The Danger Room is a fictional training facility appearing in

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

s published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

. It first appeared in ''The X-Men'' #1 (September 1963) and was created by

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...

and

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (; born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comics artist, comic book artist, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew ...

. The facility is depicted as built for the

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 (September 1963). Although initial ...

as part of the various incarnations of the

X-Mansion X-Mansion and Xavier Institute are the common names for a mansion and research institute appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The mansion is depicted as the private estate of Charles Francis Xavier and serves as the ba ...

. Its primary purpose is to train the X-Men, initially using traps, projectile firing devices, flamethrowers, and mechanical dangers such as presses and collapsing walls. These were replaced by

holographic Holography is a technique that allows a wavefront to be recorded and later reconstructed. It is best known as a method of generating three-dimensional images, and has a wide range of other uses, including data storage, microscopy, and interfe ...

s, when the Danger Room was rebuilt using

Shi'ar The Shi'ar ( ) are a fictional species of aliens appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Shi'ar Empire (or Imperium) is a vast collection of alien species, cultures, and worlds situated close to the Skrull and Kree Em ...

technology. It gained sentience in ''

Astonishing X-Men ''Astonishing X-Men'' is the name of four X-Men comic book series from Marvel Comics, the first two of which were Limited series (comics), limited series. The third volume, an ongoing series, began in 2004 in comics, 2004, with its first run writt ...

'' as Danger.

Publication history

An obstacle course in which the X-Men train appears in ''The X-Men'' #1 (September 1963), but the Danger Room is never mentioned by name. The name "Danger Room" is first used in ''The X-Men'' #2 (November 1963). According to X-Men writer/editor/co-creator

, "the Danger Room was

's idea. I thought it was great because we could always open with an action sequence if we needed to."

Early designs

In the early books it was filled with traps, projectile firing devices, flamethrowers, and mechanical dangers such as presses, collapsing walls and the like intended to challenge the trainee. Meanwhile, an observer is in the overhanging control booth managing the room's mechanisms to oversee the exercise while manually ensuring the subject's safety. Later the Danger Room was upgraded with machines and robots for the X-Men to fight against. After befriending the

the X-Men rebuilt the Danger Room with Shi'ar hard-light

technology. These upgrades were largely added by Beast. The Danger Room is located in the X-Mansion; every destruction of the latter led to a rebuilding, and usually upgrading, of the Danger Room. The training facility has endured extensive damage over the years, usually from X-Men training or X-Men going rogue, as Colossus did during The

Muir Island Saga The "Muir Island Saga" is a five-part Marvel Comics crossover event involving the X-Men and X-Factor, published in 1991. It was written by Chris Claremont and Fabian Nicieza. Plot After warnings from Forge and Banshee, the X-Men and Professor ...

Supervillains A supervillain, supervillainess or supercriminal is a major antagonist and variant of the villainous stock character who possesses Superpower (ability), superpowers. The character type is sometimes found in comic books and is often the primary ...

have dealt critical damage to it as well as taking over the facility, especially Arcade. The security and safety protocols that ensure the safety of anyone using the Danger Room have frequently been disrupted, tampered with by villains, failed, or have been completely negated in all the years of its use, each time happening more frequently as the room began to get more and more upgraded. It is suggested in the ''X-Men Official Guide'' that the objects in the Danger Room are holograms surrounded by force fields, supposedly confirmed in ''

'' when a student managed to kill himself by jumping from a holographic cliff face. It is also revealed that the Danger Room can display holograms in only 32-bit color.

Sentience

Gaining self-awareness

Joss Whedon Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon ( ; born June 23, 1964) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, comic book writer, and composer. He is best known as the creator of several television series: the supernatural drama ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer' ...

's ''

'', the Danger Room developed

self-awareness In philosophy of self, philosophy, self-awareness is the awareness and reflection of one's own personality or individuality, including traits, feelings, and behaviors. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While ...

. It is mentioned by

Wolverine The wolverine ( , ; ''Gulo gulo''), also called the carcajou or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species, member of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The w ...

as 'acting twitchy all semester'. The first thing it does is convince Wing, who has recently been depowered by Ord's cure, to kill himself. The next thing it does is take control of an old, broken

Sentinel Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring granit ...

robot and knock out all the psychics within the X-Mansion. During the Sentinel's attack,

Cyclops In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; , ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguished. In Hesiod's ''Th ...

orders Shadowcat and the students to go hide in the Danger Room for safety, finding the corpse of Wing. It reanimates Wing's corpse and attacks the students. Apart from Wing, there are no additional fatalities among the students. After being freed from its prison, it takes the form of a woman dubbed "Danger" and attacks the

. After defeating the X-Men, she travels to Genosha to kill Professor Charles Xavier. Xavier was revealed to have known of the Danger Room's sentience and chosen not to reveal it, much to the dismay of the X-Men who seem to view this deception as taking on one of

Magneto A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce periodic pulses of alternating current. Unlike a dynamo, a magneto does not contain a commutator to produce direct current. It is categorized as a form of alternator, ...

's former ideals. During the battle on Genosha, she takes control of one of Cassandra Nova's Wild Sentinels and engages Beast in a vicious and brutal fight while the other X-Men take on the Wild Sentinel. After Beast destroys her body, Danger's consciousness was presumed to still exist within the Wild Sentinel's conflicted consciousness.

Ord and the Breakworld

Danger later reappears in a new humanoid form, similar to her previous one, in which she infiltrated the headquarters of S.W.O.R.D. to speak with Ord of the Breakworld and offer her assistance. Danger and Ord both ended up on Breakworld, along with the X-Men and S.W.O.R.D., and after the robot encountered

Emma Frost Emma Grace Frost is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne (comics), John Byrne, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''The Uncanny ...

and the unconscious Cyclops, Emma told the robot that despite its supposed enmity it has let the mutants live too often, meaning it hasn't overcome its parent programming, so it cannot kill any mutant. Cyclops recovers, and Emma tells Danger to help the X-Men in Breakworld, and in exchange, it will be given Professor Xavier. Danger later attacks some of Breakworld's inhabitants and sides with the X-Men and S.W.O.R.D.

Revenge

Afterwards, S.W.O.R.D. takes Danger into custody. When the S.W.O.R.D. headquarters is destroyed during the Skrulls'

Secret Invasion "Secret Invasion" is a comic book fictional crossover, crossover storyline written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu, that ran through a self-titled eight-issue Limited series (comics), limited series and several ti ...

, Danger escapes and goes to Australia, taking on the form of an anthropologist from

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state of Victoria. Its ...

. She approaches Rogue in her disguise but is targeted by a low flying

salvage spacecraft, where she reveals who she really is and that she is going to use Rogue as a conduit so she can get her revenge on Professor Xavier. After being damaged by the crew, she warps the entire area with her holographic projections of past moments within Rogue's life as well as other famous moments from the X-Men's history. Xavier confronts Danger and she reveals she intended to make Rogue absorb all Xavier's powers and memories permanently, leaving the Professor crippled and useless. Xavier reveals that when she first said ''Where am I?'', Xavier consulted her Shi'ar makers who assured him it was not possible she could have gained self-awareness and that Xavier had no way of knowing what she was or would become. The Professor tried to free her but because she was really billions of lines of machine code, Xavier didn't know which lines to erase without lobotomizing her. Because of not knowing what she was capable of, if she had been freed, she might have killed his X-Men because she had the knowledge and power, so instead Xavier did nothing and watched her suffer. Xavier ends her suffering by repairing her. She then sides with Xavier, Rogue, and Gambit and takes out the Shi'ar salvage crew. Afterwards, with Xavier, she helps Rogue gain full control over her powers.

Utopia

Danger joins Rogue and Gambit to help the X-Men settle the unrest in San Francisco. She saves a child who mistakes her for a

Transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

. She comes to aid Rogue and Gambit during a fight with

Ares Ares (; , ''Árēs'' ) is the List of Greek deities, Greek god of war god, war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for ...

and later departs with the two to find Trance and any other students still out during the riots. After locating Trance, they are attacked by Ms. Marvel who manages to seriously damage her shoulder. After the events of Utopia, Danger is seen being repaired by Madison Jeffries when they are attacked by Emplate. Danger tries to defend Madison only to be further damaged by Emplate. After being repaired, at the request of Cyclops, she informs the inhabitants of Utopia who Emplate is. She works alongside Madison, Rogue and the X-Club on erasing Legion's many personalities, and is offered the position of warden of Utopia by Emma, which she accepts because it also allows her to study the best and the worst of what humanity has to offer. Danger's first job was to interrogate Scalphunter who was forced into bringing five Predator Xs to Utopia.

Armor Armour (Commonwealth English) or armor (American English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, e ...

confronts Danger, due to her being responsible for Wing's death. The get into a tussle. Danger was able to discover Armor's weakness and insists that they talk. Armor angrily expresses to Danger that her presence with the X-Men pisses on Wing's memory. Danger tells Armor, that she constantly reboots herself, but can't wipe out Wing's image in her memory. Armor is surprised that Danger can experience feelings of guilt, and she proceeds to tell her about Wing.

Necrosha

As warden of Utopia, some of the prisoners she guards include Empath, Sebastian Shaw and Donald Pierce. She uses her Virtual Reality technology in an attempt to rehabilitate them. During the invasion from

Selene In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Selene (; , meaning "Moon")''A Greek–English Lexicon's.v. σελήνη is the goddess and personification of the Moon. Also known as Mene (), she is traditionally the daughter ...

's forces, she detects an energy source, but then malfunctions and crashes. Then, Shinobi Shaw and Harry Leland (who have been resurrected by the T-O virus) appear and are ready to kill Shaw for preventing Selene's ascent to godhood. However, Danger is able to adapt to the mass increase and severed Shinobi's hand before Sebastian could be killed.

Second Coming

Danger appears to have been compromised as she is not aware that Pierce has free rein to sabotage Utopia's defenses.

Wolverine and the X-Men

Beast rebuilds the Westchester School at the behest of Wolverine at the aftermath of the Schism event. Built on the ruins of the previous Xavier Institute, the school is rechristened the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and is built with state of the art Shi'ar Technology, gifted by the current Emperor of the Shi'ar Empire Gladiator (Kallark) whose son Kid Gladiator is enrolled. The school incorporates a decentralized Danger Room that is integrated into the entire building itself instead of just one room.

All-New X-Factor

Danger reappears in the '' All-New X-Factor'' series. She appears as a prisoner of a member of the Thieves Guild, which Gambit is running, and when Gambit discovers this, Gambit orders her freed. After restoring her memory which was lost due to the imprisonment, Gambit invites her to join the new X-Factor team.

X-Men: Blue

Danger appears in the form of the Blackbird jet plane and is used as the main transport for the original time-displaced X-Men. During the '' Secret Empire'' storyline, Danger takes

Jean Grey Jean Elaine Grey-Summers is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''Uncanny X-Men, The X-Men'' #1 ...

and Jimmy Hudson to a prison stronghold to rescue their captured teammates. During the ensuing battle, she reveals her true form and projects holograms of the adult X-Men to keep the guards occupied.

Krakoa

When

Krakoa Krakoa is a fictional living island appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It first appeared in '' Giant-Size X-Men'' #1 and was created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. While often depicted as an antagonist, Krakoa later fe ...

became a sovereign nation for mutants, Madison Jeffries tried to bring Danger with him but the island rejected the home he tried to build for her. Madison was subsequently put into the Pit of Exile for breaking Krakoa's third law and Danger was forced to leave the island. Abandoned and alone, Danger joined and began working with the CIA's Dolores Ramirez and potentially the anti-mutant organization Orchis and is revealed to be behind the "X-Robots". It was later revealed by Third Eye's report that Danger is not a villain, but just a non-mutant being who has been abused and rejected by Krakoan society and abandoned by those meant to protect her.

Powers and abilities

As Danger gained self-awareness and adopted a more humanoid appearance, she has shown enhanced strength and durability, the abilities to create hard-light holographic projections that can affect entire areas, emit modulated energy waves for blasts, binding and protection, flight capability, mechanical regeneration & shapeshifting; with which to alternate her physical form as well as rebuild herself after her body is destroyed (at one point even rebuilding herself with butterfly-like wings which are soon destroyed by Beast), control and assimilate machinery and cybernetic components into herself via thought. She is able to bring other machines into self-awareness and upload her consciousness into foreign digitized or mechanical systems to build, operate or otherwise commandeer new bodies. Danger also possesses more detailed knowledge of the X-Men and their combat skills than any other source, having trained against them as the Danger Room for generations.

Danger Cave

With the Danger Room gone, the X-Men have resorted to using the empty room to train with their students. Also, the student Prodigy, using the borrowed knowledge from several X-Men, built a "Danger Cave" underneath the X-Mansion that is a giant stone room with a large metal circle control center. The Danger Cave is similar to the Danger Room, but what makes the Danger Cave unique is that it uses holograms to train the students by re-enacting renowned battles the X-Men were involved in, like Inferno, Broodworld, Planet X, or Onslaught, even going so far as to dress the participants up in what the X-Men wore at that time.

Analysis

Molly Louise Sharp in her dissertation on heroines and feminism wrote that "from a third wave feminist perspective, Danger seems to be constructed as a radical feminist character as viewed through a third wave feminist lens... Danger is born from a literal revolution of consciousness; she becomes newly sentient and realizes that she is forced into a role that is not fulfilling and in which she cannot reach her potential... Danger herself and her conflict with the X-Men are also similar to

radical feminism Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other ...

through

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...

essentialism Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their Identity (philosophy), identity. In early Western thought, Platonic idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an Theory of forms, "idea" or "f ...

, and

separatism Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...

. That Danger is a female character is crucial because there is no narrative reason that Danger needs to be female other than to align her with the feminism present in the rest of the text".

Reception

The Danger Room is well known and viewed as an iconic part of the X-Men mythos.

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

The Danger Room equivalent in the '' Age of Apocalypse'' reality was the Killing Zone. The facility was located in Mount Wundagore and was apparently destroyed by

Nemesis In ancient Greek religion and myth, Nemesis (; ) also called Rhamnousia (or Rhamnusia; ), was the goddess who personified retribution for the sin of hubris: arrogance before the gods. Etymology The name ''Nemesis'' is derived from the Greek ...

. Later, it was Dazzler who replaced the Danger Room and acted as a one-woman training facility for the fully fledged X-Men.

Ultimate Marvel

The

Ultimate Marvel Ultimate Marvel, later known as Ultimate Comics, was an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring reimagined and modernized versions of the company's superhero characters from the Ultimate Marvel Universe, later known as the ...

version of the Danger Room has similar technology, including smaller holographic training rooms in the hidden safehouses prepared for the

. However, these are prone to malfunctions, such as a fight sequence producing

Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

s instead of

ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

s (though to no less of an effect towards the latter intent).

What If?

Danger became Ultron's wife

In the alternate universe of ''What If? Astonishing X-Men'', the Danger Room got a body of her own and betrayed the X-Men. She eventually married

Ultron Ultron () is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema, the character first appeared as an unnamed character in ''The Avengers (comic book), The Avengers'' #5 ...

and the two conquered Earth, the

Empire and the entire universe.

In other media

Television

* The Danger Room appears in '' Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends''. * The Danger Room appears in '' X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men''. * The Danger Room appears in '' X-Men: The Animated Series''. * The Danger Room appears in the '' Spider-Man: The Animated Series'' episode "The Mutant Agenda". * The Danger Room appears in '' X-Men: Evolution''. * The Danger Room appears in '' Wolverine and the X-Men''. * The Danger Room appears in ''

X-Men '97 ''X-Men '97'' is an American animated television series created by Beau DeMayo for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the X-Men. It is a revival of '' X-Men: The Animated Series'' (1992–1997) produced b ...

''.

Film

The Danger Room appears in the ''X-Men'' film series. * The Danger Room was meant to appear in ''

'' (2000) and was alluded to in '' X2'' (2003), but was deleted in the former film and was scrapped in the latter film due to budget concerns. * The Danger Room appears in '' X-Men: The Last Stand'' (2006). * The Danger Room appears in '' X-Men: Apocalypse'' (2016).

Video games

* The Danger Room appears as a stage in ''

'' (1993). * The Danger Room appears as

's stage in '' X-Men: Children of the Atom''. * The Danger Room appears as Cyclops's stage in '' X-Men: Mutant Academy''. * The Danger Room appears as Beast's stage in '' X-Men: Mutant Academy 2''. * The Danger Room appears in '' X-Men Legends'' and '' X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse''. In both games, players can use the room for training as well as gaining levels, items, new powers, and rare character-exclusive equipment. * The Danger Room appears as the training stage for '' Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds''. * The Danger Room and Danger appear in '' Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order'' via the "Rise of the Phoenix" DLC, with the latter voiced by

Laura Bailey Laura Bailey (born May 28, 1981) is an American voice actress. She made her voice acting debut as Trunks (Dragon Ball), Kid Trunks in the Funimation dub of ''Dragon Ball Z'' and has since voiced List of Gunslinger Girl characters#First Generati ...

. * The Danger Room appears as a playable game mode in '' Marvel: Future Fight''.

Miscellaneous

The Danger Room and Danger are featured as a wizard mode in Stern's X-Men Pinball machines.

References

External links

*
UncannyXmen.net Spotlight on Danger
* * {{Joss Whedon 1963 in comics Characters created by Jack Kirby Characters created by Stan Lee Characters created by Joss Whedon Comics characters introduced in 2005 Female characters in comics Fictional elements introduced in 1963 Fictional gynoids Fictional rooms Fictional technology Fiction about holography Marvel Comics supervillains Marvel Comics female supervillains Fiction about virtual reality X-Men Marvel Comics objects