‘X-Men ’97’s Family Team-Up Is Oddly Wholesome

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for X-Men '97 Season 1 Episode 8.

The big picture

• X-Men '97
  successfully captures the magic of the original series while expanding the adventures of Marvel Comics.
• The story of Summers' family journey offers heartfelt and wholesome moments in the face of danger.
• The show aims to add more members to the Summers family, possibly leading to a happily ever after amid ongoing dangers.

With each new episode of X-Men '97, fans have been delighted with how fun Marvel Animation's new revival series is. The show not only manages to recapture the magic of X-Men: The Animated Series, but builds and expands on the original show while expertly adapting the modern adventures of Marvel Comics. In some cases, it does even better than the original comics themselves. But there is one plot that has been a joy to watch unfold, and the latest episode, “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 1,” serves as the cherry on top. Yes, we're talking about that Summers family trip we watched unfold Scott Summers/Cyclops, Jean Grey-Summers and Nathan Summers/Cable while escaping a band of cyborg Sentinels bent on killing all mutants. It's been an amazing ride, and we sure hope it doesn't end.

'X-Men '97' proves the Summers family needs a vacation

Marvel doesn't usually take kindly to Jean Gray and Scott Summers. This couple can rarely catch a break in any medium, be it live action, animation, or especially the original comics. Cyclops and Jean (who has gone by Marvel Girl and Phoenix in the past) are meant to be, that's for sure, but they rarely get to enjoy their lives together without some world-ending event. Well, that's still technically true here, but at least X-Men '97 let them have some fun while they are destroying human cyborgs turned into Sentinels. More than that, Scott (Ray Chase) and Jean (Jennifer Hale) can do it as a family unit, with their fully grown son, Nathan Summers, known as Cable (played by the original X Men voice actor Chris Potter) riding in the back seat.

Given the seriousness of the subject X-Men '97featuring mutant genocides and extinction-level events, heartfelt moments like those between Cyclops, Jean and Cable giving the show a much needed breath of fresh air. Of course, we've had plenty of upbeat moments with Jubilee (Holly Chou) this season, specifically in the episode “Motendo,” but what we see here is on a different level. After all the pain Cable has been through in his life, the experimentation with Jean, and Cyclops' own family baggage (which has yet to be fully unpacked), it's nice to see them work together for a change. It's all pretty wholesome, and that's something the X-Men desperately need in the face of these ever-present dangers. Frankly, the franchise doesn't have enough of these moments.

At the beginning of the season, Scott and Jean's clone, later renamed Madelyne Pryor, had toyed with the idea of ​​leaving the X-Men entirely to raise their son in peace. Because of Mr. Sinister (Christopher Britton) influence and the return of the real Jean, this never happened, however the idea that the Summers family can be happy as a unit of their own is welcome. While it's unlikely we'll ever see that in this show's near future, especially with Season 2 underway, a joke like the most recent episode is enough to hold us over for a while. Maybe one day the Summers family will get their happy ending, but until then, we're happy to have more of what's going on here.

The Summers family dynamic is a dream that we hope continues

Despite not having physically given birth to Nathan herself, Jean still treats Cable like he's her own son. Because she shares memories with Madelyne, this motherhood comes naturally to Jean. This makes sense given that she is technically Cable's biological mother, his literal flesh and blood. Jean's confession that she remembers Nathan being in her womb and holding her for the first time (even though she hasn't experienced these things) is a poignant backdrop to the main event here: the Summers family trip. Okay, so these three aren't going on a much-needed family vacation, though together they investigate the origins of Bastion (Theo James).and we couldn't be happier with the whole test.

With Scott in the driver's seat and Jean telekinetically making sure Cable is tethered behind her, this strange family feels as nuclear as ground zero in Genosha. Okay, it was too soon, but what's not to love about the three summers getting back together? The way Jean has her son too big is a delicious nod to the eternal nature of motherhood, and the way Scott fought for Cable against Wolverine (Cal Dodd) at the beginning of the episode reminds us how much Cyclops is an overprotective father deep down. Despite Cable's tough, battle-worn upbringing (and not to mention Jean's own identity crisis), the Summers family is able to overcome all of this and enjoy the rideand we should too.

Of couse, it's the little moments that make this work best. The smug look on those three faces as they throw the Porche through the mouth of the cave, Cable's backseat driving as his father rescues them from an army of flying 'toasters', and the way Scott and Jean smile before showing your child what they can really do. do; it's everything this X-Men fan could dream of. If Marvel greenlit one X-Men '97 spin-off that's all the time, you can bet there'd be an audience (although we'd probably all rather watch Spider-Man '98, if we're honest). The entire sequence, from the moment Cyclops, Jean and Cable land in Bastion's childhood home to the moment they are saved by Magneto's global power outage, is only a few minutes long, but there's enough of a tease that makes us hope that things between Scott and Jean (and with their son) will work out in the end. Here's hoping one of them isn't the next big death before X-Men '97 Season 1 is coming to an end.

Will more members of the Summers family be added to 'X-Men '97'?

Beyond the in-universe reveal that Cable is Scott and Jean's son from the future, X-Men '97 has slowly been letting insinuate that other members of the Summers family are there. Whether they'll cause trouble or be helpful remains to be seen, but so far we've seen Scott's long-lost brother, Gabriel Summers, aka Vulcan, among the Shi'ar Imperial Guard in “Tolerance Is Extinction – Part 1.” we get a brief glimpse of Rachel Summers, Scott and Jean's future daughter, using his Phoenix-based mutant abilities. It's unclear if Rachel will ever reach the past like her brother did, but it's entirely possible that, as with the beginning of the series, we could see Jean give birth to Rachel at some point in the past. This is all conjecture, but maybe the Summers family's happily ever after is possible after all.

Of couse, the X-Men must first stop Cable's dark future, which means Scott and Jean have to stay with the mutant team to see Bastian die. Now that Professor X (Ross Marquand) returns to town, uniting his X-Men again, anything seems possible. More than anything, it would be great if we got more wholesome Summers family content, but given Magneto's latest declaration of war, it looks like things are going to get a little uglier before they get better. Let's hope all three of the Summers clan make it out of this skirmish alive.

New episodes of X-Men '97 launches Wednesdays on Disney+.

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