The final episodes of X-Men ’97 Season 1 seemed to tease a handful of deep-cut developments from the comics. The titular team is once again forced to face off against Magneto, and the casualties are great: the metalbending villain strips Wolverine’s adamantium coating from his skeleton, and Professor X eventually retaliates by unleashing a psychic attack on his old friend. Those two developments trigger two specific (and polarizing) events in the comics, but as close as X-Men ’97 might get to the rise of Feral Wolverine or Onslaught, the animated series continues to subvert expectations in the wildest possible ways.
Spoilers ahead for X-Men ’97 Episode 5, “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs.”
