Greetings true believers! For those who’ve not been following our weekly coverage of X-Men ’97 in our Boomb Tube column, the X-Men: The Animated Series revival has continued to exceed my (admittedly low) expectations, turning a dated cartoon into the definitive X-Men TV show. Now without further ado, let’s dive into the first season finale:
1. Xavier and Magneto Play Inception
The episode begins with a flashback to the time Charles and Erik first revealed their powers to each other, which quickly turns out to be a recreation in the midst of their battle on Asteroid M. (Chuck certainly got the helmet off quickly after Logan’s intervention.) Erik’s mind is broken by Charles forcing him to undo the blackout, and the bar their minds are in begins to be flooded by his fears and uncertainty. At first, it seems Erik can’t remember his late family’s faces because of what happened, only for it to transpire this has always been the case because of how young he was during the Holocaust, going a long way to explain his anger and abandonment issues.
It was a really moving throughline: for all his flaws, Xavier is a fundamentally compassionate person who believes in giving everyone a second chance, no matter what, and he’s definitely not going to give up on his old friend either. And ultimately, Xavier’s patient work in the background, helping his friend cross a river like a certain saint, while everyone else runs around doing the usual superhero spectacle, was what gave the final push needed to save everyone — truly, “Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.” (The drowning imagery in their story also felt like a nod to X-Men: First Class, where the two do indeed meet when Erik nearly drowns himself trying to stop the Hellfire Club from escaping.)
2. Sympathy for the Metal Devil
Likewise, the X-Men truly prove themselves to be Xavier’s students, and Cyclops in particular to be his heir apparent, when they decide not to kill Bastion after pinning him down on Asteroid M, when it would’ve been so easy for all of them to go fully Terminator on his busted mug. Early on, Bastion reveals to most of Gold Team that his mother lied to him, that she claimed Xavier refused to take him in when it was the other way around, cementing him as a lost sheep with severe internalized hatred, instead of a purely blackhearted villain — in fact, the whole thing was a reminder that there’s probably no such thing, and even the worst people in the world are still the product of rotten conditioning and circumstances.
3. Morph, is There Something You Need to Tell Us?
Morph exploits Wolverine’s feelings for Jean to help him pull through his severe injuries, taking her form to tell him they love him. For the record, regardless of however they meant it, it’s a lovely reminder of the bonds between this found family, but we saw in the third episode that Morph is not afraid to flirt with Logan, and even offer to scratch his back, if they think their best friend is open to it. So at some point, Morph is not only going to have to come clean about possibly inflaming the love triangle between Logan, Scott and Jean, and giving him another false memory, but their own feelings for the guy, which would in turn give Wolverine another compelling story arc for season two.
4. Age of Ultron 2.0
Seeing the X-Men stop Asteroid M from causing an extinction-level event absolutely brought back a lot of memories of Avengers: Age of Ultron, where another robotic prodigal son tried to recreate the death of the dinosaurs with a big flying rock. The resemblance was fine, it’s been nearly a decade since that film (somehow), but I will say it outdid that movie on an emotional level, simply because stopping a falling city is all in a day’s work for the Avengers, whereas here it’s a level of heroism above and beyond what you expect from the X-Men, who are usually just fighting bigoted goons or trying to prevent awful futures from even existing. Humanity will never give them their due, but they deserve a huge parade.
Continued below5. Season Two Speculation Time
Not that a parade would happen anytime soon, since Asteroid M implodes, sending most of the team back in time to Ancient Egypt, when Apocalypse/En Sabah Nur (Adetokumboh M’Cormack) is still a young warrior battling Kang/Rama-Tut’s forces, and Scott & Jean to the future where Cable’s being raised by the Askani Clan. Wolverine’s not accounted for at the end, which strengthens the possibility he’ll have his adamantium skeleton restored by Apocalypse, who (per the mid-credits scene) is undoubtedly going to “reward” Gambit by resurrecting him as one of his Horsemen. In any case, I don’t think we’ll spend much of next season in either era, especially with Forge, Bishop, Jubilee and Sunspot still in the present.
Bastion’s gone for good, Theo James is a busy and expensive actor, and the character was fleshed out accordingly because of that. Fortunately, the comics have deepened Apocalypse’s backstory enough since 1997 that there’s plenty new to be explored with the character: it’s possible the X-Men’s presence in his past could reshape him into a less one-dimensional tyrant than his ’90s counterpart, and pave the way for the introduction of Krakoa and Arakko. Given how great this season’s arc for Magneto was, it’d be great to see Apocalypse be given a similarly respectful treatment, especially after his lackluster movie appearance. Given how extraordinary this season was, one thing’s for sure: whenever the next episodes arrive, it’s still going to be a long wait.
Bonus Thoughts:
– There were so many cameos, I don’t know where to begin. Unsurprisingly, I loved seeing Polaris, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in Magneto’s mindscape (take that Perlmutter!); seeing my favorite Marvel character, Daredevil, battle the Sentinels on the streets; and that the long MIA Kitty Pryde’s presence in this continuity was cemented by her photo on Forge’s wall. However, the most interesting decisions were to have T’Chaka as the Black Panther, potentially setting up a T’Challa origin story, and to have Mary Jane Watson appear alongside Peter Parker, at long last confirming what happened offscreen in the conclusion of the ’90s Spider-Man series — hurray!
– Gates McFadden voices Mother Askani, which is a nice way to continue the ongoing relationship between the X-Men and Star Trek series, as well as to make up for her being one of the few Next Generation actors not cast in Gargoyles.
– There was a clever irony with Xavier and Magneto’s past selves, with Charles wanting to parade mutants out in the world, while Erik was fearful and wanting to remain in hiding.
– Sinister’s swollen head was so damn funny: someone please give that nasty old crone a MODOK carapace!
– Full soundtrack release please, Disney?
– As pointed out by Superhero Hype!, the episode marks the first time Forge’s real name, Daniel, has been used in-universe.
