X-Men ’97 just brought back the Infinity Stones, in the best possible way. The MCU’s first three phases were really all about the Infinity Stones; as the Collector explained in Guardians of the Galaxy, these six “singularities” existed before creation itself. “Then the universe exploded into existence,” he continued, “and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots. Infinity Stones.” That film presented a stunning flashback of Eson the Searcher, an ancient Celestial who wielded the Power Stone “to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field.”
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The Infinity Stones were destroyed in Avengers: Endgame, and we’ve long suspected that destruction is one major reason the entire multiverse is now unstable. But Marvel Animation has been drifting through the timelines, incorporating Infinity Stones into the wider MCU multiverse. The last thing we’d expected, though, was to see an Infinity Stone in X-Men ’97 Season 2 – and for it to be used in a major retcon with a huge impact on the main timeline.
X-Men ’97’s Shock Infinity Stone Reveal Explained
X-Men ’97 Season 2, episode 4 completes the show’s “Rise of Apocalypse” arc. The time-lost X-Men had traveled back to ancient Egypt in an attempt to avert the creation of Apocalypse, one of the X-Men’s most terrifying villains, but they were almost doomed to failure. Not least because the mutant heroes had no idea they were dealing with Eson the Searcher himself, who – in this timeline, at least – still possessed the Power Stone. He used this to transform the Egyptian slave En Sabah Nur into Apocalypse, while giving him a mission.
According to Eson, En Sabah Nur would play a crucial role on Earth; he would serve as the end of all things. “All creation must crash against the eternal shore,” Eson explained, “in order to thrive and grow.” In the comics, Eson is one of a group of Celestials “gardeners” who tend to creation itself, seeking to encourage evolution. Apocalypse has been chosen to serve as a catalyst for this, his full potential unlocked through the Power Stone. No doubt the Celestials have unlocked other individuals on different planets, for the same purpose.
Audiences who are unfamiliar with the comics will naturally be surprised to learn Apocalypse’s true origin. The comics themselves, however, have indeed suggested Apocalypse was chosen by the Celestials for this precise reason; that is why he was granted Celestial armor and even technology. In the comics, the Celestials use mysterious forces known as Life and Death Seeds to mutate and resurrect people, but X-Men ’97 has clearly substituted this for the Power Stone – and possibly other Infinity Stones, too.
X-Men ’97 Just Confirmed the True Potential of Infinity Stones
Eson’s role aligns perfectly with Guardians of the Galaxy and the Infinity Stones’ origin in the MCU. Most intriguing of all, though, is the fact Marvel has long teased that Infinity Stones can indeed unlock mutations in the main MCU timeline – and this could potentially explain why mutants are making their MCU debut at last. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, we learned Hydra used the Mind Stone to grant Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver powers. The exact process has always remained a mystery (despite some exploration in WandaVision), because Wanda’s powers appear to be magical, but Quicksilver’s are more akin to a typical mutant.
According to the in-universe reference book The Wakanda Files, Hydra chose to experiment in Sokovia because local residents possessed “genetic markers” that they believed could trigger the development of super-powers. Most candidates died, but Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were the exceptions. Most exciting of all, the first Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary hinted the Mind Stone may not have “altered” Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver at all; rather, it may well have simply “unlocked” something latent. The clear implication now is that Infinity Stones transform a person, unleashing their full potential. That happened to Scarlet Witch in the main MCU timeline, and to Apocalypse in X-Men ’97.
The interesting question, though, is whether other power sources can trigger mutation as well. That corresponds with Ms. Marvel, the MCU’s first official mutant, who was exposed to cosmic energy and granted super-powers. It raises the possibility other MCU heroes who gained power in similar ways – Captain Marvel after encountering the Tesseract (Space Stone), or Spectrum after exposure to the Hex – are also really mutants. The Marvels‘ post-credits scene ended with Spectrum in an actual X-Men timeline, so it’s possible we’ll finally learn the truth. Still, all these theories just got a massive boost courtesy of X-Men ’97.
X-Men ’97 has completely changed our understanding of Apocalypse. More than that, though, it’s subtly rewritten the role of Infinity Stones in the MCU, and supported one of the oldest and most exciting theories about how mutants could appear in the mainstream MCU. The Infinity Stones may be gone on Earth-616, but even that may be a help rather than a hindrance; their power is flowing across the cosmic, and could easily still be triggering latent mutations.
The first four 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!
