All good things must come to an end, however temporary that end may be. Such is the case with X-Men ’97, the almighty creative juggernaut from Marvel Animation which is set to begin airing its three-part season finale next week.
In other words, we can look forward to about three episodes of the X-Men going toe-to-terabyte with Bastion, the mysterious ringleader of the Wild Sentinel’s attack on Genosha, who is therefore among the nastiest adversaries that the X-Men will ever have to face.
But who is Bastion, and what heinous antics can we expect from him going forward? Here’s the lowdown on the cybernetic supervillain that won’t rest until mutants have gone the way of the dinosaurs.
Who is Bastion?
Bastion is a Sentinel-esque android and the mastermind of Operation: Zero Tolerance (in case you were wondering what OZT stands for). By fusing ordinary humans (including the ill-fated Bolivar Trask) with special nanotech, Bastion developed a squadron of Prime Sentinels—think a purple-hued human with the power of ten war machines—to carry out his operation with the goal of extinguishing all mutant life. He’s also murdered Henry Gyrich, engaged in tense collaboration with Mister Sinister, and holds an especially lucrative mutant as his prisoner.
All of that has happened in the show so far, and also happens to come right from the “Operation: Zero Tolerance” comics arc, the story which Bastion features most prominently in. Going forward, expect him to add some X-Men to his list of prisoners (Jubilee, Beast, and Rogue are my personal predictions), encounter Professor X in some way, and send a few more of his opponents to their graves before inevitably falling himself (after all, X-Men ’97 may be full of surprises, but they wouldn’t end season one with a definitive fail-state).
X-Men ’97 is currently streaming on Disney+, with new episodes premiering every Wednesday until the season finale on May 15.
(featured image: Disney+)
