X-Men ‘97 Is Getting The Worst Villain Of The Comics

By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 7 hours ago

Part of what makes X-Men ‘97 so fun is that it mixes and matches some of the greatest X-Men comics of yesteryear. In Season 1, for example, we got a mix of classic storylines like “The Trial of Magneto,” “Fatal Attractions,” the attack on Genosha, and more. Season 2 just dropped, and we’re already getting fun remixes of stories like The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix and The Rise of Apocalypse. For the most part, all of these comic stories have something in common: they are more or less beloved by the fandom.

Now, however, the most recent episode of X-Men ‘97 seems to be setting up an adaptation of a very controversial comic book storyline. There are spoilers here, so if you haven’t already watched “The Rise of Apocalypse, Part II,” this is your last chance to do so without knowing what happens! With that said, here we go: while the exact setup differs from the comics, the most recent episode’s shocking death of Magneto is seemingly setting up the arrival of Onslaught. Who or what is Onslaught, you ask? In short, it’s a supervillain that possesses Xavier, and he was the catalyst for one of the dumbest X-Men stories ever created!

Birth Of A New Supervillain

In X-Men ‘97 Season 1, we see Magneto’s full fury unleashed. He strips the adamantium off Wolverine’s bones and tries to launch an apocalyptic electromagnetic pulse at the planet, intent on wiping out humanity. To stop this, Professor Xavier had to go into his old friend’s mind and control his magnetic powers to reverse the damage. In the comics, things went down slightly differently: Magneto successfully unleashed an EMP, albeit a smaller one. After he ripped the adamantium out of Wolverine, Xavier didn’t take control of Magneto’s powers; instead, he simply shut down the supervillain’s mind, leaving him in a coma. 

Three years later, the comics revealed something startling. When Xavier shut down Magneto’s mind, he absorbed some of its evil, and this got mixed up with much of the professor’s own repressed dark side. This created a malevolent psionic entity named Onslaught that initially hid inside Xavier’s brain. Eventually, it got out and wreaked so much havoc that the greatest heroes in the world had to team up to stop it. While some of this might sound cool on paper, it led to some of the worst Marvel comics of the ‘90s. Now, unfortunately, it looks like X-Men ‘97 is about to bring this controversial villain into the show. 

You Wouldn’t Like Him When He’s Angry

The primary ingredients for Onslaught were revealed in X-Men ‘97 Season 1. Xavier had to make extensive contact with Magneto’s mind to stop the EMP,  giving him plenty of time to absorb much of his friend’s negative energy. Now, Season 2 has added a potential catalyst: the death of Magneto. When Apocalypse kills the Master of Magnetism (but not before Xavier makes mental contact with his friend, one last time), we see how Xavier is racked with grief and rage. In the comics, the Onslaught identity emerged due to Xavier’s anger at humanity’s treatment of mutants. Now, his best friend getting brutally murdered right in front of him in X-Men ‘97 has created a more compelling reason for the professor to let his crazy out.

Now, why did fans hate the Onslaught story in the comics so much? For one thing, it was weird seeing Xavier basically become a supervillain, especially for a reason as silly as “touched minds with a supervillain,” something he had done countless times before. Also, the writers just kept adding new powers until Onslaught was basically an evil god. The whole thing became a clusterf*ck of a crossover in which a bunch of heroes had to sacrifice themselves, all so Marvel could create Heroes Reborn … a kindasorta reboot so crappy that all anyone remembers from it is Rob Liefield unleashing the single worst drawing of Captain America the world has ever seen.

Fans had plenty of other issues with Onslaught and his big crossover story, including the fact that it was used to resolve a major mystery from the ‘80s comics (who betrays the X-Men in the future?) in the worst possible way. Now, it seems this villain is destined to pop up in X-Men ‘97, possibly as the only force that can defeat Apocalypse. If that happens, though, it would likely be setting Onslaught up as the Big Bad of Season 3. I’ll do my best to keep that from happening, though. Does anybody have Bishop’s number? Because changing the future has never been more important!