The X-Men are going through what can best be described as an interesting time. The 21st century has been quite eventful for the group. We saw the mutant race almost completely destroyed in House of M, the loss of the X-Mansion, Xavier becoming persona non grata with the team, the Inhumans push that was meant to replace them as stars, and the blockbuster Krakoa Era bringing them back to prominence. It’s been 26 years of ups and downs, and it honestly feel like we’re in a down period right now. Executive editor Tom Brevoort was put in charge of the X-office and we got “From the Ashes”, a status quo meant to deal with the fallout of the end of Krakoa. However, fans are not happy with what they’re getting.
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There are a lot of problems with the X-line right now. Readers didn’t like the directions the books were taken; it’s basically rehashes almost all the way down. The events have been bad as well, with “Age of Revelation” being the worst X-event in a long time. Right from the beginning of the era, there was something rotten in Denmark, though, and one of the biggest reasons is a new Marvel super prison, one whose continued existence has made a mockery of the central metaphor of the team: Graymalkin Prison. It’s one of the worst ideas in X-history for a variety of reasons.
Graymalkin Prison Is an Insult to Everything the X-Men Stand For
The end of Krakoa was a disaster for the mutant race (and fans). While they were able to save mutantkind and stop the Orchis Initiative, it left them looking worse than ever. The mutants had let having power in the world go to their head sand they were quite dismissive of humanity, which caused the common person to hate them ever more. Their battles against Orchis were violent and destructive, and Xavier’s plan to fool Orchis by pretending to side with their AI destroy humanity led to him being charged with numerous crimes. Uncanny X-Men #700 saw him shipped to Graymalkin Prison.
Racist government officials creating a mutant prison isn’t new or surprising. What makes the whole thing more shocking is where the prison is: the X-Mansion. The government took it from Xavier, and allowed a private company to create Graymalkin Prison there, under the control of new character Doctor Corina Ellis. Numerous mutants are imprisoned there, including Blob, Siryn, and Monet, as well as the mysterious Prisoner X. Putting an anti-mutant prison in the spiritual home of the mutant race is an insult to mutants in-universe, and one that insults everything the X-Men stand for in the real world.
This era of the X-Men is all about the team stepping out of the ashes of Krakoa, and Graymalkin Prison is a symbol of everything the team should be fighting. However, they’ve just been letting it exist, all because they’re afraid of rocking the boat in their current weakened state. Mutants are being tortured and brainwashed in the X-Men’s most famous home, and yet the team is just allowing it to happen because of fear. Not just allowing it; they’ve actually sent bad guys to Graymalkin to be imprisoned.
The whole thing is a making a mockery of the X-Men. The team is meant to fight for mutants against their oppressors and allowing a mutant prison in their former home is the opposite of that. Working with them to imprison mutants makes the whole thing even worse. I’ve had the feeling that Brevoort doesn’t really like the X-Men or respect them as much as he respect other Marvel groups since he took over the team’s books, and Graymalkin Prison is the most obvious representation of that. The team is allowing the racists in power to hurt mutantkind, even working with them to imprison mutants in some cases, marking them as hypocrites and cowards.
Graymalkin Prison Is the Most Damaging Plotline in X-Men History
There have been a lot of damaging plotlines introduced in X-Men comics. Scarlet Witch committing genocide against the mutant race destroyed what had been built for decades. The Inhumans push saw Marvel try to push mutants out of spotlight. There are so many others across the decades-long existence of the team, but Graymalkin Prison is easily the worst. The X-Men just sitting on their hands while mutants are tormented and brainwashed in their former home almost singlehandedly destroys the entire concept of the team.
“From the Ashes” and “Shadows of Tomorrow” have done so much damage to the concept of the X-Men, but even in a status quo that feels engineered to push away longtime fans of the team, Graymalkin Prison is something else. While it’s been revealed that the next major story arc in Uncanny X-Men will deal with the fate of the prison, the fact this storyline even exists shows a deep disrespect and disdain for what the team means. It’s been a disaster on every level, but unfortunately this sort of thing is common in Brevoort’s X-office.
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