X-Men ’97 Trailer Baits, Reveal About Morph Switches
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen excitement for an upcoming show fade this quickly. Today, Disney and Marvel released a trailer for X-Men ‘97, the revival of the outstanding X-Men animated series from the ‘90s. One of Marvel’s – and certainly Disney+’s – most anticipated projects, X-Men ‘97 brings back as much of the voice talent from the original series as possible, including the inimitable Lenore Zann as Rogue and Cal Dodd as Wolverine. X-Men ‘97 lands on Disney+ on March 20, 2024. You can see the trailer below:
It looks great, right? If you were a fan of the ‘90s show, the X-Men ‘97 trailer teases a satisfying throwback, even if just for the music. And it looks like everyone is in character, with X-Men ‘97 acting as the next step in the series. The image of Gambit charging up Wolverine’s claws to take down some bad guys is awesome, and I like the idea of Cyclops and Magneto battling for the soul of the X-Men in the wake of Xavier’s death. (“To me, my X-Men!” Perfect.) It looks like Marvel has finally done something right again.
So, of course, there’s something obnoxiously woke in it, as revealed in the latest issue of Empire via X account X-Men Updates:
For those who don't have access to the magazine. pic.twitter.com/FXq4keDd8X
— X-Men Updates (@XMenUpdate) February 15, 2024
They just can’t help themselves. Of course, Morph is “nonbinary,” because everything has to be a vehicle for their politics and social conditioning, even a throwback to a time everyone remembers as being largely free of this. The counterargument will be that the X-Men were always “political,” that they’re a stand-in for marginalized groups, so X-Men ‘97 making Morph “nonbinary” is in keeping with that. I’ve mentioned this before, but the reason these metaphors work with the X-Men, the reason all different groups identify with them, is because they’re not about any specific one. Mutation is the vehicle for subtext, and to that you can apply race, sexuality, or whatever else you’d like. Making it as specific as a character being “nonbinary,” especially one that’s being changed, is exclusive, not inclusive, because it narrows the subtext to one thing. And Morph being “nonbinary” is the one we know about; it would be shocking if they stopped there.
Look how on the nose that is, too. If “nonbinary” is what I think it is, or close enough for government work, then Morph would seem like a character those people could already identify with. There’s no need to literally make him a part of that very small group because it’s all in the metaphor, which was surely unintentional. That’s the beauty of great writing; it transcends its intended purpose, meaning different things to different people. It’s something the purveyors of this modern idea that people can only identify with characters who look like them, act like them, and kiss the same people as them don’t understand. For example, men can identify with a female character, not in terms of her gender-specific problems, but in her humanity, in the universal difficulties she faces. Joss Whedon was masterful at this, and I identified with almost every character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer at different points in my life and their character arcs, regardless of whether they were white heterosexual men. (That Joss Whedon was forced to go away forever and people who think Morph should be “nonbinary” are handed the X-Men is the perfect encapsulation of modern Hollywood.)
There is a bright side to this: Disney has become unable to pull a bait-and-switch anymore. Morph’s gender(s) reveal came out on the same day as the X-Men ‘97 trailer, which is designed for people who liked the ‘90s show, or just the X-Men in general. That was the lure; once everyone turned the show on, they’d be hit over the head with the “nonbinary” stuff. But the problem with hiring activist writers is that they’re not known for their subtlety, and showrunner Beau DeMayo (a writer on The Witcher, Moon Knight, and Star Trek: Brave New Worlds) couldn’t stop himself from letting everyone know he “fixed” Morph. They’d have to stop kissing their own asses long enough to let you be tricked, and that’s not gonna happen. So, be glad you were warned, be even more glad that pride cometh before the fall, and avoid X-Men ‘97 if you’d rather remember the X-Men of the ‘90s the way there were, not the way they’re being reimagined.
Comments (4)
Yeah, there was that one window that they missed out on because Fox had them. Now, they’re screwed no matter what happens.
A lot of superhero stuff would work well in animation, assuming the writing was good. They can get into the wackier cosmic stuff in a way live-action can’t, even the bigger MCU productions like Infinity War and Endgame. It’s just too complex and expensive to produce in live-action.
Saying “nonbinary” only admits theres binary and nonbinary, thus putting themselves in a binary state. Checkmate
You can’t argue with crazy people. They were never using reason to begin with.
You guys are right. It’s a trance word. When you hear “non-binary”, that is a tell that they are attempting to brainwash and indoctrinate.
They have to do it this way for retro and nostalgia and point of reference to hook some fans, but I’d prefer to see some kind of XD or Pixar version of X-Men like they did with Rebels or Clone Wars in terms of animation. Never got into the Anime version of X-men, so maybe I missed out on something good there. It’s very hard to get it right. The movies were decent, but lacked that real Marvel quality that was captured for such a brief period, that is now long gone. It’s a shame, but in my lifetime, I don’t think I’ll ever get to see a real cinematic version of the Claremont/Byrne style and tone of authentic X-men that made me such a fan as a kid.