X-Men Vol 1 110

The story opens with the X-Men enjoying a casual game of baseball on the school lawn. They are expecting a telephone repairman to stop by, so when they take a break from the game Moira returns to the X-Mansion to await the doorbell. But the “repairman” whom she opens the door for is really the mercenary Warhawk. He takes Moira down with a tranquilizer dart and immediately heads for the Danger Room. Once there, he rigs a device into the circuitry of the control console. As he does this, He receives a telepathic command from an unidentified person who reminds him that he will only be allowed to retain his sanity if he succeeds in his mission.

The X-Men finish up their game and Cyclops instructs them all to head to the Danger Room for a training session. As the rest of the team depart, Jean makes an excuse to Professor X, saying she isn’t sure if she wants to officially rejoin the X-Men. In her private thoughts, however, she admits to herself that her newly expanded power levels unnerve her, especially the fact that using them seems to act as an opiate: she craves the good feeling from using them. As Jean and the Professor are talking, Warhawk gets the drop on them, knocking them both out with gas.

Downstairs in the Danger Room, the X-Men are alarmed to discover that they are now locked inside with the various traps running wild and the safety measures apparently disengaged. The team is forced to fight for their lives. Cyclops flips the emergency shutoff switch but it has been deactivated. Pressed for options, he orders Nightcrawler to teleport himself and Wolverine outside and shut off the Danger Room in the control room. Nightcrawler complies, but he still lack of experience teleporting with “passengers.” The strain causes both of them to black out momentarily in the outer hallway.

Cyclops, Storm, Banshee and Colossus fight for their lives against training programs that gradually escalate in complexity, becoming more difficult to fight off the more they fight. Wolverine revives and kills the master power to the Danger Room. He’s attacked by Warhawk. Although caught off guard, his claws are able cut through Warhawk's steel skin. Cyclops’ optic beams blow open the Danger Room doors and the trapped X-Men emerge. Warhawk attempts to use his gas bombs on them, but he discovers too late that they have been stealthily confiscated by Nightcrawler. He is then knocked out by Colossus.

Soon afterward, the police come to take Warhawk away. The X-Men have changed into their civilian clothes and Captain Delaney asks how a group of school kids were able to capture a powerful super-villain? Scott remarks that they just got lucky. Jean realizes she will need the Professor’s help to rein in her new powers and announces her decision to officially rejoin the X-Men. When Scott wonders aloud who sent Warhawk after them, the Professor tells his students that he was unable to pull that information from Warhawk's mind (He succumbed to insanity after his defeat, much like his paymaster told him he would.) Xavier cautions the X-Men there may be new threats coming their way. But Wolverine boasts that they aren't pushovers and that they will be ready to face anyone who messes with them. This gets an approving cheer from his fellow X-Men.

Notes

It will be revealed in #130 that Warhawk was dispatched on this mission by Sebastian Shaw's Hellfire Club. Warhawk's sabotage of the Danger Room is more extensive than the team knows. He managed to plant bugs (listening and viewing devices) around the room which will enable the Hellfire Club to study the X-Men's abilities, strategies and weaknesses. It can be reasonably assumed that the telepathic message Warhawk receives comes from Emma Frost, the White Queen and resident telepath of the Hellfire Club. It's possible (though never actually confirmed) that the Hellfire Club discovered the X-Men's secret base of operation through their association with Stephen Lang, whose Sentinels were able to detect and track the presence of mutants. The Hellfire Club financed Lang's Project: Armageddon using the name "the Council of the Chosen."
The X-Mansion contains super high-tech equipment, including Cerebro, a secret hanger and launching pad for a state-of-the-art jet, and the Danger Room itself. Various members of the X-Men are routinely depicted effecting repairs on their super-sophisticated equipment, demonstrating that they have advanced knowledge of technical systems. Thus, it's a little baffling to think that they must rely on a phone company repairman to fix their phones.
Phoenix officially joins the new X-Men in this issue. The contradiction in the story (two issues ago, Phoenix saved the entire universe and just recently took on Firelord by herself, but in this issue she is quickly taken out by a supervillain of a far lower power grade than her own) was a deliberate move on writer Claremont's part and was part of the larger, long-range story to turn "Jean Grey" into Dark Phoenix.
The X-Men's new house guest, Lilandra, is absent throughout Warhawk's home invasion. Her whereabouts during this event go unexplained.
references: X-Men #105, X-Men #106, X-Men #107 (x2), X-Men #108, X-Men #101, X-Men #102, X-Men #103, and Iron Fist #15

Trivia

this is the first of numerous issues that opens with the X-Men playing baseball

Links and References

Official Marvel Index to the X-Men #6 - See for further referencing
Official Marvel Index to the X-Men (Vol. 2) #2 - See for further referencing

References

X-Men Vol 1 110

Appearing in "The 'X'-Sanction"

Synopsis for "The 'X'-Sanction"

Notes

Trivia

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