‘X-Men ’97’ Season 2 Episode 4 Ending Sneaks In a Two-Avenger Reunion after the Credits
‘X-Men ’97‘ fans got hit with a gut punch and a bonus this week. Season 2 episode 4 delivered a brutal blow to the core team, then rewarded anyone who stuck around through the credits with a scene that quietly reshapes where the show is headed next.
The episode, titled ‘Rise of Apocalypse Part II,’ concludes the team’s battle with Kang the Conqueror Variant, Rama-Tut, and features a shocking character death at the hands of Apocalypse. Magneto takes an arm cannon blast to the chest, seemingly bringing Erik Magnus Lehnsherr’s story to an end. It is a gut punch, but longtime fans know better than to assume any death in this franchise is permanent, especially for a character this central to the mythology.
Two Avengers Cameos Confirmed in the Post-Credits Scene
So yes, ‘X-Men ’97’ does have an end credits scene in season 2 episode 4, and it is not just a throwaway tease. X-Men ’97 isn’t a non-stop cameo fest like some other Marvel projects, but two Avengers do show up in a post credits scene from Season 2 Episode 4. The stinger jumps away from the devastation in the main timeline and drops viewers into a quieter, more personal moment.
After the credits roll, the scene reunites Captain America with Wolverine, and he brings another Avenger with him, Black Widow. The choice to bring these two characters together is not random.
Black Widow is shown in her eighties nineties costume, a full black jumpsuit with short hair, evoking the famous Jim Lee drawn cover of Uncanny X-Men issue 268 featuring Wolverine, Captain America, and Black Widow together.
The reunion has weight behind it too. The post credits scene sees Wolverine head to Paris, where he meets with Captain America and Black Widow, and the two share brief reminiscences, recalling how they worked together fifty years earlier. It plays less like a random cameo drop and more like the show cashing in on history it planted a long time ago.
What The Weapon X Tease Means For Wolverine
The emotional reunion is really a delivery mechanism for a much bigger plot point. Cap hands Logan a file labeled Weapon X, suggesting Wolverine plans to return to the organization that originally imbued his body with the indestructible metal. That detail lands hard for anyone who has followed Wolverine’s arc across both seasons of the revival.
This file drop directly sets up next week’s episode. Cap and Widow pass off files labeled Weapon X to Logan, the shadowy organization that gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton, and both Steve and Natasha try to dissuade Logan from going after Weapon X alone, but he reassures them he has backup.
Considering Wolverine lost his adamantium skeleton when Magneto tore it from his body in season one, this feels like the beginning of the road back to his classic look and power set.
The timing could not be more deliberate. We already know episode 5 is entitled Weapon X, Lies and DVDs, making it a sequel to the classic episode Weapon X, Lies and Video Tapes. That connection alone has longtime fans of the original nineties series buzzing, since it suggests the new season is not just referencing the classic show’s title cards but actually continuing one of its most memorable storylines.
Why This Cameo Fits the Show’s Bigger Marvel Universe
Part of what makes this stinger land is how sparingly ‘X-Men ’97’ uses its outside cameos. While the show is happy to show off the larger Marvel Universe, the cameos stay as mere seasoning, and the show keeps up its breakneck pacing even when featuring them. That restraint is exactly why this particular scene hits harder than a random surprise appearance would.
Captain America is not a stranger to this corner of the Marvel Animated universe either. The biggest guest in season one was Captain America, who showed up in episode seven to butt heads with Rogue, who was seeking vengeance after Gambit’s death, and Cap had actually appeared in the original X-Men animated series when the episode Old Soldiers showed him teaming up with Wolverine during World War 2.
Black Widow’s inclusion also is not coming out of nowhere, since she is reprising her role from What If, giving the show a built in connection to draw from rather than inventing a new dynamic from scratch.
There is also a comic book layer under all of this for readers who like their easter eggs deep. In the comics, Natasha Romanoff has history with Wolverine too, having met him when she was just a child, when he and Captain America saved her from dangerous mystical ceremonies, backstory that was established in Madripoor Knights, a key part of Chris Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men run.
Whether the show plans to flash back to that relationship remains to be seen, but the door is clearly open now that the connection has been confirmed onscreen.
With Magneto seemingly gone, Wolverine’s adamantium missing, and two Avengers now tied directly into the Weapon X storyline, ‘X-Men ’97’ has set up a lot of dominoes for its next episode to knock down. Do you think Captain America and Black Widow will actually join Wolverine’s mission into Weapon X, or is this the last we see of them this season?
