This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 season 2 episode 1.
As bleak as things get for the X-Men, they can find always hope in the dream of their founder, Professor Charles Xavier, that there will be a time when humans and mutants can live together in peace. Until then, they must fight to save a world that fears and hates them. At least, that was the case up until the end of X-Men ’97‘s season 1 finale, when a mysterious force sends half the team to the past and the other half to the far future of 3960, a desolate world ruled by Apocalypse.
Of course, the X-Men have been to unpleasant realities before. But the one that Cyclops and Jean Grey visit in the premiere of X-Men ’97 season 2, “Days of Past Future,” is unique because of the way it unfolds the Summers family tree and for what it reveals about Apocalypse. So let’s take a look at the most important parts of the bad days to come for Marvel’s Mighty Mutants.
Nathan Summers
At the center of the entire story stands Nathan Christopher Charles Summers. Fans of the show met the infant Nathan last season, the son of Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey. Thanks to the shenanigans of Mister Sinister, who both made the clone and infected baby Nathan with an incurable techno-organic virus, Cyclops and Jean had to send their son into the future with the time-traveler Bishop. Of course, fans also met Nathan last season, and in the original X-Men animated series, in the form of the adult warrior Cable.
The young Nathan of “Days of Past Future” hasn’t quite become Cable, and isn’t sure that he can. Still being raised and trained by the Askani Cult (more on them in a minute), Nathan’s gaining the skills he’ll need to battle Apocalypse across time. Cyclops and Jean push him even farther, helping him control his optic blasts and considerable psychic abilities, as well as his techno-organic parts.
Despite the time-travel complications, Nathan has a fairly clean plot in X-Men ’97. The same cannot be said of his comic book counterpart, who has taken multiple forms. Most notably, Mother Askani creates a clone of Nathan who gets kidnapped by Apocalypse and raised to become Stryfe, the leader of the Mutant Liberation Front. In another timeline, Mister Sinister creates a version of Nathan who become Nate Grey a.k.a. X-Man, a young, good-looking guy who transports to the mainline Marvel universe and, uh… makes out with a clone of his mom. And, in yet another universe, Nate became the savior of a mutant utopia, ushering in the Age of X-Man.
If that’s not weird enough, in the mainline Marvel Universe, Cable came to the present as a teenager and, disgusted that his older self hasn’t yet stopped Apocalypse, killed the older Cable. The teen Cable hung around with the X-Men for a bit until he realized that his older self had experience he lacked, and restored the familiar silver-haired Cable to the timeline.
Mother Askani
When Cyclops and Jean sent Nathan away, they trusted Bishop to care for him. Upon arriving in the future, they learn that he’s passed the job onto someone else, a hooded woman who calls herself Mother Askani (voiced by Star Trek legend Gates McFadden) and leads the Askani Cult. Mother Askani refuses to identify herself, but when she pulls back her hood, revealing a scarred face and her background from a different bleak future.
Mother Askani is Rachel Summers. If that name means nothing to you, sit down, because it’s about to get weird—yes, even weirder than it already is.
Rachel first appeared in 1981’s Uncanny X-Men #141 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, part of one of the classic storyline Days of Future Past. In that reality, mutants and other superpeople were rounded up into concentration camps. The daughter of Cyclops and the non-clone Jean Grey, Rachel suffered a fate worse than death. She was captured by the hunter Nimrod and turned into a “hound,” treated like a dog and used to search out mutants.
Eventually, Rachel made her way to the mainline present, where she joined the X-Men and the UK-based team Excalibur. Moreover, Rachel gained control of the same Phoenix Force that her mother possessed. Yet, the Phoenix Force could not change her status as a time-displaced figure, a condition that eventually sent her deep into the future. There, she joined the resistance against Apocalypse and learned of a hero prophesied to overthrow the villain: her half-brother, Nathan.
Since then, Rachel took the name Mother Askani and formed the Askani Cult, dedicated to preparing for Nathan’s arrival and training him to become the hero Cable.
Apocalypse and His Horsemen
At this point, we need to pause to ask why Apocalypse matters at all. The hulking baddie certainly isn’t new, as he’s existed in the comics since 1986 and appeared not only in the original X-Men: The Animated Series, but was also played (badly) by Oscar Isaac in the 2016 movie X-Men: Apocalypse.
Later episodes of X-Men ’97 season 2 will unfold more of Apocalypse’s backstory and ethos, but “Days of Past Future” reintroduces us the Horsemen, to one of the most important elements of the character. To cull the weak, Apocalypse sends out four Horsemen before his arrival: Famine, Death, Pestilence, and War. We met the Horsemen in the first season of the original series, an arc that saw the X-Man Angel captured by Apocalypse and transformed into Archangel, the new Death.
In “Days of Past Future,” a whole new set of Horsemen appear, lead by a mysterious figure who can transform into sand. That is Ozymandias, first introduced in 1996’s Uncanny X-Men #332, by Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira. Originally an ancient Egyptian warlord who sought to prevent the young En Sabah Nur from gaining power, Ozymandias was transformed into living stone when Nur became Apocalypse and forced into service. Ozymandias acts as a liaison between Apocalypse and the Horsemen, something between a field general and a messenger.
Over the centuries, Apocalypse’s Horsemen die and get replaced by new servants, which explains why the Horsemen in “Days of Past Future” look nothing like those we met back in the original series. This particular group are the Final Horsemen, from 2010’s Uncanny X-Force #2 by Rick Remender and Jerome Opena. In that story, the Final Horsemen were designed as a failsafe if Apocalypse were to be completely destroyed or removed from the timeline, allowing his work to continue.
The X-Men ultimately defeat this group, but Apocalypse always has plans within plans, so we may see more of them yet. Because if there’s one thing we learn from just this one episode, nothing is straightforward when the X-Men start traveling through time.
X-Men ’97 season 2 streams new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.
