Former X-Men ’97 head writer Beau DeMayo breaks silence to talk about that incredible latest episode
Without talking about his departure from the series, DeMayo discussed the devastating "Remember It," the "centerpiece" of his plans for the show
Aux News X-Men
[This post contains spoilers for “Remember It,” the fifth episode of X-Men ’97.]
The sudden departure of Beau DeMayo, the former showrunner, head writer, and chief creative architect of Disney revival project X-Men ’97, has cast a strange shadow over the critically acclaimed animated series in the weeks since it first launched. The fact is that DeMayo’s work on the series (fast-moving, emotionally intelligent, deeply reverential to both the fun and the angst of mutant life) is not only so good that Disney is reportedly holding on to his scripts for its already announced second season, despite whatever unnamed tensions and conflicts led to him “parting ways” with the company right before the series was released—but also so personal, and pointed, that his absence from the critical conversation surrounding it has been especially notable. Now, though, that silence has been broken—and while DeMayo isn’t addressing his departure from the series, he was willing to get on social media this week to talk about the motivations and ideas behind “Remember It,” the show’s stand-out fifth episode, and one of the most affecting episodes of television of 2024 to date.
Like most of X-Men ’97, “Remember It” is diverse in the comic book reference pool it’s pulling its stories from. But its primary inspiration is pretty obviously Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s “E Is For Extinction”—the initial run on Morrison’s celebrated New X-Men, in which the island state of Genosha is destroyed in a devastating Sentinel attack. Joyful until it isn’t, DeMayo’s version of the story lingers in the country long enough to make it clear, exactly, what the coming death robots will take from its people: A homeland where peace and safety are so abundant that its people have the luxury of taking the right to live for granted, for once.
It’s one of the weird ironies of comics publishing that Morrison’s story of a massive, reality-shifting terrorist attack was published immediately before September, 2001, and not in its aftermath; in his letter, published on Twitter, DeMayo draws direct parallels between the destruction of Genosha and 9/11, citing the ways American culture and tolerance seemed to curdle in the aftermath of the attacks. We don’t want to put words in DeMayo’s mouth, so we’ll just post the letter here, but suffice it to say that when he writes that “Remember It” was “the centerpiece” of his idea to build something new out of his experiences with the original X-Men cartoon, it’s easy to believe.
Up until this week, X-Men ’97 was mostly willing to play nice with its “What if that Saturday morning cartoon you loved as a kid came back?” conceit. (Did you see that episode where Jubilee gets trapped in a video game by interdimensional entertainment executive Mojo? Delightful silliness, with just a dollop of heart.) “Remember It” drops that mask, though: It’s raw, gorgeous, heartbreaking, an X-Men cartoon for modern minds and grown-up hearts. It remains extremely bizarre that a creator so clearly in tune with his own show is now operating at this weird remove from it, but for now, we’ll take what we can get.
19 Comments
Loved the episode, but I’m curious if they changed Rogue’s power level. I don’t remember ever seeing her bleed before, she mostly got dusty or had her tears in her outfit, but she generally would only get hurt magically (and emotionally), like when Carol Danvers’ personality manifested, or when she absorbed Archangel and Juggernaut. I’m sure the comics are different, but I haven’t read a lot of them.
‘”Loved the episode, but I’m curious if they changed Rogue’s power level.”’I’m thinking those green beams that were being shot at them weren’t only destructive but might also contain some of that concentrated mutant gene nullifier stuff in it. You know like the one that hit Storm a few episodes ago and stripped her of her power?
Yeah that was my theory too also her cuts didn’t seem as deep as Kurt’s, Gambit’s and Magneto’s
They couldn’t show blood before when it was on Fox
That may be less Rogue’s ostensible power level and more the kind of story being told now, and the intended audience. The Saban cartoon from the 90s was bloodless in the way GI Joe and Ninja Turtles was, all lasers and exploding robots with few to no depictions of actual physical harm on human beings, aside from clothes being burned or torn. Though it dealt with some heavy subjects, it never got to into actual trauma, at least at any more than a soap opera treatment of it.
This show is clearly going for something more, well, adult.
Rất tuyệt vời
That Jubilee episode was the warning, apparently.Lotta times shows like this will serve up some light-hearted fair as a way to set the audience up for the gut punch.
It’s hilarious watching certain people try to argue that this show doesn’t count as a Marvel product, because they’ve attached their identity so strongly to the brand being dead.
I haven’t seen this, but my husband is watching it and was telling me about this episode last night, and said it reminded him strongly of what’s happening in Gaza – just heartbreaking.
Wow your husband sounds like a brave, good person.
“We don’t want to put words in DeMayo’s mouth”What kind of Bizarro world av club am I reading?Wait! The good timeline where barsanti is out of a job! Hooray!
I dream of a world where that guy can have a job and grown-ass adults choose not to read his work instead of whining about it.But that’s just me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I dream of a world where random people act as Sam Barsanti reputation management
Sam has a very 2010’s internet morality thing going on, where random people are judge and jury for the moral vibes of random creatives. No! That’s what Gawker was for, and they were better at it. AV Club is for judge and jury for whether or not certain comedians and junk culture are cool!
Okay sam
I was floored after that episode. Just sat there in silence.
I don’t know the reasons for his ouster and it seems it hasn’t been fully divulged yet from what I can tell. Maybe he deserved it, maybe he didn’t. What I do know is I want more X-Men episodes like that. Episode 5 was amazing. My only tiny nitpick is imagine how much more amazing it would be if they took just a little bit more time with it. Yeah, the show pre-revival always burned thru arcs quickly but that doesn’t mean the revival should too
If this guy just got fired for having an OnlyFans and being annoying, they have to bring him back. It’s too good! Come on now!
No one’s going to mention that profile pic on his Xitter profile?