The Raid on Graymalkin continues as two conflicting teams of X-Men come to a crossroads at the former Xavier Institute. As if the Perimeter protocols and the prison’s mutant Trustees weren’t enough, team leaders Rogue and Cyclops find themselves at war over the uncertain legacy of Charles Xavier. Uncanny X-Men #7 is written by Gail Simone, penciled by David Marquez and Edgar Salazar, inked by Marquez and Victor Olazaba, colored by Matt Wilson and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Jake Murray: The gloves are well and truly off for this one. Yes, thatâs right, itâs me, Jake Murray, vs. friend and colleague Anna Peppard in what our editor is insisting we call the grudge match of the century. [Dan Grote: Wait, I didnât â] Well, well, well Anna â you finally decide to stop dragginâ your feet and come dancinâ… and right away, you go steppinâ on our ⌠ooh is that Charles Xavier?
Anna Peppard: Finally, our long-seeded interpersonal conflicts come to a head in the form of the forceful flinging of ambitious adjectives in the broad vicinity of the disenchantingly desultory rising action of this already-interminable tetralogy. Or to put it another way â me and Jake arenât fighting, except with this comic. But maybe weâre not even doing that, because, like Rogue and Scott, Iâm struggling to find a reason to care about fighting, except with my waning enthusiasm for this storyline. Yet action must prevail, so letâs get to raiding.
Cruisinâ for a Bruisinâ
Jake: Uncanny X-Men #7 opens in media res as Rogue and Cyclopsâ beef escalates. The source of their animus: a squabble over who should perform the extradition mission for the mutants incarcerated at Graymalkin Prison. Scottâs position is that his team is better equipped to bustle their way in and rescue Beast, Jubilee and Calico, and that sending in two X-teams will cause too much violence and reputational damage. Scott tries to play his âI am the X-Menâ card and, after pursuing a confusing line of questioning about whether Scott loves his team, Rogue ignores him and the stakes are set.
Look, as a longtime fan of both of these characters, I find this scene and the entire foundation of this event deeply frustrating. It doesnât stand up to scrutiny from either an entirely internal story logic or a broader character history perspective. The conflict has been manufactured entirely for plot convenience purposes, without seeding any sort of ideological conflict or even an inciting incident. The scene itself, despite David Marquezâs best efforts to compare the duelling pair through mirrored panels, does very little to draw any meaningful contrast between them. In fact, despite Scottâs attempts to pull rank on Rogue, thereâs no implication that he doesnât trust her judgment or is in some way accusing her of being brash or immature, which has been the basis of friction between them in the past. It might have been interesting to explore the fact that their power dynamic has become more balanced in this era, particularly compared to the Utopia era, when Scott removed Rogue from the X-Men because he no longer trusted her.
Even if you accept the logic of the conflict, the story itâs used to tell is also deeply boring and unoriginal. You may have hated the basis for Avengers vs. X-Men, for example, but at least it was ambitious. When you break it down, âRaid on Graymalkinâ is just a run-of-the-mill superhero fight thatâs been turned into a four-issue event. When you throw in the fact that the majority of this issue is happening at the same time as last weekâs X-Men #8, itâs even clearer just how little substance there is to this story.
Anna: I was already antagonistic about the emotional underpinning of this event, but reading X-Men #8 made it worse. I see now what editor Tom Brevoort meant when he said you wouldnât have to read both series to read the event. Because a whole bunch of X-Men #8 is just repeated here, with the exception of Rogueâs phone call with Scott, which, as you already discussed, doesnât do a heck of a lot to explain the major malfunction between them. I guess Rogue is just upset because Scott doesnât want her to join the party? I understand her frustration, because heâs kind of being a dick about it. But also ⌠heâs not wrong?
I donât want to be unkind, and perhaps there will be a subsequent turn that complicates this dynamic, but the setup to this event kind of makes Rogue look dumb and selfish. Scott, at least, has a plan. Members of his team have different responsibilities within the titular raid on Graymalkin that exploit the diversity of their powers. And whether or not you agree with his political framing, at least itâs an ideology. Rogueâs ideology is just âI want my friends backâ but also, and more problematically, âbecause Scott told me not to.â This makes Rogueâs supposedly selfless motivations seem selfish. Which is fine if weâre meant to read her as an antihero. But I donât think we are.
And Rogueâs plan is basically just, show up at the gates and figure it out. When they arrive, courtesy of Gambitâs magical MacGuffin, she even asks, âAny idea how to get in without nobody dyinâ?â Being generous, perhaps Rogue is the kind of leader who is less top-down than Scott. Sheâs workshopping and brainstorming in a more egalitarian fashion with her team. Being less generous, this reminds me of a viral speech Reese Witherspoon gave at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in 2015, where she (rightfully) complained about always being given the line âwhat do we do now!?â in scripts written by men. This script is not written by a man. But Iâm still not nuts about our female protagonist and leader not having a plan, particularly within the context of a story wherein sheâs supposed to be offering a meaningful contrast with a male tactician. Rogue doesnât have to be perfect, and shouldnât be. But we should also have a reason to sympathize with her and root for her. Instead, Iâm finding myself slipping into a Cyclops Was Right T-shirt and wishing sheâd stayed home.
The Hare and the TorchHorse
Jake: The bulk of this issue involves the two teams breaking into the X-mansion and, after some emotional manipulation from Dr. Corina Ellisâ right-hand man Scurvy, getting into a big old fight. Simone and Marquez pit adult against child as Nightcrawler and Jitter tackle Psylocke, Ransom battles Cyclops, Oya greets Wolverine with a frosty reception, and Deathdream drags Magik to (a different) hell.
As choice words are exchanged (more on that later), the tension builds toward the headline fight between Cyclops and Rogue. This sees the master of battle strategy come good once again. While it may be a case of slow and steady winning the race, itâs Cyclopsâ hare-in-reserve Juggernaut who turns the tide. He bursts through the walls of the X-mansion, which not only brings an end to the proceedings but reveals a rather large prison cell labeled with a massive âX,â which ostensibly houses their missing mentor. How did this work for you, Anna?
Anna: I donât particularly care for this hunt for Xavier, any more than I cared for it during 1998âs âHunt for Xavier.â It keeps decentering our starring characters in their own story, and I wish Chuckâs shadow was less overwhelming.
But in the interest of saying some positive things: Calico remains this bookâs most compelling character. Iâm invested in the mystery of Ember and the ongoing seeming uncertainty about whether sheâs actually a mutant. And her story is the only one where weâre really exploring aspects of intersectional identity, through the ways in which Calicoâs rich white privilege separates her from her mutant peers, but also doesnât. Iâm eager to see where this goes and was on board with Jitterâs (interesting and adorable) heart icon reaction to Calicoâs impetuous, passionate storming of the gates aboard her faithful war horse.
It was also great to get Marquez back for at least part of this issue, drawing what are, for me, the best pages of the book, which are the fight scenes. Marquez gets to draw a properly dramatic face-off between the teams, and makes good use of the spatial dynamism of Oya and Cyclopsâ projectile-based powers. And Beast ripping into the guards was probably my favorite panel of the issue, one of those images that looks a helluva lot of fun to draw for those folks, like me, who wish they could draw anywhere near that good. To the extent that I came away with warm feelings about this comic, it was when I was able to shut off my critical brain and just enjoy the pretty pictures, something the plot encourages with the explanation that Rogueâs and Scottâs teams are partly being forced to fight through psychic manipulation. But it would still be great if those pretty pictures had more propulsion behind them, in the form of a more compelling plot or more convincing emotional stakes.
Jake: Marquezâs art was spectacular during these scenes, and by and large I thought the pairings worked well together. The sheer impudence of the Outliers in taking on the X-Men was great fun. I particularly enjoyed Jitter attempting to wrestle Psylocke to the ground, and Cyclops trying to accurately describe Ransomâs X-man status (âCadet. Or recruit. Or whatever you areâ). Iâm conscious of the fact that Iâm picking out moments of light relief here, but yeah. A girl riding a flaming horse and smashing through the walls of a prison is cool as hell. No denying that.
Ah … Sabretooth
Anna: Thereâs a truism that compared to the DC Universe, the Marvel Universe lacks good villains. While Iâve never particularly agreed with that premise (with the possible exception of the MCU), it exists, in part, because many of Marvelâs most memorable mix-âem-ups involve heroes fighting each other. Thereâs nothing wrong with this bit; historically, it reflected a complexification of heroism, helping create some much-needed nuance within a genre that didnât always excel at it. But at the end of the day, itâs still satisfying to watch our bickering heroes team up to defeat a bigger bad that threatens them both.
Obviously, weâre not supposed to like Warden Ellis as a person. This comic couldnât be more clear about that. But I also dislike her as a character. I donât understand her motivations beyond âis evil.â I donât understand, contextually and culturally, why a Black woman would apparently be so powerfully embraced by right-wing American bigots, which was implied in the very brief backstory we got at her introduction, which involved her having an Infowars-style podcast empire. Maybe sheâs a convenient scapegoat who will later be thrown under the bus by her own handlers? But for now, sheâs just a ludicrously exaggerated anti-mutant bigot with absolutely no nuance, whose only pretense of character involves stealing from Emma Frostâs business wardrobe.
Jake: Ellis is emblematic of a wider issue I have with this series, which is that charactersâ entire personalities are pulled in every which way to serve the âgeneral vibe.â In this case, itâs the language Ellis uses to describe mutants, which I would suggest is more indicative of a decline in attention to detail than it is a characterization decision. This is illustrated by the way Ellis describes one of her key prejudices pertaining to mutants: arrogance. In this issue, she opines: âThis is the problem with all mutant scum. Overconfidence. Send the trustees and the wolfpack to finish this.â Now letâs compare that with her dialogue in issue #1:
âA way for mutants to find others like themselves. The arrogance of it. Building… A monument to these people. Their entire cult. Burn it. This entire foul cathedral. To the ground.â
While the anti-mutant sentiment remains consistent, at least this villain speechifying possesses a bit of grandeur, and uses symbolism to convey her feelings about mutants. Itâs positively Shakespearean compared to what weâve had in âRaid on Graymalkinâ so far, and I think itâs symbolic of the character becoming increasingly one-dimensional over the course of this series. Whether or not you interpret this change as a reaction to her losing control over the situation, the reality is that she is far less interesting now.
Anna: Just two issues ago, Rogue was delivering Sarah Gaunt to Warden Ellis with a seeming promise she wouldnât be unduly harmed. Now itâs abundantly clear that Ellis likes to physically abuse prisoners for the sake of sadistic fun, and because she hates mutants. Like, a lot. If you donât believe her, sheâll tell you, rattling off a laundry list of anti-mutant cliches plucked from across six decades of X-Men comics. And Iâm very unclear why Rogue ever apparently thought otherwise. At this point, I might even argue that Ellis has less nuance than Bolivar Trask did when he was introduced in X-Men #14 in 1965. In that issue, Traskâs prejudice is about something; itâs about the symbolic threat of youth culture, atomic era paranoia and maybe, if you squint, racist opposition to civil rights and/or the legacy of the Holocaust. But what is the source of Ellisâ prejudice? How does it inform the specific manifestation of her prejudice? And how does her prejudice relate, symbolically, to our present cultural moment?
Granted, very few superhero comics are as rad as the Sabretooth series penned by Victor LaValle. But the gap between the comic at hand and LaValleâs thoughtful, nuanced manipulation of the mutant metaphor to concoct a brutal, deeply personal critique of the carceral state is large. Letâs be real â itâs not a gap, itâs the freakinâ Grand Canyon. And sure, this comic doesnât have to be that one. The goals are clearly more modest (Iâm trying really hard not to say this comic is less interested in making you think). But because I was enjoying LaValle and Leonard Kirkâs Sabretooth saga a mere 24 months ago, within the context of an era of X-Men comics the current era is mostly deliberately shunning, itâs hard to not feel a way about this gap thatâs really a gulf. If this event is saying something, anything about the nature of contemporary institutionalized bigotry besides âitâs bad,â Iâm hard-pressed to identify it.
Jake: Oh man, Sabretooth. What a series that was.
One of the most striking and impactful aspects of Sabretooth was that it used specific historical events or trends to shape the central argument that the series was making. And look, this is probably an unfair comparison. But letâs look a bit closer to home: Sentinels, which is a book exploring the question of complicity in the context of the Faustian bargain people make to heal from their trauma and get their lives back on track, is partially set in the X-mansion and shares many of the same characters as Uncanny X-Men. I canât help but feel that the types of questions it is asking about its characters would be right at home here. For example, why have Siryn, Blob and Toad agreed to be Trustees? If you were just reading Uncanny, you would have no idea about the cruelty theyâre being subjected to, which adds nuance to their complicity that I find interesting. But this series just isnât interested in exploring those sorts of things. Iâm sure the reasons will be revealed in time, but at the moment, the Trustees could be anyone whatsoever. The symbolism of Sirynâs voice and therefore ability to resist being removed from her is something thatâs intrinsically interesting to me and I would love to see explored more.
Anna: For now, looks like weâre going to be treated to more hero-on-hero fisticuffs, as âRaid on Graymalkinâ continues in X-Men #9.
X-traneous Thoughts
- Speaking of LaValle and Kirkâs Sabretooth: Oya would seem to be referring to the events of that saga when she accuses Logan of not looking out for her/them during Krakoa.
- Everythingâs gotta be AI these days, including Warden Ellisâ discount hounds, apparently.
- While the splash page of Toad, Blob, Siryn and their robo-dogs was drawn nice, itâs a bit of an anticlimactic cliffhanger; even if Mortimer, Fred and Theresa have some kind of technological upgrades, three mid-tier mutants against nine mutants plus Juggernaut doesnât feel like a particularly fair fight.
- Marquez simplifies the doodads on Cyclopsâ costume in a way that almost makes me like this new design.
- This monthâs letters feel very intentionally chosen to reflect the branding Brevoort has touted: One letter writer proudly compares this book to the â90s animated series, another says it convinced them to start reading comics, another says that while it was difficult to negotiate the costs of having so many X-Men books on the stands, theyâre ultimately happy to have more X-Men.
Buy Uncanny X-Men #7 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Anna Peppard
Anna is a PhD-haver who writes and talks a lot about representations of gender and sexuality in pop culture, for academic books and journals and places like Shelfdust, The Middle Spaces, and The Walrus. Sheâs the editor of the award-winning anthology Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero and co-hosts the podcasts Three Panel Contrast and Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow!
Jake Murray spends far too much time wondering if the New Mutants are OK. When he's not doing that, he can be found talking and writing about comics with anyone who will listen.
