Right out of the gate, X-Men ‘97 impressed its audience, picking right back up where it left off from Fox’s X-Men: The Animated Series.
With so many voice actors from the original series returning, the show seemed that it would honor all nostalgic fans. But it wasn’t just the returning actors that drew fans back into the fold. X-Men ‘97 is also adapting storylines from the comics never seen before. After the realization that Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) had lost her powers following a terrorist attack, the X-Men were taken aback when a Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) imposter showed up on the doorstep of the X-Mansion.
But was she an imposter? That is the question that episode 3 of the series sets out to solve. Two Jean Greys are sharing the same space, and both of them insist that they are the real ones. The version that shows up has fractured memories and seemingly only gained sentience recently. The other is married to Scott (Ray Chase) and – more importantly – gives birth to his son, Nathan. This course of events casts doubt on who the real Jean Grey is and who Scott is ultimately married to.
Which Jean is which in X-Men ’97?
The sudden arrival of another Jean whips the X-Mansion into a frenzy. Scott and Jean were about to leave the team and start a new life with their growing family. It would be easy to dismiss the interloper as the Jean imposter, but it isn’t that easy. As Beast (George Buza) continues to do tests on the new character, he learns that this Jean has genetic markers for the authentic person part of the team. While the woman that Scott has married and has a child with seems to have more complete memories, she reveals that something else is going on.
Something more… sinister shall we say?
After this duplicity is revealed, the iconic X-Men villain makes himself known. Mr. Sinister (Chris Britton) comes to the woman we thought was Jean and releases the memories he had buried. She is a clone of the real Jean Grey and he swapped them at an undetermined time. Sinister has always been obsessed with Jean and Scott’s genetics and his entire purpose was to create a powerful mutant child that he could have a patent on.
Sinister takes control of the clone and brainwashes her for his dark purpose. Scott’s wife transforms into the Goblin Queen, a powerful mutant with reality-bending powers. Using her as a distraction, he takes Nathan and infects him with a Techno-Organic Virus. Eventually, she comes back to herself and accepts the moniker of Madelyne Pryor. But in doing so, she understands that she has become an outcast. The memories she has are not her own and because they have sent their child into the future to save him, she no longer has a relationship with Scott either.
Madelyne leaves and allows Jean to take her place back with the X-Men. Ignoring that this could be an easy solution to the whole Scott-Jean-Logan love triangle, this is a tragic turn of events. Madelyne has lost everything she ever cared about. There is no telling how long in the past she was switched, but now she doesn’t seem to have a future either. But as sad as it is, it pales in comparison to the true comic origins of the Goblin Queen. Comic readers will remember that Madelyne’s introduction to the X-Men was much stranger and didn’t cast Scott in such a great light.
Originally, Scott meets Madelyne after one of Jean’s many deaths. Scott dismisses their identical looks as just a coincidence, though it is obvious his only interest in her is that she looks exactly like his dead girlfriend. Time passes and they have their child only for the real Jean to come back from the dead. Scott wastes little time considering the ramifications of this and leaves Madelyne for the resurrected Jean. In the comic version, this sends Madelyne into her descent into darkness.
While the order of events changes, however, the players remain the same. Sinister is behind Madelyne’s appearance in the comics and is equally obsessed with their DNA. The changes to the television series were for obvious reasons. No one would be able to forgive the leader of the X-Men for leaving his wife and child, even if his girlfriend had just returned from the dead. Making Madelyne a more covert agent allows the characters to remain intact and for the Goblin Queen to return in some capacity.