Nightmare Fuel / X-Men '97

Moment pages never use spoiler tagging — so beware of unmarked spoilers

---

"Most refer to me as Mister Sinister. But you can call me Father."

In General:

• The intro has Morph surrounded by wisps of black smoke as we hear haunting laughter from a disembodied Mr. Sinister.

Episodes:

To Me, My X-Men

• The Friends of Humanity kidnap Roberto Da Costa with intent to sell him to someone who they think performs experiments on mutants. Roberto, who is the heir of a tycoon, offers to pay the ransom of his abduction... to which they laugh. He is a mutant and they want him to suffer and die; the trafficking being a means to get money is a literal bonus. Thankfully, the X-Men arrive just in time.
• The hastily-built Sentinels give an eerie impression of being akin to giant robotic zombies, as if they weren't already scary enough.
• Gyrich is much more composed and stoic than he was than the raving fanatic he was in "Graduation Day", but he's still insanely creepy. He icily tells Storm and Cyclops that the recent sympathy to mutants is merely a fad, and calmly states that mutants must not be accepted, but be exterminated entirely to prevent them from replacing humanity. The similarity to the Great Replacement theory and Gyrich's coldness is chilling.
  Gyrich: Tolerance is extinction.

Mutant Liberation Begins

• The Friends of Humanity's raid on the courthouse where Magneto is standing trial.

Fire Made Flesh

• Jean Grey discovering that she's actually Madelyne Pryor, and that all the times she has shared with the X-Men, including Scott and her son Nathan, were all machinations of a cruel and despicable man. Imagine living your life as normal (as far as normal for being a mutant goes at least) and you've just had your first child and have big plans to start a new life... only to discover it was never your life to begin with.
• Jean/Madelyne hushing young Nathan in the quiet dark of the bedroom, only for a very creepy voice to suddenly and tantalizingly call to her on the baby monitor, akin to a very scary scene from Paranormal Activity. And the one making those sounds on the monitor...
• Mister Sinister. Already one of the creepiest Marvel villains, the series reminds us exactly why he is so hated and feared. His voice drips with malice and an eerie, monstrous charm that honestly sounds like a demon enticing mortals into making a deadly pact (and his horrifying Slasher Smile, complete with shark-like teeth, helps sell this). His speech towards Jean/Madelyne is also dripping with truly horrific undertones that is sure to send chills down your spine. The animators and Chris Britton did an incredible job with his opening scene.
  • Vocal Evolution plays a huge part in just how much more of a menace Sinister is now compared to the original series. Back then, Sinister was a Cold Ham who stole every scene he appeared in. With the Darker and Edgier tone of '97, his more dramatic manner of speech is dialed back considerably, to such an extent where it's almost no longer present. This makes Sinister come off as much more as a Soft-Spoken Sadist who relishes in tormenting those he manipulates like puppets, making him much more reflective of his visage - a demon.
  • When his procedure to infuse the techno-organic virus into baby Nathan is thwarted by Cyclops and Goblin Queen's timely intervention, Sinister gives a haunting recitation of the lyrics to "Ladybird" to let them know just how much they've screwed things up by interrupting the process.
    Ladybird, ladybird. Fly away home. Your house is on fire. And your child long gone.
• Mixed with a little bit of Awesome, but the illusions projected by Jean/Madelyne, now possessed by Sinister, are absolutely terrifying. The animation serves only to make it even more nightmarish.
  • Jubilee and Sunspot are sat together watching television, before a haunting voice mimics what the TV character is saying, and said character turns and looks at them with a smile that screams ill intent. Both of them are immediately alarmed... and then the character taps on the screen and crashes through it, turning into a grotesque malformation of flesh that crawls like Sadako through the television. It's also made worse that the creature also takes the face of Roberto's mother all while shouting that he was no son of hers.
  • Gambit wonders about Magneto and Rogue and goes to look for them, finding them in a passionate embrace, with Rogue mockingly telling him she's found a real man. Not only is this very cruel and unnerving, but their embrace is so tight, that their flesh begins to melt into each other. Gambit is left rather scarred by it, even with the knowledge it wasn't real.
  • Morph sees Logan in the shower and jokingly offers to help him wash, only for the distorted and familiar voice to reply, with his distorted figure obscured by the steam of the showers. When they realize who it is, the Oh, Crap! face they have speaks volumes about their experiences with the man. Then he leaps out from the steam and attacks Morph like a feral animal.
    • Morph's subsequent reaction is equally terrifying: they genuinely appears to believe that they and the other X-Men are in Hell. It goes a long way to selling their abject, gibbering terror in the face of Sinister, and their continuing trauma response to the man who broke them. Interestingly their comment seems to give Sinister/Madelyn-as-Goblin-Queen some inspiration, as the illusions immediate kick up a notch from 'nightmareish' to 'the team literally is sucked into a fire and brimstone pit and assaulted by demons'.

Motendo/Lifedeath - Part 1

• The Owl Demon thing that attacks Storm and Forge at the end of the episode. What is it and why is it attacking them? Whatever it is, it's dangerous as it easily wounds Forge and captures Storm.

Remember It

• An army of Sentinels led by the Tri-Sentinel attack Genosha, killing countless mutants and knocking out Rogue. When Rogue comes to, Gambit is telling her about an elite sentinel that seems impervious to damage and is extremely powerful. Magneto fights it and fails to defeat it, seemingly dying while trying to protect the Morlocks.
  • It can not be overstated how much of a massacre it is. Numerous innocent mutants are obliterated on the spot as the X-Men present (Gambit, Rogue, and Magneto) try and sadly fail to save as many as they can.
• The Tri-Sentinel itself goes for maximum creepy design as well. Three giant Sentinel heads with gaping maws that fire massive killing lasers, and can spin a full 360 degrees far too fast for something so massive, mounted on a bulbous body supported by insect-like legs, means it ends up looking for all the world like a giant, three-headed cockroach.
• Gambit attacks the Tri-Sentinel and is impaled through the side with a cable. We don't see the impact but we do see the Sentinel drag him around and suspend him in front of its face just by the cable in him.
• The other X-Men get the news through a television report, seeing Genosha in ruins and on fire. All of them are utterly horrified, but Beast takes it especially hard. The episode ends with Rogue crying over Gambit's body.

Lifedeath - Part 2

• Deathbird threatening to have Ronan's men executed by the Imperial Guard right in front of him to extort information out of him. She receives a message about her sister's wedding before we see anything else...
• The Adversary proves to be one of the most bone-chilling enemies Storm had to deal with, not only trying to Break Her By Talking, but playing on her claustrophobia — both in an illusory coffin, then later in a tight cave containing the cure to Forge's infection.
• Xavier's vision of coming danger takes the illusory form of a giant Gambit — who had just died — turning into a Sentinel-like gigantic skeleton and letting loose an energy blast just like the Tri-Sentinel did, incinerating Charles.
• In the end we see Bolivar Trask terrified of the orchestrator of the one whom he helped commit mass genocide on Genosha: Mister Sinister.
  • And Sinister tells Trask that what happened in Genosha is only the beginning of his plan.

Bright Eyes

• Bastion makes his presence known in this episode and does it in the most horrifying manner yet.
  • When we first see him, he talks to a manhandled Gyrich … then proceeds to smother him to death with his bare hands.
  • He ends the episode creepily shaving the captured and power-dampened Magneto all to the tune of "Flying Purple People-Eater" and X-Fans know who that is. Ladies and gentlemen, Tolerance is Extinction? OZT? "Operation: Zero Tolerance".
  • Magneto is used to being in control of the situation. When Bastion shaves him, he looks genuinely unnerved.
• Rogue focusing her rage and grief over Remy and Magneto's deaths by finding Bolivar Trask. It's a harsh reminder as to how powerful she actually is.
  • First person on her list is Thunderbolt Ross, who's hiding in a bunker designed to keep The Incredible Hulk out. She still breaks in effortlessly after giving a vicious Curb-Stomp Battle to his forces..
  • She's more patient with Captain America (mostly), but as strong as he is, he's not as strong as her. He should be glad she just threw his shield into the mountains and left without a fight.
  • She uses her power on Henry Gyrich, forcibly absorbing his memories into her, and it is not a pretty sight to behold regardless of how much he deserves it.
    Gyrich: Tell Summers his wife's cute psychic prides won't work this time. Not against this. Not against him.
    Rogue: Honey, this ain't that sort of probe! (As Gyrich screams while Rogue clutches his face) Quit fighting me!
  • When the team finds him, he's on the verge of suicide, sick with guilt over his actions. He jumps off the building, but Rogue catches him by his collar and questions him some more. Then ...
    Rogue: (Smiling) What else can you tell us? Anything helps.
    Bolivar Trask: I'm sorry ... I-I have nothing.
    Rogue: ...Same, sugar. (Lets go)
  • Below the building, you can hear Trask's body landing on a car and the horrified cries of pedestrians. As Rogue looks down with a cold Death Glare.
  • What's even more frightening, is that nobody else on the team even moves to save him. Scott, Kurt, and Morph are horrified, but Logan curtly says that Rogue just did "what we all wanted to do", not even surprised that someone else on the team actually did it. After the events of Genosha, it seems the X-Men are falling more in line with Magneto's way of thinking, in that even mere "tolerance" is too much to hope from humanity.
    Morph: [Gasps] Is this who we are now...?
• Trask has been turned into a Prime Sentinel; a pale, sickly-looking man-machine that easily kicks the X-Men’s asses.
  • While Rogue is making a justifying rant for her murder of Trask, something flies up and punches her with enough force to decimate half of the building with uttering "Terminate mutants". When the X-Men recover, they see Trask floating in the air facing away from them, then turning his head 180 degrees towards their direction before the rest of his body follows. Making creaking noises that should be bones, but sound more like circuitry.
    Cyclops: What in the name of all heaven...?
  • The Sentinel acts completely robotic for most of the fight, appearing to merely be a machine carrying out its programming. Then suddenly it proves to be a sadistic man-machine, as it pins Cyclops' face to the ground with a smile.
  Prime Sentinel: Do you remember what my inferior form asked you in the Sahara? Tell me, orphan. How does it feel to be abandoned by the future?
• Bastion reveals to Sinister that he hijacked an alien satellite and discovered Charles Xavier not dead but at the Shi'ar Empire through a footage of Empress Lilandra's official declaration. Bastion intends to release that footage to the world, which would have terrible consequences for the X-Men, especially when Charles Xavier is heading home to Earth after sensing the death of Gambit and many other mutants.