X-Men ’97 fans have just remembered one of the coldest moments from the original animated series; whatever you do, don’t get on Charles Xavier’s bad side.
X-Men has returned to its cartoon roots on Disney Plus, with the new series off to an incredible start: it has a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, and fans have hailed it as the best MCU release since Infinity War.
It’s a revival of Fox’s series from the ’90s, following Cyclops, Storm, and the other X-Men after the death of Professor X. The legacy of the team’s founder lives on not just in their world-saving escapades, but fans remembering his past exploits — including one particularly brutal moment with Magneto.
In a scene from the original show, Magneto prepares to attack Xavier. “Your blindness has sealed your fate,” Professor X says, before forcing Magneto to relive the Holocaust inside his head (if you didn’t already know, he was born before WW2 and survived Auschwitz). “Don’t make me see… Xavier, I can’t. Stop it, stop it… no more,” he screams as the trauma is awoken in his brain.
The clip was shared by @vidsthatgohard on X/Twitter. “Sh*t was diabolical,” the account wrote, and many agree. “When I first saw this I was like ‘there’s no way’ JUST TO FIND OUT HE REALLY MADE THIS MF RELIVE THE HOLOCAUST,” one user wrote.
“This scene alone would’ve cancelled the whole show in today’s society,” another tweeted. “This will ALWAYS crack me up when it comes on the timeline,” a third wrote.
There’s also one question several people have asked: how was Xavier able to get into Magneto’s mind while he was wearing his helmet? Prepare to have your mind blown: that was something that was introduced in the movies in the 2000s, but it’s become so popularized that many presume it came from the comics — and it didn’t.
In the meantime, you can read more about Cyclops in X-Men ’97, and how Morph connects to the Marvel Comics.