TITLE: Danger Rooms

Summary

The story begins with Hank McCoy, aka the Beast, training a young student at the Xavier Institute. The student has the unfortunate appearance of a twisted bird, and has dubbed himself as the Beak. Outside, a mob rallies at the vandalized gates, angry over Professor Xavier's shocking confession that he is a mutant.

McCoy is getting ready for a romantic date with his girlfriend, Trish Tilby. But as he listens to Trish's message on his answering machine, his spirit is crushed when she explains why she has to break off their relationship. In a less than noble move, Trish explains that her career in the media would not be able to weather their relationship.

Outside, Wolverine is meditating to help recover from the physical damage he received in his recent battle with Cassandra Nova. Jean Grey approaches to cry on his shoulder about Cyclops' recent brooding. Ever since Cyclops and Apocalypse merged and separated (see X-Men: The Search for Cyclops), Scott has become distant and detached. In a move borne out of desperation and loneliness, she kisses Wolverine. While he doesn't push her away, he ends the interlude by walking away, stating that the two of them would never work out.

Back in the mansion, Hank McCoy and Professor X talk about Cassandra Nova's DNA, which happens to be an exact match to Professor X's. In a major twist, Xavier's look turns sinister, and psi-blasts McCoy.

While Professor X is assaulting Beast, he explains that he is really under Cassandra's control. She was the one who "outed" Professor X, to bring down the wrath of the homo sapiens. It was simply another way for her to bring about the destruction of homo superior.

McCoy eventually fights back, and begins to gain the upper hand. In a particularly cruel maneuver, Cassandra manipulates the well-meaning Beak, who accidentally walked in on their tussle. She psi-controls Beak to attack McCoy into a bloody mess. Cassandra also explains that she and Xavier had met before in the past, and claims that he tried to kill her before. She now wants to destroy his dream while he has to watch in horror.

Cassandra moves on and continues her charade, and plots to further her goal to extinguish all mutants from the face of the earth. She passes on the responsibilities of running the Institute to Jean, and looks upward at the Shi'ar spaceship, where Lilandra is waiting to meet Xavier. Cassandra menacingly comments that the ship can cause major damage, in the wrong hands...

Opinion

First off, the plot twist was kept quiet, something that is extremely difficult to pull off in the Internet era. Rumors fly around all the time, with greater accuracy than one would suspect. I can't say that this wasn't leaked out, but I hadn't heard anything prior to reading the comic. The surprise worked well, and made this issue a lot of fun to read.

I was also impressed that Morrison made it possible for me to be sympathetic towards a mutant named the Beak. I felt sorry for the Beak, both for his lot in life, and for the way he was violated and used as Cassandra's weapon.

Morrison's dialogue makes this issue. The conversations flow so naturally, it reads more like a play or a novel than like a comic book. The plot advancement also moves at a comfortable pace. Morrison is starting to hit on all cylinders with his take on the X-Men.

The layouts, on the other hand, is not altogether bad, but does not always flow well. The transitions from panel to panel are occasionally unclear, and may open up certain events for interpretation. For example, on one panel, Jean and Logan are standing faced apart. Turn the page, and the two are clinched at the lips, with both Jean and Logan holding each other. Who kissed whom?

Another example is when Hank introduces the Beak to the other students. The following panels show a bunch of students laughing out loud. But are they laughing at the Beak? Neither Hank or the Beak are visible in the panels where everyone is laughing.

Aside from the choppy flow, the art is pretty decent. I particularly like Van Sciver's version of the newly evolved Beast. The Beak is also grotesque and awkward, which is very appropriate for the character.

I also appreciated the fact that the Beak was wearing a Revolting Cocks t-shirt under his sweatshirt, given his chicken-like appearance. Van Sciver also got away with a tiny bit of mischief in one panel of the Beak. Since the open sweatshirt covers up some of his t-shirt, just four unfortunate letters were in display. This is something that would never have gotten by the Comics Code Authority...

Conclusion

Wow, what can I say? Morrison's twist midway in this issue caught me by surprise. The preceding Cassandra Nova three-parter concluded in a way that didn't give away this issue's secret. Professor Xavier's admission that he was a mutant made a certain amount of sense, even in the face of the predictable public backlash.

The New X-Men is exactly that - new. The current direction is both exciting and fresh, qualities that have been missing from the X-Men for quite some time. Marvel's current renaissance has produced quite a few winners, and the New X-Men under Morrison is one of the better X-titles today. Highly recommended!