Characters / X-Men: The Animated Series - X-Men

X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men '97 character index
X-Men | Other Heroes
Mutant Villains | Other Villains
Other Characters

In General

• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Beast already has his blue fur instead of just having oversized limbs (though a few flashbacks depict him with his original look from the comics).
  • While they're not original members in the show, Morph, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, and Gambit are among the first members we see. Additionally, Jubilee joins the team relatively early compared to her comic counterpart.
  • Professor Xavier uses his hoverchair and holograms for the Danger Room in this series — long before he even meets Lilandra or Forge. In the comics, the chair and holographic tech were built by Forge with Shi'ar tech.
  • With the exceptions of Wolverine and Beast (who didn't get new designs; the former just returned to the yellow and blue costume), they're all dressed in their Jim Lee-era uniforms (i.e Cyclops with his hair showing, Storm in a silver body suit, etc.).
• Family of Choice: Many of the members were either from foster homes, shunned by their families, or were brought under Xavier's wing to help them learn their abilities. As such, they've all become a genuine family.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift:
  • Following her powers reawakening in "Lifedeath, Part 2", Storm is shown in her original, 1975 black suit.
  • In "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 1", Jubilee swaps out the jean shorts and T-shirt for a black bodysuit—her outfit from the comics during her stint as a vampire.
  • "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 2" sees Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Wolverine join Storm on the retro train with Cyclops taking up his blue-and-yellow cowled outfit, Jean once again in her green-and-yellow Marvel Girl costume, and Wolverine donning the brown-and-tan uniform. Morph also takes up a capeless version of their Exiles costume. Rogue's defection also sees her back in her Brotherhood outfit.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: They follow this rule because of Professor X. Which caused the members to be shocked when Rogue dropped Trask to (what she assumed was) his death. At the end of Season 1, they tried to reason with Bastion to stop, and Cyclops even tried to save him when he was about to die, but Bastion refused and killed himself in the explosion.
• True Companions: They might bicker or even go on their own sometimes, but their loyalty to each other is ironclad.

The Animated Series Core Cast

Professor X

Professor Charles Xavier

Voiced by: Cedric Smith (original series), Ross Marquand (X-Men '97) (English),^{Foreign V As}César Arias (Latin American Spanish dub), Rokurō Naya (Japanese, TV Tokyo dub)

Charles Xavier is a highly intelligent and powerful telepath, the leader and founder of the X-Men, and the founder of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. His dream of a peaceful coexistence has long been the driving force for the X-Men.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: Much like other incarnations, he isn't quite as much of a Manipulative Bastard or even a jerk as he is in the comics. Most notable is how he deals with Magneto in the "Tolerance is Extinction" three-parter, which partially adapts the Fatal Attractions storyline including the infamous moment where Magneto rips all of the adamantium out of Wolverine's body. While Charles in the comic book storyline declared that Magneto was Beyond Redemption following the act and completely wiped his mind, Charles here still chose to attempt to appeal to his old friend's better nature, using his telepathy instead to help Magneto finally confront the trauma that had caused him to return to his human-hating ways time and again.
• All-Loving Hero: With a few exceptions, he's this to a fault as he doesn't believe in giving up on others no matter their actions.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Certainly one of the most straightforwardly heroic incarnations of the character, but he still forced Magneto to relive his horrible childhood after he couldn't verbally sway his old friend from attempting to instigate a nuclear war. He proves this again when, sick and tired of Magneto's repeated dips back into villainy and how it has threatened the world in the "Tolerance is Extinction" arc time and again, decimates Magneto's mind when he refuses to reason—although, unlike the storyline "Fatal Attractions" that the act is based on, he does try to rebuild and heal Magneto's mind properly after the desperate act instead of leaving him lobotomized at risk of his own mind suffering the same in the process.
• Big Good: As in the comics, he's the X-Men's mentor.
• Bullying a Dragon: Humans, mutants, aliens, and machines alike frequently underestimate how much of a threat Charles can be, oftentimes viewing him as a softhearted invalid they can push around who will at most read some minds with psychic powers he is too much of a coward to exploit. They are just as frequently shown how much of a determined and even hard man he can be when sufficiently pushed.
• But Now I Must Go:
  • In the finale, he's forced to leave Earth in order to be under the care of the Shi'ar.
  • In '97, Xavier has to do this begrudgingly again, with Lilandra and Shi'ar, after finding out what happened to Genosha back on Earth following feeling Gambit's death, realizing his world still needs him.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: His psychic abilities are so great that he can even take control of other mutants' powers, however it also risks wrecking their psyche. He does this to Magneto as he has no other choice in order to restore the Earth's magnetosphere. In addition he does another of these to restore Magneto's mind though he puts himself at risk of going down with Magneto if they're still linked.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Charles generally tries to believe the best in most people, forever holding hope he can redeem the psychopathic Sabretooth, but even he draws the line somewhere.
  • He declares that the Master Mold is the embodiment of everything evil and must be destroyed.
  • On meeting Cameron Hodge, he's quite open in his sheer contempt for the man.
• Faking the Dead: The first half of '97's first season has people believing that he's dead, episode 6 reveals that he simply did this to be able to be with Lilandra and the Shi'ar.
• Friendly Enemy: He would rather not fight Magneto owing to their past as friends, and Magneto still respects him even if he doesn't agree with Xavier's opinions about mutants peacefully coexisting with humans.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Magneto's helmet is supposed to protect him from Xavier's telepathy, but if desperate enough, Charles can muster the strength to pierce it to at least send mental images to someone with such shielding if not take control of them.
• Immune to Mind Control: Downplayed, he's not outright immune, but super resistant. The only person who successfully manages to Mind Rape him is Sauron, and even he has a lot of trouble, and remarks that no one has ever been able to resist him as much as Xavier. And this was despite Xavier being affected by a power dampener at the time.
• Interspecies Romance: He falls in love with Lilandra, who returns his feelings.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: His decision to hand leadership of the X-Men over to Magneto after he leaves Earth is guided, in part, by a desire for Cyclops and Jean to be able to leave the team and lead a normal life. There are two massive problems with this: 1) He never asked them if that was what they wanted, and 2) His decision effectively makes Well-Intentioned Extremist Magneto the public face of all mutantkind, instead of a Reasonable Authority Figure like Cyclops, which puts more tension on human-mutant relations. Fittingly, Cyclops is the one to call him out on all this when he returns to Earth.
• Like a Son to Me: To all the X-Men, but especially Cyclops and Jean who were among his first students.
• Love at First Sight: To Lilandra, who feels the same due to them having a deep-seated psychic link that drew them to each other.
• Married to the Job: Between losing Moira to another man and Amelia walking out on him, Xavier resigned himself to living solely for his dream of peaceful co-existence.
• Military Superhero: This is the only adaptation of Charles to not have his background as a soldier in the Army from the comics Adapted Out.
• Mind Rape: In an early episode he forces Magneto to relive his horribly traumatic childhood. While Magneto was being a total sadistic prick at the time, it's still pretty damn disturbing. In '97, he once again attacks Magneto's mind, this time forcing it to go completely blank when Magneto refuses to budge on restoring the Earth's magentosphere so that he can seize Magneto's powers to do it himself, though he does also proceed to help Magneto rebuild his mind immediately afterwards at great risk to himself.
• Missing Mom: His mother died when he was a child. "Xavier Remembers" and "The Juggernaut Returns" suggest the loss still weighs heavily on him well-into adulthood.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As he realizes a little too late, his attempts to get the Phoenix out of Jean make it more unwilling to leave.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Xavier, while feeling the death of Gambit and the destruction of Genosha across the universe due to his Synchronization, loses his cool completely and is actually furious as he demands "what have they done to his Children of the Atom".
• Only Friend: Magneto refers to him as both an Arch-Enemy and this. So much so that Magneto ultimately gives up his dream in order to save Xavier's life.
• Parental Substitute: To Iceman, of the "stern and forever disapproving" kind, with Scott as the angry older sibling.
• Pyrrhic Victory: He won his fight with Magneto before the series, but at the cost of the use of his legs.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: A tragic example. When Magneto refuses Charles' requests to repair the Earth's magnetosphere, going so far as to use his history as a Holocaust survivor to have the moral high ground in his goal of exterminating mankind, Charles quietly asks for his forgivingness, before pouncing on his former friend to force his mind to fix the problem.
• Starcrossed Lovers: Him and Lilandra are a literal example. Somewhat more metaphorical with Amelia Voght.
• Team Dad: To him, the X-Men aren't just his team and students, they're his family.
• Uncertain Doom: Enough time has passed between the end of the original series and '97 that a death certificate was filed for Charles in his absence with the Shi'ar. While it's unclear if the Professor is yet to properly return, in practical terms the characters act as if he has passed away: Magneto in particular ends the first episode of the revival enacting Charles' last will and testament: taking over the X-Men and continuing the latter's mission. He is later confirmed to be still alive, in well condition, and was on his way to becoming Emperor of the Shi'ar Empire after wedding Lilandra before he felt what happened in Genosha, compelling him to return to Earth.

Cyclops

Cyclops / Scott Summers

^{Click to see his appearance in the original series.}

Voiced by: Norm Spencer (original series), Ray Chase (X-Men '97) (English),^{Foreign V As}Gerardo Reyero (Latin American Spanish dub), Kōichi Yamadera (Japanese, TV Tokyo dub), Takashi Nagasako (Japanese, Toon Disney dub)

Were I your father, I would tell you that no truer son could ever be.

— Professor Charles Xavier

Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops is the field leader of the X-Men as well as its resident Boy Scout and one of Professor Xavier's first students.

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• 10-Minute Retirement: Quits the X-Men during "No Mutant is an Island" after Jean, possessed by Phoenix, flies off and is presumed gone forever. An encounter with a Mutant brainwashing other Mutants gets the fire back in him.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: He still grew up in an orphanage, and was rejected by every prospective parent for being a Mutant, but it's still a step up from what comic Cyclops went through, where the orphanage was run by Mr. Sinister, who made sure Scott's childhood was isolated and alone For the Evulz.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Unlike in the comics, Scott never intentionally treated Madelyne Pryor as a Replacement Goldfish for Jean but legitimately thought she was the real Jean until the actual one returned. Also, while he left Madelyne and their son Nathan the moment the real Jean turned out to be alive in the comics, in '97, he and Madelyne mutually split up because of the sheer number of questions Madelyne's unintentional deception brought up, with Cyclops being forced to let Bishop take Nathan to the future after Nathan is infected with the Techno-Organic virus.
  • Connnected to the above, him psychically cheating on Jean is also made more sympathetic compared to the comics. Rather than him outright cheating on her with Emma Frost, he instead struggles to break his mental connection with Madelyne even after everything that's happened, which is understandable given he spent a good portion of his life treating her like she was the real Jean and conceived Nathan with her.
• Calling the Old Man Out: He learns in "Orphan's End" that Corsair is his father, and he is positively livid about it, thinking the old man abandoned him and Alex to have space adventures.
  Cyclops: For twenty years, I dreamed about my father: a man to look up to, a hero that sacrificed everything for the good of his family. It was your family you sacrificed! You threw us away so you could go knock around the galaxy!
• The Chains of Commanding: And oh does he get crap from the others, mostly from Wolverine. On his own, Scott tends to angst about it pretty hard. Even more so come '97.
• Composite Character: In the comic "Captive Hearts" was adapted from, it was Angel that Callisto wanted, not Scott.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His parents were presumably killed in a plane crash, he was practically an outcast at the orphanage, repeatedly passed over for adoption, and lost contact with his little brother at some point.
• Deadpan Snarker: In particular with Wolverine and Gambit. He’s also fond of sassing villains in between blasting them.
• Dreadful Musician: "Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-Mas" sees Scott attempt to join Jubilee in singing Christmas carols, only to be bad at it. Unlike other examples of this trope, Scott himself readily concedes he can't sing. The others thank him for at least trying to be part of the merriment.
• Eye Beams: As expected of Cyclops.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: In addition to restraining his uncontrolled eye-beams, they also contain a tracking computer that allows him to find the other X-Men if they get separated.
• Hot-Blooded: Not as bad as Wolverine, but for good or bad he’s quick to berate someone for their foolishness/causing trouble.
• History Repeats: Despite doing everything in his power to try to prevent it from happening, Scott ends up having to give up his son, Nathan, to Bishop to keep the Techno-Organic virus from killing him, which hurts Scott greatly as he realizes he just did the same thing his own father did to him. And like Scott with Corsair, Nathan's future self, Cable, clearly resents Scott for being absent from his life. Thankfully, unlike Scott with his own father, he and Cable do manage to reconcile.
• I Am Not My Father: Is adamant he's not going to be an absentee dad for Nathan. Circumstances mean he ultimately has no choice in the matter; it's either give him up or watch him die.
• The Leader: Of the X-Men, par the course.
• Long-Lost Relative:
  • Downplayed. Cyclops doesn't recognize Havok at all in "Cold Comfort" and is quite confused why his power has no affect on him, but it's later made clear in "Orphan's End" that he does remember having a brother. They have presumably been out of contact since childhood.
  • Played straight with Corsair who he doesn't realize is his father until he sees his locket containing an old family photo.
• Mind Link Mates: He and Jean have a psychic connection, though it doesn't always come up. And it didn't help him notice Sinister had switched her.
• Official Couple: With Jean.
• Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: Cyclops and Jean go through a lot, particularly during the Phoenix Saga.
• Power Incontinence: He seems unable to control his Eye Beams on his own, relying on sunglasses or a special visor to rein them in. When Rogue accidentally borrows his powers, she gains the same lack of control.
• The Power of the Sun: His eyeblasts are fueled by sunlight.
• Strong and Skilled: Aside from his optic blasts being incredibly powerful, '97 had him using them in junction with hand-to-hand combat.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: On the rare occasions his eye beams are off, he's got some brown eyes that Jean thinks are quite beautiful.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: "Xavier Remembers" suggests his biggest fear is failing to save Jean from Mr. Sinister.

Jean Grey

Marvel Girl / Jean Grey

^{Click to see her appearance in the original series.}

Voiced by: Catherine Disher (original series), Jennifer Hale (X-Men '97) (English),^{Foreign V As}Gisela Castillas (Latin American Spanish dub), Shinobu Adachi (Japanese, TV Tokyo dub)

First in my heart. Your courage allowed you to see things no other human ever has, yet remain the same innocent child I met so very long ago.

— Professor Charles Xavier

Jean Grey is a member of the X-Men and wife of Scott Summers - she is one of Charles Xavier's first students and thus often acts as a mentor to younger mutants on what it means to be a X-Man and all the responsibilities that come with being a hero.

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• Adaptational Wimp: This version of Jean is noticeably weaker than comic counterpart, as she gets exhausted when she uses her telekinesis, and is frequently knocked down with ease. She becomes stronger when she turns into the Phoenix. She averts it in ''97', showing a much more impressive display of power and skill with her abilities.
• Berserk Button: She is typically portrayed as a voice of reason and calming influence on the team, but come Christmas time, God help you if you try to tell her how to cook in her kitchen.
• Chickification: She has strong psychic powers in the comics, but here they don't do much to help her in being a useful member to the team, given how many times she just faints after using them for a while, and she's there mostly to be protected by either Scott, or Logan, or both. It’s really averted when she becomes Phoenix and in ''97', turning into a traditional Action Girl)
• Clark Kent Outfit: Inverted. Her X-Men costume makes her look like a proper Amazonian Beauty, but without it, we see she has a rather average build.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: For the original show's entire run, Jean's original "Marvel Girl" codename is never acknowledged (as generally seems standard practice for X-Men media with very few exceptions). Even when she puts on her classic costume during the Dark Phoenix Saga, unlike the comics it's just referred to as her "old X-Men uniform". Finally averted in X-Men '97, when a reporter calls her "Marvel Girl" during an interview with Scott.
• Damsel in Distress:
  • Unfortunately frequently. Even using her psychic powers normally seems to cause her a lot of physical and mental strain, leading to fainting episodes, and the majority of Season 3 is dedicated to the Phoenix arc wherein Jean herself is extremely vulnerable.
  • Jean also spends most of "Beyond Good and Evil" as a captive of Apocalypse.
• Dark Action Girl: When she becomes Dark Phoenix.
• Dub Name Change: Jean’s name was pronounced as "Jane" in the Latin American dub from season 2 onwards, even though they got her name right in the first episodes.
• Helpless Good Side: When the Phoenix goes dark, Jean occasionally manages to fight her way to the surface, but only for a few seconds.
• Lighter and Softer: In the original Dark Phoenix Saga, the Dark Phoenix kills an entire sapient species refueling herself, which is why the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel at the time of the comics felt she had to die at the end of the saga so as to avoid Karma Houdini^note without getting too much in the weeds, Jean's death was actually a compromise — Shooter wanted her to either become a villain or be permanently imprisoned, Chris Claremont wanted her to be stripped of her powers but let free. Here, the show takes every pain to make it clear the solar system she destroys is completely uninhabited so that Jean can get out the other end of the story alive.
• Mama Bear: She might not have given birth to Cable, but she still considers him her son. Bastion learns the hard way not to activate her maternal instinct.
• Noodle Incident: X-Men '97 reveals at some point she was abducted by Mister Sinister and cloned. How and when he did it are unknown, with even Jean not sure when the switch happened as her and her clone Madelyne's memories are near-identical. Even by the end of the first season it's never solved.
• Of Corsets Sexy: The show more-or-less manages to get the Black Queen outfit into the show. The only real alteration is some leggings and an undershirt.
• Official Couple: With Cyclops.
• Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: Scott and Jean go through a lot, particularly during the Phoenix Saga.
• Power-Strain Blackout: She has a tendency to faint if she over-extends her powers.
• Pstandard Psychic Pstance: Frequently when using her powers.
• Secret-Keeper: She knows details about Cable's history from reading his mind, but doesn't tell anyone.
• Spared by the Adaptation: The show's version of the Dark Phoenix Saga ends with the Phoenix voluntarily separating from Jean, allowing both of them to survive. In the original comic, Jean pulled a Heroic Suicide to stop the Phoenix taking control of her (although it was later retconned that the Phoenix had always been impersonating Jean in a duplicated body, and the real Jean was recovering in a cocoon at the bottom of Hudson Bay the whole time).
• Squishy Wizard: Her psychic powers are matched only by Charles', but she's physically vulnerable.
• Story-Breaker Power: In Tolerance is Extinction Pt. 3 it's revealed that she still bears some connection to the Phoenix Force and is able to tap into it to become Phoenix again, under certain conditions of duress. Since Phoenix is powerful enough to solve virtually any situation singlehandedly, exemplified when she immediately reverses a hopeless situation by effortlessly defeating Bastion, Sinister and all the present Prime Sentinels and Sentinels simultaneously, Jean can't access this power freely at will and her mantling the Phoenix is short-lived before it leaves again. Otherwise, she would break any conflict in half.
• Took a Level in Badass: She's much more capable in X-Men '97, making extensive use of telekinesis in direct combat on multiple occasions.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Her psychic powers first started when her childhood friend was hit by a car.

Storm

Storm / Ororo Munroe

^{Click to see her appearance in the original series.}

Voiced by: Iona Morris (original series; season one and first seven episodes of season two), Alison Sealy-Smith (remainder of original series and X-Men '97) (English),^{Foreign V As}Magda Giner (Latin American Spanish dub), Rihoko Yoshida (Japanese, TV Tokyo dub)

My beautiful Storm, mighty as a hurricane, gentle as a summer rain.

— Professor Charles Xavier

Storm is one of the older students with a larger than life personality and her experience and powerful, weather-based powers comes in handy when dealing with dangerous villains.

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• '80s Hair: During the original run she had a frizzy, bushy mane of hair. In X-Men '97 she has a mohawk, as she did in the comics from 1983 until 1991. Upon reawakening her powers, she regains her long mane, though it more resembles how she looked in her debut appearance in 1975.
• Accidental Hero: As part of her job, she pickpocketed Xavier. He was able to track her down because of his power, which led to him being approached by the Shadow King. The two ultimately battled on the astral plane, resulting in Xavier saving the children under Farouk's control and getting the idea to form a team to protect normal humans from evil mutants.
• Adaptation Personality Change: She's much more bombastic than the typically composed Storm of the comics.
• A God Am I: Back before she joined the X-Men, she was worshipped as a goddess. Apparently Professor X spent some time debunking that one with her.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Fought and defeated Callisto for the title of leader of the Morlocks. She later relinquishes it back to Callisto.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Storm is normally a kind if firm individual, but pissing her off is one of the worst things someone can do.
• Blessed with Suck: Not as much as some of her teammates, but she admits to it. Her powers are extremely useful and often put to good use (either in battle or for more mundane projects), but she notes that she has to constantly exert control, lest something horrible happen. She admits she somewhat enjoyed her Evil Is Hammy experience because it was the first time in years that she could let go.
• Claustrophobia: Downplayed compared to the comics, but still shown in some episodes as putting her in a tight space causes her to lock up. Storm's bedroom at the mansion is a very large open space on the top floor.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As a child, she was a thief under the thumb of the Shadow King. One of her attempted victims was none other than a vacationing Xavier.
• De-power: Early in '97, she takes a laser blast that erases her powers, and by Beast's reckoning this is permanent. She decides to leave the X-Men as a result.
  • Undone in Lifedeath Part 1, though Storm's crippling self-doubt and fears prevented her from realizing that Forge's machine worked and restarted her X-gene until two episodes later, in Lifedeath Part 2. when she finally accepts that she was lying to herself out of fear and anxiety. Breaking past the lie, she quickly curbstomps The Adversary and unleashes the full might and majesty of her power, to prove she's back.
• Evil Feels Good: Admits after her mad rampage that it felt good to be so free.
• Evil Is Hammy: After being driven slightly mad by Sauron, she starts chewing on all the scenery.
• Glass Cannon: She can threaten a nation if she stops holding back, but is no more durable than a normal human and can get knocked out with one good hit.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: After being depowered in '97, she starts dressing like a punk rocker.
• Heroic BSoD: Being stripped of her powers is horrifying for her, driving her into depression and leaving the team she so loved.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Rogue. The two always seem to stick together and have each other's back on missions. She also shows this dynamic in '97 with Jean, even likening her to a sister.
• Journey to Find Oneself She leaves the X-Men as she feels she cannot hold Cyclops and Jean back from the family life they deserve, knowing they would stay for her sake and to know what living as a normal human is like. It leads her to being approached by Forge.
• Large Ham: Has quite the dramatic flair while using her weather powers, usually Calling Her Attacks. In the crossover with Spider-Man, the webslinger made fun of this.
  Storm: Storm, mistress of the elements, commands you to release that child!
  Storm: BRING FORTH A MIST TO BLIND THEIR HATRED!
  Storm: Power of lightning, strike again!
  Spider-Man: Um, power of web shooters, get real sticky!
• Leitmotif: 97 gives Storm her own dramatic theme whenever she displays her powers, a piano solo that builds up to a chorus.
• Number Two: She's the team's second-in-command.
• The Patient Has Left the Building: Briefly hospitalized thanks to Sinister's manipulations, she checks herself out after a few days, then for reasons decides to fly under her own power to Africa (specifically, Tanzania).
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Upon fully reawakening her powers in Lifedeath Part 2, her previous mohawk grows out into a mane that goes down to her hips.
• Statuesque Stunner: She is a beautiful tower of a woman, much like in the comics. A Sentinel's HUD in the series premier puts her at 5'11".
• Story-Breaker Power: While Rogue's Lightning Bruiser abilities make her the physically strongest and toughest member of the X-Men, Storm's Omega-level weather manipulation powers give her nearly unparalleled destructive power. This is best exemplified in the first episode of X-Men '97, where she effortlessly totals a group of Sentinels that had her teammates cornered with lightning strikes that could instantly turn sand to glass and tornadoes that rip the metal monstrosities apart. Her powers are also so flexible that she can address many issues at once, such as putting out fires with a rainstorm, hiding her teammates in mist, or burying Omega Red in a blizzard. Many episodes had to either handicap Storm or write around her to keep her from breaking a lot of conflicts in half.
• Team Mom: Generally shares this role with Jean, being the level-headed, attentive, and patient type who puts her foot down if need be.
• Trauma Button: After losing her powers, the mere mention of neutralizer tech pisses her off tremendously. She silently casts a thunderbolt to warn Beast and Forge when they plan to use it on Bastion.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The use of her powers in the Savage Land while fighting Mr. Sinister's forces and helping Ka-Zar's people rebuild is what woke Garokk up.
• Weather Manipulation: Her mutant power, in case her name didn't give it away. She is able to manifest nearly any kind of weather phenomena at will, from rain storms to tornadoes to blizzards.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Doesn't come up quite as often as in the comics, but she's got claustrophobia.
• Woman Scorned: When she found out that Arkon lied about being a benevolent ruler and had been manipulating her, she lashed out in such a way that she endangered everyone on Polemachus. Jubilee managed to talk her down from that, but in the end, Storm still got hers by destroying the transmitter that kept the slaves under control. She left Arkon to deal with the massive revolt, returning to Earth while ignoring his desperate pleas.

Rogue

Rogue

^{Click to see her appearance in the original series.}

Voiced by: Lenore Zann (English),^{Foreign V As}Rocío Prado (Latin American dub), Yuko Kobayashi (Japanese, TV Tokyo dub)

Unable to touch, yet look around you. You will find you have touched us all.

— Professor Charles Xavier

Rogue is a sassy Southern Belle who possesses the power to absorb energy from anyone and everyone she touches. However, she has little control over it, leading to an incident where she took another superhero's power, which is why Xavier reached out to her.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: During comic Rogue's time as a villain, she wasn't just evil, she was a psychopath, gleefully using her powers on people and stalking Dazzler with every intention of killing her, to the extent most of the X-Men threatened to leave when Professor X brought her in, and even Rogue herself was uncertain she was capable of redemption at first. Here, her villainy is a result of being seriously misled by Mystique, and she's remorseful after putting Ms. Marvel in a permanent coma. On the flip side...
• Adaptational Villainy: In Fatal Attractions, Rogue stayed loyal throughout and it was Colossus who went through a crisis of faith with Xavier's dream and defected to Magneto. The "Tolerance is Extinction" trilogy gives Rogue Colossus's defector role.
• Age-Gap Romance: She and Magneto had a romantic relationship prior to the beginning of the series despite him being at least two decades her senior.
• The Big Guy: To a lesser extent than Logan only on a visual level. She's the physically strongest member of the X-Men, and among the most boisterous of them in fights.
• Blessed with Suck: The only power she was born with was the ability to absorb energy from others, leading her to seriously injure several people by touching them, and ultimately leaving Carol Danvers in a permanent coma from absorbing her Flying Brick powerset. As Rogue is unable to control this ability, she must wear gloves and a full-body suit at all times, and never touch anyone.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Rogue is busty and is the team's Flying Brick after absorbing Ms. Marvel's powers.
• Celibate Hero: Rogue cannot have a physical romantic relationship due to the nature of her powers and her inability to control them. Magneto's ability to touch her plays a large part in why she's attracted to him.
• Composite Character: In the Fatal Attractions storyline, it was Colossus who joined Magneto after losing the person he loved most. In the show it's Rogue after losing Remy.
• Damsel in Distress: Rare given her Nigh-Invulnerability, but it does happen. Most notably when Ms. Marvel's consciousness re-emerges in Rogue's mind leading to significant pain and psychological distress, and in the Reunion arc when she's depowered and easily overtaken by Mr. Sinister's mooks.
• Dark and Troubled Past: After her powers manifested, she put her first boyfriend in a coma and her father disowned her for being a mutant. After she ran away, she was adopted by Mystique, who taught Rogue how to use her powers. But she used them against Ms. Marvel causing the former to absorb her powers and consciousness.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's very sassy, and prone to making quips at various situations.
• Drives Like Crazy: It scares Gambit.
• Dub Name Change: Unlike Jean, Rogue’s was intentional. Rogue was renamed “Titania” in the Latin American dub, likely to allude to the super-strength she absorbed from Ms. Marvel.
• Dude Magnet: Gambit's not the only guy drawn to her. There's also her ex Bobby and Magneto.
• Easily Forgiven: After Charles and Magneto are rendered comatose by their clash in Tolerance is Extinction, Pt. 3, she and Sunspot wordlessly join back up with the X-Men with no objections.
• Face–Heel Turn: A very sad and understandable example. After seeing countless mutants get slaughtered on Genosha, losing the love of her life and receiving basically nothing but empty platitudes from Charles (who as she points out did not suffer the way she did) when he comes back from space, Rogue decides to ally with Magneto once he extends the offer.
• Fatal Flaw: Her loneliness stemming from her inability to touch people leaves her vulnerable to manipulation from people who dangle the possibility of romance or a cure.
• Flying Brick: Thanks to absorbing Ms. Marvel’s powers. Sadly, because of this, she had to step out of the start of The Phoenix Saga because then Jean wouldn’t become the Phoenix, since there'd be no need for Jean to endanger herself piloting the space shuttle through cosmic radiation if someone invulnerable were around.^note This wasn't an issue in the original Phoenix Saga in the comics, which happend before Rogue was even created.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted with Gambit. He throws charged playing cards at foes while she just punches them stupid.
• Heel–Face Turn: She joins back with the X-Men after Charles and Magneto are rendered comatose from their mental battle.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Storm. Rogue always spends most her time with Storm and the two are usually partners on missions.
• Human Hammer-Throw: Easily one of Rogue’s go-to starters, grabbing some poor schmoe, picking them up and spinning them around before launching them at someone or something else. Surprisingly, Wolverine himself is never one of these.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Rogue's powers prevent her from living a normal life moreso than the other team members, and she laments this frequently.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • Seems willing to step aside when Gambit returns home to see his ex-fiancee, only going because she believes he might be in danger, and comforting him after he severs ties with Bella Donna for good.
  • Later, she's willing to leave Magneto, whom she can be freely physical with, to carry on a relationship with Gambit. The Genosha massacre and him pulling a Heroic Sacrifice to stop it put an end to that.
• Ironic Echo: Intentional or not, Rogue pulls one on learning the truth about absorbing Carol Danvers' powers.
  Rogue's Father: (On learning Rogue is a mutant.) Ya ain't my daughter! Not anymore!
  Rogue: (On learning about Carol Danvers.) You're not my mother, Mystique! Not anymore!
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: With Jean in order to contain Carol Danvers' consciousness, which has been tormenting her.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Professor X wiped her memories of Carol Danvers in an effort to help her. It might've made things worse, since Rogue no longer had any idea what was going on, and the part of Carol stuck in her is utterly furious about what's happened to her.
• Love Triangle: She's in one between Gambit and Magneto in '97. She ultimately chooses Gambit but he gets killed off before she can consummate her decision.
• May–December Romance: She used to have one with Magneto before joining the X-Men.
• Ms. Fanservice: Although the nature of her powers prevents her from showing too much skin, Rogue is still an Amazonian Beauty whose skin-tight costume emphasizes every curve. The most infamous example was in "Come the Apocalypse", where the camera focuses on her ample derriere after she gets blasted by Apocalypse.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • When she learns the truth about what happened to Carol Danvers. She's so disgusted about being used as a weapon against Ms. Marvel that she severs ties with Mystique.
  • While she does kill Trask in a grief-induced rage, when she comes to afterward she's horrified about what she's done.
• Nice Girl: One of the friendliest and most compassionate of the X-Men.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Rogue's particular combination of powers likely make her the strongest member of the X-Men and very hard to injure or kill. In one early episode she spends several minutes getting crushed between two train cars and is completely uninjured once she gets free. This means that Rogue has to be specifically written out of some episodes where she would easily overpower whoever the team is dealing with, and her rare Damsel in Distress moments tend to be psychological threats moreso than physical ones.
• Power Copying: Extended contact can let her copy the powers of other mutants, her current Flying Brick powerset being copied from Ms. Marvel. She can even use it to acquire memories and general knowledge, such as when she copies a doctor's knowledge to assist Jean in delivering her son.
• Power Incontinence: Is entirely unable to control her absorbing powers, requiring her to cover her skin nearly from head to toe and avoid touching people as much as possible. Often, though not always, absorbing another mutant's powers doesn't come with any control either, as she learns to her extreme irritation when Gambit plants an unwanted kiss on her.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Her reaction to Gambit's death. Not only does she demolish a military base built to withstand the Hulk, but she even goes as far as to murder Trask for the role he played.
• Sensual Spandex: Partly to keep her powers in check, her field outfit is a skintight catsuit that doesn't leave much to the imagination.
• Southern Belle: No surprise there, Sugah. Though it's also downplayed as Rogue is a working class woman who's fine with being rough and crude.
• Super-Strength: Courtesy of Ms. Marvel's powers, she can throw Sentinels around like rag dolls.
• Tangled Family Tree: On account of being adopted by Mystique, her siblings include Nightcrawler and Graydon Creed.
• The Tease: A very playful flirt who isn't reluctant to sweettalk with the good-looking guy whose caught her eye at the time. This trait is emphasized far more during the crossover with Spider-Man: The Animated Series, where Rogue takes an immediate shine to Spider-Man.
• Tsundere: Often acts annoyed or irritated with Gambit's come-ons and calls him a "swamp rat", but is also obviously attracted to him and cares for him deeply.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Gambit, due to her powers. Also comes up when her old boyfriend Cody shows up again. She does manage to share a Big Damn Kiss with each of them, with Gambit when she's depowered and with Cody when he shows her he's now impervious to her powers.
• Vocal Evolution: Her voice is somewhat raspier in '97, likely due to her voice actress now being much older.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: As irritated as she often is with Gambit, she immediately attacks anyone threatening him. She was only too happy to try to smack around Bella Donna for trying to force Gambit to marry her. As for how she responds when Gamibt gets Killed Off for Real, see the Roaring Rampage of Revenge entry above.
• Voices Are Mental: When her powers really overwhelm her, she'll speak with the voices of those she's previously absorbed.

Jubilee

Jubilee / Jubilation Lee

^{Click to see her appearance in the original series.}

Voiced by: Alyson Court (original series), Holly Chou (X-Men '97), Pilar Escandón (Latin American dub)

You are the future. When I look at your face, I see hope.

— Professor Charles Xavier

Jubilee is a young girl possessing the power to shoot fireworks from her hands (which may pop up at very inconvenient times and blow up any electronic devices she touches) and one of the youngest members of the X-Men.

---

• Affectionate Nickname: Called "Petit" by Gambit.
• Composite Character: She often replaced Kitty Pryde, who was adapted out, including one of her focus episodes in the final season being based on a Kitty-focused story. In fact, about the only time she didn't replace Kitty in a role was the adaptation of Days of Future Past — where Bishop is the one to do it, replacing Kitty's future self, Kate, as the one to go back in time to stop Mystique from assassinating Senator Kelly. With regards to the series' predecessor, she replaces both Kitty and Dazzler ^note who does make an appearance here in a one-episode cameo by being the rookie new girl and the resident plucky light-caster, respectively. She is also a Walking Tech Bane like Kitty was.
• Drives Like Crazy: Mainly because she has difficulty with the clutch, but when you spook Wolverine, you're doing something wrong.
• Everyone's Baby Sister: She's the youngest of the X-Men and the team is fiercely protective of her, especially Wolverine and Gambit.
• Fangirl: Of Spider-Man, as the crossover revealed.
• Gamer Chick: Loves going to the arcade. When she and Roberto are in Mojo's Motendo game console she leaves Roberto in the dust.
• Hand Blasts:
  • Shoots fireworks out of her hands. Unfortunately, apart from occasionally blinding someone in a fight or blowing up something small, her powers don't tend to be particularly useful for combat due to inexperience and whoever she comes out against being Made of Iron.
  • They're much more effective by the time of X-Men '97, as their nature as miniature fusion explosions makes them much more destructive, and Jubilee's greater control and experience makes her far better at leveraging their potential.
• Happily Adopted: Deeply loves her foster parents.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Starts off with no idea on how to control her powers, resulting in more than a few busted electrical items.
• Kid-Appeal Character: Was brought into the show to be a cute, fun, relatable character to appeal to the youth demographic.
• Little Miss Badass: By the later episodes of '97, she's gotten more control over her "pafs" thanks to Abscissa, so much so that she's able to do a serious number on Bastion, of all people, with them.
• Little Miss Snarker: A quippy youngster.
• Nice Girl: She's sweet, kind, and bubbly.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Alyson Court's Canadian accent would show up whenever Jubilee had to say "Sorry".
• Power Incontinence: Due to them developing only recently she has a tougher time controlling them and avoids using them. She gets better over time to where in X-Men '97 she's comfortable enough to use them in public without worrying about damage.
• Protectorate: Due to her young age and relatively minor powers, the rest of the team is protective of her and prefer to keep her home from many missions.
• Ship Tease:
  • She's enamored with Longshot when they meet, but nothing comes of it since he's the leader of a resistance moment against Mojo in their dimension.
  • Gets a lot with Roberto in X-Men '97 since they're around the same age. They eventually have a Big Damn Kiss.
• Stuff Blowing Up: While looking like sparkly fireworks, her blasts are actually miniature fusion explosions.
• Took a Level in Badass: She learns how to wield her "pafs" with more power, control, and precision from Abscissa. She demonstrates this in "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 3" by being able to shape them into saw-blades to literally clip Bastion's wings and then using them to completely mess up his face when he mouths off to her.
• Trauma Button: Her first battle with the X-Men is against the Sentinels, and she's notably afraid every time they encounter them throughout the series.
• Unskilled, but Strong: If she really feels like letting loose she can cause some serious damage, but being the youngest and relatively newest she's not as skilled as her other teammates. Her simulated future Counterpart on Mojoworld demonstrates what she can really do with her abilities with more training and she gets to demonstrate her improvement near then end of the "Tolerance is Extinction" arc.
• Walking Tech Bane: Even after gaining some control of her powers, she has a tendency to fry electronics. Too bad it doesn't extend to Sentinels.
  Jubilee: Ugh, I hate machines.
• Woman Scorned: Her reaction to Roberto's Face–Heel Turn? Cry, burn away the calling card he gave her, and give him the Silent Treatment while blasting away at him the next time their paths cross.

Gambit

Gambit / Remy LeBeau

^{Click to see his appearance in the original series.}

Voiced by: Chris Potter, later replaced by Tony Daniels (original series), A.J. LoCascio (X-Men '97); Roberto Carrillo, later replaced by Roberto Molina (Latin American dub)

How often must the scoundrel prove himself a hero, before he believes it himself?

— Professor Charles Xavier

Gambit is the X-Men's resident card thrower and a mutant with the ability to charge his cards with explosively volatile energy. He's also Rogue's romantic partner, though he often dances around it.

---

• '80s Hair: His hair is actually quite long, enough to do a ponytailed mullet.
• Aloof Ally: Apart from Rogue and Wolverine, he's largely distant from the other X-Men, who care about him but are also quick to distrust him on some occasions due to his Dark and Troubled Past and aloof nature.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Once to Rogue during the Reunion arc followed by a Big Damn Kiss, and he also tells her he wants them to die together during the Despair Spot in the Phoenix Saga. Given his Chivalrous Pervert persona, both events are framed as a pretty big deal.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He does like to flirt with women.
• Composite Character: As Rogue takes over Colossus's role from Fatal Attractions as the X-Man who defects to Magneto's side after a crisis of faith in Xavier's dream, Gambit takes over Illyana's role as the death of a loved one that triggered said Cynicism Catalyst.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Is even more evasive about his past than Wolverine. It turns out he was raised in a Thieves' guild and is implied to have done some very shady things before joining the X-Men.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's a quick-witted guy, and almost always gives cutting, sarcastic remarks to bad situations.
• Death Dealer: Gambit can charge objects with explosive energy. He favors using playing cards for ammunition as they're easy to carry around.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Dies in Rogue's arms following his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Has deep red eyes with black sclera as a side effect of his powers.
• Family of Choice: When he goes back to his old home he realizes that he has nothing in common with the Guilds anymore and that he belongs with the X-Men.
• Gratuitous French: Has a habit of peppering his speech with Cajun and French.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • He has very good reasons to object to Archangel's vengeance mission against Apocalypse, but also seems to not like how familiar he gets with Rogue trying to persuade her to help him.
  • He shows this in the '97 series when he realizes how close Magneto and Rogue seem to be - especially as Erik can do something he can't - touch her.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted with Rogue. He throws charged playing cards at foes while she just punches them stupid.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Gambit is Killed Off for Real at the end of "Remember It" in '97, pulling a Taking You with Me on the Mega-Sentinel unleashed on Genosha after being fatally skewered in the gut to ensure the rest of the X-Men and the mutants survive.
• Hidden Depths: He's actually a pretty good chef, of course preferring Cajun and French cuisine.
• Idiot Ball: Falls for one of Morph's manipulations, namely pretending to be Rogue and claiming she could touch people. He kisses her, and gets knocked out for his trouble.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He mutually agrees with Rogue that they're better off as Just Friends since Magneto can give her what he can't—physical intimacy.
• Jealous Romantic Witness:
  • Twice when Rogue starts to rekindle a relationship with her first boyfriend Cody, and when Archangel implores her to help him destroy Apocalypse, during which he grabs her familiarly and emphasizes their emotional bond as victims of Apocalypse's scheme.
  • It happens again in '97, this time regarding Rogue forming a romantic connection with Magneto.
• Killed Off for Real: In "Remember It" in '97, he performs a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Mega-Sentinel. He's confirmed dead as Rogue cradles his body in her arms.
• Knight in Sour Armor: On many occasions, he hardly sees the point of involving himself in life-risking situations, even if its own personal affairs, but his better nature draws him in.
• Meaningful Appearance: Fingerless gloves are a regular part of his uniform, presumably because his powers would be ineffective in full gloves.
• Meaningful Name:
  • A gambit is a sacrifice made to gain an advantage. In chess, a gambit is an opening move where a pawn or another relatively weak piece is sacrificed to gain an advantageous position. Remy "sacrifices" objects by blowing them up, giving him an advantage in fights.
  • Remy is killed by the Mega-Sentinel, but uses the opportunity to charge the entire Sentinel, sacrificing himself to save others.
• Mr. Fanservice: Not bothered at all to go shirtless outside of mission, showing of his lean, athletic build. Even his field gear is a skintight top.
• Mundane Utility: He can use his ability to charge stuff with energy as a form of flashlight, so long as he doesn't drop the item he charged, because it'll still explode.
• Odd Friendship: With Wolverine. They largely grumble about each other, but both have Dark and Troubled Pasts that they don't like discussing, both are a bit more aloof from the main group, both are a bit Darker and Edgier than the others, both are in love with women who are unattainable for them, and they often seem to understand each other in ways the rest of the group doesn't.
• Paper Master: Has the ability to charge up items so that they'll explode, and favours playing cards for this purpose.
• Power Palms: More like Power Fingers. Gambit can charge up items so that they'll explode. He favours playing cards for this purpose, but can charge other objects as well.
• Ragin' Cajun: A big part of his characterization is being from Louisiana.
• Runaway Bride: Among the things he left behind in Louisiana is a young woman he was once engaged to, only to leave behind. She misses him, and isn't willing to take "no" for an answer.
• Sacrificial Lion: The much beloved Gambit is killed off during "Remember It", even though he goes out heroically, to clearly establish that this time around, the stakes are dire for mutantkind as a new generation of Sentinels are being unleashed.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Returns home in one episode to save his brother, but only to save him. He truly no longer fits in there, has no interest in his ex-fiancee, and couldn't care less about the endless conflict between the Thieves and Assassins guilds.
• Third-Person Person: Almost always refers to himself in the third person.
• Unluckily Lucky: Fitting for a man of long odds and slim chances, his attempt to bring down the Genoshan Master Mold to take it out with his powers during "Remember It" seemingly fails as the towering machine intercepts his gallant charge. However, it does so by impaling him with its Combat Tentacles rather than with its energy weapons, giving Gambit a chance to detonate it anyway albeit at the cost of his life.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Rogue, because they can't resolve it. Though he does take the opportunity for a Big Damn Kiss when they're depowered in the Reunion arc. Thanks to the events of "Remember It", it remains unresolved.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In '97, he has to perform a Heroic Sacrifice shortly after Rogue attempts to finally stop dancing around their relationship and try to make it work.

Wolverine

Wolverine / "Logan"

^{Click to see his appearance in the original series.}

Voiced by: Cal Dodd, Jérémie Covillault (European French), Herman López (Latin American Spanish)

Loner, you have found a family. Wild savage, you have found dignity. Cynic, you have found faith.

— Professor Charles Xavier

Logan is a mutant with an extremely durable adamantium skeleton, an insane healing factor, and a great sense of smell. He's often gruff and temperamental but will not hesitate to stand up for his fellow X-Men, even if he doesn't get along with some of them.

---

• Absurdly Sharp Claws: As expected of Wolverine's adamantium claws.
• Actually Pretty Funny: He remarks that Morph was the only one to ever make him laugh.
• Arch-Enemy: As in the comics, Sabretooth is this to him. But Omega Red is this to an even bigger degree.
• Audible Sharpness: His claws make swishing noises whenever he swings then around.
• Bad Butt: In the comics, he was a cigar-chomping beer guzzler who wouldn’t have any qualms messing someone up bloodily with his claws. Since this wouldn’t fly with a 90s Saturday Morning cartoon, the worst he does is just shred robots into scrap.
  • X-Men '97 brings him more in-line with the comics, letting him curse, drink beer and actually stab non-robots, most notably Magneto.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't mess with Jean or Jubilee.
  • There's also the mere sight of Sabretooth. Only Morph can touch that button that button without risk to life or limb.
  • Played for Laughs, but he also hates ducks.
• Berserker Rage: Is easily provoked to violence when upset. At one point this gets so bad he takes a 10-Minute Retirement to go to Japan and try to collect himself.
• The Big Guy: Well, he IS the team's resident berserker after all; whenever it looks like a fight might break out, it doesn't take Logan long to stick his claws out and start slashing. Most of the time it hardly does any good for him, however.
• Body Horror: In "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 2", Logan has his adamantium ripped right from his skeleton at the hand of Magneto, something that is shown in excruciating gory detail even compared to the original scene its based on from the comic as the metal squeezes out through his veins and visibly eviscerates him as it leaves his body.
• Break the Badass: Proteus does a number on him, leaving Logan reduced to a sobbing mess, and later on he not only refuses to go near the kid, he runs away. Logan being Logan, he refuses to admit it, but the two parter ends with him stating emphatically he's still not okay.
• Brought Down to Badass: In the Reunion episodes where the rest of the team has been depowered, Wolverine still has his man-made adamantium skeleton and claws - however, he loses his Healing Factor, and grimaces in pain when his claws pierce his skin.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Gruff, sharp-tongued, cynical, and more likely to punch first and ask questions later, but also a Friend to All Children, loyal to his comrades, and not above showing compassion and mercy.
• Cassandra Truth: He warns the Professor not to leave Sabretooth around the mansion, but is brushed off because of his generally surly disposition (and he never bothers just saying Sabretooth will try to kill them if given half a chance), right up until Sabretooth slashes his chest open.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: The cynic to Nightcrawler's idealist. Nightcrawler's unwavering belief in God confuses Wolverine, who lost his faith after the experiment he was subjected to and the various things he's done in life. Nightcrawler's idealism rubs off on Wolverine more than he's willing to admit, though.
• Dark and Troubled Past: And how. Several episodes focus on events from his past, all of which have left him traumatized.
• Deadpan Snarker: His tongue is just as sharp as his claws.
• Escaped from the Lab: It took less than five minutes for Weapon X to realize giving a man unbreakable metal claws was a mistake when Logan cut his way out of the tube and started tearing up the place.
• Everyone Has Standards: By '97, as much as he pines for Jean deep down, Logan knows better than to actively act on it when she's married to Scott even if he dislikes him greatly and thus when Jean makes out with him during her confusion over what memories are hers and the collapsing relationship between her and Scott, Logan immediately calls her out on it and walks away rather than embrace it.
• The Friend No One Likes: Not now, but in response to his chagrin at Xavier taking in Sabertooth, Storm mentions that when he first showed up at the mansion his attitude didn't make him popular, and there were some of them who would've been just fine if he'd left. ^note In the comics, that was in fact Storm herself.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Much like the comics, he has a pretty contentious relationship with Cyclops, largely over resentment that he's with Jean and Wolverine isn't.
• Headbutting Heroes: He and Cyclops just cannot get along.
• In Spite of a Nail: No matter what happens in Bishop's future, Wolverine's skeleton ends up on display in Forge's lab.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Resents Cyclops for being Jean's beloved, but doesn't get in the way of their relationship. When she actually kisses him in 97, he's the one who tells her that they should remain Just Friends.
• Jealous Romantic Witness: Often seen enviously staring at Scott and Jean.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is gruff and temperamental, but extremely loyal to those he cares about.
• The Lancer: While he's not second in command (that role goes to Storm) he is the cool, reckless one that challenges the straightlaced Leader Cyclops as his Rival or Partner. Their powers the most direct contrasts with Cyclops optic blasts vs. Wolverine's claws.
• Made of Indestructium: Has adamantium claws and an adamantium skeleton that cannot be destroyed.
• Mundane Utility: He can use those long, sharp adamantium claws of his in less murderous ways, to slice off meat and such. Seen at least twice in the series — one being salami and the other, turkey.
  "Where's that BLASTED salami? I could smell it! Ahhh... all it needs is slicing!"
• Mysterious Past: Weapon X wiped his memory while they were experimenting on him. What little Logan can remember is hazy and sometimes contradictory.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Has a powerful Healing Factor as well as an adamantium skeleton, which means that while he can be injured, it's hard to keep him down for long.
• The Nose Knows: His keen sense of smell usually helps him detect danger before it's made apparent. It can also track specific people if need be.
  Psylocke: (faced with Mystique pretending to be Shard) Nice trick, but it's wasted on a psychic.
  Wolverine: And on this nose.
  Mystique: Blasted bloodhound.
• No Sympathy: A recurring theme is Logan giving precisely zero craps about people who might be suffering, such as Mutants who may not want to keep uncontrollable powers, or anything to do with Proteus's condition.
• Odd Friendship:
  • With Gambit (see above).
  • At the start of the series, his closest friend on the team is Morph, the wise-cracking goofball. He takes Morph's apparent death the hardest.
• Papa Wolf: Is particularly protective of Jubilee, and is hit hard when anything happens to her. His 10-Minute Retirement to Japan is prompted by a road rage incident where he nearly injures her in his rage, and he's horrified with himself afterwards.
• Properly Paranoid: He's utterly untrusting of Arkon from the off, and turns out to be right on the money.
• Retcon: The original series never gives any definite clue to how old Logan might be, but '97 suggests like the comics he is much older than he looks, as he casually mentions being over a hundred years old.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Is one of the more popular characters in the franchise, and gets focused on to the point that other members of the team get nearly Demoted to Extra by the later seasons. This is rectified in '97 where he's back to being part of the supporting cast, at least for the moment.
• Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: Never seems to completely get over Jean, even though he has other romantic arcs and Jean never seems to reciprocate his feelings. Possibly a case of Loving a Shadow, in that he seems to view Jean more like a romantic ideal than an actual (married) person.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice is noticeably smoother and deeper in '97, bringing more to mind his other most notable voice actors, Scott McNeil and Steve Blum.
• The Worf Effect: If the writers needed to build up the threat of an episode such as Nimrod, odds are Wolvie's the one who's going to get chucked through the air by them.
• Would Hurt a Child: Figures the easiest solution to Proteus is to kill him. Proteus... disabuses him of the idea.

Beast

Beast / Hank McCoy

^{Click to see his appearance in the original series.}

Voiced by: George Buza, Bardo Miranda (Latin American dub)

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel.

— Professor Charles Xavier

Beast is a blue, beastly X-Man with incredible strength and acrobatic prowess. Despite his appearance, he is smart in nearly every field of science and sometimes takes quotes from literature and other forms of art.

---

• Adaptational Backstory Change: During "Beauty and the Beast", Hank is seen looking over old pictures of himself as a child shows him with blue fur, suggesting it was part of his natural mutation, not self-experimentation.
• Advertised Extra: He spends much of Season 1 Commuting on a Bus, but he's still featured in the opening credits along with the other team members.
• Ascended Extra: According to Eric Lewald, Beast wasn't technically considered a main cast member by the executives and was only included so that the writers could deliberately sideline someone for a trial storyline. Due to positive reception from both viewers and writers alike, production was able to get him added to the cast full-time, leading to a great deal of more screen-time and focus episodes. He's arguably the second most prominent character after Wolverine.
• Catchphrase: When something bad is happening he'll usually throw that line: "Oh dear." He's also been known to react to something unusual happening with "Fascinating." And in either of the previous two scenarios he may also say "Oh, my stars and garters."
• Cultured Badass: An appreciator of classic literature, orchestral music, and fine art. Though he's not a fan of Lewis Carroll.
• Genius Bruiser: Is extremely physically strong, but devotes his life to academic pursuits.
• Gentle Giant: While he has occasional moments of rage, outside of combat situations he's remarkably calm and gentle.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: He's both really smart and quite a nice person.
• Handy Feet: His feet are just as dexterous as his hands with him often hanging upside down while he's working.
• The Heart: Beast is the one member that the entire team despite their conflicting personalities all genuinely seem to like and always get along with. Even Wolverine, despite his personality clashes with Cyclops and Gambit seems to adore the guy and jumped to get involved during the situation with Carly.
• The Hermit: As there is no way to conceal his appearance, he rarely ventures out apart from missions.
• Heroic BSoD: One when he falls in love with a woman named Carly but has to break it off because it's too dangerous for her. Another when he bonds with the AI system in Apocalypse's ship, which destroys itself in a Heroic Sacrifice, leaving him weeping.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Has a rare case of this when forced to break things off with Carly.
• Multiple-Choice Past: There's been conflicting reports on how Hank mutated. In "Beauty and the Beast", it's stated that he started to mutate as a child as he was shown with blue fur. In "Cold Comfort", he was shown to be more ape like without the blue fur (much like his early apparnce in the comics). But then the crossover with Spider-Man states that Hank didn't fully transformed until he was messing with science to.
• My Greatest Failure: In a crossover with Spider-Man: The Animated Series, it's revealed he's covered in blue fur because he so desperately hated his mutancy that he did whatever he could think of to try to cure it. While there are times in the present that he would rather be normal, he looks back on this bitter, angry period of his life with shame.
• Odd Friendship:
  • He was close friends with Iceman back in the day, despite being the team intellectual and Bobby being so undisciplined. Beast's more tempered approach in "Cold Comfort" makes greater headway with Iceman than Xavier's arguing and Cyclops's antagonism.
  • Also strikes one with Spider-Man during the crossover in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Their friendship comes by much more naturally, though, as Hank fits the profile of the "Nerdy Professor" Peter Parker would have hung out with in his meeker days. Beast casually replacing Black Cat as the tutorial navigator in Spider-Man 2 – Enter: Electro might be a nod to this.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Biology, genetics, mechanics, electronics, Beast knows it all.
• The Scapegoat: Upon becoming accepting of mutants, Robert Kelly arranged for Beast to be released from prison and granted him a full presidential pardon. Feeling betrayed, Graydon Creed sees Beast as the symbol of Kelly's change of position and launches several direct attacks against him.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Very verbose and prone to using flowery language to show his intellect.
• The Smart Guy: He's the team's smartest member and often uses his brains more than his muscles.
• Spanner in the Works: Manages to sabotage Weapon X's plan to dispose of their wayward operatives simply by following Logan to Canada.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Carly Anne Crocker, a patient of his and the daughter of an anti-mutant bigot. Though progress is made with Mr. Crocker, Carly being endangered by the Friends of Humanity convinces Beast that they can't be together until society becomes more accepting of mutants.
• Super-Strength: While the limit isn't precisely known, he's vastly stronger than a normal human to the point where he can flip a Sentinel onto its back with some basic leverage.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Due to his build, he often tends to go shirtless in action. Around the mansion, he might wear a shirt if the situation requires it.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Herbert Landon, an enemy of Spider-Man.
• Wolverine Claws: Don't get as much use as Wolvie's but are sharp enough to cleave through a Sentinel.

'97 Additions

Morph

Morph

^{Click here to see their human appearance.}

Voiced by: Ron Rubin (original series), J.P. Karliak (X-Men '97) (English); Alfonso Obregón Inclán, later replaced by Rubén Leon and Carlos del Campo (Latin American dub)

It's nice to see you home. In facing your fears, you have proven yourself truly an X-Man.

— Professor Charles Xavier

Morph is a mutant who can shapeshift themselves into anyone they see.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Between X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men '97, their standard human appearance's face has gotten a lot more attractive-looking in the latter.
• Adaptational Badass: '97 gives Morph some new powers that have never applied to any of their counterparts, namely the ability to copy a mutant's physical abilities when shapeshifted into them.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: Morph in '97 is non-binary according to the creators, while they were addressed as male in the original series. Notably, in the original series Morph used male forms almost exclusively, while the '97 version uses a pretty even mix of male and female forms, whether for combat or just as a joke.^note Word of God states that the show will still address them as "he/him" as to avoid an Anachronism Stew by addressing them as non-binary given the perspective of '97 is that it's based within the 90s still, where the terminology and understanding of gender identity was far less developed than today's climate, as well to avoid conflicts with other foreign dubbed versions from languages lacking gender-neutral pronouns, like Spanish, Portuguese and French; and that's without mention to avoid the show being banned in places when LGBT topics are banned by law. The end credits, however, use they/them pronouns.
• Adaptation Name Change: Their original comics counterpart went by the codename, "Changeling", but since Beast Boy was using it when the show started, they were renamed "Morph".
• Anguished Declaration of Love: When they believe they're about to die in "Tolerance is Extinction - Part 3" they tell a comatose Wolverine (through shapeshifting into Jean Grey) that they love him.
• Ascended Extra: Goes from a Red Shirt who makes a few appearances a season to being in every episode in 97.
• Back for the Finale: Spends most of the series presumed dead or in therapy, but shows up for the final episode. In X-Men '97, they're now back full time.
• The Blank: In a way: in the original series, Morph has a clearly recognizable human face. In X-Men '97, they default to a form that is more like a white, hairless mask, although their face can emote.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Mr. Sinister put some kind of robotic bug thing in them that makes them hate the X-Men.
• Came Back Wrong: Sinister brings them back to destroy the X-Men from within. The lazy goofball becomes an unhinged nut focused on revenge on all the X-Men.
• The Cameo: Morph shows up very briefly in a non-speaking role at Jean and Scott's wedding in "Beyond Good and Evil Part 1". They don't get involved with the events of the arc but it was nice of them to show up as a well wisher seeing as they ruined the last wedding.
• Cameo Cluster: Morph's powerset allows them to turn into any mutant, sometimes in quick succession. They're basically a walking excuse to throw in whatever X character the staff wants.
• It's Personal: Their various acts of revenge against the team after their resurrection are all dangerous, but it's Cyclops they personally try to murder. As Beast surmises, Cyclops is the one they have the most reason to hate.
  Morph: It wasn't a sick joke when you left me to die! How do you like feeling your last seconds on Earth ticking away?!
• Jekyll & Hyde: After their resurrection, they shift between their good persona and Sinister's implanted one, distinguished from their default appearance by pale skin and heavily undershadowed eyes.
• The Lost Lenore: Non-romantic version for Logan, who holds a tremendous amount of angst and guilt for Morph dying to save him.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: They will make a joke about everything and troll anyone, whether it's Xavier's death or Wolverine's unrequited love for Jean. The only thing they will not joke about is Mr. Sinister, due to the trauma they suffered at his hands.
• Power Copying: X-Men '97 upgrades their powers to allow them to copy other mutants' powers by changing into their form. As of the first two episodes, it appears that they mostly mimic physical abilities (Angel's wings, Blob's size etc.)
• Promoted to Opening Credits: Gets their own title card in the revival's intro.
• Red Shirt: Appears in the pilot episode as the only newcomer among the X-Men. They then die to demonstrate how dangerous the Sentinels are. According to Rogue in X-Men '97, they had just barely joined the team before Night of the Sentinels.
• The Resenter: Jubilee wasn't a member of the X-Men at the time they died, but they still go after her all the same, seeing her as trying to take their place.
• Ret-Canon: Both ways.
  • The incarnations of them in Age of Apocalypse and Exiles go by the codename "Morph" instead of "Changeling".
  • On the flip side, X-Men '97 sees them adopt the look of those versions of Morph: off-white skin, blank eyes, a noseless face, and bald. "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 2" sees them even take on a capeless version of their Exiles costume.
• Signature Laugh: He has a very distinctive laugh.
  Morph: Nyehehehehe!
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Despite the fact they were in the team since the first episode, Morph was never shown in the intro due to the fact they were suppose to be killed off early in the show.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Morph originally was a minor character in the X-titles back in the 1960s, where they died while shapeshifted as Xavier. In the series, despite falling to the Sentinels, they are resurrected, and still alive per their last on-screen appearance in the original series.
• Taking the Bullet: "Died" shoving Wolverine out of the way of several Sentinel blasts (which, given Wolverine's healing factor, might not even have killed him).
• Took a Level in Badass: Not only has Morph's powers gotten strong enough between the two series to able to emulate the physical powers of other mutants, but they are able to also do impressive swordfighting now as shown when they shapeshifted into Psylocke and are able to keep up with X-Cutioner the longest out of anyone on the team.
• Trauma Button: Having to deal with Mr. Sinister. Being reminded of the horrors that Sinister put them through sends Morph's stress levels skyrocketing.
• Troll: Morph is absolutely not above using their shapeshifting powers to just annoy people. Turns extremely dark on their resurrection, as some of the things they do to their former teammates are extremely petty. In "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 3", however, they do this to Sinister as payback for turning them against their teammates following said resurrection.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Lays a one in disbelief at Rogue after she callously kills Trask, while he was already ready to off himself anyway, and questions if this is what they are now as a result of the massacre in Genosha.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Their return to the team in "Courage" proves short-lived, due to the reemergence of the Sentinels. Morph freezes up over having to face them again and, though they come through in the end, the experience teaches them they still have a lot of trauma to work through before they can be an X-Man again.
• The Worf Effect: In '97, Morph usually takes the form and physical abilities of powerful mutants like Colossus, Quicksilver, and even the Juggernaut, but they typically end up defeated by the new threat to show how powerful and skilled they are.

Bishop

Lucas Bishop

^{Click to see his appearance in the original series.}

Voiced by: Philip Akin (original series), Issac-Robinson Smith (X-Men '97); Salvador Delgado, later replaced by Octavio Rojas (Latin American dub)

A hitman working for the Sentinels aiming to hunt down mutants. In actuality, he's a time-traveller from the future possessing the power to take and redirect nearly all forms of energy, aiming to save his future.

---

• '90s Hair: He had a long, curly mullet in the original series. 97 sees him switch to a shorter, less obviously dated hairstyle.
• Accidental Hero: Manages to sabotage Apocalypse's plan to wipe out time itself without meaning to, simply because he lost his temper and started firing his gun at the source of the annoyance.
• Adaptational Villainy: He starts off as a willing bounty hunter for the Sentinels, unlike comic Bishop, who was heroic (if decidedly brutal to his enemies).
• BFG: While Bishop has a mutant power, he generally tends to use a gun first.
• Composite Character: His role in the adaptation of Days of Future Past, combines both Rachel Summers role as a Hound (with Bishop a Tracker in service of the Sentinels) and Kitty Pryde's going back in time to stop the assassination of Senator Kelly. The ending of the '97 episode "Fire Made Flesh" also sees him take Jen Askani's role as the one who takes infant Nathan/the future Cable to the future to get treated for the techno-organic virus.
• Energy Absorption: His mutant power is to absorb energy and redirect it via energy blasts from his fists. It does have some limits, as Nimrod can overpower it.
• Failure Is the Only Option: He travels back in time to prevent his unpleasant future occurring, but never makes any real change.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Joins the team because he was stuck in the past, but returns to the future at the end of Fire Made Flesh to save newly born Nathan from the Technovirus that Mister Sinister infected him with.
• Heel–Face Turn: Happens very early on. He starts out working for the Sentinels, and thinks they are basically benign and only kill the mutants because they attack. When he tries to turn Wolverine in, the Sentinels decide they no longer need him and try to kill him.
• Hero Antagonist: He starts out as an enemy to the X-Men, as he thinks they are responsible for the assassination of Senator Kelly. It turns out that Mystique shapeshifted into Gambit when she killed Senator Kelly, as Frame-Up.
• Horrible Judge of Character: At first, even though he's aware fighting Sentinels gets Mutants sent to termination camps, he figures they only go after "dangerous" Mutants, and that if they don't fight back the Sentinels won't go after them. He's proven very wrong.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: In his first appearance, he hunts down other mutants on behalf of the Sentinels.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Bishop's first idea to prevent his future? Seize a bus, ram-raid the X-Mansion and start shooting up the place. He's at it again in "Time Fugitives", starting several near riots.
• Les Collaborateurs: He starts off as a tracker, a mutant serving the Sentinels in hunting down the Mutant Resistance.
• Noodle Incident: What led to him once again traveling back to the present (and how his time travel device was damaged) is left unexplained as of the end of the first season of '97.
• Only One Name: "Bishop", since his getting a first name wouldn't come until several years after the original show ended, and it wasn't even clear if Bishop was his actual name.
• Ripple-Proof Memory: Due to being at the center of a lot of time travel, Bishop's memory not syncing up with the current timeline is proof things have changed, often not for the better.
• Taught by Experience: His first two stories have him cause a lot of damage by jumping in swinging, leaping to conclusions, and not having any real idea who or what he's going after. By "One Man's Worth", he's calmed down a lot more, and apparently found some history books.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His second jaunt back in time has him cause the deaths of the entire X-Men as well as his own, and from there the near-eradication of the mutant race, and Cable's future. Good going, Rookie.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After delivering Wolverine and two other mutants to be executed by the Sentinels, he's informed he's no longer deemed necessary by the Sentinels and is branded for execution.

Magneto

Magneto / Erik Magnus Lehnsherr

^{Click to see his appearance in the original series.}

Voiced by: David Hemblen (original series), Matthew Waterson (X-Men '97)

"The war for our survival must begin now, while we mutants are strong and you are still divided."

Erik "Magnus" Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto, is a revolutionary who believes mutants are the next stage of evolution for humanity and are destined to take over the world, desiring to create an utopia for his species. He later unexpectedly took charge of Xavier's X-Men and school, following the Professor's departure from Earth.

---

• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Is an ally to the X-Men in most of his appearances. At the time in the comics, he'd been reformed for a decade or so (the comics just as the show started had tried to put him back to Heel, but it hadn't really stuck).
  • This is still somewhat true even when X-Men '97 returns him to villainy and replicates his most villainous actions from the Fatal Attractions storyline (shutting down the Earth's power grid with an EMP and ripping the admantium out of Wolverine's skeleton). While in the comics this was considered a Kick the Dog moment both in-universe and out, the animated version had been pushed past his Rage Breaking Point, and the fact that he had fallen so far is treated as a tragedy in and of itself.
• Adaptational Name Change: A complicated example. When the original cartoon aired, Erik Magnus Lehnsherr was believed to indeed be Magneto's real name. It was not until months after the show ended (early 1998) that the comics revealed that a forger created the Lehnsherr identity as an alias and several years later in 2008 (several years after the original cartoon ended, and well after the release of the first live-action film) that Magneto's real name was Max Eisenhardt. For '97, the writers chose to ignore the Max Eisenhardt revelation and stick with Erik Lehnsherr as Magneto's real name.
• Adaptational Sympathy: His misanthropy from the Fatal Attractions storyline is played a lot more understandably in '97, instead of developing an absurd god complex that had him forsake all but his most fervent loyalists and fully gave himself into his darker urges, he is instead shellshocked by the horrors of Genosha that Bastion unleashed as a repeat of the atrocities he suffered during the Holocaust, all not too long after he genuinely tried to pull a Heel–Face Turn, which has him finally swear off the world and commit to putting an end on the bloody chapters of human history to start anew with mutantkind on Asteroid M while the world dies as a result of him destabilizing the Earth's magnetic field.
• Affably Evil: Magneto believes that humans and mutants cannot coexist peacefully and is prepared to go to any lengths to ensure mutants survive. When not carrying out an evil plot, he is a pleasant man who treats Xavier and the X-Men as friends.
• Age-Gap Romance: In '97, it's revealed that he has romantic history with Rogue despite being old enough to be her father.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After talking down to him for much of the first season finale of '97, Magneto fearfully pleads for Charles not to hijack his mind to repair the damage he's done to the Earth, realizing that his old friend that he declared an enemy can and is making good on his threat.
  "Charles, please-!"
• Always a Bigger Fish: Ends up being the bigger fish once he's released from Bastion's grasp, effortlessly defeating his entire Prime Sentinel army across the globe in the blink of an eye, although this is not at all a good thing as Magneto fully slips back into his villainous persona from hitting his breaking point following Genosha, leading to him declaring war on all of mankind by disabling the power for the entire globe simultaneously too.
• Ambiguously Jewish:
  • The original series noticeably doesn't bring up Magneto's usual backstory as a Holocaust survivor, as World War II and the Nazis were not allowed due to the "moral code" of the animation producers (i.e. FOX). Instead, he was given a background as a boy from a more generic Eastern European country which was invaded and conquered in a more recent armed conflict, with his parents being killed during the invasion. Though not quite as horrific as the Holocaust, it still convinced him that using reason in the face of violence was a foolish gambit, and that humanity was far too brutal and warlike to make coexistence a possibility. '97 implies that he still might have gone through a similar event as the Holocaust during a traumatic flashback after watching numerous mutants die to the Tri-Sentinel in this continuity regardless.
    Magneto: When I was a child, my people talked while others prepared for war! They used reason when others used tanks, and they were destroyed for their troubles. I won't stand by and watch it happen again, I WON'T!
  • '97 makes this a moot point, as he declares that he's long since renounced religion after his fellow believers shunned him for being a mutant. However, his speech towards the UN heavily implies that this incarnation is Jewish:
    Magneto: As a boy, my people's homes were burned to ash because we dared to call God by another name.
  • In episode 8 of '97 it is finally made explicit by revealing the six-digit concentration camp number tattooed into his arm.
• Anti-Villain: His entire motivation is to ensure that mutants don't face genocide at the hands of humans, like his culture once did.
• Artistic License – History: He somewhat misrepresents the motivations of the Nazis in his speech to the UN in '97, which is odd considering he's a Holocaust survivor. The Nazis hated the Jews not because of their religion - that they "called God by another name" - but because of their race. This is why Nazi persecution of the Jews was more brutal than any other antisemitic violence prior or since - unlike in, say, the Spanish Empire or Tsarist Russia, there was no escape through conversion or assimilation, because one's blood was enough to be considered a "racial enemy" to Germany. Of course, given the context, it is possible Magneto made some artistic liberties in his speech, not the writers.
• Badass in Distress: Is held prisoner by Bastion after his seeming demise at the hands of the Tri-Sentinel in '97, tied up and gagged with a Mutant Suppression Collar on to make sure he doesn't go anywhere.
• Beard of Sorrow: Sports one during "The Phalanx Covenant" two-parter, due to the failure of his Asteroid M dream.
• Big Bad Ensemble: He's not the overarching villain of the first season of X-Men '97, with Bastion being the mastermind behind Operation Zero Tolerance's crimes, but he ends up one of the main threats of the three-part finale after declaring war on humanity by upsetting the planet's magnetic poles.
• Big Bad Slippage: He begins the first season of X-Men '97 trying to uphold Charles' dream, but he ultimately becomes just as much of a threat as Bastion when the tragedy of Genosha sends him back to his old ways.
• Bowdlerise: His backstory as a survivor of The Holocaust is omitted, with him instead being a generic war refugee. Justified in that such a topic was taboo for children's entertainment at the time. In '97, he makes it more explicit that his people were a victim of religious persecution, all but stating that he's Jewish, though he still doesn't directly reference the Holocaust until episode 8 which reveals the identification tattoo on his left arm.
• Canon Immigrant: The concept of his helmet shielding himself from Professor Xavier's telepathy. The original cartoon was made before the movies made that a thing. In '97, his helmet does have this attribute, likely the result of an upgrade.
• Character Development: Magneto starts off as an antagonist who seeks to start an all out war with with humanity and dismisses the X-Men as fools, but as the series goes on, Magneto grows to respect the efforts of Charles and his team, even if he thinks co-existence between mutants and humans is still impossible, and switches his priorities to finding a safe haven for mutantkind.
• Characterization Marches On: He attempted to instigate a nuclear war in his debut appearance but would go on to openly abhor such extreme methods in later episodes. Granted, Xavier had been forced to subdue him by forcing him to relive his horrible childhood during said debut, so he likely had a Heel Realization, but the contrast is still quite jarring.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: His response to Wolverine skewering him In the Back during "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 2", is to viciously rip out the adamantium in his body in as slow and agonizing a way as possible while fragrantly ignoring Xavier's cries for mercy on him.
• Composite Character: Starting a trend that Ultimate X-Men (2001) and X-Men: First Class would follow, the "Sanctuary" two-parter states that Magneto is the one to cripple Xavier instead of an alien named Lucifer.
• Compressed Hair: On the occasions he actually takes off that helmet, he's got a magnificent mane under there.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Magneto dominates the X-Men in their first two encounters. They only survive the first because he lets them live, and he is only stopped in the second because of a Mind Rape from Xavier.
  • Their third battle in "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 2" is the worst yet as he's reached the end of his patience and goes from simply trying to incapacitate or restrain them to actively trying to murder them, including Charles. To say nothing of him yanking Wolverine's adamantium off of his skeleton.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Namely, not knowing his children even existed. If he had, he swears he would've done something sooner.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His flashback in "Deadly Reunions" shows him stuck in the middle of a warzone, with his father implied to have been outright killed and enemy soldiers soon capturing him. He later talks to Senator Kelly in "The Final Decision" about having witnessed the executions of men, women, and children.
• Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally, usually at Wolverine's expense.
• Determinator: In "Sanctuary", he seems to restore himself from being discorporated on sheer willpower.
• Disc-One Final Boss: After almost totally dismantling Bastion's operation and enacting his own doomsday plan in the penultimate episode of '97 season one, the opening of the finale sees Xavier hijack his mind and forcibly disable his machinations in no short order, allowing Bastion to quickly retake the role of main villain.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Magneto is Brought Down to Normal while he and Xavier are trapped in the Savage Land thanks to Mr. Sinister's Power Nullifier. This keeps Magneto from single handedly defeating Sinister and the Nasty Boys like he previously did to the X-Men.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • His debut in "Enter Magneto" portrays him as a villain, as do the opening credits. Pretty much all subsequent appearances have him more or less a good guy.
  • Unlike other iterations of Magneto, his helmet doesn't have a Psychic Block Defense. In their encounter, Xavier forces him to relive his painful childhood memories with his helmet on. Unless he got a new one made to defend against psychics.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Magneto still considers Xavier a friend despite their differing views. When asked if he loves Xavier, he takes offense that someone would even feel the need to ask such a question. Although that may no longer be the case as of "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 2".
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • In "Beyond Good and Evil" where he only cooperated with Apocalypse thinking he would help create his utopia for mutantkind. Once he confirmed Apocalypse never cared to make a mutant paradise but rather planned to destroy the universe in order to remake it into his image, Magneto rebelled. He expressed disgust at Apocalypse's genocidal plans.
    Magneto: I call no one master! Especially not someone who would destroy the innocent along with the guilty!
  • In "Sanctuary" Magneto keeps an arsenal of nuclear missiles on his asteroid base but only keeps them as a weapon to deter aggression. He does not approve of Cortez firing them without provocation.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Believes that Xavier wouldn't dare try to hijack his mind to use his magnetic powers to save the world in "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 3" since that he'd be risking his very own life with such a titanic effort all for the salvation of a humanity that hates and fears him. Xavier dares.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Courtesy of David Hemblen. Matthew Waterson replicates it quite admirably in '97, though it's more of a Baritone of Strength, as he's pulled a Heel–Face Turn.
• Evilutionary Biologist: At some point in the past, he did a little tampering in God's domain down in the Savage Land, creating the Mutates. This gives Sinister an extra bit of muscle later on.
• Final Boss: His efforts to start a war with humanity in the wake of the attack on Xavier make him the main antagonist for the finale of the original series.
• Freudian Excuse: The atrocities that befell his people motivate his desire to rally mutantkind for what he considers an inevitable war with normal humans. He believes that Xavier's dream of co-existence is idealistic nonsense, saying he witnessed his people attempt diplomacy in the face of an unmerciful enemy and suffer for it.
• Friendly Enemy: Consistently demonstrates respect for Xavier and considers him his equal. On those rare occasions he resorts to physical violence against him, he's an Apologetic Attacker and takes no pleasure in possibly eliminating the biggest obstacle to his agenda. He finally calls it quits in "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 2", as Xavier's refusal to agree with his views for mutantkind after the massacre in Genosha has him flat out call Xavier a traitor to his race and swear him off completely, with even an intent to seemingly kill him after Xavier tries to Mind Control him into restoring the Earth's magnetic field.
• Good Costume Switch: In '97, he discards the red and purple outfit for a purple number with an "m" going from the chest down to the legs, only to switch back to his classic outfit once he returns to his villainous ways.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • The First-Episode Twist of '97 sees Professor X bequeath command of the X-Men to his old friend Magneto. He comes off as sincere in his desire to uphold Charles' legacy, but only time will tell how it all pans out... and tragically, it doesn't, as Bastion's atrocities spurn Magneto to resume his plans for war.
  • After Xavier is forced to shatter Magneto's psyche to stop him from destroying mankind, he stays in his broken mind to help him recover his identity and memories. In the process he manages to talk Magneto around to trusting in their shared dream again and returning to his heroic disposition.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: He is mentioned as being an opponent of the original X-Men, and resurfaces to challenge the 90's lineup early in the first season. He defeats them but is forced to retreat after an encounter with Professor X has him developing a Heel Realization. A potential rematch with the X-Men is interrupted when he is attacked by Sentinels. The X-Men opt to save him, and Magneto returns the favor by helping them destroy Master Mold. From season 2 onward he is generally depicted as an ally of the X-Men, teaming with them against threats such as Mr. Sinister, Apocalypse, and the Phalanx. By the finale "Graduation Day" it appears that he may become a villain again - an assassination attempt on Professor X has outraged him to the point that he is prepared to declare war on humanity - but he ultimately opts help the X-Men save his old friend. When the Professor retires to Sh'iar to heal from his injuries, Magneto is bequeathed leadership of the X-Men, a role he has for the first half of '97. While somewhat rough around the edges, he enjoys being a hero and seeing Genosha^note depicted very similarly to Krakoa gives him hope that peace between humans and mutants may indeed become a reality in his lifetime. When this hope is violently crushed he is pushed past his Rage Breaking Point and becomes a villain again... until "Tolerance is Extinction Pt. 3", where after Xavier is forced to break his mind to stop him and then subsequently helps Magneto recover and rediscover himself with more confidence in his found family, whereupon Magneto firmly returns to his heroic disposition by stopping the collapsing Asteroid M of his own volition.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Notably discards his helmet on joining the X-Men, as a symbol of his reformation. He dons it once more, along with the rest of his traditional costume, after the Genosha massacre and Bastion's other atrocities against mutantkind lead him to resume his war on humanity.
• Hero with an F in Good: Even when he's trying to do right by Charles' dream, he's still pretty aggressive and temperamental, even if not without cause. At the very least, if not an "F" then at most a bare pass. Ultimately it's a fail for him since even the Genosha tragedy wasn't enough to get Charles and (most of) the X-Men to swear off defending humanity.
• I Owe You My Life: The X-Men found him Left for Dead by the Sentinels and brought him back to the mansion to receive medical treatment. When the team later headed out to save Senator Kelly from Master Mold, Magneto ended up joining them and saved Xavier's life to repay the debt.
• It's Personal: He has no regard for any of the more dangerous villains on the show, but Mr. Sinister is someone he deeply loathes following being one of his guinea pigs.
• The Killjoy: Not without justification, but he's against Jubilee going to the mall on her birthday, instead insisting she go through the Danger Room instead.
• Large Ham: Prone to making some grandiose speeches. His dressing down of the United Nations judge panel in X-Men '97 is so grand he even does it at high altitude to sell it harder.
• The Lost Lenore: He drove Magda away with the use of his powers, and has spent the two-and-a-bit decades since scouring the Earth for some sign, any sign of her. He's pretty heartbroken to learn she's dead.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He and the Maximoffs are quite surprised to learn he's their father. More awkward since the High Evolutionary fills them in while they're his captives, not giving them the chance to talk it out.
• Madden Into Misanthropy: The Genosha massacre destroys what little hope Magento had of tolerance for mutants leading him to shut off Earth's magnetosphere to wipe out mankind and raise Asteroid M from the ocean to once again act as a safe harbor for mutantkind. This even extends to fellow mutants who side with humanity, as the moment Xavier and the X-Men stand their ground against him on Asteroid M, he considers them all traitors to their race and actively attempts to kill them.
• May–December Romance: He used to have something going on with Rogue and they apparently still have feelings for each other.
• Noble Demon: Even at his most antagonistic, Magneto is this. He genuinely wants to protect mutantkind from having to go through what he experienced during his childhood. Xavier notes in "Come the Apocalypse" that Magneto, for all his faults, can be reasoned with. This sets Magneto apart from the likes of Apocalypse, Sabretooth, and Mr. Sinister, all of whom he dislikes for their practices. Him finally swearing this off come "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 2" with threatening the entire existence of the Earth after being pushed well past his Rage Breaking Point is ultimately what makes him so dangerous in the finale of '97, as he can no longer be reasoned with, period.
• No Place for Me There: Discussed in "Remember It".
  Magneto: We were at a bar in Germany when he first mentioned his dream. I laughed at him. Was he sentimental or suicidal? Both earn an early grave. He did that smile of his, that annoying secret smile: "Magneto, any dream worth having is a dream worth dying for". We thought we'd perish before seeing the day when humanity accepted our people, like Moses and the Promised Land - we would carry the dream, but never live it.
• No-Sell:
  • Learns this the hard way during his first encounter with the Sentinels. Once the authorities became aware of him, they produced a line of Sentinels made of plastic materials, making it impossible for his magnetic powers to simply dispose of them.
  • His control over electromagnetic fields makes him immune to some of the X-Men's powers: Storm's control of lightning does nothing to him since it's an electromagnetic force, while the field he generates protects him from Rogue's draining touch, a fact that led to them forming a relationship years ago as revealed in '97.
• Offstage Villainy: Magneto is mentioned to have committed some serious crimes, and a rampage across the Savage Land that has left the locals absolutely pissed at him, but most of his worst deeds are kept offscreen or merely mentioned.
• Original Position Fallacy: Sums up his philosophy on human and mutant kind race relations near the end of the first season of '97, that it is preferable to use "tanks" rather than "reason" to get what you want. As a mutant blessed with powers that could allow him to lay waste to human civilization in a moment, Magneto sees himself as who often has the most "tanks" and is thus someone to be feared and appeased. Shortly after he says this to Xavier, Charles reminds him how terrifying it can be when that isn't the case, leaving Erik shocked and frightened as his mind is taken over and his own pleas for mercy being ignored.
• Papa Wolf:
  • What convinces him to snap out of his post-Asteroid M funk? Learning the Phalanx abducted Pietro.
  • While rebuking Xavier's dream for the umpteenth time in "Tolerance is Extinction, Part 2", he specifically and graphically points out Leech's final moments, having to watch the young Morlock be vaporized before his eyes even as he did his best to protect and comfort him during the Sentinel assault on Genosha, and furiously declares that he won't watch another young mutant suffer the same fate even if it means personally driving all of humanity into extinction.
• Properly Paranoid: As their team-up falls apart, Magneto reveals he knew Apocalypse would try to kill him once he was no longer needed. He cut a deal with Mystique to turn the tables and simply bided his time to learn the true extent of Apocalypse's plan.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: The general gist of his interactions with Professor X and the X-Men.
• Silent Treatment: He gives this to Valerie Cooper who was in league with Bastion the whole time as she tries to apologize to him and didn't know the full extent of his plans. Even when she eventually released him and left her to suffer the consequences.
• Superpower Lottery: Despite some Weaksauce Weakness in plastics and other synthetic materials, his magnetic powers let him do more than just manipulate metal as he can fly, create shields, and even use the planet's electromagnetic field to heal himself. Because of this, he's one of the most powerful mutants in the world with his only competition being powerful psychics like Xavier or god-like beings like Apocalypse.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: After trying so hard to redeem himself to follow Xavier's hopes for him, witnessing all the horror as a result of the Genosha massacre and Bastion ceaselessly torturing him with the extinction of mutantkind for his own amusement finally has Magneto just snap and be done with mankind for good, showing for the first time just how powerful he is as an Omega-level mutant by just... shutting off the entire planet with a massive EMP field, immediately superseding Bastion as the bigger threat as he declares war against all of mankind.
• Uncertain Doom: At the end of "Remember It" in X-Men '97, Magneto is shown caught in the explosion along with the Morlocks he's attempting to protect. In episode 7 we find out he survived, but he's captured by Bastion.
• Villain Has a Point: This has always been a big part of Magneto's character. While he respects and understands Xavier's point of view, humanity's bigotry both big and small scale does nothing but prove him right time and again. In X-Men '97, he even points out the countless efforts that the X-Men have made for humanity, even saving humans from himself, but they are still met with criticism and hatred...and gesturing to their "reward", as Storm breaks down in tears after her powers have been ripped away by an attack from the X-Cutioner. After the Genosha Massacre, some of the X-Men like Cyclops and Beast start to openly doubt Xavier's dream of peace between humans and mutants, with the former even wondering if Magneto was right all along. And getting captured and tortured by Bastion is the final straw that leads Magneto to declare war on humanity. Even Val Cooper, a human and former mole for Bastion, comes to understand Magneto's "truth": humans will never abandon their hatred and bigotry.
  Val Cooper: You know, in Genosha I felt a lot of things: Pain, grief, admiration for those who fought despite the odds. But you know what the oddest thing was? No one seemed shocked or surprised. Not even me. Yes, I was scared, but really, I had the most profound sense of Deja Vu. As if past, present, and future didn't matter and never had because we always end up in the same ugly place. Thing is, Magneto knows us better than Charles ever did. Knows we know better. That most of us experience tragedies like Genosha as a bit of Deja Vu before getting on with our day. But the scariest thing about Genosha wasn't the death or the chaos. It was a thought. The only sane thought you can have when being chased by giant robots that were built to crush you: Magneto was right.
• Villain Respect: Outright refers to Xavier as a great man and his equal.
• The Worf Effect: Once Magneto joins the X-Men, he is one of the most powerful members. (Only Storm is his equal, which he tacitly acknowledges.) And at least twice, we see enemies prove their power by defeating him. This is to show the threat of the villains.
• You Are What You Hate: Struggles with not succumbing to the egotism and blanket bigotry comparable to those of his Nazi oppressors as he fights for mutant rights and survival. Deep in his mind, he even uses terms like "genetic inferiors" without a hint of irony or self-awareness during the first season finale of X-Men '97 when the subject of humanity comes up and why he thinks it is just for him to commit genocide against them.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Though widely condemned as a mutant terrorist by assorted governments and having an (at best) complicated relationship with the X-Men, Magneto is positively beloved by most mutants for his efforts to protect them from bigoted humans. The "Sanctuary" two-parter and "Graduation Day" demonstrate that an army's worth of mutants would do whatever he asked out of pure appreciation.

Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler / Kurt Wagner

Voiced by: Adrian Hough, Humberto Solórzano (Latin American dub)

A circus performer turned monk.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Downplayed; X-Men '97 gives him a gentler-looking face and a messier hairstyle than in the original series.
• All-Loving Hero: He's willing to forgive Mystique for abandoning him when he was an infant and even said he feels sorry for her. He also tries to reason with his half-brother Graydon Creed, who loathes mutants.
• Ascended Extra: In the original show, Nightcrawler served as a side character who occasionally showed up for important storylines but ultimately remained out of the spotlight for most of the original run. X-Men '97 on the other hand promotes him to a part of the main cast after Gambit's death, even replacing him in parts of the opening credits.
• Cain and Abel: Finds himself the Abel to Graydon Creed's Cain after learning Mystique is the mother of both of them. All his attempts to reason with Graydon fail miserably, and he's lucky to escape with his life.
  Nightcrawler: God help you, Brother.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: He is the idealist to Wolverine's cynic, having a firm belief in God and an unfailing ability to find the silver lining to various situations.
  Wolverine: Man, I don't get you.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He notes how, outside of a circus setting, his demonic look made him hated and feared by those who saw him.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The villagers knew nothing of mutants and thought he was a literal demon rather than a devout Christian.
• Dual Wielding: Kurt has an affinity for swords and fences with two at once in his X-Men '97 character title card. In "Tolerance is Extinction", he triple wields; one sword in each hand, plus a third in his Prehensile Tail.
• Foil: He feels a kinship with Wolverine, due to them both having a Dark and Troubled Past that made them angry at the world.
  Nightcrawler: My anger drove me to find God; yours drove you away.
• Freudian Excuse: He says his anger at the world over being hated and feared is what led him to find God.
• Happily Adopted: He speaks fondly of the people who found and raised him, and gladly accepts Rogue as his sister.
• The Heart: He quickly takes this role when he joins the X-Men.
• Master Swordsman: He's incredibly skilled with blades, able to use three at the same time (one in each hand and one carried by his Prehensile Tail) to basically become a graceful whirlwind of death.
• Nice Guy: He's kind to all and sees everyone as worthy of a chance. While like Rogue and Magneto he's at ground zero for the Genosha massacre, unlike them he doesn't go off the deep end in the name of revenge.
• Odd Friendship: With Wolverine.
• Religious Bruiser: He's a practicing Christian who presides over Gambit's funeral and says a prayer to the big man upstairs before heading off to the final battle in the first season of '97.
• Shipper on Deck: When they arrive on Genosha Kurt advices Remy to simply do away with the drama and marry Rogue.
• Sixth Ranger: For '97, only joining the X-Men after the Wham Episode.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Unlike their run-in in the comics, Nightcrawler survives Bastion's machinations this time around. Although that's mostly because Gambit is Killed Off for Real instead during the Genosha massacre that Bastion sets in motion.
• Teleport Spam: Even when he's not in combat, Kurt is remarkably casual about his teleporting when he's around people he trusts. When he speaks to Gambit in "Remember It", he randomly teleports from one side to another.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: While still devout and kindhearted, he is noticeably more bubbly and carefree when he returns in X-Men '97.

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