All The Marvel Comic Easter Eggs In The X-Men ’97 Trailer, Ranked By Nerdiness

One of the money shots of the trailer is Wolverine, claws unfurled, running toward the screen. Gambit, who can infuse objects with kinetic energy, jumps on Wolverine’s back and powers up his claws. As for how he does this without Wolverine exploding, I guess adamantium is just that durable.

Such combo moves are common in “X-Men.” In the comics, the most famous one is for the super-strong Colossus to throw Wolverine at enemies with a “fastball special.” The current era of “X-Men” comics, where mutants settle on the island of Krakoa and build a civilization, has been exploring the idea of mutant abilities in sync as a form of technology.

With mutants wielding their abilities together towards one goal, mutant-kind has created a new element (Mysterium, via teleporters mixing their powers to cross dimensions) and conquered death (via the Five: telepath Hope Summers, reality-warping Proteus, time-manipulating Tempus, biological manipulator Elixir, and Egg who, well, makes eggs. With their abilities combined, the Five can grow new bodies for fallen mutants and age them up/re-insert their memories to the point of their death). 

“Planet-Size X-Men” #1 (written by Gerry Duggan, art by Pepe Larraz) takes these “Mutant Circuits” to its furthest extreme yet: a handful of mutants terraform Mars into a copy of Earth in a matter of hours (Magneto reforges the planet’s core, Storm repairs the Martian surface’s climate, Iceman adds oceans’ worth of water, etc.).

It remains to be seen if “X-Men ’97” will feature move combos of this magnitude.