The first three episodes of X-Men ’97 are packed with nostalgic references to the classic show, the comics, and the wider MCU. The opening episode, ‘To Me, My X-Men,’ depicts the team’s first mission after the death of Professor Xavier, rescuing Roberto da Costa (Sunspot) from the Friends of Humanity. Cyclops and Jean debate leaving the team but struggle to find a suitable replacement for Xavier as team leader. Surprisingly, Magneto arrives with a shocking revelation: Professor X has willed him the mansion, his fortune, and leadership of the team.
In the second episode, ‘Mutant Liberation Begins,’ Magneto rescues humans from a near disaster but surrenders himself to judgment by a world tribunal for his crimes. When anti-mutant demonstrators break into the hearing, he protects the tribunal from the X-Cutioner, who uses his mutant-neutralizing gun to steal Storm’s powers. Thanks to Magneto’s heroism, the tribunal allows him to go free and promises aid to the mutant nation of Genosha. As the dust settles, a second Jean Grey arrives at the mansion’s door, disoriented and terrified.
Episode 3, ‘Fire Made Flesh,’ adapts another classic and tragic X-Men story, Inferno, the tale of Jean Grey’s clone descending into villainy under the influence of Mister Sinister and the demonic realm of Limbo. In the X-Men ’97 version of the story, her downfall begins when a second Jean arrives at the mansion, as seen in the cliffhanger ending of episode 2. Beast confirms that the disheveled Jean who just arrived is actually the original, while the Jean who gave birth to Nathan is a clone. Emotionally shattered and driven by the machinations of Mister Sinister, the clone (who takes the name Madelyne Pryor) turns the mansion into her personal version of hell, forcing the returning Jean Grey to get herself together and bring Madelyne back down to earth. As Madelyne leaves the mansion to hunt down Sinister, Scott and Jean discover that baby Nathan is infected with a deadly techno-organic virus, sending him into the future with Bishop to save his life, sealing his fate to grow into the time-traveling warrior Cable.
Episode 4, ‘Motendo/Lifedeath,’ is a two-part story. The first half of the episode features Jubilee and Sunspot entering Mojoworld, where they’re forced to play through a deadly video game to survive. There they encounter a digital version of Jubilee who helps them escape. In the second half, ‘Lifedeath,’ Storm and Forge bond as he tries to build a machine that will restore her powers. However, he’s keeping the secret that he invented the gun that neutralized Storm’s abilities, and to complicate things further, the spiritual entity known as the Adversary is closing in on the pair.
