X-Men '97 Episode 3 Clip Teases Major Marvel Storyline

Something Sinister this way comes on X-Men '97. Episode 3 of the Marvel Animation series, titled "Fire Made Flesh," sees the X-Men — including Wolverine (Cal Dodd), Cyclops (Ray Chase), and fiery new recruit Sunspot (Gui Agustini) — trapped in a hellish nightmare that Beast (George Buza) likens to Dante's Inferno. When Jubilee (Holly Chou) remarks that the seemingly-possessed X-Mansion is out of "like, the worst horror movie ever," the shape-shifting Morph (J.P. Karliak) invokes HE-double-hockey-sticks: "We're in hell!"

Watch the clip from Wednesday's episode below.

Is X-Men '97 Adapting Inferno? 

X-Men '97 episode 2 ended with a shocking revelation: that the Jean Grey who went into labor and delivered Cyclops' son during the episode might not, in fact, be the real Jean Grey.

The late '80s comic book crossover Inferno — spanning issues of Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, and The New Mutants — pit the mutant teams against the schemes of Mister Sinister and the demons of Limbo. After Scott Summers and his wife, Madelyne Pryor, welcomed their son Nathan — the future time-traveler Cable (in Uncanny X-Men #201) — Mister Sinister revealed to Madelyne that he created her as Jean Grey's clone (in Uncanny X-Men #241).

Madelyne's mutant abilities manifested after Jean died as the Phoenix, and Sinister's manipulations made it so that Scott and Madelyne would fall in love and birth his prize: a child possessing the powerful genetic material of both Scott Summers and Jean Grey. (Sinister engineered a similar scheme on X-Men: The Animated Series.) Madelyne became the villainous Goblyn Queen and then waged war on the X-Men and X-Factor with the demonic forces of Limbo. 

New episodes of Marvel's X-Men '97 premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.