The first three episodes of X-Men 97 Season 2 are now streaming on Disney+, and the opening block sends its cast through three time periods at once. Jubilee lands in Cable’s orbit, while Cyclops and Jean Grey stay locked into the far-future thread with Nathan.
Days of Past Future
Episode 1, “Days of Past Future,” looks ahead to the far future and adapts The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix. Cyclops, Jean Grey, and others have thrown their lot in with Mother Askani and her clan, with the reunion between the parents and their time-displaced son driving the episode.
The setup gives the season a split-screen feel without actually splitting the run into separate drops. Instead, the first three episodes reconnect the heroes across three time periods, which means the premiere block has to do the work of establishing multiple lanes at once.
A Force to Be Reckoned With
Episode 2, “A Force to Be Reckoned With,” shifts to adult Cable recruiting Jubilee and Sunspot for a new X-Force squad. It also introduces X-Factor as the government-sanctioned answer to the X-Men and X-Force, while giving the episode a bespoke intro sequence.
Jubilee matters here because she is one of the youngest and most idealistic members of Xavier’s school, and Cable puts that outlook under pressure fast. The review says the pair spend the episode in an uncomfortable conflict over tactics and morality, which is a cleaner engine than simple team-up nostalgia.
Final Horsemen on screen
Episode 1 also pulls in Uncanny X-Force material and introduces the Final Horsemen, which pushes the season further toward a darker comic lineage. That gives the opening stretch a wider range than a straightforward sequel setup, even as it keeps the plot moving quickly.
The catch is pace. The review says the new season moves too quickly for its own good even though it delivers a wild, engaging, nostalgia-filled ride, and the Scott, Jean, and Nathan storyline would have benefited from more than one episode. That compression is the tradeoff for launching three timelines together: the season gets momentum early, but each thread has less room to breathe.
For now, the practical takeaway is simple: the opening three episodes ask viewers to track where each storyline sits before the season can braid them together. Cable’s mission, Mother Askani’s future, and the reunion around Nathan all point toward a larger convergence, but the opening block stops short of showing how that happens.
