Along with strict adherence to the visuals of Marvel's red-hot X-Men comics of the era, 1992's X-Men: The Animated Series accurately drew upon its source storylines and character backgrounds to a fault. Rarely to the point of confusing its 6 to 11-year-old target audience, but even a dyed-in-the-wool fan might find themselves scratching their head on occasion. Such was the case when the series developed the past of power-absorbing X-Man Rogue. Her history with shape-shifting villainess Mystique was seemingly ignored after she'd failed to recognize her in an earlier episode. This was overwritten later in the first season, with the second exploring their time together as surrogate mother and daughter -- albeit, with one missing, crucial element.

Presumably, a combination of being deceased (at least, at the time) and having a power-set removed from the sort of visual spectacle called for in an animated series airing on Saturday morning television, Irene Adler aka Destiny was omitted from appearing alongside her teammates with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. This isn't to suggest the group suffered in her absence, only appearing in three episodes over the first two seasons. Making their debut as an assemblage in an adaptation of their introductory storyline "Days of Future Past", the Brotherhood returned in "A Rogue's Tale", the aforementioned episode expanding on Rogue's origins.

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X-Men The Animated Series Mystique and Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

Debuting in X-Men #141, the precognitive Destiny was enlisted by an old friend of Mystique's to join her Brotherhood's plot to assassinate anti-mutant politician Senator Robert Kelly. The longstanding romantic history between the two would only be addressed subtlety or with coded language by co-creator Chris Claremont, although in recent years, Destiny would come to be acknowledged as both Mystique's spouse and Rogue's mother, the two having taken in the wayward mutant in her pubescence and raising her into young adulthood. A stalwart member of Mystique's Brotherhood during the team's transition into the government-sponsored Freedom Force, Destiny remained with the group until her death in Uncanny X-Men #255.

Destiny's specter continued to linger over the X-Men titles, her death heralding the eventual dissolution of Freedom Force a few years later and informing Mystique's shifts between redemption and full-on villainy. The discovery of thirteen diaries written by Destiny before her demise offered the impetus for Claremont's 2001 series X-Treme X-Men (set for a limited-series revival this fall) and has continued to impact current storylines. Destiny herself would briefly return during the "Necrosha" crossover, reuniting with Rogue and meeting her alleged granddaughter, the telepathic Blindfold. Destiny returned to the grave at the end of the storyline, remaining so until she was finally restored to life by Mystique via the restorative techniques developed in the new Mutant nation of Krakoa.

Despite being absent during the extended flashback depicted in "A Rogue's Tale", the limited amount of screen time allotted to showing Rogue's upbringing (beyond her transformative encounter with Ms. Marvel) leaves ample opportunity to retroactively insert Destiny into the proceedings. Moreover, the questions that would be raised by the character failing to appear during the attack on the Capitol in "Days of Future Past" are easily resolved by drawing upon her depiction as Rogue's plainclothes guardian in X-Men: Evolution. Introduced in the third episode of the series, "Rogue Recruit", Destiny was shown raising Rogue as a foster mother in advance of her eventual, and short-lived induction, to Mystique's fledging Brotherhood. She made her second and final appearance in the third season's Rogue-centric "Self Possessed".

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X-Men The Animated Series A Rogue's Tale

Disney+'s upcoming animated revival X-Men '97 is in a prime position to finally bring Destiny to the canon. Aside from there being less pressure to avoid an older female character with a superpower distinctly lacking in any visual flashiness, the new series being produced for a venue not subject to the constraints of children's programming, advertising interests and keeping target demographics satisfied frees up X-Men '97 from any potential concerns over bringing Destiny and Mystique's romance to the small screen.

With X-Men '97 having twenty-five subsequent years of X-Men comics to consider for their upcoming run, it's unclear if a character like Destiny would even necessarily be on the radar of showrunner Beau DeMayo, despite her importance to one of the series' leads. Still, early word of a second season pick-up with the first still a year away from its expected release bodes well for further opportunities to dig deeper into X-Men lore. Whether that will lead to a long-awaited return for the Brotherhood with their full comic roster at last intact remains to be seen.