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We’ve officially gotten our first glimpse of X-Men ’97 Season 2. Marvel debuted the X-Men ’97 Season 2 trailer at Comic Con Revolution, and it didn’t take long for the footage to go online. The end of X-Men ’97 Season 1 teased a massive story centered around En Sabah Nur, clearly riffing on the iconic ’90s time travel story “Age of Apocalypse.” Unsurprisingly, then, the leaked footage confirmed the iconic plot – plus a whole lot of twists.
Now, Marvel has offically released the X-Men ’97 Season 2 trailer. It confirms the time travel exploits, while setting up a desperate mission to “Get the X-Men back to the ’90s.” There are a staggering thirty-two new and returning mutants in the trailer, as well as a surprising number of Easter eggs at the end; plus, Wolverine’s story continues with new adamantium implanted into his skeleton (“We’re back, baby” he says joyfully).
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The X-Men’s World is So Much Bigger in X-Men ’97 Season 2
X-Men ’97 features an expanding cast of characters, many of whom actually originate from the 2000s; but that does make sense, given Season 1 actually riffed on important stories from the Morrison era (notably the Genosha arc, one of the darkest Marvel stories ever told). Quentin Quire is a particularly exciting character, a rebellious Omega level mutant destined to become a future Phoenix host, and it’s thrilling to imagine what stories lie in the future for the so-called “Kid Omega.” X-Factor and Colossus appeared in the original series, and they’re back in major roles.
X-Men ’97 Season 2 is clearly riffing on some of the best comic book stories of the ’90s (“Age of Apocalypse” and “The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix,” for example), but it’s also daring to adapt one of the worst. In the comics, Magneto tore the adamantium from Wolverine’s skeleton and triggered a weird animal mutation (at one point, Wolverine even licked an unconscious Cyclops to try to wake him up). Season 2 is doing the animal mutation, but the trailer also promises the same outcome: the adamantium will be back. Presumably the progression will be a little neater.
More surprising, though, is a brief reference to the Weapon Plus program. In the 2000s, Marvel revealed the Weapon X Project – responsible for originally giving Wolverine his skeleton – was the tenth iteration of a super-soldier program that began with the creation of Captain America. Incredibly, X-Men ’97 Season 2 is addressing this directly, with references to other “Weapon Plus” subjects – Garrison Kane, Weapon VI, and Fantomex being prominent examples. Even the Winter Soldier seems to be folded into the Weapon Plus project, although it remains to be seen whether that’s just an Easter egg – or whether Bucky Barnes will appear.
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