Jean Grey rose from the ashes in last year's Dark Phoenix, but the X-Men might not be so lucky. Even before the Marvel/Fox merger happened, it looked like Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters would close indefinitely following that giant box office flop.

You know thing's aren't looking good when even the director of New Mutants says: "You can only go up after Dark Phoenix." That film's been pushed back more times than Jean Grey's died in the comics, and now that Josh Boone's movie has been delayed yet again, the X-Men's future on screen is more uncertain than ever.

It seems then that the search for the perfect X-Men adaptation continues, except fans already know this particular search actually ended in the mid-'90s, years before Hollywood finally saw franchise potential in Marvel's merry band of mutants.

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On October 31, 1992, X-Men: The Animated Series (now available on Disney+, which launched in the UK earlier this week) debuted with the first of a two-part special called 'Night of the Sentinels'.

Despite a number of setbacks and delays, the show went on to last for five seasons, transforming every kid's Saturday morning with what's indisputably the best theme song of all time. # Da na na naaaa na na, da na na # – you know the one.

While some of the early animation hasn't aged quite as well as we remember, these 76 episodes of cartoon gold remain superior to any big-screen effort that's been released since. No offence, Logan.

Beyond those snazzy costumes and that theme tune, the reason why this X-Men series in particular still works so well is because the show is interested in its characters above all else. Mutants aren't technically human, but the writers invested heavily in their humanity nonetheless.

Just like when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first deconstructed the superhero trope with flaws back in the '60s, the X-Men animated series continued this tradition in ways that the films have overlooked all too often since.

In the cartoon, everyone from Cyclops and Storm to Rogue and Beast all battle their own inner demons, be it a fear of their own powers or fear of what others might think. The show was primarily aimed at children, but the issues raised by X-Men were far more universal than that, tapping into the true pain that comes with "otherness" in a society which values conformity above all else.

Whether you're different because of your skin colour, your sexual orientation, or something else entirely, the X-Men have always represented a powerful metaphor for "outcasts" everywhere. Watching a young Cyclops being bullied at the orphanage or adult Beast crying because someone saw past his furry exterior elevated this '90s cartoon beyond mere Saturday morning fodder for kids.

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The films toyed around with these ideas too, most notably with Ice-Man's "coming out" moment in X-Men 2. But while the films all rush through their stories in a limited time, the animated series was able to establish each character gradually over weeks and even months of storytelling.

Serialised narratives are now commonplace in animation, but the decision to tell longer stories in this manner was unprecedented back when showrunner Eric Lewald and his team first started working on X-Men. By adopting this comic-book style approach, the writers were able to heighten the stakes tenfold without resorting to cliche or jumping too far ahead.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Lewald revealed that Marvel interfered a lot and tried to steer production away from this kind of adult-friendly storytelling.

"There was incredible pressure to change it around and make it younger, sillier, or give them a pet dog. To dumb it down or make it younger. Luckily, everybody on the creative side banded together and had, 'No, you'll have to fire me' moments," he said.

"[Marvel would say], 'Put toys in or give Wolverine some Wolverine curtains'. 'No we're not going to do that.' If you were a 30-something serious defender of right and justice in your world, would you be wearing pajamas of yourself or would you be calling yourself on your Wolverine phone? No, you wouldn't. He's a serious guy. This is not a toy show. Sorry. 'You'll have to fire me to change it'."

Disney Fox

Unfortunately, this same kind of pressure ended up impacting the movies which followed instead. Aside from Wolverine, pivotal characters like Storm and Cyclops were sidelined to an almost offensive degree, and Hollywood cut corners with the Dark Phoenix arc two times over.



Both times, the X-Men films tried their damnedest to make you care about Jean Grey's villainous descent without establishing her as the Phoenix first. Dark Phoenix was the worst offender, because it had the benefit of hindsight, but unfortunately, not even the failure of Last Stand could convince Hollywood from avoiding the quick-fire, grounded approach a second time round.

Years before that iconic comic book arc was reduced to ash on the big screen, the animated series dedicated a feature-length runtime to Dark Phoenix on the small screen, fleshing out Jean's journey with far more space to breathe and develop.

The TV writers always prioritised character above all else, and nowhere was this more obvious than in their definitive take on the Dark Phoenix saga. It might sound simple now, but the key was they understood how tragedy can only make an impact if viewers actually care about these characters in the first place.

The pain is earned. There are no easy answers, and that's something future X-Men films will need to remember if they're ever to succeed in the same way this show does. Maybe it's time Marvel's higher-ups start swotting up on the animated series before they eventually reopen the doors to Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters.

The X-Men animated series is now available to watch on Disney+.

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