Disney Should Give X-Men '97 The Treatment For '90s Hit By Studio Disruption
Posted by Jonathan Klotz | Published
X-Men '97 Season 2 is midway through its run on Disney+ and has improved so much on the first season, fans are now offering suggestions for other Marvel classics that should get a similar revival. These range from Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes for one who suggests the 90s The Man of Steel series, but if anything needs a second chance, it is Spider-Man: The Animated Series since 1994. Next to the X-Menwas a very successful animated adaptation but the rules of children's shows in the 90s kept it from reaching its full potential, and besides, who doesn't want to see a modern retelling of the death of Dr. Octopus, Green Goblin vs. Hobgoblin, or the second take on the full Clone Saga?
Spider-Man Never Reached His Full Potential
Okay, so the Spider-Man stories of the 90s don't have the same kind of historical value as X-Men '97 dipping into “Inferno”, “Age of Apocalypse”, “Fatal Attractions”, and Oslaught (Who's got to be there, right?), but pulling back a bit from “Kraven's Last Hunt,” while “Maximum Carnage” and anything with the Sinister Six are worth getting used to better. Go back and watch the Fox cartoon now, and you'll notice a few things you didn't catch when it first aired.
First, the word “evil” couldn't be used, so the writing team replaced it with “Insidious” which doesn't have the same ring to it. Second, Spider-Man doesn't hit anyone. That, ironically, was not a note from the network or the studio, but a choice made by head writer John Semper, who felt that Peter Parker was smart enough to find other ways to solve his problems. That makes sense, as Fox pointed out Batman: The Animated Series and in that show, Batman's fists are rated E for everyone.
No blood, no vampires (Morbius had butthole hands instead), no death/killing (hence the line, “Shocker's blast should have creamed me”), no blades even though they include Blade, no real guns except for flashbacks, and the list goes on and on. In interviews, Semper said that fans dismissed the research as being too sophisticated and commonplace for children's shows at the time, although what you have to do again, he pointed out Batman.
90s Spider-Man Deserves A Remake
Spider-Man: The Animated Series it was so successful that the original world of Spider-Man was adapted into a comic book, a video game, and a ride at Universal Studios Orlando. Like the X-Men, that's what an entire generation thinks of when they think of Spider-Man. Little kids had it The Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider and His Amazing Friendsif they are old enough that getting up is painful, expect to push for them to be revived as well.
X-Men '97 managed to pull off the impossible and adapted Season 1's “Inferno,” and in Season 2, turned Apocalypse into the worst villain in history, while giving Kang the best moment he's had in his entire MCU run. Just imagine how bad the Jackal and Hobgoblin (Kingsley version) would be in the updated version. Spider-Man '98or how good it would be to see Spider-Island. Now that Marvel has a winning formula, it should move beyond the X-Men to another of the most popular superheroes of the 90s.
