X-Men ’97 Preview Pits the X-Men vs. The Marauders

Marvel Animation’s X-Men ’97 aired its first season finale on Wednesday, but fans can still “tune in” to issues of Marvel Comics’ X-Men ’97. The four-issue limited series — an official prelude to the Disney+ animated series, which ended on a cliffhanger setting up season 2 — takes place between the events of the 1997 X-Men: The Animated Series finale and the X-Men ’97 premiere. Written by Steve Foxe (X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse) and drawn by Salva Espin (X-Men ’92: House of XCII), the comic also sets up key plots that will play out in the seasons ahead.

The first two issues saw the villainous Mister Sinister disband and discard the Nasty Boys — Gorgeous George, Ruckus, Hairbag, Slab, and Vertigo — as they “weren’t suited for the next stage” of his sinister scheme against the X-Men. Sinister then enlisted a team of mutant mercenaries: Prism, Arclight, Hazard, Harpoon, Riptide, Siena Blaze, and Sabretooth, Wolverine‘s old archnemesis from his days on Team X.

Wolverine and Sabretooth clashed several times in X-Men: The Animated Series — including “Deadly Reunions” and a near-fatal fight in “Cold Vengeance” — and Logan and Victor Creed are once again at each other’s throats in pages from X-Men ’97 issue #3. As Morph shape-shifts into the Hulk to smash Riptide and Storm strikes at Arclight, Wolverine unsheaths his adamantium-coated claws… only for Agent Carl Denti, the future costumed crusader called X-Cutioner, to break up the scrap before it starts.

X-Men ’97 issue #3 is on stands May 22.