Tag Archives: x-men

September 2, 2026

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Professor Charles Xavier with Hoverchair

By Joe
I never thought we’d get this in plastic.

The second season of X-Men ’97 may be over, but we still have more on the way to talk about starting with this year’s Marvel Legends San Diego Comic Con exclusive. It was just over a year ago that I reviewed the reissue of the Charles Xavier with Hoverchair based on his appearance in the comic books. At the time, I decided to grab that figure because I wasn’t convinced Hasbro would ever give us a toon accurate version of the character and chair. I figured, at best, they’d just reissue the existing chair again, but maybe in a brighter yellow. How wrong I was. Announced as an exclusive for San Diego Comic Con this year was the Professor Charles Xavier with a screen accurate hoverchair to go with it. I honestly didn’t see that coming even though I know that the X-Men ’97 figures have been pretty successful for Hasbro. Since I had no plans to attend San Diego Comic Con this year (or any year) I was going to be at the mercy of what Hasbro did following the event which leads me into the following tangent.

The comic con exclusive goes back many years. I have no idea when it started, but I can remember reading about them in Wizard back in the 90s. They are to be expected and in this day and age most of them aren’t true exclusives since they’re sold online. Still, last year Hasbro did a Marvel Legends three-pack featuring a reissue of Sauron, Rogue in her Savage Land attire, and a new version of Shanna the She-Devil. Rogue had never been depicted in that look before so there were plenty of collectors interested in the set for that. Sauron was previously a build-a-figure so the chance to get him in a three-pack was also tempting for some. Shanna was a brand new character for Legends and paired very nicely with the recently released (at the time) Ka-Zar and Zabu which made the set really desirable for a lot of fans. Hasbro wasn’t willing to meet demand and few non-attendees were able to get a set when it went up for sale on Hasbro Pulse following the event. I wasn’t personally interested, but I know many collectors still sore about it. The prospect of the same happening with Chuck did not give me much confidence and it leads me to my main criticism when it comes to exclusives: they shouldn’t be essential to a collection. Rogue in a one-off look? Sure. A reissue of Sauron? That’s fine. A somewhat goofy, deep pull like Death’s Head? Bring it on! A main character from a hit show in his most recognizable and iconic look? What?! No!

Chuck sure likes green.

Professor X in his green suit should be an easy figure to acquire. He should have been a regular retail release. Did retailers pass on him? Maybe, but I doubt it. I don’t think any are sitting on much X-Men ’97 stock so the chance to have another character to sell while the second season was in full swing would probably be pretty appealing. That’s not what happened, and when reports surfaced that Xavier sold out at the event I wasn’t feeling too good about getting one myself. Then Hasbro changed how they do things when it comes to Pulse. For their storefront, fans can pay Hasbro an annual sum for the privilege to buy stuff from them. The perk being they get free shipping, but also first crack at exclusive products. In previous years, that meant a one hour headstart on the general public, but this year that one hour was turned into twenty-four. If Premium members were getting a full day all to themselves to buy product what chance did I have? I wasn’t about to hand Hasbro another fifty bucks for Charlie so I let it ride, and to my surprise it all worked out. Xavier was there the next day and remained available for at least an hour. That may sound like a quick sell-out, but when it comes to exclusives that’s a pretty generous amount of time. They also opened up preorders following that which is what should have happened with the Savage Land set the prior year. They did that for basically every other brand exclusive so I don’t know what the issue there was. Hasbro made a silly decision in making Professor X an exclusive, but at least they had the foresight to make enough and keep him available past that for a little while longer.

“Admit it: you’re jealous of my blankie.”

As for the release itself, it’s probably what you expect. The main draw is the chair. In the show, the chair was always blockier, usually very yellow in appearance, and quite sleek. The comic version is more narrow, bulbous, and just all together a different shape. I have no idea why the animated series changed it up, but I’ve always preferred this look to the comic one. And it’s never made it to plastic. Even the old 90s Toy Biz figure featured a chair with the comic design even though that toy line was loosely based on the cartoon. And for this release, Hasbro got it right. It’s the right shape, the right color, has some nice accents on it, and doesn’t feature any unsightly seems anywhere like the older chair. The only assembly required is the seat back has to be inserted and it features a far more understated flight stand that’s just transparent plastic with some concentric circles on it. It’s simple, but it looks the part and that’s all that is needed. The only nitpick I have is it’s a little hard to get a figure into it. If the front panel could pop off it would make it a lot easier, but it’s not like it’s impossible. Plus, Legends figures aren’t covered in paint so it’s not as if you have much to worry about when it comes to paint rub.

The effect part works much better plugged into the chair (left) than into the helmet (right).

I lead with the chair because it’s the star of the show, the actual figure is just fine. Professor X “stands” at about 6.125″ to the top of his bald head. He’s the same height as the older figure and much of the sculpt is also the same. The torso and jacket are reuse while the arms and legs were redone to make them pin-less. The sculpt for both is all new as the wrinkles and seems are different. The arms also dropped the buttons at the ends of the sleeves in favor of just painted on ones which was a bit of an odd choice. The feet are the same while the hands are new. If they’re from another figure I don’t know, but they’re not of the old one. The head is obviously new and this one does resemble the character from the show. It’s a stoic expression and looks good, but it also looks pretty big on the body. This body is very slight. That works for some takes on Xavier, but not really the animated one. He’s built like a house in the show which isn’t captured here. I wish they had gone with one of their bigger suited bodies with broader shoulders, but they probably wanted to reuse this torso with the correct tie on it. They at least did a good job of getting all of the greens to match. There’s not a lot of paint to be found on here, but what’s present is neatly applied.

Watch out: Charlie is packing!

What’s unfortunate is the small frame looks more out of place when Charles is placed in his chair. He could get lost in this thing which is noticeably bigger than his old one. At first I thought maybe it was the chair that’s too big, but then I stuck the Savage Land Xavier in it and he looks great. That’s a bigger sculpt and he fills out the chair quite well. The heads from this set also fit that body which is nice. And speaking of, there are two portraits: stoic and yelling. The yelling one works for a more aggressive Xavier, though I wish we got a third one featuring a smile (this is a $50 set, after all). The other accessories include two sets of hands: open and gripping. The gripping hands are asymmetrical as one is intended to grip the included keypad which pops out of the chair’s right armrest. He can hold that with his right hand and the left gripping hand is a touch more relaxed like he’s punching something in on that keypad. There’s also an extra right hand with a two-finger gesture that stands in as his mental powers gesture for reaching to his temple. The same Cerebro helmet from the Savage Land figure is also featured here and now we can see why there’s a hole on the back of it as there’s an included power effect. It’s a large, transparent, circle with sculpted circles throughout it. I think this was released with a Daredevil in the past and it works as a physical manifestation of his power set. It can not only plug into the helmet, but there’s also a hole in the chair back for it too which works well should you not want to utilize the helmet. When plugged into the helmet, it can be a challenge to get it to balance right as it wants to pull the helmet back. As for the chair, it too has some accessories in the form of swap-out canons on the front. The panels on the left and right slide off and the canons slide in to replace them. The customary translucent, red, blast effects are included as well to further sell the illusion and they’re fine. There’s a little gold paint at the base, though they may arrive a little warped. The canons and key pad were both featured in the season two episode “Danger.exe” so Hasbro clearly had advanced notice on what this chair could do.

Savage Land Charles seems to fit better than the one that came with the chair.

Articulation for Professor X is the same as the old figure. Considering he’s a paraplegic, he doesn’t really need to do much, but it’s nice to have options. This new head gets a bit of tilt on the ball hinge which is appreciated for the character and the knees, elbows, and ankles are what you would expect of the line. There are no butterfly joints and the only thing I actively do not like is the ab crunch. It serves little purpose for Xavier and I’d much prefer a diaphragm swivel. I think that would be far more useful than even the waist swivel he has for a guy in a chair.

“I’m gonna need Jubilee to show me how to use this…”

The figure did come in specialty packaging designed to resemble an old television. It’s neat, but just a slipcover which they annoyingly taped to the box inside. It does, however, provide for some hope of a re-release if you missed out and still want this figure. Make the slipcover the real exclusive and just release the figure in a standard box. Which would be a good thing because I think people will want this. It’s a main character from a popular show that has plenty of collectors. It’s not the sort of thing that should remain locked behind the exclusive label, but maybe everyone who wanted one already got one? This set was $50 which is probably a little too much, but not unexpected. The figure is pretty basic, but comes with more accessories than the typical Legends release these days. The chair is its own thing with its own accessories as well and it’s good. I wish the figure had a more accurate sculpt, but at least I have the Savage Land figure I can turn to should it please me (and I still hate the portrait that came with it so at least I can retire that). This release does leave me wishing that I didn’t bother with the old Xavier, but I doubt it has much resale value at this point. At least I have a body for old Guyrich.

We’ll keep it to the original roster to prevent this from getting even more crowded.

For related figures, check these out:

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Archangel

On July 1st, 2026, our long wait ends. X-Men ’97 returns to Disney+ with its greatly anticipated second season a little over two years after the conclusion of the first. It’s something I have been looking forward to pretty much ever since credits rolled on the finale and the only thing that stinks about it…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Professor X (Savage Land)

It feels like lately I’ve been getting swayed by clearance and discounts when it comes to my action figure purchases. Such is the case for today’s post on Professor X from the Marvel Legends line of action figures. Target had an exclusive version of Xavier featuring the character in his jumpsuit which showed up in…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Professor X with Hoverchair

Most view superheroes as idealized versions of people. Superman has all the power he needs to mete out justice as he sees fit. He’s a man who is super fast, super strong, basically invulnerable, and he even has laser eyes for good measure. Not every character can be Superman though and as the stable of…

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by Joe

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August 27, 2026

X-Men ’97 – Season Two Wrap-Up

By Joe

It’s been two weeks since X-Men ’97 aired its season two finale, which in the entertainment world might as well be two years. As a culture, we move on from things real quick, but I’m still letting that second season simmer in my brain as I collect my thoughts on the season as a whole. The second season of X-Men ’97 was a success, but it was a different experience from season one. That season put the human and mutant conflict at its center. There were other subplots, but the season built to a major climax with the X-Men taking on Bastion and his army of sentinels. The second season centered its conflict on Apocalypse. The X-Men taking on a literal god is going to lead to a different kind of story. Over the decades, the X-Men have done all kinds of stories. Some are more grounded than others while plenty take the group to strange and fantastic destinations. There have been successes and failures with both approaches, but for me personally I do prefer when the X-Men keep mutant persecution at its core. As such, I was predestined to like the show’s second season less than the first, but there are other reasons why season one was the overall stronger of the two.

Season two picked up where season one left off with the X-Men scattered across time and the rise of Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) in focus. In true X-Men fashion, things moved quickly. Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith) and Forge (Gil Birmingham) had already deduced where each member of the team had ended up and already had a plan to bring them all home when the second season started. The future flung X-Men were returned to the present in short order and the past dwelling mutants made their way back home in episode four after a slightly elongated stay. During that fourth episode, Magneto (Matthew Waterson) was executed by Apocalypse and Xavier (Marquand) left a broken mess in the desert sand. I did a mid-season check-in which I’ll link to at the end of this post so I don’t want to spend too much time on the season’s first half, but it provided a good setup for the Apocalypse conflict. It introduced multiple plot lines including both the existence of X-Force and X-Factor and let us know that Apocalypse was not the sort of villain the X-Men could ever hope to reason with.

I did miss the sentinels this year.

The second half of the season (which was actually four episodes so less than half) was less focused. We received the one-off Wolverine (Cal Dodd) centric episode in the fifth spot where Logan was able to lead a team of friends and foes alike to check out a Weapon X facility only to come face-to-face with the Brood. It was all a ruse by Wolverine to get his adamantium back and his actions claimed the lives of two former comrades in Maverick and Kane. What followed was an episode centered on a newcomer, Polaris (Carolina Ravassa), and another that reintroduced the mutant-hating Graydon Creed (Ben Pronsky). The finale gave us the long anticipated resurrection of Gambit (A.J. LoCascio) and the eventual confrontation with Apocalypse which resulted in victory for the X-Men, but at great cost.

Rogue got a substantial power-up in the finale.

My initial thought is to blame the shift in focus from Apocalypse to more condensed stories as the cause for the season losing some of its momentum. The only problem with that theory is I consider the Wolverine episode the best of the season. In that, we got a good character study that also introduced some new conflict between Morph (JP Karliak) and Wolverine. It’s the sort of story that I think X-Men does best. Had the other episodes done something similar I think the season would have felt like a bigger success. Instead, the episode “Danger.exe,” while addressing the PTSD Xavier was feeling over the death of Magneto was a welcomed addition, the conflict felt very small. Danger (Rachel Kimsey) as a character was uninteresting. It sprung up out of no where and was dispatched of with relative ease. Polaris was also properly introduced in that episode and while I think the character is fine, it’s a bit tough to get the audience to care about a new character when so many of the existing ones are not being well serviced by the show. “Strange Land, Savage Heart” made some attempt to refocus the show on the Genosha fallout and the mutant/human conflict, but also felt almost inconsequential. It also brought Colossus (Robert Cait) back into the fold, though he was immediately sidelined following the conclusion of that one.

So…what did everyone think of Gambocalypse?

And the bulging cast was a problem. The original series had a large, but manageable, cast of characters. Even so, some would go several episodes with little to do or say. Most episodes would try to break the team off into smaller squads to better spotlight a few as opposed to trying to focus on many. X-Men ’97 doesn’t seem to care and is happy to shelve characters if it serves the story’s purpose. Beau DeMayo was the showrunner for season one and the writer and architect for much of season two. As a big X-Men fan, he understood what made the engine go. He also, as a fanboy, seemed to want to race through several moments and events from the comics and I feel that lead to tunnel vision, at times. Some episodes in both seasons felt superfluous in the moment, but they often did serve a purpose in advancing a longer running plot. We had to speed-run Inferno in season one to understand where Cable (Chris Potter) came from as it had importance later on. On the flipside, Wolverine had to get his adamantium ripped out in season one because DeMayo just thought it was cool. Season two, despite it being what I consider to be the season’s best, had to devote an episode to Wolverine getting his adamantium back because the show was uninterested in exploring a de-powered Logan. And I think some moments and actions had to happen in season two because DeMayo was building towards Onslaught, which was then aborted. The show didn’t need to add Polaris, but maybe she was going to play a role with Onslaught?

This still hurts.

With the cast becoming unwieldy, it was no surprise that some needed to be culled. And the chosen method for that seemed to be death. Magneto was taken out in the fourth episode. While Onslaught on the horizon was likely to be his way back to the land of the living, it’s now possible he’s gone for good. Or, at least, gone for longer than Gambit. Magik (Courtenay Taylor), who never got a chance to be a character, was killed off to further her brother’s plot which was a shame. Heading into the finale, it still felt like more needed to go. Since the original series ended, we have added Morph, Bishop, Nightcrawler, Sunspot, Forge, and Polaris to the X-Men while only subtracting Gambit. Colossus was sort of added, though he never made it into the title. X-Force brought back Psylocke (Naoko Mori) and Archangel (Christopher Barger) while X-Factor also returned, but really didn’t get any character development outside of Havok (Teddy Sears) and even that was only slightly. X-Men ’97 decided someone had to go (and really, more probably do) and that someone ended up being Nightcrawler.

Many may hate that it happened, but Nightcrawler’s death was handled pretty well.

Nightcrawler’s sacrifice in the finale was both shocking and heartbreaking. It was also beautiful and really a proper send-off for the character. I don’t think anyone wanted to say goodbye to the fuzzy, blue, elf, but it would have been harder to find a better way to do so. In the episode, Rogue (Lenore Zann) makes a bargain with the celestial Eson (Waterson): her life for the power to take down Apocalypse and save Gambit. After she departs with her new glow-up, Nightcrawler realizes what she has done and offers himself up in her place. It’s done well as the show didn’t telegraph Nightcrawler’s choice. And this is a show that isn’t exactly subtle about much. Having Rogue save the day and look at her hands in bewilderment that she’s still alive only for the camera to pan to show a sad looking Beast (George Buza) standing alone clutching Nightcrawler’s Bible to his chest was a true gut punch moment. Nightcrawler’s contented narration as he explains to the god why he is choosing to give his life for his sister is well written (Brian Ford Sullivan is the only credited writer on the episode) and well performed by Adrian Hough. The images we see of the X-Men back home living their lives could be interpreted as Nightcrawler’s hope for his comrades, but I choose to see it as what did happen. It’s such a good way to close the book on Nightcrawler that I hope it isn’t undone. When Gambit died in season one it felt like there was unfinished business so I didn’t hate the show bringing him back, but with Nightcrawler there’s a finality here. That and if the show keeps cheating death then it will cease to have meaning. It took a season and a half’s worth of episodes, but the show basically exchanged Nightcrawler for Gambit and that’s forgivable regardless of who the favored character is.

I’m not a religious person, but I didn’t take any issue with Rogue choosing to remember her brother in this way.

Where the show has never faltered is with the production end. The animation is a huge step up from the original series. Action scenes remain inventive and perhaps the greatest tragedy in Nightcrawler dying is we won’t get to see his skills on display again. He got a nice send-off in that respect first with his dual against Exodus (who I am a bitter was dispatched unceremoniously) and then when under the control of Apocalypse as he damn near took down the entirety of the X-Men and X-Force by himself. The soundtrack by The Newton Brothers also remains excellent and they know just when to turn to that bombastic main theme. They also do a great job of weaving in the old themes from the original series like using Gambit’s theme during his dinner scene with Rogue. And there’s nothing that gets me more excited these days than that opening kicking in before each episode. I hope there never comes a day when I experience that opening without getting goosebumps all up and down my body.

Apocalypse went out like a chump in the end, but at least it was at the hand’s of a fellow god.

Season two pinned its success on the confrontation between the X-Men and Apocalypse as well as the minor conflict of the X-Men vs X-Factor. Was that a wise decision? I think so, but the results weren’t quite there. Apocalypse was really sidelined following that fourth episode. The show tried to keep him on the viewer’s mind with little moments at the end of episodes six and seven, but it wasn’t really enough. He spent the bulk of the finale inside Gambit, and once he emerged, he looked ridiculous and was quickly dispatched by a powered-up Rogue. The show really could have used a tenth episode to let the conflict simmer. Actually have the mutants fight Apocalypse for more than a minute. The issue there, and it’s one that has always existed with Apocalypse, is that he’s just too damn powerful. There usually isn’t a believable way for the X-Men to go toe-to-toe with him, but that’s also a problem of the show’s making. I’ve always loved the concept of Apocalypse, but his stories often end unceremoniously. At least here there was a plausible end to the conflict, even if it felt like the Power Rangers summoning the Megazord and quickly dispatching of a previously insurmountable foe. Or a Dragon Ball Z power-up that reduces a previously unstoppable opponent to a punching bag.

A happy ending?

That was season two. Overall, I enjoyed my time with it and I’ll miss having an episode to look forward to each week (let’s not do the three-episode premiere again, please, it only hastens the end), but the season was not without its problems. For season three, it looks like we’ll be heading back to a human/mutant conflict and that bodes well for the future. It’s also the true end of the DeMayo era (had it continued, we would have been getting a form of the Age of Apocalypse) which gives the season an uncertain feel. One of his strengths as showrunner was his willingness to be uncompromising in calling out bigotry within the show’s universe. That’s something it will need with a President Creed, but in the hands of someone else will that be softened? The finale marked the return of Mystique (Randall Carpenter) and the only clip shown of season three so far featured her Brotherhood of Mutants tangling with some sentinels. Will Creed be a season-long conflict, or will this be something that gets taken care of as quickly as our time-displaced heroes this season? The road ahead is less certain and I am looking forward to it, but the lack of a major cliffhanger this year makes the wait a little more palatable. And as of right now that wait is only supposed to be a year so here’s hoping that come summer 2027 we’ll have more X-Men ’97 to talk about.

See you next year!

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Survival of the Fittest”

We have reached the end of season two of X-Men ’97, albeit probably sooner than we would have liked given the nine episode order. Ten already seemed short compared with the 13 the original series used to get so nine is borderline cruel. All that said, before we dig into the review for the season…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “The Dead Man’s Hand”

This was the episode of X-Men ’97 we all knew was coming eventually. I don’t think I need to provide a spoilers warning given the episode title before I say this is the return of Gambit. This was all setup in the closing moments of the first season when Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) found the queen…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

August 12, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “Survival of the Fittest”

By Joe
Original premiere date August 12, 2026

We have reached the end of season two of X-Men ’97, albeit probably sooner than we would have liked given the nine episode order. Ten already seemed short compared with the 13 the original series used to get so nine is borderline cruel. All that said, before we dig into the review for the season finale I do just want to say how happy this show has made me. It still blows my mind that I’m watching a continuation of something I loved as a child. When that theme song starts up, I get goosebumps all up and down my arms and the feeling that comes over me is something akin to a high. It’s fantastic, and I hate that it’s all over so quickly.

“Survival of the Fittest” is the culmination of the season long arc involving Apocalypse (Ross Marquand). Even though the big guy was somewhat put on ice after the fourth episode, he’s back and ready to go for the finale and caught in the crossfire is Gambit. Last week, Gambit (A.J. LoCascio) made his long telegraphed re-debut as he rose from the grave with an all new look, but an all new mind set as well. Gambit quickly set out to putting together a crew and he turned to his roots for that as he returned to Louisiana to corrupt the assassins and the thieves. Gambit choosing to return home should have been a tell for all who love him because Gambit vowed to never return there and by episode’s end we found out he wasn’t the one calling the shots: Apocalypse was. X-Force had found the withered husk of the mighty Apocalypse in the previous episode and the conclusion everyone seemed to draw was that Gambit had been resurrected as his horseman of Death and he made his maker his first victim. Oh, how foolish for Apocalypse cannot be killed so easily, and especially not by one of his own making. He likely needed a new host body and Gambit was his chosen vessel, but before he could resume his crusade against all he deems weak he needed to visit someone from his past: Candra.

The X-Men have a whole bunch of foes to deal with, but the big one is still Apocalypse.

Candra (Debra Wilson) is who we were introduced to during the second season of the original series as the X-Ternal. She is the apparent deity the thieves and assassins aim to please in exchange for their supernatural powers. We saw Candra make an appearance in the past as part of Rama-Tut’s court, but at the time it wasn’t clear why? It turns out, she and Apocalypse would meet sometime after the events in Egypt and the big guy apparently took a liking to her so much so that he bestowed upon her some of his awesome power. She took it and ran and Apocalypse has been trying to reclaim it ever since. Now, it makes sense why he’d have interest in Gambit. If he knows about Gambit’s connection to her via the thieves (and why would he?) then posing as Gambit could bring her out of wherever it is she goes when she isn’t in that swamp and allow him to reclaim what he once gave up. And that’s exactly what happened and the only challenge Apocalypse faced came from a likely expected source in the X-Men. In particular, Xavier (Marquand) and Rogue (Lenore Zann). Xavier chose to battle Apocalypse in Gambit’s mind in what was nearly a 1:1 recreation of a similar battle for the soul of Jean during The Dark Phoenix Saga. Only this time, Xavier failed and it was Rogue who somehow was able to enter Gambit’s mind and make the save. I say “some how” because she and Gambit have never demonstrated a psychic rapport before, but he also handed over the power he took back from Candra to her. Perhaps that’s doing the heavy lifting here?

Val Cooper’s villain turn has been pretty gradual this season.

Speaking of, why did Apocalypse do that? Does this all go back to that conversation he and Rogue shared in the past regarding love? That’s one of the questions I had going into “Survival of the Fittest” where the X-Men need to free their friend from Apocalypse’s control, but also contend with recently allied X-Factor and the remnants of X-Force. Jubilee (Holly Chou) and Sunspot (Gui Agustini) defected from Cable’s (Chris Potter) team when it became obvious that Cable’s only objective is destroying Apocalypse even if that means killing Gambit in the process. X-Factor has it out for Charles and his X-Men and their choice to get involved on US soil has put them in the crosshairs. Will the supposed good mutants all figure out they have a problem bigger than each other or will everything just fall apart and play into the hands of Apocalypse?

If the X-Men are going to save Remy, then you know Rogue is going to have to play a big part.

For the finale, Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) is given the honor of stating the “Previously,” line, though if you think that’s a tip for how the episode will go I will say it most certainly is not. Jubilee and Sunspot are back in the roll call this week, though Colossus still remains on the sidelines. Perhaps he’ll be a season three addition? The ending clash has also been changed to feature Xavier’s X-Men on one side and Val Cooper’s (Catherine Disher) X-Factor on the other. The X-Men remained in their Jim Lee era costumes for this clash all season and I wonder if that will be changed next year? Or maybe leaving them in those looks will always be a way to celebrate the original series? I wouldn’t mind a return to those looks, personally. I’ve never been a fan of the black and yellow which, like the original movie suits, seemed to be born out of the idea that the old, colorful, costumes were something to be embarrassed by.

X-Factor being accompanied by Sentinels is a perversion of what they should be standing for.

The episode wastes no time in getting to the conflict. X-Factor, along with Cable, Archangel (Christopher Barger), and Psylocke (Naoko Mori), are knocking on Xavier’s door while Gambit remains unconscious. He’s a ticking time bomb though and about the only answers anyone can come up with rests miles below the water’s surface. There, Beast (George Buza), Rogue, and Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough) have come upon the celestial ship of Apocalypse, last seen in the past as a temple, but last seen in this era back in the episode “Obsession” from the original series. Beast still has a small fragment of the ship’s A.I. and it’s enough to revive it and reactivate the portal to the celestial realm we saw En Sabah Nur enter and emerge from as Apocalypse in “Rise of Apocalypse.” The ship warns the group that entering such a place requires a price, but Rogue is determined to do whatever it takes to save Gambit while Beast and Nightcrawler can do little but watch.

On Genosha, we get to watch as Cooper’s forces storm the X-Corp building in a bid to get Cable close enough to take out Gambit. They are convinced that destroying Gambit is the only way to eliminate Apocalypse and it’s only a matter of time until he takes over Gambit’s mind and body, as he’s done to so many before. There is some good action spots including Jubilee and Havok (Teddy Sears) battling it out in airplanes, Wolverine (Cal Dodd) and Morph (JP Karliak) taking on the duo of Archangel and Psylocke, and a big showdown between parents and son. There’s a lot to pack into 30 minutes (it would have been nice to get an extended ninth episode given they axed the tenth), but the pace felt solid. The action was satisfying and the character moments were also present. I might have preferred to have more character moments to go out on, but I also can’t critique the ending. Without spoiling anything, it was beautiful.

There were some fun pairings in this one, like this confrontation between Psylocke and Wolverine that doesn’t go how Betsy imagined it would.

I went into this episode unsure if X-Men ’97 could stick the landing. The whole season had been building towards this confrontation, but along the way it reminded me that the big spectacles aren’t really the draw with X-Men. It’s the team dynamics, the inter-character conflicts, the soap opera elements that make the show unique among a litany of other options these days. It’s similar to how the draw with Spider-Man is less about Spider-Man and more about Peter Parker which was really on display in Brand New Day which appears on its way to be the most successful film at the box office ever in terms of number of dollars spent. Hopefully there is a lesson in there for Marvel. X-Men ’97 found a way to stick that landing and found it in an unexpected source. Should I have seen it coming? Perhaps, but I was content to just sit back and let the show take me on a ride this week and I never really found myself trying to forecast the end. I was concerned at the onset it would feel too much like the Dark Phoenix Saga because it certainly did the prior week. In a way, it did borrow elements from that this week, but with a different resolution. There was also the elephant in the room that is Apocalypse. I like Apocalypse as a villain, but my problem with him going back to the original series is that they never found satisfying ways to stop him. He would just sort of leave and the one time they really stopped him was at the end of “Beyond Good and Evil” when it was kind of a goofy, unsatisfying ending. One thing they absolutely get right with this finale is that it’s only sort of about Apocalypse, but it never loses sight of the fact that it’s primarily about Rogue and Gambit and the family they’ve acquired who will risk it all to help them. Even when it means, in the case of Cyclops (Ray Chase) and Jean (Jennifer Hale), taking on their actual family.

Cable arrived on Genosha amid literal fireworks and now he returns amid a hail of gun fire.

Like the end of season one, there is a post credits scene setting up season three so do make sure you stick around for that (or use the skip credits option). I’ll likely make a season two wrap-up post to get more into spoilers, but suffice to say I like what they’re setting up for season three. I just hope we don’t have to wait longer than a year this time (they showed a clip at San Diego Comic Con and could conceivably show another this weekend at D23 so that’s a positive sign) as that can really derail momentum. X-Men ’97 is one of the best things Disney and Marvel have going right now so I hope they don’t do anything to stifle that. This finale was terrific. If you felt the season was losing some of its momentum coming into the last episode then rest assured, this one is the payoff you likely hoped for. I do think it will be controversial and it will have some major lasting impacts on the show, but in the moment I found it satisfying even if a bit painful. Sometimes, that’s a mark of good art.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “The Dead Man’s Hand”

This was the episode of X-Men ’97 we all knew was coming eventually. I don’t think I need to provide a spoilers warning given the episode title before I say this is the return of Gambit. This was all setup in the closing moments of the first season when Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) found the queen…

by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Strange Land, Savage Heart”

If you were hoping for a quick follow-up on the closing moments of last week’s episode featuring Apocalypse and a certain resurrected cajun, I’m afraid I have some bad news. The show is going to slow walk that plot as this week we’re dealing with more Genosha fallout. Considering the magnitude of the event, I’m…

by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Danger.exe”

After last week’s side trip up north to get Wolverine his skeleton back, this week’s episode of X-Men ’97 brings us back to the mansion which we really haven’t seen much of so far this season. The season’s sixth episode is centered on survivor’s guilt and the sins of a parent. For the guilt portion,…

by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

August 6, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “The Dead Man’s Hand”

By Joe
Original premiere date August 5, 2026.

This was the episode of X-Men ’97 we all knew was coming eventually. I don’t think I need to provide a spoilers warning given the episode title before I say this is the return of Gambit. This was all setup in the closing moments of the first season when Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) found the queen of hearts in the ruins of Genosha. To make it even more obvious, the script even called for him to say “…death” just to drive it home further. Gambit taking a turn as Death, the most prominent member of Apocalypse’s horsemen, is also a plotline ripped straight from the comic only for that the circumstances were quite different. As is always the case with television and movies, being able to see where the story is going is not a hindrance in and of itself, it’s how you present it.

Everyone can relax, Gambit has returned.

When last we saw the members of X-Force, they were stumbling upon the apparent corpse of Apocalypse as well as that same playing card so we really didn’t have to waste time getting into things. The episode begins with X-Corp enjoying a friendly game of poker, because of course they are, which also allows Beast (George Buza) to explain what The Dead Man’s Hand refers to (aces over eights, if you’re curious). X-Force comes storming in to share their find and Jubilee (Holly Chou) has the responsibility of handing over the playing card to Rogue (Lenore Zann). They all know what this means and the episode quickly pivots to a search and rescue as they need to locate Gambit (A.J. LoCascio) and free him from the darkness Apocalypse likely imbued within him. Remember that little comment Archangel (Christopher Barger) dropped back in the second episode about Rogue saving him from Apocalypse’s control? Yeah, that was to setup this moment as everyone instantly assumes Rogue can do the same for Gambit, provided they can get her close enough to do so. The only thing they don’t know is what state Gambit is in and how on Earth did he manage to kill Apocalypse? Did he?

They even have their own X-branded poker chips.

There is a bit of impetus to the rescue mission because it’s going to take X-Corp back to the States since that’s where Gambit has gone. And if X-Corp is operating in the U.S. then they are bound to attract the attention of Val Cooper’s (Catherine Disher) X-Factor. Worse, if X-Factor were to get involved or locate Gambit first there’s no telling which way that confrontation could go. As a result, this episode moves at a pretty brisk pace which is mostly fine where the main plot is concerned, but it’s a bit of a bummer because we have some pretty big reunions that don’t get much time to breath. Cable (Chris Potter) is reunited with his parents for the first time since their emotional parting at the end of last season. Cyclops (Ray Chase) is quite eager to become a happy, healthy, family, but Cable seems pretty cool to the idea. Or he’s just a man too devoted to his mission of eradicating Apocalypse to spend time being happy. This is also Jubilee’s first time seeing her mutant family since the events of the first season and that little detail gets absolutely no time. We couldn’t even spend thirty seconds on it? Another character from earlier in the season is also brought back into the fold. I expected it, because it was so weird to see them appear earlier, but I don’t know that I care for the direction it took. I’m content to see if it goes anywhere next week before rendering a final verdict.

I love Cable’s eye roll.

What isn’t short-changed is the impact Gambit’s death and return has on Rogue. Not only is she likely wracked with survivor’s guilt stemming from the events on Genosha, but she’s also burdened with the guilt of not telling Gambit she chose him over Magneto before he died. This is her chance to set things right, but she’s hesitant. Gambit died. She held his lifeless corpse in her arms and now he’s suddenly alive? What does that do to a man? I guess she could always ask Morph (and if we don’t get to hear Morph’s opinion at some point that will be a real miss). That dynamic understandably takes center stage for much of the episode and it’s handled pretty well.

You know, most people just bring a bottle of wine or something when they show up at a friend’s new house for the first time.

There is some great action to be found in this one. In particular, one character really gets to shine in a way that might make some wonder if they’re the most dangerous member of the team. It’s awesome and I will say no more as I don’t want to spoil it. Visually, the episode is pretty interesting for its mix of costumes. Some characters are wearing threads from the 70s while others are sporting their looks from the 2000s. Every decade except for the 60s might be on display here. I do have to say though, I was a little disappointed in Gambit’s new look. He’s basically just gray scale Gambit. They added a strap across his abdomen, but I think that’s it. He does have a unique looking power set now which seems to focus on Tarot cards as well as a sick, new, ride he may have stolen from Lobo. I suppose a cynic might roll their eyes at such, but it’s fine. These are comic book stories, they’re allowed to be cool for the sake of being cool.

I don’t mind the mish-mash of costumes on display, but I do kind of hate that we’re bringing in the movie looks for things like Cerebro (or Cerebra).

The episode moves fast and ends somewhat abruptly. It has what I’d call a soft resolution, but the bigger battle is still to come. In that, it feels more like the first part of this season finale that’s on the way. The episode moves some pieces around so that everyone can get involved. The only X-Men left out of this episode entirely are Forge, Polaris, Bishop, and the newly added Colossus (who did not get added to the opening title – what gives?). I was a little surprised to see Polaris and Bishop left out since it seems like the show is building something there, but I would be even more surprised if we don’t see them next week. Maybe some team members needed to be left out so they can swoop in at just the right time next week? I will say, for a penultimate episode it didn’t leave me as excited as I would have expected it to. It’s certainly not on par with last season’s where Wolverine got his skeleton ripped apart by Magneto. I’m also still wondering if some of my predictions come true before the season ends. It seems like we have a pretty straight-forward finale coming up, but there’s also certainly some curves ahead. I both look forward to it and dread it because nine episodes is just too short for a season and then we return to our X-Men ’97-less existence.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Strange Land, Savage Heart”

If you were hoping for a quick follow-up on the closing moments of last week’s episode featuring Apocalypse and a certain resurrected cajun, I’m afraid I have some bad news. The show is going to slow walk that plot as this week we’re dealing with more Genosha fallout. Considering the magnitude of the event, I’m…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Danger.exe”

After last week’s side trip up north to get Wolverine his skeleton back, this week’s episode of X-Men ’97 brings us back to the mansion which we really haven’t seen much of so far this season. The season’s sixth episode is centered on survivor’s guilt and the sins of a parent. For the guilt portion,…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs”

When X-Men went into development for the Fox Kids Network, it didn’t take the writing staff (who was unfamiliar with the property going in) long to figure out that Wolverine was their ticket to television royalty. The character really took off in the 1980s and helped the X-Men storm into the 1990s as the most…

Keep reading
by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 29, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “Strange Land, Savage Heart”

By Joe
Premiere date July 29, 2026.

If you were hoping for a quick follow-up on the closing moments of last week’s episode featuring Apocalypse and a certain resurrected cajun, I’m afraid I have some bad news. The show is going to slow walk that plot as this week we’re dealing with more Genosha fallout. Considering the magnitude of the event, I’m not sure we’ve really had enough of it. The episode is going to open with a flashback to that attack to help setup a plot during the present. The human and mutant conflict is center stage once again, and some old friends and foes from the original series get to make their X-Men ’97 debut. Oh, and we’re going to the Savage Land!

The opening title adds Polaris (Carolina Ravassa) to the mix this week so she’s onboard for real. She’s also been assigned to X-Corp along with Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith), though no one is sporting the black and yellow in the opening just yet as they’re all still rocking the blue. As for that flashback I mentioned, that is being done to introduce Colossus (Robert Cait) and Magik (Courtenay Taylor), his younger sister whom cartoon viewers only know as Illyana. She was featured in the original series as the kid sister whom Colossus was always looking out for. As we saw with a Morph transformation during the first season, she’s grown up some to a teenager which seems to track if we were introduced to her in 1992 and it’s now 1997. As the trailers for the season let on, Magik is not going to make it through the attack in Genosha. The scene is brief showing her alongside her brother as they try to help fellow mutants and stand against the massive tri-Sentinel, but Colossus can only stare on helplessly as his little sister is annihilated leaving him grieving over her corpse.

Colossus is back, but sporting Acolyte purple.

This, like in the comics, is the catalyst for Colossus joining Magneto’s Acolytes. We too saw them in the original series with the two-parter “Sanctuary” where they weren’t really positioned as villains, just followers of Magneto. In that story, Acolyte Fabian Cortez attempts to murder Magneto and the X-Men have to expose his crimes. As far as we know, his body has been absconded by Apocalypse following the events in the episode “Fifth Horsemen” so he should not be turning up anytime soon. And we are introduced to the Acolytes via them dropping in on a campaign rally by everyone’s favorite mutant hater Graydon Creed (Ben Pronsky). Apparently, Sabretooth did not murder him at the end of the episode “Bloodlines” which Sabretooth alluded to during his appearance this season. Creed has been left with a scar on his face, but otherwise seems fine. At least, fine for now as the Acolytes, now lead by Exodus (Bo Poraj), have plans for the would-be president. Feeling that he has not been held accountable for his crimes against mutant kind, the Acolytes intend to take him and dispense justice as they see fit.

Poor Illyana, we hardly knew her.

Xavier (Ross Marquand) is able to take point here and sends X-Corp, minus Cyclops and Jean, to the Savage Land where the Acolytes have made their home. It makes sense since that was where Magneto originally intended to launch his mutant utopia, but things obviously changed. Mr. Sinister also called this place home back in the original show’s second season, and via the great citadel in the middle he was able to operate a device that nullified mutant powers and that is apparently still operational. The X-Corp members are separated quickly with Polaris and Bishop left out in the jungle while Rogue (Lenore Zann), Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough), and Beast (George Buza) get to tour the new mutant haven under the watchful eye of their former ally, Colossus. Their goal is to bring Creed home fearing his murder at the hands of mutants would be disastrous for human-mutant relations. The Acolytes seek only to punish him with the punishment being death. Toss in the fact that Creed is Nightcrawler’s biological brother and you have yourself quite the little soap opera. Nightcrawler, being a man of faith, does not wish to see his brother killed even if he personally has no real love for him. And since they can’t exactly fight their way out without their powers his solution is to propose a trial with him defending his brother and Exodus standing as the prosecutor. In the judge’s chair sits Colossus whom Nightcrawler has faith in that he’ll see some worth in Creed and spare his life.

I’ve always found Exodus to be a bad ass design.

The idea of a trial is pretty hokey on its surface, but I have to concede it does play an important role in adding some color to the Graydon Creed character. It’s easy to just hate him for being a bigot and think no deeper than that, but the episode finds a rather compelling angle all while not making him out to be someone we should have any amount of respect for. The Polaris and Bishop pairing is pretty underserved though. There’s an interesting angle here in that once Bishop loses his mutant powers all of the energy he had stored within him (he’s basically a battery) is trying to escape, but letting it out would likely kill him and perhaps anyone nearby. He can only withstand it for so long putting a running clock on this mission that is basically never acknowledged again apart from the initial explanation. There’s also clearly a chemistry forming between Bishop and Polaris which is played well, but again, not enough time is devoted to it.

From the trailer with maybe Iceman in a frame on the ground over Rogue’s left shoulder.
From the episode. Now it could just be me, but that image I thought was Iceman appears to be desaturated here. Also, they removed Gambit.

I did not like the Magik death reveal when it was shown in the trailers and I still don’t like it very much now. Mostly because she’s just a plot device to motivate her brother. Yes, she served that role in the preceding series, but not at the expense of her life. If you’re going to kill her off, at least let her get to be a character first. Instead, we get nothing which feels like a waste. This being a show based on comic books, it would hardly be a surprise to see her come back and maybe she’ll even be one of the horsemen of Apocalypse, but that’s not a get out of jail free card for bad character writing. Colossus is still quite likable and I was delighted to see Robert Cait return to reprise the role. We do get an action sequence to cap things off and it too features another character death that felt both implausible and like a waste. Sometimes this show comes across as too cavalier when it comes to killing characters off, mostly because they just don’t get enough runway beforehand. At least the appearance of the shrine first spotted in the trailer brings about no more deaths. Even the image that appeared to be Iceman seems to no longer exist. Has that character been spared a gruesome fate? It would seem so since no one has even spoken his name despite his connection to Polaris.

I hope we get to see more this pairing.

I did really enjoy the Nightcrawler/Creed dynamics in this one. Even if you are not a religious person (and I am not), it’s easy to empathize with Nightcrawler in this one. He’s just trying to find a peaceful solution. He does not defend his brother’s crimes or feel that he should not answer for them, but he firmly believes it would not be right to murder him. He gets tested and pushed, but I really liked his solution. I also just plain like bringing Creed back into the fold because he’s such a detestable human being and a great foil for the X-Men. An element of the show was lost when he basically faded away after season two and keeping the mutant/human conflict in focus is really crucial, in my opinion. The episode does end in a similar fashion to last week’s as the show essentially slow walks the return of Gambit as Death. It does feature a swerve that I didn’t see coming, though it’s one that could also be functionally meaningless as far as the plot is concerned. I guess we’ll find out next week as that episode is titled “The Dead Man’s Hand” and if that isn’t the big Gambit episode then I don’t know what would be.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Danger.exe”

After last week’s side trip up north to get Wolverine his skeleton back, this week’s episode of X-Men ’97 brings us back to the mansion which we really haven’t seen much of so far this season. The season’s sixth episode is centered on survivor’s guilt and the sins of a parent. For the guilt portion,…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs”

When X-Men went into development for the Fox Kids Network, it didn’t take the writing staff (who was unfamiliar with the property going in) long to figure out that Wolverine was their ticket to television royalty. The character really took off in the 1980s and helped the X-Men storm into the 1990s as the most…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 2”

Unlike the first three episodes of season two of X-Men ’97, this fourth one is going to spend all of its time in one era. And as you could probably guess, that era is 3,000 BCE since that is where we left off last week. I consider these reviews that I do spoiler free, but…

Keep reading
by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 27, 2026

Marvel Legends Onslaught

By Joe
Behold! The most divisive villain in X-Men history!

We’re deep into the second season of X-Men ’97 and it might be appropriate that Hasbro chose this time to unleash Onslaught upon the masses. Onslaught goes back to 1996 and is the manifestation of Charles Xavier and Magneto via complicated, comic booky, means. He was the big bad of a whole arc that changed Marvel Comics for a good while afterward ushering in the Heroes Reborn era and X-Men ’97 may be looking to bring him into the animated universe. Or not, if former showrunner Beau DeMayo can be believed. We’ll just have to wait and see, but the mere possibility of his appearance in the show might be why Hasbro chose to re-release the former build-a-figure as a solo retro card. Sold exclusively at Target, this figure went up for preorder a couple of months ago and now it’s here for me to talk about.

He’s technically not as big as he’s supposed to be, but he’s pretty big.

Back in the Toy Biz days, Marvel Legends did a build-a-figure Onslaught, but not like this. That version of the character was its “crab form” that had a skull-like face and digitigrade legs. It was basically not the version most wanted or thought of when thinking of Onslaught, but in the pre-Legends days Toy Biz had done an Onslaught figure in the armored Magneto form so maybe that was why they were reluctant to do that again? Many years later, Hasbro finally did the figure in the more familiar look as a build-a-figure and, like several other build-a-figures before it, it’s now being repackaged as a stand-alone action figure with only minimal tooling changes. I don’t have the prior version so I can’t say for sure what’s different, but some have claimed the head has been retooled. I can’t tell just by looking at pictures. The only thing I know for sure is the paint job is a little different, most notably the hands, and this version omits the Red Skull optional portrait. Otherwise, it’s a big figure on a big card for a bigger price.

He’s not going to do much, so it’s all about presence.

The retro card makes for a nice display option for those who keep these things mint-on-card, but for me I’m ripping this big boy open. Onslaught stands around 8″ tall and he’s most comparable in my collection to the previous build-a-figure turned retro card release Apocalypse. Red and purple dominates the look here and most of it is just colored plastic. There’s a shininess to the purple this time that may be new, but again, I don’t have that old figure. It’s not done via paint but rather Hasbro’s shiny attempt at molded plastic and it looks okay, but there’s no fooling anyone what this thing is. It’s a big hunk of plastic. Most of the paint is reserved for the head which has the purple trim, black “face,” and white eyes. Onslaught never had a face when helmeted so this is definitely the preferred route and it looks fine. There’s also a little paint on the circles of his armor and even a hit of a matte red on the outer part of his thighs. The shoulder pads are massive and, if anything, actually could be bigger but I understand Hasbro’s reluctance to go beyond what’s here. They help dominate the silhouette and even contribute to the torso looking a bit blocky. There is a taper to it, but you almost have to raise the shoulder pads or outstretch the arms to really get a feel for it. Otherwise, this guy presents as pretty chunky head-on. I wish there was actually more bulk front-to-back, but such is often a failing of Marvel Legends. The character was so preposterous in the comics that it’s kind of impossible to properly render him in plastic, but this is mostly fine.

“Daddy..?”
“Charles, I did not sign up for this!” “Come on Magnus, you need to step up!”

Since this mold is a few years old, the construction and articulation is a little dated. If you hate pinned limbs in your figures well then too bad, Onslaught has pins in his knees and that’s that. There’s a ball-hinge at the neck, shoulder hinges, bicep, elbow, wrist, ab crunch, hip, thigh, knee, and ankle articulation. It’s all a bit stiff and somewhat limited because this guy is pretty damn chunky and not conducive to much range really anywhere. The head is pretty well buried in the neck and can only do so much. The shoulder pads do swivel and can kind of get out of the way, but not enough to let the arms come up a full 90 degrees. You can disconnect the shoulder pads in the back rather easily, but it only allows so much extra. Perhaps because this was originally a build-a-figure, the arms pop out of the socket pretty easily and sometimes when you don’t want them to. Despite how blocky the ankles look, there’s enough clearance to get a good ankle rocker. The cuffs on his forearms also rotate which is good for adjustment posing. The bicep swivel is more like a sleeve as the elbows are single hinged. It basically just moves to keep the muscle group lined up. The elbow itself also swivels. He’s a very limited poser as a result, but at least there’s some size here to kind of make up for that. Is it enough though?

“Yay! I want to go to the park!”

Because this guy has no accessories. Just his “cape” which comes in the box unattached and pegs into the figure’s back. Basically, what you see is what you get and it will set you back $40 if you can find one in Target. The register date was July 20th so if you find one at this point there’s no fear of a register lock event. If you want an Onslaught and didn’t get the prior one then this is fine. It’s a lot cheaper than having to buy an entire wave of figures even if it’s still overpriced at $40. I think it’s pretty lame of Hasbro to not slip in some accessories of some kind. How about some fists? Maybe some kind of energy effect? I don’t really care about the Red Skull omission, but there should be something here. When that retro card Apocalypse dropped it had a newly tooled torso, a new portrait, the old portrait, two sets of hands, and a newly tooled arm canon and blast effect parts. That’s a good value! It was also 2022 and it seems like these days you’re getting less with every Legends release, but paying more money. Onslaught certainly captures that. As for me, I always liked the look of the character even if the story kind of sucked. I also know that if this guy does show up in X-Men ’97 then I would have regretted passing on this release. Is that a good reason to spend forty bucks on an action figure? Probably not.

He may be more at home with the Gamerverse.

For related entries on Onslaught, check out the following:

Marvel Legends Professor X with Hoverchair

Most view superheroes as idealized versions of people. Superman has all the power he needs to mete out justice as he sees fit. He’s a man who is super fast, super strong, basically invulnerable, and he even has laser eyes for good measure. Not every character can be Superman though and as the stable of…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Magneto

It was two years ago that Hasbro made the announcement that it was wading into the weeds of X-Men, the cartoon series that aired on the Fox Kids Network from 1992-1997. The line was released across eight installments in 2022 (plus a ninth if you include the obviously animated-inspired Apocalypse released on a retro card)…

Keep reading
by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men Retro Card Series Apocalypse

It is Halloween and that means it’s time for costumes, candy, and spooky fun. It’s also Halloween 2022, a pretty important date if you grew up loving those mutants who ran around in colorful spandex fighting for a better tomorrow. That’s because 30 years ago on this very night, the animated series X-Men premiered on…

Keep reading
by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, toys

July 23, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “Danger.exe”

By Joe
Original premiere date July 22, 2026.

After last week’s side trip up north to get Wolverine his skeleton back, this week’s episode of X-Men ’97 brings us back to the mansion which we really haven’t seen much of so far this season. The season’s sixth episode is centered on survivor’s guilt and the sins of a parent. For the guilt portion, we have Charles Xavier (Ross Marquand) who witnessed the death of his friend, rival, and surrogate brother Magneto at the hands of Apocalypse. For the sins of the father angle, we have Polaris (Carolina Ravissa) who we really don’t know much about. Sure, if you’re a comic reader then you probably know plenty about the sometimes daughter of Magneto, but anyone who only absorbs X-knowledge via the animated series just knows she’s a former member of the team who once dated Iceman and is now a member of the government task force known as X-Factor. Oh, and she has a green hair for some reason.

Polaris gets something of a spotlight episode this week which just makes me wonder if a certain ancient, evil mutant has a plan for her?

Since both the original show and this one have dedicated so little screen time to Polaris, it’s even possible that viewers have no idea that she essentially has the same power set as Magneto. The comics have always been a bit non-committal with her lineage. Some writers made it a point to say she wasn’t related to Magneto while others have said the opposite. Obviously, if she has the same magnetic powers then one is going to naturally wonder if the two are related, though there are plenty of mutants with similar powers that are not so it’s also not a requirement. For this universe, we were shown previously the two are likely related since Polaris appears in silhouette form in the first season finale in Magneto’s mind. I guess that means he knows about her, and that much is confirmed early on in the episode “Danger.exe.” At the beginning, Polaris is shown breaking up a weapon’s smuggling ring being lead by old friend Carl Denti aka the X-Cutioner (Lawrence Bayne), though he’s no longer sporting the fancy costume. He’s teamed up with a bunch of other folks all in service to the reverand William Stryker (JP Karliak), the enemy featured in the classic story God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont. More casual fans will recognize him as the foe in X2: X-Men United though for that role he was turned into former military and the whole preacher thing was dropped – a pity. Here he’s just a cameo, but I do hope he plays a bigger role in the episodes to come at some point.

Xavier using the Danger Room to relive Magneto’s execution is pretty grim.

Polaris breaks up this gathering in pretty extravagant fashion. She also loses her cool a bit which puts her in hot water with X-Factor’s leader and government liaison, Val Cooper (Catherine Disher). Seeing the two have a very different idea for how members of X-Factor should approach their work, Polaris finds herself dismissed, but that’s not so big of a deal when your fallback plan happens to be the X-Men. Lorna returns to find her room had been left untouched, which is impressive since the mansion has been destroyed at least two times since she left. Her and the professor get to have a little chat and things seems to be going well, all until the Danger Room’s artificial intelligence breaks free and turns on everyone. This is where Xavier comes in as he and a small team have returned to Genosha to pick up the pieces. The Danger Room A.I., simply known as Danger (Rachel Kimsey), seeks a confrontation with its maker in Charles and that’s the physical conflict of the episode. The mental one is Xavier overcoming his guilt and helping Lorna to not be afraid of where she comes from in order to cut loose and use her powers to help those who are in need.

There is some…danger…incoming for the X-Men this week.

This episode is a little less meaty than most of the ones we’ve had this season. I liken it to the Lifedeath stuff from last season as there’s some necessary character growth, just minus the big, world-changing, moments. There is a lot of subtle change at play here as Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) has been promoted to headmistress and put in charge of the education at the Xavier Institute. The government has also forbid the X-Men from acting as a paramilitary organization and the institute is only allowed to remain open if it’s to function as a school. Basically, anything they do outside of education is going to put them into conflict with X-Factor and it feels like we’re setting up a showdown between the two. How X-Force plays into all of this remains to be seen as we haven’t checked in with them in quite some time now. There are also a lot of new students at the school, most of whom we saw in that X-Force centric second episode so I’m assuming there is some cooperation between the X-Men and X-Force, or they just ditched the kids on their doorstep. A bit surprising that Jubilee didn’t hang around.

Looks like another wardrobe change for the X-Men is in order.

In terms of the bigger picture, there was an interesting conversation between Xavier and Lorna where Charles basically confesses he tried to preserve Magneto’s psyche just before Apocalypse murdered him, but failed. Are we aborting on Onslaught? That’s a strong possibility. The episode concludes with a long-expected scene as well which may or may not pay dividends next week. I would not be surprised if it’s put off until the penultimate episode. This episode is also noteworthy in that it does not feature Wolverine. It’s hardly a surprise to see an episode of X-Men ’97 not feature the runt, but following the end of last week’s episode it was a bit disappointing to not see if his relationship with Morph has been affected. The episode does put some players on the move and there is an attempt at placing the focus back on Apocalypse despite the emphasis on a villain of the week format. I get the sense that the show is maneuvering its pieces into place before the big conclusion. With only three episodes to go in the season, it feels like things are about to pick up.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs”

When X-Men went into development for the Fox Kids Network, it didn’t take the writing staff (who was unfamiliar with the property going in) long to figure out that Wolverine was their ticket to television royalty. The character really took off in the 1980s and helped the X-Men storm into the 1990s as the most…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 2”

Unlike the first three episodes of season two of X-Men ’97, this fourth one is going to spend all of its time in one era. And as you could probably guess, that era is 3,000 BCE since that is where we left off last week. I consider these reviews that I do spoiler free, but…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 1”

The premiere episode for season two of X-Men ’97 took us to the far off future where Apocalypse reigns supreme. The second followed that one up with a story set in the present time of the series: 1997 (Duh!). Now, for the third episode of this three-part premiere we head to ancient Egypt to meet…

Keep reading
by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 21, 2026

What Can We Expect from the Second Half of X-Men ’97 Season Two?

By Joe
X-Men ’97 appears to be building towards one hell of a finish.

With the airing of last week’s episode “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs” the second season of X-Men ’97 passed the halfway point. And after tomorrow when this goes live, we’ll be 2/3rds of the way through the season since it’s only nine episodes. Since I am away (again) for the sixth episode, I figured I’d do a little recap post and offer up some of my thoughts on where we’re heading from here. There’s a lot of stuff we know is likely to happen, but a lot we don’t, and it sounds like the plans for season three have been changed since they were originally mapped out. It should probably go without saying, but just in case, there are spoilers ahead for the first half of X-Men ’97’s season two and I’ll also be talking about the potentially scuttled plans for season three so you have been warned.

Season two of X-Men ’97 has been a lot of fun so far. The actual episodes have been pretty tight focusing on just select squads of the heroes involved while also laying the groundwork for a big finale against Apocalypse. With the most recent episode, we got a deviation where Wolverine and a select group of mutants ran off to Canada to shut down the latest Weapon X lab. Or at least that’s what the squad signed up for, but in reality Wolverine was just looking to get his adamantium skeleton back which Magneto had stripped from him in season one.

Wolverine is left to wonder, “Was it all worth it?”

We might as well start there. That episode was a pretty interesting look at Wolverine and it also really put a spotlight on his relationship with Morph. It’s been a little divisive in some circles from what I’ve seen and that goes back to how the story was presented in the comics. Any X-Men show or movie is going to run into issues where fans compare what they’re seeing on their screen to what already happened in the comics while writers and showrunners aren’t always looking for a direct adaptation. In the comics, Wolverine went years without his adamantium skeleton and even had a botched attempt at it during that time period which brought about the feral Wolverine era. We got a slight taste of that in episode one as Wolverine’s look was evocative of that one, but that was it. The comic book story put Wolverine before Apocalypse with a choice: battle Sabretooth for the right to become Death, or let Sabretooth assume that mantle. Whoever became Death would have an adamantium skeleton courtesy of Apocalypse which was kind of like a little bonus. For Wolverine, it meant letting someone else turn him into a weapon as the Weapon X program had done years before against his will. On the other hand, letting Sabretooth get basically a power-up and a new job that was all about killing didn’t exactly sound appealing either. Wolverine’s choice was presented as a sacrifice and he had faith in himself that he’d eventually beat Apocalypse’s programming and ultimately cause the world far less harm than a powered-up Sabretooth and that’s just what he did.

In X-Men ’97, Wolverine lead a group of allies and enemies into a hornet’s nest under false pretenses. During the first episode and in this one, we saw how Wolverine’s effectiveness had been reduced thanks to his new, fragile, bone claws. He had a tough time taking down the robotic foes in the distant future and was unable to takedown a Brood-infested polar bear in this one. And in that moment, Sabretooth had to bail him out and he was all too happy to let him know. Wolverine ended up getting infected by the Brood which caused him to murder his ally Maverick who wanted to bail on the mission as soon as they realized what they were up against. He very nearly killed Morph, but Morph was able to distract him by morphing into Jean (that always works). Sabretooth and Deathstrike saw through what Wolverine was doing, but Morph was the last one to cross the finish line. Morph refused to see Wolverine as a monster, but in the end, they found out that even Wolverine thinks he has no worth unless he’s a monster. It must have been a pretty devastating episode for Morph who we know has feelings beyond just friendship for Wolverine. Morph presenting as themself to Wolverine to try and get him to stop failed, but Jean? Apparently she has enough of Wolverine’s heart to pull that off and Morph likely never will. There could be a rift forming here and it will be interesting to see how this plays out. For fans, I get it that some were upset that Wolverine’s sacrifice in the books was turned into a selfish act, but I think this aspect of his personality that X-Men ’97 is shining a light on is also a worthwhile avenue. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

As for the rest of the season, we know the episode titles for what’s to come starting with the episode that airs the day after this post goes live “Danger.exe.” I am expecting this one will feature the enemy Danger (duh), and based on the newer trailers, it could also feature an X-Men and X-Force team-up. Or a fight, either sounds enjoyable. It should be a good opportunity to bring in the Grant Morrison era costumes we’ve seen featured in the trailers (they thankfully have not featured Wolverine’s look from that run which I have never liked) and I think it will also be a chance to get most everyone in the same place. We have not had an episode where the whole team is together. It would also be a chance to see the first bit of fallout from the time jumping adventure the X-Men went on as well as the loss of Magneto. I wonder if it will stick with the Danger plot, or maybe jump around? We haven’t really had an episode like that this season apart from briefly jumping to the future in episode two and starting episode 3 in the present.

Could this episode be where the show brings back the Genosha fallout?

The next episode is titled “Strange Land, Savage Heart” which is a play on the episode title from the original series “Savage Land, Strange Heart.” It would seem to suggest the presence of the Savage Land and perhaps that is where the shrine for victims of Genosha has been erected? We also saw shots of Nightcrawler battling with Exodus and perhaps that takes place in the Savage Land? Or we’re just going to split up with Nightcrawler and Rogue heading to Genosha and the rest heading to the Savage Land. Beyond that, I’m not sure, but I think this is the episode that brings everything back to focus on those lost at Genosha. And based on the trailer, it looks like the body count has gone up since season one ended as Magik and possibly Iceman were added to the death toll despite appearing on Forge’s board as being alive and accounted for. Colossus was also in his Acolytes costume and if the Acolytes have a new leader it’s almost certainly Exodus. Colossus is likely to be in a bad headspace following the loss of his beloved sister. We know of some similar scenes with Polaris returning to the mansion and taking sight of how everything has been destroyed and one shot in the trailer shows a picture of her and Bobby which seems to further hint that he may have been among the casualties. This all leads me to speculate on some big things in the next episode.

Or maybe they are just going on a Savage Land adventure?

“Dead Man’s Hand” sounds pretty self-explanatory. When Gambit died in season one, few expected it to be permanent. That’s just not how comics work. When Apocalypse was shown at the end of season one finding a playing card in the rubble of Genosha that basically cemented it. Gambit is coming back as Apocalypse’s horseman of death, but what of the other three? Horsemen always come in fours and we have not seen any shots in any trailer suggesting who could be among the horsemen. In the comics, Polaris became one at one point and could her anger towards humanity over the loss of Bobby and others drive her to Apocalypse? She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s also lost a father in Magneto though that one is complicated by the fact that it was Apocalypse who killed him. Then again, that could be what the X-Men use to pull her out of his clutches. Rogue is another possibility. She was devastated by the loss of Gambit, could this be a way to be with him? I don’t know if she would go willingly, but there’s a darkness in her brought about by Genosha. Archangel also reminded us in episode two that it was Rogue who took away the evil within him and allowed him to break free of Apocalypse’s control. That evil has been dwelling inside her ever since perhaps ready to come out. She could also attempt to do the same for Gambit, and maybe that backfires? In the scene where it looks like the X-Men and X-Force are bracing for a fight from the trailer, I don’t think Rogue is seen, though that might not be them getting ready to tangle with Apocalypse too. Colossus is another candidate. Devastated by the loss of his sister, he could certainly turn towards Apocalypse if he thinks the Acolytes aren’t doing enough.

Rogue is definitely going to feature heavily in the climax of this season.

The other possibility for the horsemen that I envision is the show using it as a way to undo some deaths. We know Gambit is likely one such character, but then there’s others who perished in Genosha like Magik, Iceman, Marrow, and Banshee. Many others fell as well and if they indeed decided to add Magik and Iceman to the death toll between seasons then virtually anyone is on the table if we have yet to see them alive. And it could also be a way to bring back Magneto. Perhaps when Apocalypse nuked Magneto’s body he preserved his essence to put into a new body and control? I personally think it would be a mistake to bring Magneto back yet again, but I can’t rule it out. After all, these are comic book characters and they seem to never die. There’s also opportunities to introduce new or forgotten characters to fill out Apocalypse’s ranks. Characters like Nemesis, Mikhail Rasputin, Deathbird, or Tyler – Cable’s son he essentially abandoned in the future. We’ve also never really had Stryfe in the animated universe as he’s only ever made cameos. We have not heard from Sinister at all this season and it’s been even longer since we’ve seen Mystique, the Brotherhood, or anyone from The Nasty Boys. And can we fully write-off Wolverine as a horseman? Maybe his opinion of himself as only a weapon and his actions up north create a bigger divide with the team than expected and it allows Apocalypse to corrupt him somehow? Maybe a character like X-23 or Daken gets introduced as a horseman and Wolverine has to find his worth as a human being in order to convince one of them to suppress what Apocalypse has done to them?

Either way, I see the finale “Survival of the Fittest” as being the battle for Gambit’s soul and anyone else corrupted by Apocalypse. They’ll also have to actually defeat Apocalypse and I don’t know how they’ll do that. I do hope it’s something satisfying as the ways in which those confrontations were settled in the original series were never satisfying for me. That’s the Apocalypse problem – he’s made to be so strong and so powerful that there’s almost no believable way to stop him. He kind of just runs for no reason or you get something a bit more abstract like the ending to “Beyond Good and Evil.” One possibility for taking him down is Onslaught. In the comics, when Charles Xavier wiped the mind of Magneto during the Fatal Attractions arc it meant Magneto’s consciousness remained with Xavier’s mind. It basically tormented him and eventually it caused Onslaught to emerge. Now, few fans seem to actually like that arc. The setup is fine, the character certainly has a 90s cool factor, but it basically lead to the temporary deaths of a lot of Marvel’s non-mutant heroes and brought about the controversial Heroes Reborn era. I, like many, am not a fan of the Onslaught saga, but I’m also not afraid of it. The way I see it, X-Men ’97 could be a way to redeem the character, but that may not happen.

If this represents X-Men and X-Force getting ready to duke it out with Apocalypse, it could be more telling to focus on who isn’t there rather than who is.

According to former showrunner Beau DeMayo, Marvel axed his plans to introduce Onslaught in episode ten of this season and that’s why we ended up with nine episodes instead of ten. I would guess he knows this to be true because he probably lost a credit over it. Onslaught was going to be a season three enemy and somehow that was going to lead to an Age of Apocalypse in the animated universe. That might also explain why Hasbro decided to reissue their own Onslaught figure (review coming soon) since this was all stuff being worked on years before this season premiered. Does that mean Onslaught is completely off the table? No, as there’s been plenty of time to reconsider if they wanted to. They could have decided to kick the can further down the road as opposed to bring it into season two. There’s certainly plenty of foreshadowing with how Xavier ended episode four. Perhaps he even “saved” Magneto from death by psychically downloading his mind into his own? Such a thing sounds like absolute nonsense, but for X-Men? Nah, that could be sold. And from there it could be that which brings about Onslaught. How this would have created an Age of Apocalypse when the previous show already went down the rabbit hole of “What if Xavier were killed before forming the X-Men?” with the two-parter “One Man’s Worth,” is also something I can’t wrap my head around. Maybe the show was just going to forget about that? I’m pretty sure it was referenced in the opening title during season one so DeMayo likely wanted us to remember it for a reason. Either way, I could see Marvel not wanting to set an entire season of the show in an alternate present thereby throwing a wrench into the whole thing. Comic fans seem titillated by it, but would the casuals want to see another season where Magneto leads the team and characters like Beast and Cyclops are villains?

Onslaught not being the ultimate end game for season two has one obvious benefit in that it makes it really hard to predict what could follow instead. It could simply be a cleaner ending, but I can’t imagine them not teasing another villain or plot to come. Perhaps Krakoa? That seems to be something a lot of fans would take in place of Age of Apocalypse. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see Generation X being formed and maybe a reshuffling of some cards where X-Force and X-Factor are concerned. The mere fact that I’ve written over 2,000 words on the subject should be enough of a tell that I’m pretty excited and eager to see where things are heading. There’s so much for the show to cover or not and it feels like we’ve barely spent time with most of the characters. I hope the show is doing really well with whatever metrics Disney uses to evaluate these streaming shows so that it ensure we get even more beyond a third season because this is just too much damn fun each week.

Some prior X-Men ’97 musings and reviews if this wasn’t enough for you:

X-Men ’97 – “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs”

When X-Men went into development for the Fox Kids Network, it didn’t take the writing staff (who was unfamiliar with the property going in) long to figure out that Wolverine was their ticket to television royalty. The character really took off in the 1980s and helped the X-Men storm into the 1990s as the most…

Keep reading
by Joe

The Return of X-Men ’97

The return of the ’92 era X-Men featured in the classic animated series could not have gone any better. I was extremely excited for that show’s continuation via X-Men ’97, but at the same time a bit fearful. Could it really live up to my own expectations even as I tried to tamp them down?…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3”

Today, X-Men ’97 dropped the curtain on its first season and what a way to bring it to an end. Last week’s episode was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I couldn’t go into much detail of my review of “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2” without wading into spoiler territory, so allow me…

Keep reading
by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 15, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs”

By Joe
Premiere date July 15, 2026

When X-Men went into development for the Fox Kids Network, it didn’t take the writing staff (who was unfamiliar with the property going in) long to figure out that Wolverine was their ticket to television royalty. The character really took off in the 1980s and helped the X-Men storm into the 1990s as the most popular comic book in publication. Because the character was so interesting (and expertly brought to life by voice actor Cal Dodd), he had a tendency to soak up featured episodes. His long and mysterious history was an easy source to tap into for episodes about his adventures in Canada, Japan, or his past history with Team X and the Weapon X program. Because of the sheer amount of Wolverine content in that first series, it wasn’t a huge surprise to see the character deemphasized for the first season of X-Men ’97. Wolverine often found himself on the sidelines in that first season, but had a big moment in the penultimate episode when Magneto ripped the adamantium from his bones. Because of the structure of the first four episodes of the second season, Wolverine hasn’t had a ton to do since the first episode, but for the fifth episode he finally gets his time to shine.

Because I make these reviews spoiler free, it means I don’t get to react to big moments when it’s too hard to do so without spoiling what transpired. Let’s take it back one week for a second to acknowledge the climax of episode four when En Sabah Nur took on the mantle of Apocalypse and destroyed Magneto while allowing the rest of the time-displaced X-Men to return to the 90s. For Magneto, this is kind of like his third death already in the short-lived series which makes me think that this time it might stick. And perhaps it should? His arc feels complete when examined from the events of the first series up through this one. Magneto began as a rival and came to believe in Xavier’s dream as the best path forward for humans and mutants and gave his life in service to that. And while his body was essentially vaporized, there’s no death that can’t be undone for the world of comic books and their adjacent media. Because of that, it didn’t land with the thump that I think the episode wanted it too. I tend to think he’ll return either as Xorn, a horseman of Apocalypse, or through Onslaught, but perhaps the show should consider leaving him dead?

Wolverine has assembled a similar, but different, crew to investigate another Weapon X facility.

Back to this week. We have before us “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs” which is essentially a spiritual sequel to the original series episode “Weapon X, Lies, and Videotape.” It picks up where last episode left off when Wolverine received a dossier from Captain America and Black Widow and mentioned that he had assembled a team to investigate Weapon X. That team is revealed to be Morph (sporting the old Team X black and gold uniform), Lady Deathstryke (Erika Ishii), Maverick (Crispin Freeman), Sabretooth (Darin De Paul), and new-comer to the series, Garrison Kane (Ben Pronsky). They’re heading to a newly discovered facility where the old program seems to be back up and running and performing experiments on God knows what. And before the thing even gets started, it lets you know that this is a Wolverine episode as almost all of the clips in the opening title feature Wolverine. The only exception is the inclusion of the Morph/Sinister sequence (Morph also gets to deliver the “Previously,” line). Forge also makes his first appearance in the roll call, but we won’t be hearing from him or any other X-Men. This is all Wolverine and his merry band of mercs.

The show isn’t obvious about it, but it’s pretty clear that Wolverine doesn’t feel like himself since having the adamantium torn from his bones.

This new version of Team X will find itself stranded pretty early and the cause is some infected animals. They’ll soon find the facility they’re looking for and find it to be overrun with more infected creatures that reveal themselves to be alien in nature. The whole episode takes on a little bit of a horror/suspense vibe as they search a darkened facility littered with corpses and creatures lurking in the shadows. They’ll have to work together in order to survive, but there’s a lot of mistrust among this group, which should be expected. It’s basically the perfect recipe for a Wolverine centric episode. There are lots of moments for action, but also plenty of soap opera-like drama as who has more of that in their past than Logan? The only characters who don’t have some bad blood between them are Wolverine and Morph (J.P. Karliak), which just makes the rest look upon that pairing with further distrust. Deathstryke also takes to referring to Morph as Tomo, a loyal shapeshifting fox from Japanese folklore, which fits their characterization in this episode to a T. More than once, Morph is challenged to explain what their stake is in all of this, but the sly one is able to sidestep such questions, but is also exposed to a different side of Wolverine. One that the rest of this crew is all too familiar with.

It’s pretty clear that Morph holds Wolverine in high regards, but the events of this episode may change that.

There’s a lot of good character stuff in this one. Because we are dealing with Wolverine, a character not exactly known for being an open book when it comes to his feelings, the episode has to peel back layers on Wolverine via the other characters in his orbit. It can’t rely on exposition like it has done in that past and I think that makes for a better episode. He’s clearly in a state of flux, lost because he’s not the same person he was following his encounter with Magneto. He reacts when an attack with his bone claws fail to take down a polar bear like a defeated man. When Sabretooth notices the bone claws, Wolverine is cagey about what happened and Morph looks on him with pity. The other characters are the first to figure out that this so-called mission is far more personal in nature for Wolverine than he let on and Morph has to confront that. Morph admires Wolverine for the man he is, but Wolverine seems to only view himself as a weapon. Someone who can do the dirty work and spare his friends and comrades from the same. Credited writer Anthony Selliti should be commended for how well crafted this one turned out. There isn’t a neat and tidy finish to it either as there is definitely some rifts forming and I wonder if the remaining three episodes (yes, only three which is such a pity) will even have time to deal with the fallout here. It would be nice for Morph to eventually get their own spotlight episode.

Who doesn’t enjoy references to 90’s tech?

I am a sucker for these kinds of Wolverine stories so I really enjoyed this one. It was nice to see the episode stay here too. X-Men ’97 moves fast, but by not jumping around the pace feels a lot better this season. I suspect some comic purists will be less pleased than I as we have a bunch of different plots being repurposed to serve this one. And maybe there should have been more episodes placed between this one and last season’s penultimate episode, but I’m okay with it. I may be less okay with it if this episode isn’t really followed up on in a meaningful way, but I don’t think that will be the case. Even if it’s not as soon as next week as I expect we will be dealing with more of last week’s fallout. However, given the episode title of “Danger.exe” we may be in for our first full squad episode of the season. And it only took six episodes to get there.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 2”

Unlike the first three episodes of season two of X-Men ’97, this fourth one is going to spend all of its time in one era. And as you could probably guess, that era is 3,000 BCE since that is where we left off last week. I consider these reviews that I do spoiler free, but…

by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 1”

The premiere episode for season two of X-Men ’97 took us to the far off future where Apocalypse reigns supreme. The second followed that one up with a story set in the present time of the series: 1997 (Duh!). Now, for the third episode of this three-part premiere we head to ancient Egypt to meet…

by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “A Force to be Reckoned With”

The title of this post says X-Men ’97, but in some respects it should read X-Force ’97 because that’s what the opening title presents. Yes, boys and girls, we have ourselves an X-Force on television. Cable made numerous appearances in the original series, but never as the leader of X-Force. This surprised me as a…

by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 9, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 2”

By Joe
Original premiere date July 8, 2026.

Unlike the first three episodes of season two of X-Men ’97, this fourth one is going to spend all of its time in one era. And as you could probably guess, that era is 3,000 BCE since that is where we left off last week. I consider these reviews that I do spoiler free, but even so, I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that Rama-Tut’s (John de Lancie) attack at the end of last week’s episode was not very successful. The show wanted us to believe that our beloved X-Men were in real danger, but that was pretty hard to believe considering it was just the third episode. As expected, Magneto (Matthew Waterson) was able to put up a forcefield just in time to spare our heroes. Also surviving, to no one’s surprise, is En Sabah Nur (Adetokumboh M’Cormack) who is basically some kind of super man and I think he just shrugged it off. As for the rest, they’re all dead and Nur’s fortress is in ruins. Among the dead is Baal, Nur’s adopted father, and it’s unlikely he’ll react well to that.

Much of last week’s episode featured Magneto trying to get En Sabah Nur to buy into Xavier’s (Ross Marquand) dream of human and mutant coexistence. Mercy was a big part of that lesson, but when Nur discovered that Magneto and the X-Men were sneaking around behind his back and working on a time machine, he grew pretty angry. He felt this was a betrayal, which seemed extreme to me at the time, but it’s hard to get a read on just how Magneto sold himself to Nur. Clearly, he doesn’t look like someone born in Egypt so he should have known that he was from somewhere far off (we’ll ignore the whole language thing, everyone speaks English because it’s just easier that way). Then again, Nur doesn’t really look like a typical Egyptian either thanks to his mutation and I suppose he may have assumed the same of Magneto. Either way, that door was shut by episode’s end, but now it’s Xavier’s turn to try to appeal to the would-be mass murderer. Since Xavier and pals survived Tut’s attack, Nur is forced to look upon him with respect since he does buy into that whole survival of the fittest mantra. Xavier is then able to convince Nur to allow him to probe his mind to find out just what it is they are both seeking.

You’re up, Chuck.

Xavier doesn’t really learn anything new, at least not to the audience. The temple they, and Rama-Tut, are seeking is quite literally calling out to En Sabah Nur. It’s clearly not of this world, but it’s a destination they all seek. It’s also made even more important for the X-Men to find this thing because Magneto is very much committed to his idea of reform for Nur so much so that he disables Bishop’s (Isaac Robinson-Smith) time traveling bracelet. He seems to think they’ll be able to repair it with the tech waiting for them at this temple, but that’s one Hell of a gamble. The rest of the episode is fairly straight-forward. We do get some character moments of which the most intriguing is between Rogue (Lenore Zann) and Nur while camping for the night. Xavier also receives a communication from Rama-Tut himself during which viewers not familiar with the character get the Cliff’s Notes version of just who he is. The most interesting aspect of the meeting is finding out that Tut is attempting to prevent the rise of Apocalypse (Marquand), though he seems to view it as inevitable. I mostly find it interesting because we know that he, as Immortus, will assist Bishop in doing just that some 5,000 years in the future during the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc. He had to wait an awful long time for that sort of satisfaction.

Well, that answers some questions.

And inevitable is certainly a theme with this one. What we’re seeing is a fatalistic approach to time travel on display where everything occurs in a loop. We saw that in episode two with Nathan obtaining the power of Apocalypse’s celestial ship, which was referred to simply as Ship in the X-Men episode “Obsession.” That entity manifests itself as Cable’s computer, a device which allows him to travel through time and a power Apocalypse seeks in “Beyond Good and Evil.” It first rested with Apocalypse until Cable essentially stole it before he reacquired it to embark on that particular quest. With the X-Men in the past attempting to prevent his rise, they have inadvertently become a part of it. Apocalypse is inevitable, and like Bishop trying to alter time to improve upon his future, it seems like there is little mere mortals can do about it. Everything has happened for a reason and for longtime viewers of X-Men and now X-Men ’97, it’s rewarding to see how everything intertwines.

Even this one finds time for some interesting character moments.

This episode does feature an action-packed climax and a resolution designed to land with a wallop. It is, unfortunately, undermined by the show up to this point as we have had numerous fake outs and lasting consequences seem to be in short supply when it comes to X-Men ’97. That is not unique to the show as it’s something of a failing for comics as a whole. Perhaps the fallout will land better in a future episode, but for me when this one was over I didn’t feel much of anything other than appreciation for how well everything was animated. To my surprise, the episode also didn’t really toy with the idea of the X-Men taking out En Sabah Nur before he becomes Apocalypse, assuming they could. There is a brief moment where it seems like Bishop is willing to do so, but he’s stopped and no discussion ensues. A pedantic complaint I also have is we see Xavier and Magneto secretly communicating via telepathy, but the whole time Magneto is wearing his helmet. This would not have been an issue in the original series because at that point it had not been established that Magneto’s helmet blocked psychic attacks. Unfortunately for the show, that retcon was adopted for the first season of the show so it should still be in effect now. It further annoys me because we didn’t need Magneto to put his helmet on. He didn’t have it in the previous episode and I don’t even know how he managed to recover it during all that happened on Asteroid M, so why even stick it back on his head now? The design is slightly different so maybe it’s not the exact same helmet and instead one he created during their time in Egypt. Even so, it sure looks to be largely the same so there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t possess the same benefits as his old one.

That helmet is bugging me way too much.

It’s not important, just something a very invested fan like myself needs to call out. “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 2” lives up to its name and it will likely prove to be a necessary step for the greater conflict with Apocalypse this season. Nothing is resolved here as far as that conflict goes, though other aspects of this early season are. For instance, we do learn who was calling out to Xavier in that vision he had in the prior episode, though the individual is never given a name (you’ll have to…search…that information out yourself). I should also point out that there is a stinger scene at the end of this one during the credits so don’t bail on it while the X-Men are spinning on their pedestals. It’s just a tease for next week’s episode and if you looked ahead at the episode titles then you can probably guess where we’re heading. I’m expecting it to be kind of a time out episode before we get back to the Apocalypse plot, but I obviously could be wrong. This is an episode of X-Men ’97 that largely keeps the train rolling and serves to be an exciting half hour of television with some time travel quirks, albeit one with an ending that doesn’t land as forcefully as the writing staff probably intended.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 1”

The premiere episode for season two of X-Men ’97 took us to the far off future where Apocalypse reigns supreme. The second followed that one up with a story set in the present time of the series: 1997 (Duh!). Now, for the third episode of this three-part premiere we head to ancient Egypt to meet…

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X-Men ’97 – “A Force to be Reckoned With”

The title of this post says X-Men ’97, but in some respects it should read X-Force ’97 because that’s what the opening title presents. Yes, boys and girls, we have ourselves an X-Force on television. Cable made numerous appearances in the original series, but never as the leader of X-Force. This surprised me as a…

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X-Men ’97 – “Days of Past Future”

At last, X-Men ’97 has made its return to airwaves with not one, not two, but three episodes for the premiere which means there’s a lot to talk about. Truthfully, too much for one post which is why we need to keep things to one episode per entry as is the style of the time.…

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by Joe

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