Astonishing X-Men #9-12

Astonishing X-Men #9-12

Originally released in 2005

Written by Joss Whedon

Art by John Cassady

I was thinking about covering Spider-Man Noir, as a trailer for that came out yesterday (and I wasn't aware that it would be in live action), but a trailer for the fighting game Marvel Tokon also came out yesterday, announcing a team of X-Men. Storm had already been announced, Wolverine is a logical choice, and Magik has gotten plenty of focus in recent years through games like Marvel Rivals and Midnight Suns, but I was unfamiliar with the fourth member, Danger. I could gather that she had ties to the Danger Room, the X-Men's adaptive training grounds, but I know nothing about her beyond that.

Skipping over the first eight issues might not be the best idea, but I'll see how it goes. (I wanted to get to her introduction)  As the result of an upgrade using Shi'ar technology, the Danger Room has attained sentience.  As it was designed to hurt the X-Men, along with analyzing and adapting to their actions, this is not going to go well for them.

Danger seems to take some notes from Ultron, wanting to kill her "father" Professor Xavier.  To that end, she has kept in telepathic contact with Xavier, practically gloating as she fends off the X-Men.  This gives Xavier time to put a plan into action for when she targets him personally, heading to one place with no functioning electronics: Genosha, the site of a massacre where sixteen million mutants were killed.  Xavier never took part in the Danger Room scenarios (or if he did, it was rare), so Danger can't predict or counter his actions, much to her obvious frustration.

My familiarity with Joss Whedon's work is largely limited to Firefly, its follow-up movie Serenity, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and the first two Avengers movies. (I do plan to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer at some point, though) He has a fairly recognizable writing style, with a lot of witty remarks and characters being somewhat aware of the type of story that they're in, and some elements of that do show up here.

It's interesting to compare Danger in this appearance to her portrayal in Marvel Tokon.  Here, she's cold and aggressive despite ultimately being sympathetic, dredging up the fears and worst nightmares of both the X-Men and ordinary students just to get an advantage.  In Marvel Tokon, it's a little early to tell, but her design seems decidedly cuter, along with being more streamlined. (maybe that's just a preference of Arc System Works if their work on Persona 4 Arena, BlazBlue, and (based on my limited knowledge of that series) Guilty Gear is any indication)

The X-Men track Xavier and Danger down, but despite Xavier's precautions, Danger does find an electronic device to transfer her intellect into - the massive Sentinel that murdered millions of mutants on Genosha.  The double page spread showing it rising out of the water and towering over the X-Men is impressive, to say the least.

The X-Men fight for their lives against the massive Sentinel and the smaller machines stored within it, though Emma leaves the battlefield as she senses someone within the ruins of Genosha.  The figure that she speaks to is kept in shadows, so I figured it was building up a longer-term plot, though their identity is revealed sooner than I expected.

The battle is rendered in an impressive manner; double page spreads weren't used often in the first three issues of this story, but in issue twelve, John Cassaday gets to go all-out as we see the X-Men taking on hordes of mechanical monstrosities.

Issue 12 ends with a reveal that was a surprise, but one that makes sense given that Xavier had planned for what to do rather quickly - Xavier had known for years that the Danger Room was developing sentience but did nothing, effectively keeping Danger's AI enslaved in order to train his students.  This does not go over well, and despite Xavier's protests that he was unaware of the full magnitude of Danger until it was too late, none of the X-Men, not even Cyclops, speak up to defend him.

Watching from the shadows is the mysterious figure who talked to Emma earlier, along with their allies - the Hellfire Club.  I don't recognize all of the members (though as one is wearing a cloak that conceals their face, that's to be expected), but I do see Sebastian Shaw and, oddly enough, Cassandra Nova.  Cassandra was the one who orchestrated the Genosha massacre to begin with; either Shaw is unaware of that, or he thinks that Cassandra will do as he says; either way, I have a gut feeling that Cassandra Nova is going to backstab Shaw and hijack whatever plans he has in order to use them for her own benefit.

I'm assuming that Danger sides with the X-Men at some point, since otherwise, her being an X-Men member in Marvel Tokon would be a little weird. (then again, Juggernaut's been an X-Men member and he's not even a mutant, so who knows?)  As far as character introductions go, it's an effective one, showing why Danger would be a threat to the X-Men without going overboard and treating her like the strongest threat they've ever faced or having her effortlessly outsmart and defeat the team.