I have gotten the distinct impression that "nose hair" is a polite Japanese euphemism for boogers.

[Büge]

I guess AirBnb is getting desperate now that regulations are coming down