While the MCU is effectively 98% of current Marvel content airing, we are now in an era where that 2% has been declared better than all of it. This is the era of X-Men ’97, which has just set a Rotten Tomatoes score record for the entire brand.
Season 2 of X-Men ’97 began airing this week with a three-episode premiere; the season scoring a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from over two dozen critics. That, combined with the 99% of season 1, and the overall score is a 99.5%, though on the site, it is just displayed as a 99%. Even still, that makes X-Men ’97 the highest-scored Marvel project, show or movie, of all time. Here’s the list, as it stands:
- X-Men ’97 – 99%
- Ms. Marvel – 98%
- Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man – 97%
- Black Panther – 96%
- Agents of SHIELD – 95%
- Avengers Endgame – 94%
- Iron Man – 94%
- Logan – 93%
- Thor Ragnarok – 93%
- Spider-Man: No Way Home – 93%
- Daredevil – 92%
- Spider-Man: Homecoming – 92%
- Shang-Chi – 92%
- WandaVision – 92%
As you see, there are two animated series on that list, both recent, two of the top three, in fact. Ms. Marvel remains the highest live-action project, a somewhat baffling situation in that she never got a second season, and the movie she co-led, The Marvels, was the lowest-grossing MCU feature ever. She deserved better.
X-Men ’97 season 2 is starting out strong with a continuation of a cliffhanger from last season. Now, different groups of X-Men are split across three different timelines trying to stop Apocalypse in different eras. It’s seen the introduction of new characters and new teams like X-Force and X-Factor, and it’s only just getting started, as it will air weekly from here.
X-Men ’97 has endured significant amounts of controversy after its creator, Beau DeMayo, was fired right before season 1 aired. But his work has bled into season 2, already in place before that. He will not be involved in the already-greenlit season 3, however.
The actual MCU is gearing up for its own introduction of the X-Men, a new, younger version after it says goodbye (for the final time, this time) to the FOX-era X-Men who will appear in Avengers: Doomsday and probably Secret Wars. There is some theorizing that Sadie Sink is playing a young Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, somehow positioned as an antagonist.
It will be hard for any live-action rendition to top what we’re seeing here in X-Men ’97, which works for many more reasons than pure nostalgia, and it deserves its crown as being the best Marvel project out there.
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