<\/p>\n
Warning:\u00a0This article contains major spoilers<\/strong> for the entirety of “Gen V” season 2.<\/em><\/p>\n Creating a hit streaming series like “The Boys” that taps into both current politics and broader entertainment trends is unfathomably hard. Spinning off a new series about kids at a school for superheroes with entirely new characters and without living entirely in the parent show’s shadow might be even harder. But making lightning strike twice with a second season that’s not only more heartfelt and sincere than the first (as I reviewed for \/Film here<\/a>), but also pulls off a storyline that multiple big-budget movies tried and failed to do in years prior? That’s the kind of balancing act that “Gen V” has made its bread and butter.<\/p>\n We’re not exactly going out on a ledge here when we claim that “Gen V” is telling a better X-Men story than the (then-named) 20th Century Fox did with its “X-Men” movies. For as much nostalgia and rose-tinted memories that audiences may bear towards that franchise, to the point that the Marvel Cinematic Universe saw fit to bring much of its cast and characters back<\/a> (with more to come in “Avengers: Doomsday” and presumably “Avengers: Secret Wars”), there’s no getting around the idea that the those movies left much to be desired. Common complaints from diehards included the elevation of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to leading man status at the expense of James Marsden’s team leader Scott Summers\/Cyclops, those awfully unflattering black pleather uniforms, and storylines that took aim at the biggest and most memorable comic book arcs … but missed out on recreating any actual family dynamic between the mutants.<\/p>\n Without ever hanging a lampshade on it, both seasons of “Gen V” accomplished all of the above and more \u2014 and it’s long past time we recognized that.<\/p>\n