Oh, Hatton’s popping off about X-Men again.
You’re damned right he is – and do you know why?
Because DizMaus is brilliant at what they do no matter how agonizingly horrible they are to American copyright law. Yeah, we had the biggest movie action event of all time and then, pandemic aside, they feel like they’ve stumbled to their next marker. That said, we all thought it was going to be Fantastic Four for a minute, but behind the scenes they were moving X-Pawns into X-Places.
And then, with Patrick Stewart’s cameo, Kelsey Grammar’s cameo, and Wolverine and Deadpool – we were off to the races. Diz wants us to know that not only are they thinking about the X-Men, they are reminding people of what the X-Men was so when they bring to us our all new shiny X-Teams, the people who don’t know a M’kraan Crystal from a Gem of Cytorak can feel less alone. (An aside: I once got lambasted for misremembering which one was which when I used to write comic reviews. I deserved it.)
So that brings us to this image posted with no commentary:
And X-Men MotherTruckin ’97.
It is a love letter to comics to cartoons to 90’s animation stylings and all of it is done with a non-stop rumbling patter of name drops, character drops, and plot evolutions. Hey, was that Marrow on that poster? Yup. Hey, is that Belladonna and Bobby LeBeau at [redacted]? Yup. And they aren’t apologizing for it or spoonfeeding answers. They’re there for us to nerdily explain to our friends and partners why we keep making noises like a teapot every 30 seconds. It’s merging 50 years of the best comic stories the X-Men did and making it one nonstop pastiche of nitro-fueled nostalgia. Secondary mutation? Got it. AvX? Got it. Darkchylde, X-Factor, Glob Herman!?
But do you notice which characters the cartoon is focusing on? Jean and Scott obviously, but Rogue and Nightcrawler, Jubilee and Roberto.. not Wolverine – you know why? Everyone knows Wolverine. And yes, people know who Boyscout Cyclops and Momma Phoenix are – but what about ‘Cyclops did nothing wrong’ Summers and Madelyne ‘Yes I do control demons in lingerie, why?’ Pryor? Because X-Men ’97 has them. Minister Nightcrawler and Unforgiving Unrepentant Marvel v. Capcom Asskicking Rogue? Check and Check. The politics of the X-Men is taking center stage and it isn’t the ‘why do they hate and fear us’ easy patter. It’s the ‘we have laser beam eyes and claw hands, how the hell are we losing!? version we’ve seen in the Krakoa age.
Get ready kids, because the MCU:X is coming, and if it is 10% as good as this cartoon – I’ll have to stop bitching about how horrible the X-Movies are. (It’s going to take some time since there are 2 good ones and 6 bad ones – it’s going to take some time to move that needle)
Anyway, sugah – sound off on your X-thoughts – Hatton Out.
