‘X-Men ‘97’ Goes Back to Its Roots With the New (Old) Suits

The big picture

• X-Men '97
  features new costumes that pay homage to the team's origins in Marvel comics.
• The costumes reflect specific stories in X-Men history and reference classic appearances.
• The show also pays homage to X-Men animation and video game projects from the 1990s.

X-Men '97's latest episode has a very tongue-in-cheek line regarding the mutant heroes' costumes; when Cyclops (Ray Chase) throws his son Cable (Chris Potter) a blue and yellow X-Men uniform, the time-traveling soldier asks, “Am I going to war or to the circus?” Cyclops replies, “What did you expect, black leather?” This is a reversal of a similar line that he said Bryan Singerthe first X-Men movie, and it's ironic considering how far the superhero genre has come and also the fact that the X-Men are wearing new costumes. “Tolerance Is Extinction – Part 2” sees the X-Men split into two groups: Blue Team, led by Cyclops, travels to Asteroid M to confront Magneto (Matthew Waterson) while Team Gold, led by Storm, tries to stop Bastion (Theo James) once and for all. Their new costumes are a nod to various points in X-Men history, as well as another X-Men animated project.

The X-Men's new costumes reflect their origins

X-Men '97 showed the X-Men slowly changing their costumes over the course of Season 1; Storm (Allison Sealy-Smith) won a new black dress during “Lifedeath – Part 2” while Jubilee (Holly Chou) went shopping and picked up a new black bodysuit to go with her signature yellow trench coat. The rest of the X-Men they've been wearing outfits they remember when they first joined the team. Cyclops and Jean Gray (Jennifer Hale) are wearing the clothes they had when they were Charles Xavier's first students. Jean's green and yellow mini dress is a throwback to her time as Marvel Girl.

Wolverine (Cal Dodd), Nightcrawler (Adrien Hough), and Storm wear all the uniforms they wore for the first time Giant Sized X-Men #1 for Len Wein i Dave Cockrum; this is the story that propelled the rise of the powerful mutants to prominence within Marvel Comics, especially when Wein turned the writing duties over to Chris Claremont soon after. Claremont created an epic series on the title, weaving epic stories like The saga of the Dark Phoenix i Days of Future Past while deepening the “mutants as minorities” metaphor and turning Magneto into something of an anti-hero.

Jubilee and Cable's outfits have different origins. In Jubilee's case, her new uniform it's a reference to the time he became a vampire. When the X-Men briefly relocated to San Francisco, they were attacked by vampires, and a powerless Jubilee was transformed into a creature of the night by a vampire-engineered virus. He would eventually regain his “fireworks” powers after a battle with the mutant Emplate. Cable's outfit pays homage to his appearance in Marvel VS Capcom 2, where he is a playable character. The X-Men have a long history with Capcom games in the 90s, so it's only natural X-Men '97 continues to pay homage to that era.

'X-Men '97' Pays Tribute to 'Pryde of The X-Men'

The new X-Men costumes aren't just a treasure for comic book fans. ancient X-Men '97 showrunner Beau DeMayo revealed during one of his “homework” on Twitter that the show would tribute to the Pryde from the X-Men animated pilot. It featured the X-Men, this time consisting of Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Dazzler and Nightcrawler, battling Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants while welcoming new student Kitty Pryde. I like X-Men '97 i X-Men: The Animated Series, Pryde from the X-Men took a lot out of Claremont's career in the X Men comics It was also directed by Larry Houstonwho would direct several episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series and is a producer X-Men '97.

Pryde from the X-Men also serves as the basis of a X Men Komani video gamewho received a shout at the X-Men '97 episode “Montendo”. When you retire and sunspot (Gui Augustini) are trapped in a video game by Mojo, ending up on Asteroid M, in a situation similar to Konami's final level. X Men game The X-Men's costume changes are just one of many ways X-Men '97 The creative team pays homage to the history of the X-Men.

X-Men '97 is available to stream on Disney+ in the US, with the Season 1 finale premiering next Wednesday.

Watch on Disney+