e319. X-men ’97 Revisited: Superheroes, Sacrifices, & Saturday Mornings

There’s an argument that the current wave of superhero dominated content that pervades popular media doesn’t begin with the MCU but with X-men the Animated Series, a cartoon that ran from 1992-1997 and is a formative touchstone for many millennial viewers who have come of age today. This argument may be somewhat backed up by the existence of X-men ’97, a cartoon revival of the series that picks up right where the original show left off, but replacing the kid-friendly fare of the 90s with complex, gritty, and frankly rather adult (in more ways than one) storytelling fit for the streaming content era. So, as it appears most pop culture podcasts and shows did… we watched it all! Only we’re not going to just talk about it, we’re going to deconstruct it with academic and cultural lenses… you know… like we do on this show. So, on this episode Mav, Hannah and Wayne welcome returning guest — and new Eisner nominated author of the best selling book, The Claremont Run — Andrew Deman as well as first time guest and editor of an upcoming academic volume on X-men the Animated series, Jeremy Carnes. Literally, as perfect a cast of academic scholars devoted to X-men the animated series as you are likely to find anywhere. So, listen as we break down our takes on racial, gender, sexual, religious and geopolitical themes that pervade the new series… and also we’ll connect it to the TV show Bridgerton. Because that’s what we do here! Then let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Citations and Links: * order Eisner award nominated, The Claremont Run by J. Andrew Deman * order Unstable Masks featuring the essay “‘The Original Enchantment’: Whiteness, Indigeneity, and Representational Logics in The New Mutants” by Jeremy M. Carnes * Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme * Follow Hannah on Twitter: @hannahleerogers * Follow Mav on Twitter: @chrismaverick * Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017 * Follow us on Twitter: @voxpopcast * Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast * Subscribe to our YouTube channel * Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!