X-Men ’97 Just Set Up the Last Avenger I Expected

X-Men ’97 Season 2 really does seem to be setting up its own Avengers stories too. The ’90s are back with X-Men ’97, but the mutants aren’t alone. Season 1 tied in to all the other 1990s animated series in so many subtle ways: we got Spider-Man and Mary Jane, Cloak and Dagger, Iron Man and Captain America, and even Daredevil fighting the Sentinels. It was a thrilling moment, drawing all these stories together into a shared universe that predates the MCU by decades.

The end of X-Men ’97 Season 1 stripped the world of its mutant heroes, inverting the “Onslaught” saga of the comics, where the X-Men were all who were left behind. The recent Season 2 trailer confirmed there are so many new and returning characters in X-Men ’97 Season 2, including variants of Kang the Conqueror himself, but he never appeared in the ’90s shows. What we didn’t expect, though, was for one particular Avenger to get a reference.

Read Next

Return of X-Men ’97’s Best Character Officially Addressed After Post-Credits Tease

Will X-Men ’97 Introduce the Winter Soldier?

Marvel debuted a first trailer for X-Men ’97 Season 2 at Comic Con Revolution Ontario, and it was very different to the one that finally debuted online. This one ended with a homage to the Weapon Plus project that created Wolverine, with the Canucklehead leading a team as they broke into Weapon Plus records. This fitted with a retcon from the comics, which revealed Wolverine’s “Weapon X” project used a Roman numeral; he was the tenth super-soldier created by the program. Captain America was the first.

The brief shot in the trailer referenced quite a few established Weapon Plus characters, some better known than others. But one name in particular stood out on the list: The Winter Soldier. It seems Bucky Barnes became part of Weapon Plus in the X-Men ’97 timeline, transformed into a cybernetic assassin. The Winter Soldier reference is a fascinating one, given the comic book version of the character didn’t make his debut until the 2000s. Still, X-Men ’97 is already consciously riffing on wider lore – the publicly-released trailer features character designs from the 2000s – so the nod still fits.

The interesting question, though, is whether this setup means anything. It really does feel as though X-Men ’97 could easily lead to a revival of the full ’90s animated slate; characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, and so many more are already a part of this shared universe. The Winter Soldier reference may just be an Easter egg, but if so it’s a smart one; it sets up a potential Captain America story that could easily launch an Avengers series. We can only hope it happens.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!