X-MEN ’97 #1
Story: Steve Foxe
Art: Salva Espín
36 pages, $4.99
Marvel Comics

What It Is: The “Official Prelude” to the Disney+ revival of the ’90s show that got a whole generation of kids into comics. Sure, X-Men #1 (1991) sold eight million copies prior, but that was the pinnacle of the speculator bubble—multiple covers, newsstand distribution, and collectors buying stacks of issues as investments. But even that unfathomable and inflated number (I still trip over copies when back issue diving), is nothing compared to how many kids came to the property via weekday afternoon cartoons. Also? That comic sucks. And the show was lots of fun.

The Good: The characters sound like themselves—Beast’s pontificating, Gambit’s “dis” and “dat,” etc., etc. We hit all those familiar beats—a danger room scene, Logan and Cyclops at each other, Jubilee wanting to be treated like a full member of the team. The melodrama.

And it’s gorgeous, too. The proportions and weight of the characters all feel right, and the clean, open-line style is reminiscent of the cartoon without being entirely slavish to it. The Matt Milla colors especially pop, in a cell-shaded, faux-animated sort of way, with good depth in the panels. It’s a bright, vibrant funny book.

Structurally, it jibes with an episode of the show. The main action gets wrapped up and the next, larger threat is teased.

It’s good synergy to have this out (nearly) at the start of the new season of the show, however one of the benefits of the original cartoon was that it was like a second draft for the overly convoluted (ahem, Claremont) comics of the time, tweaked and streamlined for kids, and also for anyone ignorant of comic book continuity. Not good or bad here in this book, merely an observation.

The Bad: A lot of talking. Too much talking. Ten extra pages of story and it’s mostly wasted on dudes standing around gabbing, Let’s throw some more punches. It’s comics—there’s no budget. Show off them powers.

Some of the action reads static on the page—now would be the place for some light special effects or blurs. The cartoon, as poor as the animation could be, at least in those early seasons, really moved and captured the bombast of then current comics, in a simplified style.

On the credit’s page there’s the perfunctory, ‘Created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby,” which we all know to be true and appreciate, of course. But this version of the team/book? We’re missing a few key names here. Len Wien. Chris Claremont. Dave Cockrum. John Byrne. Jim Lee. A little thank you would be nice.

The Score: 7 out of 10 capes

Further Reading: A year ago Marvel released X-MEN ANIMATED ADAPTATIONS OMNIBUS which has forty issues from the mid- to late ’90s. Nostalgic for other ’90s animated stuff? DC recently released a BATMAN ADVENTURES OMNIBUS. They were the best monthly Batman comics thirty years ago, and they’re still a blast. Cheaper trade paperback versions are still in print as well.