X-Men ’97 kills a major character — here’s what it means

The two-part X-Men ‘97 episode “Rise of Apocalypse” focuses on the X-Men who have been stranded in ancient Egypt as they try to get back to the ‘90s while helping the first mutant En Sabah Nur lead a slave uprising. Magneto imagines that persuading the man who will become Apocalypse to be a force for good could change the future and prevent the massacre at Genosha. The dangers of that plan became clear in episode 3, when Nur discovered his allies were time-travelers and the whole group was attacked by Pharaoh Rama-Tut. Things get even worse in episode 4 of the animated series, which premiered on July 8.

[Edit. note: This article contains major spoilers for X-Men ‘97 episode 4]

In “Rise of Apocalypse Part 2,” the X-Men take the fight to Rama-Tut, and Nur discovers the depth of their lies as he encounters murals that depict him using Celestial technology to transform into Apocalypse. He embraces his destiny while Rama-Tut and most of the X-Men escape via time-travel. Magneto stays behind to clean up the mess he made, using his powers to contain a black hole Apocalypse created above Rama-Tut’s city even though he knows it will likely kill him. Apocalypse finds the badly injured Magneto after he crashes back to Earth and seemingly disintegrates him, leaving only his helmet behind. Then, Forge rescues the distraught Charles Xavier to take him back to the ‘90s.

Is Magneto really dead?

Probably not, or at least not for long. X-Men comics and adaptations are notorious for fake deaths and resurrections. In the original X-Men: The Animated Series, Morph was seemingly killed by Sentinels, only to return as a brainwashed agent of Mister Sinister. Jean Grey died and was resurrected through the shared life force of many of the X-Men. The ‘90s series ended with Professor X being mortally injured by an anti-mutant assassin, but he returned in X-Men ‘97 after being healed by the Shi’ar.

Magneto’s death is especially unlikely since it came at the hands of Apocalypse. Apocalypse isn’t one to waste powerful mutants. He’s far more likely to brainwash them so he can transform them into one of his Horsemen. Apocalypse tells Charles he won’t make him a Horseman, calling him spineless, but he didn’t make any such promise to Magneto.

Even death isn’t really a limit to Apocalypse’s recruitment. The post-credits scene at the end of season 1 sparked plenty of speculation that Apocalypse would resurrect Gambit to join his Horsemen. He’s got plenty of other notable mutants who died in Genosha to choose from, including Banshee, Magik, and Jean Grey’s clone Madelyne Pryor. Adding Magneto to that team would create a devastating threat for the surviving X-Men.