X-Men ’97: Season Two #1 Makes the Wait for The Series’ Return a Lot Easier (Review)

The X-Men are about to return to the ’90s and fans are excited. X-Men ’97 Season Two is dropping on Disney+ in July and Marvel Comics is looking to give the show’s fans a nice little prequel to the new series, much like they did with the first season. X-Men ’97: Season Two #1 brings back the team of Steve Foxe and Salva Espin and sets them loose on the show’s new status quo. The X-Men had disappeared in an event known to the world as E-Day, thrown through time in two directions. This leaves their allies to pick up the pieces of the world and this first issue is all about that, taking readers back to the decade of extreme for extreme fun (which is just regular fun while drinking Surge).

This first issue is everything you could want from this series. The ’90s belonged to the X-Men and this issue takes readers back to the days of the late ’90s expertly. Foxe and Espin have definitely improved since the days they took the Krakoa Era to the ’90s in X-Men ’92: House of XCII and take readers on an excellent ride. It’s not going to change the comic industry forever, but it’s awesome.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Pros	Cons
Foxe does a fantastic job of capturing the flavor of ’90s X-comics and the show	This book – and the show in general – are exercises in nostalgia and there’s a hollow quality to the story
Espin’s art looks more like the show’s art style and it makes the book’s art look like it walked off your TV screen
Takes the story in interesting new directions, using ’90s ideas in different ways

Foxe Keeps Proving He’s an X-Men Heavyweight

Steve Foxe has been around the X-Men books for several years, starting with X-Men ’92: House of XCII. Since then, he’s written numerous books starring mutants and has shown that while he’s not the most amazing writer ever, he knows his way around a mutant narrative. That’s completely on display here. Foxe understands the vibes of ’90s Marvel in general and the X-Men in particular, so watching him take the pieces the show left him – and the general directions that it’s going to go – and forge them into this issue is a blast.

This is fantastically paced comic, with the book never letting readers get bored with the proceedings. It balances character and set-up with action beautifully, to the extent that this does really feel like reading a ’90s X-Men comic. Seeing Rusty and Skids was a lot of fun for this old man and the way it used X-Factor was unexpected but still cool. We get to see another major ’90s mutant team in the form of X-Force, with the return of Cable playing a big role in the narrative. If there’s anything to complain about this with this book, it’s that it’s copied the inconsequential style of the comics. ’90s X-comics were the unending soap opera, with major plots introduced and abandoned all the time. They were hollow in their way and so is this book. It’s entertaining as all get and well done, but it doesn’t have anything to say other than “prequel comic to make you want to watch the show.”

Espin’s Art Keeps Getting Better

I remember the first time I saw Espin’s X-Men art in X-Men ’92: House of XCII (I know this is the third time I’ve brought it up, but it’s excellent and you should hunt it down), I was kind of blown away. His style was reminiscent of the animated style, but had its own energy. It’s honestly kind of a tragedy that he only does these kinds of books, because I would love to see him bring the style he used for this issue to the mainstream comics of Earth-616. The writing in this issue is excellent and even with that, the art in this issue is especially good.

Espin could have just copied the newer animated style of the show and been done with it, but there’s a little something extra to his art that makes it unique. This guy didn’t just trace animation cells from the show; his character acting is perfect for the cartoon setting, his action captures the kinetic feel of the TV show’s fights, and the page layouts give the pages a sense of momentum. Espin brings an amazing energy to each page, giving readers action that looks like it walked off your TV.

X-Men ’97: Season Two #1 is one of the better X-Men books of the last few months. It helps that it’s adapting the excellent series and taking things in directions the show won’t, but the real reason is because Foxe and Espin are an amazing team. Maybe I’m overstating it because I love their ’90s flavored stuff, but I want them on more mainstream titles. This issue has some of the same problems of the current mainline X-comics – it’s a very hollow line right now – but it’s so entertaining it doesn’t matter.

X-Men ’97: Season Two #1 is on sale now.

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