Warning: Major spoilers for X-Men '97 below!
Remember when I said that there was no way X-Men '97 season 1 was going to end on a high note? Well, the finale is here – and I was right.
Now, as someone who isn't super familiar with the comics, I did some digging last week and concluded that episode 9 was taking two key events – Logan's bones leaving his body and Xavier getting ready to meld his mind with Magneto's – and using them to set up two comic book accurate storylines for season 2. Well, I was wrong – and the series cleverly hit us with two red herrings so we wouldn't be even just the littlest bit prepared for the events of episode 10, 'Tolerance is Extinction Part 3.'
The good news is: everyone makes up at the end. Cable finally accepts Jean Grey as his other mom, and Scott even takes off his red shades (in a safe, hologram projected way) to show his son that they have the same eyes. Jubilee and Sunspot are back to being lovebirds – and we get to see him use his powers in action for the very first time. Logan is still alive (though barely), Mr. Sinister is finally defeated, and the earth has been restored to its non-damaged self.
Ready for the bad news? The X-Men are, uh, gone. Yeah. Think of it like the infamous Blip in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where everyone just kind of disappeared for five years. After the UN fires their "Magneto protocol" which backfires and threatens to send Asteroid M to Earth. After Professor X fixes his psyche and guides him back to his body, Magneto saves the world from Asteroid M...but it throws Rogue, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Xavier, Logan, Beast, Nightcrawler, and Magneto into Egypt circa 3000 BC. Jean and Scott end up somewhere in the Future circa 3960 AD...with a teenaged, pre-Cable version of Nathan?
Six months go by and Forge is 'the last X-Man' left on Earth. Jubilee, Sunspot, and Cable, though having survived the Blip-like ending, are marked "AWOL." Bishop, however, returns from his episode 2 stint in the future to help Forge 'rebuild' the X-Men. End of season 1...right? Wrong. A post-credits scene takes us to Present Day Genosha, where a big bad named Apocalypse lifts Gambit's playing card out of the dirt.
Two key things happen just before the credits that make this scene extra ominous: Bishop remarks, "This ain't our first time at the 'The X-Men are dead rodeo'" and a man named En Sabin Nur introduces himself to the X-Men trapped in Egypt BC. Well folks, En Sabin Nur is the mutant warrior known as Apocalypse, one of the Four Horsemen, a group that Gambit becomes part of in the comics.
Oh, and we have no idea what happened to Logan.
Now that you're all caught up, I think I speak for everyone when I say: Uh, what? Firstly, it's the jam-packed finale a Marvel fan could only dream of. The good guys kick some serious butt and defeat two of the worst villains they've ever come across. One of the biggest emotional storylines gets wrapped up neatly, with a bow. The Avengers make a cameo. Our favorite recently deceased hero is most likely going to be resurrected as some creepy scary villain guy. What more could you ask for?
However, I think the writers really wanted us to feel for Xavier and Magneto – but that little heartfelt moment inside Magnus's mind didn't do much for me. I understand that these are complex characters, that Magneto is a complex villain who spends the season toeing the line of 'antihero,' but this is all his fault. Sure, the Fall of Genosha wasn't his fault and he did everything he could to stop it – but the whole end of the world, war against the human race thing? He did that. And how was he even in the position to do that in the first place? Because Xavier (who didn't really even die, mind you) left the X-Men to Magneto in his will. And then figured he could just talk him into reversing the whole war on mankind thing. I'm sorry but they're both the worst, and they deserve each other.
Besides the Xavier and Magneto of it all, episode 10 is a near-perfect ending to an exciting and tumultuous season. It's surprising at every single turn. There's a ton of fan service, but the events of the episode are so fast-paced that I didn't really mind. We started the season off with pure devastation, and while we aren't ending it on the highest of notes...there's so much to look forward to in season 2! We have three different storylines going, four if we end up following Sunspot and Jubilee and five if we find out what happened to Logan, and there's a brand new villain that's probably going to ruin everything once again – but we know our X-Men will most likely save the day once again. They're down, but they're not out. I'm hooked for season 2 and 3 and however many more Marvel wants to throw at us.
X-Men '97 is streaming now in its entirety on Disney Plus. For more, check out our post-credits scene explainer.
