This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97.
X-Men ’97 is due for its final episode, which will close out the three-part event and final leg of the Season, Tolerance is Extinction. However, the penultimate episode closed out on one shocking and violent note, one that echoed a certain mistake the Avengers committed at the end of Infinity War.
The end of Avengers: Infinity War saw the Avengers battle and fail to stop Thanos until Thor managed to sneak an attack on the Mad Titan. However this was not enough, something Wolverine repeated when the X-Men were fighting Magneto. In short, just like Thor, Logan should have gone for the head.
What does it look like for Wolverine going forward in X-Men ’97?
With Wolverine’s failure to kill Magneto came one of the most brutal scenes of the animated X-Men series yet, as the master of Magnetism decided to rip out Logan’s adamantium skeleton, rendering Logan virtually defenseless for the time being.
In the comics, after Magneto ripped out Logan’s adamantium, the character saw himself revert to a more feral state, becoming a noseless beast-man. The explanation was simply this: ever since the character’s skeleton was bonded with his bones, his healing factor was constantly fighting off adamantium poisoning (this is also the reason Logan’s biological children have a stronger healing factor than he does).
However, once the adamantium was so violently purged from his body, the increased capacity of his healing factor took Wolverine’s mutation to an extreme, which turned the character into a beast-man.
Logan might feel some guilt over his inability to slay Magneto
Magneto’s assault on the planet has already resulted in multiple casualties, and the X-Men went on the mission with the sole purpose of stopping the mutant leader from enacting the mass killing of humans. However, despite the best efforts of the team, it seemed that Magneto was unstoppable, up until Wolverine stabbed him in the back, which was not enough to take the mutant leader down.
Had Wolverine stabbed him in the head, the mutant criminal’s assault on the lane would have ended, saving numerous lives and, but also making it more difficult for the X-Men to defeat the race of Prime Sentinels brought forward by Bastion.
Wolverine could blame himself in the future for not taking the steps required to avert more tragedies, similar to Thor. However, given the objectives that the X-Men had when they were splitting into Gold Team and Blue Team, it was probably for the best if Wolverine just crippled Magneto rather than outright killing him.
X-Men ’97 can be streamed on Disney+.
