X-Men ’97 Officially Just Gave Wolverine a Major Downgrade in Season 2

X-Men ’97 Season 2 has kicked off in style, but it’s just given Wolverine a major downgrade. To be fair, there’s a sense in which that was inevitable; the Canucklehead was put through the wringer in Season 1, with Magneto literally tearing the adamantium out of his skeleton. Wolverine came closer to death than ever before, barely surviving the Master of Magnetism’s murderous attack.

This plot was lifted straight from the comics, but it unfortunately means Season 2 has to deal with one of the worst X-Men stories ever told. In the comics, the removal of his adamantium led to a time of radical change for Logan; he began to undergo a feral mutation, losing himself into his animal nature. Wolverine wound up with one of his worst looks, his nose literally disappearing as he adopted a strange costume nobody really liked. And now, unfortunately, X-Men ’97 Season 2 has to deal with that.

Wolverine’s X-Men ’97 Season 2 Look Isn’t a Good One

X-Men ’97 Season 2 scattered the mutants across the timeline, leaving Wolverine and some of his allies in the distant future. Wolverine’s new outfit starts out with the classic yellow-and-blue training costume the X-Men wore in the comics, one Logan didn’t actually wear until the end of the Claremont era (most notably on a mission in Shi’ar space). The original design was supposed to stress uniformity, making the X-Men feel like more of a team, but X-Men ’97 adapts it by giving each character something unique.

In the case of Wolverine, some of the design elements are lifted straight from the feral mutation era; note the blue mask, for example, and the exaggerated, out-of-control hair. The latter was symbolic of the fact his healing factor was running out of control, because it meant hair growth was accelerated too. The rest of the design appears to riff on ideas from the “Age of Apocalypse” comics, with traditional shoulder pads that were common in ’90s designs. We’ve also got some extra yellow additions to the training suit, evoking Wolverine’s standard yellow side-slashes but looking a bit more futuristic and sci-fi.

Now, let’s be clear; this is a definite improvement on the feral look Wolverine had in the comics. It’s still nowhere near as good as the tremendous costume designs in Season 1, though, reflecting the more problematic sources of inspiration; personally, I’d have done something that more obviously riffed on Wolverine’s iconic “Age of Apocalypse” costume, which was far more creative. In all honesty, I’d rather assumed we’d be getting a lot more of that timeline; there are allusions to it, but that’s about it so far. Still, maybe that’s being saved for later.

Will X-Men ’97 Embrace the Full Feral Mutation?

For the record, the above image shows just how far Marvel pushed Wolverine’s feral mutation in the comics. At its worst, Wolverine devolved to the point where he ditched the face-mask simply because it made the noseless look seem even weirder. It didn’t help that was an age of behind-the-scenes drama at Marvel, with major editorial changes after the publisher came close to bankruptcy. Consistency went out the window, plans changed at the drop of a pen, and every writer had a different idea of just how animal Wolverine had become. In one comic, he literally licked Cyclops’ face to wake him up.

X-Men ’97 Season 2 has opened with a few elements calling back to this era, but thankfully seems reluctant to go all the way. We can only hope the story doesn’t involve a full (noseless) feral mutation, and that we don’t get Wolverine licking Cyclops’ face anytime soon. This opening costume may not be the best, but it’s so much better than anything we got at this stage in the comics.

As critical as I’m being here, though, one element of Wolverine did really impress me in the X-Men ’97 premiere. When Wolverine attacks Apocalypse’s cybernetic soldiers, he instinctively slashes at them with his claws – only for the bone to break at the impact, because bone is nowhere near as strong as adamantium. The pain caused Wolverine to go a little bit more feral, howling in pain and slipping into something reminiscent of a Berzerker rage, with the claws then growing back. I absolutely loved that touch, and aren’t aware of any comic book inspiration; the creative team really did add something wonderful there.

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!

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