'X-Men '97' Season 2 Just Topped Its Darkest Death (And You Won't Believe How)
X-Men ‘97 (2024) is back with a brand-new season. After three explosive episodes, it was hard to consider that the show could raise the stakes even more. Yet, “Rise of Apocalypse Part 2” not only did that, but it also delivered a violent death that longtime X-Men fans would never have anticipated.
Everyone remembers when Gambit sacrificed himself during the genocide of Genosha in X-Men ‘97 Season 1. That death was both violent and sad. However, X-Men ‘97 Season 2 just delivered an even darker death because there was no sacrifice made. Instead, it was meant to break the spirit of Professor X.
Magneto Was Brutally Murdered By Apocalypse In Front Of Professor X
“The Rise of Apocalypse,” a two-part arc in X-Men ‘97 Season 2, picks up where Season 1 left off with a group of X-Men thrown into the past when Apocalypse was just a mutant named En Sabah Nur. The arc focuses heavily on trying to change the future by helping Apocalypse be a good person.
Magneto made incredible headway in this until En Sabah Nur realized that they lied to him. From there, he embraced the power he was destined for and channeled Celestial energy to become Apocalypse and almost destroyed the kingdom he was fighting for. Magneto fought hard to avert this catastrophe, nearly dying in the process, and in his weakened state, Apocalypse found Magneto and held him up before Professor X.
With a violent energy blast, he obliterated the Master of Magnetism in front of his friend and spared Professor X because he wasn’t worth killing. What made the scene so haunting was seeing the energy rip through Magneto in different parts before he exploded, making the death even more jaw-dropping than Gambit’s.
Magneto Changed So Much Before His Death
When Magneto was first introduced in X-Men: The Animated Series (1992), he was a true enemy of the X-Men, trying to hurt humans to elevate the mutant race. He was still incredibly layered, however, showing his tragic past as a Holocaust survivor and falling out with his friend, Charles Xavier.
No matter how evil Magneto was, he still cared about those who cared for him, as well as mutants as a whole. Should there be a larger threat, it would be easy for him to work with his enemies to stop it. This laid the foundation for the shocking reveal in X-Men ‘97 that he would be running Xavier's School after the Professor’s “death.”
X-Men ‘97 showed that Magneto had not only changed but grown even more complex as he now honored the dream of his closest friend, even if he didn’t fully believe it. By X-Men ‘97 Season 2, he had wholeheartedly changed his perspective. That’s why his death is so sad when it happens, because we’ve seen him evolve slowly and eloquently. We believe that he believes he’s changed and wants to do one good thing for the world, no matter the cost. When he died, we died a bit as well because the potential for good in Magneto was snuffed out too soon.
Could Magneto Return In 'X-Men ‘97'?
As any seasoned X-Men fan will tell you, no character stays dead forever, and that counts especially for main characters. Magneto’s death hits hard, but there’s always a chance that he could come back either soon or way down the line. But if he came back sooner, the man who killed him could be the architect of his resurrection.
When Gambit died, it was heavily implied that Apocalypse would turn him into one of his Horsemen of Apocalypse, brainwashed mutants altered to enforce his will. In the case of Magneto, there’s admittedly not much left to resurrect, but if he did return, a Horseman would make the most sense.
Ironically, Magneto has never been a Horseman of Apocalypse in the comics, at least not often. Still, in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and X-Men: Evolution (2000), he was part of the team. The odds aren’t high for a swift return for Magneto, but it’s easy to see how X-Men ‘97 Season 2 could set it up with its main villain.
