X-Men ’97 Season 2, Episodes 1-6: The Rise of Apocalypse Changes Everything

This X-Men 97 Season 2 review covers episodes 1 through 6, and it’s clear from the jump that Marvel’s animated revival isn’t afraid of consequences. The season delivers a season-defining arc that reshapes the team: the long-teased birth of Cable, the slow-burn ascension of Apocalypse, and the devastating death of Magneto. It’s a run that trades some of Season 1’s tighter pacing for scope and ambition, but the emotional payoffs land hard.

The Birth of Cable Sets the Stage

Early episodes plant the seeds for the season’s biggest twists.During Magneto’s trial, Jean Grey goes into labor and is rushed to the hospital, and once Cyclops and Rogue arrive, Jean gives birth to a baby boy — comic fans will immediately recognize him as Nathan Summers, the time-displaced mutant better known as Cable. It’s a quiet, character-driven beat tucked into a busier episode, but it’s one that pays off enormously later in the season when Cable returns as a fully formed leader of X-Force, arriving in Athens with his own team in tow. The show plays the long game here, and it’s a rewarding one.

The Rise of Apocalypse

The season’s pivotal turn comes in Episode 4, fittingly titled “Rise of Apocalypse.” Season 1 left Xavier, Magneto, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Beast stranded in ancient Egypt, where they encountered a young En Sabah Nur — the future Apocalypse. Magneto spends the opening episodes trying to steer the boy onto a more heroic path, mentoring him in hopes of preventing Apocalypse from ever rising at all.

He fails. When Apocalypse rises, Magneto volunteers to contain the black hole he opens above Rama-Tut’s domain, and after the effort leaves him beaten and bloodied, he falls to the ground with no strength left to fight back. What follows is one of the show’s most brutal sequences to date, and it’s staged with a deliberate cruelty that makes clear this isn’t a fake-out death.

The Death of Magneto

Apocalypse grabs the fallen Magneto and slowly crushes his head before vaporizing him entirely, all in front of a horrified Professor X. Only Magneto’s helmet is left behind, and Charles is left cradling it. It’s a gut-punch on par with Gambit’s Season 1 death, and arguably more devastating given Magneto’s arc across both seasons — a man who spent the finale of Season 1 reconciling with Xavier only to be taken from him a few episodes later.

The show doesn’t rush past the loss. Episode 5, “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs,” shifts focus to Wolverine — freshly stripped of his adamantium by Magneto earlier in the season — as he assembles a black-ops team including Maverick, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, and Morph. It’s a breather episode of sorts, trading the mythic scale of Episode 4 for a grounded, espionage-flavored detour, though some viewers have felt it moves a little too quickly through its character beats.

Episode 6, “Danger.exe,” brings the grief back to the forefront. Xavier is shown obsessively replaying Magneto’s final moments in the Danger Room, blaming himself for not being strong enough to save his friend, only for the room itself to turn on him. The episode doubles as a showcase for Polaris, who breaks through the rogue AI’s protocols after Xavier shares his memories of Magneto with her — a moving, unexpected way of honoring the character even after his death. The episode closes with Xavier formally launching X-Corp and warning the team that Apocalypse’s threat is only growing, while a mid-episode reveal shows Apocalypse resurrecting Gambit as his Horseman of Death, setting up the next stretch of the season.

X-Men 97 Season 2 Review: The Verdict

To sum up: episodes 1 through 6 confirm the series isn’t interested in playing it safe. The birth of Cable is a patient piece of long-form storytelling, the rise of Apocalypse is genuinely mythic in scale, and Magneto’s death is handled with the emotional weight it deserves. The season does stumble briefly in its midsection, with Episode 5 feeling like a rushed detour compared to the highs on either side of it. But by the end of Episode 6, with X-Corp launched, Polaris coming into her own, and Cable’s X-Force on the move, X-Men ’97 has more than earned the anticipation for what comes next.

Rating: 4.5/5