The X-Men ‘97 Finale Teases a Major Time-Travel Mess

IT’S HARD TO say goodbye to X-Men ’97. Thankfully, the first season ended with a few major reveals that’ll keep us talking all the way through Season 2’s premiere.

First, a recap. The first season followed the titular superhero family as they dealt with the aftermath of Charles Xavier’s disappearance. Magneto, the X-Men’s longtime rival, took over the team, and the world then had to grapple with one of its major villains turning a new leaf.

But by the second half of the season, things have seriously ramped up. Magneto intends to bring the mutant nation Genosha into the United Nations, and along with Rogue, plans to lead it. But sentinels attack on the night of the announcement. There are some major, major deaths, including Gambit, Rogue’s boyfriend.

Magneto is also presumed dead, but is revealed to be captured by Mr. Sinister, and Bastion, a villain hellbent on ridding the world of mutants due to his personal grudge against them. What follows is an all-out war.

The X-Men manage to defeat Bastion and Sinister, and Magneto returns to help save the day. But… the X-Men were all trapped on an asteroid that blew up. And when it did, it scattered them across time.

One half of the team is in the past—3000 B.C., where one of the first mutants, Apocalypse, is—and the other is in the future, 3960 AD.

When Jean and Scott meet the locals, they have a surprising realization. Nathan (aka Cable) is there waiting for them, along with a woman who goes by the name Mother Askani.

While the show has yet to reveal her backstory and X-Men connection, it’s a huge reveal that’ll likely open up a whole new can of worms in terms of multiverses and time travel. Here’s what you need to know.

Who is Mother Askani?

While in the show she appears as a mysterious old woman, comic book fans are probably more familiar with a younger version of her. First introduced in The Uncanny X-Men #141 (1981)—aka the famous “Days of Future Past” story—Askani’s birth name is one that’ll ring some alarm bells: Rachel Summers.

Both diehard comic fans and MCU fans know that Marvel loves to play with alternate storylines. Rachel comes from an alternate timeline where Jean and Scott have a daughter.

Similar to Cable, Rachel takes many of her powers from her mother, with telepathic and telekinetic abilities, along with some connection to the Phoenix. She also possesses some time manipulation abilities as well.

Since her introduction, Rachel has joined the X-Men, and even taken on the mantle of Marvel Girl in place of Jean at times.

What does Askani mean for the X-Men?

Rachel/Askani’s reveal suggests what we already know based on Bishop’s arrival in the finale: the second season will feature a lot of time travel and potentially some multiverse travel too. And as Nathan is with Rachel, we could also see the birth of Nathan’s rival/clone Stryfe, who is kidnapped by Apocalypse after Rachel creates him while she works for a cure to Nathan’s techno-organic virus.

If nothing else, we’ll get a heartwarming reunion between Jean, Scott, and Nathan. But we’ll have to wait for Season 2 to return for all of that.

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