X-Men '97 Episode 9 Breakdown: The 1993 Comic Panel Recreation and the Easter Eggs in Tolerance Is Extinction Part 2

X-Men '97 episode 9, Tolerance Is Extinction Part 2, recreates, right down to the frame, the comic panel from X-Men Volume 2 number 25 from 1993 in which Magneto pulls the adamantium out of Wolverine's skeleton. Around that moment the episode packs in enough Easter eggs and animation details that it needs a frame by frame look.

I want to lead with four deeper thematic undercurrents the creators hit throughout this episode, and I am glad I took my time to pick up on them. They are what ends up happening with Wolverine, the arrival of Onslaught, the return of the Phoenix, and time loops. Keep those four in mind as we go.

Wolverine opens and closes the episode, and the opening titles quietly change

Before the opening titles, the first thing we hear is "previously on X-Men", and that voice belongs to Cal Dodd as Wolverine. The episode opens and closes with Wolverine. I think they want this mystery in our heads for the entire episode, and the reason we hear him at the start is because of what happens to him at the end.

We never skip the opening titles, because there are always small changes. Storm has finally returned to the character title cards for the first time since her departure in episode 2. She is now in her black outfit with her hair fully regrown after regaining her powers in episode 6. That was her original look when she was introduced in Giant-Size X-Men number one in 1975.

Another detail I barely caught: normally, during the final charge of Charles's X-Men against Magneto's forces, the camera whips past innocent humans running from Sentinels. Now those humans are pink skinned, infected androids, part of Bastion's race of Prime Sentinels, including the Letterman jacket guy we saw in Harmony, Pennsylvania in episode 8. So are they fleeing, or are they on the hunt? Did these people willingly submit to Bastion's goo dip to get a leg up on mutantkind, or were some infected against their will, making them victims worth trying to cure?

Charles longs for Lilandra while Magneto raises Asteroid M

The sun rises over Westchester and the ruins of the X-Mansion, which is always being destroyed throughout the animated series. At this point they should keep Colossus on retainer as the groundskeeper. Charles wakes in bed with his hand outstretched beside him. As someone who spent several months in a long distance relationship doing exactly this every morning when my future wife worked in a different city, I can tell you this man is longing for his Shi'ar queen Lilandra, who used to occupy that spot.

Notice how the Newton Brothers score these shots of Charles with dark, foreboding tones. You can sense the darkness rising in him from this moment on. He has sacrificed so much and suppressed so much pain, and Onslaught is certainly stirring.

Meanwhile, Magneto stands on the rocky shore of an island surrounded by cargo boats deactivated by his global EMP. Shortly after, he raises Asteroid M from the ocean. When we last saw it in season 4 episode 4, Sanctuary Part 2, it crashed into one of Earth's oceans, and Magneto must have always known where it landed. I love this image of dead boats with cargo containers, which reminds me of the boats moored around Liberty Island during the Blip in Avengers: Endgame. That is the kind of post apocalyptic state Earth is in here, only worse.

Bastion's mother, the frozen Prime Sentinels and the hope of restoring them

In Harmony, Pennsylvania, the former human Prime Sentinels are frozen in place after Magneto's blackout, and Bastion cradles his mother. Last episode confirmed she is the same bar waitress from 1959 seen in the '90s episode One Man's Worth. Nimrod's tech was left behind and slithered into the ear of the man in the leather jacket who helped Wolverine in that episode's bar fight, and he and the waitress fell in love and had Sebastian. Showrunner Beau DeMayo joked that her name is Martha.

Bastion's teardrop dries on his mother's chin, so her flesh does not seem fully metal; it looks like a kind of skin tissue. It is wild to think that Wolverine and the others were slashing through these Primes, we saw them reassemble severed heads and arms, and yet there is still hope of restoring them as normal humans.

Bastion lays his mother down beneath her painting The Final Dream, which she showed the others last episode. It depicts a three headed Master Mold and Prime Sentinels floating like dark angels over mutant slaves. Look closely and one mutant has wings like Angel, one has a tail like Nightcrawler, and one emitting an optic blast that I think is supposed to be Cyclops. Bastion says finally quiet, Mother, as he turns to a utility box outside. Last episode we learned that as a kid he could hear machines telepathically, and one of these boxes haunted him during class. With the grid shut down, all is silent, so Magneto has in a way done Bastion a favour.

Jubilee and Roberto are chased down another dead end

Jubilee and Roberto, who apparently escaped their arresting Primes, flee an angry Friends of Humanity mob furious about the power grid going down. One person says it is too bad the hospitals have no power, which is an insane thing to say after the callous OBGYN refused to deliver Scott and Madelyne's baby in episode 2. Hospitals hardly consider mutants part of their Hippocratic oath.

In every episode's opening titles we see Roberto chased down an alley into a chainlink fence, the same framing Jubilee had in the '90s run. Now both kids are chased down an alley. There is no fence this time, but these poor kids are always getting chased down dead ends. I assume the animators may just be reusing character designs, but the mob includes the Letterman jacket guy and the Kurt Cobain looking guy in the blue vest we just saw as frozen androids in Harmony.

Storm and Forge save them. Forge's mechanical leg has a jet thruster to slow his falls. And I have to point out the way Jubilee hugs Storm: she nuzzles in, looks down, realises what she is nuzzling into, keeps nuzzling, and Storm is just like, it's okay.

Charles returns to his classic look and the deja vu begins

Charles's yellow hover chair is wrecked under a beam, and he is now back in his classic green jacket, blue and black striped tie and argyle blanket in a normal wheelchair, the look from the portrait that recreated X-Men number one from 1963.

Scott and Charles argue over whether Charles was right to free Cyclops from the legacy of leading the X-Men and nudge him toward a normal retired life. Charles says "perhaps that was a mistake because just like you I'm right back here". It echoes Val Cooper's speech in episode 8 about a profound sense of deja vu, as if past, present and future never mattered because we always end up in the same ugly place. I felt there was a deeper meaning to this idea of deja vu and looping back to right back here: time loops.

Rogue wakes to her adoptive brother Nightcrawler and starts asking whether he died, as if she is about to say she killed him. Nightcrawler steadies her trembling hand and is about to tell her Magneto survived Genosha too, but Rogue's mind goes first to Remy. It is almost as if she was so full of rage in episode 7 that she blacked out for the entire episode.

Forge's cryptic answer and the loose ends around him

When Storm, Forge, Jubilee and Roberto return, the animators add blur lines to Forge and Beast's clasp to show the speed of the gesture. Plenty of animation uses blur lines, but X-Men '97 usually stays true to the stuttered movement and limited frame rate of the '90s run. Here they add swiftness and make it look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers' handshake in Predator.

Beast observes that Forge's prosthetics still work despite the blackout, and Forge says he rigged an electrostatic deflector ages ago, adding only a cryptic "I thought about it." There is still a loose end around Forge's photo with Bastion, suggesting technology like the mutant power control collar and other things Forge uses might be under Bastion's influence, so that line makes me wonder what else is in his head. We also still need confirmation of whether Bishop's friend in the future who could cure Nathan was Forge, and who Cable's rebel contact was who knew to check Harmony, Pennsylvania.

The debrief: a dying magnetic field and a mission to the Galapagos

The debrief photos of Harmony show a cash for gold shop with "mutants or monsters" written on top, and graffiti on an overturned car, probably blaming mutants for Bastion's nanotech virus. Whoever wrote it has the sides of this war all wrong. Storm says she can feel Earth's magnetic field dying and that when the sun sets tonight, it sets on the future. I think they are acknowledging that without its magnetic field, Earth's atmosphere would be eroded by solar wind. Storm does not spell it out, but our resident science nerd says that if Earth lost its magnetic field our atmosphere would expand and heat up, and we would fry and suffocate. Magneto essentially doomed everyone.

Wolverine says the man just declared war on the whole planet and that his day ends one way, with a very foreshadowing snikt, because this episode ends one way: a splash page of that same adamantium being pulled out.

Cyclops splits the group into Team Blue and Team Gold, the X-Men colours, with Storm and Jean leading Gold to the Galapagos to shut down Bastion's headquarters. The Galapagos are where Charles Darwin studied finches and other species to develop the theories behind On the Origin of Species, which inspired Nathaniel Essex, Mister Sinister, when both men were contemporaries in 19th century England in season 5 episode 9. The islands also sit off Ecuador, which in the E Is for Extinction comics is where Cassandra Nova located the Master Mold and deployed the wild Sentinel on Genosha.

Beast says safely removing Sentinel nanotech will take years, but that he and Forge believe they can restore the Primes' innate humanity. I still do not know how nanotech could remake flesh so that severed heads and limbs could be re-fused, then reverse it with no damage. I think Beast is acknowledging it is not really possible.

Costumes, Bastion's lost recruitment and the neutralizer

Roberto is finally suited up as an X-Man in yellow and dark blue, Sunspot's original suit from Chris Claremont's New Mutants. Jubilee still wears the black and pink number she got at the mall, from her more recent post M-Day comics look. Rogue wears Remy's high collar trench coat. He was not wearing it at the Genosha gala, having switched into the white tux, so she must have salvaged it from the wreckage. Underneath is her full green suit with a hood, lime green gloves and collar, similar to her first appearance in Avengers Annual number 10 in 1981, when she was not yet an X-Man. It sets up her switching back to Magneto's side.

Charles reveals he tried to recruit a young Sebastian, but his anti-mutant mother slammed the door, and in another world Bastion would be in the portrait. I love that Storm sits behind the globe as he says this, since in the One Man's Worth episodes we saw Storm in another reality with Wolverine on that 1959 night.

Forge tells Storm Bastion is a technopath, and Beast is tinkering with the mnemonic scrambler used on Jean Grey in the season 3 Dark Phoenix arc. Beast wants to go further with neutralizer technology to permanently disable Bastion's control of the Primes. The second he says neutralizer, Storm's eyes open very slightly wider as she registers that this is the tech that took her powers.

Magneto's heartbreaking speech and Rogue's choice

Magneto lowers Asteroid M over the lake, with aurora borealis light around it showing him temporarily activating part of the planet's magnetic field, and proving he can reverse it if he wants. He disses Lilandra as Charles's Shi'ar bird queen, like a new girlfriend Charles ran off with who suddenly has opinions on the annual guys' trip. We all know a guy like that.

Magnus describes Genosha as the vision Charles pitched to him in a bar, then breaks our hearts describing a boy whose frightened eyes were vaporised because he believed in him. He is talking about Leech, zapped by the wild Sentinel in episode 5, when Magneto told him in German not to be afraid. Now I am asking: did Leech speak German, or was Magnus really telling himself?

Rogue sides with Magneto and drapes Remy's coat on Charles like he is a coat rack, reminding them none of them were on Genosha when it fell. She asks who dies next, notes Jean has already been there, nobody knows where Bishop is, and Morph was barely on the team 30 minutes before being thrown to the wolves. The season does not want us to forget Bishop, who was bumped from the time stream while bringing baby Nathan to the future. The Morph line is mean given Morph died in the original series' second episode, barely 30 minutes of screen time, though he did come back.

The Muir Island garage is full of vehicles and suits

On Muir Island we hear bagpipes, as when it was introduced in season 1 episode 9, The Cure. The building looks the same, but the land mass sits out on a peninsula, where in season 5 episode 2 it was closer to the cliff. Maybe coastal erosion. With Moira MacTaggert having moved to Genosha, it is unoccupied but still a good refuge.

The garage holds two Blackbirds, one with the Shi'ar engines from the Sanctuary arc and a flatter, thinner one I wonder might be the Fox film version. There are two hover chairs, a yellow one apparently based on the Marvel Legends toy and a bulkier blue one, maybe for battle. Behind them is the 1991 Toy Biz Wolverine mutant cycle with claws and pop wheelie action; Toy Biz was Ike Perlmutter's company, which bought Marvel in the mid '90s and led to its film and TV ventures and eventually Marvel Studios. There is Charles's blue Rolls Royce from Uncanny X-Men number one, Rogue's red convertible from the Unstoppable Juggernaut and The Cure episodes with its top up, and Wolverine's flame pattern Harley Davidson and a dirt bike from X-Men: Evolution, a different continuity.

Inside are backup suits: Storm's original black suit, Cyclops and Marvel Girl suits from Uncanny X-Men number 39 in 1967, Wolverine's brown and yellow John Byrne suit from Uncanny X-Men number 139 in 1980, which '80s and '90s kids know as the true Wolverine look, plus Rogue's 1981 suit and Charles's tactical jumpsuit. Some were worn in the 1989 Pryde of the X-Men pilot, which DeMayo suggested as homework while acknowledging it is not canon.

Yellow spandex, Roberto's business card and a Storm and Jean farewell

Scott tosses Cable a suit, Cable asks if he is going to war or a circus, and Scott asks what he expected, black leather, a direct shot at the line from Bryan Singer's X-Men in 2000 about yellow spandex, as the films resisted a comic accurate Wolverine suit until Deadpool and Wolverine. The suit Cable gets is his look from Marvel vs Capcom 2.

Charles speaks with President Robert Kelly in an astral Oval Office, and "in under an hour civilization as we know it ends" sounds like President Whitmore's Independence Day speech. Jubilee disintegrates Roberto's business card, whose address is One Claremont Avenue in Brazil, a nod to Chris Claremont. The phone number spells September 7, 1982, which is DeMayo's birthday and the release date of Marvel Graphic Novel number four, The New Mutants, Sunspot's first appearance. Morph wears his Exiles look, minus the cape the shoulder pads would normally hold.

As Team Gold nears Bastion's island, Forge and Jean white knuckle the controls while Storm sits calmly, legs crossed. Storm calls Jean stronger, a survivor, a phoenix, interesting from someone recently repowered through the Adversary, and maybe a hint for Jean to embrace her inner bird. They sign off with make them mind your weather, sister, and weather your mind. Marvel Studios' live action writers seem afraid of lines like this, but it is clever, theatrical, a bit campy and so intentional that, with performers who commit, it works.

Sinister's shadows, Morph's Hulk and a bowling alley fight

On the Galapagos they find a diner with missing letters spelling DIE, and the rooftop sign reveals it is DeMayo's Diner. Morph becomes the Hulk and says "morph smash", either picking up the Hulk's speech pattern, like Ditto in Pokemon who could not change his face, or just cosplaying. The '90s run could not name Hulk, using a danger room robot technically called the large green Neanderthal robot.

Mister Sinister moves through shadows, throws a truck at Jean, glides into the shadow beneath it, then into the shadow her explosion casts behind her. Very cool animation. He taunts that only he knows where Jean ends and Madelyne begins. Flashbacks in episode 3 hinted the switch might go back to season 1 episode 5, but this Jean seems to have a vivid take on the season 3 Phoenix drama, so I am guessing it was after that.

Jean lifts the bowling alley roof to rob Sinister of shadows, and as she sends him down the lane they mix in a perfect strike sound with no pins. He freaks out when she raises the jukebox, and three billiard balls zip at him: five, 14, then two. Not sure that means anything; I just wanted to point it out.

Asteroid M, Cable's attack and the Phoenix

On Asteroid M, Rogue and Sunspot forget Nightcrawler can teleport people aboard with line of sight. Magneto's throne is made of dead Sentinels, so metal, literally. A tracking shot has Cyclops firing while Nightcrawler bamfs to dodge Jubilee's plasmoids and Magneto's tiles, and Roberto and Jubilee hurl attacks at each other, an inverse of their club dance in episode one. When Charles lectures, Magneto says "In space, no one can hear you snark. Oh, how I've waited to say these two words to you, old friend: shut up.". Charles tells Cyclops to knock off the helmet so he can hijack Magneto's body to repair Earth, and even Cyclops seems unsure. Morph's Sinister disguise fails, and Morph and Beast both fumble the scrambler.

Sinister takes control of Cable, who glows super bright for a few frames in inverse colours, like Pikachu's Thunderbolt in the Pokemon anime. As Jean holds off the blast we hear a choir, and the fire around her looks a lot like the Phoenix. Telepathy is shared with Madelyne and Jean via DNA, but the Phoenix is an external force specific to Jean that would certainly rise to defend her body. Reflected in Scott's visor, Jean says I love you, then is wiped leftward into the red of his ruby quartz, like a draining health bar in Marvel vs Capcom. Scott assumes she was destroyed, and DeMayo tweeted a cringe emoji when asked if she was dead.

Wolverine's adamantium and the Onslaught origin it echoes

Wolverine prises off the helmet, Charles takes over Magneto's mind, and Cyclops blasts Charles's chair, saying Team Gold still needs time. You can see smoke from his eyepiece, as if telling the old man he has gone far enough. Magneto puts his helmet on Charles and says he has finally found the metal to do what is necessary: nerve, meddling, and the substance pinning Charles. Then Wolverine snikts Magneto through the chest, and we actually see real blood on those claws, something the '90s run could never show. Magneto rips the adamantium out, framed exactly like the panel from X-Men Volume 2 number 25, part four of Fatal Attractions, which followed Magneto's global EMP. The adamantium looks so fluid you do not know what is happening at first, and the episode freezes there like a comic page. After this in 1993, Wolverine grew more animalistic until 1999, when Apocalypse took adamantium from Sabretooth's body and put it into Wolverine.

Charles wearing Magneto's helmet, his telepathy trapped inside his head, feeds the Onslaught undercurrent. Onslaught was introduced as a name Juggernaut uttered after being punched into space, and writer Scott Lobdell had no plan at first; he just thought the name was cool. It was revealed as a sentient psionic entity born from Charles and Magneto after the adamantium moment, when Charles's anger mingled with Magneto's and took over Charles. Onslaught became active after Age of Apocalypse, taking Franklin Richards to rewrite reality, and it took the Fantastic Four, X-Men and Avengers to stop him.

After episode 9, DeMayo tweeted homework for the finale: Star Trek: The Next Generation's Cause and Effect, season 5 episode 18 from 1992, directed by Jonathan Frakes. The Enterprise is caught in a time loop colliding with the USS Bozeman, reliving it from a poker game with growing deja vu until Data passes himself a message to break it. Kevin Feige loved the series and cited its finale when discussing Endgame, Patrick Stewart links it to the X-Men films, and Kelsey Grammer cameos as Captain Morgan Bateson before playing Beast. Add the season's deja vu lines, the Watcher observing Genosha, Beast's speculation that it was an absolute point in time, and Bishop's return to mind, and the time loop thread runs all through this season.

Which of those four undercurrents, Wolverine, Onslaught, the Phoenix or time loops, did you think this episode set up best?