All bets are off in X-Men ‘97, “Remember It”. Ironically, concerns that might have come from the strange split episode last week are forgotten. This week, Marvel Animation didn’t come to play, they came to win. “Remember It” pushes ‘97 into a tonal shift that breaks through the Saturday morning cartoon the series is a sequel of and into something even more compelling. Much like the initial episodes, Marvel nailed this.
A better world
Despite being more serious in depiction than the original, “Remember It” isn’t that much of a departure. Dealing with the threat of mass violence is baked into the X-Men pitch, and even the original series found ways to highlight it. Even so, seeing just how bad things get in the episode is extremely striking. There’s a serious possibility some viewers balk at the shift. I think it stops short of being an edgy “this isn’t some kid’s show anymore” situation, but I wouldn’t blame people from feeling faked out.
Before things go to hell, X-Men ‘97 makes sure there’s a high to come off of. After securing sovereign nation status, the mutant nation of Genosha is already thriving as Magneto (Matthew Waterson), Rogue (Lenore Zann), and Gambit (AJ LoCascio) visit. It’s hard not to feel something as the Blackbird flies over joyful mutant youth. Combined with the membership of Genosha’s council, it’s clear that ‘97’s Genosha is pulling from the concluding Krakoa era of the X-books. That era has featured mutant kind at its highest peak. It also carried a stark threat: the mutants always lose.
If there is a disappointing note at all for “Remember It,” it’s that the Genosha council doesn’t get to shine. It’s a veritable who’s who for interesting X-Men characters with rich histories both in and out of the animated series. In “Remember Me,” they’re just sort of hanging out. Sebastian Shaw (Todd Haberkorn) and Emma Frost (Martha Marion) ask Magneto to be their head of state casually, as if there’s not literal decades of history between them.
Also, remember Cyclops?
Speaking of Emma Frost, one of her more salacious comic stories does get a reference this week, but in the shoes of another. Remember how in “Fire Made Flesh” it was nice that Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) and Madeline Pryor (also Hale) weren’t fighting over Cyclops (Ray Chase)? Yeah, that’s over with. Scott’s “psychic cheating” is now in play, but it’s not as bad as it seems. Whereas the Scott of the comics is often fickle when it comes to his romances, X-Men ‘97’s is genuinely adrift. It makes sense for him to seek healing with Madeline, since her being their son’s mother is the only thing this triangle can be 100% sure of.
Jean’s reaction is pretty soap-y, as X-Men drama wants to do. However, her reaction is consistent as well. Much like Scott and Madeline, she’s adrift. She could have had the universe and instead chose Scott, so it’s reasonable for her to be hurt that he might not be able to choose her at this moment, even if his actions are themselves reasonable.
Creepy isn’t illegal, but…
Of course, their triangle is not the only one making progress. The ill-advised Magneto/Rogue/Gambit thing reaches its resolution in “Remember It.” I remain not a fan of this little arc; and confirming that Magneto, in his position of power and wisdom in a young adult Rogue’s life, initiated a relationship with her does not help. Even so, Magneto’s constant dumpstering of Gambit is still sharp as hell. Matthew Waterson is probably just going to be the series MVP at this point. Gambit also gets his moment to shine when Rogue decides to break off their relationship. His reaction is both out of hurt and love, and is even more reasonable and believable than any other in this episode.
Naturally, I don’t like seeing Magneto and Rogue’s romantic moments either, but I do get it. Magneto wasn’t a good guy, and arguably still isn’t, so I won’t moralize his behavior. Based on his genuine dejection when Rouge decides it’s not going to work, it seems that he was indeed hoping repairing this relationship would help him heal.
There are things worse than hell
Of course, all of these relationship moments really help make what happens next hit like a tank. Out of literally nowhere, future man Cable (Chris Potter) appears only to realize he’s too late and is ripped back into the future; leaving only enough time to confirm he is indeed Nathan Summers. What he’s too late for turns out to be a nightmare. A three-headed massive Sentinel monster assaults Genosha, and leaves very little in its wake.
From an action perspective, this is the peak for Marvel Animation. Nothing X-Men ‘97 or What If has been able to depict compares. This is less about actual choreography and more about impact. Everyone is caught completely off guard by this attack, the fog of war covering everything. Literally one moment everyone is having a good time and the next I’m asking out loud if they just killed Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough). When Rogue and Gambit get into action, it’s undoubtedly the best visual sequence all series long. The accompanying remix of the series theme matches perfectly. For a single moment, it’s almost like a moment of top tier MCU onscreen.
However, the MCU project “Remember It” is closest to is Avengers: Infinity War. Just as the hints to comic readers earlier in the episode implied, the mutants lose.
A world that hates and fears
Now look, X-Men The Animated Series was no stranger to dealing with the threat of extinction for the mutants. It had to be creative, but it found ways to showcase the nightmare futures that could await should Xavier’s kids fail their mission. Cable’s appearance suggests that “Remember It” is closer to those old episodes (and Infinity War) than Marvel Animation wants you to think, even. Yet, the shock absolutely lands, because it feels like something has radically changed.
Normally, a sequence that makes a series “not a kids show anymore” is just an edgy and thin appeal to a made up version of maturity. X-Men ‘97 did just stop being a rehash of the show from my childhood, but in a very meticulous way. This wasn’t done out of cynicism, it was done with purpose. All you need is Magneto’s moment of true despair — the moment the flashing images stop being Genosha and start being Auschwitz — to know exactly how seriously everyone involved with the series is taking this. A seriousness enforced this statement from former showrunner Beau DeMayo:
The attack on Genosha is visceral, because it is designed to pull not at the part of me that knows X-Men lore or loved this cartoon, it’s to pull at the part of me that chokes up every time I open social media to see yet another mass shooting.
Change over nostalgia
Nostalgia revivals of things from my particular childhood are still a new and strange beast. I’ve believed for some time that they’re nearly impossible to get just right, because none of these things went away to begin with. Power Rangers never went off the air and Pokémon only just retired Ash Ketchum. There are almost as many iterations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Transformers as there are sects of Christianity.
X-Men ‘97 is playing its hand. It’s not a nostalgia revival, or a continuation, or even an “adult” take, it’s a question: what if one of these things we loved actually grew up with us? Not just being edgy, not just gesturing towards sex, but intentionally and explicitly recreating the nerve-scarring reality the animated series’ original audience actually lived in. We’re not supposed to feel nostalgic, we’re supposed to feel grief. Grief for a world that we could have had, maybe even a world we did have once. In that regard, even this episode’s title feels particularly pointed.
X-Men ‘97 is still a comic book show
Of course, there’s also the chance that “Remember It” is closer to Infinity War than the series wants to let on quite yet. Cable alone is a bit of a tip off. Both he and Bishop are pretty much the definitive omens of time manipulation. In fairness, in the original series they came to prevent a far off future, and ‘97 is very much still set in its own present. I don’t think an undoing would remove the extremely haunting effect of this episode, but it’d also be a shame to lose Waterson’s Magneto so early. Time, ironically, will have to tell.
Speculation aside, “Remember It” is a barn burner. An excellent use of the medium and material to catch everyone watching off guard, this episode will rightfully join the pantheon of some of the all time greats. Even if the rest of the season can’t reach this high, episode 5 of X-Men ‘97 makes the series a true success for Marvel. That said, this has me asking one big question. What exactly caused them to fire the showrunner who turned in something this good?
X-Men ‘97 drops new episodes every Wednesday on Disney +.
Images courtesy of Marvel Studios/Disney
REVIEW RATING
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‘X-Men ‘97’ - “Remember It” - 9.5/10
9.5/10
Travis Hymas is a freelance writer and self appointed Pokémon historian out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Known to be regularly obessive over pop culture topics, gaming discourse, and trading card games, he is a published critic featured on sites such as Uppercut and The Young Folks.
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