Check out our thoughts on the new episodes of Season 2 of X-Men 97! Photos provided by Disney/Marvel PR for this review.
Hey All!
Season 1 of X-Men 97 had the split episode of “Motendo / Lifedeath — Part 1” looked at the characters of Jubilee and Storm having personal journeys but in their own adventures which never overlap. DANGER.EXE elevates the concept of two characters having personal journeys but finds a way of uniting the adventures by way of them having something in common.
The characters in question here are Polaris and Professor Xavier. Each one is having a very personal impact over the death of Magneto from episode 4 by way of their individual relationship with him. The rest of the season, and especially this episode, presents the question “How do we live in a world without Magneto?” and what that means to different people. How is the legacy honored and preserved of someone who was not just important personally to their loved ones, but was important to the world?
DANGER.EXE does the same magic trick that a lot of X-Men 97 has done by taking aspects of storylines from the over 60 years of comic continuity and mixing them to create a new story that honors the themes of the original story while zigging instead of zagging to keep things fresh for longtime fans.
Fans of the comics will recognize the title and backdrop of the setting from a story arc in the mid 2000s from Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run. Of all the episodes, DANGER.EXE has the most easter eggs and nods to both the aforementioned Astonishing X-Men run as well as Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run.
DANGER.EXE also follows the other great thing that X-Men 97 has been doing which is focusing on a character which has not received as much spotlight previously. Lorna Dane/Polaris is that character in this episode, which I think will lead to some people calling it “the Polaris episode” despite the focus being on how her and Xavier deal with big changes in their lives. Weaving aspects of Polaris’ history through the decades of her time in the various X-books into this episode will hopefully catapult her popularity into a “Polarissance.”
With the X-Men having begun season 2 split by way of time travel, DANGER.EXE begins setting the new status quo for the season by giving the team a new mission and new costumes by the end of the episode. Because this is halfway through the current season, I can only hope season 3 will further X-pand on the newly established status quo.
Check out Season 2 of X-Men 97 streaming now on Disney+!
