This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 season 2 episode 5.
Finally, the Brood has arrived. Midway through the latest episode of X-Men ’97, “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs,” Wolverine, along with Team X and Morph, realize that the Weapon X facility that gave them their adamantium powers has been invaded by strange aliens. Wolverine and Morph do not know who these aliens are, and the surprise puts them back on their heels. But anyone who has read an X-Men comic since 1982 knows who they are: they are Brood, terrifying creatures who infect and transform their victims.
The Brood are one of the major elements of writer Chris Claremont’s defining 17-year-run on the comics from 1974 to 1991. Nearly every other part of the Claremont run has been thoroughly mined for episodes of the original X-Men: The Animated Series and previous entries in X-Men ’97. But this is the first time the Brood have fully appeared on the show, despite previous cameos and an odd standalone episode, marking the proper debut of one of the most important parts of X-Men lore.
The X-Men first encountered the Brood in 1981’s Uncanny X-Men #155 by Claremont and Dave Cockrum, in which they get caught during the aliens’ attack on Cyclops’ space-traveling father Corsair. Since then, the Brood have been a true scourge of the Marvel Universe and the focus of several fan-favorite storylines in the comics. The Brood Saga that begins with Uncanny X-Men #155 builds to a fantastic scene in which Carol Danvers, then using the name Binary instead of Ms. Marvel or Captain Marvel, destroys the Brood ships in revenge for their attacks on space whales. The Brood invasion in Uncanny X-Men #232–234 leans into horror tropes, complete with a Wolverine transformation that is referenced in “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs.”
The Brood are so horrifying because they implant the genetic material in their hosts, eventually overtaking the host and turning them into more Brood. Yet, despite their insectoid appearance and their allegiance to a queen, the Brood have sentience, which makes their lust for domination all the more frightening. The Brood invoke everything scary about Alien‘s xenomorphs and adds intelligence and reason.
The similarities between the Brood and the xenomorphs aren’t an accident, as Claremont regularly integrated concepts borrowed from sci-fi and fantasy franchises into his comics. But since then, the Brood have evolved beyond mere knockoffs of the H.R. Giger creations—which is good, since Disney‘s purchase of 20th Century Fox and the Alien franchise means that xenomorphs now regularly invade the Marvel Universe. One of the most interesting mutations comes in the form of Broo, a member of the race who evolved to feel compassion. Broo’s intelligence and mutation allowed him to join attend the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and eventually join the X-Men.
At this point, one might ask: if the Brood are so important, and if they appeared before 1991, why weren’t they in X-Men: The Animated Series? The answer is two-fold.
First, they have been in the original series. They first make a cameo in the season 2 episode “Mojovision” as part of the audience watching Mojo’s programming. But when they make a full appearance in season 5’s “Love in Vain,” they are radically different. They still operate like the Brood, more or less, and the episode features direct call-backs to the comics, including Wolverine’s infection. But this group of aliens are green instead of brown, and they call themselves the Colony.
According to Larry Houston, who was a director and producer on the original series before becoming a producer on X-Men ’97, “the redesign of the Brood in their own episode “Love in Vain” was partially due to their previous appearance, yes, and partially the desire by character designers Frank Brunner, Mark Lewis and myself wanting to make them a little more distinctive and a little bit more animator-friendly.” One has to imagine they also wanted to be more family-friendly, as the ’90s series was pitched to a younger audience.
X-Men ’97 certainly still appeals to kids. But now, the primary audience includes teens and young adults. The series has courted them with stronger language (several “hells” and “damns” get dropped in this episode), but also with more intense sequences. That older audience allows X-Men ’97 to get truly scary, which means that the show can finally bring in the Brood, the scariest aliens in the Marvel Universe.
X-Men ’97 season 2 streams new episodes each Wednesday on Disney+.
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