As we get closer and closer to the arrival of X-Men ‘97, the rallying cry of “To me, my X-Men merchandise!” just gets louder and louder. Earlier this week we saw Lego get in on the X-mania with a new set, but now it’s Hasbro’s turn with its latest wave inspired by the cartoon series.
There’s plenty of X-Men this time around with Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler all getting figures in wave two, but the real highlights are the villains filling out the other half of the wave. Magneto—having appeared in wave one with his classic helmeted look—this time gets a new figure based on his updated costume from X-Men ‘97, itself based on the iconic “M” trial outfit from Uncanny X-Men #200, but the two truly new additions to the wave are surprising and lovely.
First up is the Goblin Queen herself, aka Madelyne Pryor—the former wife of Scott Summers, revealed to be a clone of Jean Grey hatched by the nefarious plans of Mister Sinister, and eventual dark mistress of Limbo as the fiery Goblin Queen. She even comes with a baby Nate Summers, aka the future Cable, because it wouldn’t be the star of “Inferno” without at least one baby to menace! Maddie and Magneto are joined by Carl Denti, the uber-‘90s X-Cutioner (weirdly enough not to be confused with the 1992 story arc “X-Cutioner’s Song,” in which he does not appear), a former FBI agent who becomes a zealous assassin in a quest to persecute Mutants who have in turn murdered humans. It’s a wonderful hint of the classic X-Men storylines the new animated series will take on—drawing on not just iconic stories from the height of Chris Claremont’s run on X-Men in the ‘80s, but of course some ‘90s stories that the old animated series didn’t have the space to tackle, too.
Wave two of Hasbro’s X-Men ‘97 Marvel Legends is set to release in spring 2024, with pre-orders opening up early next year. Click through to see plenty of pictures of the new figures!