Taking place in the aftermath of X-Men: The Animated Series' grand finale, "Graduation Day", humanity has started to accept the X-Men and mutantkind in general in the wake of Professor Charles Xavier's apparent assassination at the hands of Henry Peter Gyrich. However, mutantkind still has numerous hurdles to jump, including the ever-present threat of the bigoted Friends of Humanity and the hidden threat of Mr. Sinister.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: Zig-Zagged. "To Me, My X-Men" revealed that Carl Denti was just a high-ranking member of the Friends of Humanity before donning the guise of the X-Cutioner. Issue #1 here reveals that he was still an FBI agent at the start, yet still very bigoted against mutants.
- Big Bad: Mr. Sinister, plotting to go after Cyclops and Jean's new baby, but to do so, he needs to make humanity hate mutants once more.
- The Cameo: Issue #1 ends with Sinister watching a viewscreen with the Marauders, Sienna Blaze and Hazard on them.
- Didn't Think This Through: Yes, Ruckus. Hit the mutant who turns sound into energy with a sonic scream blast.
- Interquel: The mini-series takes place in the year between "Graduation Day" and "To Me, My X-Men".
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Downplayed. By the time issue #1 released, "To Me, My X-Men" and "Mutant Liberation Begins" had already aired and "Fire Made Flesh" just aired. Despite this, the mini-series does provide some reveals concerning the characters and their actions.
- Legion of Doom: In issue #2, Sinister recruits the Marauders, Sienna Blaze and Hazard as agents to attack the X-Men. In the comics, the Marauders did and do work for Sinister, but Sienna Blaze and Hazard are independent characters that appeared in unrelated storylines.
- Recursive Adaptation: The X-Men '97 comic is an adaptation of the animated series X-Men '97, a Sequel Series to X-Men: The Animated Series, which is itself based on the original X-Men comics.
- The Reveal: Issue #1 reveals that Storm changed her hairstyle to that of the iconic mohawk to not only fit in with the concert Dazzler was having in celebration of Xavier's life, but also to fit into the changing times as a new millennium was approaching. We also see how the X-Men and Dr. Cooper first meet.
- The Unreveal: Bishop is already part of the team when we meet him and his time-traveling device is already broken, thus leaving us without knowing how it did so.
- You Have Failed Me: Sinister is not happy with the Nasty Boys' attack on Dazzler's concert and blasts them for their failure, nearly killing them.
