Summary

• X-Men '97 is a hit, with strong writing, great animation, and exciting action, breathing new life into the X-Men brand.
• Season 1 tackled iconic storylines, featured powerful character moments, and ended with a cliffhanger setting up Season 2.
• Season 2 seems to be Apocalypse-centric, exploring different timelines and featuring familiar Marvel cameos, promising more X-Men excitement.

This article contains major spoilers for X-Men '97.

X-Men '97 has concluded its first season and has wrapped up what many would call the best entry in a Marvel franchise since Avengers: Endgame. Continuing the storyline from X-Men: The Animated Series, X-Men '97 featured incredible animation, strong writing emphasizing character and political allegory, and some of the best action in the superhero genre while adapting some of the most iconic X-Men storylines of all time with their own spin. The series has breathed new life into the X-Men brand, and the merry mutants are now the most popular they have been in years.

X-Men '97 featured a massive 10-episode first season that drew from many iconic storylines like "The X-Cutioner Song," "Lifedeath," "Inferno," "E is for Extinction," and "Operation Zero Tolerance." The series saw the X-Men face off against the threat of the human/sentinel hybrid Bastion as he looked to turn humans into living sentinels to wipe out the human race in a conflict that took the lives of many mutants, including Gambit. Meanwhile, Magneto, who had tried to walk the path of a hero, turned his back on humanity and threatened to destroy the world. The X-Men, fractured, looked to save the day, and while the season ended on a triumphant note, it had a massive cliffhanger with many teases for what is to come for X-Men '97 Season 2.

X-Men '97 Featured the Return of the Phoenix

Throughout X-Men '97, they have been teasing the return of the Phoenix. Not only has it been in various versions of the opening credits, but it has been referenced in multiple episodes. When Bastion thinks he has the mutants defeated, having used Mister Sinister's control over Cable to overpower Jean Grey, he begins his Prime Sentinel attack. Yet as soon as he destroys the device that Beast and Forge made to sever his connection, Jean Grey rises from the water and indulges in the Phoenix flames. She uses her vast cosmic powers to restore the device and equip it to Bastion while also burning through all the mutant DNA Mister Sinister has spliced into himself to stay alive all these years, leaving him a white-red version of himself.

X-Men: The Animated Series' adaptation of the "Phoenix Saga" is seen as the peak of the original series, and notably, it was never brought back. The Phoenix in the comics has often returned, typically in major event storylines like Avengers vs. X-Men and in Grant Morrison's New X-Men, which X-Men '97 drew from. While Jean Grey says the Phoenix is gone now (hence giving the final episode a sense of tension so Bastion can still be a threat), it is likely not the end of the Phoenix in X-Men '97, particularly with the reveal of Mother Askani at the end of the series, who in the comics is Rachel Summers, daughter of Jean Grey and Cyclops and another user of the Phoenix.

Marvel Cameos That Answer a 30-Year-Old Spider-Man Mystery

X-Men '97 has delivered not only plenty of X-Men cameos from fan-favorite mutants, like this episode featuring Psylocke and Alpha Flight, but all corners of the Marvel Universe. The seventh episode, "Bright Eyes," introduced Captain America with the following episode, "Tolerance is Extinction Pt. 1," featuring cameos by the likes of Spider-Man, Doctor Doom, and Baron Zemo. "Tolerance is Extinction Pt. 2" then featured Morph turning into the Hulk, the first non-X-Men-related character they have transformed into.

"Tolerance is Extinction Pt. 3" delivered plenty more cameos as the massive Prime Sentinel attack showed Captain America alongside Iron Man, rocking his signature armor from Iron Man: The Animated Series, with the President of the United States. In addition, Daredevil was shown fighting in the streets of New York City alongside Cloak and Dagger. Doctor Strange was performing surgery with his magic at a hospital following the blackout.

The Prime Sentinels also attacked the nation of Wakanda, where The Black Panther and his Dora Milaje fended them off, yet notably, this was not T'Challa but instead King T'Chacka, the father of T'Challa. This is a bit of a departure as Black Panther was previously seen in the Fantastic Four animated series from the 1990s, which shared continuity with X-Men: The Animated Series. This is highlighted in the finale, as Asteroid M falls to Earth, Morph turns into Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic 4.

Yet one blink and you'll miss it cameo answered a 30-year-old question fans have had for years related to another Marvel animated series from the 1990s. While citizens are watching Asteroid M fall to Earth, fans will notice two individuals watching that look familiar: Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson from Spider-Man: The Animated Series. While this might seem like a regular Easter egg, it resolves the famous cliffhanger from Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

Peter Parker goes into the multiverse looking for Mary Jane Watson after he learns that the Mary Jane he married at the start of the final season was a clone and the real Mary Jane was lost in limbo after getting pulled through a portal during a confrontation with the Green Goblin two seasons prior. The series ended without a proper resolution and one that has left fans disappointed for years, but now the storyline is resolved. While it might have happened off-screen, it is nice to know these two finally had a happy ending.

An Epic Conclusion in X-Men '97

The X-Men '97 Season 1 finale is an epic conclusion. The United States launched the Magneto protocols, which fired a series of missiles at Asteroid M, causing its destruction and falling from Earth. Bastion would rather die than join the X-Men, and he vanquishes in the destruction. Jubilee falls out of the falling astroid, but Sunspot saves her, safely getting them to the ground. Meanwhile, the X-Men pool all of their powers together to stop destruction in an impressive show of power from everyone.

In case they don't make it, Cyclops and Jean Grey communicate with Cable telepathically to say goodbye. With a final assist from Magneto, who, along with Professor X, was trapped in a coma having a psychic talk, they stop the Asteroid...but then, in a blink, it vanishes out of the sky. It is not an explosion, but to the rest of the world, it looks like it.

The show then jumps forward six months with the X-Men presumed dead. While Forge looks over making a new X-Men team, the time traveler Bishop shows up, missing in the time stream since Episode 3 of X-Men '97. Bishop tells Forge the X-Men are not dead but, in fact, lost in time, and they need to go looking for them. In one timeline, the year is 3960 A.D., and Cyclops and Jean Grey find themselves in an Apocalyptic wasteland. They are greeted by a woman in a hood named Mother Askani and, more importantly, a young Nathan Summers, Cyclops son who will grow up to be Cable.

Meanwhile, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Beast, Xavier, and Magneto come across a young mutant fighting a group of people in a desert. He reveals himself to be En Sabah Nur, a younger version of the mutant villain Apocalypse, and the team realizes they have arrived in Egypt in 3,000 B.C. Worth noting is that Storm, Morph, or the weakened Wolverine are not seen anywhere, leaving their fate and where they landed in time unknown. The X-Men team is now split up across almost 6,000 years, and one villain ties it all together: Apocalypse.

X-Men '97's Post-Credit Scene

For most of X-Men '97's run, once the credits start rolling, there is no additional scene, but for the season finale, they followed the format of other Disney+ MCU series and MCU films by featuring a tease for what is to come in X-Men '97 Season 2 while also tying into the two timelines teased at the end of the episode. The mutant villain Apocalypse is shown in the ruins of Genosha, in the very same crater that Rogue held Gambit after he died in Episode 5, "Remember It." Apocalypse talks about how much "death" there was while picking up a torn-up version of Gambit's signature playing card, the Queen of Hearts.