Is Wolverine dead in X-Men 97? Episode 9 ending explained

X-Men 97 just took us all back a couple of decades to one of the most iconic moments from the comics. And as we all eagerly wait for the season finale, episode 9 ended on a painful cliffhanger. It was a moment that left us all with one question. Is Wolverine dead?

It appears we'll get to know only in the season finale. After Bastion's plans are set in motion, and Magneto triggers a war between humans and mutants, the X-Men battle against Magneto as well as Bastion's forces to bring the earth back into shape. In the episode's culminating moment, Wolverine manages to sneak up to Magneto and stab him with his claws, only for Magneto to rip the Adamantium out of his body in a gruesome callback to the same moment from X-Men #25 from the Fatal Attractions comics.

Short answer, no. Wolverine has survived a lot worse than this. Long answer? Magneto didn't "kill" Wolverine. He ripped the Adamantium from his skeleton. Magneto's powers only affect materials affected by magnetism, and Adamantium is a metal.

This easily goes down as one of Wolverine's most gruesome moments in X-Men history, but he does survive it. He's left with his regular skeleton claws for a while, though. And his healing factor is back to its best, which is otherwise slowed down by Adamantium poisoning. So while Wolverine might have become a lot weaker offensively, but he's now a lot stronger defensively. It'll be interesting to see where X-Men 97 takes Wolverine's story from here. In the comics, he goes to Apocalypse to get the Adamantium back in his body in exchange for becoming one of his four horsemen.

While episode 10 might be the finale for Season 1, the climax of the series certainly takes place in episode 9. Towards the end of episode 8, Magneto is released from Bastion's captivity, and in his rage, he immediately proceeds to trigger an electromagnetic pulse around the entire planet to put all the active Sentinel Primes out of commission. While he manages to save all the mutants on the planet, he also causes a lot of damage. This triggers an all-out war between humans and mutants across the globe, but then Charles Xavier returns to Earth.

Charles realizes all the harm his little ruse has caused and immediately gets to work. He continues to believe he can reason with Magneto, while Jean Grey, Beast, Cable, and Morph take on Bastion's forces to deactivate all the Sentinel Primes around the world. Storm and Forge are the B-Team's air support. Rogue and Sunspot (Roberto) joins Magneto after he attempts to sway the X-Men with a proposal. He blames Charles Xavier for the current state of affairs.

While Magneto is partially right, and Charles is to blame, they're all playing right into Bastion's hands. Jubilee, Wolverine, and Charles battle Magneto. The others attempt to mind-wipe Magneto, only to be foiled. This is when Wolverene's fateful moment arrives and the end credits roll. X-Men 97 has come full circle, bringing us back to the pivotal conflict between the X-Men and Magneto's forces.