X-Men ’97 has finally told the origin story of Cable, aka Nathaniel Summers, but another Summers sibling is hiding in plain sight. Modern viewers are used to the idea that the time traveling warrior Cable is secretly the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor, but that wasn’t originally the case at all. Cable started out as a major mystery man, and it took time for Marvel’s various writers and editors to piece together his background. Matters weren’t helped by behind-the-scenes drama when Cable creator Rob Liefeld and others left Marvel in the mid-’90s to found Image Comics.
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X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men ’97 have told the story rather better than the comics. In large part that’s because of the benefit of hindsight, with X-Men ’97 streamlining the story. The beginning of Season 2 saw Cyclops and Jean Grey travel to the distant future courtesy of Mother Askani, who brought them there and gave them a chance to meet Nathan Summers as a teenager. But, though they didn’t realize it, they were also dealing with another Summers sibling.
Mother Askani is Secretly Daughter of Cyclops & Phoenix
Step forward Mother Askani, a mysterious mutant who clearly has the power to manipulate time. She’s the one responsible for the X-Men’s time travel, bringing half the team to her time and sending the other half to the dawn of Apocalypse. Mother Askani keeps her own story secret, but she does drop tantalizing hints – most notably confirming to Storm that she hails from a timeline even worse than the current one, and she knew Storm and the X-Men personally in her own Earth. X-Men ’97 episode 1 confirms she has a connection with the Phoenix Force, and she’s shown meditating upside-down – in a position typically associated with Jean Grey in the comics.
The clues are there for viewers to spot. In reality, Mother Askani is a variant of a classic X-Men character called Rachel Summers. She comes from the “Days of Future Past” timeline, a horrific dystopian reality where the mutant-hunting Sentinels successfully conquered the entire Earth. The Sentinels killed the Avengers, took control of the human race, and established mutant camps across the worldwide. In this timeline, Cyclops and Phoenix had a daughter: Rachel Summers, a powerful psychic and temporal manipulator. Rachel’s powers dwarf even Jean’s, and she was the X-Men’s first official Omega mutant.
Rachel’s story is a tragic one, because the Sentinels forced her to work as one of their “Hounds” – mutant hunters. Still, in the comics, Rachel eventually broke free from the Sentinels and successfully averted her own timeline. A splinter of her did indeed wind up in the far future, becoming Mother Askani. Interestingly, the “Hound” iteration of Rachel is actually briefly seen as one of Apocalypse’s prisoners in the classic animated series, and the X-Force ’97 opening credits show Apocalypse leading his allies – two of whom are wearing Hound costumes.
Is Mother Askani’s Secret Going to Matter in X-Men ’97?
At first glance, this seems like the best kind of X-Men Easter egg. The secret identity is there for viewers who know it, and it adds so much more to certain scenes; notably, those where Rachel interacts with Cyclops and Jean, watching their relationship with Cable without dropping a hint about who she truly is. Her relationship with Storm is particularly touching; Rachel did indeed love Storm so much in the X-Men comics, and had a deep admiration for the Beautiful Windrider. Little wonder she encouraged Storm to demonstrate her true powers.
It’s possible the writers feel Rachel’s story is just a little too confusing in a story already diving deep into the MCU’s contradictory temporal mechanics. I can understand that argument, but I can’t help feeling disappointed; she’s a fantastic character, and she deserves so much more than to briefly appear in a single episode before that entire time period is averted. Rachel is part of Cyclops and Jean Grey’s legacy, just as much as Cable, and I really hope the final episodes – which even critics haven’t seen – will feature her unexpected return.
Regardless, there is a beautiful irony in the fact that Cable was brought up by family. Cyclops may have been forced to send his son into a distant future timeline – one far more broken than he hoped – but Nathan had people who love him. I don’t know quite what the right term would be for this; she’s not quite his sister, because she originates from another timeline and never existed in this reality, but she’s close to it. It’s the kind of madness you only get in X-Men comics, and it’s absolutely delightful to see X-Men ’97 play it straight like this. Hopefully, we get so much more from Mother Askani going forward.
The first three episodes of X-Men ’97 are streaming now on Disney+, and new episodes will be released weekly. Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
