Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3
Previously, on X-Men! How have I seriously done the entirety of X-Men ’97‘s first season and never once made that joke? I’m slipping, y’all… Anyway, Magneto has doomed the Earth in retaliation for Genosha! An attempt to force him to undo his damage led to Wolverine having the adamantium ripped out of his body! Meanwhile, Bastion and Mister Sinister are a deadly duo the X-Men can’t seem to beat! Is this the end of the X-Men? No. What? Of course not. Why would you…? Anyway, let’s wrap up “Tolerance is Extinction” and the show’s first season. It’s a doozy.
The episode opens in… the Vietnam War? It’s a bunch of soldiers and the Byrds’ version of “Turn! Turn! Turn!” is playing, so I’m not sure what else to assume. Anyway, we see Charles Xavier and Magnus meeting for the first time, leading to each of them revealing they’re gay. Mutants! I mean they reveal to each other that they’re mutants. This is not a flashback, but instead Xavier in Magneto’s mind. This was the carrot, hoping he could convince his old friend to fix Earth’s electromagnetic field. But Magnus is a Holocaust survivor and won’t allow Bastion to resume his “pogrom” against mutantkind–his word, not mine. So it’s the stick, then. Xavier unleashes his full psychic powers on Magneto, forcing him to use his powers to heal Earth. But that means Bastion’s Prime Sentinels are back online, much to Val Cooper’s horror. She’s still alive? Huh. Bastion gloats in front of the X-Men–minus Jean who lost the telekinetic battle with a mind-controlled Cable and is currently drowning–and destroys the power scrambler they brought. He also reveals that Xavier turned him away when his mother begged the professor to take her son, so someone’s lying. Storm tries to appeal to his humanity, but his response is to enact the final stage of Operation Zero Tolerance: protecting humanity… from humanity. By force. Sentinel stories always end this way, so no big surprise. Bastion also makes Sinister force Cable to reveal how many times he tried to stop Genosha: 200. Damn, man… you really did try to save your mom. Bastion’s attempt at killing Cable is interrupted by… the Phoenix! Whoops, probably should’ve checked on Jean and not left her on her own. She restores the scrambler and slaps it on Bastion’s head, deactivating all the Prime Sentinels back to humans. Humans who probably fell to their death while flying and also go back to their hateful lives since a number of them volunteered to fight mutants, but details, details. She also strips Sinister of all his stolen mutant DNA, turning him into a shriveled old man. And with that the Phoenix Force is gone, because it’d be too easy to solve all the various plot threads with nigh unlimited cosmic power. Case in point, Bastion’s connection to his Sentinels may be deactivated, but he’s not without power. He rips off Cable’s arm and beats him with it before absorbing the techno-organic virus and becoming… oh. I recognized this winged form. Oh dear.
I mentioned the Second Coming (2010) event in episode 8, but the gist is a mutant baby was born that everyone wanted to get their hands on, and Bastion and the Human Council–a collection of the worst humans the X-Men had fought–wanted to kill the child, later named Hope Summers. She was sent to the future with Cable, and when she came back all those groups fought again. In his attempts to kill Hope, Bastion failed… but managed to kill Nightcrawler. The first time I watched this episode, I was very worried for the blue elf. I mean, if this show can kill off Gambit, why not another fan-favorite X-Man?
Back in space, the X-Men Blue Team have a severely wounded Wolverine as well as Xavier and Magnus both unconscious. Magneto’s mind is broken but the Professor refuses to leave it that way, vowing to save his gay lover even if it costs him his life. I mean friend! Damn, how did I make that mistake twice? Anyway, Xavier informs Scott and Jean his plans. Jean warns that Bastion is “the future incarnate” and is planning on crashing Asteroid M into Earth, because fuck everyone, I guess. Blue Team does their best to stop him, opening with Rogue shattering his face while crying, “His name was Gambit! Remember it!” Their fight takes them to the Blue Area of the moon–a section with ruins and breathable air because aliens–where Roberto finally announces he’s taken the codename Sunspot. On Earth, I guess everyone forgot the Prime Sentinels almost killed the President because Kelly agrees to blow up Asteroid M, thinking mutants are the real problem. Meanwhile in Magneto’s mind, Xavier tries to convince the broken man to not drown in the dark waters of his past and alludes to those Magnus holds dear–Rogue and Erik’s children (more on that in the cameo section). Gay jokes aside, this whole sequence really pushes the limits of the “queer coded” tag, and I refuse to believe this wasn’t intentional. Out in space, the team tries their best to fight Bastion, but really if Jean and Ororo couldn’t do it… Cyclops does unleash his full optic blast against the villain, engaging in a beam battle to avenge his wounded family. But Bastion can repair himself, so that only does so much. Getting stepped on by a Sentinel piloted by Beast and most of Gold Team–Forge is tending to the wounded Cable–does slow him down, though. But surprisingly, Cyclops tells everyone to stand down. They try one last time to reach Bastion’s humanity, informing him that his mother lied about Xavier. The moment is ruined by America’s missiles, because as Bastion puts it, “Humanity would rather die than have kids like us.” Asteroid M’s core is critically damaged, sucking Bastion in before exploding. But Magneto’s base is still mostly intact and crashing into Earth. You fucked up, Kelly! Jubilee and Sunspot are separated from everyone else, who are ready to sacrifice themselves to save the world. Scott and Jean psychically say goodbye to Nathan, and once again there’s not a dry eye in the house. But even working in perfect unison while a choir sings the X-Men theme can’t save the day. Morph transforms into Jean to tell the critically wounded Wolverine that they love him, and fired showrunner Beau DeMayo confirmed online that this was Morph sharing their feelings instead of just trying to console Logan. There’s the “queer” tag! I knew it was around here somewhere. But Xavier was finally able to reach Magnus by convincing him they’re family, so Magneto saves the day! And then Asteroid M and the X-Men are immediately teleported away. Um… what?
6 months later, Forge is fearing the X-Men are dead. Enter Bishop, who calls Forge “Daniel” to show that they know each other in the future. So, um… Forge has never had his name revealed. Like, ever. There were notes writer Chris Claremont had that his name was “Daniel Lone Eagle,” but that was never confirmed… until now, I guess! Anyway, Bishop says the team is lost in time, and that it’s up to them to save the team. Sure enough, Rogue wakes up in 3000 BC Egypt and sees masked soldiers attacking civilians. Nightcrawler teleports in, followed shortly by Beast, Professor X, and Magneto. They come across a mutant fighting the soldiers, and he reveals himself to be… En Sabah Nur (Mr. Adetokumboh M’Cormack)! That’s Apocalypse! Meanwhile in 3960 AD, Cyclops and Jean are found by Mother Askani (Gates McFadden). Before a misunderstanding happens, out comes… a teenaged Nathan! This is Cable’s future! Storm, Wolverine, and Morph are MIA, I guess. The credits start rolling, but we’re not done yet. In the present-day–well, 1997–ruins of Genosha, Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) finds a burned playing card and says, “So much death.” That’s yet another reference!
Let’s get to the cameos first, because there are so, so, so many in this finale. When Earth’s EM field is restored, we see reactions from Silver Samurai, Iron Man and Captain America (who are with President Kelly), Daredevil, and Doctor Strange. When Bastion’s Prime Sentinels attack around the world, Black Panther–probably T’Chaka since he appears later in the costume–and someone who appears to be Okoye are shown (even though she didn’t debut in the comics until 1998), while Cloak and Dagger come to Daredevil’s aid. Meanwhile in Russia, the Winter Guard–Darkstar, Crimson Dynamo (most likely Valentin Shatalov), and Omega Red–protect someone I assume to be a general or leader. In Genosha, the Sentinels fight against Alpha Flight–Northstar, Aurora, and Puck–as well as Psylocke and Cipher. While President Kelly is deciding to blow up Asteroid M, he has a file on Magneto; according to the US government, Magneto’s real name is Magnus with aliases of Erik Lensherr, David Hemblen (Magneto’s old voice actor who died in 2020), and also Ian M███████ and Michael F█████████. Do I have to say those are McKellen and Fassbender, two actors who have played Magneto in film? They also list his children, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch–neither of whom are his biological children in the comics because of stupid reasons–and P██████, obviously Polaris who was officially revealed to be his daughter in Uncanny X-Men #431 (2003). When everyone thinks Asteroid M is going to kill everyone on Earth, we see Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson together, which apparently ties up plot threads left dangling from the finale of the 90’s Spider-Man cartoon. This does canonically take place after! And in the six months jump, the radio says Graydon Creed is running for president and Kelly is losing in the polls due to “the situation” in Santo Marco, which in the comics was the nation Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants took over in X-Men #4 (1964).
Forge’s board who mutants’ statuses is not only reminiscent of the cover of Uncanny X-Men #141 (1981)–the first issue of Days of Future Past (1981)–but it’s FILLED with enough recognizable names that I’m giving it its own paragraph. “Missing, Presumed Dead” include Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Beast, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Morph, Rogue, Wolverine, and Archangel for what I can only assume are Apocalypse reasons. “Off World” are Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, no doubt doing some Avengers bullshit, while Cable, Jubilee, and Sunspot are “AWOL.” Those without notes are Colossus, Dust, Magik, Iceman, Havok, Exodus, Shadowcat, and Emma Frost. Pretty sure Kitty Pryde never appeared in the original animated series, so that should be interesting! Oh, and Morph! They transformed into Sauron and Mister Fantastic during the episode, in addition to Jean. Cameos done? Let’s talk about the future.
If I had to guess what season 2 would be about, I’d guess three things: Apocalypse, Apocalypse, and Apocalypse. In the past we have half the team meeting a younger En Sabah Nur, right around the time of the Rise of Apocalypse (1996) mini-series. With Cyclops and Jean sent to the future to watch over Nathan, that’s clearly The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (1994), where Apocalypse is the primary villain. And tying Apocalypse to Gambit and referencing “death” is a reference to “The Blood of Apocalypse,” a story told in X-Men #182 (2006) to X-Men #186 (2006), where Gambit became the Horseman of Death. So it looks like we’re getting Gambit back from the dead! As for anything not Apocalypse related, Xavier overpowering Magneto’s mind led to Onslaught in the comics, which was a whole event I talked about in the last post. Other than that, I’m sure we’ll explore where Jubilee and Sunspot ran off to, maybe doing a Generation X and/or New Mutants team, as well as explain where Storm, Morph, and Wolverine are. And while I still mourn that Beau DeMayo hasn’t been rehired after being fired for unspecified reasons, word is he worked on season 2 so I don’t expect the show’s quality to go down. Over all this was probably the best thing Marvel has made in at least the last several years, and I don’t say that just as an X-Men nerd. The show went places I never expected it to, and I cannot wait to see what they come up with next.
Previous: Episode 9
Follow Me Elsewhere
Chwineka Watches 
Leave a comment