In all good X-Men stories, something new and exciting emerges from the fires of chaos reborn in the phoenix flame. There is perhaps no better example of this at the moment than the consolidation of the Fox X-Men film era into the renaissance of Mutantkind on the small screen for X Men ’97– and the latter is definitely cute because it lets us know that it knows.
Today Marvel released another trailer X Men ’97is the debut season of the super hit and is gearing up to launch three-part finale over the next few weeks, “Tolerance is extinction”. There’s actually not much new in it – it’s mostly scenes from episodes that have already aired, although there are some interesting snippets of new moments, like Jubilee and Sunspot being hunted by an angry mob and the X-Men battling new ones , human-like Prime Sentinels after her encounter with the transformed Bolivar Trask last week. But the trailer ends with one very good little comeback.
Nathan Summers, aka Cable, aka Scott and Madelyne’s baby a few weeks ago (ah, superhero stories), is back to help the X-Men of “our” time deal with their new threat, so Cyclops gives him a uniform to match. “What did you expect?” Cyclops tells his son. “Black leather?” It’s a clear reference to the similar gag-in Bryan Singers 2000 X Men Movie in which a disgruntled Wolverine, rubbing against the team’s all-black leather attachment, is mockingly asked if he would prefer yellow spandexin a cheeky allusion to his comic look.
Of course, such is the symbiotic nature of the adaptation and source material that the X-Men actually got their own black leather team uniform in the comics a year after the film, for Frank Quitely’s redesign of the team alongside Grant Morrison New X-Men. But it’s funny how we’ve come full circle at this point, from joking admonitions about how silly the source material for these stories can be to a full-blown acceptance of it. Especially in having X Men ’97 Be the One to Do It – a project that now encompasses the era of Fox films X-Men: The Animated Series in the early 90s to ’97 It is the first X project released since then Disney has acquired Fox in 2019. Yes, Cable, at this point we’re all happy with the spandex – and X Men ’97 knows it.
X Men ’97 continues this Wednesday, May 1st with the first part of “Tolerance Is Extinction” on Disney+.
Want more io9 news? Find out when you can expect the latest Wonder, war of starsAnd Star Trek Releases, what’s next for the DC Universe in film and televisionand everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.