---
title: 'X-Men ''97 Season 2 Ending Explained | Episode 9 Breakdown, Post-Credits Scene, Mystique & Onslaught'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=m2LbWXdEHBk'
video_id: 'm2LbWXdEHBk'
date: 2026-08-17
duration_sec: 1504
channel: 'Heavy Spoilers'
---

# X-Men '97 Season 2 Ending Explained | Episode 9 Breakdown, Post-Credits Scene, Mystique & Onslaught

> Source: [X-Men '97 Season 2 Ending Explained | Episode 9 Breakdown, Post-Credits Scene, Mystique & Onslaught](https://youtube.com/watch?v=m2LbWXdEHBk)

## Summary

This video provides a detailed breakdown of the X-Men '97 season 2 finale, episode 9, including the resolution of the Apocalypse storyline, the post-credits scene featuring Mystique, and the setup for season 3. The host, Paul, analyzes key plot points, comic book references, and hidden details, while also speculating on future storylines such as Onslaught and the Brood.

### Key Points

- **Introduction and Season Premise** [00:00] — The video breaks down the X-Men '97 season 2 finale, covering hidden details, comic references, and the post-credits scene. The season follows the X-Men through time to stop Apocalypse, but their actions lead to Magneto's vaporization.
- **Apocalypse's Plan and X-Force** [01:24] — Apocalypse travels to the '90s to destroy the X-Men at their most vulnerable. The season features the primary X-Men team and the newly formed X-Force, led by Cable, consisting of Jubilee, Sunspot, Archangel, and Psylocke.
- **Gambit's Return and Twist** [02:05] — In episode 8, X-Force discovers Apocalypse is dead, killed by a resurrected Gambit, who has become Apocalypse's new horseman. The twist is that Gambit is possessed by Apocalypse himself, using him as a vessel.
- **Rogue's Temporary Fix** [03:18] — Rogue touches Gambit while they are both knocked out, temporarily reversing Apocalypse's mind control and trapping him within Remy's consciousness. This is only a temporary fix, leading to the events of episode 9.
- **Episode 9: The Attack on X-Core Tower** [05:42] — X-Force and X-Factor launch an attack on Xavier's X-Core Tower to kill Gambit before Apocalypse takes over again. Rogue enters the celestial shrine to confront Eson the Celestial, begging for a way to save Gambit.
- **Eson's Warning and Rogue's Deal** [06:14] — Eson warns that Apocalypse is essential to the universe's progress, as life advances at the cost of other lives. Rogue insists her love for Gambit is strong enough to do the impossible, and Eson presents her with a chance to sacrifice herself for Remy.
- **Rogue's Transformation** [06:42] — Rogue emerges from the shrine glowing with golden energy and a new black and gold suit. The video explains that the stone is a celestial seed, and Rogue likely received a life seed, making her a celestial gardener, the counterbalance to Apocalypse.
- **The Assault Continues** [09:42] — X-Force and X-Factor fight Mech Sentinels and each other. Cable drops into the tower and confronts Cyclops and Jean, choosing his destiny to kill Apocalypse over his parents. He finds Gambit and shoots him in the head.
- **Apocalypse Gambit Rises** [11:24] — Gambit's eyes open and he goes full Apocalypse, taking over the X-Men's minds. Rogue arrives and grabs him, pulling Apocalypse out of Remy's mind and trapping him in the Heart of Eternal Darkness gem.
- **Rogue's Sacrifice and Nightcrawler's Deal** [13:22] — Rogue gives the gem to Cable and reunites with Gambit. It's revealed that Nightcrawler made a deal with Eson to save Rogue, sacrificing himself to inspire mutants to come together and build a better future.
- **Post-Credits Scene: Mystique's Reveal** [14:54] — The post-credits scene shows Val Cooper in her office, with Graydon Creed becoming president. It's revealed that Mystique has been impersonating Val, and she shoots the real Val, declaring war on the United States.
- **Comic References and Season 3 Setup** [15:25] — The video discusses potential comic inspirations for season 3, including Nightcrawler's sacrifice in X-Force #26, Mystique leading Freedom Force, and the potential resurrection of Apocalypse by Cable using the Heart gem.
- **Onslaught as the Big Bad** [20:34] — The host speculates that Onslaught, a psionic entity formed from the merging of Professor X and Magneto's minds, will be the biggest threat in season 3, set up by Magneto's death and Xavier's trauma.
- **The Brood's Potential Return** [21:36] — The video suggests the Brood may get an episode in season 3, continuing their setup from the alien-inspired episode this season. They were almost completely left out of the original series.

### Conclusion

The season 2 finale sets up multiple storylines for season 3, including Mystique's war on the US, the potential return of Apocalypse, and the emergence of Onslaught. The show continues to blend comic book references with new stories, creating a nostalgic yet fresh X-Men adventure.

## Transcript

Paul. In this video, we're breaking down X-Men 97. The Mutants are back for an all new season of&nbsp; X-Men 97, where they get caught in an adventure&nbsp;&nbsp;
across timelines trying to stop their greatest&nbsp; villain, Apocalypse. After multiple teams of X&nbsp;&nbsp; people fail to stop the mutant tyrant, Apocalypse&nbsp; travels to the '90s in an allout war to end the&nbsp;&nbsp; team once and for all. And am I the only one who&nbsp; kept dying every time they said they were going&nbsp;&nbsp;
back to 1997? We're going back to the future 1990.&nbsp; Throughout this video though, we will be breaking&nbsp;&nbsp; down the finale and going through all the hidden&nbsp; details and references from the comics. Also want&nbsp;&nbsp;
to touch upon what could be in store for the&nbsp; X-Men in season 3. It was a big thing that&nbsp;&nbsp; dropped at San Diego Comic-Con and we have lots to&nbsp; talk about that kind of leads off that postredit&nbsp;&nbsp; scene. Rogue really do always come to Gambit's&nbsp; rescue. Now, before we get started on the finale,&nbsp;&nbsp;
let's do a quick little recap as to how we got&nbsp; here. We started off the season following the&nbsp;&nbsp; X-Men on a journey through time to stop Apocalypse&nbsp; before he becomes the mutant tyrant that we of&nbsp;&nbsp; course know him as. However, they just kind of&nbsp; screw everything up more and it results in Magneto&nbsp;&nbsp;
being vaporized. Now, this kind of flipped things&nbsp; from season 1 with Xavier being missing a lot&nbsp;&nbsp; from that until later in the season. Now, though,&nbsp; the master of magnetism is out for the long haul.&nbsp;&nbsp; Because of this, Apocalypse wants to destroy the&nbsp; X-Men, and he decides to make his way to the '90s,&nbsp;&nbsp;
where he believes they'll be at their most&nbsp; vulnerable. That basically sets the premise&nbsp;&nbsp; for the season. And in this, we follow various&nbsp; X teams as they try and prevent the mutant&nbsp;&nbsp; dictator from taking over Earth. This includes our&nbsp; primary X-Men team, and the newly formed X Force,&nbsp;&nbsp;
which is led by Cable. That's made up of Jubilee,&nbsp; Sunspot, Archangel, and Psylock. And I have to&nbsp;&nbsp; say, I absolutely loved it when they gave them&nbsp; their own version of the title sequence. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp; while trying to figure out how to stop Apocalypse,&nbsp; our heroes are also being hunted by a group of&nbsp;&nbsp;
government hide mutants named Xfactor, who are led&nbsp; by Val Cooper. They were tasked with rounding up&nbsp;&nbsp; troublesome mutants in an attempt to strengthen&nbsp; their image to the public. Now, with everyone on&nbsp;&nbsp; their own side missions to find Apocalypse, this&nbsp; all comes together in episode 8, where X Force&nbsp;&nbsp;
discovers that Apocalypse is already dead and&nbsp; has been killed by a newly resurrected Gambit.&nbsp;&nbsp; He was brought back after his death last season&nbsp; to be Apocalypse's new horseman. How about Gambit&nbsp;&nbsp; instead killed Apocalypse and took his powers&nbsp; for himself. Or so it seems at least. But he&nbsp;&nbsp;
then traveled back to New Orleans in search of the&nbsp; external. This is Apocalypse's former lover who he&nbsp;&nbsp; shared his powers with and she now resides in the&nbsp; Bayou. The X-Men then arrived to save Gambit while&nbsp;&nbsp; also trying to stop Cable and the rest of X Force&nbsp; from assassinating him. Unfortunately, he and his&nbsp;&nbsp;
new assassin league horsemen kidnap Rogue and&nbsp; take her to the external so that Remy can give&nbsp;&nbsp; her celestial powers to Rogue. He then slices up&nbsp; the external. And if you rewatch the episode with&nbsp;&nbsp; the twist in mind, a lot of the dialogue actually&nbsp; works really well and plays out a bit differently.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Kind of jumping the gut a bit there. But this&nbsp; twist is revealed when the X-Men and X4 show up,&nbsp;&nbsp; and we get what feels like the series version of&nbsp; the portal scene from Avengers Endgame. Professor&nbsp;&nbsp; X and infiltrates Gambit's mind, and we learn&nbsp; that he's not just Apocalypse's new horsemen,&nbsp;&nbsp;
but has been possessed by Apocalypse himself.&nbsp; The villain is using Gambit as his vessel. And&nbsp;&nbsp; while Charles is unable to break Apocalypse's&nbsp; influence, Rogue touches Ramy while they're&nbsp;&nbsp; both knocked out. Thus, she's able to break her&nbsp; sugar free from Apocalypse's mind prison. And she&nbsp;&nbsp;
temporarily reverses his mind control and traps&nbsp; Apocalypse within Remy's consciousness. Sadly,&nbsp;&nbsp; this is only a temporary fix with Remy's mind&nbsp; unable to hold him for long. This leads us into&nbsp;&nbsp; episode 9 where Rogue and the other X-Men must&nbsp; save Remy from being killed by X Force. They've&nbsp;&nbsp;
now teamed up with XFactor, and the hope is they&nbsp; can end things before Apocalypse escapes and kills&nbsp;&nbsp; everyone. The X-Men are, of course, a legendary&nbsp; team in the Marvel universe, and they're some of&nbsp;&nbsp; the best alongside the Avengers. But what if you&nbsp; could build your own team? As you may have seen&nbsp;&nbsp;
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plus 2,000 segmented gold orb fragments and 4,000&nbsp; segmented training module or fragments. Thank you&nbsp;&nbsp; again to Marvel Strikeforce for partnering with&nbsp; the channel. Now, let's get back to the video.&nbsp;&nbsp; Now, we start off episode 9 with our foot fully&nbsp; on the gas. We cable and the rest of X Force and&nbsp;&nbsp;
XFactor are launching an attack on Xavier's new&nbsp; formed Xcore Tower. They're tracking Apocalypse's&nbsp;&nbsp; celestial energy to find Gambit and kill him&nbsp; before it takes over him once more. Meanwhile,&nbsp;&nbsp; powers from the celestial Eson in episode 4 after&nbsp; the X-Men tried and failed to prevent him from&nbsp;&nbsp;
becoming Apocalypse. Once there, Rogue enters the&nbsp; celestial shrine to get Apocalypse's powers and&nbsp;&nbsp; confront the Celestial Eon, begging him for a way&nbsp; to save Gambit from Apocalypse. Eison warns that&nbsp;&nbsp; Apocalypse is an essential part of the progress&nbsp; of the universe. Life only advances at the cost&nbsp;&nbsp;
of other lives and Apocalypse will ensure Earth&nbsp; evolves and at this point it will be judged worthy&nbsp;&nbsp; by the celestial host. Not willing to take no&nbsp; for an answer though, Rogue tries to fight Eon,&nbsp;&nbsp; saying that her love for Gambit is strong enough&nbsp; to do the impossible. However, she's just stopped&nbsp;&nbsp;
in her tracks. Eison clearly sees the love&nbsp; Rogue has for Gambit is something special,&nbsp;&nbsp; though, and Eson presents her with a chance&nbsp; to prove love is stronger than death. In this,&nbsp;&nbsp; she gets a chance to sacrifice herself for Remy&nbsp; and take his place. Presenting a celestial stone,&nbsp;&nbsp;
she emerges from the shrine glowing with gold&nbsp; energy along with a sick new black and gold&nbsp;&nbsp; suit. He then leaves Nightcrawler and beast in&nbsp; the celestial ship to go and save Remy. In case&nbsp;&nbsp; you aren't familiar with the celestials in the&nbsp; comics, Eson is basically known as the seeking&nbsp;&nbsp;
celestial. You see, each celestial has a specific&nbsp; job. And Eson is searching for new life in the&nbsp;&nbsp; universe which can be experimented on in order to&nbsp; reach its evolutionary potential. Eison along with&nbsp;&nbsp; the celestial gamon are basically behind all&nbsp; the different species of the Marvel universe&nbsp;&nbsp;
such as the scrolls, the creals, and even the&nbsp; Asgardians. Now in the comics, this stone that&nbsp;&nbsp; he gives to Apocalypse and Rogue, they're called&nbsp; the celestial seeds. In the law, there's both life&nbsp;&nbsp; and death seeds, and they're basically exactly&nbsp; what they sound like. The death seed is given to&nbsp;&nbsp;
someone the celestials appoint as the caretaker of&nbsp; a planet and this imbus them with celestial power&nbsp;&nbsp; to become their agent of chaos which will force&nbsp; a species to evolve through death or Eon says&nbsp;&nbsp; through apocalypse. Think of it how all evolution&nbsp; happens which is based around the survival of the&nbsp;&nbsp;
fittest. Darwinism states that only the strongest&nbsp; bloodlines survive nature and thus they pass their&nbsp;&nbsp; genetics onto the next generation. Out of them&nbsp; the ones that survive then pass on their genes and&nbsp;&nbsp; slowly a species grows certain characteristics. So&nbsp; this is how you get insects that look like leaves&nbsp;&nbsp;
because back in the day one would have looked&nbsp; slightly like a leaf and survived past predators&nbsp;&nbsp; who for a bit longer than the other ones. They&nbsp; would have then gone on to have offspring who&nbsp;&nbsp; would have survived a bit longer and so on and&nbsp; so on. Now this was originally the job of the&nbsp;&nbsp;
deviants and before them the exterminators but&nbsp; after those plans went to [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] the celestials&nbsp;&nbsp; started using the seeds. However, the life seeds&nbsp; are the counterbalance and they're given to what&nbsp;&nbsp; the celestials call gardeners, whose job it is&nbsp; to spread new life throughout the universe and&nbsp;&nbsp;
plant death seeds to begin the evolution cycle.&nbsp; Now, while the seed given to Rogue looks exactly&nbsp;&nbsp; the same as the one given to Apocalypse, and we&nbsp; even get a onetoone callback shot of her floating&nbsp;&nbsp; in front of the sea like we saw with him, we&nbsp; see Rogue emerge not as an armored tyrant,&nbsp;&nbsp;
but glowing with golden celestial energy and&nbsp; still very much herself. Now, because of this,&nbsp;&nbsp; my first thought was that she was now an eternal.&nbsp; But I think what's more likely is that Rogue is&nbsp;&nbsp; now a celestial gardener. Given that she accepted&nbsp; Eison's offer for love and not conquest, she was&nbsp;&nbsp;
given a life seed instead of the death seed.&nbsp; This makes her the counterbalance to Apocalypse&nbsp;&nbsp; and gives her a chance to prove to the Celestials&nbsp; that love is indeed more powerful than death. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp; while this doesn't happen in the comics, it seems&nbsp; to be loosely based on Rick Remenda's 2011 uncanny&nbsp;&nbsp;
X Force run. their archangels infected with a&nbsp; death seed and he becomes the new apocalypse.&nbsp;&nbsp; In the comics, X Force and set out to find&nbsp; a life seed to cure him which went down in&nbsp;&nbsp; Uncanny X Force 10. Rogue's deal with Eison also&nbsp; doesn't happen in the comics, but it could be&nbsp;&nbsp;
inspired by another of Rick Remenda's run that&nbsp; is 2012's uncanny Avengers there. In issue 21,&nbsp;&nbsp; Rogue absorbs the powers of pretty much every&nbsp; Marvel hero to stop a celestial from destroying&nbsp;&nbsp; the Earth on behalf of the Apocalypse twins.&nbsp; Meanwhile, the now combined X Force and X Factor&nbsp;&nbsp;
launch their assault on the XCore Tower. We see&nbsp; Jubilee, Sunspot, Storm, and Forge fighting off&nbsp;&nbsp; an army of Mech Sentinels in the air while X&nbsp; Factor make their way inside to find Gambit. We&nbsp;&nbsp; also get another awesome Storm moment here where&nbsp; she just vaporizes the Sentinels without killing&nbsp;&nbsp;
any of the pilots with that sick Newton Brothers&nbsp; score blasting in the background. In general,&nbsp;&nbsp; the score for the whole show is amazing, but&nbsp; they really pull out all the stops for Storm,&nbsp;&nbsp; and I respect it. With Storm's team handling the&nbsp; Sentinels and X Factor keeping the X-Men occupied,&nbsp;&nbsp;
Cable then makes his move and goes in to find&nbsp; Gambit. He blows a massive hole in the Xcore Tower&nbsp;&nbsp; with his gun and then drops into the building,&nbsp; which was very, very cool. However, once inside,&nbsp;&nbsp; he conveniently drops in right where Cyclops and&nbsp; Gene are. They try and play the the old mom and&nbsp;&nbsp;
dad card and convince Cable to call X Factor off&nbsp; and give them the chance to save Gambit. But dad,&nbsp;&nbsp; I have to stop Apocalypse. Now, while Cable&nbsp; has this reunion with Mommy and Daddy, we also&nbsp;&nbsp; get a pretty great fight between Wolverine,&nbsp; Morph, Archangel, and Psylock. Here we then&nbsp;&nbsp;
get a cameo from Dark from the '90s Spider-Man&nbsp; animated series, and Spider-Man and Peter Parker,&nbsp;&nbsp; his alter ego, of course, appeared in season&nbsp; 1. We also saw Morph turn into the web head&nbsp;&nbsp; in episode 5 when they were fighting the brood&nbsp; and it just makes me want them to bring back the&nbsp;&nbsp;
Spider-Man cartoon. Bring it back you cowards.&nbsp; We also quickly meet up with Polaris and Bishop&nbsp;&nbsp; fighting X Factor. They start to get their asses&nbsp; kicked but are saved by Gambit who's woken up and&nbsp;&nbsp; is back to his old raging cinjun self at least for&nbsp; the moment. We then cut back to Cable fighting it&nbsp;&nbsp;
out with Cyclops and Gene where Cable chooses his&nbsp; destiny to kill Apocalypse over his parents and he&nbsp;&nbsp; smashes the floor in all the way to the basement.&nbsp; Yeah, he finds Gambit and immediately shoots him&nbsp;&nbsp; in the head right in front of Professor Xavier.&nbsp; Holy [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] However, as the rest of the X-Men&nbsp;&nbsp;
gather around, Gambit's eyes open and he goes&nbsp; full on Apocalypse. As everyone tries to pick&nbsp;&nbsp; their jaws up off the floor, Apocalypse Gambit&nbsp; then easy pushes the X-Men back and takes over&nbsp;&nbsp; their minds. He turns them on Professor X to&nbsp; teach him his final lesson in that those he&nbsp;&nbsp;
cares about will always be his downfall. But&nbsp; the good old professor sits strong and tells&nbsp;&nbsp; Apocalypse that caring for each other is how they&nbsp; survive. We then see a glowing star crash down in&nbsp;&nbsp; front of them and Rogue emerges from a ball of&nbsp; fire, smiling as she stands face to face with&nbsp;&nbsp;
Apocalypse Gambit. Rogue then takes off her glove&nbsp; and grabs hold of him. She takes Apocalypse out of&nbsp;&nbsp; Remy's mind as he screams in pain and traps him&nbsp; in the gem that Remy stole from the external and&nbsp;&nbsp; gave to Rogue in episode 8. In the comics, this is&nbsp; called the heart of eternal darkness, which is a&nbsp;&nbsp;
gem made by the external Kandra to contain the&nbsp; life force of an external. This is a power she&nbsp;&nbsp; decided to keep herself after Apocalypse performed&nbsp; the ritual to create it back in the 12th century,&nbsp;&nbsp; which was shown in Excalibur issue 11. This&nbsp; happened a bit differently in the show, though, as&nbsp;&nbsp;
we saw Apocalypse was in love with Kandra and gave&nbsp; her the gem as a way to share his power. Rogue&nbsp;&nbsp; trapping Apocalypse in the heart gem also doesn't&nbsp; happen in the comics, but it could be based on her&nbsp;&nbsp; fight with Apocalypse in 2020's Excalibur 5. Their&nbsp; Rogue is put in a coma by Apocalypse while he goes&nbsp;&nbsp;
after Gambit. There she absorbs the power of the&nbsp; external gateway and drains Apocalypse's life&nbsp;&nbsp; force which turns her into a new apocalypse.&nbsp; Gambit becoming Apocalypse's horsemen and&nbsp;&nbsp; his rescue also happen a lot differently in the&nbsp; comics. There Gambit willingly joins Apocalypse&nbsp;&nbsp;
and is turned into his horseman death, but he&nbsp; doesn't become Apocalypse himself. Gambit also&nbsp;&nbsp; isn't saved by Rogue, but instead tries to kill&nbsp; her until she retreats to Japan where she's later&nbsp;&nbsp; cured by Mr. Sinister. Damn it, fully turning into&nbsp; Apocalypse here in the show. Also seems to be more&nbsp;&nbsp;
based on Cyclops becoming possessed by Apocalypse&nbsp; in X-Men issue 97, which kickstarted the Age of&nbsp;&nbsp; Apocalypse event. Their Cyclops is fully possessed&nbsp; by Apocalypse, and Gene has to basically purge him&nbsp;&nbsp; from Scott's mind in the Search for Cyclops&nbsp; miniseries. With Apocalypse trapped in the&nbsp;&nbsp;
heart gem, Rogue casually gives it to Cable,&nbsp; saying he'll probably know what to do with it,&nbsp;&nbsp; which if I was Cable would piss me the hell&nbsp; off. You mean to tell me I was raised as a child&nbsp;&nbsp; soldier in a future hellscape specifically to kill&nbsp; this guy? And you just show up glowing and do it&nbsp;&nbsp;
in two seconds. We then get a long awaited reunion&nbsp; of Rogue and Gammed as they embrace each other and&nbsp;&nbsp; we see the celestial energy leaving Rogue as they&nbsp; kiss. Confuses why she's not dead. She tells Remy&nbsp;&nbsp; that in order to save him, there needed to be&nbsp; a sacrifice. Rogue then looks over and we see&nbsp;&nbsp;
Beast holding Kurt's Bible. We then go back to the&nbsp; ship and see that Nightcrawler made another deal&nbsp;&nbsp; with Eson to save Rogue. He convinced Eson that&nbsp; his sacrifice will inspire the mutants to come&nbsp;&nbsp; together and build a better future. This ensures&nbsp; that the mutants will continue to push the planet&nbsp;&nbsp;
to evolve by inspiring others, which Kurt says is&nbsp; what they were always meant to do. Kind of builds&nbsp;&nbsp; off his whole arc in episode 7, where he basically&nbsp; wanted to show that hate just breeds more hate.&nbsp;&nbsp; He's of course also Rogue's sibling, too. And&nbsp; the love that he felt for her, the sacrifice&nbsp;&nbsp;
they've gone through, not turning into hateful&nbsp; people like their parents, it all kind of Yeah.&nbsp;&nbsp; built off everything really nicely. Now, we'll&nbsp; talk about the payoff with this in just a bit,&nbsp;&nbsp; but it's a pretty more optimistic way to close&nbsp; things out, for now at least. We then end the&nbsp;&nbsp;
season seeing all the other X-Men back together&nbsp; as Eison accepts Curt's offer and he's consumed&nbsp;&nbsp; by the celestial light. He then assures Eison that&nbsp; he knows it will work because he has faith, the&nbsp;&nbsp; faith, the faith. The faith. However, the season&nbsp; also leaves us with a postredit scene cliffhanger.&nbsp;&nbsp;
As we meet up with Val Cooper in her office, we&nbsp; see she's watching the news and that Graden Creed&nbsp;&nbsp; has now become the new president. We then see&nbsp; Val looking through her files and finding one&nbsp;&nbsp; on Mystique, which is when someone comes into the&nbsp; office and wait, it's Val. What? Bam! Gotcha, you&nbsp;&nbsp;
son of a [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] It was Mystique all along. He then&nbsp; shoots the real Val before revealing herself. And&nbsp;&nbsp; we end with Mystique declaring war in the United&nbsp; States as she lets off another shot. And we cut to&nbsp;&nbsp; black, seemingly killing Val. Rest in peace. Oh,&nbsp; she might not be dead, but rest in peace if she&nbsp;&nbsp;
is. Now, we have got a lot to unpack here, and the&nbsp; show is combining lots of different elements from&nbsp;&nbsp; the comics to set us up for season 3. Nightcrawler&nbsp; sacrificing himself to save Eson is new for the&nbsp;&nbsp; show, but Kurt has sacrificed himself more than&nbsp; once for his friends in the comics. His decision&nbsp;&nbsp;
to save Rogue here is most likely based on one of&nbsp; his first deaths during the second coming event in&nbsp;&nbsp; X-Force 26. Their Hope, Summers, was being hunted&nbsp; by Bastion, and Nightcrawler teleported himself&nbsp;&nbsp; in front of her to save her. He believed her to&nbsp; be the mutant messiah who would bring all mutants&nbsp;&nbsp;
together. It's very similar how he sacrifices&nbsp; himself here in the show, not only to save Rogue,&nbsp;&nbsp; but for his memory to inspire mutant prosperity.&nbsp; This also leads to a major arc for Nightcrawler&nbsp;&nbsp; where after his death, his soul goes to heaven and&nbsp; he gets hunted by his father, Aazil. It's quite an&nbsp;&nbsp;
interesting run and it goes down in Amazing X-Men&nbsp; issue 1 from 2013. He later learns how to contact&nbsp;&nbsp; the X-Men from heaven and together they find a way&nbsp; to stop Aazil and bring Kurt back to life. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp; I wouldn't be surprised if we see some of this&nbsp; adapted for season 3 with Nightcrawler helping the&nbsp;&nbsp;
X-Men from beyond the grave before his eventual&nbsp; resurrection because come on, we all know that no&nbsp;&nbsp; one really dies in the comics except like Uncle&nbsp; Ben and the Ways and for a long time Gwen Stacy&nbsp;&nbsp; as well, but they even retconed that. Nightcrawler&nbsp; sacrificing himself for Rogue though also reminded&nbsp;&nbsp;
me of his role in the Age of Apocalypse event&nbsp; from the comics. In Extreme X-Men issue 13, the&nbsp;&nbsp; young Nightcrawler sacrifices himself in a battle&nbsp; with the exterminator for Gan Gray to acquire the&nbsp;&nbsp; death seed. This turned her into a new version of&nbsp; Apocalypse, but she was able to control it due to&nbsp;&nbsp;
her experience with the Phoenix. This is also a&nbsp; two for one sacrifice for Kurt as well, as Dark&nbsp;&nbsp; Nightcrawler from the Age of Apocalypse universe&nbsp; also sacrifices himself to close the gateway to&nbsp;&nbsp; the alternate future and kill the exterminators&nbsp; to save everyone in extermination issue 2. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp;
Mystique has been noticeably absent from the first&nbsp; two seasons. So, I'm super excited for her to&nbsp;&nbsp; return in season 3. It seems she's going to be one&nbsp; of our primary villains, and this end credit scene&nbsp;&nbsp; with her seemingly killing Val could be setting&nbsp; up for her to lead her own team from the comics&nbsp;&nbsp;
called Freedom Force. In 1985's Uncanny X-Men&nbsp; 199, Mystique similly confronts Val in her office,&nbsp;&nbsp; new name Freedom Force. It looks like for&nbsp; the show, Mystique will most likely lead&nbsp;&nbsp;
Freedom Force while disguising herself as Cooper,&nbsp; especially after the world saw XFactor's failure&nbsp;&nbsp; in taking down Exc. Now though, we didn't see&nbsp; the season 3 clip that was shown at Comic-Con,&nbsp;&nbsp; Sentinels. That's said to be happening early&nbsp; on, and I was kind of surprised they showed her&nbsp;&nbsp;
before the release of the season's finale. But the&nbsp; government will most likely be looking to replace&nbsp;&nbsp; its own mutant team with a brand new roster.&nbsp; Now, while I don't think Val is really dead,&nbsp;&nbsp; Mystique shooting her seems to be inspired by&nbsp; another meeting between them in 1963's Uncanny&nbsp;&nbsp;
X-Men 266. There, Mystique once again confronts&nbsp; Val in her office after she'd been mind controlled&nbsp;&nbsp; by the Shadow King to kill Mystique. This results&nbsp; in a standoff where Val breaks the mind control&nbsp;&nbsp; at the last second and actually shoots herself.&nbsp; This allowed Mystique to then take her place and&nbsp;&nbsp;
lead a team to face off against the Shadow King&nbsp; on Mua Island in XFactor issue 70. We also get a&nbsp;&nbsp; little note of this issue in episode 8 when we see&nbsp; Gamut's battles being labeled as X-Men 266. X-Men&nbsp;&nbsp;
266 was actually Gamut's first appearance and the&nbsp; Mystique and Val standoff happened at the end of&nbsp;&nbsp; that issue. We also see in this scene that great&nbsp; and Creed Mystique's son is now president. He'll&nbsp;&nbsp; probably be Mystique's main target in her attack&nbsp; on the US which would be going along with a story&nbsp;&nbsp;
line from the comics in X Factor 130. their future&nbsp; version of Mystique assassinates Graden at one of&nbsp;&nbsp; his presidential rallies and I can see that being&nbsp; adapted here. Valkub is also heavily featured in&nbsp;&nbsp; this issue too with a future Mystique taking&nbsp; her form in order to infiltrate the rally. So,&nbsp;&nbsp;
lots of things that they'll likely pick upon&nbsp; and I'm guessing that they'll meld lots of those&nbsp;&nbsp; stories together. Now, there is also the read on&nbsp; this scene that Mystique may have been Val the&nbsp;&nbsp; whole time. I don't think that's the case though,&nbsp; as I think Val probably would have seen herself on&nbsp;&nbsp;
TV and have been like, "What the hell's going on?"&nbsp; Instead, I think Mystique probably used her as a&nbsp;&nbsp; way to get into the building and that that she&nbsp; hasn't been her all season. However, I do think&nbsp;&nbsp; that that's still worth bringing up and it could&nbsp; explain some some of the questionable choices&nbsp;&nbsp;
Val might have made. Um, and it may be something&nbsp; that they acknowledge in season 3. I don't think&nbsp;&nbsp; it's right. I'm not going to do the theory time&nbsp; jingle, but I do think that it's worth bringing&nbsp;&nbsp; up because yeah, we're trying to be as thorough as&nbsp; possible. We also have Cable now in possession of&nbsp;&nbsp;
the heart gem containing Apocalypse's life force.&nbsp; I'd imagine that season 3 will take a break from&nbsp;&nbsp; the apocalypse story line, but also kind of leave&nbsp; this thread open. However, it could be leading to&nbsp;&nbsp; a story line in the comics where Cable revives&nbsp; Apocalypse after the events of House of M. There&nbsp;&nbsp;
90% of mutants lost their powers and the story&nbsp; in itself went down in Cable and Deadpool 26 to&nbsp;&nbsp; 27. There was the belief that the mutants needed&nbsp; a powerful threat to bring them together again.&nbsp;&nbsp; And Cable, the celestial ship, and his blood&nbsp; mixed with the technoorganic virus, basically&nbsp;&nbsp;
resurrected Apocalypse in 2006, Cable and Deadpool&nbsp; 27. In the show, Cable could similly use the heart&nbsp;&nbsp; gem containing Apocalypse and the Celestial ship&nbsp; to bring him back. Both heavily featured in this&nbsp;&nbsp; season, and I'd be very surprised if they don't&nbsp; pop up again, including Eison the Celestial, who&nbsp;&nbsp;
will no doubt have his cosmic hands in all of this&nbsp; nonsense. However, among all these threads that&nbsp;&nbsp; we're left with, I think the biggest threat facing&nbsp; the X-Men in season 3 will be Onslaught. Now, in&nbsp;&nbsp; case you don't know, Onslaught is a psionic entity&nbsp; formed by the merging of Professor X and Magneto's&nbsp;&nbsp;
minds. Magneto's intense emotions about mutant&nbsp; liberation, combined with Charles's own repressed&nbsp;&nbsp; darkness created Onslaught within Xavier's mind.&nbsp; While initially dormant, Onslaught eventually&nbsp;&nbsp; escaped and waged war on humans and mutants alike&nbsp; in X-Men 54. Magneto's death and Xavier's trauma&nbsp;&nbsp;
from it was a major plot point in the first couple&nbsp; of episodes of the season, seemingly setting this&nbsp;&nbsp; up and giving the X-Men a villain that can rival&nbsp; Apocalypse in season 3. We also already saw the&nbsp;&nbsp; birth of Onslaught in season 1 when Xavier and&nbsp; Magneto had their mind battle on Asteroid M after&nbsp;&nbsp;
Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine's&nbsp; body. This is when Xavier absorbed Magneto's&nbsp;&nbsp; negative emotions and created onslaught in 1993's&nbsp; X-Men issue 25. Also have to mention the brood&nbsp;&nbsp; because I love those little alien freaks and&nbsp; feel like we'll probably get an episode dealing&nbsp;&nbsp;
with them as well. This could continue their setup&nbsp; from the alien inspired episode this season with&nbsp;&nbsp; Wolverine and Team X fighting them off at the&nbsp; Weapons X facility. This was based off 2005's&nbsp;&nbsp; X-Men/ Fantastic 4 issue 1. There the X-Men and&nbsp; Fantastic 4 similarly find the brood of taking&nbsp;&nbsp;
over an NASA space station. This then leads to the&nbsp; Brood launching a fallen invasion in issue 5. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp; while it would probably be a lot different in&nbsp; the show, I think it would be great to see the&nbsp;&nbsp; brood get the spotlight in at least one episode.&nbsp; Given they were almost completely left out the&nbsp;&nbsp;
original series, I'd love to see more of them.&nbsp; They did appear in that, but was kind of a cameo&nbsp;&nbsp; in the episode Mojo Vision from season 2, and&nbsp; they were then later adapted into a different&nbsp;&nbsp; alien race called the Colony episode Love in Vain&nbsp; from season 3. This came about due to writer and&nbsp;&nbsp;
director Larry Houston along with the character&nbsp; designers Frank Brummer and Mark Lewis basically&nbsp;&nbsp; wanting to make them more animator friendly. But&nbsp; yeah, love to see them back. And that brings us&nbsp;&nbsp; to the end of another season of X-Men 97. Being&nbsp; a kid in the '90s, this show just hits me with&nbsp;&nbsp;
all the right nostalgia points and it's so fun&nbsp; getting to tune in each and every week. Also,&nbsp;&nbsp; my kids absolutely love it. Um, I started them on&nbsp; the original series. They watch they like binge&nbsp;&nbsp; through all that so quickly. Um, and then they&nbsp; started watching X-Men 97 and that that's all&nbsp;&nbsp;
they want to watch now is just X-Men. More X-Men.&nbsp; More X-Men. They say they're four years old. I&nbsp;&nbsp; don't think they understand all of it, but they're&nbsp; enjoying it quite a bit. Because of that though,&nbsp;&nbsp; an absolutely crazy couple of months in terms&nbsp; of what's been coming out. And we're still a&nbsp;&nbsp;
pretty small team, but yeah, have to say love this&nbsp; season. Well, you could say it does feel a little&nbsp;&nbsp; all over the place. Um, especially, you know, when&nbsp; you get just random episodes in all the different&nbsp;&nbsp; X-Men teams. Uh, it also just leans into that kind&nbsp; of Saturday morning format. There we'd often get&nbsp;&nbsp;
the overarching plot, but you can really just jump&nbsp; into the adventure at any point. Each episode has&nbsp;&nbsp; its own moments and then ties everything up for&nbsp; a satisfying ending, and it also leaves multiple&nbsp;&nbsp; threads open to explore in the later seasons, if&nbsp; we ever get out the '90s. Anyway, there's also&nbsp;&nbsp;
like a billion X-Men comics as well, so I'm sure&nbsp; they have no shortage of material to pull from,&nbsp;&nbsp; but I don't care. Give me 100 seasons of this.&nbsp; Mday, House of X, KCOA, give me it all. Like the&nbsp;&nbsp;
original animated series, I also think they did&nbsp; an incredible job of picking certain story points&nbsp;&nbsp; from the X-Men's massive catalog and merging&nbsp; them together for a story that closely follows&nbsp;&nbsp; the comics, but also creates new stories and&nbsp; opportunities for characters to shine. So, yeah,&nbsp;&nbsp;
not perfect, but just a grand X-Men adventure that&nbsp; I can't help but love. As always, I'd also love to&nbsp;&nbsp; hear your thoughts down below. And make sure you&nbsp; subscribe for breakdowns like this every single&nbsp;&nbsp; day. Download Marvel Strikeforce using the link&nbsp; below. And with that, you'll receive Spider-Man&nbsp;&nbsp;
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