X-Men ’97 has officially set up one of the darkest, most horrific X-Men stories of all time. Marvel’s X-Men relaunch is back for a second season, and it’s going from strength to strength. By now, it’s clear Marvel is handling the expanding cast in a smart way; the first wave broke the X-Men into teams scattered across the timestream, while other episodes have focused in on individual X-Men surrounded by their own groups. We’ve had an episode centered on Jubilee, another on Wolverine… and, surprisingly, episode 6 is all about Polaris.
Magneto’s daughter, Polaris only had a minor role in the original animated series. She’s much more important in X-Men ’97, working with the X-Factor team in a misguided attempt to honor the X-Men’s legacy. Episode 6 opens with a mission that explains why Polaris leaves X-Factor, though, and the mission is a lot more important than it seems. That’s because it features one of the most dangerous anti-mutant groups in Marvel history.
The episode opens with Polaris taking point in an attack against anti-mutant terrorists – specifically, against a group known as the Purifiers. Religious extremists, they believe mutants are an abomination; they consider themselves warriors on a holy crusade to kill mutants. The Purifiers were established by Reverend Stryker, an iconic X-Men villain introduced in the phenomenal God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel. X-Men ’97 Season 2 has strong religious undertones; the Cable subplots riff on Messianic prophecy, with Apocalypse portrayed as the Devil. So the Purifiers are a logical fit.
The Purifiers are clearly accumulating a vast arsenal of weapons, ready to take vigilante action against mutants. In the comics, they turned every one of their churches into secret storehouses of weapons, building a literal army who were ready to hunt and kill mutants. It’s reasonable to assume something similar is happening in X-Men ’97 Season 2, and this drives X-Factor’s mission to neutralize them. But note that X-Factor still seem to be at an early stage, working to figure out the Purifier strategy.
Polaris, naturally, takes stronger action against these terrorists. But note that her attack on the Purifiers is seen as controversial, with the public questioning her as a potential Magneto replacement rather than expressing concern over the Purifiers. Again, to refer to the comics, the Purifiers had strong ties to political movements such as the Friends of Humanity; these gave them cover, with major political voices echoing their rhetoric and arguing their cause. What’s more, they ultimately wound up positioned for one of the darkest X-Men stories of all time.
To understand the Purifiers, you have to step back to one of the most horrific periods of mutant history; the Decimation, an event where Scarlet Witch depowered most of the world’s mutants. Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters was hit hard by the Decimation, with the remaining X-Men struggling to figure out what to do with the once-mutant students. Cyclops believed the school was a target, and he shipped them back to their families on a bus. What he hadn’t reckoned on, though, was that the Purifiers knew he was going to do this; they attacked the bus, killing every one of those ex-mutants in a single strike. It was one of the most shocking moments in comics history, an entire generation of children and teens killed in one strike.
The Purifiers had a huge advantage: a super-powerful Sentinel called Nimrod, which had been transported from the future. Nimrod gave the Purifiers knowledge of the future, its databases charting key moments where the X-Men were vulnerable, and Stryker used this to plan precision strikes the X-Men couldn’t possibly predict. That was how he’d known about the bus; according to Nimrod, those ex-mutants would form the nucleus of a pro-mutant movement that threatened the Purifier philosophy. The Purifiers subsequently launched attacks on the school itself, knowing exactly when and how to hit.
I don’t know where X-Men ’97 is going with this. But, although the focus currently lies on Apocalypse and Gambit’s resurrection, we’ve clearly got a growing anti-mutant subplot – and I can’t help noting the school is now playing roughly the same role we saw when the Decimation happened. It all feels like clear setup for some of the darkest X-Men stories of all time, not least a full-scale Purifier attack on these vulnerable children. We know Marvel is playing the long game, with plans for multiple seasons of X-Men ’97, and the setup is pretty easy to spot here.
The first six episodes of X-Men ’97 are streaming now on Disney+, and new episodes will be released weekly. Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
