X-Men ’97 Comic Introduces Mister Sinister’s Marauders

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 episode 3, “Fire Made Flesh.”] Sinister schemes are coming to light. The third episode of X-Men ’97 revealed that it was Mister Sinister (Christopher Britton) who cloned Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) and created Madelyne Pryor, the mother of Cyclops’ (Ray Chase) son Nathan Summers. The plot twist was set up inthe first issue of Marvel’s X-Men ’97 comic book — a prelude set during the one-year gap between the 1997 X-Men: The Animated Series finale and the Marvel animated series premiere — which hit stands the same day episode 3 aired on Disney+.

X-Men ’97 #1, by writer Steve Foxe and artist Salva Espín, saw Mister Sinister’s Nasty Boys — Gorgeous George, Ruckus, Hairbag, Slab, and Vertigo — attack Dazzler during her performance at the Charles Xavier Memorial Concert attended by the X-Men. After the mutant pop star helped Rogue and Gambit defeat the concert crashers, Mister Sinister told his minions they “weren’t suited for the next stage” of his battle with the X-Men. Sinister then formed the Marauders: Sabretooth, Prism, Arclight, Hazard, Harpoon, Riptide, and Siena Blaze.

“For years, humanity hated and feared mutants — which enabled my great work to advance while the X-Men fought battles on other fronts,” Sinister says in the pages of X-Men ’97 #2. “But Xavier’s whelps have come far too close to realizing their mentor’s ‘noble’ goals of acceptance and assimilation.”

The key to Sinister’s genetic research is within the offspring of Scott Summers and the cloned Jean Grey (who doesn’t yet know she’s a clone). Until he can claim the child, Sinister plots to restore the anti-mutant sentiment that has softened following Xavier’s assassination: he’ll turn Homo sapiens against Homo superior with his Marauders. “We must remind humanity that the X-Men bring danger to their doorsteps,” the mad scientist rants in the preview pages below. “That they are to be despised, not celebrated. We must remind them, my sinister seven… of the mutant menace!” 

X-Men ’97 #2 is on sale April 10 from Marvel Comics. New episodes of X-Men ’97 premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.