X-Men ’97 Takes Shots At Live-Action X-Men Movies In Episode 8 Preview Clip

X-Men ’97 Episode 8 will begin the three-part Season 1 finale story arc “Tolerance is Extinction” and a new preview clip at once teases a long-awaited father-son bonding moment and some shade-tinted humor at the expense of Fox’s live-action X-Men movies.

In the preview clip for “Tolerance is Extinction (Pt. 1)” Cyclops is rallying for battle against new villain Bastion (Theo James) and his advanced model of human Sentinel cybernetic hybrids. Joining Cyclops in the preparation for war is his son, Nathan Summers, aka Cable, who traveled back to 1997 to save his dad and the X-Men from the Bolivar Trask Hybrid Sentinel, and inform them of the grave threat to the future that Bastion poses.

WATCH: X-Men ’97 Episode Preview Clip:

As you can see above, Clyclops is attempting to give Cable an official X-Men uniform to wear (which longtime fans are no doubt hoping is THIS suit); the only problem is, Cable is NOT feeling the fit. When Cable scoffs about whether he’s going to war or “the circus,” Cyclops retorts with the line “What’d you expect: black leather?”

This joke is a clear callback and answer to the first X-Men movie, where Cyclops and Wolverine have a similarexchange – only in the movie, Cyclops throws shade about whether Wolverine was expecting a yellow spandex suit to wear instead of black leather uniforms.

Many newer onscreen depictions of superhero characters (in animated form or live-action) feel like they now have a license to poke fun at the more… liberal interpretations of these comic book characters and lore that we saw in the 1990s and early 2000s films and TV shows. It’s WILD to think about today,, but when the first X-Men (2000) movie released first promo photos of the iconic characters, there were a lot of moviegoers who celebrated the choice of switching to black leather costumes for the live-action adaptation. Comic book movies had not yet convinced the mainstream public that their colorful costumes and lore were sustainable for direct adaptation into blockbuster movies – an argument that wouldn’t really begin to shift until the first Spider-Man movie arrived in 2002.

Obviously, the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and major advances in costuming and visual effects have changed the equation entirely when it comes to superhero movies creating convincing re-creations of comic looks. Marvel waited nearly a quarter-century to see Wolverine’s suit from X-Men ’97 on actor Hugh Jackman – which will finally happen in the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine film.

The black leather is long gone.

X-Men ’97 streams new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.