Spoilers for “X-Males ’97” Season 2, Episode 9, “Survival of the Fittest” comply with.
Since Season 1 of “X-Males ’97,” many followers have been guessing that United Nations officer Valerie “Val” Cooper (Catherine Disher) is just not what she seems to be. Through the Nineties’ “Muir Island Saga” within the “X-Males” comics, the shapeshifter Mystique/Raven Darkholme posed as Cooper. Followers theorized that the Val in “X-Males ’97” can be Mystique, working undercover to sabotage the X-Males.
Season 1 didn’t bear that out, when Val turned out to be a part of Bastion’s (Theo James) anti-mutant Operation: Zero Tolerance. Sfter witnessing the genocide of Genosha, she repented, even declaring “Magneto was proper” that mutants must combat. However Val’s portrayal in Season 2 renewed this hypothesis. She was now main X-Issue, a government-sponsored workforce of mutants making an attempt to maintain mutants “protected” by locking them up. In Episode 6, “Hazard.exe,” Val fired Polaris (Carolina Ravassa) for going too laborious on attacking the Purifiers, anti-mutant extremists.
How does Val proclaiming “Magneto was proper” sq. along with her chastising Magneto’s daughter to not change into her father? Her actions within the “X-Males ’97” Season 2 finale, setting X-Issue on a collision course with the X-Males, would additionally make sense as Mystique pitting enemies in opposition to one another. However “Survival of the Fittest” reveals that Mystique hasn’t been impersonating Val Cooper … till now.
A post-credits scene in “Survival of the Fittest” options Val in her workplace, when one other Val walks in and her jaw drops. The Val within the workplace is Mystique (Randall Carpenter, one other voice actor reprising her position from the unique “X-Males” animated collection), who then kills the true Val. This units up Mystique as a significant antagonist for “X-Males ’97” Season 3, and one who can do a variety of injury from contained in the U.S. authorities.
Mystique and the Brotherhood of Mutants will seem in X-Males ’97 Season 3
There’s one other key revelation on the finish of “Survival of the Fittest” apart from Mystique’s reappearance. Earlier this season in “Unusual Land, Savage Coronary heart,” it was revealed that anti-mutant activist Graydon Creed (Ben Prosky) is operating for President. Now, he is received, maybe leveraging sympathy and fearmongering from when Exodus and the Acolytes of Magneto kidnapped him in that aforementioned episode.
This post-credits scene additionally explains a preview clip for “X-Males ’97” Season 3 screened at San Diego Comedian Con, whereby the Brotherhood of Mutants (Pyro, Avalanche, Blob, Toad, and new recruit Surge) have been combating Sentinels. Mystique is the Brotherhood’s chief, and with Creed within the White Home, in fact he recommissioned the Sentinel program. So, what else do these twists imply for Season 3?
The X-Males have misplaced a cautious ally in President Robert Kelly (Ron Rubin). It is value noting that Kelly was as soon as anti-mutant as nicely, like a extra average Creed. Mystique and the Brotherhood even tried to assassinate Kelly again in the course of the unique collection episode, “Days of Future Previous.” After the X-Males saved him from the Brotherhood after which rogue Sentinels, he turned over a brand new leaf. Kelly’s betrayed former followers flocked to Creed as “The Mates of Humanity.”
There’s one other essential element about Creed: he is the son of Mystique and her fellow mutant villain Sabretooth. He first hated mutants as a result of he had two monstrous ones for folks. “Unusual Land, Savage Coronary heart” reminding us of Creed’s connection to Mystique makes much more sense now that Mystique is again within the present. What’s her aim? In Val’s workplace, she’s heard scoffing at a information broadcast saying Creed’s election. Maybe she’s planning one other assassination to appropriate an unaddressed mistake of hers.
What Mystique’s return suggests about X-Males ’97 Season 3
The “X-Males” films bought Mystique so, so fallacious, depicting her first as a henchwoman after which as a hero, when she needs to be a cold-blooded grasp villain in her personal proper. This temporary look in “X-Males ’97” suggests the present might be honoring that. The present additionally has an opportunity to deal with one other aspect of Mystique the unique present by no means may: her queerness.
Within the “X-Males” comics written by Chris Claremont, Mystique’s Brotherhood included a clairvoyant mutant named Future/Irene. Claremont noticed Future and Mystique as lovers and the X-Man Nightcrawler’s organic dad and mom. (Raven shapeshifted into a person to get Irene pregnant.) However this being the Eighties, LGBTQ+ characters have been nonetheless taboo, and Claremont needed to accept solely coding Mystique and Future as lesbians. Occasions have modified, although, and these days Mystique and Future are explicitly written as lovers, with a 2023 comedian even retconning of their shared parentage of Nightcrawler.
“X-Males: The Animated Collection,” which might’ve confronted comparable censorship because the comics, by no means included Future, however now “X-Males ’97” can. The present could not make her Nightcrawler’s mom, although, on condition that the traditional “X-Males” already confirmed Mystique giving delivery to Kurt. Plus, Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough) himself perished in “Survival of the Fittest.” Mystique was by no means essentially the most loving mom, having deserted Nightcrawler in infancy, however may his demise make her notice she liked him in any case? Or will she see Kurt as weak for not killing his hateful half-brother, Graydon Creed, again in “Unusual Land, Savage Coronary heart”?
Mystique’s return means that her different youngster, Rogue (Lenore Zann), goes to proceed enjoying a central position in “X-Males ’97” in Season 3. Simply do not anticipate a contented mother-daughter reunion.
“X-Males ’97” is streaming on Disney+, with Season 3 set to premiere in 2027.
