My report from this year's @TheUncannyEXP convention for @ComicsXF, from notes on my panel to awesome cosplay to what to expect next (let's get those "Jim Lee to the Uncanny Experience" vibes out into the world!). #XMen #UncannyExperience
https://comicsxf.com/2025/07/24/my-uncanny-experience-experience/
I'm a lifelong superhero fan with a plethora of props, posters, Pops, and, of course, comic books. Friends and family often struggle with finding the right birthday gift because no matter how creative they are, I already have the Spider-Man toaster, Mjolnir decanter, and Black Panther umbrella. I try to tell them not to worry; if it's superhero-related, I'll love it. And that is true, but it's always very cool when someone is able to pull off a miracle and find me something I don't have, like the Deadpool knife block my friend Betsy got me. Or when Marvel gave me the gift of X-Men ’97 premiering on my birthday, March 20.The X-Men, in a nutshell, are a group of mutants harnessing their unique abilities to defend a world that hates and fears them. Like the Avengers or, crossing the streams, the Justice League, they are a team of superheroes. What sets them apart is that they don't gain their powers from a radioactive spider bite or a secret government military experiment; they are born with them. However, the abilities generally don't manifest until adolescence, and they do not know what form they will take, often coming with some drawbacks in appearance, impact, or control. They began as an allegory for the Civil Rights movement, and because racism and prejudice still run rampant today, that central theme of being hated and feared just for who they are still holds true.X-Men ’97 is a revival of X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1997) produced by Marvel Studios, via its Marvel Animation label. It picks up where the original series left off (thus the name) but is distinct enough that you don't have to have seen the original series to watch the new one.As I noted in my interview with Lenore Zann, voice actor for Rogue, it was in June 2019 that Larry Houston, the producer and director of the first series, and the creative team first discussed reviving the show with Disney. Around this same time, Marvel Studios executives were discussing what their next animated project could be after their first animated series, What If…?, was in development. The first idea considered was a revival of X-Men: The Animated Series, which was suggested by Brad Winderbaum, the head of streaming, television, and animation at Marvel Studios. The series was formally announced in November 2021, and returning with it were several original voice actors reprising their roles, including Zann, Cal Dodd (Wolverine), Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm), and George Buza (Beast), along with new cast members Jennifer Hale (Jean Grey) and Ray Chase (Cyclops) taking on the prominent roles.Be warned: There are spoilers ahead.The show does pick up where the original series left off, in the aftermath of Professor Charles Xavier being "fatally" shot by Henry Gyrich, a grown-up version of Sid from Toy Story who is as antimutant and bureaucratic as Sid was malicious. But that's not where the show starts—it starts with the introduction of a new mutant (see what I did there?), Roberto DaCosta. who has been captured by the Friends of Humanity, an antimutant allegory for the Ku Klux Klan. The group has placed an inhibitor collar on him and is getting ready to ship him off to a secret buyer who likes to use mutants as target practice. Roberto is very demure, but not very mindful, as he pleads with his captors to let him go, offering money and assuring them that he's "one of the good ones." You'd think a Black man in America would understand that that wasn't going to cut it, but money makes people forget who they are sometimes.We're less than three minutes in and the Friends of Humanity are about to skip shipping Roberto off and play target practice themselves when the temperature suddenly drops in the warehouse they're in and Storm bursts onto the scene, bringing "the Noise," followed by Bishop, who brings "the Funk." But as badass as they are, the most exciting part of the battle is seeing Cyclops both not being a tool and using his powers in a way I have never seen him do in 40 years of comic book reading and cartoon watching: He moves himself around the room by firing his optic blasts at the ground. It was so simple and yet so sublime.And this isn't the only thing that's new. (Picture Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Reloaded: "Hm. Upgrades.") Storm spouts a "new" look, a mohawk, that's actually old (first debuting in the comic back in 1983’s Uncanny X-Men #173). Magneto takes the reins with a look straight out of a 1990s Harlequin romance novel cover (complete with little "M" bangs). Jean Grey turns out to be clone Madelyne Pryor and gets the Goblin Queen makeover, dropping the ponytail for the full volume. And even Morph gets in on the act with a more neutral look similar to the comics. We also get some new characters like Nightcrawler introduced, and a broader view of the Shi'ar Empire as Xavier has been taken there for long-term care and healing from his "fatality."While the show is new, it connects to and pays homage to its '90s forebear. The opening sequence, for example, initially looks like a frame-by-frame remake of the opening for the original series, but it immediately becomes apparent that it is an updated version. In addition, the cast in the opening changes as characters join or leave the show and the action clips change, harkening back to the original series or past events.The show itself is visually amazing. Advances in technology have made the animation quality a thousand times better than what it was in the '90s, but they still do these nods to the old days, including a 16-bit video game episode where Shi'ar Empire and Roberto are forced to relive some of the X-Men's greatest adventures in the Mojoverse.Story-wise, the show is even more intense. It seems made less with kids in mind than the adults who watched the original series as kids. Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean are in a throuple; Morph is genderfluid; and the world literally gets saved because Magneto is strapped up in a Speedo (the abs on that man!). Episode after episode draws on Chris Claremont's classic storylines, reshaping them to fit the flow and time of the show: the Trial of Magneto, the Goblin Queen arc, Lifedeath, the Bastion arc. It's a lot to take in, but it doesn't feel overly packed.There are a few minor points I take issue with in the new series. Roberto never seems fully developed, and he's less an egotistical rich brat than he is a reluctant, whiny rich brat. It's great that Jubilee finally has someone her own age, but in 10 episodes he goes from an unknown, not wanting to be a mutant, sitting on the sidelines, to joining the revolution with Magneto. And when, oh, when is Wolverine going to get it through his head that a guy filled with metal should not be taking the fight to the Master of Magnetism? He is one of the last people who should be confronting Magneto, but every other episode it's like, "Gonna go stab Magneto!" Since the season culminates in Magneto extracting Wolverine's Adamantium, leaving us with his feral version, perhaps he'll learn. Lastly, someone really needs to explain how Gambit charged up Wolverine's claws without them exploding and what exactly hot pink glowing claws do.X-Men ’97 is filled with ’90s nostalgia and 21st-century excitement. The show moves hard and fast, with the X-Men facing everything from Sentinels to a psychic attack engineered by longtime nemesis Mr. Sinister to the love triangle that ensues between Rogue, Gambit, and Magneto in part because when Rogue's boyfriend moves into the house with her, she neglects to mention that she and Magneto used to kick it back in the day. While that has all the makings of a reality show, X-Men ’97 still brings home the gold with a well-rounded series that builds upon the success of the franchise.You can find both X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men ’97 streaming on Disney+. Season 2 is expected in 2026, and season 3 is already in development.
Longtime #XMen writer Chris Claremont just wrapped up his second year at #UncannyExperience in #Minneapolis. Our resident fan talked with him about the magic of mutants and their role as a social metaphor. #MNastodon
https://twincitiesgeek.com/2024/09/talking-x-men-with-x-pert-chris-claremont/
AustinGorton
Twin Cities Geek 
Andreas Resch
