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The Danger Room is a fictional training facility^[1] appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It first appeared in The X-Men #1 (September 1963) and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The facility is depicted as built for the X-Men as part of the various incarnations of the X-Mansion. 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 holographics, when the Danger Room was rebuilt using Shi’ar technology. It gained sentience in Astonishing X-Men as Danger.

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 Stan Lee, “the Danger Room was Jack Kirby‘s idea. I thought it was great because we could always open with an action sequence if we needed to.”^[2]

In early stories, the Danger Room us filled with traps, projectile firing devices, flamethrowers, and mechanical dangers such as presses, collapsing walls and the like intended to challenge the trainee. An observer remains is in the overhanging control booth, managing the room’s mechanisms to oversee the exercise while ensuring the subject’s safety.^[3] Later, the Danger Room was upgraded with machines and robots for the X-Men to fight against. After befriending the Shi’ar, the X-Men rebuilt the Danger Room with Shi’ar hard-light holographic technology.

In Joss Whedon‘s Astonishing X-Men, the Danger Room developed self-awareness. The first thing it does is convince Wing, who has recently lost his powers to Ord‘s cure, to kill himself.^[6] Next, the Danger Room takes control of a Sentinel and knocks out every psychic in the X-Mansion. During the Sentinel’s attack, Cyclops orders Shadowcat and the students to hide in the Danger Room, where they find Wing’s corpse.^[7] Apart from Wing, there are no additional fatalities among the students. After being freed from its prison, the Danger Room takes a humanoid form called Danger and attacks the X-Men. After defeating the X-Men, she travels to Genosha to kill Professor X, who knew of the Danger Room’s sentience and chose to keep it secret.^[8] Danger controls one of the Wild Sentinels and confronts Beast, which ends in Danger being destroyed.^[9]

Danger later reappears in a new humanoid form, similar to her previous one, in which she infiltrates the headquarters of S.W.O.R.D. to speak with Ord and offer her assistance.^[10] Later, Danger encounters Emma Frost, who informs her that she has not harmed mutants as often and thus has not completely overcome its programming. Frost tells Danger to help the X-Men in Breakworld, and in exchange, she will be given Professor X.^[11]

When the S.W.O.R.D. headquarters is destroyed, Danger escapes to Australia, posing as an anthropologist at Melbourne University. She approaches Rogue in her disguise, but is targeted by a low-flying Shi’ar salvage spacecraft.^[12] 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.^[13] 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 gained sentience, Xavier consulted her creators, 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. Xavier tried to free Danger, but did not know how to do so without crippling her. After Xavier successfully repairs her, Danger sides with Xavier, Rogue, and Gambit and takes out the Shi’ar salvage crew.^[14]

Danger is offered the position of warden of Utopia by Emma Frost, which she accepts because it also allows her to study the best and the worst of what humanity has to offer.^[15]

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 Shi’ar technology, gifted by Gladiator. The school incorporates a decentralized Danger Room that is integrated into the entire building instead of just one room.^{[volume and issue needed]}

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; when Gambit discovers this, he orders her to be freed. After restoring her memory, which was lost due to the imprisonment, Gambit invites Danger to join the new X-Factor team.^[16]

When Krakoa became a sovereign nation for mutants, Madison Jeffries attempts to bring Danger with him. However, the island rejects the home he had build for her. Jeffries is put into the Pit of Exile for breaking Krakoa’s laws, while Danger is forced to leave the island.^[17] Abandoned and alone, Danger begins working with the CIA.^[18]

With the Danger Room gone, the X-Men resorted to using the empty room to train with their students. The student Prodigy, using the borrowed knowledge from several X-Men, built a “Danger Cave” underneath the X-Mansion. The Danger Cave is similar to the Danger Room, but it uses holograms to train the students by re-enacting battles that the X-Men were involved in.^{[citation needed]}

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 and 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 and/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.^{[citation needed]}

The Danger Room is well known and viewed as an iconic part of the X-Men mythos.^{[19][better source needed]}

The Danger Room equivalent in the Age of Apocalypse reality was the Killing Zone, a facility located in Mount Wundagore.^[20] After the Killing Zone is destroyed by Nemesis, its role is fulfilled by Dazzler, who acts as a solo trainer for the X-Men.^{[volume and issue needed]}

The Ultimate Marvel version of the Danger Room has similar technology, including smaller holographic training rooms in the hidden safehouses prepared for the X-Men. However, these are prone to malfunctions, such as a fight sequence producing Hasidic rabbis instead of ninjas (though to no less of an effect towards the latter intent).^{[volume and issue needed]}

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 and the two conquered the universe together.^[21]

• The Danger Room appears in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.^[22]
• The Danger Room appears in X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men.^[23]
• The Danger Room appears in X-Men: The Animated Series.^[24]
• The Danger Room appears in the Spider-Man: The Animated Series episode “The Mutant Agenda”.
• The Danger Room appears in X-Men: Evolution.^[25]
• The Danger Room appears in Wolverine and the X-Men. Additionally, Danger’s design is used for a dystopian future version of Master Mold.^[26]
• The Danger Room appears in X-Men ’97.^[27]

The Danger Room appears in the X-Men film series.

• The Danger Room was meant to appear in X-Men (2000) and was alluded to in X2 (2003), but was deleted in the former film and 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).

• The Danger Room appears as a stage in X-Men (1993).^[28]
• The Danger Room appears in X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse.^[29]
• The Danger Room appears as Cyclops‘s stage in X-Men: Children of the Atom.
• The Danger Room appears as Cyclops’s stage in X-Men: Mutant Academy,^[30] as Beast‘s stage in X-Men: Mutant Academy 2,^[31] and in X-Men: Next Dimension.^[32]
• The Danger Room appears in X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, voiced by Zachary Quarles.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[28]
• The Danger Room appears in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order via the “Rise of the Phoenix” DLC, with the A.I. voiced by Laura Bailey.^[33]
• The Danger Room appears as a playable game mode in Marvel: Future Fight.
• The Danger Room appears as a playable game mode in Marvel Strike Force.^[34]
• Danger will appear as a playable character in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls.^{[35][better source needed]}

• The Danger Room is featured as a wizard mode in Stern’s X-Men Pinball machines.^[36]
• The Danger Room appears as part of a replica of the Xavier Institute created by Airbnb.^[37]
• The Danger Room appears as part of the Lego Xavier Institute, released in 2024.^[38]

• Danger at Marvel.com
• UncannyXmen.net Spotlight on Danger
• Danger Room on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki
• Danger on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki