Warning: This story contains spoilers for X-Men '97.
Think of Wolverine and you’ll likely think of the snikt-snikt of the iconic X-Men member’s adamantium claws. What some might not know is that his entire skeleton is made up of the metallic alloy – and Magneto just reminded us of that fact in the worst possible way in X-Men ‘97 episode 9.
The second part of ‘Tolerance is Extinction’, the X-Men split off into Gold and Blue teams, with the latter – consisting of the likes of Cyclops and Wolverine – heading off to Asteroid M to face down Magneto after his actions at the end of the previous episode.
While there, Wolverine manages to stab Magneto. Despite being seriously wounded, Magneto manages to start ripping the adamantium out of Logan’s skeleton. Ouch.
This is, in fact, a callback to 1993’s X-Men #25, which saw Magneto inflict a similar grievous injury on ol’ Wolvie’s bones.
In X-Men 25 Magneto rips out the Adamantium out of Wolverine in this issue and I’m curious know did Logan survive this at all? from r/xmen
There, he managed to recover thanks to Jean Grey and the elastic-band cartoonish realism of comic book plots. In X-Men ‘97? We can’t be so sure. It would, at the very least, be the final nail in the coffin of an animated series that has already put us through the emotional wringer on plenty of occasions this season.
Let’s hope things fare better for the live-action Wolverine. Hugh Jackman’s iteration of the character is set to return (after meeting a similarly grisly fate in Logan, mind) in Deadpool & Wolverine alongside Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson.
X-Men ‘97 comes to a close next week on Disney Plus. For more on exact timings where you live, check out the X-Men ‘97 release schedule. Then get your claws into MCU’s exciting future with our guide to upcoming Marvel movies.
