X-Men '97 Episode 2: Why The Arrival Of [SPOILER] Could Change Everything

Contains spoilers for X-Men '97, Episode 1 – "To Me, My X-Men," and Episode 2 – "Mutant Liberation Begins"

Imagine you've just brought a newborn baby home after a hard day at work defending mutant rights, and a double your child's mother comes knocking at your door asking for your help. That's how things were left for poor Scott Summers, aka Cyclops (Ray Chase), who has now been greeted by yet another Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) while still fighting to keep his team in check. So what's the deal? Who is this potential imposter, and why does she need the X-Men's aid? Well, if the show is following the dense comic book lore of the "X-Men," what we have here is a good old-fashioned clone conspiracy orchestrated by Mr. Sinister (Chris Britton), the terrifying Marvel villain who keeps laughing over the "X-Men '97" intro. Also, if the show is retreading comic lore, the new Jean isn't the clone; the recently recovering mother is.

In the comics, Madelyne Pryor debuted in "Uncanny X-Men" #168 and caught Scott's eye due to her likeness to Jean Grey, who was believed to be dead at the time. Naturally, the two hooked up, and eventually, after having a child with Scott (Nathan Summers, aka Cable), it was revealed Madelyne was a clone of Jean created by Sinister. The evil geneticist even went as far as naming her "Pryor," referring to her "prior existence" as a cell extracted from the original Jean. Truly monstrous, right?

For fans that may not have watched "X-Men: The Animated Series" before "X-Men '97," Sinister always had his blood-red eyes on Cyclops and Jean. In the past, Cyclops and Jean were on the top of Sinister's hit list, even using Morph, the shape-shifting mutant returning as the show's first non-binary character, to infiltrate the team. If the new series really is following the comics and this Madelyne has been living her life as Jean, there's really no telling what that could do to the original romance between Scott and his presumably lost love. More importantly, it sparks concerns about what the future holds for the newborn baby of the house, Nathan.

In the comics, the little scamp grows up to be grisly, time-traveling mutant Cable, voiced in the original series by Lawrence Bayne, who has already returned to the show to voice mutant-hating antagonist Carl Denti. Might Bayne put in a double shift and reprise his role of Cable, particularly given that the show's other time-traveler, Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith), is now a prominent presence on the show? We'll have to find out when the cloning issue is hopefully cleared up on "X-Men '97" next week.