#jean grey | s10127470 (2025)

Hey there guys!

As I’m sure many of you know, it’s been almost an entire year since X-Men '97 premiered.

And ever since it’s first season wrapped up back in May, the reception towards has notably shifted.

While the common consensus being that while the show is good, it does have a lot of glaring flaws.

And a lot of this has to do with the show's creator, former showrunner and head writer: Beau DeMayo.

It was revealed right before the show premiered that he was fired from the show.

Though the reasons why were still unclear.

However, once the first season was completed, we would find out why DeMayo was fired.

That being he allegedly made the work environment incredibly toxic and was guilty of committing acts of sexual harassment.

And with people finding out more about him over the ensuing months, it made a lot of the flaws of this series a lot more apparent and gave a reason why they were there in the first place.

So, in honor of the upcoming 1 year anniversary of the show, I've decided that I wanted to do a rewrite of the first season.

I'm not sure if anyone else has done this yet, but if so, let me know.

Anyway, for this rewrite, there will be major changes.

Also, I will be highlight of the flaws of the series throughout this series.

And to start this off, we'll be looking at the first two episodes of the series, as they premiered on the same day.

So without further ado, let's get this started!

Episode 1:To Me, My X-Men (March 20th, 2024)

Overall, this is episode is largely the same, but there are a few key differences.

First, there’s the roster.

It’s essentially the same, but there’d two things to here.

First off, there’sBishop.

It was really cool to see him become a full-time member of the team, given how he was a recurring guest character in the original animated series.

For only three episodes……

But here, he will be sticking around.

Next, the team actually has another new addition.

And that new addition isColossus, who like Bishop in the original series, was also a recurring guest character.

As you would expect, he would be sporting his classic outfit now.

As for his voice, he would be now voiced byStefan Kapičić, reprising his role as the character from theDeadpool films.

We would see this in the opening scene, whereCyclops,Stormand Bishop infiltrate the hideout ofThe Friends of Humanity.

We’d see Colossus tanking blasts, hurling massive objects at them, and destroying their machinery.

Next we come to the X-Men’s status.

In the past year since Xavier left, things have been looking up for them.

Human-mutant relations have greatly improved, and mutants are now being integrated into society.

The Xavier School for the Giftedhas become an actual school again and are now teaching both young mutants and humans.

This would be revealed during the breakfast scene.

Plus, it would be pretty cute to see these students absolutely gawking over having their teachers be The X-Men.

And The X-Men themselves being pretty flattered about the whole thing.

One thing to note that a lot of people mentioned was that it seemed like the show was planning to go to audience surrogate route withRoberto.

But after this episode, they basically threw that out.

But in this version, they’ll actually keep that route….but it wouldn’t be with Roberto.

Instead, it would be done withKitty Pryde.

Just about every X-Men fan reading this:

Yep, Kitty would be the audience surrogate for this series!

And this is just the best of both worlds!

Not only because Kitty has experience with this kind of thing, but also because just about everyone who watched the original series all wished she would’ve made an appearance.

Hell, some even wished she was the audience surrogate rather thanJubilee.

Side Note:Does anyone else keep forgetting that Roberto was even in'97? He got side-lined pretty hard. Not helped with the fact that he was kind of a dweeb.

But yeah, Kitty would be taking Roberto’s spot as the hostage of The Friends of Humanity.

And as you would expect, over the course of this episode, Kitty would promptly get to meet each of The X-Men.

While on the topic of Kitty, let’s talk about her voice.

For this series, Kitty would be voiced by voice acting legend,Kath Soucie.

Now, this choice I have for Kitty may seem strange to many of you.

Like, Kath is incredibly talented and despite being 72 now, she still sounds great!

But most of you are probably wonder why an actress that old is voicing a character who, in this series, is 16 years old.

Well first off, we’ve had plenty of teenage characters being voiced by actors much older than them.

Hell,Holly Chou, Jubilee’s new actor in this series, is like, 51.

And second off, this is would essentially serve as a major Easter egg.

As I’m sure most of you know, back in 1989, there wasPryde of the X-Men.

It was an animated tv special, serving as a pilot for a potential X-Men cartoon.

It focused on Kitty joining The X-Men, which consisted of Cyclops, Storm,Wolverine,Nightcrawler, Colossus andDazzler.

However, the pilot didn’t really take off and the proposed series never got made.

Though it did serve as the basis for the X-Men arcade game produced byKonami.

But in weird way, without this special, we wouldn’t haveX-Men: The Animated Series.

So Kitty’s casting is basically a tribute to the special and everything finally coming full circle.

Hell, her outfit here would even be pulled fromPryde of the X-Men.

Anyway, the scene at the club would instead replace with a somber scene in the inner city

Just like Roberto did, Kitty ran away, feeling like that even among fellow mutants, she doesn’t belong and is trying to get a ride back home to Chicago.

We would get a really tender scene of The X-Men comforting Kitty, all relating to her struggles and ever sharing some of their origins, showing that they understand how it feels dealing with mutant powers for the first time.

Plus this would serve as the reveal of Kitty’s phasing ability.

The highlights would definitely be from Storm, Colossus, and Wolverine, with this essentially serving as the beginning of Kitty’s famous friendships with them.

And before you ask, no, Kitty and Colossus will not be a couple her.

Also, as they’re looking for Kitty, we’ll also be getting some good ol’ shipping fuel.

We would find out thatRogueandGambithad officially become a couple since the original series.

And there’s some hints about something going on between Wolverine andMorph.

And I’ll touch on why around the end of all this.

Anyway, the episode plays out the largely the same.

And since Colossus is here, you’ll know he’ll be tossing Sentinels arounds and smashing them into each other.

And yes, we’ll even see him and Wolverine performing the iconic fastball special!

However, the scene between Roberto and Jubilee would be replaced by one between her and Kitty.

But it’s still the same, with Jubilee assuring Kitty that she does belong here and that The X-Men are not just a team, they’re a family.

Kitty would reveal that while she does want to go home, she’s kinda afraid to because she fears that her parents would disown her for being a mutant.

Though she would also state that’s not the only reason she fears her parents would disown her.

Yeah, this version of the series is going there.

Also, this what Colossus’ ballin’ outfit will look like.

Episode 2: Mutant Liberation Begins (March 20th, 2024)

Once again, this episode is largely the same.

But there are still some massive changes.

To start this off, this version will be getting rid of perhaps the two biggest flaws of the series.

1. Magneto being the focal character. This doesn't really hit you at first, but as the series goes on, it does become much more apparent. Especially now with the fact that DeMayo is famously a huge Magneto stan, and more or less made him both a writer's pet and a kind of a self-insert. As a result, this lead to a good chunk of The X-Men being sidelined and even his character....kinda getting ruined, which I'll touch more on when we get to the second point. But one of the strangest things is that in spite of famously being a Holocaust survivor and Jewish, that's never mention in this entire series. Which you think DeMayo would do since he's a huge Magento fan, given how important that is to his character. But no. Once again, it kinda feels like he purposely erased those just so he could self-insert himself! Also, we already had one X-Men series with this whole focal character problem, we didn't need another one.

This isn't helped by the fact that Magneto was already the focal character of the later X-Men films, but one thing that's consistent with that franchise is their inability to actually focus on the goddamn X-Men.

Plus, it's made the show unfortunately fall into a major trapping of the comics over the last 20+ years.

I mentioned in my X-Men Hot Takes post that I couldn't stand how Magneto has been treated.

Being that everyone constantly portrays him as the true hero of X-Men.

Saying that Xavier and The X-Men were wrong and that their goal was dumb and meaningless.

Saying that he's justified in EVERYTHING he does!

And most famously of all....

That he was right.

And once again, I have to say to that.....

Here's the thing.

Magneto does have some good points, like how mutants should rise up and stand up for themselves against human bigots.

But he's not exactly right, and that's largely thanks to his execution and actions, which I'll touch a little more on later.

There's also the fact that in spite of the many horrible things he's done and his multitude of negative traits, fans and even the writers never seem like they want to actually have him face the consequences of his actions or ever confront any of those negative traits.

The best way I can describe this is that he has the inverse of the problem Peter Parker has with his fans.

I mentioned this before in my Flanderization of Peter Parker post, but the Spider-Man fandom has developed an obsession with emphasizing and gassing up Peter's negative traits and flaws, largely thanks to how much of a pushover the character has been portrayed as in recent years.

So much so that many of their ideal versions of Peter is basically him being a raging asshole who just hates everyone and everything.

Hell, it's gotten so bad, that I've even seen fans believing that Peter would/should actually be a FUCKING BIGOT!

Seriously, what the hell happened to this fanbase?!

But for Magneto, fans and writers seem like they want to portray him as never being capable of doing anything wrong.

Or if he does, he's always justified in doing it!

Look, I get that he is a very sympathetic character.

But I feel like people need to know that just because you're sympathetic, it doesn't excuse any horrible things you may do.

It could explain it, but not justify it.

I swear, Magneto could dead-ass murder these people's entire families and they would still find a way to justify it.

2. The Magneto, Rogue and Gambit love triangle.

Oh good lord this thing......

I said it before, and I'll say it again.

LOVE TRIANGLES ARE THE WORST.

They are rarely ever done and more often than not, are used as a cheap way of causing easy drama.

Not to mention it's one of the most overused writing cliches in general, alongside the third-act break-up and the liar reveal.

And The X-Men are unfortunately, famously guilty of this.

However, it in the original animated series, while the infamous Cyclops/Jean/Wolverine love triangle was there, it at least had the decency of being very one-sided.

Wolverine had a crush on Jean.

Jean wasn't interested and kept having to gently let him down.

And Cyclops was mentally holding back in the urge to blast the hairy manlet all the way to the next county.

However, '97 decided it wanted everyone to suffer by giving us an even worse love triangle.

Just about everyone has more or less have been about their vocal about their disdain towards it.

And it's not hard to see why.

This love triangle is the worst kind one can be.

One that screws over EVERYONE involved.

First there's Magneto.

I already mentioned that '97 kinda screwed over his characterization, and this love triangle was the main reason for it.

His past relationship with Rogue and his desire to get back with her generally makes Magneto look like a total creep and a scumbag.

There's the age difference between these two, which wouldn't have been that much of a problem if it wasn't for the blatantly retconned history between them.

Even though Rogue was of age when she and Magneto got together, this whole thing still gives off major predatory vibes, largely thanks to how young and naive she clearly was.

Also, I have to credit @cheesecakeluvrs for pointing this out, because I never picked it up myself.

The whole ordeal between them has this manipulative undertone.

Like, it's very clear that Magneto knows about Rogue's whole situation and her craving for physical intimacy.

And it's clear that he is kinda tempting her with the fact that he can bypass that with his powers.

This is made even worse when you remember that Magneto has a history of manipulating others for his own gain.

And how romantically immature Rogue is when compared to Magento.

Remember, that motherfucker was married once!

This especially comes to play in Episode 5.

Where although subtle, there is this sense that Magneto is pressuring Rogue and even lowkey forcing her to be with him.

Like when he said that she should be the leading lady of all Genosha.

I'm not sure if that's exactly what he said, but it was something similar to that.

And the thing is.....this could've worked if.....

A. They rightfully called out how creepy and manipulative this all is.

And B. Explain why he's doing all this. Like, why does he want to get back together with Rogue?

And what makes this relationship even worse is when you factor in the fact that DeMayo made Magento his self insert.

And the fact that one of the major reasons for his firing was sexual harassment allegations.

Well.......I think this clip speaks for itself.

Though I do wonder why he did this? Especially since he's an openly gay man.

Next we come to Gambit.

He definitely got the least bad (in spite of the fact that he got killed off halfway through the season), but still.

They kinda turned him into a Cuck Berry for the sake of the Magneto and Rogue relationship that was so obviously pulled out of this show's ass.

And finally we come to Rogue.

I think she may've been been done the DIRTIEST out of all three of them.

Like, apart from the fact that she's still hung on the whole not being able to touch people thing (which like, is anyone else starting to get kind of tired of that), that fact that her whole arc is largely revolved around her relationship with two men comes off as....kinda misogynistic.

Which seems to be for the course with DeMayo, as he apparently doesn't care or like just about any of the other female X-Men characters except for Jean.

Especially Emma Frost.

And apart from the retconned relationship, there's also the fact that in the original series, Rogue was pretty open about how see hated Magneto.

Like, during that period of time when everyone thought he was dead.

During his funeral (if you could even call it that), Rogue basically said "good riddance".

If I remember correctly, when DeMayo was asked about this continuity error, he revealed that the reason why Rogue hated Magneto was because she was still hurt from how their relationship fall apart all those years ago.

Yeah!

It wasn't the fact that he was a megalomaniacal terrorist who basically wanted to conquer the world and subjugate or/and destroy the entire human race.

Or that he frequently terrorized and actively tried to kill her FAMILY because they were the only ones who the balls to stand up to him.

No! It was all because of a dead relationship......

You know, I'm starting to think that DeMayo may not be a good person.

But now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about a few more changes.

-Since the relationship retcon has been rightfully sent to The Shadow Realm, Rogue doesn't sympathize with Magneto's struggles and, along with the rest of the team, is pretty open about her hatred towards him.

-We would get a few scenes of Magneto and Kitty interacting. Particularly of their shared Jewish background, and we even get the two talking to each other in Hebrew.

-During the trial scene, instead of there being anti-mutant protesters, it would be anti-Magneto protestors. I mean it's MAGNETO, who doesn't hate him?!

-In fact, Magneto's trial would see several humans who affected by him some way by his actions over the years testifying against him. This scene would really highlight perhaps the greatest of Magneto's many flaws. He's kind of a idiot. In the sense that he usually lets his emotions get the better of him and cloud his common sense and better judgement. As a result, whenever he does something drastic or insane, he never really considers the consequences this could have. Whereas Xavier relies more on reason and logic, Magneto relies on brute force. And that's often been his downfall. This would really be eye-opening for Magneto, seeing the lives he's either taken or ruined because of his actions. And for once in his life, Magneto would actually show genuine shame and remorse. This would led to him actual giving a heartfelt apology to all the people he's harmed over the years. Not only would this scene show that Magneto can actually feel ashamed of himself, but this would also make The X-Cutioner feel a little more understandable in his actions.

-The fight with The X-Cutioner and The Friends of Humanity would involve Cyclops, Storm, Bishop, Colossus, Morph, Gambit, Rogue and Beast.

-After helping Jean give birth, we would see Wolverine and Rogue actually looking happy, since the former had FINALLY moved on from her and the latter is happy with Gambit.

-Magneto would actually be saved, not by Storm, but by Kitty, who would use ger powers to make him intangible. So yeah, Storm isn't gonna be de-powered here and actually gets to stay with the main cast.

-We would get a tender scene after the trial, with Magento genuinely thanking Kitty for saving him.

-After that, we would get a montage of Magento walking around the mansion, seeing the other X-Men bonding with each other. The first scene would show Cyclops and Jean bonding with the newborn Nathan. The second scene would show Storm, Rogue and Bishop posing for a painting being done by Colossus. The third scene would show Gambit and Jubilee competing with each other at some video games. And the fourth and final scene would show Wolverine and Morph sharing some beers with each other outside......right before sharing a kiss. And throughout this montage, we would see Magneto looking......genuinely saddened.

Well that's all for now!

Well that’s all I have for now.Let me know what you guys think about this rewrite. And if you could, give me some ideas on how the rest of the season should play out!

The rest of this rewrite will be officially continuing in March, when the show officially turns 1!

So stay tune.

Also, I know some people are gonna mentioned that I didn't explain why Magneto looked so saddened during the montage I mentioned earlier.

Well that's because I want to know from you guys why he looked so saddened.

I know why, but I wanna see who's able to guess it correctly.

And the person who's able to make the correct guess will get a special shout-out from me in Part 2!

But until then.....

Happy New Year!