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The Wait For It Podcast
Hosted by MrEricAlmighty and PhilTheFilipino, the guys discuss all things in Pop Culture from movies, gaming, anime and anything in between. New episodes every Wednesday, all you have to do is...WAIT FOR IT!
The Wait For It Podcast
Late To The Party - X-Men '97
What makes X-Men 97 such an enduring and beloved animated series? Come join us as we explore the nostalgic magic of this iconic show, reflecting on its memorable characters, storylines, and the emotional impact it continues to have. We share our personal stories of how the original X-Men series slipped past us, yet left a lasting mark with Wolverine's classic look and the thrilling Sentinels storyline. With our recent interactions with the talented voice cast at Ocala Comic Con, our excitement for the series' revival in 2024 has only grown. Together, we'll journey through the series' legacy, discuss Marvel's and DC's strength in animation, and introduce new and returning fans to a captivating world where superheroes are symbols of diversity and representation.
Revisit the vibrant era of the original X-Men animated series and reminisce about childhood memories like the X-Men arcade game. We'll delve into the storytelling prowess of X-Men 97, analyzing character portrayals from Gambit and Rogue's dynamic relationship to the mixed feelings evoked by Jubilee and Roberto. Our conversation celebrates Magneto's iconic status, and we express our longing for a live-action portrayal that does justice to his animated charisma. We'll also navigate the compelling arcs like Genosha, express confusion and curiosity about certain storylines, and ponder the future of these beloved characters under Marvel Animation. We wrap up with concerns about potential changes in storyline following the firing of showrunner Beau DeMayo and discuss how the nostalgic impact of X-Men '97 may differ for original fans.
iMDB Synopsis:A band of mutants use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them; they're challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.
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Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it.
Speaker 2:Gaming. Wait for it Anime PLUS ULTRA.
Speaker 1:Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino. Yeah, they've got you covered.
Speaker 2:And all you gotta do is wait for it. This is the Wait For it Podcast. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Wait For it Podcast. I am your co-host, phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino, and joining me, as always, is your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty. And Eric, we are in the month of november. What was that like? Just I was just doing my little.
Speaker 2:Usually you don't speak this early, but I had to bring that impersonation just let it go the, the audio only audience is going to be very confused and since there is no video only audience, I don't know who's going to see that.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, welcome to the Wave 4 podcast and welcome to the first episode in the month of November, which is just crazy to say that we are about done with the year and we are today discussing on this episode of Late to the Party, a show that you know just took people by storm upon its storm pun intended, upon its return, I hear, earlier this year.
Speaker 2:A show that very much lives in the hearts and minds of so many millennials, and I think it's very exciting that it is now presented to a whole new audience, including ourselves for the most part, eric, because, as we were talking about in the pre-show, which you can see if you join our Patreon more about that a little bit later we weren't necessarily the audience for this, not because we don't like the X-Men, but it's just a show that passed us by, hence why we are now getting to discuss it here on Late to the Party, and, eric, you know I am excited to talk about this here today.
Speaker 2:I'm excited I finally got to sit down and watch it, especially after we have had multiple interactions with the voice cast. So now when we see them, we don't have to sit there in shame and tell them well, I've never mentioned that we haven't seen x-men 97 or the previous show, but we don't ever have to sit there and shame and act like we know what their work is like well, now they know, because they're going to be listening to this episode oh, that's true so that that'd be a shame, especially because we definitely have promos with them from ocala comic so they're going to see those and then say, oh, what's this podcast?
Speaker 1:And they're going to say, oh, they did an episode recently about X-Men 97. Let me check that out. And then, yeah, everything that you talked about was a lie. So that's unfortunate.
Speaker 1:But I am excited to talk about this because, phil, I randomly started watching this on a flight to and from Detroit when I was going there back in July end of July or end of August and I had a blast with it and it was something that I've had in my queue. It's one of those shows this year that I've wanted to get to, that I've wanted to get to and, while late to, the party kind of is flexible on what that means I feel like this was a pretty big show this year that if you blink and you missed it, you missed all of the discourse, everything going around and surrounding the show. So it was just kind of nice for us to pick this one up. We wanted to check it out anyway and the podcast here gives us our chance to talk about it, even if we're not that late to the party Still think it's relevant here and always exciting for us to get a television show in here, an animated one at that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know Marvel is at the core of this podcast. I mean, it's one of the reasons we started podcasting. We started this show is because of you know it was the wrap-up of the Multiversal Saga, right or not? The Multiversal, the Infinity Saga, and you know, to be able to revisit this and come back to a Marvel property that we that was received positively is certainly a nice change of pace compared to everything else that has gone on when you talk about the live-action MCU side of things. So this was certainly a prime heyday type of period for Marvel television. You know, when we talk about animation specifically, I think a lot of people will admit that DC this is their specialty when it comes to the animated shows for their characters. But X-Men 97, shows like Spider-Man right, those shows have always lived in infamy and lived amongst fans as being very highly regarded, and we can certainly see why that is the case, as we will discuss here on this episode.
Speaker 2:But before we dive in to X-Men 97, I want to welcome in any brand new listeners to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. Make sure you stick around to the very end. We'll let you know where you can find all the rest of our content and, of course, returning listeners. Thank you so much for being with us throughout the entire year and before as we wrap up 2024 with a bang. We got a lot of really fun stuff planned for the months of November and December. But, eric, let's jump into this here and kind of dive into that a little bit more. As far as our experience with this show so you said it already, you kind of alluded to it. You didn't watch this originally during its initial run back when it came out, correct?
Speaker 1:Not in full, so very much like you, it was one of those Saturday morning cartoons that if it was on, I remember watching it. There are things about the show that I remember the most from, you know, back then in the nineties. So, for example, the Wolverine outfit, obviously iconic. A thing that I personally remember all the time is the Sentinels. I feel like the show is very much akin to doing that storyline, anything to do with the Sentinels, and I think that's what made one of those iconic storylines that the show tackles both in the original and in this one. So I really like those type of things where there are little elements here and there.
Speaker 1:You know I've seen the Xavier, you know chair, which they obviously bring back for us in live action for Multiverse of Madness, one of the only cool things about that particular movie, and you know everybody knows that, and that's a sound that's just like embodied into every nerd's brain, whether or not you've watched the show. So those are the things that I recall, but they're very few, far in between, because it's not a show that I actively watch. So when we jump into this one I needed a little bit of a recap to really just get an idea of what happened because, story-wise, I had no clue what I was walking into.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the original X-Men animated series run was from 1992 to 1997. And around that time, like I just really don't remember watching too much television that wasn't Nickelodeon or maybe some Disney films. But I mean, it may be hard to believe, but like I was a really active kid so I was always outside like playing with friends, which is not what I want to do now. I would like to stay away from outside as much as possible.
Speaker 1:Really really didn't pay off, huh.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. My body completely failed me. But so I don't really have like a whole lot of memories when it comes to watching shows like this. I was never really into like X-Men. Star Wars, power Rangers was my thing, especially around this time. So that was like my superhero experience. So, yeah, not really familiar too much with the X-Men animated series other than, like you said, you know, the Sentinels definitely a really iconic thing. For me, what I remember most about the X-Men is the arcade game right, the arcade box. You could play with four people fight the Sentinels. That is what I really remember when it comes to this group of characters in this particular time period.
Speaker 2:So when I heard that it was coming back, I mean I'm certainly excited, just because, knowing how beloved this series was, but also not being, you know, the the initial fan base, the camp, that was like oh man, I cannot believe like we're getting this series again a continuation of what happened when it had initially ended. So I just missed it the first time around when it not only in its initial run, but also earlier in the year when the episode started coming out, and I believe that was in March of 2024. So there, a good friend of mine was definitely keeping up with it, like on social media, so I had to like, tread carefully and not, you know, spoil it or anything like that but finally getting to dive into it. Man, I am very, very happy that I did so, and it's also a bummer that because it's the interesting timing that this came out, because X-Men 97 is not on the 2025 docket for Marvel animation, which is a bummer, but also understandable, because we'll just start there, eric, because there is a very nice combination of nostalgic and new animation in this.
Speaker 2:Now, again, I don't really have the way to compare and contrast between the animated series and 97. However, it made me feel like a kid again, like you said, saturday morning cartoons, you were waking up in your pajamas eating a bowl of cereal. It made me feel like that again, just because of not only the animation, but also the sound design, the iconic intro. That is what it is. So all of that is great and really took me back.
Speaker 1:I think what was unique about this particular show and this iteration or reimagining of what the animated series was is that they kind of knew what audience they were speaking to and they knew what they wanted to do story wise.
Speaker 1:So they they balanced those two things out pretty nicely. I think the most impressive thing about this show is that it very much feels like you are watching something from the comics, and that's not necessarily an animation, necessarily as much as it is in story, because this show goes a couple different places. Some of them work for me, some of them not as much, but I did appreciate the whole show really trying to step out of the normal lane that it feels like Marvel is in, when, when they're adapting a, you know, a particular storyline, they are taking elements and they're like no, that's a little too weird, weird, we don't want to do that. Let's change this here. This show and again, I'm not 100 sure of this, but this show feels like it ripped it right out of the comics and put it right on the screen, and for that I definitely think it deserves the admiration yeah, it's really just apparent just how cool these characters are and why people have been clamoring for them to join the MCU.
Speaker 2:And you know, do I do apologize. The MCU is going to come up a lot in this, naturally so, but it is the. The reason why these characters are so beloved is a lot of it not for the non-comic readers is because of this show. I got to speak to the uh, I get to interview the voice actor for storm at okala comic-con earlier in the year, allison seely smith, who was just an absolute sweetheart, and I got to talk to her about what this character means to to her. And you know, obviously the x-men are very much an allegory for prejudice and racism and and all of that stuff and how important they are. And I can't wait for you guys to see that discussion, because she gave like an answer that like almost brought me to tears. So it's just great that this, this series, got to come back in a very, you know, divided time. We won't get into it, and that's not the platform for this, but it's, you know, where we're at right now like we need the x-men. You know what I mean, what that's why I think people are so hopeful that they can get this right when it comes to the live action movies joining the mcu.
Speaker 2:So, um, not only art is the animation a lot of fun. You know sound design, like we talked about, the performances are very, very good. Um, it's always nice to hear uh, it was actually. Yes, I will say it was very startling because of how long we've had Hugh Jackman Wolverine around like to hear this totally different voice. Uh, that is also very good. And also see his like shorter version too is also very, very funny. But, yeah, I mean, everybody on this voice cast I thought did an excellent job too. So, you know, with us being around these people and being around voice actors, so much like that has to be commended because the performances are very, very good.
Speaker 1:They really are and you know there just not going to be appealed to. As far as the show and what it was providing to those fans of the animated series, Again, since we hadn't really watched it, I really enjoyed the voice performances but the dialogue and some of the execution they're very nineties based, right. That's because they're hitting that target audience and what the show was, what those characters are. But sometimes it did feel a little dated In both animation because they're sticking with that style, and dialogue because they're sticking with that style. But voice actors did a great job on this particular show and just judging them off of that alone, again a great, great job that I commend them for.
Speaker 1:For me, I think a couple of things that really worked for me, phil, was the perspective of characters that we're getting in this iteration that are not just Wolverine, and you mentioned kind of that jarring change from, like your standard X-Men or your Wolverine, hugh Jackman. Well, this show is very much interested in looking at other characters point of views, and I really like that. I'm curious if any particular character stood out to you, because I definitely have a couple in mind really love Rogue.
Speaker 2:I really love the exploration of Rogue and Gambit as characters and because, you know, these are things that I'm just not privy to, like I didn't know that they had, like you know, a relationship, like a romantic element to their relationship. I didn't know about Rogue and Magneto, I had no idea that was a thing. So, getting to explore these characters I mean the Rogue in the live action MCU, like don't really know too much about her except that you know, obviously she doesn't want to touch anybody. And, granted, I'm years removed from seeing those live action X-Men movies, definitely not going to go back and watch them. And then, obviously, gambit now being it's been a big year for Gambit, right, he had a great arc in this as well I will say, like, no matter what and I know there's, this character has a lot of fans You're never going to be able to make Jubilee cool.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's just possible when this is a little bit of a spoiler, but when, when a character says, like, what are you going to do? Beat me with the Fourth of July, I fucking lost it because she's lame, I'm sorry, she's lame in the live action, she's lame in this, and you're just not going to be able to pull it off. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Very much a cult fan favorite. I wouldn't even just call her a fan favorite because I don't think everyone agrees on that. But there definitely are some passionate Jubilee fans that are going to be heated.
Speaker 2:I will say I just think a jolly bee whenever I hear that's much to my fat ass winning chicken.
Speaker 1:That's so crazy. That is also possibly racist, but as far as I'm concerned no, not for me. As far as I'm concerned you can't say that I can't. I'll wait till Patreon save space. So I personally think that this show and uh and we are talking spoilers, that should be pretty obvious. We probably should have mentioned that earlier in the episode. But if you haven't seen the show, uh, we are going to talk about a couple of particular points. Phil specifically, one episode that I think is probably the standout of the show, and you kind of alluded to it with a gambit. But I really think this show Phil is really really good.
Speaker 1:I really enjoyed a lot of things and I really enjoyed, like I mentioned, the character focus. Mine was Cyclops. I really appreciated that he had that leadership role, especially starting Now. He is fighting with that with Magneto throughout the show, but he's also got his own stuff going on with kid and two wives, so it's really difficult for him. But again, it's just cool shit that you get to see Cyclops do Like when they are coming down in that first, I believe, episode where he's coming down and he uses his fucking lasers to stop himself from hitting the ground and he's like to my x-men come on now, come on now. Iconic, really, really good. Shout out to ray chase, who voices him as well, who we've seen at some of the cons.
Speaker 2:Great job there my summer's family moment was later in the in the, like the final arc where him, gene and cable, like do the superhero landing, I was like that's fucking cool, that is so cool. I also didn't know that cable was gene gray and and cyclops's kid. I had no idea. So, again, stuff that, like I, I love to get to learn and I love learning about in terms of the background of these characters. But, yeah, like I said, gambit and Rogue excellent. I definitely echo what you said.
Speaker 2:As far as, uh, as Cyclops didn't know, I did get a little lost in some places, especially when the second Jean Grey showed up. I was like what, what's going on here? And it just makes sense that, of course, the Phoenix Saga had come up in the original animated series, because it's their favorite thing to do when it comes to x-men is bring up the phoenix saga. So magneto has. I've always been a huge fan of his and seeing this version of magneto like just makes me want, like them, to nail that character in live action. I mean, uh, listenassbender, and oh my gosh, I'm forgetting the name of the Ian McKellen. Ian McKellen, excellent. Honestly, if they just want to bring them back in some way, shape or form, that would be great. But, like seeing this animated version of Magneto just cements how iconic of a character that he is. He was already in my mind and obviously many, many people's minds. So yeah, I was a little lost when it comes to like the professor x stuff. But again, because I didn't watch the animated, I'm like why?
Speaker 1:is he?
Speaker 2:in space. What happened here? So maybe you can uh highlight or fill me in on what happened there, because I was like, why is he with this bird woman or whatever it was, because I had no idea what was going on Nope.
Speaker 1:I knew he died. I knew Magneto was going to get involved somehow because of the way the series ended. There was allusions to that. I'm sure people that know comics saw that coming. No, I did not. So when he was alive I was like cool, oh, he's going to marry this girl, they're in. Cool, oh, he's going to marry this girl. They're in space. Oh, he's coming back. All right, cool.
Speaker 2:And we just kind of shoehorned him back in Classic Marvel or just superhero animation, right, just bringing a character back.
Speaker 1:Another character.
Speaker 2:We are going to get back in season two, most likely. Who? I'm very excited to see that character's arc. We actually just talked about him, so Yep yeah. Who was the other lame character, the one that Jubilee was hanging out with all the time?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The rich kid.
Speaker 1:Not gonna. You know what he gave me.
Speaker 2:He gave me bird boy vibes from the shitty my Hero Academia.
Speaker 1:I think it was Roberto. I am looking it up because I'm a yeah, it's not important, it won't come up again. They don't even have a hero name here, it's just roberto. It was something lame.
Speaker 2:He had a lame hero name because he it came, we learned it like in the last three episodes I was like, yeah, that's not important, I don't need to know. The power is kind of stupid too, like like jubilee.
Speaker 1:So I at least you can fly, though I don't even want to talk about those characters. A couple other shout outs I wanted to make. Uh really liked morph and what he provided to the show. Uh, just again little little spurts of morph here and there, not too much, didn't overstay his welcome. And of course I'm just a huge nightcrawler fan. Uh, you were talking about the arcade game. I used to fuck with Nightcrawler so much. He was my go-to character. So the design, the character, the voice, give me more. I wish I had more.
Speaker 2:Boy is shredded.
Speaker 1:He's good. So, yeah, no, that's just a couple characters I wanted to shout out, maybe in a smaller size, and, of course, storm. Storm was great as well. So, good, also like that.
Speaker 2:Love her little side arc as well. Yeah, it was very, very good.
Speaker 1:They go a couple of places with that that were interesting and again, this is what I mean with like it's like feels directly from the comics. So there were a couple of things there, but I liked the fact that she lost her powers and had to find her way back.
Speaker 2:I thought that was a good character arc as well. Yeah, I think this series will like be a little bit of a kind of like culture shock to some people because of how much they fit into 10 episodes. This is how it used to be. Guys Like not everything used to be this 10, 15 episode arc, specifically like when we're talking about anime, but like this is they would wrap up a lot of these stories in a 30 minute time frame. Obviously, when you look at like the animated series, there is probably commercial, so you're talking about a 22 minute runtime. So with big arcs there would be multiple things, like with there were a couple arcs in this that were multiple episodes.
Speaker 2:But like it was kind of jarring to go back to that era of television where things just get wrapped up in a I won't say nice little bow, because everything in here in this series is kind of leave like the door open a little bit for more story, which I think is great. But it was just really strange to see like oh, we're done with that, that's great, we can move on to something else. So I would like to hear what people think about seeing that, because in this version, in this era of television that we're in now. Everything runs so many episodes and we don't get any conclusion. But here, you know, every once in a while you get a nice, a nice story wrapped up in a little gift and given to you, which I think is great. So, and yeah, I think it did a great job as far as not giving us too many characters, like every once in a while you saw Psylocke, right like Captain America shows up in a place that makes sense, like all that stuff is good.
Speaker 2:You see the Avengers a little bit later too. You know you see the the Defenders a little bit later too. You know, you see the Defenders a little bit later. And this is all stuff that makes sense when there is a world-level threat happening that impacts everybody In the Eternals. There's a giant robot in the sea or a giant celestial and there's no Avengers anywhere to be found. Or like Thor the Dark World, thor is fighting these stupid elves and there's a giant like missile in the sky and Tony Stark was somewhere on a beach with Pepper.
Speaker 2:He was in a cave, I like that, yeah, he made this in a cave, made this out of scraps. So, yeah, I like that. They put those little tiny bits in there. And there's also, you know, that little tease that Spider-Man is going to show up and play a little bit of a role, um, in season two, which I think will be great. So, yeah, I never really felt overwhelmed, confused, yes, but that was my own fault because I haven't gone back and watched the original. Probably won't have time to. But never overwhelmed, just a little confused here and there.
Speaker 1:And again, I think that has to do with the fact that they knew who the target audience was for this. But to your point, phil, I think it had a lot of elements that allowed someone to come in completely blind and kind of pick up the puzzle pieces. Maybe not get them all, which I definitely felt on my end as well, but I think they did a pretty good job, allowing things to really breathe. And, phil, there were definitely payoffs and there were great standout moments. I'm curious if we land on the same spot. So I'm curious what your favorite either arc or episode was, and why is it episode five in Genosha?
Speaker 2:God, genosha is crazy, like it. And this is why these shows, even though characters come back, there is always a sense of loss when a character dies and even though we know they're probably going to come back in some way, shape or form I mean, there's already multiverse stuff in this. What is up was like damn it, but I think they'll be fine in this. But that whole arc, the whole thing, with even the part with Rogue and Magneto, I was like so, like so invested in it. And you know, my heart broke for Gambit. I was like this, he's so pure and he's. You know, I, my heart broke for Gambit. I was like this, he's so pure and he's, you know he's, he's true to himself and he, he also still wants to be friends with Rogue, which if I that was me I'd be like fuck you bitch, I don't want to talk to you, I'm gonna take my beignets and go back to the Swampire. That's what I would have done if I was him. Also why gamut is a better person than me.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that whole arc there was was incredible. Honestly, like I gasped when, like everything started to go to shit. So and then, when cable showed up, I was like what, what do you mean, mom? What are you talking about? What's happening right now? So that whole portion, uh, was excellent, and one of the great things about x-men has always been the diplomacy, has always been how they navigate, fighting for mutant rights and intertwining with humans. And you know what Magneto's overall goal has always been. You know, magneto obviously one of the most in-depth and just diverse characters when it comes to their backstory, and he did everything by the book that he, that Charles, wanted him to and in the end, it did not matter. So, yeah, it's definitely that arc right there in the middle of the series, in the middle of the season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I also agree that is. You know, magneto obviously is the main core, that that holds everything together. But everything just fell right into place with all of the other characters in their arcs. That's why for me, phil and I'm curious if there are any like critical things other than us being disassociated with the animated series and some of those minor confusions. That's why I'm curious like do you have any opportunities or issues with the show? For me, I feel like after episode five we hit a little bit of a lull, and it's not that we don't finish strong, but I never feel like we ever hit that high again In my viewing experience. Was that the same for you, and did you have any kind of critiques about the season as a whole?
Speaker 2:Not too many major gripes. Um, it is fresh on my mind. I did finish it earlier here today and I've been watching it over the last week or so, so nothing super critical. I do think that the second gene and again, this is just how episodes used to work back. Then everything would be wrapped up really quickly. But like when the second Jean Grey shows up, we kind of moved on from that a little bit quicker, and that's probably just selfishly, because I really like that character and I was enjoying learning more about both of them. But that also just ties into not knowing like what doc, what uh, dr Sinister had done to her and um, again, all that stuff was just, you know, within my control. I just decided not to.
Speaker 2:Uh, the episode where they're in the video game again going back to jubilee and what's his face? A throwaway episode. I did not really enjoy it. The villain was weird and also not very menacing. It does have the lowest rating out of all the episodes, which is not surprising. That's what happens when you put Jubilee front and center. So listen.
Speaker 1:Can't blame them for trying. I appreciate that they at least put the effort out and said you guys say you like her, here you go, and yeah, that's what that is. But yeah, I'm right there with you. That was also my least favorite episode and there's not a lot negative about this show Other than again, there are elements that we're not as familiar with which we kind of beat that horse to death. So film I am going to run down before I forget, and then, before we talk about reception to this show and all of that jazz, I'm going to get to our more like this activity that we do on this episode where I go to IMDb and I look at IMDb's more like this film Couple, different shows, both animated and not. You can obviously expect some Marvel TV shows on here, but to kick things off away from Marvel, would you rather watch X-Men 97 or Invincible?
Speaker 2:I knew you were going to do Invincible.
Speaker 1:I knew that's where you were going to go. I didn't pick it.
Speaker 2:I don't believe you. I will go with X-Men 97 for right now?
Speaker 1:No, you can't.
Speaker 2:No one can see that it's blurry, I'll go with X-Men 97.
Speaker 1:Wow, Did you see season two of Invincible yeah?
Speaker 2:I'm caught up.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:It's great, it's still great, but this is I mean we're talking about like 15 iconic characters versus right now.
Speaker 1:You know, mark Omni-Man would still wipe out all of them though, so it doesn't matter. Okay, so X-Men 97 or Invincible you pick an Invincible in a fight, Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:Got it. Just like the Omni-Man versus Homelander debate Like Omni-Man would wipe the floor with Homelander. All right, hot takes the next show. Would you rather watch X-Men 97 or Loki?
Speaker 2:Oh, X-Men 97? Three times. And then I would just slit my wrist if you made me watch loki for the fourth choice. Yeah, loki season one right loki season one. I mean either either season, actually it doesn't matter hate both of them hot I like loki season incoming.
Speaker 1:Uh, would you rather watch x-men, 97 or daredevil?
Speaker 2:oh god, damn daredevil's. So good I will again. I gotta go x-men, because there's more characters daredevils in this all right, that feels like that doesn't count yeah, I was next 97 still would you rather watch x-men 97 or blue eye samurai?
Speaker 2:this is a good question. I'm so glad you brought this up. So I'll tell you guys a story here which was really cool that I haven't gotten to really brag about too much. So Eric knows this I got to drive Lenore Zahn back to the hotel on property at Ocala Comic-Con. She was so sweet. I got to tell her that you know I've been pursuing voice acting and all that stuff and I asked her like where they were at the week before in terms of like what convention were you at? And she's like, oh no, we were actually in LA for the Emmys because X-Men 97, of course, was nominated for Best Animated Animated Show and they had lost to Blue Eye Samurai, and at the time I had not seen X-Men 97. We have watched Blue Eye Samurai and actually covered it in International Feature, or was it late to the party International Feature in January, I believe? So now that we have seen both, I can comfortably say this probably should have won over Blue Eye Samurai. That's my opinion and I loved Blue Eye Samurai. But what do you think?
Speaker 1:I think this should have won. Yeah, I also agree, I also agree, but I I also didn't like blue eye samurai nearly as much as you did.
Speaker 2:Right, so that that also probably not surprising both excellent, but also, you know, those voters aren't taking nostalgia into account, but just as a series, I think this is, this is better. They both definitely have their strengths, but I would have gone with this. But, yeah, they were obviously pretty bummed but I didn't want to tell her at the time because she said like, yeah, I was like, oh, what one? And she goes oh, blue eye samurai. I was like, ah, damn, that's all I can really say because critically acclaimed series and and for good reason. But yeah, if I had seen this at the time, I would have been like, oh, you guys absolutely should have won over blue eye samurai. So hopefully we get to see lenore again very soon and I'll let her know yeah, let her know.
Speaker 1:Let her know. Would you prefer to watch X-Men 97 or what If?
Speaker 2:Oh, this absolutely. I watched, like the first two episodes of what If? Season two and stopped watching it. I don't like that animation style. I'm not particularly enjoying the stories they're telling. So, like, what if the show is interesting? How about that? How about you try that? Okay?
Speaker 1:that's a pretty good line, bars, bars for sure. That's a pretty good line, bars, bars for sure. There are so many more that we could do, so I'll keep this one simple. Would you rather watch X-Men 97 or any of the live-action X-Men movies? Is there any live-action X-Men movie you'd prefer to watch over X-Men?
Speaker 2:97? Days of Future Past is really good. That's the first one where we go back right yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with the Sentinels Speaking of them for this show.
Speaker 2:I think Days of Future Past and what was the second one. The second one was still pretty good. Apocalypse is where it all fell apart, right, well, it started falling apart, I think, in the second one right no in the second one, right no, I think.
Speaker 1:x-men days of future, past is the second one, because the first one's first class, first class, first class also very good very good, but uh, but then apocalypse and then dark phoenix oh god, did you see dark phoenix?
Speaker 2:I've never seen it. Nope, refused to. Yeah, no, I'm not gonna watch that. Yeah, I would just go watch the animated phoenix saga because I'm sure it'd be easy to find we could throw um, I'll probably go Days of Future Past and then probably X-Men 97. Then probably X-Men First Class. So we go like 1, 2, 3.
Speaker 1:1, 2, 3. That's fair. I'll throw a couple quick MCU shows out there and then we'll be done X-Men 97 or WandaVision.
Speaker 2:Oh, I really love WandaVision, and it's led us to Agatha all along, which I'm enjoying the hell out of. I'll still go. 97.
Speaker 1:97 or Hawkeye 97.
Speaker 2:I mean that show is underrated, but yeah, no 97.
Speaker 1:Last one, 97, or Moon Knight.
Speaker 2:I have a Moon Knight tattoo so I feel like I can't not say Moon Knight. I've gone back and watched that so many times. I still have to go 97. There's so many characters. It's not fair. There has to be like another team show that we can like, compare it to.
Speaker 1:IMDB is more like this list.
Speaker 2:They have no team options would you rather watch X-Men 97 or Justice League? Is that on there?
Speaker 1:No, that's not, and you know the answer. Although Zack Snyder's Justice League? No, no, no Justice League animated Justice League.
Speaker 2:Oh the animated Justice League yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean the animated Justice League kind of slaps. Young Justice is on here. I don't know if you ever saw that.
Speaker 2:I X-Men 97 or Batman Beyond.
Speaker 1:Oh, batman Beyond no.
Speaker 2:Batman Beyond. I fucking love Batman Beyond.
Speaker 1:It's so good, yeah, no, I don't even remember if it was good, I just know I fuck with it?
Speaker 2:Oh no, it's excellent. Okay, x-men 97 or Batman the Animated Series oh, that's tough. These are the comparisons that should be made. Why is Moon Knight on that?
Speaker 1:list, I don't know. There Moon Knight on that list, I don't know. There were a lot of live action MCU. I was disappointed when I saw it. Yeah yeah, batman the Animated Series is interesting. That's kind of a toss-up for me. For sure, again, I was more of a Batman Beyond kid than Batman the Animated Series. But I did appreciate that show. Kevin Conroy, mark Hamill, you know the whole jazz.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that would definitely be a if you could tell me that I would only be able to watch in terms of, like animated superhero stuff.
Speaker 1:If you give me Batman the animated series and X-Men 97, I'd be like, cool, I'll be eating well, so yeah totally pivoting really quick and then you know we'll move on to reception of X-Men and kind of wrap up the episode. But Phil, I am definitely interested in that Amazon Batman show that's been compared to the animated series. I don't know if you've heard anything about that.
Speaker 2:It's the detective-like one. Oh, like Amazon. Like he's not in the Amazon.
Speaker 1:No, like Prime Prime Video, I was so confused. Not Batman in the Amazon Phil. Please get it together.
Speaker 2:I was so confused I was like uh-uh. Okay, like there's a. You know, there's the Japanese Batman, so like there could be an Amazonian Batman.
Speaker 1:Jesus Christ, I'm trying to look Batman Caped Crusader. He's like trying to shoot like a bat he's trying to like or it's like it turns. It's like, uh, it grabs a snake um batman and cape crusader.
Speaker 2:I don't want to talk about talking about adam west batman. Yeah, I don't want to talk about that's great, but uh, batman cape crusader on prime uh video.
Speaker 1:I've been curious. I've heard a lot of good things for people that like the animated series. But ph, we've got a little bit of time left because you have a stream to get to immediately after this, so let's not forget that. Let's wrap it up. What did, how did X-Men 97 do in reception? And then we'll give our final thoughts as we wrap the episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in terms of on IMDB it's got an 8.8 rating, which is not surprising whatsoever. And then in terms of Rotten Tomatoes, it has a certified fresh score of 99% how about that? And a 94% audience score. No letterboxd, because this is one of the shows they've just decided not to include, for whatever reason. But I'm sure that would also be very, very high.
Speaker 2:If we were to give it some sort of grade, I would probably give it a four out of five and the potential to be a 4.5, like when we reach the peak right there in the middle of the series and then dips back a little bit lower into the four range. Because we didn't even really talk about the final villain who's, even though I just, oh, bastion right. Villain who's, even though I just, oh, bastion right. Yeah, I know that that is a very iconic character, but it's just not a character that I'm really familiar with or really understood. I did understand his intentions and why he was so upset, but upset like I was just like no, he's just a little upset and why he was obviously so angry. But again, I think it just played into me not really knowing who that character really was, especially when I know as far as like an iconic look. Dr Sinister looks cooler Right.
Speaker 1:So Mr.
Speaker 2:Sinister. Sorry, he doesn't have his PhD, so when you juxtapose those characters next to each other. But he is formal, he is Mr Sinister.
Speaker 2:I've had a long day we're just fumbling across the finish line here yeah, so but yeah, if I had to give it a grade 4 out of 5, I cannot wait for season 2, probably in 2026, and we obviously we're getting Gambit is probably going to be an apocalypse or Horseman of the Apocalypse, which is super cool. They'll probably do a much better job than that shitty apocalypse apocalypse movie, so cannot wait for that and see how all of that plays out.
Speaker 1:So, even though, like I said, it is multiversal stuff and when it comes to the x-men they always nail that, especially when it comes to, like, the animated stuff yeah, the only bummer I will add in there is that bo de mayo is the showrunner of season one and also apparently for a lot of season two that was completed, if I recall correctly, and he was very kind of infamously kicked off the show and fired from Marvel and there may be some type of pulling back on the storylines they were gonna go with in favor of others, since he came up with those or he was part of that process. So, all that to say, there may be some storylines that may not come to fruition and that is a little disappointing. I'm hoping they can make it work.
Speaker 1:I feel would give this a three and a half out of five simply because, again, this isn't necessarily something that I have nostalgia for. So, as a show really enjoyed it, if it's on, I would absolutely sit down and watch some of it, uh. But I don't know that this is a show I'd actively re-watch on my own and this isn't necessarily a show I'd want to watch with other people and like introduce them to the series. But again, if you grew up with the animated series, you give this bad boy a five out of five. You ain't got no complaints from me. So I think it just depends on what your experience is with this particular franchise, this series, these characters, and for me, three and a half out of five, a very respectable score.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think even portions of sound design, animation and as far as performances, voice acting wise, it does reach that four and a half five level when it comes to all of those things combined. Uh, but yeah, just as a series. I think maybe if we had watched the original, if we had watched the animated series and gotten more of an appreciation, uh, I'm sure this knocks it out of the park, uh, with the exception of Jubilee and anything that she does. So, uh, eric, anything else we need to mention before we get out of here and I pivot, uh over to twitch. So this episode comes out the first week of november. So, uh, time wise, you guys aren't going to be able to see twitch, but that's what I'm moving after this yeah, no, not time wise.
Speaker 1:And for patreon, they'll see this, uh well, after your stream. So, with that being said, uh, phil, I've got nothing else for the episode. I think we had a nice little run time talking about X-Men 97. So if you want to take us through the homestretch here again, we really appreciate you guys listening. Let us know what you thought of X-Men 97. And if it's a show that really hits you deep in the nostalgia hearts and heartstrings, let us know. We'd love to hear what your thoughts were if you're an OG fan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to be honest with you, it wouldn't be hard to convince me to watch the other seasons of this. I certainly could see myself doing it if I had the time. But if you have the time, you should check out the show notes of this episode and you'll find the Linktree link to everything that you need related to the Wait For it podcast. Follow us on social media, the most important ones being Instagram, tiktok, our growing Discord page, youtube, as well as our Twitch channel, where we typically stream every Thursday night or every other Thursday, but sometimes the schedule needs to get mixed up a little bit, so that's why you should follow us on all those aforementioned social media pages.
Speaker 2:You can also support the show a couple of different ways. One of the most important ways is heading on over to Spotify or Apple Podcasts and leaving the show a five-star review. It is incredibly beneficial to the health of the podcast and also getting more eyes on the show. You can also head on over to YouTube like share, subscribe. All of that stuff is great. We very much appreciate that and, yeah, like I said, all that social media stuff. Interact with us over there. We love hearing from you guys and you know all that stuff is great, so make sure you keep up with us. For the month of november there is a whole lot going on nakama con right around the corner, so a whole bunch from us here as we round up 2024. But, eric, if they find themselves wanting to see what goes on behind the scenes of the podcast, or maybe get a little extra content, why don't you go ahead and let them know about that?
Speaker 1:yeah. So of course, you've heard us mention it a couple times already we are on patreon and if you'd like to support the show a little bit more than those free options in exchange, we'll give you early access behind the scenes looks at episodes like this one, and there's multiple tiers to choose from. If you want to even just check out a little taste, there's a free tier. You can start off on free trials as well. But all that to say, the free options are great too, and whether it's a like, a comment, a share, anything at all, even just to listen, we really and truly appreciate the support. With all that being said, my name is Mr Eric Almighty. That is my co-host, phil the Filipino, and, please don't forget, we release new episodes for the podcast every Wednesday, with bonus content on Twitch and TikTok, and all you have to do is wait for it.
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Speaker 1:Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is wait for it. Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino yeah, they've got you covered.
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