X-Men ’97 turned in another episode of the season, revealing to audiences that the Jean Grey who has a child with Scott Summers is not Jean Grey at all. As Scott struggles to cope with the revelation, with Jean in a comma, X-Men ’97 begins adapting one of the most gripping X-Men stories…and wraps it up with a neat bow in one episode.
From Jean Grey’s return to the introduction of the Goblin Queen, it was almost as if the show had too many things lined up for the episode, but did not give any of them the time to breathe. While the Goblin Queen saga had a lot of juicy details, it seems the show crossed over a lot of the drama in an effort to adapt the entire story in one episode, much to the detriment of the narrative.
X-Men ’97 set up things perfectly but paid them off too fast
To put things into perspective, the revelation of Jean’s status as a clone, the kidnapping and experimentation on Nathan Summers, Madelyne’s descent into madness to become the Goblin Queen, Mister Sinister’s return, original Jean’s recovery and subsequent battle with Goblin Queen, and Nathan Summer going to the future to be treated, all happened in one episode, which could have easily been a three-episode arc that the show could have executed properly.
The show took a tightly packed storyline and decided to make it shorter, such that the material could be exhausted in one episode, which not only made the story feel a tad bit rushed, but also, made the changes in character quite jarring and too fast-paced for the liking of the audiences.
Madelyne Pryor’s storyline becomes so bare bones, that one wonders why she was turned over to the dark side in the first place. The character succumbs to her madness and snaps out of it fairly quickly, making the entire arc she went through this episode pretty moot.
The episode actually sets up more for the season than anything else
The episode, while feeling rushed, actually set up a lot for the season to come. With Bishop and Nathan out of the picture, the X-Men are another man down. Madelyne Pryor has embarked on her own journey, leaving Jean to readjust with the people of the X Mansion.
Cyclops and Jean have to figure out where they stand with each other, given that they have no idea when Madelyne was slotted in and Jean was kidnapped. Further, Logan’s feelings for Jean have also come back to the surface (being the very things that help Jean control her powers).
With all this being set up in just one episode, it is reasonable to assume that payoffs for these plot points will be built throughout the season one at a time, as Logan, Scott, and Jean might find themselves caught in a love triangle again since it is unknown when the clone replaced Jean.
We could also follow Nathan in the future, who could make a comeback in the sequel series. There is also the plot point of the Magneto/Gambit/Rogue situations which seems like it will be a problem further down the line.
