X-Men ‘97 has been one of Marvel Animation’s gleaming highlights of 2024. More than just nostalgia-baiting, X-Men ’97 showed that you can create meaningful stories, heart-wrenching dialogues, and animations that would blow the mind of your 10-year-old self. If season 1 saw the magnitude of humanity’s capacity to get rid of mutants, season 2 is all about mutant-kind forging to fight against a threat so great that they need to go through multiple timelines to do so. Welcome, the Age of Apocalypse.
A lot has happened within the Marvel Cinematic Universe between Season 1 and Season 2 of X-Men ’97. Establishing the existence of the multiverse, finally bringing in Deadpool and Wolverine (and Live-Action Gambit) on the bigger MCU repertoire of films, MCU’s Fantastic 4 Debut, and then some. But for the X-Men ’97, Season 2 immediately picks up where Season 1 left off. 2 Teams of X-Men are thrown through time to somehow try and defeat perhaps the strongest mutant villain they’ve faced, Apocalypse.
[NOTE: This review is based on the first four episodes of X-Men ’97 Season 2, though there are no major spoilers here for the second season.]
In a dystopian distant future of 3960 AD, Jean, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine try to survive a world where Apocalypse reigns supreme, all the while trying to keep a young Nathan Summers alive. The team is under the care and protection of a certain Mother Askani (aka an older Rachel Summers, aka Phoenix) and urges Scott and Jean to train Nathan and prepare him to eventually defeat Apocalypse.
On the other end of the spectrum are Rogue, Magneto, Beast, and Nightcrawler, stuck in the past, specifically 3000 BC, when a young En Sabah Nur was still coming into his power before he truly became Apocalypse.
Then there’s the present-day X-Men like Jubilee and Sunspot who need to navigate a world where the X-Men no longer exist. It’s a world that’s reflectively present even though it’s set in 1997, especially with state-sanctioned mutant police force rounding up rogue mutants who do not conform to the current political climate.
In the middle of all this are Cable and Forge, who understood that the X-Men are scattered throughout time and must find a way to bring them together to finally defeat the Mutant Apocalypse once and for all.
X-Men ’97 Season 2 somehow ups the ante from Season 1 and shows more cameos and fan-favorite heroes and mutants like proper Psylocke and Arch Angel, and creates nuanced, mature, and political discussions with the introduction of the X-Factor (Havoc, Polaris, Strong Guy, Wolfsbane, Multiple Man) in the series as the government-sanctioned mutant police force.
What makes Season 2 resonate more is the fact that while the entire show tries to tell a cohesive story about Apocalypse, it does give us small moments of brilliance for us to care deeply about each and every mutant hero that appears on screen. Heck, they even made Jubilee so bad-ass in Episode 2 that she has her own corridor action set-piece that’s marvelously crafted with her lumikinetic explosive light blasts (aka fireworks). They also show character growth and maturity, not just through physical animation, but through smart dialogue, like when Jubilee was coming into her leadership potential role during a confrontation with Polaris and Havoc, so much so that she condescendingly calls Havoc “Budget Cyclops”. A younger Jubilee won’t have the authority to do that, but X-Men ’97 Season 2 Jubilee, after going through everything in Season 1, has both authority and grit to do so.
So far, X-Men ’97 Season 2 is a masterpiece and a worthy sequel to the first season. With gorgeous animation, larger set pieces, and more iconic dialogue (watch out for Storm’s diva moment dialogue on the first episode), X-Men ’97 Season 2 makes us more excited for when we see our favorite mutants cross over to the larger interconnected live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe.
X-Men ’97 Season 2 will be exclusively streamed on Disney+ starting July 1, 2026.