Cable leading Sentinel Squad One into Genosha—the very machines that massacred the island and killed his mother—and nobody says a single word? That’s not a plot hole. That’s missing connective tissue.
In this full Season 2 Autopsy of X-Men ’97, we are looking at the entire 9-episode run to figure out exactly where the best superhero show on television stopped building and started spending. We break down the incredible highs of the first four episodes, the bizarre character handling of Gambit and Apocalypse in the back half, and the behind-the-scenes production reality that explains it all.
If you thought the season felt “rushed,” you’re looking at the wrong problem. We dive into the reality of animated budgets, what happens when a studio throws out a fully-boarded Episode 10 (and Onslaught) to re-tool a season, and why connective tissue is always the first thing to get cut.
Inside this breakdown:
The “Rushed” Myth: Why a production that had the time and money to design a Celestial and three new mutant factions wasn’t actually rushed.
The Turning Point: Pinpointing the exact moment the season shifted from brilliant momentum to frantic spending.
The Budget Reality: How rewriting a season after animatics are paid for guarantees you lose the crucial character moments.
Nightcrawler’s Perfection: Why Kurt’s emotional arc was the only storyline that survived the production chaos completely intact.
The Final Score: My official 7.5/10 Know-It-All Index rating for a season that paid twice but only delivered half.
Are you all-in for Season 3, or are you waiting to see who is actually behind the wheel? Drop your thoughts and your own Know-It-All Index score in the comments!
Don’t forget to like and subscribe to the Know-It-All Nation—next week, we are going back to the control group: the 1992 X-Men: The Animated Series premiere!
Timecode Chapters
00:00 – Sentinels on Genosha: The Missing Connective Tissue
01:19 – Welcome to the Season 2 Autopsy
02:00 – Why “Rushed” is the Wrong Word
03:02 – The Best Four Episodes of the Series
04:13 – The Turning Point: When the Season Stopped Building
06:08 – The Gambit & Apocalypse Problem
08:25 – The Production Truth: Animatics, Budgeting, & Episode 10
11:08 – Nightcrawler’s Arc: The One Clean Thread
12:28 – Why the Show Stopped “Showing Its Work”
14:58 – The Final Score (Know-It-All Index)
15:44 – Are You In For Season 3?
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@Mr. Know-It-All
One other thing I want to add after watching your video. When you mentioned the connective tissue, this is definitely correct. So yes, there are some good moments in the show and those moments are kind of squandered because they aren't allowed to breath. But there are some other major noticeable differences about this S2 compared to S1. If a person were to ask me what I saw in S1 that really captivated me, it's that the production values in all the various departments were just firing on all cylinders. It goes further than having some really good dialogue and emotional moments in S1. For instance in S1 we had great cinematography throughout season 1. Moments like when Cyclops says "Storm give them the forecast" and there is that far away side shot of storm walking onto the terrain during the lightning storm before she tore up the Sentinels in episode 1. Then also varous other parts in S1 we had excellent sound design where the production team muted the sound completely (also like when Jean was comforting Storm that they would find a way to cure her), but to Storm all the audio was muted out as she starts to become overridden with fear internally and isn't even listening anymore. We had over triumphant musical moments like when Magneto finally broke out of his trance and saved Avalon from crashing into Earth. And then most importantly we had a writer who definitely had an ear for great dialogue and seemed to have an "Uncanny" grasp for proper dialogue and characterizations within the story.
I mean what I saw in S1 was a full production team that was executing a skill level of something you would see in full production cinematic movies……………..yet this was an animated TV show with each episode running around 30 minutes…….Something like that was unheard of. And to see such a high skill ceiling, it made it easy to kind of wave off the pacing issues and minor things……….even though they were clearly there. But with this season, all of that skill level is missing. The first half is good, but episode 4 is really the only episode that reminded me of that skill level.
But I guess in conclusion, this is a glaring reminder of what happens when you don't have a strong Captain/Commander at the helm. A good director who manages all the departments and has a vision for getting the most out of them, and getting them to use various techniques within their own craft to elevate the story and emotions they are trying to convey to the audience. That's what this looks like to me. And it's honestly kind of face palming to see. After episode 4, it's kind of like watching an unavodable 20 car crash pile up on a highway.
I mean I could go on and on about how many excellent moments I saw in S1. More scenes like in episode 5 Genosha when Magneto is getting flashbacks/PTSD and the sound once again goes muted and it causes him to snap and lash out at that Super Sentinel using his magnetic powers to form a whip out of cars or when Cyclops gets the instinctive feeling Jean is in trouble as Mr.Sinister is mind controlling Cable and he senses that she's about to get killed. Damn, the skill level was just so high. It just feels like even though Beau was like the only one to leave, that the remaining creative team was left clueless of what to do without him. It turned into the JV team of creatives instead of the professionals they appeared to be.
I know you mentioned in your video you were/are involved in production to some capacity so I'm sure you picked up on this stuff as well. I just wanted to throw it out there. I really like what you said in this video too about there being two camps of people because I just had this conversation with my friend. Ultimately he was in the first camp that you mentioned and I was in the second. He's okay with just watching media to get enjoyment out of it and is happy to just kind of consume it. But when I get involved in media, I'm always looking for something more. I'd rather quality over quantity. And I and others saw there was something pretty special about that first season, but that is just nowhere to be seen here. It's a pretty unfortunate heel turn. I'm not so sure it's recoverable to be honest, because if it was I wouldn't have been able to point out such glaring differences. We dont' know the whole story of Beau, but it's apparent now he had a lot of skill and was actually very good at his job. It seems the show is very much his baby, and I'm not so sure the show will go well without him, especially with the bar raised so high from S1.
And on paper, the idea of having Xavier transition to Onslaught (even if only momentarily) to stop Apocalypse, but then somehow it leads to Age of Apocalypse is a much MUCH better idea than what they came up with, and where they appear to be heading with just a return of the Brotherhood of mutants. Apocalypse is the kind of high stakes philosophical threat that gives a creative team a lot of meat to flex their muscles. Now……….the show is just lowered to a cartoon saturday morning cartoon of the past.
I don't know, it's just crazy.
As over stuffed as it was, it didn't feel rushed. Quite the opposite. Felt meandering quite a lot and the main plotline of Apocalypse lost all momentum and amounted to nothing. Total waste of his character.
And one more thing, hasbros wired cape bs. Spit the truth, truth bro. Wired capes should be a standard at this point.
And actually that new vision and Wanda 2Pack I was kind of rocking with, and I liked the unique tape they gave, but the fact they didn’t include a regular neutral post cap is ridiculous. That vision is only good for like maybe five poses and besides that it looks goofy with the cape.🤦♂️😂😂
And it’s honestly like whoever is in charge of marketing and sales is such a fucking retard. The exclusive muse and bull’s-eye for example, and the X-Men 97 beast
Both were massively hyped characters that have been out of stock/rotation for a while now like if you just did one single Google search and aren’t branded, you know that these two were really wanted yet. It’s either A. They gave a false amount of pre-order allotment so they could increase FOMO with said figure being sold out within an hour just to a few days later say” just kidding we actually have more” making everybody who is on the edge, pushed slightly more into buying this or even completely more because of what happened the last piece in this one apparently going out of stock so quickly
Or be they are just actually that dumb and didn’t make a lot because” other figures haven’t been doing as well” like I swear their whole team is just full of a bunch of retards😂😂😂
DEUS (day us) Ex-Machina
Disney didn't put faith in the series yet they will drop half a billion or more on the MCU's misfires now that Spidey did well enough. 9 episodes wasn't enough they needed like 15-20, they can't have filler with plot progression and have it in 9 episodes… They're not Bleach!
Pretty much a perfect review/retrospective. Everything you’ve said is 100% on the mark
All of this. Not having Beau DeMayo was a terrible thing from a storyline standpoint. Episodes 1-4 was peak but everything else was messy and made no sense. Also…just ONE memorable Storm moment in the entire season? 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️
Beau DeMayo has recently revealed his plans and scripts for season 2, which Disney/Marvel Animation rewrote. I am curious to hear your thoughts on Beau's intended story.
i started looking back at that video of beau demayo explaining the allegations and some of the things he said did happen in season 2, they ignored why the comics and season 1 were so good and tried writing their own thing with comics as just suggestions. and beau said some producers had problems with storm and cyclops being big characters in the story and cyclops definatley got shoved to the side after episode 4 same with storm after episode 4. beau demayo had the comics respected them yet did them justice. everything upto episode 4 is perfect but the rest was dissconnected
Do sex machina? Does it do sex though really?
I've got to be honest, this season started off great, but it never hit the moral / philosophical high of Episode 7. My two favorite characters out of the original series run were Apocalypse and Archangel. Episode 7 of this series made Nightcrawler at the top. Here is the reason: these three characters are all pivoting around the same question and deal with it much differently from each other. Apocalypse largely grows up isolated, alone and under constant siege with no one that can be trusted. Archangel's mutation is noticeable and his wings cause him much pain in that he cannot get close to anyone. Both Warren and En Sabah Nur have extreme self-loathing. Nur embraces and externalizes his hatred and excises mercy and compassion for might makes right to avenge himself upon the world for that is the reality he has witnessed. Warren seeking to get rid of his mutation is instead further manipulated by Apocalypse with his transformation into Archangel and then becomes Death. Even after he's freed by Rogue, his hatred is all consuming and externalized against Apocalypse, yet was always there; it was just exposed and exploited. Now, we enter Nightcrawler, who he himself was seen by others much the same way, as something to be feared and hated, despite his aspirations to serve God and that's what makes Kurt Wagner fascinating. He is the antithesis of Apocalypse and perhaps the mid-point for Warren. Kurt has suffered much pain, just like Nur: they were both abandoned by their mothers, both seen as outcasts and treated horribly. Yet, Kurt didn't give in to despair, pride and wrath. Whereas Apocalypse seeks to end existence and remake it in his image (quite literally in the old cartoon), Nightcrawler seeks to follow God and redeem as much of the world he can, even defending his own brother who hates him from certain death.
It's a pity that Kurt never is able to have this philosophical confrontation with He Who can NEVER be defeated! Instead Apocalypse is sealed in a blue gem, and quite frankly re-banished back into the Astral Plane hanging out with Fabian Cortez who's wondering if he can have body back.
I will consider this though: Which Apocalypse got sealed into the gem? The Apocalypse who traveled from the far future to the 1990's or the version who was revived in Season 5 for if he's truly immortal and can time travel, they may have defeated his future self, but not his present self.
I really hope they enter S3 and deliver like the people who enter Daredevil Born Again did with Season 2. I will have faith 🤣🤣 Naaah, I will chose to believe not because I have to, but because I've seen it happen. Or perhaps that's my Real Madrid heart pushing forward.. 😆
12:45 Camp 2 here 🙋🏽♂️. We're always the ones hurt by the blunders of Marvel/DC. Casuals just show up because it's something cool to do
I figured when Beau left the show would go down hill. Too bad.
Fantastic analysis. You got a new subscriber.
7.5 is way too high. id give it a 5-5.5
Thank you for the call out. The time taken to get Season two out and all the "hard changes" noted by production didn't set well after the season started going. You can see/feel that the first 4 episodes were tight, but the last ones were almost stitched together from leftovers. Cutting room floors, creative editing, post production magic, still didn't save Apocalypse. When we got his love scene as a flashback, a part of me died. Here is Apocalypse, a character with a wide range of depth and history, being skipped over. X-Men 92 brought his essence to light (and arguably cemented my love of the character),. E-Men: Evolution only showed the "powerful" side of him; the threat he really is. Wolverine and the X-Men set up for Age of Apocalypse in season two only to leave use all blueballed in cancellation. Hell, even X-Men: Apocalypse gave us chunk of Apocalypse goodness (Isaacs did a great job on the role, the story just didn't take care of him). So when Apocalypse was teased in Season one, I was so excited for Season two.
While I again applaud the work done on this season, I have to look at the management team as the problem. In a limbo state between showrunners, I feel like the previous was taking steps to tell his story that the new one didn't like. The result was quickly returning the world/universe/situation back to status quo (or as close as possible). We now have Wolverine and Gambit restored, Humans back as a central focus of problems, and a return to more "grounded" mutants causing problems. They served us a burnt appeitizer hoping we don't leave before the next course. I may not be walking out, but I'm definitely scooting my chair back from the table.
They got a couple of cards they can play right for an interesting story next season. I'd be curious to see if they're bold enough to platy them. Be it Freedom Force or Mutant Liberation Front, a verse from the X-Cutioner's Song? If they pull off Stryfe, that'd be an interesting move. Rebuilding X-Factor needs to happen (this era was my favorite of them). Bring back Exodus would be nice. But I'm expecting more episodes to feel like 92 than 97 Season one.
So, I guess I need to rewatch them every Wednesday now too. 😀
I feel like the rewrites saved the show.
Look idk exactly why Beau DeMayo got fired but not having him as writer clearly threw the writing of this season into chaos.
Gambit-Pocalypse felt like a really anti climactic finale villain. Like you can tell it’s the difference of Beau writing the show, an actual fan of X Men who loves and cares about it versus the Disney What If writers who just don’t get it a fraction as much.
That's right, they said you never beat him and then he got clapped in 2 seconds….
Im in for 3. There were some weaknesses this season but still good xmen tv.
If it was 11-13 episode season then I think people wouldn’t have a problem with eps 5-7 and they would’ve been able to flesh out story arcs and new plots it’s just that we had 9 seasons to work with a 3 of those episodes were episodic episodes tho good it didn’t advance the season’s story
I'm definitely FULL IN for season three. However, I wish there wasn't so much talk and news about the "pipeline" for all these movies and shows. It makes me feel old (or rather speeding toward my death), to have to look forward to 2027, 2028 and so on when what they're giving me now is often lacking . It feels intentional. Like a way to keep us locked in while making an excuse to actively underperform in current projects. "Yea, we know we dropped the ball, but we'll pick it up next year, and the year after that!" finger guns kinda mentality. Sidebar – am I the only one who felt like the animation quality dipped from season 1? Even from the first episode I was scratching my head. Season 1 looked great. Season 2… was sharp (?) but not smooth. Anyway, new Here, love your channel!
Absolutely great breakdown. Discovered your channel a few weeks ago after having endless arguments with myself about whether or not I love this show or hate it. For me, my general criticism, even from Season 1, is that the story, not the production, is what felt rushed. I can't speak for anyone else who uses that word, but I never thought there was a lack of content, simply that they just kept jamming things in there without giving them the time or space to breathe – the story simply rushed through the narrative process without character beats or interactions.
Logan losing his adamantium in S1 is emblematic of this. Magneto tears it out of him, and from that point on he's out of the picture. There's no rush to save his life, just a shot of him on life support, then he's forgotten so Bastion can arrive. Nobody was really concerned whether or not he'd pull through, no concern about how he was handling its absence to start off season 2 or how his body was falling apart. No fallout between Xavier and Magneto over what he did. Other than Morph – and the decision to tie these two at the hip as a combo is its own issue for another day – absolutely nobody either cared or wondered how he was doing. Not even Logan himself, outside of one random line about how the adamantium was "the duct tape holding this grunt together". If you're gonna do Fatal Attractions, I don't want the wiki version done in 10 minutes, even if it was a well handled 10 minutes. I want it done RIGHT. The amount of time given to Storm for her power loss – to me – is the golden standard for how any character handed a significant life-altering situation should be handled. Even the decision to have Logan reclaim the stuff is handled offscreen. Sabretooth gets the line, not Logan. WTFFFFFFF.
My issues all originated in Season 1, when Beau wrote it all, and the latter half of this season has simply added more fuel to the fire of things that bother me. But on the other hand, even at its worst, I'm still there for it.
They ended Apocalypse by throwing him into a gem like Superman ended Zod in the Donner Superman (70s) 😂
If Xmen 97 is truly a continuation from TAS, it shouldn’t be a seasonal story. It’s a perpetual one. Next season is not a new story. Last season wasn’t a different story. It’s ongoing. We have to watch S3E1 as if it’s simply the next episode, not the next season.
20 episode cut into 8 episodes is how I felt about season 2.Season one was not as bad but still a full size car in a compact car spot
I adore this show. Season 1 was an absolute 10/10 but the second half of season 2 has given me serious SERIOUS concern. It felt like night and day and honestly I was left really disappointed. Hate to say it but seems like Beau Demayo really was the secret sauce. Sincerely hoping they turn this thing around though. I will be here for season 3 but I will be crushed if they can't maintain the magic.
Something interesting to note with those first 4 episodes: Beau kept refering to these Apoclypse episodes as three episodes cutting between past, present, and future. It's interesting to see the final result was turned into 4 episodes, which signifies Dana got what she wanted saying it was too complex to watch as 3 episodes.
I totally forgot about this when I started watching this season. It may have 2024 or 2025 when Beau said all this on Twitter. It wasn't until the screenshots came back again that I went, "hang on a minute, that was actually meant to be 3 episodes?" I actually really enjoyed those 4 episodes, and went "well, you can see the start was Beaus and they rewrote the entire back half of the season, but it's not as clear as that. I'm sure turning those 3 episodes into 4 was a lot less work than what ended uo happening in the back half of the season, but they did add (and take away) some stuff to restructure it into the 4 episodes. I still feel like it's more Beau's work than the back half of the season which is why it doesn't feel bad compared to the stuff they cut completely. I just thought that was interesting.
Another thing with that information, that means a total of 2 episodes were cut from the original 10 episode season. We know from Beau that the original finale was cut, but we still ended up with 9 episodes. That additional episode at the start would have brought it back to 10, so another episode was cut as well. Not many people talking about that – none at all, actually, from what I have seen. I speculate parts of episodes were mixed around and put into other episodes, and the final result managed to reduce the episode count for budget and save on reboarding a heap of parts.
Some things from the original second last episode was kept in the finale, I think. Beau mentions that there would have been a fight at Graydon Creeds inauguration in the finale. So it seems they kept the end tag from the original episode 9 hinting that he had won, ready to see it in episode 10. They left that in the new finale, which is either an oversight, or they figured it also worked to hint towards stuff next season. Just worth noting they kept at least one thing from the original 9th episode that was meant to lead into the 10 episode which helps strengthen my speculation that they tried to keep as much stuff as they could for budget and reuse it where they could, on top of rewriting a lot of stuff. I believe one of the Directors on Instagram said they were waiting for updated credits because of episodes because merged.
Nightcrawler was cringe this season. I actually find it legit embarrassing that people were "moved" by his idiotic comments at the trial. He simplified a man's genocidal hatred as "you just hate your parents." Only a stupid person would jump to that conclusion. It makes no sense at all.
I'm still in for season 3. I'm curious to see what this team of creatives do when they have a blank page as a starting point.
Wow! If Season 2's Know-It-All Score was a 7.5, then tell me Season 1 was a 10/10! Thank you!
Not too many ideas, to many X-men. It's the same problem the comics have. it's exactly why house of m happened.