New X-Men #117
New X-Men #117 is the first appearance of two of Grant Morrison's most durable additions to the X-Men mythos — the avian outcast Beak (Barnell Bohusk) and the bio-paraffin-encased Glob Herman (Robert Herman) — both of whom went on to roles well beyond Morrison's run, from the Exiles to the Krakoa era. The issue is also the dramatic hinge-point of the 'Imperial' arc: Beast discovers that Cassandra Nova has been puppeteering Professor Xavier's body all along, and Nova's psychic manipulation of Beak — forcing the student to beat his own mentor senseless with a titanium baseball bat — is one of the most viscerally unsettling scenes in Morrison's entire tenure, cementing Nova as a genuinely monstrous villain. By closing with Nova, wearing Xavier's face, departing Earth aboard a Shi'ar vessel to lay waste to a galactic empire, the issue escalates the stakes of the Morrison run to a cosmic scale that few X-Men stories had attempted in years.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue sits within the opening stretch of Grant Morrison's landmark New X-Men run, which relaunched the title beginning with #114 in mid-2001 under editor Mark Powers with Joe Quesada as editor-in-chief. Regular series artist Frank Quitely provided the cover — a pattern he maintained throughout the run — while interior art duties for this issue were handled by Ethan Van Sciver, penciling over his own layouts with inks by Prentiss Rollins and colors by Hi-Fi Design; Van Sciver served as the primary fill-in and arc artist alongside Quitely throughout Morrison's tenure. The story title is 'Danger Rooms,' and it was published on September 26, 2001, with an October 2001 cover date.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Beak (Barnell Bohusk), a Rotterdam-born mutant whose avian physiology grants him clumsy flight and hollow bones; created by Grant Morrison and Ethan Van Sciver.
- First appearance of Glob Herman (Robert Herman), a mutant student whose body is composed of translucent bio-paraffin wax, leaving his skeleton and organs visible; also created by Morrison and Van Sciver.
- First cameo appearances of several other new Xavier Institute students: Cephalophod (Molly Stanwick), Crater (Erik Hallgrimsson), Pako (Cirlio Crisologo), and Forearm (Marcus Tucker).
- Beast discovers that Cassandra Nova has been inhabiting and controlling Professor Xavier's body; Nova then uses Xavier's telepathy to force Beak to attack Beast with a baseball bat, leaving him comatose.
- Cassandra Nova, still posing as Professor Xavier, departs Earth aboard a Shi'ar starship alongside Empress Lilandra, setting up the 'Imperial' arc's cosmic horror scenario.
- Interior art is by Ethan Van Sciver (pencils) with Prentiss Rollins (inks) and Hi-Fi Design (colors); the cover is by Frank Quitely and Tim Townsend.
- The issue has been collected in the New X-Men Omnibus (2006), the New X-Men by Grant Morrison trade paperback series (Book 1, 2011), and the New X-Men Modern Era Epic Collection Vol. 1: E Is for Extinction (2024).
- Glob Herman later appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) in a cameo role, making him one of the earliest Morrison-era characters to reach the screen.
Cast · 27 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Following Xavier's revelation that he is running a school for mutants, enrollment skyrockets and protestors assemble at the gates. Hank discovers that Cassandra Nova has taken over Xavier's body, but is rendered comatose before he can tell the others.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).