This year, Marvel is returning to one of the most beloved cartoons of my childhood with the highly anticipated (and controversial) X-Men ’97. Of course, I’m talking about X-Men: The Animated Series. It featured a team of outcasts who saved the world daily even though the world scorned them. A group of people born with amazing powers and posed the question “of whether they were the next step in human evolution?” They were called mutants or freaks, but to many, they were called icons or legends. I am, of course, talking about The X-Men. Specifically, the animated series from the 90’s was full of action and adventure. But it also taught many children about the dangers of hate and how love and acceptance are needed worldwide. The show was massively popular, and its message was applauded. But what’s the story of its origin, and why did it leave us in the first place?
The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963 debuting in The X-Men #1 in September of that year. The book was not a hit; in fact, for many years, it was the lowest-selling comic being published by Marvel. Even though there were times when sales spiked, the book would eventually stop publishing new stories altogether. Then, in 1975, sales and interest in the characters would explode with the publication of New X-Men #1. This comic would introduce iconic characters such as Storm and Wolverine. Soon the golden era of the X-Men would begin when comic book legends John Byrne and Chris Claremont took over the book. After that, the X-Men became arguably the most popular comic book characters Marvel ever made. By the 90’s Jim Lee had taken over illustrations and created what most people consider the classic look of the X-Men to beat.
I could go on and on about my thoughts on the X-Men comics, but it would be another video. So, as you can imagine, the popularity of the characters made Marvel want to cash in on adapting them to other media. This led to the birth of X-Men: The Animated Series, which would go on to have a five-season run on Fox, and became beloved by a whole generation of children. In this episode of Gone But Not Forgotten, we dig into the show’s history, why it ended, and its impact on a generation.