5 X-Men Stories X-Men ’97 Fans Need to Read

X-Men ’97 was a massive hit, which is something of a surprise. X-Men: The Animated Series was a classic ’90s cartoon, with millions of fans, but the fact that a sequel series could draw back in so many lapsed fans so well is impressive. X-Men ’97 succeeded because it remembered what the original show did so well — take stories from the X-Men comics and bring them to the screen in the best ways, creating adaptations that were both faithful and original at the same time.

X-Men ’97 captured some perfect ’90s X-Men moments, and longtime X-Men readers can see where the cartoon’s next few seasons could be going. There are several ’90s X-Men stories that X-Men ’97 should read, some because they are places the shows might go and some because they are just plain excellent stories. These five X-Men stories will scratch an itch for more retro X-Men goodness.

“Onslaught”

X-Men ’97 ended with Magneto pulling the adamantium out of Wolverine and Xavier hitting him with the mindwipe, which comes from the classic story known as “Fatal Attractions.” In the comics, this action saw a seed of Magneto’s evil take root in Xavier, leading to the creation of the beast known as Onslaught. Onslaught would wait in the shadows, finding allies and building its power, before attacking the X-Men and then the rest of the world in the summer crossover “Onslaught.“

Onslaught has always been a controversial character, and a big reason for that is the titular story starring the villain. A lot of fans find it emblematic of Marvel in the ’90s, a period that saw the publisher hit its lowest ebb creatively. However, this story does have its charm and is definitely a direction that X-Men ’97 could go. It’s definitely worth a read for fans of the show, an action-packed story that sees the entire Marvel Universe band together against a powerful villain.

“Children of the Atom”

After “Onslaught,” the X-Men had to labor on without Xavier, who was imprisoned by one of X-Men ’97‘s main Season 1 villains, Bastion. The X-Men would face off against Bastion in “Operation: Zero Tolerance,” but the end of the story would see them still Xavier-less. Eventually, their old mentor would appear, recruiting a new team of X-Men who would attack the X-Men in the two-issue story “Children of the Atom,” by Steve Seagle, Joe Kelly, Chris Bachalo, and Brandon Peterson, from Uncanny X-Men #360 and X-Men #80.

The story is a tight little tale that pruned down what was at the time a sprawling X-Men team down to seven members — Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, and Marrow. The enemy X-Men team, consisting of mutants that Xavier almost recruited over the years is full of cool characters, and the twist at the end of the story sets up the next story on this list. While the show might not go in this direction, it’s an excellent X-Men story that has callbacks to various moments in X-Men history, and will definitely tickle an X-Men ’97 fan’s fancy.

“The Hunt for Xavier”

The end of “Children of the Atom” revealed that Cerebro, which everyone thought was destroyed by Operation: Zero Tolerance, had gained sentience and was trying to find Xavier. After its first failure, it decided to look on its own, and its search and the X-Men’s overlapped, leading to the six-part “The Hunt for Xavier,” by Joe Kelly, Steve Seagle, Chris Bachalo, Adam Kubert, and Leinil Yu. The story saw the X-Men split up, each team going after a separate lead, coming back together to battle Cerebro for Xavier in an epic battle. This fight was made all the more dangerous by the fact that Cerebro had access to their Danger Room training sessions and the Xavier Protocols, which Xavier created to deal with the X-Men in case they went evil.

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This is an excellent story from one of the best periods of the ’90s X-Men comics. Kelly and Seagle’s run as X-Men writers was very short — barely over a year — but it was full of amazing stories. This story finally reunited the X-Men and Xavier after several years and had some amazing action. Cerebro as a villain was an amazing idea and it would be one that the show could do wonders with.

“The Twelve”

X-Men ’97‘s first season ended by laying out some major clues for the future, as the X-Men were thrown into the timestream. Some of them ended up in the ancient past and others in the future, but these two far-flung locales had one thing in common: Apocalypse. The past X-Men were thrown to is Apocalypse’s past in Egypt and the future is the time when Apocalypse has taken over the world. In the comics, this future had its origins in the present day when Apocalypse gained godlike power. All of this points to the show adapting the X-Men story that ended the ’90s — “The Twelve.”

“The Twelve” ran through all of the major X-Men books — X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, Cable, and X-Man — and saw Apocalypse trying to gather the Twelve, a group of mutants whose powers would combine to grant godhood to whoever brings them together. This story represents the culmination of all the ’90s X-Men plots, so not all of it will make sense to X-Men ’97 fans who aren’t well-versed in the comics, but it does a great job of explaining itself. The story isn’t as popular as some other big-time X-Men events and is somewhat hard to find, but it’s worth hunting down.

“Warriors of the Ebon Night”

This one is almost certainly not going to get adapted and made a part of X-Men ’97, however, it’s the perfect encapsulation of why the ’90s X-Men were so great. The story does need some set-up — in Uncanny X-Men #328, Sabretooth breaks free of his imprisonment in the X-Mansion and nearly kills Psylocke. In Uncanny X-Men #329-330, by Scott Lobdell, Jeph Loeb, and Joe Madureria, Wolverine and Archangel team up to get their hands on the Crimson Dawn, a magical elixir that is the only thing that can heal the dying Psylocke. They team up with Gomurr the Ancient and journey into the magical underbelly of New York City’s Chinatown, where they encounter a powerful enemy who holds what they need.

Titled “Warriors of the Ebon Night,” this story is all killer and no filler. Wolverine and Archangel are two characters that don’t spend a lot of time together, so it’s an interesting pairing, and it shows the breadth of what the X-Men deal with. Sure, they’re mostly out there dealing with the enemies of humanity and mutantkind, but sometimes, they also find themselves going on trips to find magical ways to save their friends. It’s a wonderful little snapshot of a long lost era of the X-Men and it’ll show X-Men ’97 fans why the X-Men comics were so popular in the 1990s.