Variant Artist Rod Reis, I had to get the Magik cover.
Krakoa Beast, the 3K Chairman, wants Magneto on his side, and he can restore Magneto’s powers to sway him.
Meanwhile, Joseph, in Magneto’s purple boots, is leading the 3K X-Men – Timebomb, Psychovore, Juice, and Galatea.
The 3K X-Men do NOT care for Joseph.
Cyclops and the Alaskan X-Men (I’m going to try to be as clear as possible with this) are immediately ready for a fight.
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70s Beast and Magik are making their way back to the Factory.
I like how Chairman Beast fumbles his pitch with Magneto. Magneto is Right, we all know this. Magneto’s current state is because it is a message from the future.
Quintin Quire is taken out, so the X-Men have to fight old school.
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Constellation, I’m so happy Magik name checked this guy, as I wouldn’t have known.
I do love Cyclops fighting Joseph, and saying how the 3K X-Men are still unknown to them, but he’s fought Magneto for years.
This entire attack was a distraction as Chairman Beast only needed Magneto’s DNA, and no interference, and he gets what he wants.
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Magik tells her X-Men that she took Magneto to town, which Cyclops immediately knows what the goal was.
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Krakoa Beast has really went to town on Magneto!
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Epilogue. Scott is telling the X-Men how important it was that 3K didn’t get all of their objectives completed.
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Cyclops has a plan, they are going to data mine everything Schwarzchild knows.
Variant Cover German Peralta, drawing Magik for a cover? Yes, please.
Nice to see Sean Parsons as an Inker. In this age of digital art, inkers are hard to fine, and I worry about the professional inks of the world.
Danger’s Room. Maxime Danger is congratulating everyone for how easy they killed the X-Men. Be nice if Colton C. Colton would do his part to get Quintin Quire and Oya to kill the flatscans of Merle, Alaska, but he’s sure that’ll be happening. Soon.
I just love the Psylocke butterfly effect that we see, things are not going to go well for Danger.
The Factory. Merle, Alaska.
Magneto is talking to Ben and Animalia, he needs a ride to town. Oh, how far the mighty have fallen. She can’t drive a stick, so Ben has to take them.
Quintin is simply losing it, as he can’t find any trace of the Glob Herman’s shooter. One would think he’ll figure it out, but instead of not finding the shooter, he wants to hurt everyone who is hiding the shooter.
Deep in the Gulf of Alska.
Nice to see how tangled Magik and the X-Men are.
We enter 70s Beast cyber mind scape. If the AI was looking to feed on data, he has all of the data it needs.
Magneto has enter Quintin’s mind scape. We all learn a very valuable lesson that if we look at an entire group of people and declare them fit for punishment, that isn’t right.
Quintin finally calms down.
70s Beast teaches the AI the values of life – dignity, freedom, safety, and respect. You know, the classic Teach AI about Humanity plot.
Diaz finds a clever way to draw Weapon X for a panel, so this page should resell nicely.
Oya isn’t thrilled with Magneto’s interference. He’s a nazi hunter, so they need to still hunt for the shooter. He’s all for hunting the right person.
A bit of a cop out that Quintin has erased everyone’s memory of him running through the city’s minds and memories, but honestly, what would that story follow up be with this? Quintin publicly apologizing? Actually, maybe that would have been nice for a page.
Just in case us readers are concern the X-Men are losing a full day to this exercise, it is most likely only minutes that are passing.
70s Beast poses an exam question, is this AI a weapon or a person?
Danger’s Room. I love Maxime referencing her own psych file, she doesn’t handle disappointment well. Before she can kill Colton, Psylocke, Xorn, and Greycrow enter the room.
I love Greycrow stating the room’s guns like him more than Maxime, so the room’s auto defenses are not going to work.
Like a boss, Maxime teleports away, this exercise was a real waste.
Which is what I always say, if you are a villain, and you must know the X-Men are going to win in the end, the best you can do is try to hurt them real badly, OR, get all of your personal goals done by mid plot, as once the X-Men come together, they clean up pretty quickly after that.
Psylocke is going to teach Maxime’s goons a real lesson in empathy. The hard way.
The AI ship comes to the surface. I love Magik stretching out. She’s so real, and was very cramped.
Scott is such a delight here. The Tantum Twins is such a silly name for Magik and Juggernaut, who I simply adore together as besties.
70s Beast should know Cyclops always has a plan, but he missed out on the Utopia era (an era I like), and Cyclops doesn’t just have 26 plans, he has all of the plans.
Xorn is taking care of Glob.
I love so much seeing Illyana eat, and taking care of herself. Juggernaut and her are eating the biggest sandwiches of all time.
Poor Animalia, she isn’t getting far with 70s Beast. Unless those are bedroom eyes, but they look more sad to me.
Epilogue. Military Housing. Location REDACTED. (Such a good visual gag).
The Residence of Frank Bohannan. Director of O*N*E.
Such a cool image of the field team confronting Bohannan.
Cyclops tells Bohannan that he knows he put Maxime up to this, but Bohannan has full deniability.
This is his final warning, Psylocke will end him next time. This is a threat.
Magik teleports the team away at issue’s end.
Next arc, the Science Team investigates a Cerebro alert. The Science Team consists of 70s Beast, Animalia, Magneto, Xorn, and Ben. A nice little arc before we ramp up to DNX.
The Airspace Near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Danger’s Room goons shoot down the Marauder, with Psylocke and Xorn aboard.
The Danger Room. Danger is updated that there are no survivors, which seems super silly not to actually triple check.
The Factory. Merle, Alaska. Quinten Quire wants blood from whoever shot Glob Herman. Magneto is telling him to calm down, and I like Quire’s retort of “you need to get angry!” Oya also wants revenge as the two of them head out.
The Danger Room. Danger is annoyed she hasn’t heard of any destruction in Merle yet, but Colton assures her, it is coming.
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The Spirit of St. Augustine. Currently a living biomechanical monster.
Such a cool team shot.
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I love so much Magik casting spells.
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I also love so much what such besties Magik and Juggernaut are. Juggernaut is stopped by the wires of the ship, and brought underneath them, and Illyana immediately dives in after him.
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Cyclops tries to get her to focus, but now the wires have her. Then Scott also gets tangled up.
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Danger is excited about how they monetize this technology now.
Quire and Oya have made it to Merle, so stuff is going to happen next issue.
70s Beast and Sheriff Robbins are trying to figure out what the ship is made out of, and Hank can only think of one way to figure it out, dive into its center. I guess she is maybe safer with him than being tangled up on her own? Seems like a conversation he could have had with her.
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Agent Jackson wants to kill Greycrow, and Danger tells her she can do that. Jackson gets confirmation that Greycrow is dead, which I feel like, even if he’s in a bed, he’ll put up more of a fight than that.
Turns out, Kwannon has gotten to him, and has taken out the goon squad. So next issue, the X-Men start fighting back, which is always the exciting part of the story.
Variant Cover Todd Nauck, the Doctor Doom Homage Cover
I’m on record that I’m a huge fan of a villain spotlight issue, which was true for X-Men V7 24. Is it too soon for another villain spotlight issue? For me? No, I’m on record for being a huge fan of a villain spotlight issue. This time, we get Ms. Danger’s Danger Room.
I’m also on record about how if a villain knows the X-Men will win, the way to get your agenda done is by making sure your end goal happens toward the middle of your plan, so even when you get optic blasted, you still got your goal accomplished. The X-Men are notorious for not locking their villains up.
Maxine Danger, who is between a high functioning sociopath and a narcissistic solipsist. Which I had to look up. Apparently they believe that the only thing they can guarantee is the existence of their own mind – which seems interesting, but also, other people do exist, but I guess not from their point of view. Which I know I’m the type of guy, once someone passes me on a highway, I do consider that person. Where are they going? How did they catch up to me on the highway to pass me by? Are they thinking about me right now? Probably just in terms of “get out of my way!”
We meet former SHIELD Agent Jackson, in Arbfield Women’s Prison. She has the ability to make people sad enough that they kill themselves, so that’s not great, please seek help before hurting yourself or others. She knew she had this within herself, so knew once she was a SHIELD agent, she’ll have to get her body count as high as possible.
Ms. Danger works for the Beyond Corporation, who I’m pretty sure Spider-Man also worked for, so is that the same corporation?
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We get the group shot of everyone together, as they are pleased with themselves. I do love seeing a plan come together.
I do appreciate that they planned to take Psylocke out first, by separating her from the rest of the team. One always has to take out of the telepaths first, then the speedsters.
Psylocke is with Xorn in the Marauder, as it gets blasted out of the sky. This new Danger Room is full of killers, who, of course, won’t be killing the X-Men. A real shame that we don’t have resurrections anymore so these new villains can be established as a new lethal force. I supposed that could make them deadlier, but there is a world of a difference between killing regular humans, and elite mutants.
We next meet Colton Colton in Calford Penitentiary. We all know a person with the same name, right? Or know a person who knows a person? In high school, my Life Science teacher was Thomas Thomas, and I’ll never forget him. In my jobs over the years, I have mailed letters to people with the same name. Those poor nurses having to bite their tongues to not want to request double confirmation on the name.
Fun fact, my college friend Susie, is a Leap Day baby, so she’s only nine now.
Colton is a Machiavellian, which I’m starting to think my understanding of some of these words are not exactly what I think they are. He lived in a trailer park, and turn everyone against each other, to the point they were killing each other, and then he killed everyone else.
We catch up to the X-Men at the Factory. Glob Herman is bleeding out on the table, which is odd they didn’t take him to a hospital, especially as they know they don’t have Xorn NOR 70s Beast. Which is very clever planning on the Danger Room’s part. I really do wish it was simply called, Danger’s Room, that’ll be fun, plus distinguishes her group from the actual room, or the robot gal. But like they mentioned in the issue, the X-Men and Merle, Alaska, don’t quite trust each other. Quintin Quire is mad enough to make some poor decisions.
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We see Magik on a screen in the back, which is fun, as we head towards the main event.
I was thinking, isn’t there two more bad guys, how many pages are left of this comic? So, the solution is, time to double up. We meet Grigos and Marquez, thanks to the podcast, I might have a chance at remembering their names, or thanks to the website, I can at least refer back to this. These are two guys who think they have depowered Skrulls, thanks to that cursed Reed Richards! I think it would be a lot of fun if it turns out that she’s wrong, especially being a solipsist, and they actually are depowered Skrulls. Why not? They created a giant fire, which brought the firefighters, who they murdered, so they hate infrastructures.
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We see the X-Men fighting off the ship. Even if they win the day, and we know they will, without Magik’s teleportation abilities, they’re still stranded deep in the ocean.
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More fighting of the ship.
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Magik’s “Cyclops, what’s the plan” reaction meme drop!
I do love Cyclops being “I knew there was a trap, so of course, I sprung it.” He brought along a slew of sledgehammers, and they’re going to wreck their way out.
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He’s going to make whoever this is pay.
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Then, to my wonderful surprise, I got my 11th letter published! I didn’t think a letter for Age of Revelation Book of Revelations 1 would ever get printed, but it is nice to see it was received, plus, I guess we’ll be picking up on Apocalypse’s kids eventually. Hence the publishing of the letter. I see you.
Milwaukee. Issue opens with Greycrow robbing a bank, and getting shot up during his escape.
Merle, Alaska. Scott is happy it is spring time. Kwannon is surprised as Scott grew up in Alaska, and thinks he’ll be comfortable with the snow. He corrects her, that he was only here as a child. I suppose it is smart of him not to mention he lived there for a time with Madelyne and Baby Nathan, but that was like what, a few months? Better not to mention it.
Sheriff Robbins is missing, as Deputy Smith informs them.
Glob Herman is setting up a nice garden, as he’s producing too much for the X-Men to eat. He was going to give the food away, but Scott thought that would be suspicious. Which he’s right, as even I would think there was something wrong with the food, or that it was expiring soon. I like the older couple who arrives, they haven’t heard of the Shi’ar or optic blasts, which I would think the Shi’ar was known, but I guess if all you are getting from the news is alien attack after alien attack, they probably all sound alike. Before they arrive, Glob is visited by Piper and her mother, Rose. Piper’s twin sister, Robin, is working with 3K now, but it is nice that they’re keeping her in the loop. Well, now she’s in the loop, seems like someone should have sent an email or telepathic message to Rose about her other daughter.
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Cyclops asks Magik to track Sheriff Robbins’ blood to the source.
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Magik has located the nice sheriff, in the Gulf of Alaska.
Psylocke can’t make the mission as she has to check on Greycrow. Cyclops tells her to take Xorn with her, as Greycrow will need a healer. That’s nice of him.
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Gulf of Alaska. The Spirit of St. Augstine. We get a very cool team splash page.
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Things are a little too Raph. And a little too quiet.
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They locate Sheriff Robbins, she informs them it is a trap. I like how 70s Beast knows it is a trap, but they have a handy teleporter.
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Except, of course, Magik can’t teleport them, so ruh oh.
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The X-Men have to battle the ship.
Glob Herman gets hate crimed, which I immediately was worried about when Scott and Kwannon was discussing Glob having a garden, and I thought the room they hinted was his shop that was wrecked, but it was the police station (though it should be a sherif’s office, if they’re sheriffs and deputies, but okay). Glob is shot, and we don’t have resurrection anymore. Maybe he was just shot in the shoulder? I have my doubts.
Washington DC. The Office of National Emergency. We see Crimson Commando talking to new character, Maxime Danger. At first I thought she was WARDEN Ellis, but she’s a different lady. Danger is working with or for the Bureau of Prisons, so one would think Danger and Ellis would eventually be working together, right?
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Danger is all about branding, and wants her think tank to be called, The Danger Room. I guess Danger’s Room was too silly of a name.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 