X-Men ’97Season 2 continues rolling, and it is delivering some epic episodes of X-Men lore to modern Marvel Cinematic Universe fans. However, while most of the Season 2 storyline has been dedicated to the larger story arc of the X-Men battling the evil mutant warlord Apocalypse across different epochs of time, there was one standalone episode that sent us on a pivotal side quest.
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At the end of X-Men ’97Season 1, the show dipped into some of the most infamous X-Men lore of the 1990s, when Wolverine had his Adamantium skeleton stripped of its metal during a ferocious attack by Magneto. After seeing the limits of his bone skeleton and claws, Wolverine found himself at a pivotal crossroads. As a ’90s kid, I remember the deep character study of Logan that came when his Adamantium was lost; X-Men ’97took a much different route, and it has broken some of my faith in Logan as a heroic character.
Wolverine Is Forever Weapon X
Marvel Studios
“Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs” was a spiritual sequel to the X-Men: The Animated Seriesepisode “Weapon X, Lies & Videotape”. It saw Logan (and Morph) once again gather his old Team X squad (this time consisting of Maverick, Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike and Garrison Kane) for an assassination strike. The group infiltrates a Weapon X facility looking for Dr. Abraham Cornelius, who was one of the main scientists behind the Adamantium bonding process.
Instead, they find Cornelius has been messing around with a parasitic alien race (The Brood) that got loose and wiped out the facility. Wolverine gets infected by a Brood and must use the Adamantium bonding process to purge the alien DNA from his system and defeat his nemesis, Omega Red. Logan and (most of) the team escape alive, but Morph deduces that Logan’s true mission was always getting back his Adamantium, not stopping Cornelius. When Morph questions whether Logan is more than just a beast with metal claws, Logan can’t answer for sure.
Is Wolverine Any Different Than Sabertooth?
Marvel Studios
The subtle brilliance of “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs” is how the episode incorporates Sabertooth. Normally, Victor Creed is used as a dark mirror for Logan, a vision of what the noble X-Man could become if he ever let his savage side and/or his Weapon X programming take over completely. Sabertooth delights in trying to push Logan over the edge, either by engaging him in savage combat directly or killing those close to him, in an attempt to instigate Logan’s berserker rage.
However,“Weapon X, Lies and DVDs” uses Sabertooth in a much different way: he’s almost comic relief for the majority of the episode, but not in a goofy slapstick kind of way. Instead, the episode mines ironic humor from how unapologetically psychotic Creed is (and happy about it). His entire demeanour during the mission is gleeful and playful, even as he tears opponents apart while the other look on, flabbergasted. For a majority of the episode, the gag works well in distinguishing the difference between Sabertooth and Wolverine, but that only makes the end reveal such a harder gut-punch, as through Morph’s eyes, we see the line between Wolverine and Sabertooth grow so much thinner than before.
Marvel Studios
It’s a might bold swing for an animated series to take at such an iconic and celebrated character as Wolverine, but only further proves what kind of milestone work X-Men ’97is doing. I’ve had decades of comic books and films that all probe the complex character of Wolverine, but none of them have made the point (or quite literally illustrated it) quite like this.
