CANCEL AND DECANON X MEN 97: NOT FOR THE REASONS YOU THINK
The animated T.V. show X-Men 97 invalidates all the lessons taught in the original series while promoting grooming simultaneously with the Rogue/Magneto romance arch. Because of this, it's critical to get the show canceled and de-canoned, not only because it promoted these horrific actions but also because it subverts every moral lesson that the original 90's X-Men series taught. More importantly, it rewards a villain for committing Genocide. It is something that not even the disastrous HBO Max series Velma does.
Let me begin by stating that I am not a Republican; I was revolted by negativity regarding Morph being non-binary. I thought it was a fantastic idea, and I was also frustrated with all the posts regarding Rogue's butt; it was very creepy. So, like everyone else, I was so excited about this series. When I was a child, I was heavily emotionally abused by my former Stepfather. At the age of 11, he forbade me from watching most cartoons and gave me so much trouble for watching anything he considered "Baby Shit." Since he was into comics, which baffles me to this day, there were only two kid shows he would let me watch, and sometimes even watch with me on Saturday mornings. Those shows were the 90s Spider-Man and X-Men animated series. I was also heavily bullied in school because my classmates were convinced, I was gay, and then some more at home by my Stepdad for being a nerd and not the jock son he wanted. “X-Men The Animated Series” gave me hope that one day I could beat these bullies and live how I wanted to live.
Long after I moved away from my Stepfather, the show gave me hope in the darkest of times. So, when I heard it was returning after close to twenty years, I was ecstatic.
The first episode made my heart leap for joy. Then, in the second and third, it fell out of my body when Rogue started Romantically pursuing Magento, the man who tried to kill her and her friend's countless times, Including Gambit, her legitimate boyfriend who sacrificed himself to save her from this very villain multiple times.
The show makes a massive effort to showcase the theme that anyone can change for the better, with Magneto's speech at his War Crimes Trial and his joining the X-men to preserve his former best friend Xavier's dream.
It tries its hardest to make us root for him. However, if Magneto regrets his past mistakes—killing innocent people by the hundreds and fighting Xavier for so long—why does he think it is a good idea to start an affair with someone he groomed and is in a happy relationship? He knows this will damage team dynamics and then proceeds to bully Cyclops and Gambit.
This also leads me to believe that Magneto never changed and fully intended to divide and destroy the X-Men from the start of this season. Think about this for a second. We are all taught in preschool to be good to others, especially our friends. And Magneto, from the get-go, is not good to any of the X-Men (except Rogue) upon his entry into "X-Men 97". If someone is going to be a good person, you must do good things, and the most basic good deed is to be nice to your friends, and Magneto never is. Change is about action, and if a bully chooses to remain a bully, they did not change.
Audience members may say the team does not trust him and are nasty to him. Magneto is a former genocidal maniac who tried to kill Cyclops and the X-Men countless times. They have every right to distrust him and insult him, and if he cares about them and his best friend's dream, he needs to take it and move on, not be the bully he has always been.
Magneto is often compared to Malcolm X, the inspiration for his creation. However, there is a glaring difference between the two. Malcolm did not kill anyone during his lifetime, while Magneto, in the show, killed thousands - potentially millions of innocent people (Human and Mutant) in episode 9 when he removed all electricity from the planet. He also killed countless others in the original 90's X Men series.
At first, I believed this was just a bad story move since it did not go along with Rogue’s character or add anything to X-Men 97's story arc (We just finished the first season and it never did). But once Rogue explained the truth to Gambit in episode 5, that she met Magneto when she first learned how to use her power, something far more terrible happened, something I thought Disney would not do in 2024.
In the flashback sequence detailing Rogue's past with Magneto, she is clearly groomed into a relationship with him. Since she does not know how to control her powers, he proceeds to guide her in using them, teach her mutant history, and seduce her during this process.
At the beginning of episode 5 of X Men 97, Rogue chooses to be with the man who groomed her over her loyal boyfriend (who could not touch her for years) when she goes to Genosha with Magneto and Gambit. Proof of his Grooming lies in the fact that Magneto, when he started his affair with Rogue in Xavier's Mansion, specifically tells her not to say anything about their past relationship or current to the other X-Men. Why would he say this? Everyone on the team is an adult. They may be a little weirded out for about an hour, and then things would get back to normal... if she were not in a vulnerable position when it started.
Further evidence in my opinion that Magneto groomed Rogue and fully planned to divide the X-Men the entire time was the fact that he was so reluctant in episode 2 to allow Jean to fully scan his mind. If he cares about preserving his best friend's legacy and fulfilling his last wish to lead the X-Men and accomplish Charles’s dream of Mutant and human coexistence. Then why didn’t he volunteer himself to get the scan? This would be the best way and quickest way to let the team know that his intentions are nobel? So why didn’t he do this…because Magneto had something to hide. He knew if the X-Men found out about his real plans and especially the fact that he groomed Rogue into a romantic relationship in the past they would drag him to prison regardless of Xavier’s will.
Since the show tries so hard to portray this character as a good guy, it unknowingly promotes grooming because Magento still chooses to pursue Rogue romantically in the present, and Rogue chooses to be with him when she decides to take his offer to rule the mutant nation of Genosha by his side.
It is not comforting to see a show promote this activity when entire narrative shows are devoted to condemning these actions. The most notable example is 2020's Kate Mara-lead show, "A Teacher," about how Claire, a teacher in her mid-30s, grooms 17-year-old student Eric into a romantic relationship. She starts by tutoring him for the SATs, then takes him on a trip to see a university, and finally takes him away from a school dance and away from his date to have sex with him in the back of a car.
Magneto and Claire are both teachers, but Claire is very clearly the antagonist on her T.V. Show, while Magneto is considered the hero in his. Even though Magneto groomed Rogue like Claire did to Eric in the show "A Teacher," the fans, Beau, and X-Men 97 still treat Magneto as a hero. I will admit there is an obvious difference between seducing a minor and an uneducated adult. But both incidents still involve grooming. Claire is rightfully treated as the villain she is in her story. But what is the difference between her and Magneto? Yes, she is a pedophile, and she deserves to rot in prison for what she has done. But Magneto is a man who has killed thousands of innocent people, including children, and lies to the U.N. about regretting his past actions, and like her, he also likes to groom people. Eric Lenshure (Magneto's actual name) may not be a pedo, but he is a mass murderer, and like any criminal, he needs to do time.
Also, the 90’s X-Men series displayed how wrong grooming is with two villains who attempt and nearly succeed with Jean Grey. In the story arc "X-Men vs. The Inner Circle," Mastermind and the White Queen use their telepathic abilities to place illusions of perilous situations in Jean's mind, such as being saved from drowning by the Mastermind aboard a Spanish galleon, to create another reality in her mind where Mastermind is the man she loves though artificial situations. Some may argue that this was the first step in brainwashing and mind control, and it is. However, the definition of Grooming is the action or behavior used to establish an emotional connection with an individual, such as creating situations to strengthen the groomer's relationship with the victim in preparation for sexual abuse or exploitation, which is precisely what Mastermind and White Queen did to Jean in this episode. I also mention this because in the flashback sequence in X-Men 97, when Rogue is explaining to Gambit her past relationship with Magneto, she is very clearly vulnerable since she does not know how to use her powers yet, and Magneto is at least 20 years her senior at the time. Also, this situation was literally created by Magneto himself; considering how he has manipulated the X-Men in the past, along with his henchmen and the U.N. in X-Men 97, it is impossible for anyone to prove without a doubt that he did not groom Rogue. I remember seeing Beau's response to Magento's grooming accusations on Twitter, saying that since Rogue was in her mid-twenties, hence Eric is not a groomer. However, as I have said repeatedly in this article, adults can be groomed too. Any qualified Mental health professional will tell you the same thing.
Some may say the opposite since in episode 5 after Rogue dances with Magneto at the U.N. party in Genosha - and cheats on Gambit in front of the entire world - she realizes Gambit's the one for her. I don't believe that for one second, the moment Rogue chooses to start cheating on Gambit with her groomer weeks before and then lies to her ex-boyfriend Gambit about why she's leaving him (Saying it's because Magneto can touch her even though there are multiple methods in the show she can use to touch Gambit.). That is when she chooses to end the relationship and never return. Because even if Gambit (He dies shortly after the dance) heard her pleas to come back. There is no realistic way he would take her back. After how she cheated on him for the man who tried to kill them both countless times, groomed her, and murdered a myriad of innocent men, women, and children, Rogue chose to overlook all this and forgive Magneto simply because she could touch him. Trust can never be rebuilt after something that catastrophic.
Not to mention that in Episode 10, Rogue joins Magneto on his Asteroid M space station after he once again kills thousands, potentially millions, of innocent people (and mutants) when taking all electricity away from the Earth, knowing full well that Gambit would not want this and not caring.
This is especially heartbreaking because it also invalidates the lessons Rogue's story arc taught kids in the original 90's animated series. How the team helped her get through the tragedy of accidentally causing Ms. Marvel's brain death taught her the importance of family and the possibility of redemption with how her teammates and Charles helped her continue after this event. She also taught many lessons relating to consent, including how apprehensive she was about getting closer to Gambit in that series since he had been a thief before joining the team. He also insisted he would be okay kissing her. However, as the series progresses, she allows Gambit to get closer to her, and eventually, they fall in love. With the support of the rest of the X-Men, she also starts considering them family.
But in X-Men 97, despite all this growth, she sat by and watched Magneto murder Wolverine in cold blood, and she forgave him the second he decided to rejoin the X-Men in their fight against Bastion. Seeing this and remembering how close she was to Logan and the rest of the team makes me think of all those scenes in the original series when she said she loved the X-Men and that they meant everything to her; that she was lying and, in fact, never cared about them at all. And unless someone practices what they preach, their words are meaningless, just like the lessons Rogue taught now.
I have also heard some people try to defend her actions by saying Rogue and Gambit were not a couple, so she did not cheat. Which is not only untrue but outright ridiculous but let us entertain this defense. If Rogue and Gambit were not dating, then by the very least, they would be best friends. Everyone owes a few basic things to their friends such as not screwing them over, being there for them and most importantly not sleeping with their bully. If anyone sleeps with their friend’s bully, no matter the reason, then that friendship means nothing to them. Magneto was literally a bully and the greatest foe of the X-Men in the entire original series and arguable in this one as well. So regardless of whether they were a couple or not, all the lessons that Rogue taught in the original series were invalidated by the writer's choices in X Men 97.
However, the most damaging aspect of this storyline is that it also invalidates all the lessons taught in the original series—or at least all the ones Professor Xavier taught.
How am I or anyone else supposed to believe he ever cared about his team if he left everything in his will to Magneto, who not only tried to kill the people he cared about most in this world but also groomed one of his best students? And still, even in this series, he reverts to his murderous roots.
After his return, Charles' reasoning for this is hurtful and just outright lousy writing. He says it is because he wants Cyclops and Jean to be able to raise their child in peace and leave the X-Men, even though he knows he has much more qualified and skilled team members who could do the job, like Storm, Beast, or even Wolverine. Honestly, any X-Man would have been a better choice than a mass murderer.
This is like if on the show “Shameless” Monica Gallagher went to court and forced Fiona to give up legal guardianship of her six siblings and forced them to be raised by Frank Gallagher, who has abused his children financially and physically countless times for well over a decade. When Fiona confronts her about it, Monica says, “I just wanted you to be able to live your life.” In her defense. What is worse about this is Monica is bipolar so at least she would have an excuse. What's Charles's excuse?
In the original 90s series, Professor Xavier puts many psyche shields in Rogue's mind to protect her from an alternate personality trying to force its way out of her. There is no way in this process that he did not see what Magneto did to her.
Another thing to consider is that Magneto has a kill count in some incarnations comparable to Hitler's, and like him, he wanted to wipe out an entire race of people. Yet the creators of this series felt comfortable rewarding his actions by giving him the X-Men and his own country.
With fan reactions to this series and similar characters like Vegeta, Omni man, and Homelander, it convinces me that if the worst real-world genocidal maniacs saved the Earth from some powerful threat, most people would say they deserve a second chance, even though these guys have committed some of the worst atrocities in recorded history. On top of that, Vegeta and Omni man have killed more people than all the most horrible dictators in existence combined, yet fans think they are redeemable. As of Episode 9, Magneto's kill count is comparable to these historical tyrants, yet people still say he is right; this is extremely frightening to me.
For those who say Magneto is right and his actions are justified, let me remind you that real history has proven otherwise. Martin Luther King's ideas won the civil rights movement. Charles was always right in his approach, period.
Magneto has also made it very clear since the beginning of the 90's X Men series that his goal is to exterminate every human, man, woman, and child - as evidenced by his numerous confrontations with Charles in that series. He never believed that humans and mutants could live in harmony. Meaning he will stop once every human is dead. So, every time someone says Magneto is correct, you are siding with Genocide.
Also, Velma is currently the lowest-rated T.V. show on IMDB, and I cannot say that is undeserved—until X-Men 97 came out. As racist, homophobic, and questionable as Velma's jokes were, they did not reward a villain for committing Genocide and make him look like the good guy.
Another factor to consider is that this show also makes the original X-Men series unwatchable to young kids of this generation. Because fellow X-Men animated fans, ask yourself. When you watched this series as a kid, and saw the X-Men defeating Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, and Magneto while promoting peace and tolerance with all of those who are different. When you see Gambit and Rogue getting closer despite his criminal past and learning that people can change, Or when you see Rogue, Storm, Jean, and Wolverine risking everything for each other, what would you do if someone told you at that time Rogue eventually cheats on Gambit with a genocidal maniac simply because he can touch her and Charles deliberately left the same man his fortune, his team and legacy? How would you react? Would the lessons the X-Men taught still be valid, or would the kid version of you consider them liars and cheats? More importantly, how would the kid version of yourself react to the X-Men forgiving Magneto for murdering Wolverine in cold blood simply because he has had essentially one therapy session and helps them in a quick battle? Whenever I have kids, I cannot show them the 90's series now because whenever they find out about this new one, they will say the X-Men never believed in loyalty or friendship.
I loved the original '90s X MEN series. It gave me hope through the darkest of times, and I know it did the same for countless others. We all owe it to that series to try our best to save it and get this monstrosity canceled and decanoned. Genocide, no matter the reason, is wrong, and we should not redeem or reward those who commit it, ever!
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