Astonishing X-Men #5

In "Ghost Box," the X-Men adjust to their new San Francisco base when Storm arrives unexpectedly—fresh from Wakanda, bored and tasked by T'Challa to evaluate the team’s methods through Mutantes Sans Frontieres. With the team in new street clothes to blend in, they’re called to a bizarre crime scene: a body burned beyond recognition, its genetic code unlike anything they’ve seen, and a set of notebooks pointing to Chaparanga Beach, the forgotten graveyard of starships.

In "Ghost Box Part Two," the X-Men close in on a mysterious killer at a derelict spaceship on Chapanga Beach, where he’s constructing a device he calls the Ghost Box. As tension mounts, Cyclops makes a brutal call to destroy the ship with Storm’s lightning—leaving her shaken by the cost, even as the man survives, choosing silence over answers, his final words hinting only at the enigmatic "Annex."

In "Ghost Box Part Three," the X-Men confront the mystery of a strange device recovered at Chapanga Beach, leading them to Agent Brand and the revelation of a Ghost Box—a portal to parallel worlds. With the coordinates from their mysterious notebook pointing to the forbidden Dead Five Miles in China, the team ventures into a hidden, floating sanctuary where long-dead mutants may still linger.

In this standout 8-page tale from *Astonishing X-Men* #5 (2009), Miss Emma Frost of Earth-889 recounts the unraveling of her world after Agent X-13’s mission goes awry. With her steampunk sanctuary under siege and her X Society exiled overnight, Frost grapples with the sudden collapse of her regime—and the quiet possibility of a future with Scott, one she’s long hesitated to embrace.

In a world where Cyclops chose caution over violence, the last surviving X-Man, Scott Summers, is haunted by memories in a ruined mansion—where every shadow feels like a ghost and every echo carries a name he can't forget.

In "4," Hisako leads a desperate journey to a rumored evacuation point, navigating a war-torn world where time has stretched thin. Alongside a fractured Hank McCoy and a Logan bound to a wheelchair—his adamantium skeleton twisted by early combat—she faces the weight of survival in a reality that's long since broken.