X-Men '97 Season 2 Episode 4's Post-Credits Scene Features Two Avengers Cameos

This article contains spoilers for "X-Men '97" Season 2, Episode 4 "Rise of Apocalypse Part II."

While "X-Men '97" never loses focus on the mutants' side of the Marvel Universe, it has peppered in some notable cameos. The biggest guest in "X-Men '97" Season 1 was definitely Captain America (Josh Keaton). In Episode 7 "Bright Eyes," Cap showed up to butt heads with Rogue (Lenore Zann), who was seeking vengeance after Gambit's death in the Genoshan genocide.

Cap had actually shown up in the original "X-Men" animated series; the episode "Old Soldiers" showed how he once teamed up with Wolverine (Cal Dodd) during World War 2. By 1997, Cap has evidently been defrosted and is leading the Avengers. In the Season 1 finale "Tolerance Is Extinction," he's briefly shown guarding the U.S. presidential bunker alongside Iron Man.

Most of "Rise of Apocalypse" is set in the distant past, showing how Egyptian mutant En Sabah Nur (Adetokumboh M'Cormack) becomes "the rocks of the eternal shore," Apocalypse (Ross Marquand). But after the credits roll, the episode returns to the present and reunites Cap with Wolverine, and he's brought another Avenger with him: Black Widow (Lake Bell, reprising her role from "What If...?").

Black Widow is in her '80s-'90s costume, a full black jumpsuit and short hair. This evokes the famous Jim Lee-drawn cover of "Uncanny X-Men" #268 featuring Wolverine, Captain America, and Black Widow together.

Marvel Comics

But should fans expect the team-up to carry over into "X-Men '97" Season 2 Episode 5, "Weapon X, Lies, and DVD"? Cap and Widow pass off files labeled "Weapon X" to Logan, the shadowy organization that gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton. Both Steve and Natasha try to dissuade Logan from going after Weapon X alone, but he reassures them he has back-up.

Back in "Tolerance is Extinction," Wolverine stabbed Magneto (Matthew Waterson), who retaliated by ripping the adamantium from Logan's bones and out of his body. As we've seen in Season 2 thus far, Wolverine is currently stuck with his bone claws. Considering the "X-Men '97" Season 2 trailer confirms Wolverine is getting his adamantium claws back, maybe he's tracking down Weapon X to restore himself?

That trailer also indicates Wolverine is bringing his best pal, the shapeshifting X-Man Morph (J.P. Karliak), along for help. An unreleased but leaked traileralso showed Morph looking through Weapon X's data tapes with two familiar faces: Logan's old flame Lady Deathstrike (the daughter of the scientist who invented the adamantium bonding process) and Wolverine's nemesis and fellow Weapon X test subject Sabretooth. That would explain Wolverine telling Captain America and Black Widow he's gotten "the band back together" in this episode.

Wolverine previously investigated Weapon X back in the original series episode, "Weapon X, Lies, and Video Tape." The title of the upcoming episode suggests it will be a sequel to that one, which revealed little and only opened more questions. Wolverine discovered several of his memories were fabricated wholesale, leaving himself even less sure of who he is/was.

When that episode premiered in 1995, Logan's past in the comics was still a mystery, but in the decades since, we've gotten answers. Given "X-Men '97" has pulled a fair bit from Grant Morrison's 2001-2004 "New X-Men," the upcoming episode might pull from Morrison's "Assault on Weapon Plus," which revealed the "X" in "Weapon X" actually referred to the Latin numeral for number ten. Weapon I was Captain America, so giving Cap a brief cameo fits if the show is headed for a similar revelation.

Speaking of Morph, they've been useful for bringing in Marvel cameos.  Back in Season 1, Morph briefly turned into the Hulk, and they repeated that trick in Season 2 Episode 1 "Days of Past Future" — Morph became Thor to smash Horseman of Apocalypse Jeb Lee's superpowered marching drum with a faux-Mjolnir.

Other characters have shown up in the flesh. Doctor Doom and Baron Zemo cameoed as collaborators of Bastion's (Theo James) Operation: Zero Tolerance, while Spider-Man — who crossed over with "X-Men: The Animated Series" back in the '90s — also put in two small appearances. (The second offered a tiny bit of closure to the open ending of "Spider-Man: The Animated Series.")

While "X-Men '97" is happy to show off the larger Marvel Universe, the cameos stay as mere seasoning, as they should. You never feel like the show is setting up spin-offs or twisting itself to include cameos, the way other Marvel projects have become infamous for. "X-Men '97" instead keeps up its breakneck pacing even when featuring cameos. It's as if the show's creators have the confidence enough to know that the fans will recognize the characters they throw in, while the episodes themselves are still strong enough that the more casual viewers will pick up the context. 

As fun as it would be to see a full-scale team up between the Avengers and the X-Men on "X-Men '97," the show understands it's best to keep cameos fleeting. That way, viewers are left wanting more. Captain America and Black Widow's recent appearance, with vague allusions to them both having a past with Wolverine, is a solid example of that.

"X-Men '97" is streaming on Disney+.