X-Men ‘97 Officially Finds Its Magneto Replacement for Season 3 Storyline

X-Men ’97 Season 2 signed off on Disney+ with Survival of the Fittest, and the episode saved its loudest twist for the tail end. Val Cooper sits in her office, with a file on Mystique open in front of her. Then the door swings open, and a second Val Cooper walks in.

The woman at the desk is Mystique, and she kills the real Cooper on the spot. The shapeshifter now sits at the head of X-Factor, the government’s own mutant task force, and not a single person knows she is there. It also proves the file right. Cooper had her flagged as a threat to the United States, and Mystique confirms it before the credits roll. There is a bigger gap she is filling, though.

Magneto died in Episode 4, Rise of Apocalypse – Part II, vaporized by Apocalypse while a helpless Charles Xavier watched. He was previously the leader of the mutant extremist group, the Brotherhood of Mutants. Now, the group appears to have a new leader.

Mystique Will Lead Brotherhood of Mutants in X-Men ’97 Season 3

Marvel made it official at the San Diego Comic-Con that the Brotherhood of Mutants will be part of the X-Men ’97 Season 3 storyline (via Collider). The roster of evil mutants includes Blob, Pyro, Avalanche, Toad, and newcomer Surge. The preview footage showed the team in the middle of a fight with Sentinels.

Marvel has now confirmed that Mystique has a key role to play next season. And she is probably leading the Brotherhood into a war against the U.S., now under Graydon Creed. That is straight out of the comics.

Magneto founded the group as the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but when he stepped away, Mystique assembled her own version in Chris Claremont’s run. Their most famous outing was the attempt on Senator Robert Kelly’s life in Days of Future Past, a story the original X-Men: The Animated Series adapted with Mystique leading the charge.

Mystique and her evil mutants may cause major problems for the X-Men and the humans. And there is the very likely possibility that she will make an attempt on the life of her son, Graydon Creed.

X-Men Will Have to Save Humans from Mystique and Mutants from Graydon Creed

A still from X-Men ’97 Season 2 | Credits: Disney+

Graydon Creed is now commander-in-chief. This is the man who founded the anti-mutant hate group Friends of Humanity, tried to pin an assassination attempt on mutants, and worked on a virus designed to wipe them out. With him in the White House, a government-backed war on mutants is coming.

The Comic-Con footage showed the Brotherhood fighting Sentinels, who almost certainly answer to Creed now. So the X-Men are boxed in from both sides. Mystique and her Brotherhood will come after humanity, and the X-Men will have to protect the same people who cheer every anti-mutant law Creed signs.

Meanwhile, Creed’s government will come after mutants, and the X-Men will have to shield the very radicals trying to kill those humans. There is no side of this war they can comfortably stand on.

Episode 7, Strange Land, Savage Heart, makes it hurt more. When the Acolytes of Magneto kidnapped Creed and put him on trial in the Savage Land, Nightcrawler defended his half-brother and teleported him to safety even after Creed killed Exodus. Creed repaid that mercy by riding the sympathy from his kidnapping all the way to the presidency. And Nightcrawler, the one X-Man who insisted he could be saved, did not survive the finale to see it.

What do you think of Mystique’s arrival in the show? Let us know in the comments below!

X-Men ’97 Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Disney+.