‘X-Men ’97’ Season 2 Episodes 1-3 Review, A Timeline-Hopping Premiere That Earns Every Ounce of Its Ambition

There is a particular kind of pressure that comes with following up a genuine surprise hit, and ‘X-Men ’97‘ walked into its second season carrying exactly that weight. The first run of this Disney Plus revival turned a beloved nineties cartoon into one of the most talked about animated projects in recent memory, and it did so by refusing to play it safe with characters audiences had grown up with.

That reputation meant Season 2 had nowhere to hide. The final moments of Season 1 shattered this team in the most literal sense, scattering its members across different points in time after a brutal loss that still stings when you think about it, and the show had to prove it could pick up those pieces without losing what made the original run special.

It absolutely does. From the opening minutes of “Days of Past Future” through the two part cliffhanger that closes out “Rise of Apocalypse Part I,” this premiere stretch balances scope and intimacy in a way that few animated superhero projects even attempt, let alone pull off.

The decision to split the X-Men into three distinct factions, one stranded in ancient Egypt around the year 3,000 B.C, one holding down the present with a scrappy new lineup calling itself X Force, and one hurled into a grim future nearly two thousand years from now, could have easily felt like a gimmick stretched too thin. Instead, each timeline gets enough room to breathe that it plays almost like its own contained story, and the show trusts its audience to hold all three threads in their head at once without constantly hand holding.

Ancient Egypt gives us Magneto, Xavier, Rogue, Beast, and Nightcrawler crossing paths with a younger, still forming version of Apocalypse, and watching this group navigate a world stripped of their usual technology and tactics is genuinely thrilling. Magneto in particular gets some of the most compelling material of the entire premiere, since his ongoing attempt to become someone worthy of Xavier’s dream keeps hitting new and unexpected obstacles the further back in time he goes.

The future timeline carries the heaviest emotional load, largely because of how it handles Cyclops and Jean Grey reconnecting with their son Nathan, now grown into a young man shaped by a world none of us have seen before. There is a tenderness to these scenes that catches you off guard given everything else happening around them, and it never feels like the show is using a family reunion as cheap emotional shorthand.

If there is a place where the premiere occasionally stumbles, it is in just how much plot it insists on juggling within a thirty minute runtime per episode. There were moments across these three episodes where I wanted the show to slow down and simply sit in a scene a beat longer, particularly during some of the political maneuvering happening on the present day timeline, since the pace can occasionally outrun the emotional beats it is clearly aiming for.

None of that stops the action from landing with real force whenever it arrives. The animation team has somehow found a way to make every blast, claw swipe, and elemental attack feel weightier than it did last season, and the show’s willingness to let its violence carry actual consequences continues to set it apart from most superhero television currently airing.

By the time “Rise of Apocalypse Part I” cuts to black, it is clear this is a show still operating at the height of its powers, one that understands character and spectacle do not have to be at odds with each other. I walked away from these three episodes more excited for what comes next than I was at any point during the entire first season, and that is not a small compliment given how much I loved that opening run. My score for this premiere stretch lands at 9 out of 10, docked slightly only for a pace that occasionally gets ahead of itself, but otherwise as confident and rewarding a return as any long running fan could have hoped for.

Do you agree with where this premiere lands, or did these first three episodes hit differently for you? Let me know your own verdict in the comments.