Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for X-Men ’97 episode 7.
X-Men ’97 episode 7 finally tied up one lingering plot thread that’s been waiting to be addressed since before X-Men: The Animated Series ended. While X-Men ’97‘s success has been in no small part because of the immense effort and talent gone into imagining its visuals and scripts, one of the most satisfying aspects of the sequel series is how it uses X-Men: The Animated Series‘ extensive five-season-long history, despite airing over three decades later.
While X-Men ’97‘s plot could have easily gotten away with minimally addressing smaller elements of the history of the show – or taking it on an entirely new path – each episode contains a range of thoughtful nods to specific moments from the original series, enriching the lore of both. This has also included answering some questions that audiences never thought would be followed up on after X-Men: The Animated Series concluded, with X-Men episode 7 providing a big example of this kind of moment for Cyclops.
In X-Men ’97 episode 7, Scott Summers finally discovers that Cable is none other than his child, decades after the pair were first introduced on-screen. Episodes after sending his son to the future in order to try and ensure he could be cured of the techo-organic virus he developed as a result of Mister Sinister’s machinations, Cyclops and Cable meet once more, allowing the Marvel hero another moment to realize how he’s connected to the time traveler.
When Cable responds to Jean’s telepathic invasion with “you’re not her” – a reference to his mother instead being Jean’s clone – Scott quickly registers he is looking at his son, exclaiming “Oh my god. Nathan.” as he realizes. The moment is quickly brushed over as Cable instead focuses on what the X-Men need to do to ensure the safety of the future, but given just how long Scott has been in the dark about knowing and interacting with his adult son, the discovery still marks an exciting development for the two characters.
X-Men: The Animated Series strongly suggested Jean Grey had worked out Nathan was her and Scott’s son, but didn’t directly tell him that this was the case, instead alluding to this by stating Cable was important to their personal futures. Naturally, this is somewhat complicated by the fact that X-Men ’97 reveals Cable is the son of Scott Summers and Jean Grey’s clone, Madelyne Prior, and may explain further why Jean was so upset upon realizing a clone had taken her place among the X-Men for some time.
This plot not being developed during its original storyline meant that the moment for it arguably never quite cropped up again, especially since Cable generally only returned to the X-Men when they needed to take drastic actions to prevent a dire future from becoming set in stone for their timeline. However, for X-Men ’97, this allows the show to continue the Madelyne’s storyline in a sense despite her apparent death, as Cable’s position as her and Scott’s son is a significant plot development – and doubly so now that Cyclops is also aware this is the case.
Cyclops’ story in X-Men: The Animated Series has involved him meeting more than one family member while unaware of his relation to them. Cable was the first of these, but Scott would go on to spend some time with his father, Corsair, before discovering he was in fact Christopher Summers. The Marvel hero also met one of his brothers – Havok, also known as Alexander Summers – without it ever being fully and properly addressed that this was none other than the missing brother he discussed when talking about his origin story.
With Corsair revealing he was Scott’s dad in X-Men: The Animated Series – and Cyclops realizing Cable was his son in X-Men ’97 – it stands to reason that the two other members of the Summers family shown in the series will also have their ties to Cyclops revealed in its story. This would mean both finally addressing Havok’s story, and also potentially tying it into Vulcan, Scott’s other brother, who was introduced to the animated side of the franchise with X-Men ’97 episode 6.