Who Is Mother Askani in ‘X-Men ’97’?

Things are getting complicated for the Summers-Grey family again, so it must be a day ending in “y.” X-Men ’97 concludes its first season with Episode 10, “Tolerance Is Extinction — Part 3,” which might as well have been subtitled “an emotional thrill ride from start to finish.” That finish, in particular, carries extra flourish thanks to a trio of interlocking cliffhangers. The world may believe the X-Men and Magneto (Matthew Waterson) dead after their planet-saving efforts, but what looks like the team vanishing into thin air instead leaves them displaced across time. Scott Summers/Cyclops (Ray Chase) and Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) find themselves inexplicably alone in 3960 A.D., a desolate landscape home to a youthful version of their son, Nathan Summers/Cable (Chris Potter).

Ominously greeting the couple is Mother Askani (Star Trek‘s Gates McFadden), a hooded figure and the leader of the similarly dressed Clan Askani. Mother Askani’s introduction all but promises that Season 2 will toss another wrench into the already fascinating Scott-Jean-Cable dynamic, because Askani is one of several aliases donned by Rachel Summers, Scott and Jean’s daughter from an alternative timeline. Moreover, Episode 10 isn’t Rachel’s — sometimes an Omega-level mutant and wielder of the Phoenix Force — first appearance in the animated X-Men canon. Buckle up, everyone: it’s time for another time travel journey, X-Men style.

X-Men ’97

Animation

Action

Adventure

Superhero

A band of mutants use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them; they’re challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.

Release Date

March 20, 2024

Cast

Jennifer Hale , Cal Dodd , Chris Potter , Catherine Disher , Adrian Hough , Ray Chase , Lenore Zann

Main Genre

Animation

Seasons

1

Number of Episodes

10

Streaming Service(s)

Disney+

Franchise(s)

X-Men

Who Is Rachel Summers in ‘X-Men’?

Rachel Summers’s extensive comic history dates back to 1981 and already intertwines with X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men ’97. Rachel meets the Marvel world through writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne‘s The Uncanny X-Men #141. She originates from Earth-811, an alternate version of the Sacred Timeline (Earth-616) and the setting for the famous Days of Future Past arc. The mutants of Earth-811 are enslaved in camps, controlled by power inhibitors, or executed by the Sentinels after the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants’s successful assassination of Senator Robert Kelly stoked the flames of anti-mutant propaganda into law.

This reality’s Scott Summers and Jean Grey sire a daughter instead of Cable, the son Earth-616’s Scott has with Jean’s clone, Madelyne Pryor. Rachel’s powers are heavily influenced by her mother but not identical, having inherited Jean’s telepathy and telekinesis but developed empathetic abilities and a growing range of psionic tendencies. Since the Jean of Earth-811 is fully fused with the Phoenix Force, Rachel has an instinctive affinity with that cosmic entity.

The connection serves Rachel well once her parents die in battle and government soldiers destroy Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, the only home the mutant prodigy has known. The government-mandated mutant hunter Rory Campbell kidnaps Rachel, one of the mansion massacre’s few survivors, and subjects her to hideous psychological and physical torture as part of his “Hound” program. Campbell brainwashes especially gifted mutants into following his commands; namely, discovering mutant hideouts like a bloodhound tracks a scent, hence the program’s name. Rachel becomes Campbell’s prized Hound but eventually frees herself to join forces with the surviving X-Men, including Wolverine and Kitty Pride. Rachel’s psychic powers time travel the adult Kitty’s mind into the body of her past teenage self so Kitty can avert the future by rewriting the past.

Where Does ‘X-Men’s Mother Askani Come From?

After doing just that, Rachel’s unique abilities and powerful heart attract the Phoenix Force’s attention. The Phoenix agrees to merge with Rachel and transports her to the 616 timeline, effectively giving Rachel a new life after so much heartbreak and abuse. Rachel’s grieved to discover she doesn’t exist in this universe and conceals her identity from her sort-of parents. Nevertheless, she joins the X-Men, adopts her mother’s Marvel Girl code name to honor Jean’s memory, and psychically bonds with her brother, Cable. When the X-Men seemingly die in the Fall of the Mutants run, Rachel co-founds the Excalibur team to follow in her mentors’ and friends’ footsteps.

During writer John Francis Moore and artist Pascal Alixe‘s X-Men: Phoenix, the timestreams split Rachel into two identical versions of herself. Cable rescues one from her captivity at the End of Time, but the other is flung into the 37th century (Earth-4935). Here, Rachel discovers that Apocalypse, the X-Men’s long-term nemesis, finally emerged triumphant 100 years earlier and has ruled the world with a dictator’s fist. Left without any other way to survive, and motivated by her morality, Rachel takes the name Mother Askani and creates Clan Askani, a resistance group opposing Apocalypse’s reign. Religious in nature, Clan Askani reveres the X-Men as gods and holds to their virtuous beliefs; the “Askani” name translates to “family of outsiders.” Their skills include combat, psychic abilities, and a private language. All this occurs under Rachel’s painstaking eye, a woman well over 100 years old but kept alive by the Phoenix Force and backed by a formidable army preparing for the arrival of their ordained rescuer — who happens to be Cable.

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One of the Askani Sisters travels to the past and rescues a newborn Nathan, bringing him to the future in hopes of curing his Techno-Organic Virus. Clan Askani devote themselves to raising their future leader, while Rachel dutifully fulfills her age-old promise to protect her little brother. But an attack from Apocalypse’s followers leaves Rachel severely wounded. As depicted in Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix by author Scott Lobdell and artist Gene Ha, a desperate Rachel pulls Scott Summers and Jean Grey into the future for Nathan’s sake. Eventually, the woman known as Mother Askani passes away from her injuries, but her astral form — courtesy of the Phoenix Force — continues to watch over Nathan.

Mother Askani Complicates ‘X-Men ‘97’ Season 2

Although X-Men ’97‘s finale foreshadows Mother Askani enjoying prominence within Season 2’s story, a closer inspection proves that “Tolerance Is Extinction – Part 3” isn’t Rachel Summers’s first onscreen rodeo. Both instances are cameos. X-Men ’97 Episode 8’s brief glimpse of the future includes Rachel using her telekinesis, and she’s equally silent as a Hound in X-Men: The Animated Series Season 4, Episode 11, “Beyond Good and Evil – Part 4: End and Beginning.”

The latter’s four-part arc depicts the X-Men preventing Apocalypse (John Colicos and James Blendick) from using time travel to achieve his dual goals of world domination and exterminating mutants he deems inferior. Apocalypse is a recurring villain across the original series. X-Men ’97‘s last scenes, including that devastating mid-credits moment, indicate the series is building toward another (and presumably longer) confrontation.

Since these threads adapt different comic storylines, X-Men ’97 continues its predecessor’s method of assembling various arcs piecemeal, but cohesively. X-Men: The Animated Series already adapted Days of Future Past, but it’s a loose adaptation that gives ’97‘s creative team wiggle room with both the overarching idea and Rachel’s origins. The meat of the material remains even if details have shifted. After all, Rachel Summers even has a malevolent history with the Shi’ar Imperium’s Deathbird (Cari Kabinoff). As X-Men ’97 accelerates into its promising future, literally and figuratively, everything’s on the table, and all bets are off.

X-Men ’97 Season 1 is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.

Watch on Disney+