X-MEN vol 7 #30
“Danger Room, part 5”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Colourist: Arthur Hesli
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Simply the X-Men charging into battle.

THE X-MEN:

The Beast. He gives Beyond’s techno-organic creature a pep talk about personhood, empathy, and rejecting the roles that have been imposed on them, all of which wins it round to their side. This fits with the broad theme of the story: the plans of the Danger Room psychopaths fail because the X-Men are more reasonable and empathic than they expect. Not all of them, admittedly, but enough of them.

His justification for codenames is that mutants “take on new names of our own choosing to better reflect our ongoing relationships with the genetic expression of our species”. Something broadly similar was put forward in the Krakoan era, with a suggestion that mutants who kept using their birth names, like Fabian Cortez, were seen as vaguely disreputable. (Ben Liu still hasn’t got a codename, which is all the more noticeable because Animalia has.)

Beast doesn’t accompany the rest of the X-Men to threaten Frank Bohannan in the epilogue. Possibly that’s because he’s not normally a field team member – Cyclops refers to the group who show up as the full team – but it would also be inappropriate for the “heart of the team” role that the story is casting him in.

Cyclops. He claims that he didn’t simply blunder into fighting the Beyond creature – he always intended Beast’s diplomacy as a fallback plan. Beast isn’t sure whether Cyclops is bluffing about this.

Juggernaut and Magik are there, but don’t do much.

Kid Omega. He forcibly searches the minds of everyone in Merle, looking for the person who shot Glob. Unlike in issue #28, Magneto is able to talk him down. Perhaps Kid Omega is already realising that he’s not finding anything, though that was precisely what Colton predicted would make him angry. Magneto is also a bit more empathetic in the way he makes his point this time round – in issue #28 he pretty much shouted at Quentin and called him a moron, while this time he leans more on how he used to feel the same way.

At first, Quentin argues for punishing the whole town anyway because the locals deserve to be held responsible for building Sentinels, but he accedes to Magneto’s arguments against collective punishment. Once calmed, he wipes the town’s memories of the incident – which is morally dubious, but not a punishment, and at least arguably intended to thwart Beyond’s plans rather than simply to cover up his actions. Magneto seems very much in favour of this.

Temper also grudgingly accepts that the locals are not to blame, and shifts her revenge quest to the real killer.

Colton mentions that Temper and Kid Omega are both killers. In Temper’s case, that’s a reference to X-Men: Schism #3. Quentin doubtless killed a bunch of bad guys during his time in X-Force.

Psylocke. She bills herself as “the world’s greatest psychic ninja-assassin”. She correctly concludes that the Danger Room are psychopaths who “lack whatever it is that lets them understand the suffering they inflict on others” – it’s not clear whether this is a psychic read or a personality one. The implication seems to be that she gives them empathy so that they can be tormented by their past actions, but we don’t actually see what happens.

Arguably, Psylocke’s strand of this story is the one where the X-Men don’t win because they display more empathy; Psylocke’s trio just beat Beyond in a fight. But then the whole point of her arc is that she insists on going to be with Greycrow because she loves him.

SUPPORTING CAST:

Magneto. He has to follow Kid Omega and Temper to town in a truck – apparently his flying chair isn’t particularly useful as a means of transport. Somehow, he’s able to confront Kid Omega on the psychic plane – it’s possible that Kid Omega simply makes contact with him while frantically searching.

Animalia. She’s left behind at the Factory to look after Glob.

Ben Liu. He used to have a Ferrari when he worked in finance, and knows how to drive a car with a manual gearbox. Ben never really seems too upset about the loss of his previous life, although he does talk here about 3K having “nuked” it by giving him mutant powers against his will.

Paula Robbins is there in the boat scenes, but doesn’t do anything.

Greycrow. His powers can override Beyond’s own systems.

Xorn. He shows up at the Danger Room’s HQ along with Psylocke and Greycrow,

Glob Herman appears in one panel and is said to be stable.

VILLAINS:

Maxine Danger. At the start of the issue she congratulates the Danger Room, but immediately makes clear that she’s unhappy with how long Colton’s plan is taking – she wants Merle to be on fire. When Colton’s plan fails altogether, she seems to be planning to kill him as punishment (at the very least she’s going to fire him). Once she realises that Psylocke and co have the upper hand, she teleports away, and abandons the Danger Room members to their fate.

Colton Colton. He’s understandably rattled at Maxine’s criticisms, correctly anticipating retribution, but stands his ground and argues for patience.

Charlene Jackson, Grigos and Marquez don’t get much to do.

Leviathan. This is the name now chosen by Beyond Corporation Prototype Biomech Weapon Serial #92523-23498. It believes itself to have been created by the Beyond Corporation as a weapon, which is consistent with the little information we’ve had about its origins. (In issue #27, Griggs and Marquez simply say that Beyond “supplied” it; in issue #28, Maxine says that Beyond “couldn’t figure out a way to monetise” it.)

At first, Leviathan sees its role as a weapon as inconsistent with personhood – displaying empathy, it says, would make it “go insane”. However, it’s obviously not completely sold on this idea, since it’s trying to make contact with Beast and learn about the world from him. Not surprisingly, Beast sees parallels between Leviathan’s enslavement and Wolverine’s origin story. We don’t find out what happens to the creature after it’s freed from Beyond.

Frank Bohannon. He lives in military housing. The X-Men show up to threaten him and tell him that if he goes after them again, Psylocke will come back and kill him.