The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had some hits and misses lately. While a handful of Marvel’s latest movie releases performed poorly at the box office, some of its projects received a mixed reception from fans and critics alike. Out of all the Marvel programs that have been released under the Walt Disney Company since its acquisition, X-Men ’97 is reportedly the highest-ranked project on Rotten Tomatoes, and it’s not even part of the MCU.
According to the X-Men ’97’s Rotten Tomatoes page, it has received a near-perfect critics score of 99 percent and an average audience score of 95 percent. In comparison, Loki season 1 has an average critics score of 92 percent and an average audience score of 90 percent. Meanwhile, Season 2 is 10 points lower than its predecessor. Meanwhile, the most recent MCU show, Echo, has a critics score of 71 percent and an audience score of 60. When compared to the films, The Marvels received an average critics score of 62 percent and an audience score of 82 percent. Prior to that was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which had a critics score of 82 percent and an audience score of 94 percent.
Only a few Marvel projects came close to what X-Men ’97 received. They include Ms. Marvel, with an average critics’ score of 98 percent, Spider-Man: No Way Home with its critics’ score of 93 percent and audience score of 98 percent, and Avengers: Endgame, which sits on a critics’ score of 94 percent and an audience score of 90 percent.
Will ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Save the MCU?
Since the 20th Century Fox acquisition, Marvel Studios has taken steps to make an MCU adaptation of the X-Men come to life. However, another set of former Fox Marvel characters will be making its MCU debut before that happens. Deadpool & Wolverine will starring Ryan Reynolds, reprising his role as Deadpool, and the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. At the moment, the previous Deadpool films are floating around the 80s area in terms of’ average critics’ score. Meanwhile, audience reception dropped by 5 percent from its first to the second installment.
In true 4th wall-breaking fashion, Deadpool & Wolverine‘s trailer teased that it would be “Marvel Jesus” and that Deadpool would change Marvel’s cinematic universe. While it’s currently uncertain if this next Deadpool movie could compete with X-Men ’97’s Rotten Tomatoes score, the previous Deadpool movies generated nearly billions of dollars each, with Deadpool 2 currently the 3rd highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, following Deadpool, which sits in 4th place. So there is a chance that this third installment could be Marvel’s answer to its box office problem.
It will take a while until Deadpool & Wolverine enters theaters. Until then, X-Men ’97 is available to stream on Disney Plus.
