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Weapon X? How 'X-Men '97’ Reboots Wolverine’s Wild Team 23%
By Lyvie Scott42%
7/15/2026, 11:00:24 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 25 faulty reasoning types, including Post Hoc (False Cause), Negativity Bias, and Ambiguity (Equivocation), with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 52.7% saturation with 539 hits. Analysis detected 1,798 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,022 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 36.2% and a BS Rank of 23% (12,288 of 15,881 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 77.40% of the article peer group.
Disney+/Marvel The final episodes of X-Men ’97 Season 1 seemed to tease a handful of deep-cut developments from the comics.
The titular team is once again forced to face off against Magneto, and the casualties are great: the metalbending villain strips Wolverine’s adamantium coating from his skeleton, and Professor X eventually retaliates by unleashing a psychic attack on his old friend.
Those two developments trigger two specific (and polarizing) events in the comics, but as close as X-Men ’97 might get to the rise of Feral Wolverine or Onslaught , the animated series continues to subvert expectations in the wildest possible ways.
Spoilers ahead for X-Men ’97 Episode 5, “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs.”
In Season 2, there’s still a chance that Professor X will merge with whatever’s left of the dearly departed Magneto to create the psychic entity known as Onslaught, but the latest episode of X-Men ’97 puts down any chance of getting Feral Wolverine.
Logan does not go long without his adamantium plating; this week’s episode follows our gruff hero as he embarks on a quest to restore what Magneto took.
But he can’t do it alone, either — and with a bunch of X-Men still trapped in the past, that forces him to call on an old team: Weapon X.
The Weapon X team, explained
Though they share a name with an evil organization, Weapon X is determined to taking them down.
| Marvel Comics If you’re thinking, “Does ‘Weapon X’ refer to Wolverine or the program that created him?”
the answer is “both” — plus a little something extra.
X-Men ’97 s latest episode plays fast and loose with the term; here it represents the clandestine research team that gave Logan his adamantium upgrade, other mutants who underwent similar experimentation, and the team that later co-opted the name.
In the comics, the team answers to any variation of the name, from “Team Weapon X” to “Weapon X-Force” or just plain “Weapon X.”
And unlike the regular X-Force, these enhanced individuals really only embark on shadow operations targeting the original Weapon X program.
Is it a little weird that Wolverine & co. named their team specifically after their oppressors?
Yeah, a bit… not to mention confusing… and it doesn’t help that X-Men ’97 breezes through its summary of the original Weapon X, alongside the members of the black ops team that Logan recruits for his wild mission.
With an assist from Morph, Logan rounds up a group of old friends and enemies to strike an off-site Weapon X facility.
Here are the heavy hitters introduced in the episode, and their respective relationships with Wolverine.
X-Men ’97 brings back Logan’s old flame.
| Marvel Lady Deathstrike (also known by her civilian name, Yuriko Oyama) is a crucial figure in Wolverine’s past.
Fans of the original X-Men cartoon might remember her from the Season 3 premiere, “Out of the Past.”
The two-part adventure explores her past relationship with Logan: they were an item just before he gained his adamantium upgrade.
When he’s called off on a clandestine mission, Logan promises to return — but his plans are foiled when he runs into the evil Dr.
Cornelius.
With the help of another unnamed scientist, Cornelius succeeds in bonding adamantium to Logan’s skeleton.
Naturally, though, they underestimate Logan’s rage.
He immediately escapes and uses his newly sharpened claws to destroy the entire facility.
It’s not until much later that this unnamed scientist is identified as Kenji Oyama.
He was the first to perfect the adamantium bonding process… but he’s also Yuriko’s dad.
Yuriko vows revenge against Logan once she hears of Kenji’s demise, teaming up with the Reavers (a group of cyborg mercenaries) to get some adamantium-laced enhancements of her own.
She attempts to get revenge against Logan in “Out of the Past,” but is forced to put those plans on hold when an evil alien life form attacks.
That’s why, when Weapon X encounters a parasitic force called the Brood in X-Men ’97 , Logan refers to it as the second alien invasion that he and Yuriko have faced together.
Wolverine’s most infamous enemy is back in X-Men ’97.
| Marvel Comics Sabretooth (aka Victor Creed) and Wolverine have a storied, Cain-and-Abel-esque relationship no matter which X-Men story you’re following.
In the comics, their enmity began at the very dawn of the 20th Century when Logan murdered Victor’s young brother.
They faced off time and again over the years, but their near-identical power sets (both possess regenerative healing, animalistic instincts, and some form of claw-like weaponry) usually meant those fights ended in stalemates.
Eventually, they joined forces on Team X, but the bad blood didn’t end there.
That on-again, off-again relationship took on a similar life in X-Men: The Animated Series .
First appearing in the Season 1 finale, Sabretooth aligned with villains like Magneto and Apocalypse before once again joining Team X.
This version of the group first appeared in X-Men Season 2, and included Wolverine, Silver Fox, and the German assassin Maverick.
Maverick has been a fixture on Weapon X from its inception.
| Marvel Comics Maverick is a lesser-known member of the Team X/Weapon X brand, but he’s one of the few characters in this episode of X-Men ’97 who has no bad blood with Logan.
The duo worked together in the original X-Men cartoon, just as they did in the comics.
Their most notable adventure might have been against Omega Red, the Soviet super-soldier whose mutation essentially turns him into a zombie.
(He pops up in this episode of X-Men ’97 too; it’s a crowded one!)
Unfortunately, Maverick doesn’t get much airtime in X-Men ’97 .
He and his buddy, Garrison Kane, are mostly cannon fodder to make the episode’s horror twists hit a bit harder.
Still, it’s rewarding to see these deep-cut characters from both the comics and the original animated series return for one last hurrah.
X-Men ’97 continues to wear its love for the X-Men mythos on its sleeve, treating fans to one whirlwind lore dump after the next.
X-Men ’97 is streaming on Disney+.
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