X-Men '97 creates continuity error with major cameo

X-Men '97's first season has officially wrapped up, producing a solid 10 episodes that blew fans' minds and may just be the best piece of Marvel media to release in a while. The X-Men were in their element, in the middle of a human/mutant conflict and the series gave all the team a chance to shine.

Along with the X-Men, the series also firmly established a shared universe based on the 90's series. After brief appearances from Spider-Man and Captain America, the finale really amped it up. "Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 3" showcased a ton of cameos during Bastion's attack, including Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, Cloak and Dagger.

Another exciting cameo that occurs during this sequence is Black Panther, who battles some Prime Sentinels that are attacking Wakanda. It is cool to see Wakanda briefly and the Black Panther taking battle to protect his country.

While presumed to be T'Challa donning the mantle of the Black Panther, it is revealed to be his father King T'Chaka (Isaac Robinson-Smith) donning the Panther suit as showcased during his meeting with Kelly and Cap name-dropping the Panther as T'Chaka.

This creates a bit of a continuity error in the 90's animated universe, as the Black Panther has already appeared in the Fantastic Four series. In this series, the Panther was T'Challa (Keith David) who fought the Fantastic Four. After settling their differences, he asks the team for their aid in defeating rival Klaw.

The error has upset fans, as T'Challa unmasked and revealed himself to the Fantastic Four team during this episode and asked for their help. His father was also revealed to be killed by Klaw in this episode, meaning that if they are meant to be in the same universe as X-Men '97 there is no way T'Chaka could be the Black Panther.

The "Prey of the Black Panther" episode of Fantastic Four was released in 1995. This would mean that T'Chaka would already have passed away before his appearance in the latest episode of X-Men '97. Fans are upset by this, believing that the change is due to the Marvel Cinematic Universe influencing other media.

While this may be the case, it will be interesting to see if this is simply a retcon as the cameo from Mr Fantastic in the episode (one of Morph's transformations) indicates that both series take place in the same universe based on the character looking the exact same as his 90's series counterpart.

Whatever the reason may be for this change, fans may have to just get used to a simple change in the mantle and that the show went in a different direction with the character. T'Challa may show up in the future in this universe as well, meaning not all hope is lost in seeing T'Challa don the Black Panther mantle once more.