X-Men ‘97 Review: Disney+ Delivers a Very Satisfying Update of the Classic Series
And not just because the theme song still rocks.
There had already been several animated series based on Marvel comics prior to 1992, but none with the ambition and scope of X-Men when it premiered that year. Even my childhood favorite, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, while certainly notable for incorporating a ton of different Marvel characters in a bigger way than other shows had, was still not really directly adapting stories from the source material.
X-Men though leaned heavily into that comics history and if you were a longtime Marvel reader, like myself, it was really cool to see these familiar stories adapted in this way. But for the many who were not, and watched it without that history, this was a terrific introduction to the characters and their mythos, and in the process was directly responsible for turning many into X-Men fans. All of which is to say, there’s a high level of anticipation around X-Men ‘97, the new Disney+ animated series that serves as a direct sequel series/continuation of the 90s show.
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