X-Men '97 wraps its second season with an episode that perfectly encapsulates the show's frustrating inconsistency. "Survival of the Fittest" arrives as the ninth episode of a truncated season, and the missing tenth installment haunts every frame — the Apocalypse storyline that dominated early episodes evaporates into a rushed confrontation, while the X-Men versus X-Force and X-Factor battle that should have been a mid-season climax instead shoulders the burden of the finale. For viewers who invested in the season's slow-burn buildup, the payoff feels disproportionate: a millennia-spanning villain reduced to a body-snatching subplot resolved in minutes, while character arcs that deserved breathing room get crammed into a single episode's runtime.
The disappointment stings precisely because the first half of Season 2 demonstrated what this series can achieve at its best. Apocalypse, voiced with gravitas by Ross Marquand, commanded the screen in Episodes 1 through 4 with a presence that felt genuinely threatening. His disappearance from the narrative's center after that point isn't just a pacing choice — it's a structural failure that leaves the finale's confrontation weightless. When the reborn Apocalypse finally faces Professor Xavier (also Marquand) and the X-Men, the battle ends almost before it begins, resolved by a power-boosted Rogue (Lenore Zann) arriving as a deus ex machina.
"It's just bizarre that Apocalypse's grand, millennia-spanning master plan boiled down to stealing Gambit's body and hassling the X-Men for a few minutes."
Reviewer
<strong>Apocalypse’s $30M Budget Goes to Waste</strong>
The handling of Apocalypse post-Episode 4 represents the season's most glaring misstep. The character was established as a driving force with motivations spanning millennia, yet the series treats his backstory — particularly his relationship with Candra — as an afterthought relegated to Episode 8 exposition. By the time he confronts the X-Men in Gambit's (A. J. LoCascio) stolen body, the emotional and narrative stakes have evaporated. The reviewer captures the absurdity:
"It's just bizarre that Apocalypse's grand, millennia-spanning master plan boiled down to stealing Gambit's body and hassling the X-Men for a few minutes."
Reviewer
The Celestials' involvement, hinted at in the post-credits scene, suggests larger cosmic stakes, but the season never earns that escalation.
This isn't merely a complaint about comic accuracy — it's a failure of basic storytelling economy. The original series' "Beyond Good and Evil" arc understood that Apocalypse works best as a looming, manipulative force whose schemes unfold across episodes. Here, the compression of a 10-episode plan into 9 episodes forces the villain's climax into a single scene that plays more like a Saturday morning cartoon skirmish than a season-defining confrontation. The reviewer notes the sequence is "awesome in that Saturday morning cartoon way, but terrible" — a damning summary of style over substance.
X-Men '97's Strongest Character Moments
Paradoxically, the episode's strongest material has nothing to do with Apocalypse. The X-Men versus X-Force and X-Factor battle that dominates the first half delivers exactly the kind of character-driven action this series excels at. Cable (Chris Potter) and Polaris (Carolina Ravassa) carry the emotional weight of the conflict, their conflicted loyalties adding genuine tragedy to mutant fighting mutant. The action choreography flows with the kinetic energy that made Season 1's best sequences memorable, and the stakes feel personal rather than cosmic — a refreshing change after episodes of vague celestial maneuvering.
Nightcrawler's sacrifice provides the episode's only earned emotional beat. Adrian Hough's Kurt Wagner has been on a quietly devastating arc all season, and his decision to save Rogue and Gambit at the cost of his own life feels like a fitting conclusion to that journey.
"The writers of this series clearly love this character deeply, and his last and greatest sacrifice feels like a fitting end to his deeply emotional journey."
Reviewer
The Celestials might see him as a new Apocalypse, which would give Season 3 an intriguing hook if the show stays on track instead of scrapping everything. That possibility could keep fans guessing about who owns the ultimate power next.
Structural Problems and Season 3 Hopes
The 9-episode structure bears significant responsibility for the finale's failures. The reviewer explicitly wishes Season 2 had retained Season 1's 10-episode count, which would have allowed "Survival of the Fittest" to focus entirely on the X-Men versus X-Force/X-Factor conflict while a hypothetical Episode 10 fleshed out the Apocalypse confrontation. Former head writer Beau DeMayo has since revealed original plans for that missing episode, though the reviewer suggests those plans "would have compounded the problem rather than addressed it." The most sensible path forward may be exactly what the post-credits scene implies: wiping the slate clean of Apocalypse and starting fresh.
That post-credits tease hints at directions that could revitalize the series, but after a season that squandered its strongest villain, trust must be rebuilt. The highs of Season 2 — the opening episodes, the X-Force/X-Factor battle, Nightcrawler's arc — prove the creative team understands these characters. The lows prove they're still struggling to balance serialized storytelling with the episodic rhythm that made the original series work. Season 3's success will depend on whether they learn the right lessons from this finale's split personality.
Pros
- X-Men vs. X-Force/X-Factor battle delivers spectacular character-driven action
- Nightcrawler's sacrifice provides genuine emotional resonance
- Cable and Polaris arcs pay off meaningfully
Cons
- Apocalypse storyline collapses after Episode 4
- Villain's motivations and Candra backstory treated as afterthoughts
- Finale confrontation brief, anticlimactic, resolved by deus ex machina
- 9-episode structure forces rushed pacing
The Bad Gamer Take
Marvel will struggle to salvage the narrative of X-Men '97 because the show's inconsistent pacing has already led to a disappointing season finale. The handling of Apocalypse's character, in particular, suggests a lack of clear direction from the writers. Watch the upcoming episodes to see if the show can recover from its missteps and provide a more satisfying storyline for its characters.
X-Men '97 remains a series of immense potential hamstrung by structural indecision. The pieces for a great X-Men show are all here — the voice cast, the animation, the reverence for the source material — but Season 2 demonstrates that reverence alone isn't enough. The original series ran for 76 episodes; it had room to breathe. This revival, with its premium streaming expectations and compressed seasons, needs to decide what it wants to be: a dense serialized drama or a modernized Saturday morning cartoon. Trying to be both in nine episodes leaves both halves undercooked. Here's hoping Season 3 picks a lane.
