By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
One of the most unexpectedly awesome aspects of X-Men ‘97 is that the first season has cameos from several other major Marvel heroes, including Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and more. After the success of Season 1, fans began requesting additional cartoons featuring these characters, which would create an interconnected animated universe of Marvel shows. Now, though, it’s sadly clear that Disney has no intention of fulfilling their fans’ biggest request.
The Original MCU
X-Men ‘97 is a continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, and that earlier show’s success led to the creation of an interconnected universe of cartoons. This started with the very successful Spider-Man: The Animated Series and led to shorter-lived series like Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and The Incredible Hulk. As with the MCU, characters made cameos in each other’s shows: Spider-Man appears briefly in X-Men, the Fantastic Four feature prominently in Spider-Man, Iron Man appears in The Incredible Hulk, and so on.
The original Marvel Animated Universe wasn’t always perfectly cohesive, but it arguably laid the groundwork for the Marvel Cinematic Universe of interconnected films. Now, X-Men ‘97 very explicitly serves as a continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, which means that all of those older shows are still connected to the new one. So when you see characters like Spidey and Iron Man in X-Men ‘97, you are technically seeing the same characters that we older nerds were all vibing out to in the ‘90s.
The Fans Have Spoken
Once X-Men ‘97 proved to be a monster hit, it didn’t take long for fans to demand that Spider-Man: The Animated Series get its own high-profile revival. It’s only fitting, as Spider-Man is arguably the most popular Marvel character, and there’s plenty of nostalgia for his own adorably cheesy ‘90s show. Plus, Spidey having his own spinoff in the same universe would lay the groundwork for more ambitious appearances that go beyond a wordless cameo (though it was cool to see Peter Parker and Mary Jane together again onscreen).
Of course, the bigger hope (one expressed by countless fans) in the wake of X-Men ‘97’s success is that a new Spider-Man show would lead to revivals of other cartoons like Iron Man and Fantastic Four. This would allow for the animated equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with characters regularly making more extensive cameos in each other’s shows. Furthermore, this would lead to more major storytelling opportunities for Disney’s writers while making this interconnected universe feel just as robust and lived-in as the world of Marvel comics.
Disney Ignored Fans’ Biggest Request
Sadly, though, Disney has shown no indication that it plans to deliver on fans’ hopes for a shared cartoon universe. We’ve gotten many excellent animated series since X-Men ‘97 dropped, including Eyes of Wakanda, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and the miniseries Marvel Zombies. However, there has been no real attempt to connect these cartoons together, nor have there been any announcements for future shows that would join our favorite mutants to create an interconnected universe.
Obviously, it takes a long time to create an animated series, so it’s not like the House of Mouse could have whipped up several companion shows for X-Men ‘97 right away. But the fact that we haven’t heard so much as an announcement about reviving Spider-Man: The Animated Series seems like definitive proof that we won’t be getting the interconnected animated universe fans have been demanding for over a year. That’s unfortunate, because if Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars bomb or the subsequent MCU reset turns fans off, a universe of critically-acclaimed cartoons may be the only thing standing between Marvel and complete pop culture oblivion.