X-Men 97 just brought back a little-known villain created 21 years ago by a controversial writer

After an epic opening salvo, X-Men ’97 season 2 has settled into the villain-of-the-week format that the original Animated Series did so well. Eventually, we’ll get back to Apocalypse and his evil schemes, but for now, why not have some fun?

Last week’s episode followed Wolverine and a team of Weapon X alumni (and Morph) as they returned to the laboratory that made them — only to encounter a terrifying alien threat. Episode 6, “Danger.exe,” takes a similar approach, introducing another new villain from X-Men history for our heroes to take on while the true evil simmers somewhere offscreen.

But this time around, X-Men ’97‘s villain of the week is particularly interesting, not just because of the dangers they pose, but because of who created them.

The X-Men vs. the Danger Room

If you’ve ever watched or read a single piece of X-Men content, you’re likely familiar with the Danger Room. The shapeshifting training facility built by Charles Xavier to challenge his X-Men typically plays a role in most stories about the mutant team. But did you know that the Danger Room is also an evil sentient AI?

That’s what happens in X-Men ’97 episode 6. The Danger Room turns against the X-Men, first by simply raising the stakes of its training exercises from tough to deadly, and ultimately by transforming itself into a powerful, flying robot named Danger.

In the episode, this mostly serves as motivation for Polaris to embrace her role as the daughter of Magneto and wield her powers of magnetism against Danger, while also effectively forcing the X-Men to leave Xavier’s mansion and set up shop at the newly christened X Corp tower. By the end of the episode, Danger is seemingly dead. However, the history of this evil AI in the Marvel universe is much more complex.

The origins of Danger

While the Danger Room dates back to the very first X-Men comic, published in 1963, Danger is much more recent. The character first appeared in Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #9, released in March, 2005 and written by Joss Whedon. Whedon is obviously a controversial figure in most fandom spaces due to the allegations against him regarding his behavior on the set of both Justice League and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He’s essentially been exiled from Hollywood since 2021.

That said, if you can separate the art from the artist, Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run a fun one that goes to some fascinating places. It also serves as the introduction for Danger.

Image: Marvel Comics

In the comic, it’s revealed that at some point earlier, Professor X was upgrading the Danger Room when it suddenly spoke to him. Turns out, the room’s advanced computer system had become self-aware. Professor X being the shady dude that he is, however, he chose to keep this a secret from everyone else and essentially enslave the Danger Room AI to keep training the X-Men. Of course, this soon backfires.

When Xavier’s mansion and the Danger Room are destroyed while Professor X is out of the picture, Beast rebuilds it, unaware that the AI needs to be kept separate from the rest of the compound. The Danger Room quickly takes control of the entire mansion and then summons an Omega Sentinel to distract the X-Men, using the opportunity to bully a young mutant into killing themselves. This action goes against the AI’s prime directive of not harming mutants, which causes it to completely go rogue and rebuild itself as a humanoid robot called Danger.

Image: Marvel Comics

Danger’s main goal is to get revenge on Professor X by killing him, which it immediately tries to do but fails and is temporarily destroyed. In the years that followed, Danger has resurfaced several times, mostly to once again try to kill Xavier, even teaming up with Emma Frost at one point to accomplish that goal.

When Danger will return again in a future episode of X-Men ’97 remains to be seen, but this version of the killer robot doesn’t seem quite so evil — at least for now.

X-Men ’97 is streaming on Disney Plus.

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