While the X-Men franchise is celebrated for its messages of diversity and inclusion, its representation of various identities has not always lived up to these ideals.  Critics have often noted that X-women are problematic, characterized as powerful but limited and/or unstable, particularly in relation to the characters that are coded as White, male, and heterosexual.

Jean Grey has been the focus of much criticism over the years, especially in The Dark Phoenix Saga, which linked female power with psychoses, chaos, and ruin.[1]

Such troubled depictions of X-women are especially pronounced in media adaptations of the comics, which tend to diminish them in favor of focusing on the male characters. For example, while Storm leads the X-Men in the 1981 comics arc “Days of Future Past,” it is Cyclops who leads the team in the 1993 animated adaptation of the story, and Storm is killed in the 2014 film adaptation.[2]

In many regards, X-Men ’97 continued these disappointing trends. Jean was quickly re-positioned as unstable and monstrous via her clone, Madelyne Prior, who gives birth to Cyclops’ son and then soon transforms into the Goblin Queen. While the Goblin Queen persona is short-lived, her appearance in relation to Madelyne’s motherhood underscores the superhero genre’s tendency to portray motherhood as destructive.[3]

Storm was re-positioned as subordinate to make characters. Early in the series, she lost her powers while protecting Magneto (video), ultimately advancing his character development, making her injuries feel uncomfortably like “fridging.” Later, she regained her powers through what might have been a powerful redemptive arc if the reclamation had not happened through her efforts to save yet another male mutant, Forge.

Moreover, throughout X-Men ’97, the female mutants are positioned as being alienated even among mutantkind. Storm can no longer feel the elements and with the loss of her mutation she tells Jean, “We are no longer connected.” Rogue struggles in her relationship with Gambit because she can’t touch him until he has died, but then she “can’t feel” him. When Mr. Sinister “cuts out a part” of Jean, her clone comes between the “special psychic rapport” she shared with Scott. Such separating-out of powerful women within mutant society is an animated echo of the real human society that attempts to dismiss or reject strong women - such as Olympic athletes Simone Biles and Imane Khelif or Vice President Kamala Harris - based on perceptions of their mental health, appearance, and sexuality.

References:

[1] Langsdale, Samantha. 2018. “The Dark Phoenix as a ‘Promising Monster’: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching Marvel’s X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga.”  In Comics and Sacred Texts: Reimaging Religion & Graphic Narratives, edited by Assaf Gamzou & Ken Kultun-Fromm, 153-171. University Press of Mississippi.

[2] Cocca, Carolyn. 2016.  “Containing the X-Women: De-powering and De-queering Female Characters.” In The X-Men Films: A Cultural Analysis, edited by Claudia Bucciferro, 79-92. Rowman & Littlefield.

[3] Brown, Jeffrey A. 2011. “Supermoms? Maternity and Monstrous-Feminine in Superhero Comics.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. 2 (1): 77-87.