{"id":51482,"date":"2024-05-15T12:57:09","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T10:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2040636"},"modified":"2024-05-15T14:29:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T12:29:35","slug":"x-men-97-ending-explained-series-cements-itself-as-the-best-x-men-adaptation-ever","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/x-men-97-ending-explained-series-cements-itself-as-the-best-x-men-adaptation-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"X-Men \u201997 ending explained: Series cements itself as the best X-Men adaptation ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

The finale didn’t disappoint. <\/p>

By David Opie\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 15 May 2024 at 10:57 AM<\/p>

\n\n

To me, my readers.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It says a lot that the <\/span>X-Men \u201997<\/span><\/a> opening credits are already better than almost any other comic book adaptation to date, Marvel, DC, or otherwise. And with this finale, it\u2019s become hard to deny that <\/span>Disney\u2019s entire sequel show<\/span> as a whole has even managed to surpass the original \u201990s series, building on everything that cartoon did so well while somehow improving on it at every turn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The loving detail poured into every frame, every line, is stuffed more than Beast\u2019s bath drain after a shower, demanding endless rewatches. That\u2019s especially true of the season 1 finale, which sets up an already-confirmed second season<\/a> with the kind of story arcs that will have fans old and new screaming louder than Banshee on a rollercoaster.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lot to take in, though, so that\u2019s where we come in.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Warning: Spoilers for X-Men \u201997 ahead*<\/strong><\/p>\n

X-Men \u201997 ending explained<\/b><\/h2>\n

The ending begins with Magneto<\/a> and Charles bonding over beer in a time when the X-Men were but a glint in Xavier\u2019s eye. Discussing the mutant issue, the pair essentially come out to each other in the kind of scene that will fuel fanfiction for months, if not years, from this point on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Already though, their conflicting ideologies when it comes to mutants and their place in society is causing friction between them both.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn my experience, minds are far harder to bend than metal,\u201d says Magneto, only to then discover that Charles was trying to do exactly that to him. Because they\u2019re not in the past at all. They\u2019re in the present that immediately follows the previous episode. Magneto had just pulled the adamantium metal out of Wolverine\u2019s skeleton, so Charles is fighting back from within his old friend\u2019s mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rogue\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Rogue flying through the sky with her fist pointed towards the frame in X-Men 97.<\/span><\/figcaption> Marvel\/Disney+<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

If Magneto doesn\u2019t undo the planet-wide EMP that\u2019s wiped out power for all of humanity, Xavier says he will have no choice but to make him do it in a move that risks shattering both their minds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether Magneto was indeed \u201cright\u201d or not, (spoiler, he was), that doesn\u2019t stop Charles from \u201cpsychically penetrating\u201d his bestie against his wishes. Make of that very specific phrasing what you will.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As power returns to earth, extremely satisfying Marvel cameos pop up, including Iron Man, Captain America, Daredevil and Doctor Strange mid-surgery. Now <\/span>this<\/span><\/i> is how you do a cameo. The wider MCU, please take note.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Forge, Storm, and other X-Men who Bastion bested try appealing to his humanity. But Operation Tolerance is about to skip to the final phase. Cue even more cameos of other heroes reacting to Bastion\u2019s plan, including Black Panther, Cloak and Dagger, Omega Red\u2019s Soviet Super-Soldiers and the Canadian X-Men counterpart, Alpha Flight, complete with Psylocke of all people. The real Psylocke! Not just Morph cosplaying.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bastion plans to murder Cable as an example to the other mutants, betraying Mister Sinister in the process by killing off his new lapdog, but then, suddenly, the neural scrambler designed to stop Bastion somehow reassembles itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Storm chuckles then, a warm hearty chuckle, which means it\u2019s about to go down for Bastion\u2026 And it does, because Jean Grey suddenly rises from the watery depths with the immortal words, \u201cI am Phoenix\u201d. But this isn\u2019t just a nostalgic re-run of her ascension from the original series.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Roberto\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
X-Men \u201997.<\/span><\/figcaption> Marvel Studios\/Disney Plus<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

With a giant psionic claw, <\/span>Jean<\/span> Phoenix grabs Bastion and forces the scrambler over his receding hairline, thereby releasing every human-turned-sentinel around the world who was under his grasp.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, Jean thinks she can single-handedly stop Bastion and Mister Sinister too? \u201cAll I do is think,\u201d says the world\u2019s preeminent psychic, and with that, she then pulls out all of the mutant DNA Mister Sinister has stolen for himself over the years, leaving him a pathetic, dried out husk. <\/span><\/p>\n

Morph gets a jab in at Sinister\u2019s new look, which means the world for both him and fans who watched the shapeshifter suffer so much at the good doctor\u2019s hands back in the \u201990s show.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all. By giving Jean this moment, one where she finally defeats the man who plagued her family all these years, it proves what fans of the comics have known all along. That Jean is an omega level powerhouse, one of the strongest mutants on the entire planet, who\u2019s now worlds away from the woman who fainted every time the breeze shifted back in the original \u201990s cartoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure, the Phoenix Force did play a part in this, pulling Jean back so she could protect her \u201cson\u201d, but the entire new series already established her strength, with or without cosmic backup in everything from her pinball Prime Sentinel fight to the effortless psychometry she used to explore Bastion\u2019s past.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Yet Bastion himself isn\u2019t down for the count just yet. In a move that would make the MCU\u2019s Rocket Raccoon proud, he rips Cable\u2019s metal arm out of his shoulder and beats him with it before transforming its (Legacy Virus) infected metal into a coat of armour that gives him more strength than ever \u2014 plus some Archangel-style wings which pre-shadow the finale\u2019s post credits scene. (More on that shortly)<\/span><\/p>\n

With that, Bastion zooms off into space with plans to take Magneto\u2019s new HQ, Asteroid M, and smash it down to earth, creating a dinosaur-style extinction event for humans and mutants alike.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Cyclops checks on a still unconscious Wolverine, telling him that he\u2019s gotta be the best at what he does, which is heal, apparently, and not slice people up like shish kebab, as we\u2019ve previously been led to believe. \u201cDon\u2019t you dare break her heart,\u201d says Scott, knowing full well that Jean would be devastated if Logan died because, bear with us if you don\u2019t read the comics, this would break up the throuple once and for all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Charles and Magneto are unconscious too, but using their combined strength and (platonic?) love for each other, they begin to break free, which is just as well, because if Magneto loses his mind completely, so will Xavier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With so many of their heavy-hitters stranded on earth or out for the count, the remaining X-Men are apprehensive about Bastion\u2019s arrival to say the least, but as Rogue points out with a sweet homage to Gambit, \u201cThe odds are always in the X-Men\u2019s favour.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n