The Marvel Rundown: The Raid on Graymalkin comes to its end in Uncanny X-Men #8

Face front, True Believers, and welcome back to The Marvel Rundown! This is our first full Rundown of 2025 and we check in on Marvel’s Merry Mutants with Uncanny X-Men #8, witness the launch of a beloved X-man’s newest series with Magik #1, and head back to the Ultimate Universe with Ultimate Black Panther #12,

The Beat wants to hear from you, True Believers! Tell us what you think of this week’s Marvel Comics! Shout us out in the comment section below or over on social media @comicsbeat, or @comicsbeat.bsky.social, and let us know what’s good and what’s not so good!

Uncanny X-Men #8

Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Javier Garrón
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Cover Artists: David Marquez and Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

The Raid on Graymalkin comes to its conclusion in Uncanny X-Men #8.  The two X-Men squads rescue their captured teammates and confront Warden Ellis. However, the reunion is all too brief as the schism between the Rogue and Cyclops continues to grow.  

Uncanny X-Men is starting to take shape following this issue. Gail Simone’s character writing is still strong. The small interactions between the characters are enjoyable such as the moments between Magik and Wolverine. We even get insight to the history of Scuvy, the new telepath character. Yet, the main draw is still Simone’s characterization of Rogue. Simone presents her as a strong and determined leader, but struggling with some level of PTSD. We see this with Rogue’s primary point of contention with Cyclops being about what to do about Graymalkin prison and Xavier.

This brings me to my real issue with this Raid on Graymalkin crossover and the direction of the X-Line as a whole and that’s the forced conflict between Cyclops and Rogue to set up two ideological differences. The heat between the two characters is forced. That is not to say that Simone or any of the writers are mischaracterizing Rogue or Cyclops, but they are finding a point of contention and cranking it to 11. I can’t help but feel this is work of X-Men Editor, Tom Breevort, in some sort of desire to be Anti-Krakoa to create internal strife.

As for the art. Javier Garrón kills it in this issue. It is a visually pleasing comic to look at. The character models and dynamism are top notch be it in the fight on the ground or in the astral plane between Xavier and Scurvy. There is a two-page spread during the title drop of the issue that may be one of the best two-page spreads I have seen in comic in sometime. Use of red and pink in the concentric circle radiating from Scurvy with the title being incorporated into the circles is just fantastic.

I cannot help but feel Raid on Graymalkin was unnecessary or at least felt too soon in the relaunch especially in the Uncanny X-men book. MacKay’s X-men has had time to start fleshing out characters and focus less on long arc but instead of short done in one story. Uncanny had a 5-part arc to start the series and the final part felt rushed. There hasn’t been enough time to explore some of the themes Simone is playing with. I don’t find the point of contention all that interesting and feels like a retread of the last major schism during the Utopia era.

The path ahead for the X-men titles looks even less exciting.  Last week during the Top Ten Marvel Comics of 2024 article, I argued that X-Men as a whole feels a bit aimless and lacking that Spark since Breevort took over. It isn’t that the books are bad. Most are fine, but fine isn’t what gets me to rush out to read these comics every week. Nothing in the X-men line has me reading these comics in the parking lot of my LCS. Then there’s the recently announced X-Manhunt event that is going to crossover with 7 titles and have two bookend one-shots. I feel like I speak for a lot of X-fandom when I say Bleh. I am enjoying the X-books, but very little of it is sparking immense joy.

RAPID RUNDOWN! 

• 

  Magik #1

  • Like many people, I grew fond of Magik when Brian Bendis brought the character into his Uncanny X-Men run and Chris Bachalo redesigned the character with a slick leather outfit, goth horns, and a big anime sword. The quiet tough girl with a dark past snd a chip on her shoulder was instantly endearing. I can’t say I’m intimately familiar with her publishing history, as twisting and full of retcons as it is. But I have gotten the highlights and have enjoyed her appearances in the last ten years. I especially enjoyed the Ashley Allen penned Blood Hunt one-shot, which gave Magik a mission to protect the vulnerable. With the superb Germán Peralta on art, this new mini(?)series was the rare X-Men comic amidst the deluge I was genuinely excited about despite not having an MA in X-Men lore. Allen does a tremendous job giving the highlights of Illyana Rasputina’s life and throwing you into a new adventure simultaneously. Giving the spotlight to a terse and introverted character can often result in losing what is charming about them by the nature of giving them too much to say, but Allen’s script lets us into Illyana’s inner life while she continues to keep others at a distance. It is a good balance. Peralta’s art is dark, gritty, and the action looks superb. Arthur Hesli gives the book an otherworldly glow, full of orange hellfire and spooky magenta spells. Ariana Maher’s lettering brings the internal tension between Magik and her inner-demons to life. The plot, dealing with sorcery and demons, leverages what makes the character unique among the X-Men and adds something different from the rest of the line, thankfully. This is a solid, if occasionally overstuffed debut that has me excited to read more Magik—both new adventures and old.  – TR

• Ultimate Black Panther #12 

  • 

    When the Marvel Rundown team did our roundtable on the first year of this new Ultimate Universe, I dropped the ball on what writer Bryan Hill is doing with the Ultimate Black Panther. Like the rest of the Ultimate line, Panther has the same ticking clock as the rest of the Ultimate line but has worked to focus on the Panther, Wakanda, and greater Vibranium mythos. Chosen by the Maker, Lords Ra and Khonshu oversee Africa with the sole exception being Wakanda, making this run a tale of discovery as the two sides move from a cold war footing to open hostilities leading up to issue 12’s confrontation between the Panther and Khonshu in his Moon Knight persona. Along the way, Hill has given us fresh new takes on characters like Storm, Kilmonger, the Sorcerer Supreme, and the Panther with a unique edge in exploring T’Challa’s relationship with his Court, Vibranium, and Africa. For this issue, and most of this run, Stefano Caselli’s art and color artist David Curiel has energized the pages with a manga-like aesthetic, dramatic close-ups, and vibrant action. I can only imagine that Hil’s choice to keep the Maker plotline a very distant thing means that when it does come up the stakes will be that much higher and I can’t wait. – GC3

Next week, Ultimate Wolverine makes his full debut and Captain America is somehow a snake!