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

X-MEN vol 7 #9
“Raid on Graymalkin, part 3”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Pencillers: Federico Vicentini & Ryan Stegman
Inkers: Federico Vicentini & JP Mayer
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Colourists: Marte Gracia & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Editor: Tom Brevoort

This is part 3 of the “Raid on Graymalkin” crossover, which takes place between Uncanny X-Men #7-8.

THE X-MEN (ALASKA)

Cyclops flatly refuses to co-operate in releasing Professor X, even after seeing the state of the prison. First he claims that Professor X manipulated all of mutantkind for the sake of his dream, which is a broadly standard depiction of him since X-Men: Deadly Genesis in 2006. A fair case can be made that his acceptance as a national leader in the Krakoan era was something of an anomaly given the state of his overall relations with the X-Men over that period – and even then, he had a secret plan with Magneto and Moira X. When pressed further, Cyclops points to Xavier’s murder of the crew of the Agnew in Fall of the House of X #4. That was retconned into a trick to deceive Orchis in X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic #4-6, but Cyclops apparently doesn’t know that. For Cyclops, Professor X is a danger to mutantkind. It’s possible that he’s playing along with Professor X’s stated wish in X-Men vol 6 #35 to be a lightning rod for anti-mutant backlash, and figures that breaking such a controversial figure out of jail is not going to be for the good of mutantkind in the round – but that’s not how it’s played.

Psylocke postures to Nightcrawler as a killer, a pose that she doesn’t maintain quite so rigidly among the members of her own team. She tells him that he only plays with swords, which is somewhat true. She’s slower than him to pick up on Scurvy’s influence and falls victim to Professor X’s control, all broadly consistent with the idea that she’s a relatively low-power and somewhat inexperienced telepath who uses her powers to bolster the physical combat skills that she really depends on.

As in the previous chapter, Temper is more personal than the others in lashing out under Wolverine’s influence – here, she dismisses Jubilee as “one of Wolverine’s special girl sidekicks” (which she was, but still). She seems to take a shine to Ransom, though.

Magik seems to strike up a rapport with Deathdream, the spooky one from Uncanny. She seems slightly taken aback by Cyclops’ anti-Xavier rant, in contrast to the other characters who seem to be just listening intently.

Juggernaut and Beast are also in the fight scene.

Kid Omega doesn’t appear – he’s back on the ship, and he was taken out with a sonic weapon in the previous chapter. Note that this means none of the X-Men’s telepaths are around when Scurvy makes his psychic attack towards teh end of the issue.

THE X-MEN (LOUISIANA)

Rogue is horrified by Cyclops’ willingness to leave Professor X in Graymalkin, though it seems to be the prison conditions that are the key point for her – after all, Professor X did turn himself in to the authorities and admit killing the crew of the Agnew, so if he was in a proper prison, it’s hard to see what her objection could be.

Nightcrawler seems confident that Psylocke isn’t experiencing “artificial anger” even when threatening to kill him – or at least is willing to take that bluff. She realises what’s happened more quickly than Psylocke even though she’s the telepath.

Wolverine takes out Wild Child rather brutally, but his dialogue makes clear that, allowing for his opponent’s heaing powers, he’s just trying to inflict an injury severe enough to take Wild Child out of the fight.

Gambit, Jubilee and the Outliers (Calico, Ransom, Deathdream and Jitter) are also all here.

SUPPORTING CAST:

Professor X seizes control of Psylocke in order to get himself out of his cell, and from the look of the art he seems to be controlling Nightcrawler at the end as well – all of which might lend some support to Cyclops’ complaints about him seeing the X-Men as tools for his agenda.

The mysterious “Inmate X” turns out not to be Professor X at all, who was held in a different cell.

VILLAINS:

Obviously, the villains here are the Graymalkin Prison, with the named characters being Warden Corina Ellis, Captain Ezra and Scurvy. Ellis is dismissive of all mutants, including the X-Men, but Ezra and Scurvy push back on that – they at least take their opponents seriously.

Scurvy has apparently told Ellis that he’s a psychic on a par with Professor X, and while that might be an exaggeration, Professor X did claim in X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic #6 that Scurvy was a serious obstacle to his psychic communications with the outside world. Scurvy confirms that he’s been controlling the trustees, but also says that he can’t do this at the same time as manipulating the X-Men’s emotions. Certainly setting the trustees on the X-Men seems to be a bad tactical move, since it results in the X-Men teams joining forces against them. Nightcrawler infers that Scurvy’s influence waned when they moved away from the battle, but it seems more likely that Scurvy just turned his focus to the trustees. Scurvy can levitate, at least for short periods – but presumably there are reasons why he prefers to get around on crutches. Maybe it’s just tiring.

Scurvy is either a self-loathing mutant, or willing to pose as one when Ellis is watching. He claims that she “understands” what mutants “are”, and that he’s willing to sacrifice everything for her dream, something that he expressly positions as an analogy to being a follower of Professor X.

The trustees (Blob, Siryn and Wild Child) and the dog Sentinels also appear in this story, but only as cannon fodder. Blob gets knocked off his feet by Juggernaut, which shouldn’t really be possible given his powers, but let’s chalk it up to Scurvy’s shaky control.

REFERENCES:

Page 7 panel 4: “Apropos of nothing, Magik, how many times have you died?” Deathdream’s origin story in Uncanny X-Men #3 says that he repeatedly died and brought himself back to life using his powers.

Page 7 panel 5: The Winds of Watoomb are a fairly self-explanatory spell that Dr Strange has been using since the sixties.

Page 7 panel 5: “The first time didn’t agree with me. I’m not eager to repeat the experience.” Illyana died of the Legacy Virus in Uncanny X-Men #303.

Page 8 panel 1: “You think you were a little hard on Logan back there, Idie?” In Uncanny X-Men #7, Temper yelled at Wolverine for failing to “loo[k] out for us during Krakoa”, presumably meaning her time in the Pit.

Page 10 panel 1: “you [Temper] used to date Quentin Quire.” Back in Wolverine and the X-Men.

Page 13 panel 2: “I don’t think that freeing Omega Red back there is a particular wunderbar idea.” Blimey, intertitle continuity – and there’s a lot of it this week in other books too. Anyway, Omega Red was captured in Sentinels #1.