X-Men '97 Season 2, episode 4, titled "Rise of Apocalypse - Part II," concludes the team's battle with Kang the Conqueror Variant, Rama-Tut, and features a shocking character death at the hands of Apocalypse.
Magneto takes an arm-cannon blast to the chest, seemingly bringing Erik Magnus Lehnsherr's story to an end. Of course, you can't keep a good villain down, and something tells us we haven't seen the last of the Master of Magnetism.
An even bigger development comes in a surprise post-credits scene, teeing up next week's "Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs." In Season 1 of X-Men '97, Wolverine's Adamantium skeleton was torn from his bones by Magneto, and is shown in this stinger reuniting with a couple of familiar faces: Captain America and Black Widow.
Cap hands Logan a file labelled "Weapon X," suggesting Wolverine plans to return to the organisation that originally imbued his body with the indestructible metal. Will he finally regain his Adamantium, and does he even want to? That should be revealed as soon as next week.
In the comics, Weapon X is a secret Canadian government program aimed at creating the ultimate living weapon. It's part of the larger Weapon Plus program, where "X" is the Roman numeral for 10, meaning Logan was far from the first mutant to be experimented on.
If Wolverine is returning there now, then it opens the door to us meeting characters like X-23 and Fantomex, who didn't exist on the page when X-Men: The Animated Series aired.
Whether Captain America and Black Widow will join Wolverine on this mission remains to be seen, though the presence of the two Avengers is obviously a nod to Uncanny X-Men #268, right down to the costumes (we've included Jim Lee's iconic cover below).
X-Men '97 Season 2 continues with the heroic mutant team of X-Men, divided and thrown across different eras in time as they struggle to navigate their return home. Meanwhile, back in the 1990s, suspicious foes and new strains of mutant intolerance are on the rise in the wake of the X-Men’s absence.
The second season of the original animated series features 9 episodes, and the voice cast includes Ross Marquand as Professor X, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, Ray Chase as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, Lenore Zann as Rogue, and George Buza as Beast.
X-Men '97 Season 2 is now streaming weekly on Disney+.