Saturday, December 7, 2024

Book Review: X-Men '97 - Great X-Pectations


The official prelude to the hotly anticipated Disney+ show. The X-Men are back - and the '90s have never looked better! In this official prelude to the recently released X-Men '97 cartoon, created in collaboration with the showrunners, discover what Storm, Jubilee, Wolverine and the rest of the beloved '90s X-Men cast have been up to in the time before their return!

X-Men '97: Great X-Pectations by Steve Foxe and Salvador Espin collects the four issue mini-series from earlier in 2024. Todd Nauck provided the cover for this Marvel Comics collection.

I am a huge Nauck fan, so I was excited to see his work gracing the cover of this collection. I had enjoyed the first season of new episodes earlier this year, so a prelude was always welcome.

Of course, as any prelude should do, this collection sets up a lot of elements that we see are in place at the start of the first episode (Storm's change in hairstyle, Jean's change in her health, etc.). This story makes sure to avoid stepping on any toes for the season as well (i.e. avoiding the use of most villains and so forth). It is a narrow playground in which it can play, and it follows the guidelines to a tee.

I did appreciate the inclusion of many of the variant covers in the collection as well. That is always a nice touch so that more of the reading public gets to see the wonderful artwork that the creators have done.

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