X-Men ’97 Season 2 set the stage for one of the team’s most powerful villains, Onslaught, to make his debut. This series has already featured a few major antagonists from X-Men lore against the titular team of mutants, including Bastion and Mr. Sinister.
Near the end of X-Men ’97 Season 2, Episode 3, Professor X uses his telepathic powers to go inside the mind of General Logos, one of Pharaoh Rama-Tut’s key advisors. While searching for the information he needs, he is thrown into a desert landscape and looks out to see a massive red planet in the distance.
This planet emulates the look of Magneto’s maroon helmet, with a massive crater on one side that resembles the opening in the helmet where Magneto’s eyes and mouth are visible.
Even more so, this opening looks similar to the one on the helmet worn by the powerful mutant villain Onslaught. In the comics, Onslaught is a powerful psionic entity born from the inner hatred, resentment, and malignance from both sides of the mutant battle when Professor X and Magneto’s minds momentarily merge.
This entity wears a costume similar to Magneto’s but far more intimidating, with massive purple shoulder armor and jagged gauntlets that protrude from his wrists.
While this character is not confirmed yet for an appearance in X-Men ’97, the visual of the red planet in Logos’ mind seems to heavily tease this next step for Magneto.
X-Men ’97 continues the story initially told in the animated X-Men: The Animated Series from the 1990s. Season 2 starts with the mutant teams split across two timelines, both tied closely to the rise of the supervillain Apocalypse. The first three episodes of X-Men ’97 Season 2 are streaming on Disney+, and new episodes debut at 12 a.m. PT/3 a.m. ET on Wednesdays.
How Onslaught Storyline Is Teased in X-Men ’97
The end of X-Men ’97 Season 1 sets up Onslaught’s potential arrival in Season 2 in a way similar to how the story unfolded in the comics. Notably, in Episode 9, Magneto rips the adamantium from Wolverine’s skeleton during the battle against the X-Men, marking the beginning of this descent into madness. Additionally, Charles seemed to be on his way to wiping Magneto’s mind completely, as he did in the comics, which directly ties into Onslaught’s arrival.
This all comes into play in the 1993 Fatal Attractions storyline from Marvel Comics, in which the X-Men confront Magneto after he threatens the Earth with a global EMP. This was depicted in Season 1, Episode 8 of X-Men ’97 after Magneto escaped custody, when he blacked out the entire planet in one of his most notable displays of power and anger in the show thus far.
Additionally, in the comics, Bishop and Forge play roles in this story by forming a new team of X-Men to save the OG members. Bishop saved the mutants from Xavier after he was corrupted by Onslaught, knowing their future through his time-traveling ability.
The early stages of this story seem to be coming to fruition early in Season 2, with both characters coming to the aid of the X-Men as they monitor everything happening with En Sabah Nur and try to stop him from becoming Apocalypse.
