Credit: Marvel Studios/Sony PicturesNot countingĀ The New MutantsĀ (2020) and other spinoffs, it’s been over five years since fans have been treated to a true-blue X-Men adventure, and Disney+ has definitely delivered. As X-Men: ’97 debuted at the El Capitan theater, test audiences were overwhelmed with this new, yet familiar, revamp of the classic team.
Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Gambit, and all the others are back in action and looking better than ever as the new series from Marvel Studios Animation picks up where the original ’90s cartoon left off. As thrilling as it is to see a return to form, does it live up to the heightened expectations?
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The originalĀ X-MenĀ animated series was about as true to form as viewers could get to a comic-accurate representation, and it’s absolutely thrilling to see the team back as many fans remember them. At least… it’s how MOST fans remember them.
“Make Marvel Great Again”
After the first three episodes premiered at the El Capitan,Ā What’s On Disney Plus reported that the response was “overwhelmingly positive” thus far. However, many on social media are claiming that the series takes Charles Xavier’s academy of gifted youngsters in a much more “woke” direction for modern audiences.
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The Instagram post shared by Marvel Studios featured the official trailer forĀ X-Men ’97 featured the fully and gorgeously animated return of our favorite band of mutants, but it also featured some incredibly volatile comments that are calling the new series “woke ****.”
At the side of the post, @alannatranslate comments,
“I hope you guys donāt ruin it with woke sh*** like youāve been doing with everything lately! X-men is the best cartoon ever!”
Further down, @xx_petey_pablo_xx adds a very troubling suggestion when they write,
“Please keep the Avengers out of it and it doesnāt need to be women focused, but knowing Marvel Iāll probably be proven wrong.”
And similar posts go on and on about how Disney is wokifying the X-Men and other such sentiments. However, as “true believers” are quick to point out, they’ve either completely missed the point of the X-Men’s existence or otherwise have no exposure to the source material whatsoever.
The X-Men Were Always “Woke”
It should be understood that the opinions stated by some of the more radical comments on the announcement do not represent the Marvel fandom as a whole. In fact, most X-Men fans are well aware of the ridiculousness of such responses, as a post on Marvel Studio’s Reddit page demonstrates.
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It’s honestly shocking to see just how much some “fans” have forgotten that the creation of the X-Men was an allegory for the struggles many marginalized Americans faced during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, something a modern consumer might consider woke ideology. But don’t just take this writer’s word for it, have a look at what Stan Lee himself wrote in 1968.
Esquire Magazine shared the following,
“Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they canāt be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose themāto reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning haterāone who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, heās down on ALL foreigners. He hates people heās never seenāpeople heās never knownāwith equal intensityāwith equal venom.”
“Now, weāre not trying to say itās unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, itās totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire raceāto despise an entire nationāto vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill out hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of Godāa God who calls us ALLāHis children.”
To call the X-Men “woke” might fit in our contemporary setting, but it’s not the correct label for Marvel’s mutants. From their conception, the X-Men were adversaries to injustice and prejudices on all fronts. Given the struggles our current social climate presents, the world needs them now more than ever, and Marvel is absolutely right on the money by presenting them in their classic incarnation.
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The real truth is that many are quick to chant “go woke, go broke” simply because it’s the popular thing to do. Neither Disney nor Marvel have missed the point of this particular adaptation. To steer away from the inherent commentary shown in nearly every X-Men adaptation wouldn’t just be wrong, it would be insulting to what they truly represent.
Do you think the X-Men have gone woke? Tell Inside the Magic in the comments below!
