The animated X-Men are finally going to return next year, and the '90s have never looked better! Rumours about these plans first started doing the rounds earlier this week, but Marvel Comics has now announced (via Toonado.com) that an X-Men '97 prelude comic book series will launch in March 2024.
Setting the stage for Marvel Studios' X-Men '97, coming soon to Disney+, the comic is a 4-issue series created in close collaboration with the showrunners and will serve as a companion story to the television show. The series is written by Steve Foxe (Dead X-Men, Dark X-Men) with art by Salva Espín.
In this official prelude, we'll learn what Storm, Jubilee, Wolverine and the rest of the beloved '90s X-Men cast have been up to in the time before their return! It's aid that startling revelations here lead directly into the hotly anticipated new series.
As this is a four-issue comic book, it's safe to assume it won't finish until June and that likely means X-Men '97 won't premiere until sometime after that. We'd hoped it might arrive in the first half of the year, and while that's not outside the realm of possibility, we doubt it would launch alongside a prelude (that would somewhat defeat the purpose of this comic).
Talking about writing the series, Foxe said, "There's a very good chance I wouldn't be writing comics today if not for the impact X-Men: The Animated Series had on me as a kid--heck, the voice actors from the show are still the voices I hear when I read the comics today!"
"Getting to reunite with my X-Men '92: House of XCII collaborator Salva Espín on this official prelude to X-Men '97 has felt like a bucket-list project a lifetime in the making, and Beau [DeMayo] and the rest of the '97 team gave us a fantastic runway to come up with our own original tale that feeds right into what viewers will get to experience in the new season."
Marvel Studios has a three-season plan for X-Men '97 and this will hopefully be the first of many collaborations with Marvel Comics. After all, there's a lot of fertile ground to explore with the world that began in X-Men: The Animated Series!
You can check out Todd Nauck's cover below. Hopefully, we'll have more to share on this one soon...and if we're lucky, perhaps even news on X-Men '97's premiere date!
X-MEN '97 #1 (OF 4)
Written by STEVE FOXE
Art by SALVA ESPÍN
Cover by TODD NAUCK
On Sale 3/27