(New X-Men I#135) - Basilisk was placed in Xorn's "Special Class" along with other young students whose unique powers or backgrounds warranted specialized tutelage. Among his classmates were the quiet, living gas form Dummy, the seemingly geriatric Ernst, the outspoken Angel, the relatively powerless Beak and the ever-elusive No-Girl. Xorn, ignoring the "jackass" sign taped to his back, decided to take them all camping to get to know one another a little better. Deep in the forest, while making camp for the night, none of them were aware they had been located by a squad of mutant harvesting U-Men out on patrol who prepped for attack
(New X-Men I#136) - Chased by the
U-Men, Xorn led Basilisk and the others to a safe place in the woods.
However, Dummy's suit was nicked by one of the U-Men's scalpel guns. No
one noticed this until after Xorn left them alone to go deal with the
U-Men but soon, Dummy's foul smelling odor and the hissing from the leak
in his suit became obvious. Basilisk snickered that his classmate was a
living fart before bickering with Beak, whom he condemned for his ambition
to become an X-Man in spite of his lack of powers. After some initial
bickering and boasting, Basilisk used his strobe light powers to signal
the Xavier Institute for help while Beak patched up Dummy's leak with a
spare condom. As a result, No-Girl was so impressed with Basilisk that
she agreed to go out with him, a fact the overjoyed Mike misinterpreted,
believing the incorporeal, invisible mutant girl was his fiance. (New X-Men I#137) - During the Xavier Institute's Open Day, the rebellious, Kick-addicted Omega Gang got into a fight with a band of human protesters. Basilisk and the other members of Xorn's Special Class observed how things got out of hand and hurried to get to safety inside the Institute while the X-Men dealt with the situation. However, they weren't safe inside either, as an explosive broke several windows near the Special Class, hitting and ripping Dummy's suit, essentially killing him.
(New X-Men I#138) - Following the
riots, Basilisk and the other Special Class members attended the Xavier
Institute's prize-giving ceremony. The usually nonplussed Basilisk
couldn't take the prestigious event seriously, commenting to Xorn that
he was sure that he smelled the gaseous Dummy somewhere near his mentor's
butt. When master of ceremonies Charles Xavier announced a special award
for Beak and Angel Salvadore for their outstanding heroism, Columbus
snickeringly called them losers.(New X-Men I#140) - When Xavier Institute headmistress Emma Frost was seemingly killed by a diamond bullet, Sage and Bishop were called in to investigate the crime. They assembled the entire student body, including Basilisk, to announce their intentions, showing the bullet responsible for shattering Emma's diamond form. They then declared everyone present was a suspect. Some time later, Sage and Bishop approached Xorn to arrange interviews with all the members of the Special Class. However, when they briefly observed them, just as Basilisk was cheating Beak at the murder mystery board game Clue by insisting the killer was "Professor Sex in the toilet with the landmower," the investigators decided to solely interview Angel Salvadore, who had become Emma's latest protege prior to the assassination.
(New X-Men I#146 (fb) - BTS) - Kuan-Yin Xorn, suffering from the delusion he was actually Magneto, mutant master of magnetism, slowly began to subvert the Special Class. He started to teach his views on the world under his rule, signified by a number of "Magneto was right" posters and a map of the world hung upside down as a symbol of his vision of the future, which he called Planet X. He began to use his powers to coerce the telepathic Martha Johansson to influence Basilisk and the other Special Class pupils, ensuring their cooperation.
(New X-Men I#146) - Basilisk and the others welcomed Afghani mutant Dust (Sooraya Kadir) into their midst. However, she proved immune to Xorn and Martha's mental manipulations and tried to warn Charles Xavier just as Xorn's plans for world conquest were getting underway. She managed to escape the classroom and reach Xavier, who she only told a little of the plan before Xorn showed up to stop her. She fled and went back to the Special Class, where the coerced Ernst ordered Basilisk to use his paralyzing eye beam to subdue the violent, incoherent Dust, who had turned into a sandstorm to stop them. Before he could act, Xorn arrived and forced her inside a containment canister. Basilisk and the others then watched as Xorn revealed himself as "Magneto" to a startled Xavier, who only then noticed the disturbing propaganda displayed in the classroom. Basilisk yucked away when "Magneto" disabled the nano-sentinels that he had used to allow Charles to walk, turning the professor into a cripple again. They all then watched as Xorn revealed his "true" visage.
(New X-Men I#147 (fb) - BTS) - Basilisk and the other Special Class members joined "Magneto" as he used his considerable abilities to lay waste to the Xavier Institute. Joined by the villainous Esme Cuckoo and Brotherhood of Evil Mutants co-founder Toad (Mortimer Toynbee), he watched as "Magneto" laid waste to New York in a single day, effortlessly turning the city that never sleeps into a living nightmare for all mankind. He took Basilisk and the others to the highest building in old Manhattan, dubbing them his new Brotherhood and declaring the island New Genosha.
(New X-Men I#147) - "Magneto" showed Basilisk and the other members of
his Brotherhood "New Genosha," assuring them that he had kept his
promise and had tuned the world on its head for them and that the
lowest were now the highest. Despite all this, Ernst still had trouble
dealing with the current reality of their situation, asking when Mister
Xorn would be back. The sniggering Basilisk chimed in, explaining that
"Magneto" had been Xorn all along, which according to Columbus made him
"a Xornvestite." He then mocked Esme's fascination for the elderly
villain, telling her to get a special website for her particular
fetish. Esme ignored him, believing she was vital to "Magneto" and
offering him more of the power-enhancing Kick drug that stimulated his
waning abilities and fired him up to go on an anti-human razzia in
Manhattan. Later that evening, Basilisk and the others watched as a
Kick-influenced Esme used her telepathy to herd the human inhabitants
of "New Genosha" to the newly-assembled gas chambers. To prove her
total control, Esme had some of the mutant bystanders pick a random
human prisoner to tear apart. Basilisk couldn't help but comment that
only a total drug addict could think this up, adding that Magneto must
really hate people.(New X-Men I#148) - When "Magneto" realized no one on New Genosha was paying much attention to his lofty decrees, he decided to disrupt their television reception and other devices to insure they listened to what he had to say. Basilisk calmly took in this declaration but openly mocked Esme when "Magneto" ordered her around like a common foot soldier, noting that stuffing her bra clearly didn't work to get into his good graces. "Magneto" ordered him to shut up before announcing that Beak would be in charge of the mass extermination of all remaining homo sapiens, dubbed homo inferior, in New Genosha.
(New X-Men I#149) - Basilisk joined Toad, "Magneto" and the others in
observing how Manhattan's human population was being marched into the
hastily designed crematoria. Faced with the very real notion that he
was about to be responsible for the death of thousands of innocents,
Beak rebelled. Aided by his lover Angel Salvadore and their children,
they told "Magneto" off. He slapped them aside, deciding that Angel and
the children needed to be taught a lesson. He ordered Beak to be put
with the humans scheduled for destruction. Not sensing the severity of
the situation, the simple minded Basilisk interrupted the tense moment
by farting and blaming someone else. Thoroughly fed up with his
disappointing and rebellious followers, the drug-addled "Magneto"
lashed out at the hapless Basilisk, killing him instantly for his lack
of discipline. The act shocked both the Brotherhood as well as
"Magneto" himself, who stammered that he'd only intended to teach
Columbus a lesson. Still, the senseless death of a fellow mutant didn't
force him to reconsider his plans. "Magneto" pushed ahead while his
second-in-command Esme Cuckoo gave orders to find a pyrokinetic to
cremate Mike's body on the spot to save themselves the trouble of
getting a truck to remove his remains.Comments: Created by Grant Morrison (writer), Frank Quitely (pencils) and Tim Townsend (inks).