The current era of X-Men stories has allowed countless characters to be brought back to the fold, ranging from the obscure to the long-dead -- each restored and finding new roles in the new mutant society. But there's one former enemy turned surprising ally who's been missing, and her presence could be a genuine game-changer in Krakoa's longest-running conflict.

Introduced as the living embodiment of the Danger Room, the robotic Danger was a quietly important figure in the lives of Marvel's mutants for a decade before going off the radar in X-Men: Blue. But her return could be the secret weapon needed to potentially save -- or doom -- Krakoa.

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As revealed in the original Astonishing X-Men series (by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday), when Charles Xavier upgraded the Danger Room training facility with Shi'ar technology, the training facility evolved and gained an artificial intelligence. But Xavier -- the only one aware of this transformation -- kept this a secret, reasoning that the Danger Room was needed to further train his students. When Beast rebuilt the subsystems following the events of New X-Men however, the room became increasingly sentient, gaining control over other robotic creations and even gaining the ability to craft a body. Dubbing itself Danger, it became a fierce enemy of the X-Men for a time. But after a small contingent of mutants helped protect her from Shi'ar pirates, Danger became more involved in the world of the X-Men.

On Utopia, she served as the warden of the X-Brig, the mutant's prison for dangerous foes. She worked alongside the scientifically minded X-Club, and was a part of Cyclops' forces following the events of Schism. After the fall of Utopia, she ended up working with the new incarnation of X-Factor (even ending up in a love triangle with Cypher and Warlock), before becoming an ally of the time-displaced original X-Men. Danger was last seen in Madripoor, where she and Polaris volunteered to serve as the mentors and guardians to the Raksha, a group of local young mutant vigilantes inspired by the actions of Wolverine in his Patch disguise.

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It was an interesting place to leave the character, with Danger more or less embracing the role she'd previously been forced into, and becoming exactly what Charles Xavier had hoped for: someone dedicated to training and assisting young mutants. Her absence in the current era of X-Men may not have been obvious at first, but at this point, it's become a potentially game-changing development. The Marauders have been using Madripoor as a frequent drop-spot, with many of their battles against Homines Verendi taking place on the island. The undercurrent of the entire Krakoa era has also been the inevitable war between naturally evolving mutants and the advent of artificial intelligence, which can evolve at a much faster rate.

The pending conflict with Nimrod has been a long time coming and has largely defined this era as the ultimate threat to the mutants. Other semi-robotic allies like the Omega-Sentinel were reprogrammed into allies of Nimrod and its creator Orchis. But Danger has remained off the board, quietly off to the side and hiding in Madripoor. She hasn't played a prominent role in the current era of X-stories, and if she were to return at her full power she could prove to be a vital ally. Danger could prove to have enough advanced and alien mechanics within her system to be a genuine threat to Nimrod and Orchis.

On the other hand, Danger and her very specific knowledge of the X-Men and their combat skills and weaknesses could make her a crucial weapon against Krakoa that Nimrod could use against the mutants. She could have even been taken down off-panel and used for that purpose -- explaining why and how Nimrod is already so effective at dealing with the X-Men's attacks. Danger could be a serious game-changer in the mutant/AI war that's been brewing, and yet remains off the board, at least for the time being.

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