Well, the time has sadly come to say goodbye to our X-Men—for now. X-Men ’97, a continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, took us back to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and left us absolutely devastated each and every week. That includes the season 1 finale.
Spoilers ahead for the entire season of X-Men ’97.
Bastion was determined to destroy the X-Men in the three-part finale. A living and breathing sentinel, he wanted to see the end of Charles and his team. Refusing to listen to the mutants who tried to reason with him (and tell him that Charles did try to help him), Bastion became more machine than man and was determined to eradicate the mutants. This all happened as Charles and Erik were having a heart to heart in Magneto’s mind.
The finale, titled “Tolerance Is Extinction – Part Three” had a lot of moving parts. Charles and Erik were sitting in a coma-like state because they were hashing it out in Magneto’s mind. Bastion took on Scott and Jean, and then there’s Logan, who is alive but out of commission. All of this is happening as Asteroid M is heading towards the planet, threatening to hit the east coast.
Luckily, Charles and Magneto worked it out, Scott and Jean took Bastion out after he hurt Cable (don’t hurt their boy!), and the rest of the team was ready to help stop Asteroid M. But where things get tricky is when Magneto chose to do the right thing and save humanity. Because now the X-Men have been thrown into different time periods?
Where are the X-Men?!
Magneto decided to blow up the asteroid far away from earth, but in doing so he sent the mutants to different timelines.
The end of the episode had Forge thinking he was one of the only X-Men left. He was at the school (now chained up and condemned) when Bishop came to see him. Forge, angry that his love (Storm) and the other X-Men were gone, didn’t want to talk to Bishop. But Bishop had important information for him: The X-Men are not dead, they’re just not in the right time.
Rogue, Nightcrawler, Magneto, Beast, and Charles are all in ancient Egypt. There, they go to the aid of a mutant who is fighting for his life. That mutant is En Sabah Nur. Also known as Apocalypse.
The other timeline has Scott and Jean in the future, in 3600 AD. They meet with Mother Askani, the leader of Clan Askani, and try to figure out exactly what happened to them. That’s when Nathan appears as a young man and both Scott and Jean are shocked to see him.
With some mutants in their original timeline and others—like Storm, where did she end up?!—still out there in places unknown, it sets us up for an eventful second season. Just when things could have finally settled down, here comes Apocalypse to destroy everything the X-Men know and love.
