X-Men ’97 Episode 6 Includes Awesome Zack Snyder Reference

X-Men ’97 Episode 6 included an amazing Zack Snyder reference. In “LifeDeath Part 2”, the audience catches up with Storm after her absence last week. The beloved character is still fighting to remain her powers against The Adversary. Once she triumphs against her inner demons, she takes to the skies to reassume her weather-based powers. One Twitter user, @ItsRicoSousa, wondered if the transformation Storm has in the sky was a reference to Snyder’s Man of Steel. The head writer of X-Men ’97, Beau DeMayo actually replied to the question on Twitter and clarified it was!

Say what you will about Snyder, but the visuals were always striking in his DC Comics work. Man of Steel‘s moment where Henry Cavil’s Superman takes to the skies absolutely fits the bill. Eagle-eyed fans will also notice some Sailor Moon references in there with the way that Storm’s headpiece materializes as well. It’s clear Beau DeMayo loves a variety of media and encouraged the entire writers room to include a bunch of their favorite ideas in these episodes as well. Clearly, it’s connecting with the fans in a big way. 

X-Men ’97 Writers Moving With Purpose

DeMayo and the writing staff had carefully planned out these story beats from an early stage. ComicBook.com’s Phase Zero podcast actually caught up with supervising director Jake Castorena to talk about the arc of this season. X-Men ’97 really shook up the team in Episode 5 and this was all by design. The director explained how he wanted to give DeMayo and the team a ton of credit for being so intentional in their decisions.

“Again, full credit to the scripts and, the writing team and Beau [DeMayo], because that pacing is in the script. When you have 1100 characters you got to cover, and they all have poignant moments and they all have arcs,” Castorena told us. “You have to really prioritize what story! You lose time for process. So, you have to cram all that stuff in. Again, it’s something that I really respect about the stories and the scripts in the writer’s room is: we only have 10 episodes to work. I would say everything has to slap. We don’t have the luxury of, ‘we’ll get it later on in the season.’ No, get episode one.”

“The mission statement was, because by episode five, ‘we’re gonna challenge stuff’ and hold a mirror. So, we had to know how that escalation would work. But, you can’t escalate unless you know where you’re starting from. Then, you know where you’re going,” the director added.

How Did Episode 5 Happen?

After that explosive ending to Episode 5, the head writer talked about the narrative decisions that led to such a tragic death for a couple of fan-favorite heroes. On Twitter, DeMayo began, “My plan was the first half of the season is the OG audiences pre-9/11 days, rife with nostalgia and comfort. Then 9/11 — like Tulsa and other mass tragedies — turned the world upside down and reminded us the whole world unsafe…”

“Don’t forget, Jean, who now faces the memory disassociation and identity crisis that many survivors of sexual assault face,” he added. “Sinister’s ‘your mind, your body, you have no choice’ was deliberate. His violation of, not saying when they’re switched, has turned her mind against itself” 

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