By 
The X-Men debuted in the early 1960s, and the comic achieved its creative peaks throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s. But for most people, the X-Men are the ultimate ’90s comic book. During the ’90s they became the premier superhero franchise, expanding to not just several spinoff comics with teams such as X-Force and X-Factor, but also to television, with the hit animated series that ran from 1992 to 1997. The cartoon solidified the lineup with some characters forever associated with the 1990s, including Jubilee and Gambit.
The first season of the sequel series X-Men ’97 brought these characters back, frozen in their radical form from decades ago. While that season took one of these ’90s characters off the board, another will get more development, starting with the comic that bridges the gap between seasons 1 and 2. “There’s so much discussion about whether Jubilee is ‘stuck’ in the ’90s because of her association with the show, but [X-Men ’97] has shown the ability for her to mature within the original framework of her character,” said Steve Foxe, writer of the Marvel Comics miniseries, X-Men ’97: Season Two.
Although she debuted (appropriately enough) in a mall-based story in 1989’s Uncanny X-Men #244, written by Chris Claremont and penciled by Marc Silvestri, Jubilee came to the forefront when Jim Lee took over penciling duties. Outfitting her with the yellow/green/red color scheme of Batman‘s ward Robin, Jubilee became Wolverine‘s sidekick, a spunky counter to his grim demeanor. When X-Men: The Animated Series went into production, the teenage Jubilee made for the natural audience surrogate, forever cementing her legacy with the line, “Does a mall babe eat chili fries?”
Since the ’90s, Jubilee has certainly gone through some changes, getting depowered by the Scarlet Witch and getting a supersuit to become Wondra of the New Warriors, being transformed into a vampire, and becoming the adoptive mother to a son, Shogo. However, Jubilee always seems to return to her original roots, as a smart-mouthed kid with the ability to shoot fireworks.
In X-Men ’97, Jubilee was paired with Sunspot, the reluctant mutant who hoped his family’s riches would shield him from bigotry. He quickly learned that wasn’t the case, and eventually bonded with Jubilee and the X-Men—just in time for the main team to be scattered across time. “As she faces down a world without the X-Men, she’s going to have to step up like never before,” teased Foxe.
The time-travel adventure that will be the prime story of X-Men ’97‘s second season gives Foxe the opportunity to play with another character forever tied to the decade. Foxe calls Cable “a character I’ve ALWAYS wanted to write more of,” because “he’s got the weight of a time-spanning destiny on his broad shoulders, and that can make a man very dangerous.”
Few mutant characters represent the ’90s better than Cable, who first appeared in 1990’s New Mutants #87, by Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld. Initially a silver-haired time-traveller with a smattering of ’90s accoutrements—including giant guns, robot parts, and so many pouches—Cable was soon revealed to be Nathan Summers, the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor (a clone of Jean Grey), sent to the future as an infant.
Because he’s most associated with X-Force, Cable only made guest appearances in the original X-Men cartoon. And, like Jubilee, he has gone through his own evolution, becoming the surrogate father to the young mutant Hope and even being killed and replaced by his teenaged self. But every time, Cable returns to his status quo, all gargantuan guns and ostentatious pouches.
As Foxe notes, that suits X-Men ’97 just fine. The series allows writers to explore aspects of the characters without removing them from the time frame in which they work best. Now if Foxe could only do something with the most ’90s mutant of all, Adam X, the X-Treme…
X-Men ’97 season 2 streams on Disney+ in 2026.
The post X-Men ’97 Prequel Comic Puts Two of the Most X-Treme Characters in the Spotlight appeared first on Den of Geek.
