X-Men ’97 Just Murked A Beloved Villain — And Set The Stage For Another Foe
Who will rise from the ashes?
It’s been strange seeing Magneto taking on a good guy role in the new season of X-Men ’97, but that change wasn’t totally unwelcome. The metal-bending villain is recovering from an especially destructive tantrum at the end of Season 1, which nearly destroyed the world twice over. But after being sent far, far into the past alongside his fiercest rival, Charles Xavier — and meeting the world’s first-ever mutant, who’s also destined to become an evil mutant dictator — Magneto has understandably turned a new page.
As he tells Charles in Season 2, Episode 3, meeting En Sabah Nur is an opportunity they’d be foolish to ignore. They might know him as Apocalypse, a villain who will cause so much suffering for countless mutants in the very distant future — but the version they encounter in Ancient Egypt could be coaxed away from the Dark Side. Season 2’s best episodes have followed Magneto and Charles in their efforts to keep Nur from turning into Apocalypse, but in Episode 4, our heroes realize that the future is not that easy to change. In fact, they might leave the timeline in a worse state than they found it, bringing on the fall of a beloved X-Man and the rise of a divisive new mutant.
Spoilers ahead for X-Men ’97 Season 2 Episode 4.
Not everyone survives Ancient Egypt
En Sabah Nur is torn between good and evil in X-Men ’97.
Previously on X-Men ’97... Magneto, Charles, and their group of time-displaced X-Men were fighting to win Nur and his Sandstormers to their side. But when Nur discovered that his new allies are actually warriors from the future, he didn’t take kindly to their deception. The X-Men were forced to go on the offense in a battle against Nur and the Sandstormers — and unbeknownst to either group, the evil pharaoh Rama-Tut was plotting a major attack on Nur’s stronghold.
Episode 4 picks up right after Rama-Tut’s hyper-advanced weaponry turns Nur’s base into rubble. Nur loses his right-hand man, Baal, in the attack, which Magneto points out could drive him even further down a dark path. Though the time-traveling mutant Bishop finally has the means to bring our group back to the ‘90s, Magneto and Charles elect to stay and help Nur defeat Rama-Tut. That means locating a hidden temple, built by ancient “star gods” (aka Celestials) millennia prior. Rama-Tut is hoping to get to the temple first and ascend to godhood. (As Episode 4 eventually confirms, he’s actually Kang in disguise, but he flees the time period before he can pose a real threat to the X-Men.)
Magneto tries to change the future, but winds up caught in the crossfire.
Magneto and Charles do succeed in bringing Nur to the temple — but they don’t realize that this hidden fortress is actually the Ship that Apocalypse will later use as his home base. The carvings on its walls depict Nur’s evolution into Apocalypse, and Nur naturally takes that as another sign of deception. He promptly attacks the X-Men for withholding the truth once again, then makes his ultimate transformation to become Apocalypse. With the help of Ship, he launches an attack against Rama-Tut’s now-unguarded city; Magneto sacrifices all his power to defend its citizens, but that leaves him weak to Apocalypse’s final blow.
The end of Magneto, or the rise of Onslaught?
Onslaught was originally Xavier in disguise, and X-Men ’97 might use that for its own purposes.
By the time the dust settles, Magneto dies by Apocalypse’s hand, leaving Charles without his old frenemy for the first time. It’s a jarring end for a character who always seemed to land on his feet. Even after X-Men ’97 Season 1, when Charles hits Magneto with a debilitating psychic blast, the Master of Magnetism still lived to fight another day — despite theories that their battle would give birth to a new villain. In the comics, Charles’ attack wipes Magneto’s mind clean, giving birth to a new entity that is essentially the darkest parts of their psyches bonded together. X-Men ’97 might have avoided that fate in Season 1, but Season 2 brings us right back to the possibility of seeing Onslaught on-screen.
The circumstances of Onslaught’s birth are, of course, very different in the comics. But X-Men ’97 has been tweaking comic origin stories from the very beginning, and it could do the same for this less-than-beloved character. Onslaught is not a fan favorite by any stretch: his introduction brought the end to the Avengers and the X-Men as fans knew them in the 90s, forcing a top-to-bottom retcon just a few years after his rise. But it would kinda make sense to adapt parts of Onslaught, especially with Charles facing one of the biggest tragedies of his life.
Xavier might also be headed down a dark path, and his X-Men might be helpless to save him.
Though he’s known now as a psychic entity separate from both Charles and Magneto, Onslaught was originally just an evil, armor-clad version of Charles himself. He spouted ideas about mutant supremacy like Magneto, and that later became the foundation for the idea that he was born from the darkest sides of each character’s mind. But with Magneto completely out of the picture in X-Men ’97, the series might be going for the original idea of Onslaught — a version of the altruistic Professor X who snaps after a lifetime of repressing his bad thoughts.
Episode 4 even suggests as much after Magneto falls: Xavier insults Apocalypse in ways we’ve never heard before, which could mean that he’s finally, truly had enough. When next we see the Professor, his breaking point might manifest in the form of an alter ego like Onslaught. It’d certainly be a new way to explore a character that’s seemingly been through it all, or reintroduce a villain that was once little more than an excuse to reboot the Marvel Universe. After years of teasing as much, X-Men ’97 could actually be giving us a new take on Onslaught... and the X-Men a devastating new threat to face.
