‘X-Men ‘97’ Episode 4: Mojo, The Adversary, and Other Deep Cut Easter Eggs

X-Men ’97 keeps the hits coming with a brand new episode on Disney+ — and this week’s action-packed adventure delivered 16-bit action! And as if seeing Jubilee punch her way through a few levels of mayhem, “Motendo/Lifedeath – Part 1” also includes the first part of a major turning point in the life of Storm. Actually, if you know who the Adversary is, then you know this is probably a major turning point in the lives (and deaths?!) of every X-Man. Oh — and Forge? Don’t think you’re off the hook just yet! We trusted you!

Can’t get enough of the X-Men after watching Episode 4? You’re in luck, because there are a lot of deep cut references to unpack. And if you still have your old gaming systems plugged in, you’ll definitely want to turn ’em on and get to side-scrolling. The nostalgia is real in “Motendo,” and the feelings are raw in “Lifedeath – Part 1.”

Below you will find a whole bunch of X-Men Easter eggs from Episode 4, “Motendo/Lifedeath – Part 1.” SPOILER warning, obviously, but you knew that! What are you waiting for? Our deep dish — I mean deep dive into X-Men ’97 Episode 3 awaits you!

1. The Opening Credits

   X-Men ’97’s opening credits continue to be packed with Easter eggs that keep the show ridiculously up-to-date. For example, Episodes 1-3 featured Jean Grey with her hair down and Episode 4 switches to Ponytail Jean. Why? Because the Jean in Episodes 1-3 was actually a clone.

   And then there are the re-animated moments from the previous animated series. These credits include shout outs to…

   Jubilee saving Longshot from Mojo (3×10, “Longshot”)

   Polaris holding Havok after the X-Men’s skirmish with X-Factor (3×11, “Cold Comfort”)

   … and Professor Xavier being mentally shut out by Emma Frost (3×15, “The Dark Phoenix, Part II: The Inner Circle”)

2. Days of Video Games Past

   When Jubilee and Sunspot find themselves dropped into a deadly Motendo game, they immediately reenact one of the most famous X-Men covers of all time: X-Men #141, the first part of “Days of Future Past.” If you see two mutants backed up against a wall with a massive wanted poster on it, you know things are about to get serious.

3. Konami Flashback

   You can’t talk about ’90s X-Men without talking about Konami blockbuster 1992 arcade game. While the side-scroller pulled designs from ’80s X-Men comics (and the failed “Pryde of the X-Men” animated pilot), it was inextricably part of the ’90s X-experience. Of course X-Men ’97 was gonna pull elements from the arcade game, and those elements include three level designs:

   LEVEL 1: CITY

   LEVEL 3: ISLAND M JUNGLE

   LEVEL 8: BATTLE WITH MAGNETO

   The only problem: Magneto did not say “Welcome to die!” Honestly, X-Men ’97 is lucky that it’s so packed with X-Men references that I can overlook what should be a glaring error.

4. Abscissa

   During their jaunt through Mojoworld’s hottest video game, Jubilee and Roberto are aided by a mysterious player dressed like the lead character of what I’d call Tim Burton’s Hellraiser. It turns out that this is the last surviving beta tester for Mojo’s deadly game, an alternate reality version of Jubilee herself.

   In the comics, the Abscissa variant of Jubilee debuted in 1992’s Wolverine #52. She was held captive as Mojo’s slave in return for Mojo not, uh, destroying all reality. Abscissa hasn’t been seen since Wolverine #53, though, because her timeline was destroyed when our Jubilee refused to serve Mojo.

   And an Easter egg in an Easter egg: Abscissa is voiced by Alyson Court, the original voice actor for Jubilee (and Jubilee is now voiced by Holly Chou).

5. Meet the Adversary

   Well, this certainly doesn’t look good — ! First Storm loses her powers. Then she finds out that the guy who promised to help her actually developed the tech that robbed her of said powers. And on top of all that, the guy’s ranch is apparently haunted by a giant, half-owl, half-Rancor creature that wants to destroy Storm. This creatures is ominously named the Adversary — which, you gotta give it to the guy for being up front about his motives. He’s the Adversary!

   This is a big deal, because the Adversary is pretty much the only villain to succeed in killing all of the X-Men. An ancient trickster god feared by the Cheyenne, the Adversary sought to destroy all of reality and build a new one instead — one modeled after his own chaos dimension. Forge, it turns out, was raised to practice and wield magic as a shaman, magic that would defeat the Adversary. Forge turned his back on his people, though, and enlisted in the Army, eventually finding his way to working as a defense contractor for the government. When the Adversary ultimately made his play for our reality, the X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Rogue, Havok, Psylocke, Longshot, Dazzler, and Madelyne Pryor) willingly sacrificed their lives to provide Forge with the energy needed to shut the Adversary out of our realm. This happened in Uncanny X-Men #225-227, by the way, and it is a very good story.

   What does this mean for our X-Men in the year 1997? Uh… it probably doesn’t mean anything good!

6. X-TRA FACTS

   This episode includes a flashback to the Season 1 X-Men episode “Slave Island,” where Jubilee was held captive on Genosha along with Storm and Gambit. And like that episode, “Motendo/Lifedeath” includes a moment where Storm is locked in a confined space, thus triggering her claustrophobia (a cell in “Slave Island” and Forge’s power-giver machine thing in “Lifedeath”).

   The Motendo cartridge that Jubilee finds in her not-a-Sega features artwork that mashes up the art for the 1993 X-Men Sega Genesis game and the 1994 X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse game for Super Nintendo.

   The player select screen for the Motendo game “Rise of Jubilee” includes Jubilee, Colossus, Roberto, Magik, Longshot, and Cable.

   And lastly, after learning the lesson of the episode, Jubilee says, “Magneto was right.” That’s a line that has been used quite frequently since Quentin Quire wore it on a t-shirt in a 2003 issue of New X-Men.