RECAP: X-Men 97 Season 2, Episode 4
Well, that was intense.
The “Rise of Apocalypse” arc in “X-Men ‘97” wrapped up with a brutal ending that establishes one of the X-Men’s most deadly villains, potentially disrupted the timeline, and closed with another shocking end for one our core characters. While not as shocking or impactful as Season 1’s “Remember It” — an episode that I am sure will be held up in comparison — the episode packed a similar gut punch that will have repercussions for numerous characters.
Read on for my take on “X-Men ‘97” Season 2 Episode 4, breaking down the episode’s character arcs one by one. Warning: there WILL be spoilers! Read on at the end for speculation on where we may be going next, as well as some Easter Eggs based on someone who has been reading X-Men comics (and comics in general) since the mid-1980s.
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TOP 10: Characters We Want in “X-Men ‘97”
I’ll go through each character featured in this episode, from the least essential to the most.
Nightcrawler
The newest X-Man hasn’t had a ton to do in the series as of yet, and that extends to this arc set in the distant past. Kurt offered philosophical observations regarding fate and human nature, and a comforting ear to Rogue when she recalled her lost love, Gambit. Aside from that, he did what he could in the climactic battle against Apocalypse, but he was simply outclassed (although none of the X-Men exactly showed up or showed out this episode).
Rogue
Rogue had at least one interesting interaction with En Sabah Nur, in which she tried to bond with the first mutant about the most human of experiences: love. As Rogue alluded to her deceased boyfriend, she asked if Nur had ever been in love. He explained that, when he was just an infant, his mother left him in the desert to die. Since then everyone he’s ever cared about has been taken away from him. So no, he has never known love. Uncomfortable. In the big battle against Nur at the end, Rogue made an attempt, I guess, and got slapped down with little effort. It did seem like a pretty half-assed approach by Rogue, given the severity of the situation. Like, the X-Men understood that this as their chance to prevent a genocidal madman from coming into power. And Rogue just, like, flew up and attempted to punch him, rather than, I don’t know, using her actual power to drain his abilities and leave him incapacitated. But listen, the plot demands what the plot demands.
Beast
Beast’s role the past two episodes was to be cranky science guy annoyed at his ability to get them home, and then this episode, to marvel at the reality of what they were dealing with. Specifically, the hidden temple both Rama-Tut and En Sabah Nur were seeking in the desert was in fact the Celestial-made spacecraft Ship, featured in both the original “X-Men” animated series Apocalypse arc, and shown in the distant future in the first two episodes of this season. Beast realized that the X-Men had been in that craft before, and that it was firmly under Apocalypse’s control — so at least Hank put the danger together shortly before everyone else. He also did successfully use Ship’s technology to fix Bishop’s timeband (at least I think he did, that all happened off screen), allowing most of the team to travel back to the present. But not a great couple of episodes for Beast fans. To be honest, I forgot he was even in the mix for most of the episodes.
Bishop
For a guy whose main shtick is traveling through time, Bishop has appalling timing. There are totally plausible reasons for why he popped up either just after or just before critical moments — the presence of Rama-Tut’s technology could have interfered with time jumping; the Celestial elements could do the same; Apocalypse’s ascension may be one of those “fixed” points in time that create chaos for time travelers — but Bishop didn’t accomplish a whole lot these episodes.
To his credit, he DID try to get the X-Men home as soon as he could, to prevent any additional fuckery with the timestream. Magneto’s astonishingly dumb interference scrubbed that plan, and from there he was an unwilling participant in an infamous moment in mutant history. Bishop arguably did more in the battle with En Sabah Nur than most of the other X-Men, shooting him with his gun and unloading his stored mutant energy against him — all for naught. In truth, Bishop was more a plot device this episode than he was a character. I would have liked to have seen him have a little more to say or do, given the time-sliding nature of his character.
Rama-Tut/Kang the Conqueror
The surprisingly sassy pharaoh — voiced by the great John DeLancie, perhaps best known as Q from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” — played his hand this episode, trying (and failing) to eliminate potential competitor Apocalypse from the board before he ever showed up, and attempting to take the Celestial power hidden in the temple for himself. That made Rama-Tut an interesting wildcard, but ultimately kind of pointless. In the end, his cruelty as pharaoh only made Apocalypse stronger and more determined to fulfill his “survival of the fittest” credo. Once he realized that he had failed in his attempt, he vanished back into the timestream.
But not before giving us a few small morsels. First and most importantly, Rama-Tut reveals his true (ish) identity, Kang the Conqueror. Kang is a longtime Marvel villain, typically associated with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four (he is actually a descendent of Reed Richards of the FF). Kang was set to be a very big deal in the Marvel Cinematic Universe around this time, as he was intended to be the big bad the Avengers films set to release around this time, until, well, a lot of things went wrong. Before Kang popped away into the timestream, he also informed the mysterious woman who was assisting Rama-Tut that her story was just beginning, as the next chapter required something External. What does that mean? Read on in the Speculation Section for more.
The Celestial
As hinted at in the previous episode, the power behind the hidden temple, calling out to En Sabah Nur, was a Celestial, massive space gods that have been featured in a few Marvel Cinematic Universe properties at this point, notably The Eternals and Guardians of the Galaxy. In fact, the same Celestial involved in this episode — Esson the Searcher — was shown in the first Guardians movie, using the Power Stone to obliterate a whole planet.
Why was Esson so interested in getting En Sabah Nur to be transformed by the Celestial seed? Canonically, Esson is fixated on evolution. That makes him a good fit for X-Men stories, and for Apocalypse’s origin in particular. Would a non-empowered En Sabah Nur have had nearly the impact on mutant society that the Celestial-amped Apocalypse ultimately does? Highly unlikely. So even with this relatively small action, Esson is doing what Celestials do best: manipulate the universe in big-picture ways.
There is, however, an issue with the way this episode plays out. When the X-Men are entering the hidden temple, they realize that it is actually Ship…and Esson is seen slumbering inside of it. Like, we see the Celestial there, unmoving. Well, by the end of the episode, Ship — and presumably Esson inside of it — are pulled into a black hole. That doesn’t make any sense, unless what happened this episode creates a splinter timeline — which is very possible. But taking a whole-ass Celestial off the table would not have gone without consequences from the rest of the Celestial Host, and if Ship is destroyed here, how does anything else it is involved with in the 1990s or the far-flung future shown in the beginning of Season 2 work? I smell a plot hole.
Xavier
Chuck had a bad time in Egypt, let’s say that. First, he and Magneto spent most of the time squabbling over whether or not to attempt to bring En Sabah Nur into their fold, thereby establishing the world’s first X-Man millennia in advance, and potentially creating a much better world for mutants in modern times. Once it becomes clear that isn’t an option — when Nur is given the option to ascend via the Celestial Seed — Charles is more or less powerless to stop the tragedy that crashes down around him. From scores of dead Egyptians to a literal black hole ripping apart a city, to ultimately the fate of his longtime friend/enemy, Xavier has very little agency in the back half of this episode. He does get in one telepathic lick at Apocalypse, which I’m sure Big A did not appreciate at all. But the anguish that Xavier experiences this episode was written all over his face, and based on other recent events and certain visual context cues included at the end of this episode, there’s a very specific direction this all seems to be pointing. Read the Speculation Section for more.
Magneto
I’m still debating how I feel about Magneto’s arc in these last two episodes. I think the plot stays true to Erik’s intrinsic nature — he saw an opportunity to preemptively right terrible wrongs that would perpetrated upon his people, and he was adamant that they take the opportunity. That’s wholly in Magneto’s character. Where I struggle is the instant heel turn once En Sabah Nur is offered the Celestial Seed. If Magneto agreed that the moment Nur became Apocalypse was the end of their window of opportunity, why was he also so hellbent on getting him to the hidden temple? He couldn’t have guessed that the moment of Apocalypse’s creation would likely involve the mysterious sky god talking to him via the stars? That seems remarkably stupid for a man so smart.
Or maybe he was going to give Apocalypse a chance at doing the right thing, until he immediately attempted to atomize a whole city of people? That too would be consistent with Magneto’s character. I just found that his shift in motivations within these 30 minutes were tricky to navigate.
I did appreciate Magneto’s battle tactics against Apocalypse. He was far more effective than literally anyone else, by a wide margin. I’m not sure if the physics behind his bid to save the city actually make any sense, but it sure looked badass. And I appreciated him throwing the rest of the X-Men through the time gate (except Charles), since none of them would have even been present had Magneto not foolishly fried Bishop’s timeband early in the episode.
But let’s talk about that episode. After Magneto saved the city, hurled Apocalypse into the desert, destroyed the Ship, and got Xavier to safety, Apocalypse emerged from the sands and, seemingly atomized Magneto via some kind of laser. I say “seemingly” because we didn’t actually see it, just the energy leading up to it. All that remained was his beaten and steaming helmet, a reference to a classic X-Men comic cover from that time. Read the Speculation Section for some theories on what I think might have actually happened there.
Ultimately Magneto’s sacrifice was heroic, and epic. It was a result of his own hubris, which is, again, quintessential Magneto.
Apocalypse
The literal reason for the season thus far, Apocalypse had a big episode. I think these two episodes did a great job setting up Apocalypse’s backstory, developing a better understanding for the viewers as to why he is what he is, and does what he does. He’s not just a big robot-looking dude with a bold accessory game who likes to transform weak people into strong but evil minions. He’s a centuries-old mutant hardened by an impossibly difficult life, chosen by literal gods to be empowered to transform and embolden mutantkind for centuries to come. That’s compelling stuff.
The show did simplify En Sabah Nur’s powers. Here he’s crazy strong, durable, and fast; in the comics it’s more nuanced than that. The Celestial abilities give him his technological elements and seemingly body-morphing abilities.
What I think is unique about this arc — as in, I don’t believe they did this in the comics — is that they establish that Apocalypse knows about the X-Men centuries in advance, and has specific knowledge of Charles Xavier and a reason to hate his guts. Apocalypse was bad enough in the original series without this backstory. This time, it’s personal. And he’s had centuries to plan his counterattack.
SPECULATION SECTION
LOTS of spoilers, including for things that have not/may not happen in the future.
-Is Magneto actually dead? Possibly; Magneto has died many times in the comics, and he has come back in various ridiculous ways. But there was no body here. In TV and movies, no body = not dead. It’s possible that the device Apocalypse used on Magneto didn’t disintegrate him, it teleported him somewhere/somewhen. Sound crazy? It’s exactly what happened to Batman when Darkseid hit him with Omega Beams in DC Comics’ “Final Crisis” event, all the way down to the skeleton being shown, which was kind of referenced in the last shot of Magneto here. I know, different property, different comic company, different medium. But I don’t think that’s at all a stretch.
Additionally, Apocalypse is all about the strong surviving. Magneto is without question strong. Apocalypse may hate him on a personal level, but he would likely respect him. My guess is that Magneto will be made into one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen, debuting at some point this season. Magneto has never been a Horseman in the comics — they’re typically mortal enemies — so I’d be curious to see how that works out.
-Between Charles’s psychic attack on Magneto at the end of last season, and the trauma experienced by Xavier this episode, I think it’s pretty clear that we are moving toward an adaptation of the Onslaught storyline at some point in the near future. For those who don’t know, Onslaught was an incredibly powerful entity created when Xavier was influenced by Magneto’s darkness post-psychic attack, ultimately corrupting Xavier and leading to a major comic event that removed the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Hulk, and other characters from the Marvel Universe for over a year. The original comic Onslaught arc was messy, but it had some incredibly cool moments that I would love to see “X-Men ‘97” explore.
-The Celestials might feel like a random inclusion here, but the Celestials actually have a fairly significant history with Marvel’s Merry Mutants. In addition to being responsible for the creation of a previous mutant race, the Deviants, for a few years the X-Men were de facto guardians of an inert Celestial that camped out in San Francisco (really!). There’s also some interesting stuff involved with Jean Grey/Phoenix and Celestials, but I won’t go into that here. If you’re curious, check out the overall great Avengers/X-Men/Eternals crossover “Judgment Day” from a few years back.
-The stinger at the end of the episode featuring Wolverine (presumably back in the present, with bone claws) interacting with Captain America and a 90s-costumed Black Widow, is a specific reference to “Uncanny X-Men” #268, a weird bottle episode set in the 1940s in which Cap and Logan work together to save a Russian child who would grow up to be Black Widow. The chronology of that made no sense in the 1980s — unless Black Widow is meant to be in her 40s, which she obviously is not — but it’s fun. They give Wolverine a dossier for Weapon X, the program that originally gave him his adamantium, and he responds that he’s got a whole squad in mind. This could either be the recently formed X-Force from Episode 2, or any number of iterations of the Weapon X team that have been featured in comics over the years. I’m personally holding out for appearances by Deadpool and Fantomex, both part of that program.
What do you think of “X-Men ‘97”? Are you happy with Season 2 so far? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
