X-Men’97 – A Force to be Reckoned With review S2 E2
A Force to be Reckoned With was another fantastic installment of X-Men’97’s second season that should eliminate any and all concern that this season will be a letdown.
It’s 1997, do you know where your mutants are? Five including Quentin Quire and Penace/M are running to the barricaded X-mansion when spotlights pop up. It’s not the Sentinels or the Friends of Humanity. Instead, it’s friends (or should that be “friends?”) in the form of X-Factor — Havok, Polaris, Wolfsbane, Multiple Man and Strong Guy. They’re here to help or specifically place them in custody so they can cause no more mischief.
Cue a news spot proclaiming X-Factor as a stabilizing force in the wake of the X-Men’s disappearance as they’re bringing Chamber into custody. A Force to be Reckoned With’s writers clearly understand the source material. This subplot is a sneaky nod to longtime X-Men fans who remember X-Factor’s original gimmick was pretending to be mutant hunters who rounded up mutants only to secretly train the young kids they brought in.
A Force to be Reckoned With shows the warped side of that as Havok’s crew is actually working as government lapdogs under Val Cooper’s direction to legitimately imprison young mutants. X-Men ’97 Season 2 has been in the works for a few years, but it’s hard not to draw real world comparisons with what’s playing out today. Of course, in the comics the allegory to groups hunting down a minority was anti-mutant bigots standing in for Nazis. Maybe some things never change?
Jubilee watches the latest X-Factor news while Roberto rounds up money for dinner at the arcade. Remember, his mother cut him off and let him be captured by the mutant task force. Cable follows up on his promise from last episode and shows them a folder with everything he’s acquired on Apocalypse so far. The folder has all kinds of Easter Egg goodies for X-Factor fans with the names of various Horsemen — Caliban, Warren Worthington III, Kieros (War), Plague and A. Rolfson (Famine).
Cable doesn’t make any promises that this outlaw life will be safe, but it beats sitting around playing video games while the world goes to Hell. Jubilee asks if the team, which prompts one of the cooler moments in A Force to be Reckoned with an X-Force theme opening. Cable and Apocalypse stand in for Professor X and Magneto while X-Force and the Horsemen run at each other. Quentin, Chamber, Angel Salvadore (!) and Pixie. The deep cuts in this series are…uncanny.
Some time has passed as Jubilee’s hair is longer and Sunspot has his comic-accurate X-Force costume. The team is tracking down War, which provides another scene to marvel at Psylocke actually having a British accent to properly tie into the comics. Warren/Archangel has a darker tone that fits perfectly for his post Apocalypse split mindset as well.
In a nice bit of teamwork, X-Force takes War down. After getting all the information from him that they can thanks to Psylocke’s telepathic brain scan, Cable hands Archangel his gun. That explains why the Marvel Legends figure (available at Amazon) comes with a gun. Jubilee pleads with Archangel not to do it, but he explains that thanks to Apocalypse’s control “It’s not murder. It’s mercy.” This definitely shows both the darker edge to Archangel and X-Force, but also X’Men’97 Season 2. That probably should be expected given they’re fighting Apocalypse this season.
MORE:
- Masters of the Universe review (2026)
- The Furious review (2026)
- Marvel Legends June 2026 reveals include X-Men ’97 Beast, Cypher, New Avengers
- Image Comics reviews 6/10/26 – MASK 1, Transformers 33
Psylocke did catch an image of a wall of diamonds in War’s mind, which Jubilee correctly deduces was a reference to Emma Frost. When she, Cable and Roberto crash her office, she’s leading two dudes inside.
Yep, they’re definitely leaning a tad more risqué and adult in more ways than one in A Force to be Reckoned With and this season. Emma helped War smuggle cargo to Switzerland and wants to strike a business deal with X-Force.
For the most part, the portrayal of Emma was spot-on in A Force to be Reckoned With, but the tragedy in Genosha in the comics sparked a major change in her outlook where she became a staunch ally and teammate of the X-Men going forward.
Maybe that’s to come later in the season, but for now Emma leads X-Force into an ambush by X-Factor. In fairness, they offered her amnesty and with her past, that was too good a deal to pass up. A Force to be Reckoned With certainly comes through with this team battle with some tremendous fights playing out just like it would in the comics. Emma yawns on the sidelines and turns to diamond to avoid getting hit by any stray shots.
Havok eventually has enough and has Polaris wrap them up. He tells Jubilee that she’s not an X-Man, she’s part of a secret assassination hit squad.
Jubilee triggers their escape but gets nabbed by Havok while Psylocke has to zap Roberto to stop him from going back to get her. Jubilee is led to a containment cell and sees The Stepford Cuckoos, Artie, Synch, Dust, Chamber and even Maggie, the little girl from Marvels (check it out on Amazon)! That is just an insanely deep cut even for X-Men’97!
Polaris was moved by Jubilee’s plea and removes her restraint cueing Jubilee to start up her music and battle the guards. With characters like Cable, Psylocke and Archangel, it’s wild that it’s Jubilee that gets the showcase sequence in A Force to be Reckoned With. This very much felt like the Cyclops in the first episode of Season 1. X-Force caught her radio message and arrived just when she most needed backup.
Val officially declares X-Force vs X-Factor. Warren reminds Cable that where they’re going isn’t a place for kids, but Cable says children are remarkably resilient. That leads to a “flashback” in the future where Nathan has to make the difficult decision to send the X-Men back home.
Hopefully, we’ll see plenty more of X-Force (and X-Factor) this season as this episode was a fantastic glimpse of the wider X-teams in play now in X-Men ’97.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Photo Credit: Disney
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.