The animated series X-Men '97 has delivered what may be its most shocking death yet, though a major twist suggests the villain in question could still be very much alive. In the Season 2 episode "Strange Land, Savage Heart," Cable and X-Force arrive in Athens expecting to confront Apocalypse, who had resurrected Gambit as his Horseman of Death in the previous episode, only to find the seemingly unkillable mutant tyrant reduced to a withered husk with one of Gambit's playing cards left behind. The scene implies Gambit somehow destroyed Apocalypse, a stunning development given Apocalypse's build-up as the season's central villain.

However, the article argues this is unlikely to be a genuine death, since Apocalypse's Celestial-derived powers allow him to manipulate his own molecular structure and even project his consciousness to possess other bodies, a trait hinted at earlier in the season when he tried and failed to possess a young Cable. This raises the possibility that Apocalypse has instead taken over Gambit's body, a twist that would serve his "survival of the fittest" philosophy and could set up an emotionally devastating confrontation for Rogue, who has now lost both Gambit and Magneto within the same season.