X-Men ’97 Redeems 1 Tragic Hero’s Fate 32 Years After Their Marvel Introduction

Warning! This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97.

X-Men ’97 episode 4 introduces a Marvel Comics character who first debuted in 1992, redeeming their originally tragic story decades later. By the time of X-Men ’97 episode 4’s ending, two stories were told regarding two of the titular mutants. The latter involved Storm as the Omega-level mutant struggles to regain her powers with the help of Forge, a character sure to be important to X-Men ’97 season 2.

The former story, titled “Motendo,” sees Jubilee enter a video game orchestrated by Mojo, a villain from the original animated series. This video game setting made X-Men ’97 episode 4’s Easter eggs prominent, with references to X-Men: The Animated Series, the wider Marvel universe, and X-Men stories from Marvel Comics. One of these Easter eggs came in the form of a new X-Men ’97 character linked to Jubilee, with their story redeeming a tragic Marvel Comics story, three decades after the character in question’s debut.

Jubilee & Abscissa’s Marvel Comic Story Explained

The story of Abscissa in Marvel Comics paints her as a tragic figure.

The new character in X-Men ’97 was Abscissa, the digital version of Jubilee in Mojo’s video game world. In Marvel Comics, Abscissa’s story is much different, and much more tragic, than it is presented in X-Men ’97. In the original comic book story, a version of Jubilee was kidnapped by Mojo and forced to become his slave. Spending decades working for Mojo, Jubilee eventually grew up to become known as Abscissa. In Marvel Comics, Abscissa initially agreed to work for Mojo to save the universe, bargaining her freedom so that he would not tamper with the cycle of the universe.

Eventually, Mojo offers the same deal he made with Abscissa to another, younger version of Jubilee. The younger version refuses, essentially causing Abscissa to cease to exist. In the end, Abscissa’s story consisted of her spending decades as a slave to a horrible master, selflessly saving the universe without recognition. Her subsequent death makes this tale all the more tragic, much more so than how she is presented in X-Men ’97.

How X-Men ’97 Totally Changes Abscissa’s Story

The X-Men ’97 version of Abscissa is significantly less heartbreaking.

Given the story of Abscissa in Marvel Comics, it is difficult to see how she fits into X-Men ’97 episode 4’s video game storyline. However, the writers of the show make it work by inherently changing Abscissa’s story from the comics, giving her an entirely different origin while retaining the best elements of the character. In X-Men ’97 episode 4, Jubilee and Sunspot are regularly aided by an unnamed, masked figure. From reviving Sunspot with an extra life to directly battling Mojo in the game’s final level, the mysterious figure is instrumental in Jubilee and Sunspot’s escape.

Before the climactic fight with Mojo, it is revealed that this figure is an older, digital clone of Jubilee. To beta test the game before Jubilee’s arrival, Mojo created several clones of the mutant. One of these clones, X-Men ’97‘s version of Abscissa, manages to find a glitch that allows her to survive within the game to aid Jubilee and Sunspot.

Abscissa helps Jubille and Sunspot defeat Mojo, causing his game to begin collapsing. This sees Jubilee and Sunspot return to the X-Mansion, while Abscissa fades away with the rest of the game code. While still sad, Abscissa’s ending in X-Men ’97 episode 4 is still inherently less grim than dying after a life of servitude as was shown in Marvel Comics.

Why X-Men ’97’s Changes Improve Jubilee & Abscissa’s Story

Abscissa’s new storyline fulfills her role from the comics, only with several major improvements.

For the most part, Abscissa’s role in Marvel Comics was somewhat unsatisfying. Due to being such a harsh storyline, Abscissa’s comic book appearance has little worth outside of Jubilee’s opposition to Mojo. In X-Men ’97, changes are made so that Abscissa still helps Jubilee face off against Mojo while removing the tragic elements to improve her storyline overall, even imparting some wisdom to the young mutant before departing.

Unlike in Marvel Comics, Abscissa acts more of a mentor to Jubilee in X-Men ’97. She helps Jubilee realize that the problems of the mutants she is trying to avoid are simply unavoidable. From the issues surrounding Professor X’s disappearance to Magneto’s leadership of the X-Men, Abscissa implores Jubilee to take these issues seriously, no matter her desire to live out her younger years as a free teenager. This, combined with Abscissa teaching Jubilee more about her powers and helping her to escape Mojo, makes their dynamic much more satisfying than it is in the comics.

As alluded to, the removal of Abscissa’s heartbreaking story is also a welcome change. Having a character simply be enslaved for decades, bound in chains, only to be killed unceremoniously is admittedly too dark to be satisfying in a show with a tone like X-Men ’97. Therefore, having Abscissa directly help Jubilee before disappearing with the game code painlessly is a much more compelling end to her X-Men ’97 storyline than a direct comic adaptation would have been.