Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 #164: "Binary Star!"
Carol Danvers goes Binary for the first time. Now she must choose her future, while the X-Men are still in mortal danger from the Brood.
The issue opens with a repeat of the last image of the previous issue, but from a different perspective. It opens with the Brood's fighting ships firing warning shoots at Lilandra's yacht. The Queen Mother tells the Brood to take everyone alive and unharmed, they are hosts for her children. Only Wolverine is to be killed as he managed to kill the egg inside of him.
Then we switch to Lilandra and the X-Men. The ship that they are on is a pleasure ship so it barley has any weapons on it. Wolverine, Carol Danvers and Colossus head for the weapons control center. Danvers and Wolverine teaming up again. They reach the control center and realize that it is fairly easy to operate. Danvers tells the other two to treat it like a computer game. Still, Colossus is uneasy with the thought of killing other living creatures. Wolverine explains to him that they have no other choice. Danvers blows up one of the Brood's ships and so does Wolverine, but Colossus is unwilling to kill therefore he misses and reacts too slow.
In another part of the ship Cyclops uses his blasts to fire at the Brood. But, he fires in a none-lethal way. Strom's powers are less effective in space, still she uses lightning on the ships, which are living creatures, to try and stun them. Storm has sworn never to take a life. However, her lightning powers get out of control in space and they destroy a few of the ships, killing everyone on them and the ships themselves.
Lilandra's yacht takes a serious hit and it needs to be repaired. Shadowcat volunteers for the mission, if someone shoots at her, she can phase and the blasts will go through her, and she won't be harmed. Cyclops and Colossus are worried about her, but she brushes them off, saying it is the least dangerous for her of all people. So Shadowcat is a Star Wars fan, stating that space didn't look like it does on those movies, I assume she talks about the movies and not comics.
Suddenly, we see that Carol Danvers isn't feeling so well. She started seeing impossible colors and images, but they disappeared. She thinks its stress or a delayed reaction to what the Brood did to her and she brushes it off.
The Brood notice Shadowcat in space and shoot at her to stun her. But, like she planned, the beams simply goes through her. She is scared, thinking what happens if her powers will fail her. On the one hand she is just a kid, on the other hand, she is an X-Men.
The Brood hunters closing in on the yacht from all directions. The fire power that the ship and the X-Men have is not enough. Especially since Storm refuses to use her powers again as she doesn't want to kill.
Danvers is getting worse. She is sweating and feeling strange sensations. She realizes that what the Brood did to her, the evolutionary manipulation, must have woken something inside of her, but she does not know what it is.
Back in space Kitty gets hit from metal shards. She is bleeding, but she insists on finishing the mission. Without her repairs they cannot fly at warp space, which I guess is another term for super speed, or light speed.
Then Carol Danvers transforms. The issue explains that even though Rogue has stolen her powers, Danvers still have the combined genes of a human and a Kree. The Brood experiments on her simply unlocked those genes' potential. She turns into light in wonder not fear. She's probably used to having powers, and she immediately uses her new light power to strike the Brood's ships. She goes Binary for the first time.
Shadowcat finishes her job and tells Lilandra to take them into wrap space. Lilandra does so without hesitation, but the process seems to leave Shadowcat behind.
Back in New York, Charles Xavier and Illyana, are in the new X-Men mansion that has been rebuilt. Superfast obviously. But, it is now just a mansion, not Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. He is not himself since the Uncanny X-Men has been taken. He had a dream of a world where mutants and humans lived and worked together in peace, but now the dreamer is gone. Illyana and Xavier are the only two people in the big mansion. Illyana wonders if she's a mutant too. She was kidnapped and held prisoner by a demon lord. No one knows for sure what happened there, but she has grown older in the demons realm. Xavier could try and break or pass her mental barrier, but he does not care enough. He simply wants to be left alone.
I am not sure what happened to Shadowcat, but I am sure that Danvers saved her. This is an interesting look. She looks like the sun, and even though I read people complaining that she looks like the Phoenix, I don't really see it. Maybe the movie version of Phoenix.
I have to note that her hair design seems very similar to that in the movie. Sure it was just one scene, but it looks so similar that it is super cool.
Danvers has no problem using her new powers and she charges the ship's engine so they can be on their way. She uses her new power to its fullest and now she is weak. Lilandra orders everyone to go to sleep so they can gather their strength for the work that needs to be done.
Danvers explains her new powers. She doesn't have cosmic awareness, she is physically one with the universe. She can tap into a white hole and use its power. Her perception has also changed because of it. Just like cosmic awareness changes perception of reality. Colossus says that she is now a mutant, she has always been a friend and he asks her to join the X-Men. She is flattered by the offer, but there is a problem with it. It will require her to return to Earth.
She explains how she always wanted to be an astronaut and explore space. As Ms. Marvel she came close to that, but now she truly has the power to accomplish what she always wanted. Returning to Earth means abandoning that desire, following it means leaving everything and everyone she loves behind. Earth was home to Carol Danvers, but for a long time she has not been Carol Danvers, Earth has no place for who she is now, Binary.
Nightcrawler explains to Cyclops that Shadowcat has made a remarkable recovery. She was dying yesterday, but now she seems fine. Wolverine gets angry when Nightcrawler and Cyclops want answers. They still don't know about the eggs. Wolverine leaves instead of talking to them about it.
In another place on the ship Storm tries to use her powers. She feels a terrible pain and falls from her flight. She understands that something is tearing them apart from the inside. She thinks that she is losing her soul because she is too far away from Earth. She feels a stranger to herself. She realizes that there is a child inside of her. She doesn't understand how. She uses her powers to disguise her movements and leaves with a smaller ship.
At last Wolverine tells the X-Men the truth, though reluctantly. It hurts to admit their defeat. That the Queen implanted an egg, a queen inside each of them. When it will hatch, it will transform them into a Brood Queen and use their genetic potential to pass down to her own children.
Now it is Binary's turn to loss it. She promises vengeance on the Brood and leaves the ship. Opening the air lock, which means all of the X-Men fly into space and their impending death. Not a great plan or move. But they are all beyond grief or logic now.
In this issue Carol Danvers gets her second superhero persona, Binary. This is the result of the "evolutionary manipulation" that the Brood used on her which unlooked her genetic potential. It seems like now that she is Binary, she wants to stay in space. Earth has no place for her, especially since now she doesn't feel any real connection to it. She doesn't remember anything with real emotion. Still, she has enough emotion left to get angry at the end of the issue when realizes that her friends, the X-Men, will probably die. Although in her anger she almost kills them herself. I know that there are complaints over the internet that Binary's powers and her looks in these issues resemble that of the Phoenix. Maybe a bit. It seems more similar in the movies. I don't really see it, but I guess it is a valid criticism. She does seem a bit deus ex-machina in this scenario. Her response and reaction seem similar to that of Storm. I did like everything about the issue including the development of Danvers, so I am going to give this new persona the benefit of the doubt and see how it evolves.
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