DNX #3
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Federico Vicentini
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: The X-Men and the FF fight 3K.

PAGE 1. The virus spreads through Juniper.

This picks up directly from the cliffhanger of issue #2, where the Chairman released the X-virus in Juniper after being prevented from doing so in Philadelphia. Since Juniper isn’t a real place, I do wonder whether the idea is going to be that the virus is contained but Juniper is permanently transformed.

The Trask Statute. The mysterious statue of Bolivar Trask, which appeared in Juniper mysteriously, was the subject of the Juggernaut solo story in X-Men #34.

“I have made more mutants.” The Chairman is referencing the third law of Krakoa (“Make more mutants”), though that was more of an exhortation to breed.

PAGES 2-5. The Chairman escapes, and Wyre sabotages the 3K airship.

The X-virus. In the “Age of Revelation” storyline, the X-virus killed most humans and mutated the rest. The Chairman evidently expects this version to do the same. He seems to be so obsessed with creating more mutants as an end in itself that he doesn’t care about the lives of the humans who die, but also believes that human lives will become valuable if they become mutants.

Juggernaut. As soon as Juniper is mentioned, he figures out that the statue was something to do with the X-virus. In X-Men #34 he was very upset with himself at his inability to destroy the statue, and so he may well now be blaming himself for not getting the job done. Mind you, if he had managed to break it open, he’d presumably have released the virus early. This begs the question of why the Chairman had it protected with a force field at all. But perhaps he wanted to stick to the original timeline and release in Philadelphia first if he possibly could – or maybe the virus wouldn’t have spread as well if it was simply smashed open.

He refers to Magik as “the brat”, although in X-Men #34 there were references to him seeing himself as a surrogate brother for her.

Wyre. His line about escalation refers back to his exchange with Juggernaut in the previous issue. (“That just means I get to escalate, which is what I wanted to do in the first place.”)

The 3K Airship. The threat to Philadelphia isn’t the X-virus but the risk of the airship crashing. This explains why X-Men #37 ends with Kid Omega being told that “we may lose Philadelphia” even though the virus release was thwarted.

PAGES 6-7. Magik, Ben and Johnny return to the Baxter Building.

The FF’s subplot in which they shrink themselves and enter Magneto’s body takes place in Fantastic Four #17-18, which happens between the pages of this story.

PAGES 8-10. Cyclops calls Frank Bohannan, and Magik arrives with Ben Liu.

Frank Bohannan. Cyclops asks O*N*E to quarantine Juniper until a solution is found. Bohannan is keen to assert his authority after the X-Men threatened him at the end of the “Danger Room” arc in X-Men #30 (which, as Scott says, was in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt on them).

Bohannan seems a lot more interested in the political clout that a major mutant terrorist attack will give him, and appears to regard the X-Men as largely indistinguishable from 3K. It’s left slightly unclear what he actually intends to do about Juniper, but overall it sounds as if he does plan to take action – the uncontrolled release of the X-virus wouldn’t be in his interests, and his political agenda is better served by being seen to deal with the situation. And he does tell the X-Men to save Philadelphia, even though he thinks that a disaster would be good for him personally.

Ben Liu. He assumes that the 3K Airship is the place where he was turned into a mutant (prior to his debut in X-Men #2), which is probably right. Cyclops believes that he’s the only one of them powerful enough to stop the airship from crashing, which seems like a bit of a hail mary, since the only think Ben has ever shown the ability to do – outside X-Men United, which maybe comes after this point in continuity anyway – is to manifest a horde of hostile UFOs. He may be the most powerful mutant on hand, but whether that power is particularly useful for avoiding the airship crash is another matter.

Cyclops rather offhandedly says that if he had thought Ben’s power really didn’t work, then “I’d have sent you back into the world months ago rather than keeping you at the Factory”. This is played as a pep talk, but in reality implies that Scott has always had a somewhat instrumental interest in Ben rather than being particularly concerned about his wellbeing. Originally the purpose of keeping him at the Factory was to conceal the fact that he had survived his faked death in X-Men #2, and that too was mostly for wider image reasons.

Scott seems to believe that Ben has some sort of mental block which needs to be forced through with extreme stress. As we’ll see, even Magik regards this as a bit harsh.

PAGES 11-12. Wyre and Timebomb.

Wyre seems inclined to take his X-Men team – evidently led by Timebomb, who’s always wanted the role – and set up a splinter group now that 3K has failed. He seems entirely indifferent to the X-virus and may be working on the assumption that the X-Men will deal with it – it doesn’t even figure in his explanation to Timebomb of what’s going on, even though his earlier scene makes clear that he does know about the Juniper statue.

Timebomb seems genuinely taken aback by the fact that her side lost, and inclined to take Wyre’s lead in the absence of any better ideas.

PAGE 13. The X-Men evacuate Philadelphia.

Kid Omega is back with the team after defeating Cassandra Nova in X-Men #37.

PAGES 14-19. Ben Liu activates his powers.

Ben Liu. Ultimately, he does manage to summon up the horde of aliens that he generated in X-Men #2 – in Jed MacKay’s stories, at least, it remains unclear whether he can do anything else. (Again: the fact that this is being presented as a major turning point in Ben’s storyline shows what a blunder it was to have him casually using his powers to create illusory environments in X-Men United. You may be able to rationalise a distinction between the two situations, but it’s not one that serves his storyline.)

While the UFOs do appear, it’s not at all clear that they’re doing anything to help. Cyclops starts talking as if it’s not enough before they’ve even done anything noticeable. However, the following panel does suggest that the UFOs are trying to get under the airship and support it.

Magneto. The scene ends with the return of Magneto, who’s been cured off panel in the Fantastic Four tie-in issues. Quite how he got here is unclear, since Magik was here all the time.

Magneto says that “Ben Liu is my student, Cyclops. And unlike Charles Xavier, Magneto does not abandon his students.” This references his exchange with Professor X – or possibly a hallucination of him – in X-Men #38, where Magneto’s initial line was that everyone would be better off without him, even Ben. He’s feeling a lot more defiant about it now, possibly because his restored powers have also helped his confidence..

PAGE 20. The FF deliver their data to Beast.

The FF’s memory loss is covered in their tie-in issues. In Fantastic Four #17, the team theorised that something had driven them mad and made them fight one another, and that Sue had somehow protected them by cutting off part of their brains. That issue picks up with the story in progress and mostly consists of the team trying to figure out who they are and what they’re doing.