Recap: Wolverine Goes Searching for Weapon X With Some Old Friends in Season 2, Episode 5 of "X-Men '97"
Fresh off of a devastating and heartbreaking moment in last week's episode of X-Men '97, the series takes a brief detour to follow one of its most popular characters into the horror genre. As we saw at the end of the previous episode, Wolverine is assembling a team to go after Weapon X, the group of scientists who made him the killing machine he is.
The episode opens with a team of mutants riding in a helicopter. The team consists of Wolverine, Morph, Lady Deathstrike, Sabretooth, Maverick and Garrison Kane. Each of these characters have a history with Weapon X, except for Morph, who is just there to support Wolverine as a friend.
While Sabretooth's history with Wolverine is well documented, the others are not quite as well known. Lady Deathstrike's real name is Yuriko, a former love interest of Wolverine. Her father's scientific work would go on to lay the foundation for Weapon X. Maverick was a mercenary who also operated under the codename Agent Zero while working for Weapon X. He was a teammate of Wolverine's on Team X. And finally, Garrison Kane was also a mercenary who lost his arms and legs during a mission. He was later transformed into a cyborg by a revamped Weapon X program.
The team trades some banter before Wolverine explains to Morph (and the audience) that they are going to shut down a new Weapon X operation. Sabretooth questions Morph's motives for joining this mission, given he has no history with Weapon X. Their conversation is interrupted when their helicopter gets hit by a flock of mutated birds.
Morph wakes up in the wreckage to first find that Kane has been impaled on a tree and is dead. Maverick emerges next and then they hear Lady Deathstrike, who has found one of the birds, which is bleeding bright green. If that's not a sure sign of some kind of alien involvement, I don't know what is.
The three get attacked by a giant mutated bear, sharing similar characteristics to the birds. Morph tries to fight back by transforming into Sasquatch, but he's overpowered. Wolverine comes to the rescue but even he is outmuscled. Finally, Sabretooth shows up and kills the bear. In the aftermath of the fight, the team notices that Wolverine no longer has adamantium claws.
The team finds the Weapon X facility but it appears to have been attacked. They enter the rundown building, providing major The Thing vibes in the process. Morph questions if they should find a way to get home but Wolverine tells him they're going to do their job first.
As they make their way through the facility in search of Doctor Cornelius, a scientist responsible for their own experiments, they find it littered with bodies, many of which appear to have been brutally killed. Sabretooth continues to be his violent self and Morph brings up his son, Graydon Creed, acknowledging the family resemblance. Creed is a leader of the Friends of Humanity, an enemy to all mutants and has appeared in the original X-Men: The Animated Series (Season 2, Episode 10).
The team gets startled by Cornelius, who appears to be the only living person in the facility. Cornelius calmly talks down to a team of very intimidating mutants who would very much like to kill him, which seems odd until he mentions "the queen." Wolverine and Morph share a look before Sabretooth and Deathstrike argue over who gets to kill the doctor. Their argument is moot though as an alien emerges from Cornelius's, killing him. More of these aliens emerge from the shadows and swarm the team. X-Men fans, and Marvel fans in general, will immediately recognize these aliens as the Brood. In the fight, Morph takes out several Brood by transforming into Puck and then The Thing. Coincidence?
The team escapes and begins to debate their team. Wolverine says he's never smelled anything like them before. It's hard to believe, but the Brood have actually never crossed paths with the X-Men in the animated series to this point, despite their long history in the comics. However, when Deathstrike mentions they're not from this planet, Wolverine calls this their "second alien invasion." This is a reference to two episodes in season three of The Animated Series, titled "Out of the Past," during which Wolverine, Deathstrike and the X-Men deal with an alien known as the Spirit Drinker.
Wolverine argues they need to go deeper into the bunker to find a vehicle for their escape. The idea prompts other members of the team to question if Wolverine has been infected by the Brood and is now under their control. The distrust in the group is again reminiscent of The Thing. Eventually though, they decide to go with Wolverine's plan as he and Maverick go to look for a vehicle while Morph, Deathstrike and Sabretooth try to turn the power back on.
Deathstrike repeatedly refers to Morph as Tomo, eventually explaining that she is referencing a shapeshifting fox in Japanese folklore. She warns that Morph's blind loyalty to Wolverine could get him killed. Sabretooth gets the power back on and Morph finds a series of DVDs (it's the '90s). As he thumbs through the disks, we can see some interesting labels on them, including X-23, Ajax, Aurora, Fantomex, Silverfox, Mastodon and Winter Soldier. Some names are more recognizable than others of course, but all represent other characters who have been experimented on by mad scientist types.
Morph plays a disk marked "XVIII" and we see Cornelius on the screen. He explains that they have been experimenting with this alien Brood that crashed on Earth. He explains that the Brood is a hive mind, with no individual capable of thinking for themselves, making them perfect for creating soldiers who cannot think for themselves. However, their experiments went horribly long and they created monsters, which we now know resulted in their deaths.
After the video ends, they hear the Brood sneaking up on them. One grabs hold of Morph and seemingly tries to take over his mind before Deathstrike rips it apart. However, we see a brief glow in Morph's eyes after the alien dies. Was a seed planted in his mind? Morph realizes the Brood are looking to breed with superior species, which is why they left so many dead bodies. He also realizes Wolverine is going to be their target before a panicked Maverick calls out to them on the radio, saying they've been overrun.
The three go looking for Wolverine and Maverick and instead find a sedated Omega Red, another villain with a lot of history with Wolverine. They realize they're in an adamantium chamber, not a vehicle bay, where Wolverine was supposed to be going. Morph is startled by Maverick who shouts "game over," a reference to another classic horror film - Aliens - which is also very similar to this episode.
Maverick panics before they hear something lurking around the room. A creature grabs Maverick and pulls him into a cloud of smoke before killing him. The smoke clears to reveal Wolverine, transforming into a Brood. This is an homage to a comic story arc during which the X-Men faced off with the Brood, which gave us an iconic comic cover featuring this very same hybrid creature.
Wolverine and the Brood attack and the fight results in Omega Red breaking free. The villain attacks Wolverine while Morph, who has now transformed into Deadpool, pulls his friends to safety. Deathstrike and Sabretooth start to make their way to the vehicle bay to find a way out but Morph stops them and argues they need to save Wolverine.
He and Sabretooth begin to fight before the latter explains that Wolverine's whole reason for coming there was just to get his adamantium claws back. Morph accepts that Wolverine lied to them but shifts his argument to the fact that they need to stop the Brood from getting out into the world. He comes up with a plan to put Wolverine back into an adamantium chamber, which would kill the brood in him but allow him to survive.
Morph attempts to lure Wolverine into the chamber by becoming Cyclops and taunting him. It works and Wovlerine attacks him, but Sabretooth changes the plan, stabbing Wolverine in the back. The two longtime rivals begin to fight while Deathstrike fights the other Brood. Eventually, Morph becomes himself again and tries to reason with Wolverine, referencing his history with Mister Sinister. Wolverine hesitates for a brief moment before stabbing Morph. In a last effort to survive, he transforms into Jean, which causes Wolverine to pause again. Deathstrike pounces and gets Wolverine into the adamantium chamber, initiating the infusion.
Omega Red breaks into the room, killing dozens of Brood in the process. He attacks Deathstrike and Morph, who becomes Spider-Man to evade the attack, but only momentarily. Just in time, Wolverine's infusion is complete and he emerges from the tank with brand new adamantium claws. He slices through some Brood before turning his attention to Omega Red. He drops his old foe and leaves with the team as they realize the building is going to explode. They reach a jet and escape just in time as the explosion leaves Omega Red under a pile of rubble and incinerates the Brood.
On the jet, Wolverine explains that he needed to get his claws back because he's the best at being an animal with claws. Morph tells him that makes him sad and leaves his friend to stare at his new claws and see the reflection of a killer.
While this episode was a step away from what has been a wildly entertaining story, it was also one of the most enjoyable episodes this series has seen to date. Diving into the horror genre with the Brood and Wolverine resulted in a wildly fresh and fun take on a superhero story, while also taking time to humanize these characters.
X-Men '97 season two is now streaming on Disney+.