X-Men ’97 Season 2 appears to be setting up yet another X-Men spinoff team. The first three episodes of X-Men ’97 left viewers delighted, and the season currently stands at a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. The show has brought back X-Factor, last seen in the classic episode “Cold Comfort,” and it seems to have set up Polaris for a major role. But the spotlight really went to X-Force, Cable’s mutant strike team.
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Jubilee is playing a major role in X-Men ’97 Season 2. Often criticized as little more than a walking fireworks display, Jubilee proved just how skilled and capable she really is when she led a break-out from the X-Factor prison. More importantly, Jubilee has a whole new look… influenced by her iconic costume from the Generation X team in the ’90s. What’s more, that isn’t the only Generation X setup in the season so far.
Emma Frost’s Story Could Easily Lead Into Generation X
X-Men ’97 has already focused in on Emma Frost, albeit in a fairly controversial manner; the story has doubled down on Emma as a villain, or at the best an antagonistic force. She openly betrayed X-Force to X-Factor, much to Jubilee’s fury, which means the youngest X-Man has good reason for major beef with Emma right now. That would make perfect setup for one of the best Jubilee arcs in the comics.
There, Emma Frost and Banshee eventually established a second Xavier’s school to train a new generation of mutants. Famously known as Generation X, these included Jubilee as the established hero, and a whole host of brand new mutants: Synch (able to duplicate the powers of others), Monet St. Croix (who has a complex relationship with the entity known as Penance), Chamber (whose psychokinetic powers blasted a hole in his chest), and more. Strikingly, those three Generation X members all made their animated debut in X-Men ’97 Season 2, episode 2.
X-Men ’97 draws ideas from throughout the X-Men timeline. That said, its main source of inspiration is the ’90s – and that’s the Generation X era. It feels rather convenient that the show has put so many different Generation X elements into play at the same time. It’s done so alongside mutants from other “young X-Men” eras, such as Quentin Quite, which makes me suspect we could get a version that blends the eras. If that’s the case, it would be wonderful for Emma Frost to run this new academy.
But who would she run it with? The Generation X comics put Emma alongside Banshee, an Xavier’s Dream stalwart who served as the perfect foil. I can’t help wondering whether X-Men ’97 is setting up something far more dramatic; riffing on the New Mutants era from the ’90s, it could potentially put Magneto himself in charge. Season 2, episode 3 already hinted Magneto believes more in redemption and change than Charles Xavier now, with the Master of Magnetism convinced he could even mentor Apocalypse. That, too, could easily serve as setup for Generation X’s debut in X-Men ’97.
The first three episodes of X-Men ’97 are streaming now on Disney+, and new episodes will be released weekly. Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
