Gambit Is Officially Back in X-Men ’97, Setting Up the Apocalypse Story We’ve Been Longing to See

Warning. This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 Season 2, episode 6. Death has always been a revolving door in superhero stories, so nobody really expected X-Men ’97 to keep Gambit dead. The Ragin’ Cajun died on Genosha in Season 1, sacrificing himself to destroy a rampaging Sentinel before it could continue its attempted genocide. But most viewers quickly guessed it was only going to be temporary, because Season 2 is all about Apocalypse – a villain who (in)famously turned Gambit into one of his Horsemen, Death.

Oddly enough, this isn’t actually one of the more popular comic book stories. Sure, Gambit as Death has a cool aesthetic, but the comics largely failed to make it work; but that perhaps explains why Marvel’s revisiting it now. X-Men ’97 is trying to fix controversial and failed comic book stories, drawing on Marvel Comics’ misses as well as their hits. Now, at last, we’re moving to the story everybody’s been wanting to see. Gambit is back, and the implications are staggering.

Apocalypse Has Resurrected Gambit As His Horseman

X-Men ’97 is all about Apocalypse; his beginning, and his end. We’ve already seen Apocalypse’s origin, courtesy of a group of time-lost X-Men stranded in ancient Egypt. But another team of X-Men wound up stuck in a future timeline too, transported to the Atlantic Basin in 3,960 AD. This is the height of Apocalypse’s power, a dystopian future that he rules; but the ageing Apocalypse is weakening now, and he’s considering ways to lengthen his near-immortal life by transporting his essence into a new host. This weakened Apocalypse recognizes the X-Men as a threat, and travels back to the ’90s.

Oddly, he does this because there seems to be a sort of time loop in the works. According to Apocalypse, the ’90s are the time when the X-Men were at their weakest – but that’s actually because the mutant heroes were torn out of time, leaving their world relatively undefended. New mutant groups like X-Factor and X-Force are attempting to honor the X-Men in their own confused ways, while anti-mutant forces rise unchecked across the globe. The X-Men have actually been outlawed, likely possible in part because Professor X wasn’t there to fight against it.

X-Men ’97 Season 2 hasn’t exactly been subtle about Apocalypse’s strategy. We already know the time traveling Apocalypse has picked up a casket lined with purple fabric – pretty obvious setup for the Gambit resurrection plot. Now, finally, Apocalypse’s plans have come to fruition and he has indeed resurrected Gambit as Death, a Horseman who will naturally shake the divided X-Men to their core. But could it mean even more than that?

Will Gambit Be the New Death – Or Something Far Worse?

X-Men ’97 could now easily go in two different directions. In the first, and most obvious, Apocalypse unveils Gambit as his new Death – a terrifying Horseman who would leave the X-Men heartbroken. Gambit-as-Death would draw their focus away from Apocalypse himself, giving him room to maneuver and put other plans into action. That alone would be a fantastic twist, and frankly so much more effective than the comics – where Gambit basically became Death because he was in a funk. X-Men comics have always been superhero soap opera, and this one wasn’t particularly effective.

But there is another possibility. X-Men ’97 Season 2 is drawing on multiple different Apocalypse stories, including some of the worst; “The Twelve” being a case in point. A time travel story, this scattered the X-Men across timelines and dimensions while Apocalypse sought a new host. He wound up possessing Cyclops of all people, only for Jean Grey to manage to drive Apocalypse out. You can easily see where I’m going here; it’s entirely possible Apocalypse will take the resurrected Gambit as his new host, setting up even more tragedy for the X-Men.

Nobody will be surprised to see Gambit’s resurrection. It’s been theorized since the moment X-Men ’97 Season 1 teased Apocalypse going to Genosha, simply because Gambit-as-Death is a well-known twist and it made sense for a superhero soap opera. That said, not every story has to be unpredictable to make it work; the idea is attractive because of the emotion invested in it, and – as I’ve just noted – there can still be surprise even now. Whatever route X-Men ’97 takes, it’s sure to be a powerful one, setting up some of the darkest X-Men stories we’ve ever seen on TV.

The first six episodes of X-Men ’97 are streaming now on Disney+, and new episodes will be released weekly. Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!