First up, X-Men ’97 has been an enjoyable surprise and has easily been some of Disney’s best stuff in quite some time. Okay, that said, this piece will talk about episode 9 of X-Men ’97 season 1. So, if you haven’t seen the episode yet, I highly recommend you skip this article, as it will spoil some stuff for you.
Last chance, Bub.
Okay, let’s get into the nitty-gritty. I’ve had so many people ask me, or I’ve seen the question on Twitter, that it stuck with me as odd. Don’t people read comic books anymore?
This is a Dance We’ve Seen Before
Ah, X-Men ’97 episode 9 takes me back to my younger years of reading comic books at my parent’s house. Those were much better days. However, during a specific arc, Magneto and Wolverine have a conflict that is a significant turning point for both characters, and it’s this same turning point that is recreated in this episode.
With Charles back and Magneto recovering from the recent events of X-Men ’97, he has depowered the entire world and has risen an asteroid from the Ocean, which many will know as Asteroid M. Though it wasn’t called that in the show. Realizing that Magneto must be stopped… no matter the cost, a team of X-Men is set to this asteroid to try to talk Magneto down. Of course, things don’t go as planned, and we end up in a situation where Wolverine attacks Mags from the back, stabbing him through the chest. We don’t know if this is fatal, but during this time, Magneto figures he’s had enough, and he uses his superior mutant abilities, puts Wolverine in a body chokehold and does the unthinkable. He starts to rip the adamantium that was laced onto Wolvie’s bones and yanks them out of his body.
Fade to black.
I said we’ve seen this dance before, as this happened in a prior X-Men comic book arc called Fatal Attractions (1993). It was the same situation here: just place the asteroid with a spaceship. Wolverine still manages to stabby stab Magneto, and in turn, Mags rips the adamantium out of Wolverine and ultimately puts him down. After a sequence of events and issues, we discover that Wolverine has always had those claws made out of bone. However, popping them out was a painful experience that required his healing factor to heal him every time it happened. His bone isn’t as sharp and appears to be jagged, which cut him more than the adamantium-laced versions. Since they aren’t as strong, they break a lot.
So, how does Wolverine get his adamantium back? Numerous experiments are performed on him to try and get that miracle metal back into him, but nothing works. That is, nothing until Acopalyse tells Wolverine that he can do it, but there’s a catch. Reluctant but also still frustrated that he hasn’t been the same mutant killing machine that he was, he agrees. But before that, he has to defeat Sabertooth, and after the experiment succeeds, Wolvie becomes Acoplyse’s Horseman of Death and is sent after the X-Men. Talk about a bum deal.
I’m curious to see how this all plays out in X-Men ’97. We do know Acoplayse will play a part in the show, likely in the next two seasons, as we see Cable fighting against him in the opening credits. We will likely see everything that happened in Fatal Attractions, but I want to know if we’ll see an adamantium-less Wolverine in the next season. Or maybe someone or something stops Mags before he finishes what he started.
It has been nothing exciting watching X-Men ’97 due to all the comic book arcs the creators have taken and woven into this fantastic animated series. I’m like a little kid again watching it, and it sucks that we’re at the first season with no word on when the next season will start.
