X-men 97 Episode 3 Breakdown: Fire made flesh

In the previous episode, another Jean Grey burst into the X-mansion and fainted right in front of the crew. But who is she and better yet, who of the Jeans is the real Jean?

I dream of Jeannie

Another test that was done, was Jean scanning the mind of Jean Doe. She saw images of Jean but they were incomplete. Faces were missing and what we saw the most were images of Jean in a laboratory during the cloning process done by Mr. Sinister. This marks Mr. Sinister’s first appearance in the new show.

To make extra sure, Beast takes a few tests to see which of the 2 is real. And it turns out that Jean Doe is the real one. Her cells are older and her genetic markers are ‘natural’ which means that the Jean we got acquainted with and gave birth to Nathan is the clone. That is an interesting turn of events. The even bigger surprise is that Cyclops immediately turned on Jean and sided with Beast’s results of the tests performed on Jean Doe.

Who is Mr. Sinister?

Mr. Sinister has been a plague for the X-men in the comics for eons. He made his first appearance in Uncanny X-men #221 and was created by Chris Claremont as a foe who has been working the background of the lives of Jean and Scott. He is obsessed with their DNA as he thinks the 2 are the next step in the evolution of mutant-kind. Sinister’s powers hail from scientific experiments which he performed on himself.

The Goblin Queen is the stuff of nightmares

After the events where Jean has been outed as a clone she retreats to her room and in a burst of anger, she smashes the pictures of her and Scott and the X-Men. And that is the same moment her forehead starts to glow with something that looks like a red stone. It is the marker of Mr. Sinister. Beast’s scientific tests proved to be true and Jean is the clone.

And then something happens, and I wrote about this before in an article of the X-Men 97 revival, Jean turns into the Goblin Queen. And she is filled with rage. The entire X-Mansion was turned into one gigantic nightmare with the goblins bringing the X-Men’s biggest fears to life by prodding into their feelings of guilt and trying to turn the X-Men’s lives upside down.

It was interesting to see that Cyclops’s nightmare was that he couldn’t live up to Xavier’s legacy. He feels that he is falling short of leading the team and the school. Bishop’s nightmare involved his sister Shard who died and not feeling at home in the 21st century. I wonder what Gambit and Wolverine’s nightmares were. Just like in the comics, there is not much known about Gambit’s past. Only that he worked with Sinister during Mutant Massacre. And Wolverine’s past is anyone’s guess. He had several names, had his memory wiped a few times over and he still wonders how he got his Adamantium claws.

The best one was Roberto DaCosta’s. After finding out he is a mutant, he is filled with doubts and longs for the life he had before. That of a regular human being.

All in all, there are a lot of interesting reveals about the emotional lives of the X-Men and I do not doubt that we will see more of this throughout the remainder of the season because their nightmares and doubts will influence their decisions that will determine their lives.

And just as The Goblin Queen sinks the X-Men into the lowest depths of hell, Jean interferes with her telekinetic and telepathic powers and gets them out of their nightmare. But right after that, she faints.

I wonder about this Jean Grey. We know she escaped from a laboratory run by Mr. Sinister. But who is she? When was she kidnapped? And how long has Clone Jean been posing as a member of the team? There aren’t many leads to follow in the show. Something that has been done on purpose of course. I theorize that the resurrection of Jean Grey is the same as the Dark Phoenix Saga and the return of Jean Grey where she was put in a cocoon to recover from injuries sustained during the space flight. Another theory that I have is that Jean could very well be yet another clone. The same thing happened in the Clone Saga in Spider-Man. There were several clones with the memories of Peter Parker. So why not the same for Jean Grey?

Let’s take the fight to Mr. Sinister

After the destruction of The Goblin Queen, the X-Men take the fight to the laboratory of Mr. Sinister under the leadership of Magneto.

And if you think that The Goblin Queen is a woman you can pick up just like that, then you got it all wrong. The Goblin Queen is a fierce combatant with full control over her powers. She manages to take down Cyclops and Gambit before they can even blink. Only Magneto can match her until she uses her full powers on him and even gets through his magnetic shield.

But it is not until the original Jean Grey comes into play. Still bedridden to recover she uses her telepathic powers to dive into the mind of The Goblin Queen to show her the person she was before she was so enraged. The one that showed empathy and kindness to care for one another.

When The Goblin Queen comes to her senses, she and Cyclops go to save their baby who was kidnapped by Mr. Sinister. The fight doesn’t last long and the baby is saved. But what Sinister did to the baby is beyond words. He put a newborn inside a tank to make him invincible but because Cyclops and The Goblin Queen get him out of the tank prematurely, Nathan is infected by a techno virus. It shows how sick and twisted Mr. Sinister is. However, Cyclops and The Goblin Queen also made the mistake of freeing the baby prematurely.

The scenes after that are interesting. There is only 1 person in the Marvel Universe who was infected by the techno virus and that is the mutant named Cable. So we just witnessed the birth of Cable. But we have seen Cable before in the X-Men 92 series where he was from a different timeline. So there is a discrepancy that becomes bigger because, just like in the comics, Nathan is sent into the future with Bishop, who is going back home to the future.

The X-Men, Bishop, Cable, and their confusing Timelines

Bishop and Cable are both from the future but to make this a bit more confusing: They are both from the future but from different timelines. They came back from the future to make sure their future is safe. With Nathan becoming Cable in the future saving the world from a widespread techno virus and Bishop saving the X-Men from the assassination of Senator Kelly, then what timeline will be the canonical one? Hopefully, that question will be answered throughout the season, if we ever see Nathan or Bishop again.

X-Men: Inferno

I wrote in a column that I wanted to see X-Men: Inferno come to life in the upcoming X-Men movie. But the makers of X-Men 97 made my dream come true. The episode is loosely based on the comic and did not disappoint. Of course, there were some creative changes like The Goblin Queen’s outfit. It is much kinkier in the comics than it was in the show.

But other reveals like the clone of Jean Grey turning into The Goblin Queen and is Madelyne Pryor are so close to the comics as can be. It happened around the same time that Jean Grey reemerged from the dead. A nifty story that was fan fiction by the renowned Klaus Janson. Back then Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter opted for Jean Grey to stay dead because she committed genocide as the Dark Phoenix. But Janson and his friends wrote a fan fic that brought Jean back to life by stating that the Phoenix Force dropped Jean in a cocoon to heal from her wounds while she took over her life and personality.

Better yet, their version where Nathan is taken to the future by Bishop is a better fit than that of the comics where Nathan was taken to the future by Clan Askani. A future where Apocalypse reigned and cloned baby Nathan and made his clone a nutjob called Stryfe whose goal was to wipe out humanity with the same techno virus Nathan was infected with.

I mentioned Forge last week and how he and Storm were a great couple in the comics. This episode marks their first meeting. Here is hoping for the start of a beautiful romantic friendship.