As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X-MEN vol 7 #8
“Raid on Graymalkin, part 1”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Ryan Stegman
Inkers: JP Mayer, Livesay & Ryan Stegman
Colourist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

This is officially the first part of the “Raid on Graymalkin” crossover which runs between X-Men #8-9 and Uncanny X-Men #7-8. In practice, though, the story really began with Beast being abducted in the previous issue; this issue confirms that he was taken to Graymalkin. Jubilee and Calico were abducted in last week’s Uncanny X-Men #6.

THE X-MEN (ALASKA)

The Beast hasn’t been treated as a team member thus far, but Cyclops calls him an X-Man here, and he introduces himself to Calico as an X-Man. So let’s go with that.

He’s been abducted to Graymalkin so that he can be extradited to Terra Verde. This refers back to the Krakoan-era X-Force series, where Beast took over the minds of the entire country; this was supposed to be part of the Beast’s corruption. In X-Force vol 6 #20 and Wolverine vol 7 #13, Terra Verde was freed and X-Force did a deal to keep the whole thing quiet for a fairly paltry one billion dollars. The whole story is and always was ridiculous, because it expects us to believe that the entire population of the country – who were aware that they were under mind control – decided to keep quiet about it for no good reason. But taken at face value, it was a crime against humanity, making the Beast a rare case where the Graymalkin authorities actually have a point.

Of course, the current Beast is a clone of the original based on memories from early 1980s continuity, who has no recollection of any of this. It’s a matter of interpretation whether you regard him as the same character at all. Let’s assume for present purposes that the Terra Verdans were offered something a lot more generous than the original X-Force/Wolverine story claimed – which would frankly be essential for the original story to work as written in any way – and that the fall of Krakoa has removed whatever that incentive was, leaving them free to go for revenge on the Beast.

Cyclops thinks of Hank as his brother, and is grateful to have the “real” Hank back again. With Jean off in space, Hank is the oldest friend he has. Psylocke points out that Scott is unusually emotional about Hank and worries about his judgment.

Cyclops instructs Magik not to use lethal force against the Graymalkin guards, but gives her purely pragmatic rather than moral reasons for doing so. Of course, he might just be going for the reasons that he thinks will carry most weight with her. She sets demons from Limbo on the guards, which is interesting, since Limbo has been controlled by Madelyne Pryor for several years now – does Madelyne know she’s still using the demons as a resource?

Psylocke, Temper and Kid Omega also join the attack on Graymalkin; the Juggernaut is apparently setting up for some further attack to come.

The X-Men have devices to jam the Graymalkin sensors, which Beast built from equipment that they seized from O*N*E in issue #3. Cyclops seems to be saying simply that they’ve adapted O*N*E’s own stealth technology from that issue, rather than implying that the O*N*E soldiers were directly linked to Graymalkin.

THE X-MEN (LOUISIANA)

Jubilee is in prison after being abducted last time. It’s still not clear what the reason was for her abduction, since picking off random X-Men seems a fairly surefire way of prompting precisely the sort of response we see here.

Calico introduces herself to Beast as an X-Man so, again, let’s go with that. (Although Jubilee suggests that she only counts as half an X-Man.) As in Uncanny X-Men, she seems baffled by anything outside her experience as a rich kid who was kept extremely sheltered by her abusive mother, and prison is entirely outside her frame of reference. She’s so oblivious to everything in the outside world that she surely can’t have been away from home for long. She still assumes that complete strangers will attach some significance to her being “of the Louden County Simon-Pinettes”.

According to Warden Ellis, Calico’s family are wealthy and politically connected, and are willing to buy her out of prison on the grounds that she isn’t a mutant. This is interesting on a number of levels. First, a possible reading of Uncanny X-Men is that Calico isn’t a mutant at all, and that it’s her horse Ember who has the powers. But Ellis identifies Calico as one of the “muties” she wants to talk to, so Ellis certainly seems to think that Calico is a mutant, despite being willing to release her for money. Did Graymalkin actually bother checking, though?

Moreover, who are the family members? In Uncanny X-Men #3, Calico claimed to have left home with Ember after her house mysteriously caught fire, which seemed like a decidedly incomplete explanation. Is Ellis just lying about Calico’s family being willing to buy her out? At any rate, she refuses the offer and declares that she’s a mutant.

Rogue, Wolverine, Jitter and Ransom show up at the end, although not their fellow cast members Gambit, Nightcrawler or Deathdream.

Rogue knocks out Blob with one touch but doesn’t take on his powers. The art is inconsistent but the idea seems to be that she’s touching him with her bare hands – she’s coloured on page 25 as wearing gloves, but page 24 has her without, and since you can see her fingernails on that page, presumably it’s correct.

SUPPORTING CAST

Xorn also shows up for the X-Men’s briefing scene. Thanks for coming, Xorn.

VILLAINS

The Graymalkin Prison has a meal hall, and at least a few other prisoners to eat in it. It’s rendered as a dungeon, which is weird, but maybe it’s a basement level. The food is terrible, but Jubilee suggests that it’s simply  very cheap prison food rather than actively inedible.

Larry  Trask and his Sentinel cyborgs from the Sentinels mini are mentioned, and are called for assistance, but don’t appear on panel in this issue.

Corina Ellis is much more straightforwardly (and one-dimensionally) evil in this issue than she was in Uncanny X-Men #5, where she had a degree of humanity. She’s openly arranging to “sell” Hank to Terra Verde for execution – although if she thinks this is the same Beast who committed crimes against humanity then her attitude towards him as an individual might be understandable. She’s openly contemptuous towards all her prisoners, though, and explicitly instructs punishment beatings for no real reason.

She tells President Lopez to his face that she thinks his real motivation is to have a show trial to distract from the consequences of his alliance with Roxxon – it’s not clear whether she thinks this is just a statement of the blindingly obvious or whether she’s taking the opportunity to show some disdain for him.

Captain Ezra again appears as simply a basically competent henchman lieutenant.

Scurvy appears briefly; Ellis tells him to “bring the trustees online”, but it’s not clear whether that involves giving orders or taking some more direct control of them. According to Psylocke, the “trustees” have been “turned … into things”, but it’s not clear what’s been done to them.

The Blob is the only one of the trustees to appear in this issue. He does seem willing to fight for the prison, but he only gets one line of dialogue before being knocked out by Rogue, so we don’t learn why.

President Lopez is a new character, and the current President of Terra Verde. He claims to be driven by the opportunity to avenge the Beast’s crimes against his people, and vigorously denies Ellis’s claim that he actually wants a show trial to distract from the politican consequences of an alliance with Roxxon (though he does confirm the Roxxon relationship). Terra Verde has been making a “generous contribution” to Graymalkin’s operating budget. Roxxon play no active part in this story, and seem to be mentioned mainly to avoid readers thinking that Terra Verde might kind of have a point about this Beast guy.