Marvel Comics has announced X-Men ’97: Season Two, a prequel to the upcoming sophomore season of the original animated series’ revival. Writer Steve Foxe, artist Salva Espin, and colorist Matt Milla will helm the five-issue comic, which picks up directly from the first season, where nearly all of the X-Men were displaced to the past and future, except Forge, Jubilee, Sunspot, and Bishop.
Extinction Day has come and gone, and your favorite X-Men are lost in time! Spinning out of Marvel Animation’s X-Men ’97 series, follow the X-Men left behind in a world that hunts and hates mutantkind! Can they survive? And just where – or when – are the X-Men now?! No X-Men ‘97 fan can miss this one!
Foxe states, “I feel exceptionally grateful that Salva Espin, Matt Milla, and I get to tell more stories fleshing out the world of X-Men ’97! Everyone who watched season one knows the team left us one heck of an era-spanning cliffhanger, and our prequel for season two doesn’t take any cheats or shortcuts around that wild status quo. We got to work closely with the series team to make sure this comic is a vital, additive experience for our mutants — what’s left of the X-Men, anyway…”
Despite the firing of original showrunner Beau DeMayo over what Disney described as “egregious” behavior (something DeMayo’s lawyer denies), X-Men ’97 premiered in 2024 to critical acclaim, winning an Astra TV Award, Critics’ Choice TV Award, and Dorian TV Award for Best Animated Series. A third and fourth season, now overseen by What If…? veteran Matthew Chauncey, are in the works. The book marks the third set in the animated ’90s Marvel Universe in the show’s wake, following a prequel to the first season by the same creative team, and J.M. DeMatteis & James Towe‘s Spider-Man ’94, which wrapped up in January.
Issue #1 will be released on June 3, with a main cover by Todd Nauck, and variants by Jhony Caballero, Natacha Bustos, Dan Jurgens, and more. Season two of the show itself will premiere on Disney+ sometime this summer. In the meantime, you can check out Caballero’s Marvel vs. Capcom-inspired, basketball-themed cover below:
