Marvel Just Revealed the Truth About a Major X-Men Rivalry, Fixing a Story That Left Fans Divided

The X-Men have had quite a time in the 2020s. The decade started with the mutant race moved to Krakoa, creating a mutant nation that would be constantly targeted by humanity in the person of the Orchis Initiative. They lasted through multiple tribulations before their fall, taking Orchis with them. This ending closed the door on an era and opened a new one, with Marvel legend Tom Brevoort taking over the X-office. This led to “From the Ashes”, a publishing initiative that traded heavily on ’90s nostalgia, partly because of the success of X-Men ’97. This had its problems, leading to the failure of “Age of Revelation”, but things have taken a better turn in recent months, with numerous cool stories coming down the pipe.

X-Men: The Hellfire Murder #1 pays homage to the glories of the Krakoa Era, bringing together mutants from around the world by Sebastian Shaw. The X-Men are split up into numerous pieces, so this story gives readers a chance to see characters who aren’t in the same book together. So, for us Uncanny X-Men fans, Ransom finally gets to reunite with Temper from X-Men. They aren’t the only two from those books to see each other, with leaders Rogue and Cyclops meeting for the first time since “X-Manhunt”. This meeting is one of the best parts of the book, as it reveals the truth behind a story that fans maligned from the moment it was announced – “Raid on Graymalkin”.

“Raid on Graymalkin” Kicked Off The New X-Era in the Worst Way

When it was announced that Tom Brevoort was taking over the X-Men books, fans expected two different things – a back to basics approach and hero versus hero shenanigans. These have been Brevoort’s bread and butter throughout the 21st century and we got a heaping helping of them from X-Men (Vol. 7) and Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 6). Right away, the two leaders were taking shots at each other in their books; Cyclops thought that Rogue was wanting to play school so she wouldn’t have to get in the fight and she thought that he was going cuckoo militant again.

There was another major key to those early issues between the two teams: Graymalkin Prison. This mutant prison was being run by racist podcaster (really) Corina Ellis and was doing experiments on its prisoners. However, that wasn’t really the worst part about it. The worst part was that it was in the X-Mansion and Xavier was being held there. Rogue wanted to go bust him out and Cyclops wanted him to rot, and this led to both teams battling it out on the grounds of their old home. They eventually left, making a deal with the warden to work with them to put away dangerous mutants, each team angry at the other. Later, when Xavier broke out, the two teams clashed again. Graymalkin was a huge problem for both of them, and it seemed to break any friendship between the two teams in two.

In the end, Rogue was able to take down the prison, having come up with a long term plan to take it down from the inside. The reveal of Prisoner X, Ellis’s powerful mutant brother, the Uncanny team was able to take him out and save the mutants inside. She left Monet and Quicksilver in charge, returning to Louisiana. Fans hated this entire story. No one wanted the X-Men vs. the X-Men and Graymalkin made it even worse. It was a slap in the face to the X-Men, using their old home as a torture chamber for their people. It was one of the worst ways to being the new era of the X-Men. However, X-Men: The Hellfire Murder #1 completely changes the context of the early events of the “From the Ashes” era.

The issue sees Rogue and Cyclops speaking rather cordially, like two old friends in on a secret. This is actually the truth of the matter, as their conversation reveals that the entire early grudge and the fact that they didn’t just destroy Graymalkin was all part of the plan. The two of them decided to make Ellis and her security staff think that the two teams were on separate sides. However, that wasn’t the case at all; they knew they couldn’t just destroy the prison without major repercussions, so they did it in secret. Rogue came up with the plan and Cyclops trusted her to pull it off. That’s a lot of trust that he put in a plan that wasn’t his and shows how far Rogue has come in the eyes of the X-Men’s greatest leader.

X-Men: The Hellfire Murder #1 Retcons a Very Controversial Story

In some ways, this whole thing is too little, too late. The various X-Men writers have given lots of interviews since “Raid on Graymalkin” and revealed that the story wasn’t part of their pitches; that and Graymalkin were handed to them when they came on. While the two of them did agree to not go after Graymalkin, the fact that this story implies that Rogue had a plan the whole time makes it go down a little easier. Graymalkin Prison’s existence was one of those things that stuck in the X-Men fans’ craws. Allowing mutants to be experimented on in the halls of Xavier’s was a travesty to many, even more so than the grudge between X-Men teams.

This section of the issue was written by Gail Simone, who has been forthcoming with how little she liked the idea of Graymalkin and it feels like a way to show readers that there was more of a plan than it seemed. I’m pretty sure that this is something of a retcon; there was never any indication that Rogue shared her plan with Cyclops or that the two of them were good with each other in the months after “X-Manhunt”. It feels like the writers of the X-Men books extending an olive branch to fans about the whole situation, which is honestly pretty cool; too many times we’ve gotten these kinds of stories and never had a “I’m sorry,” from the creators. It doesn’t make the stories themselves any better, but it shows a level of regret that is strangely refreshing.

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