X-Men '97 Just Answered The Worst Thing Wolverine Can Survive

 Wolverine has gone through the worst possible pain he can endure in X-Men '97 episode 9, "Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 2", just like he did in Marvel Comics. Bastion's plan to replace all humans with Prime Sentinels and subjugate mutants is in full force during the middle chapter of X-Men '97's three-part finale. The X-Men are back together and Professor X is back on Earth, yet the team is unprepared to face the technopathic supervillain Bastion, his Prime Sentinels, and the vengeful Magneto, who refuses to cooperate with the heroes and instead wishes to take justice into his own hands.

With the X-Men scrambling to create a plan, the heroes struggle to stop Bastion and Magneto. Storm and Forge are shot down by a group of Sentinels, Jean Grey is seemingly killed by a Mister Sinister-controlled Cable, and the rest of the X-Men are intercepted by Magneto at Bastion's headquarters. It's Magneto and Professor X's irreparable clash of philosophies that keeps them from working together even at such a critical moment and leads them to attack each other. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Wolverine ends up paying the price for it.

In X-Men '97 episode 9, Wolverine stabs Magneto in order to guarantee that the X-Men can defeat Bastion on their own. However, Magneto makes a similar last-resort decision and extracts all the adamantium from Wolverine's skeleton almost instantly. This sequence of events is inspired by the Marvel Comics storyline Fatal Attractions, where Magneto also shuts down the Earth's electrical systems with an electromagnetic pulse, and Charles Xavier returns from the Shi'ar Empire wearing an exoskeleton — similarly to the events of X-Men '97 episode 8. Only that instead of Bastion, the incident is instigated by Magneto's followers, the Acolytes.

In the comics, Magneto's cruel attack leads Professor X to mind-wipe him. However, instead of merely inhabilitating the villain, Charles Xavier ends up creating a new entity formed by his consciousness and that of Magneto: Onslaught. Onslaught later awakens within Professor X's mind and possesses his body, which requires the X-Men to join forces with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four to stop him. Some time later, Magneto reappears and takes over Genosha, which leads Wolverine to take revenge and stab him once again, leaving him gravely injured.

Is Wolverine Dead In X-Men '97?

In the source material, Wolverine survives the loss of his adamantium thanks to his healing factor. However, he spends a long while without the metal. After his ill-fated fight with Magneto in Fatal Attractions, Wolverine temporarily quits the X-Men and sets out on a journey of self-discovery to cope with his loss, crossing paths with enemies such as Sabretooth and Deadpool. Cable's son Genesis (who appeared in two episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series) attempts to bond adamantium back into Wolverine's skeleton, but Wolverine fights back and escapes.

Wolverine's Bone Claws Are About To Return

Whatever happens next in X-Men '97 is yet to be seen, but Wolverine is likely to be missing his adamantium skeleton for a while. In the meantime, Wolverine's healing factor may restore his body back to full health, including his original bone claws, which aren't as durable or as strong as his adamantium-bonded weapons but are able to regenerate every time they're broken in battle. Curiously, Marvel Comics' Fatal Attractions storyline was released almost at the same time as X-Men: The Animated Series revealed Wolverine's earliest appearance, meaning that Wolverine's bone claws weren't known at the time.

X-Men '97 episode 10 "Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 3" will likely be the first episode in X-Men: The Animated Series' timeline to feature Wolverine's bone claws on screen, and he may need to make do with them until an eventual X-Men '97 season 2, where Wolverine might experience his feral transformation before his adamantium skeleton is restored. If the events of X-Men '97's three-part finale result in the accidental creation of Onslaught, then Wolverine will also have to fight the psionic entity using his bone claws.

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