In a 2004 interview with Lisa Terrada for the Archive of American Television’s Living Television Collection, X-Men co-creator Stan Lee said about the creation of the team,

…I wanted to do another group, another group of superheroes, but I was getting tired now of figuring out how they get their superpowers. I couldn’t have everybody bitten by a radioactive spider or exposed to a gamma ray explosion. And I took the cowardly way out. I said to myself, Why don’t I just say they’re mutants. They were born that way. We all know there are mutants in real life. There’s a frog with five legs, things like that. So I won’t have to think of new excuses. I’ll get as many as I want and yeah, he’s a mutant, that’s all.

X-Men 97 (S1:E1-E6)

“X-Men ’97,” developed by Beau DeMayo, represents a revival of the renowned “X-Men: The Animated Series” from the 1990s. The show continues the storyline from where the original series concluded, following The X-Men, a band of mutants who use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them. The iconic era of the ’90s is revisited as they face a dangerous and unexpected new future.

PARENTAL NOTES

Violence

• X-Men 97 is rated PG for cartoon violence and intense situations, and it’s an appropriate rating. The violence is very much on the same level as the original, which means no blood or killing. However, the situations can be intense and probably inappropriate for young children.

14 and Under

• There’s a brief scene in which Morph walks in on Wolverine in the shower. While steam and water block the view of his naughty bits, it only just does so. The program shows up in Disney+ accounts that have their content restricted to 14 and under.
  • Morph offers to wash “those hard-to-reach places.”

WOKE REPORT

You Want An X-Man With A Heavy Hand

• In the 90s original, The X-Men were in an almost constant battle for survival. However, in the first two episodes, most of the “action” consists of the anti-bigotry metaphor being shoved down your throat via various exposition dumps.
  • In an impassioned speech to the U.N., Magneto says that persecution has been the norm for those who “believe differently, love differently, [are] of different sex or skin…”
  • The diverse mutant of color whose rescue consumes much of the first episode (as if the show didn’t already have enough characters) has a conversation about being a mutant that is a barely couched metaphor for being gay and in the closet.
  • A pasty white physician won’t deliver a mutant baby at the hospital. This is clearly an allusion to pre-Civil Rights Movement American segregation.
    • It should be noted that the reason he gives is that the mutant mother may lose control of her powers and hurt someone. This seems especially reasonable since the previous scene showed the pregnant mutant in question accidentally ripping the roof off of a moving car during a particularly intense contraction.

It’s Morphin’ Time

• Some may have heard that, according to the show’s creator, Morph, the X-Men’s answer to Mystique is now literally non-binary (neither male nor female, and yet either at will).
  • • If there was any doubt about Morph, it was put to rest in episode 3. While the original actor was replaced by a gay activist who gives Paul Lynde a run for his money for the gayest cartoon voice since Templeton, there was nothing other than his effeminate vocals to indicate such a fundamental shift in the character… until episode 3.
      • Well, in episode 3, we’re treated to Morph’s clear desire to be romantic with Wolverine. It’s done with a couple of looks, and a simulated Wolverine acknowledges it by telling Morph, “Don’t think I don’t know.”
      • Need more? How about the closing credits?

The U.N.

• In the first few episodes, the U.N. is featured nearly as much as the X-Men
  • In a show in which people can shoot firecrackers out of their fingertips, the most unbelievable thing is their portrayal of the U.N. as relevant, competent, and having integrity.

Girl Boss Syndrome

• Spoiler

  Storm loses her powers early in the season, only to get them back by accepting how awesome she truly is.

Colonialization

• There’s a literal anti-colonization lesson taught.