The two-part X-Men '97 story "Rise of Apocalypse" reaches its climax in episode 4, which premiered on 8 July, and appears to kill off Magneto, one of the show's central figures. The episode matters because Magneto's apparent death ties directly to the season's larger arc — the massacre at Genosha and the rise of the villain Apocalypse — and sets up a potentially devastating threat to the surviving X-Men.

The X-Men, stranded in ancient Egypt, had tried to persuade the young En Sabah Nur to become a force for good rather than the tyrant Apocalypse, hoping to alter the future. The plan fails: Nur embraces his destiny after discovering the team's deception. Magneto stays behind to contain a black hole created by Apocalypse, knowing it may kill him, and is seemingly disintegrated by Apocalypse afterwards, leaving only his helmet. The article argues he is probably not truly dead, noting the franchise's long history of fake deaths and resurrections, and suggesting Apocalypse is more likely to brainwash him into one of his Horsemen.