X-Men '97 Just Revealed A Jaw-Dropping Line-Up Of Marvel Villains

Spoilers for "X-Men '97" follow.

You may not remember that the original "X-Men" cartoon from 1992 kicked off a flurry of '90s Marvel cartoons sometimes known as "The Marvel Animated Universe." This universe is less well known than the contemporary DC Animated Universe ("Batman: The Animated Series" up to "Justice League Unlimited"). The DC cartoons were overseen by a single creative team, so the connections were organic and culminated in story arcs. The Marvel cartoons, though? They all aired simultaneously (rather than in succession like the DC ones) and had different creators, so the most intersection was occasional crossovers.

"X-Men '97" remains laser-focused on the marvelous mutants, but it hasn't been shy about including cameos from other corners of the Marvel Comics setting. Episode 6, "Lifedeath – Part 2" featured Ronan The Accuser (you might remember him as the villain in "Guardians of the Galaxy"). Episode 7, "Bright Eyes," saw Rogue butt heads with Captain America. Episode 8, part one of the three-part season finale "Tolerance Is Extinction," upped the cameo game.

Previous "X-Men '97" episodes established that regular X-Men foe Mister Sinister orchestrated the attack on Genosha and is building an army of human-Sentinel hybrids for cyborg big bad, Bastion. "Tolerance is Extinction" reveals that Bastion's Operation: Zero Tolerance has a much grander scope than we'd previously realized.

Early in the episode, Bastion holds a video conference with all his collaborators on purple-lit TV screens. One of the attendees is Doctor Victor Von Doom, ruler of Latveria, archnemesis of the Fantastic Four, and the Marvel Universe's no. 1 supervillain (sorry, Thanos). It makes sense that Doom is in on a scheme to cut mutant evolution (and their supplantation of humanity) off at its knees. The only future he will fight for is one where Doom reigns supreme, and he and Bastion probably hit it off over their similar visions of authoritarian utopianism.

Doom warns Bastion, "Do not mistake Doom's collusion as indifference to flagrant war crimes." A couple of takeaways; of course he sees his alliance with Bastion as "collusion," not a partnership or subordination — Doom plays second fiddle to no one. Second, Doom is one of the more noble villains in the Marvel Universe (or, per writer Mark Waid, he just has pretensions of nobility, hence him only complaining about the Genoshan genocide); his Latverian subjects are well-cared for while they live under his heel. When Doom attains ultimate power, he neatly explains his ethos: "I now possess the power to end hunger! To abolish disease! To eliminate crime! To establish a perfectly content, perfectly ordered world ... all under the benevolence of my iron will!" Doom is also Romani, so he knows what it's like to be part of a persecuted minority.

Doom (credited as "Latverian OZT Member") is voiced by Ross Marquand, but if "X-Men '97" wishes to use him more, the creators should remember that Simon Templeman (who voiced Doom in the 1990s "Fantastic Four" and "Incredible Hulk" cartoons) is still with us.

Another A-list Marvel Comics villain was present at Bastion's Zoom conference: Baron Zemo (voiced by Rama Vallury). Going by his costume, this is Baron Helmut Zemo. (His father, Heinrich, fought Captain America during World War 2 and met his end in "Avengers" issue #15, shortly after Cap's present-day unthawing.)

Zemo is the go-to leader of the Masters of Evil, the assembled archenemies of the Avengers; he was the mastermind of the scheme to disguise the Masters as members of the "heroic" Thunderbolts. Zemo lives to avenge his father by killing Captain America (his purple hood also covers hideous scars from molten wax he suffered in his first fight with Cap), but he's apparently taken a break to help Bastion. And it makes sense why; he's a Nazi, with conviction in the purity of some bloodlines (such as his own) over others. Of course, Zemo is no fan of mutants.

Unsurprisingly, Zemo doesn't share Doom's outrage over Genosha. Instead, he just asks Bastion about the need to sever the X-Men's alliance with President Robert Kelly. Zemo would no doubt love to see America fall alongside mutantkind. A third member of Operation: Zero Tolerance speaks during the meeting, a woman without a clear silhouette. There's been speculation this might be Madame Hydra, leader of the eponymous terrorist group, though this isn't confirmed.

As for other villains, Reverend William Stryker cameos as an anti-mutant talking head on TV. The original "X-Men" series was too kid-oriented to adapt the dark religious satire of "X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills" (by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson) — will the TV-14 rated "X-Men '97" use Stryker more, revamping him from an 80s televangelist into something more current?

It's not just Marvel villains who show up in "Tolerance is Extinction." When Cyclops, Jean, and Cable visit Bastion's childhood home, there's a magazine with a cover labeled "Stark Expo," as in Tony Stark. It makes sense that a technopath like Bastion would admire an inventor of Iron Man's caliber.

"X-Men" and "Iron Man" never officially crossed over back in the day, but they were connected by association. The X-Men appeared in "Spider-Man" season 2 for two-parter, "The Mutant Agenda" and "Mutants' Revenge." Then, Iron Man appeared in "Spider-Man" season 3 episodes "Venom Returns" and "Carnage" to help Spider-Man fight the symbiote villains. Tony was voiced by his actor from the "Iron Man" series, Robert Hays, so it is the same Iron Man.

Speaking of Spidey, he shows up in person during a montage at the episode's end (building on an Easter egg from episode 1). When Magneto unleashes a global EMP, Spider-Man is swinging through New York and notices the lights go out; he has the same design as the '90s series too. The last we saw of this Peter Parker, he was traveling through dimensions to find Mary Jane; we can only infer he's back in NYC because he succeeded.

The montage also shows two X-Men villains, Kenuichio Harada/The Silver Samurai and Arkady Rossovich/Omega Red. They both appeared in the original "X-Men" series and are mostly enemies of Wolverine. Their appearance is likely just to reinforce the global scope of Magneto's pulse (Silver Samurai lives in Japan and Omega Red lives in Russia).

Which, if any, of these cameos will have a bigger role to play in the last two episodes of "X-Men '97" season 1? Watch and find out.

"X-Men '97" is streaming on Disney+.