X-Men ’97 has something that the Master of the Universe lacks

In 2026, both Marvel and Mattel will launch projects designed to capitalize on people’s love of iconic cartoon heroes from their childhoods. Masters of the universe He put a live-action He-Man movie on the big screen, and a second season of the He-Man series X-Men ’97 About to fling some Charles Xavier spikes at her A terrible future. Both projects were clearly created by people who love the source material, and are similarly full of morbid Easter eggs meant to get hardcore fans excited. X-Men ’97 and Masters of the universe Both are nostalgia plays, but the biggest difference between the two — and perhaps the reason neither has succeeded — is the work that has gone into keeping their characters and worlds alive in the popular culture consciousness.

In its second season, X-Men ’97 She splits her team of mutant heroes into multiple teams who find themselves stuck at very different points in history. While one group ends up in ancient Egypt, another group is transported thousands of years into the future. Although both teams want to return to the 1990s, they are desperately searching for a way to stop the nearly immortal mutant villain Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) from destroying the world. And because Apocalypse happens to be alive in both time periods, the two X-Men teams agree that it’s worth spending some time exactly where they are.

Instead of adapting a single Marvel comics story, the new season of Marvel X-Men ’97 It combines narrative elements from a number of different limited series – most importantly The Adventures of Giant and Phoenix From 1994 to 1996 Rise of the Apocalypse. Using beats from those specific comics to expand their story makes sense considering the ’90s. But what’s even more surprising is how much of the relatively recent X-Men comics the show does to flesh out the world around its core characters.

while X-Men ’97 It is a continuation of X-Men: The Animated SeriesMarvel made it feel fresh Reshaping existing law in important ways. Taking this approach is part of what made the series Hit the ratings when it premiered in 2024, but fans’ long-standing fondness and familiarity with the X-Men were also major factors in the equation.

One of the main reasons why fans foam at the mouth X-Men Projects like ’97 and The next X-Men MCU movie is that Marvel never let this property fade into the background. Although twentieth century studios X-Men Features tend to be terrible, and there have always been enough X-Men comics and TV series In the mix to give fans hope that the studio will eventually do so Coming up with something excellent. If Marvel had spent less time growing the X-Men brand, the franchise might have found itself faltering the way Mattel did. Masters of the universe currently.

There have been a few newer series inspired by the original Masters of the universe cartoon. But overall, He-Man’s pop culture fame waned in the years after Prince Adam and his friends explained the lessons behind their adventures on television every weekday from 1983 to 1985. That’s likely part of the reason behind Mattel’s new idea. Masters of the universe The film has performed poorly at the box office since its release last week. So far the film has had little success $54.4 million against a production budget of $200 millionmaking it a huge financial failure.

Masters of the universe This film has become a case study in Hollywood’s tendency to learn the wrong lessons from its past successes. People flocked to the theaters to see Barbie Because it was a funny feminist deconstruction of an ever-present icon, but Mattel interpreted it as a sign that viewers were hungry to watch her. Stories about games in general. Masters of the universe It attempts some mild critical exploration of toxic masculinity, but that clearly wasn’t enough to convince audiences to care about He-Man. Aside from die-hard fans, many people simply aren’t invested in or emotionally connected to the world of He-Man, and Mattel hasn’t done enough to convince audiences that there’s anything interesting in this latest film.

If He-Man is a staple of more people’s imaginations as the X-Men are, then the conversation is about him Masters of the universe It will probably be very different. Mattel would do well to take this as a valuable lesson, but that’s what happened There were no signs yet Than that is the case. between X-Men ’97Season two and Avengers: DoomsdayMarvel is entering a year of huge stories that put mutants front and center. It’s a moment the studio has been looking forward to for years.

Season two of X-Men ’97 It arrives on Disney Plus on July 1, and Masters of the universe In theaters now.