By Marvel Studios’ recent animated series “X-Men ’97” has received universal acclaim from critics and audiences, and has pulled in solid numnbers with the title reportedly drawing in four million views in its first five days according to Variety.
That’s the streamer’s most-watched premiere for a full-length animated series since Season 1 of “Marvel’s What If?” in 2021. However, as with any online fandom these days, there’s always going to be something trivial that stokes the fire of furore in the culture wars.
In this show’s case? The fashion choice of its re-introduction of Gambit. A scene in the new series sees the Cajun mutant cooking a batch of beignets in a purple crop top – an outfit fairly typical for the period and completely in line with the flirty, flamboyant and extroverted character.
That exposed mid-riff has led to a rise of complaints on social media about the show going ‘woke’, an unexpected argument considering this is a continuation of an original series which was known for being campy and promoting the idea of inclusivity and diversity.
The backlash itself has been hit by swift rebuttals including one takedown by DataDaveTV going on about how Gambit is already “dressed as bisexual lighting”, and has a power which is about turning things hot pink and exploding.
Even the voice of Gambit in the series, actor A.J. LoCascio, has weighed in on the debate over that crop top, joking on X that he’s: “gonna need this shirt & to stop eating pizza for about three months to wear it.”
With multiple episodes of the first season to go, it should be interesting to see what other scenes people will draw fire in the coming weeks.
“X-Men ’97” is currently available on the Disney+ service.
The post “X-Men ’97” Draws Ratings & Debate appeared first on Dark Horizons.
