X-Men '97 Just Revealed the Origin of a Pivotal Marvel Character

X-Men '97's epic Episode 3 was also a major Marvel hero origin story - though some viewers may not know that.

By Kofi Outlaw

X-Men '97 Episode 3 "Fire Made Flesh" was an epic retelling of the classic X-Men "Inferno" storyline – but it was also the origin story for one of Marvel's most pivotal characters! 

X-Men '97 Episode 3 saw "Jean Grey" revealed as a clone created by Mister Sinister to replace the real Jean (at a point yet to be determined). When the Clone Jean found out her true identity, she flipped out and became "The Goblin Queen," terrorizing the X-Men with hellish psychic visions of their own insecurities and nightmares. However, while Goblin Queen was taking on the X-Men, the real villain mastermind, Sinister, was busy experimenting on her newborn son with Cyclops, Nathan. At the end of the fight, the real Jean Grey managed to talk down her evil clone, but the victory came too late: Sinister infected Nathan with a Techno-organic virus, for which there was no cure. Scott and Jean's Clone (now calling herself "Madelyne Pryor") ultimately tasked Bishop with taking baby Nathan into the future where a cure for the Techno-virus can be found. 

X-Men '97: Origin of Cable Explained

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(Photo: Disney)

The baby, Nathan Summers, who was sent into the future doesn't just disappear from X-Men lore after that: he makes a major comeback as Cable, a time-traveling powerful mutant soldier, who led the very first incarnation of Marvel's X-Force team.

Cable already appeared in the original X-Men: The Animated Series show in multiple episodes, including the show's adaptation of the "X-Tinction Agenda" storyline, and some acclaimed time travel story arcs, like the two-part "Time Fugitives" arc in Season 2. During X-Men: TAS there were some heavy implications about the connection Cable shares with Cyclops and Jean Grey, but it was never directly addressed. Now, X-Men '97 has filled in the necessary backstory to make Cable's arc complete. 

Of course, X-Men '97 changes some key details about Cable's origin story – namely, having Bishop be the one who took Cable into the future. The  X-Men: The Animated Series "Time Fugitives" arc had Cable literally come to the present day gunning for Bishop, as Bishop's time alongside the X-Men was re-writing the timestream and threatening Cable's timeline in the process. Ultimately Cable and Bishop worked out a compromise that ensured that both their eras remained intact, while seemingly destroying the evil mutant tyrant Apocalypse in the process. X-Men '97 has now added new layers of complexity to the Cable/Bishop saga, which could cause whole new wrinkles in time for the X-Men. 

Related:

Will X-Men '97 Adapt More of Cable's Origin Story? 

 In the comics, it was Cable's half-sister, Rachel Summers (who becomes "Mother Askani" ) who takes her baby brother into the future to be cured of the Techno-virus and raised as a warrior. The 1994 miniseries The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix saw Scott Summers and Jean Grey transported into the future where they got to actually raise Nathan, under the aliases of "Slim" and "Red."  That would be the kind of deep-cut storyline that X-Men '97 could adapt into yet another epic episode. 

X-Men '97 is streaming on Disney+. 

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