I woke up today embracing two things. First, as an adult, I am going to spend my Saturday morning watching cartoons in bed, with a bowl of Fruity Pebbles, next to my partner. The other thing: the world is uncertain, violent, and ambiguous. As a psychotherapist, I clinically think now, more than ever, we must embrace hope over fear. And yet, fear most certainly prevails as a leading emotion for most of us. Recently, X-Men ‘97 graced the screens of millions of people worldwide to mass success and incredible fandom. The fan response, old and new, has been miraculous considering this reboot was a continuation of the 1997 X-Men: The Animated Series franchise. In American animation, 2D animation has been on a steady decline since the release of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. We traded in moving pencil and ink for extravagant, yet beautiful, computer animation. Yet, we lose the simplicity of 2D animation’s unique means of storytelling.
In a world with constant incoming information, overstimulation, a mental health epidemic, and uncertainty leaving us feeling less connected to ourselves and others, we need one thing: the X-Men. Superheroes have been researched as a means of supporting our human condition for quite some time. As a geek therapist, I often utilize........