In the latest episode of X-Men ’97, “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 1,” we learned about villain Bastion‘s (Theo James) origin story. And while the series came up with its own riff on how the baddie came to be, they still snuck in a reference to his complicated comic book origin story, thanks to a “nod” to the Siege Perilous.
In the show, it’s revealed that somehow the coding of a Sentinel factory, aka a Master Mold combined with the coding of an unstoppable future Sentinel called Nimrod, traveled back in time, infected a human, and then when that man had a kid with a woman, that kid was Bastion. Bastion himself is basically a mutant, a combination of human and robot coding that could hear — and eventually control — machines.
Pretty complicated, but the comic book origin of Bastion is a step beyond that. The short version is that Nimrod in the human form of a construction worker, is bonded to Master Mold coding after discovering an abandoned unit on a construction site. After battling the X-Men to a standstill, Rogue throws herself and Nimrod through a mystical gem called the Siege Perilous. Once sent through the gem, characters find their histories, and sometimes bodies, revamped and rewritten. For Rogue this means getting thrown to the Savage Land, and split from Captain Marvel, who previously gave her great strength, flight, and durability. For Nimrod, this means he’s bonded with the Master Mold code, and in a new body. Bastion’s body, it turns out.
The show doesn’t include the Siege Perilous at all — and honestly, probably better for it. But they did include a sneaky Easter egg for the gem in the form of Bastion’s mother’s necklace, which you can see without my markings, below:
To be clear, this is not the Siege Perilous. It isn’t red, and doesn’t have the, I don’t know, horned bits around the setting. But it is on purpose, as former showrunner Beau DeMayo copped to when asked.
“A little nod but not the siege perilous,” DeMayo clarified.
So there you go! A fun Easter egg in the middle of a wild episode.
X-Men ’97 Season 1 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
X-Men ’97 doesn’t have a one-a-day schedule like What If…? Season 2, or all-at-once like Echo. Instead, the series is getting a more traditional release schedule of two on premiere day, then one a week thereafter.
The release time is also typical. Versus what has now become a run-of-the-mill primetime “early” release for big movies and TV shows, new episodes of X-Men ’97 will be released on Wednesdays at 3 am ET / Midnight PT.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Marvel’s X-Men ’97 Season 1, and when they premiere:
- Wednesday, March 20, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 1 – “To Me, My X-Men”
- Wednesday, March 20, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 2 – “Mutant Liberation Begins”
- Wednesday, March 27, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 3 – “Fire Made Flesh”
- Wednesday, April 3, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 4 – “Motendo / Lifedeath – Part 1”
- Wednesday, April 10, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 5 – “Remember It”
- Wednesday, April 17, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 6 – “Lifedeath – Part 2″
- Wednesday, April 24, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 7 – “Bright Eyes”
- Wednesday, May 1, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 8 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 1”
- Wednesday, May 8, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 9 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 2”
- Wednesday, May 15, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 10 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 3” *Season Finale*
