X-Men '97 #3
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAs the penultimate chapter of Marvel's official four-issue prelude to the Disney+ revival, X-Men '97 #3 carries the full weight of bridging Earth-92131's animated continuity to a new generation of storytelling — a function no prior Marvel comic had attempted for this franchise in this form. The issue's central dramatic engine is Rogue involuntarily absorbing Siena Blaze's electromagnetic powers and struggling to contain them, a scene that distills the character's defining anxiety and her bond with Gambit into a single kinetic sequence. Running parallel, the issue deepens the Earth-92131 version of Carl Denti (the future X-Cutioner) as an active anti-mutant antagonist, seeding a character arc the Disney+ show would pay off in its first season. Because the entire series was crafted in close collaboration with showrunner Beau DeMayo's team, this issue functions not merely as licensed tie-in filler but as genuine narrative infrastructure — plot threads established here feed directly into the animated season.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
In December 2023, Marvel announced the four-issue X-Men '97 limited series written by Steve Foxe with art by Salva Espín, describing it as created in close collaboration with the show's production team, with Foxe characterizing it as 'an original tale that feeds right into' the new season. Foxe and Espín had previously worked together on X-Men '92: House of XCII, making this a reunion for a creative team already fluent in translating animated X-Men aesthetics to the page. The series launched in March 2024 — the same month the Disney+ show premiered — positioning #3 (May 22, 2024) as a chapter released while the show's first season was airing weekly and cultural attention on the property was at its peak.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published May 22, 2024, by Marvel Comics; written by Steve Foxe, drawn by Salva Espín, colored by Matt Milla, lettered by VC Joe Sabino, edited by Jordan D. White.
- Issue #3 is the penultimate installment of the four-issue limited series serving as the official prelude to the X-Men '97 Disney+ series, set in the Earth-92131 animated continuity.
- The issue's main action splits across two fronts: Rogue, Gambit, Bishop, and Jubilee face Siena Blaze, while Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Beast defend the X-Mansion against Hazard.
- Rogue accidentally absorbs Siena Blaze's electromagnetic/magnetic powers and cannot control them; Gambit intervenes to help her manage the surge — a key character moment for the pair.
- Siena Blaze (Earth-92131) receives her first full-appearance treatment in this series (introduced in #1, active in #3); her Earth-616 counterpart originally debuted in Uncanny X-Men #301 (1993), written by Scott Lobdell with art by John Romita Jr., as a member of the Upstarts.
- The Sinister Seven — Mister Sinister's assembled team including Sabretooth, Siena Blaze, Prism, Arclight, Hazard, Harpoon, and Riptide — are a canon immigrant concept: the Marauders did not appear in the original X-Men: The Animated Series but are introduced here as antagonists for the animated universe.
- Carl Denti, the future X-Cutioner, appears in #3 as an active anti-mutant threat; his Earth-92131 first appearance is in X-Men '97 #1, and his arc across the series sets up his role in the Disney+ show.
- The series was collected under the subtitle Great X-Pectations; a follow-up series, X-Men '97: Season Two, by the same creative team, was announced to begin in June 2026 as a prequel to the show's second season.
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Reprinted in X-Men '97: Great X-Pectations #[nn] (2024)
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