One Of X-Men: The Animated Series' Most Revolutionary Details Was A Happy Accident

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

For millennials, the main cast of the 1992 "X-Men" cartoon will always be the definitive X-Men team. It's a team with a striking gender balance: five men (Professor X, Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, and Gambit) and four women (Storm, Rogue, Jean Grey, and Jubilee). The feelings of equality extended to how the characters were written; the X-Women never held back in the action scenes and they were given as many starring episodes as the male characters. Rogue (Lenore Zann), whose powers kept her from touching other people, yearned for Gambit (Chris Potter, later Tony Daniels), but she wasn't defined by that impossible romance.

The feminism of "X-Men" has been positive for its legacy (as critic Meghan O'Keefe argued at Decider), yet the creators didn't set out to make a statement. Eric and Julia Lewald, the husband and wife showrunners of "X-Men," chronicled their experience in the 2020 book "X-Men: The Art and Making of The Animated Series." In an interview with Marvel.com about the book, the Lewalds confirmed it was "dumb luck" that the team was gender balanced. 

"Jubilee and Gambit were newer, Marvel wanted to make sure to have them. And obviously, Professor X. And Jean [Grey] and [Cyclops] were the core people from the beginning. And Wolverine's the biggest name in the history of the X-Men. So you're already up to about six. And it happened that a couple of those [picks] were already women," Eric Lewald explained. Storm and Rogue are two of the other biggest X-Men, so adding them to the show must have been a no-brainer. 

"I'll give credit to Margaret Loesch [then-head of Fox Kids], that in the project she was passionate about, I don't recall hearing any pushback, 'Oh, you got too many girls on the team,'" Julia Lewald recalled.

The Lewalds compared their "X-Men" ensemble to how other cartoons only allowed one female character, e.g. the "The Smurfs," where there was one girl defined by her gender: Smurfette. In 1991, critic Katha Pollitt coined this phenomenon as the "Smurfette Principle" while writing in The New York Times. Under the Smurfette principle, boys are allowed to have differing personalities beyond their gender, while girls aren't. It puts girls in a box and teaches the kids watching to accept maleness as the default state of being human. 

Another '80s cartoon that showed this was "The Transformers." During the first two seasons, the main cast of Autobots and Decepticons was entirely male robots; female Autobots only guest starred in one episode. When writing "The Transformers: The Movie," writer Ron Friedman took some initiative and introduced the female Autobot Arcee, finally bringing "Transformers" up to the bare minimum representation seen on "The Smurfs." "Transformers" sister show "G.I. Joe" was slightly better about this, but the male characters still far outnumbered the women.

Even 10 years after "X-Men" premiered, the DC superhero cartoon "Justice League" was lopsided with five men and two women. Adding Hawkgirl to the team was recompense for the classic JL line-up being six men and Wonder Woman.

"X-Men" also understood that having more girls on the show is one thing, but how you write them is another. Compare "X-Men" to the the failed 1989 "Pryde of the X-Men" pilot, which had five male heroes (Professor X, Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Colossus) and three female (Storm, Dazzler, and Kitty Pryde). Kitty served the role Jubilee would in the '92 show: a young woman first joining the X-Men. But while Kitty was a bratty damsel in distress in "Pryde," Jubilee was street smart and spunky.

The 2019 movie "X-Men: Dark Phoenix" has an eye roll-worthy scene where Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) scolds Professor X (James McAvoy) to rename the team the "X-Women." Yet the sentiment isn't wrong! Most of the biggest stars of the "X-Men" comics are the X-Women, and the '92 cartoon honored that.

It goes back to Chris Claremont, who wrote "X-Men" consistently from 1975 to 1991. The most enduring "X-Men" characters who he (co-)created were women: Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Psylocke, Moira MacTaggert, Emma Frost, Jubilee, Shi'ar Empress Lilandra, etc. Claremont is the heir to William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman — he writes strong, complex female characters and wants them to step on him. Claremont was especially taken with Storm; if there's a central lead of his "X-Men" run, it's her.

The earliest "X-Men" comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby followed the Smurfette Principle to the letter. There were five guys and one girl, Jean Grey, who was a shrinking violet in and out of battle. Claremont's first revolutionary move on "X-Men" was to have Jean reborn as the Phoenix; he took the stereotypical "frail woman" of the book and made her a goddess in the flesh.

Yet the feminism of "X-Men" is inextricable from Claremont's kinks. Writer Ann Nocenti explored those contradictions in "Classic X-Men" #34, where Emma Frost (who wears a white corset and stockings) scolds a serving girl for feeling demeaned by her clothes. To Emma, her body isn't exploited when she displays it. Instead, she exploits the men gawking at her by tying them around her finger.

Marvel Comics

Having female characters present in stories is vital representation, but it's just as important to make sure women have a chance to write those characters.