X-Men ’97 has an unusual advantage for a revival: it can continue the 1990s animated series while drawing on almost three decades of subsequent X-Men comics. That gives its writers a huge bank of characters and story ideas, along with the chance to revisit unresolved details with much more context.
Season 2 has already used that approach to give Cable a richer role than he received in X-Men: The Animated Series. Episode 7, “The Dead Man’s Hand”, applies the same treatment to a far more obscure figure: the X-Ternal.
Spoiler warning: This article discusses major plot details from X-Men ’97 season 2, episode 7.
The X-Ternal returns to the Louisiana bayou
The episode travels to Louisiana, where a resurrected and malevolent Gambit returns to his old territory in search of power. He attacks the X-Men early in the story, kidnaps Rogue and plans to marry her. Naturally, the ceremony is held in a swamp, bringing the X-Ternal back into the story.
Viewers first met this mysterious figure in the 1993 X-Men: The Animated Series episode “X-Ternally Yours”. The story explored Gambit’s past as a member of a powerful Louisiana thieves guild.
That episode established that the region’s guilds received their abilities from a supernatural being called the X-Ternal. In return, the guilds had to pay her a tithe every 10 years. Much of the plot involved the groups trying to avoid the payment so another guild would face the X-Ternal’s punishment instead of them.
Beyond that arrangement, the original cartoon revealed very little. The comics, however, supplied a much larger mythology.
What the comics revealed about the Externals
The Externals made their debut in X-Force #10, published in 1992 by Rob Liefeld, Fabian Nicieza and Mark Pacella. They were a group of exceptionally powerful evil mutants, apparently immortal, who were connected to Apocalypse and his plans.
The group shared a psychic bond that allowed its members to sense when one of their number had died. Killing an External required the destruction of that character’s heart. Later stories established that Apocalypse was himself an External and had created some, or possibly all, of the others.
Each External also embodied an idea or quality, including despair, fortitude, ferocity and wisdom. The X-Ternal’s true name is Candra, and her defining concept is guile. Apocalypse, appropriately, represents evolution.
The Externals appeared intermittently in later comics, usually in stories involving Apocalypse. Candra’s most significant connection outside that group was her relationship with Gambit, which gives episode 7’s expansion of her history particular relevance.
Candra’s past changes the meaning of her cartoon appearance
X-Men ’97 had already shown Candra earlier in season 2, during its Ancient Egypt storyline. She served as a priestess to Pharaoh Rama-Tut, the identity used by Kang the Conqueror. The episodes did not name her directly, but the credits identified the character as Candra.
When Apocalypse takes control in episode 4 and Kang escapes elsewhere in the timeline, Kang leaves Candra with a warning: “Your destiny starts today.” He also tells her that Apocalypse can be opposed only by a force that is External.
Episode 7 fills in what happened next. A flashback shows Candra serving Apocalypse as a priestess and possibly as his romantic partner. He gives her powers through a glowing gem, which she still has in the present day.
Candra eventually turns against Apocalypse. After her betrayal, she travels to America and becomes the swamp goddess encountered by Gambit, Rogue and the X-Men.
This gives a previously thinly drawn character a clear motivation, history and connection to the wider mythology. It also demonstrates how X-Men ’97 combines the original cartoon’s continuity with ideas developed in the comics, using both to reframe a mystery that had remained unanswered for 33 years.
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X-Men ’97 is streaming on Disney Plus.
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