Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about X-Men ’97 season finale. It… is not much of an improvement, unfortunately.
What has become one of X-Men ’97 traits? A lack of
personal stakes for the main cast: here, for example, Rogue, Roberto (Sunspot)
and Magneto seceded from the X-Men, and several of the latter went to rope them
in. It was a mixed success, until professor X interfered personally and… healed
Magneto, making him a ‘white hat’ once more, with Rogue and Roberto following
suit. Seriously, drama does sell, but it has to be convincing, and the stakes
covered by it have to matter. Otherwise, it just chews up the scenery and time.
(The lack of chemistry between Roberto and Jubilee most of the time is not even
worth mentioning anymore).
As for the other villains… Bastion came up only in
the last few episodes of the season, and so we never formed an attachment to
him, had an investment with him. He died – and good riddance. Mr. Sinister has
been ‘only’ depowered, so he’ll be back once more in the future seasons, (if
there are any)… Oh, and JG briefly pokevolved into the Phoenix.
Right, here is the thing. In the canon, including
the original X-Men cartoon, the Phoenix was an external force, a
semi-incorporeal, albeit a very powerful entity, that needed a corporeal host
to manifest itself to the max. Jean Grey is the best-known example, of course,
but there were, and are, others who also were, or are, the Phoenix. In the
original cartoon, the Phoenix in JG was defeated, eventually, so how JG was
able to tap into it is unknown. Maybe we will learn in the future seasons, (if
there are any); the question as to why JG want to bring back the Phoenix,
(their relationship was ambiguous, to say the least) is a different matter… Anything
else?
Ah, yes, the season ends with the X-Men being
scattered through time, and we get to see some of the future seasons’ villains,
including some sort of a version of Apocalypse. Given how in the ‘Beyond Good
and Evil’ story arc of the original series Apocalypse was banished outside time
and space, guess who’s coming back, eh?
Otherwise, the X-Men ’97 11th season was
good enough; better than ZS’s ‘Rebel Moon’ movies, for example. The
new/old/rebooted X-Men do not shine, but neither do they dim; they deliver;
delivered; will deliver some good old-fashioned entertainment, and that is good
enough for their viewers. Oh, and Senator Kelly is now president of the U.S. Of
course he is.
…However, for now, this is it. See you all soon.
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