X-Men ‘97 spoilers ahead!
To recap, last week’s episode of X-Men ‘97 ended with Wolverine stabbing Magneto, seemingly fatally. However, the master of magnetism had enough life left in him to face his old foe one more time and rip the adamantium from his skeleton. Why the X-Men continue to send a man with a metal skeleton to face a man who controls metal is beyond me, but I digress.
This was a shocking moment to close out the episode for sure, but not one we haven’t seen before. This moment occurred in the comics as well and it led to the creation of one the X-Men’s most formidable foes: Onslaught.
After Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton was ripped from his body, an infuriated Charles Xavier psychically attacked Magneto in a rage. In the process, the suppressed darkness within Xavier’s psyche fused itself with the very much not suppressed darkness of Magneto. The result was the creation of a psychic entity that was all the worst and most powerful parts of both of the iconic mutants.
In the comics, Onslaught has waged war on humanity a number of times and it has taken the combined might of the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Avengers to defeat him. If you think about it, the combined powers of Magneto and Charles Xavier would be pretty much unstoppable. And that’s exactly what Onslaught has been. The como also makes for an awesome villain look.
X-Men ‘97 even went as far as to tease some imagery of Onslaught by having Magneto put his helmet on Xavier, blocking his telepathic abilities. Onslaught possesses the body of Xavier in the comics, so this served as a nice nod.
And while the X-Men still very much have their hands full with Bastion, this series might just be setting up the next big bad here. Obviously, there is only one episode left in this season, but producer Brad Winderbaum has already teased season two (and three) of the series and it seems as though Onslaught might just serve as the big bad for a second stint. But first, let’s see how the X-Men handle the end of season one.
Marvel’s X-Men ‘97 is now streaming on Disney+, with the season finale set to debut on Wednesday, May 15.