VIZ Media provided an early galley for review.

In the late 1990's, X-Men: The Animated Series was a huge hit, taking Marvel's classic comic series and bringing it to an even wider audience. Just this year, the release of X-Men '97 as a follow-on cartoon series has brought that incarnation back into the popular consciousness once more.

This manga adapted, like Marvel's own 1992 comic series X-Men Adventures did as well, the cartoons from that original series with this volume presenting the first seven episodes. As a fan of the cartoon and the comics, I know these stories quite well. Since the artists change from chapter to chapter, there is a bit of inconsistency across the board. Some presentations were better than others, for me.

What is interesting here is seeing these stories again through the manga lens. The takes on these classic characters are fun and make me want to check out more Marvel manga. I also liked the character profiles included at the end, which likely helped new readers unfamiliar with the cast to get to know more than the stories revealed.

I'm not sure what came first, the animated X-Men show from the 90's, or this manga, but I felt like I basically read the first few episodes of the show. That's not to say this is bad, but I was kind of expecting something else. I enjoyed it, but I feel like most would rather watch the show than read this manga. I would only recommend for pretty serious manga/Marvel fans.