The run-up to the finale of X-Men ‘97 season 1 begins with “Tolerance Is Extinction Part 1,” and I’m telling you right now, this roller coaster is still on the track and it doesn’t miss a beat.
This is the beginning of the culmination of the entire season. Bastion is the villain, 100 percent, just like we knew he was. And then all hell breaks loose.
Nathan, Genosha, and Absolute Points
Last episode ended with the arrival of Nathan, and Wolverine literally questions him. Why haven’t you tried to stop Genosha? And his answer is basically, dude, there’s something about Genosha I don’t understand. It just happens. Every time he goes there, he automatically gets pulled back out. Whenever he tries to do anything, it still happens.
Then Hank makes a really offhand reference to Kamar-Taj. Doctor Strange. “The mystics of Kamar-Taj speak of absolute points. Events that occur across all timelines.”
The one thing I’m realizing I really enjoy about what X-Men ‘97 is doing, and what Beau DeMayo and the team over there did during this first season, is that it’s combining all kinds of elements that maybe got glanced at before. It’s making the X-Men universe, the Marvel animated universe, much more cohesive.
We get a cameo from Spider-Man. It’s just a reaction cameo, and it’s the Spider-Man from the old cartoon, from that era’s animated series. I guess you’d call him Spider-Man ‘98.
Operation Zero Tolerance, Out Loud
At one point Bastion is talking to everybody who’s been involved. Val Cooper’s alive, and she’s wearing the same outfit, like that’s some kind of uniform. And they actually mention Operation Zero Tolerance.
Then you get this interesting part where he’s talking to all these screens. You see Baron Zemo. You see Doctor Doom, and I was like, what?
It was interesting to get to see all those little characters and pieces. It makes the Marvel animated universe, the X-Men universe, so much fuller, and you actually get to see other parts of what’s going on. It’s pretty intense. It’s wild, to say the least.
Operation Zero Tolerance has been sanctioned, essentially, by a clandestine group. The inference I got was a clandestine group within the UN. I could be wrong, so tell me in the comments on the video if I missed that, but that’s the implication I got.
What They Did to Bastion’s Origin
Scott and Jean find Bastion’s house, where he grew up as a child. They’ve altered his origin, and that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with what they did to it.
In the comics, his origin is that he’s a combination of a Master Mold and a Nimrod that literally come together and create a new thing. Here, Nimrod gets into a human, a man, who has a child with a woman, and that’s how you get Bastion. He’s the combination of some kind of technology.
You find out that Nimrod, all that stuff, comes from the far, far future. It’s a future where humans have won. Mutantkind has become sort of their slaves, and humanity has advanced and improved itself. That same process is what’s creating this new form of Sentinels, like Trask was. This human being, cyborg Sentinel. They’re using the techno-organic virus, the same one Sinister infected Nathan with, to create these human Sentinel things.
And there are a lot more of them than you might think.
They’re Everywhere
At one point the X-Men are being chased by all kinds of townspeople. That’s the scene you saw in the clip last week, where Scott, Jean and Nathan are trying to escape and they’re just being chased by all these people, and it’s “Let’s show them what a Summers can do.” It’s great.
Then Trish Tilby visits the mansion, and poor, poor Beast. He just can’t catch a break, bro. He really can’t. Love is not his deal. She turns into one of these things too.
They’re everywhere, bottom line.
Wolverine and Nightcrawler Cut Loose
Oh my gosh, you get to see Wolverine and Nightcrawler cut loose. When I tell you cut loose, I mean both literally and figuratively. As they’re being attacked by these things, Wolverine’s going all out. You get to see Wolverine cutting up fools.
Now, they do it in that animated way where he’s only fighting cyborg robot people things. And as him and Nightcrawler are cutting them down, they heal and come back together. So they’re not doing any permanent damage, if you will.
Val Cooper Lets Magneto Go
Then we get this wonderful moment where you see Val Cooper survived, and like I said, she’s wearing the outfit. She sees Magneto and she feels so horribly guilty. She hasn’t turned into one of these Sentinel things, which leads me to believe maybe she isn’t one of them. She’s actually still herself, whatever that means.
So she feels some measure of guilt, and she releases Magneto.
Man, they show Magneto. He shoots up into the atmosphere, comes back down, and he does something. I assume it has to do with the electromagnetic spectrum. And all of those Sentinel guys get knocked out.
The Frame in the Intro
You know how the intro shows clips and seeds what’s coming in the episode? There are always little Easter eggs in there. There’s a frame in this week’s intro, and that is Asteroid M.
Asteroid M comes from a storyline in the comics where Magneto, wanting to get away from mankind, takes this asteroid, reappropriates it, makes it his own little space station in the sky, and wants to sort of retire there.
I believe we’re going to get some version of that at some point. Right now I’m really interested to see how they turn this whole thing around.
I think I covered everything, but this episode was so full, and this is only the first part of a three-part finale. Part one is in the can. Parts two and three are on the way, and I can’t wait to talk more about this.
There you go. Now you know. And if knowing is half the battle, you’re halfway to being a know-it-all yourself.
The Verdict
X-Men ‘97 Episode 8, “Tolerance Is Extinction Part 1,” lands at a 9.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
I tell you what, man, it sets the stage. It sets the stage beautifully, absolutely beautifully.
All kinds of things are happening and I see it. I see the groundwork. I see where they’ve come from. Beau DeMayo gave you some homework, and hopefully you watched some of the classic X-Men: The Animated Series episodes, because it’s all making sense. All of these things are coming together like a beautiful harmony. Or as George Lucas would call it, like poetry.
And all of this started with one thing, the episode where it all went down in Genosha.
Let me know what you thought of the episode, and tell me if I missed something, because this one was packed. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
