GREYCROW: Page 2 of 3

Publication Date: 7th Apr 2022
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Douglas Mangum.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - page 2

In time, Sinister adjusted to the Decimation and reformed the Marauders to secure the future of mutantkind. Mister Sinister gained knowledge that the first new mutant since M-Day would soon manifest, and he put the Marauders to work eliminating precogs, prophecies and time travelers who might warn the X-Men or others in advance. Scalphunter personally helped eliminate targets such as Gateway and the Witness. Several new Marauders then either infiltrated or were recruited from the X-Men, adding the likes of Mystique, Sunfire, Lady Mastermind and even Gambit to the roster. Scalphunter led the Marauders to successfully capture Rogue, thanks to her knowledge from having read the Destiny Diaries. One X-Men strike team was dismantled, and Sinister's allies held the advantage. [X-Men (2nd series) #200-204]

A new mutant was born in Cooperstown, Alaska, so powerful that it blew out Cerebro. The Marauders had advance knowledge and beat the X-Men there, but so did the anti-mutant Purifiers. The Marauders and Purifiers warred with each other, allowing Cable to sneak in and make off with the child alone. Cable was operating off the grid, however, and so even the other X-Men didn't know who left Cooperstown with the baby. A squad of X-Men sought out the Marauder base in the Dominion Range of Antarctica, searching for the child. Their mission only served to alert Sinister that Cable was operating alone, though, and Scalphunter shot Nightcrawler in the chest as he was escaping, critically wounding the X-Man. The Marauders hunted down Cable and snatched the baby, bringing her to Sinister on Muir Island. [Messiah CompleX crossover]

After the battle on Muir Island, Sinister was dead and so the Marauders went into hiding. Scalphunter set himself up as a cook at a small diner in the American southwest. He was deeply paranoid that the X-Men would eventually track him down for his part in the conflict. Even so, he missed the fact that the annoying priest who was a reoccurring customer was actually Nightcrawler using an image inducer. Once he revealed himself, the X-Man beat Scalphunter with little difficulty. Despite his fears, however, Nightcrawler was not there to kill Scalphunter. He remarked upon how broken Greycrow really was -- just a copy of a copy of a copy by this point, forever under Sinister's thumb. Nightcrawler offered Scalphunter forgiveness (if not friendship) and left him to his self-imposed exile. [X-Men: Divided We Stand #1]

Greycrow perhaps considered redemption after this, or at least his better angels. He received a warning alert when Vanisher broke into Sinister's laboratories to steal a sample of the Legacy Virus. Not wanting such a danger loose in the world again, Greycrow reached out to Cyclops and alerted him and the X-Men to the theft. [X-Force (3rd series) #7-8] Incidentally, Vanisher was stopped by Sinister's security protocols, which included multiple copies of Marauder clones thawing out as security. Oddly, versions of Scalphunter weren't seen among them. [X-Force (3rd series) #9-10]

This good deed may have led the X-Men to give Greycrow his space, but others were not so accommodating. Lobe and the Sublime Corporation had their own plans for the X-Men, and they needed a patsy to get those plans in motion. Lobe's artificially enhanced henchmen attacked Greycrow at his diner, beating him unconscious and taking him hostage. Scalphunter awoke dangling over a pit filled with new versions of Predator X, making it clear what his bargaining position was. Lobe ordered Scalphunter to fly a plane to the newly risen mutant island of Utopia, with five Predator X creatures in his cargo hold. Nightcrawler scouted the plane on its approach and warned Cyclops to shoot it down after seeing the inside. The united X-Men and Utopian residents destroyed four of the five Predator X creatures. Meanwhile, Scalphunter made his way to shore from the wreckage and cobbled together a weapon to finish off the last Predator X, saving Cyclops' life in the process. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #515-517]

Regardless of his "heroics" at the last moment, Scalphunter was taken to the X-Brig and placed under Danger's supervision. The sentient Danger Room watched over the X-Men's prisoners, using virtual environments to experiment with different forms of containment and rehabilitation. Curiously, Danger's virtual program showing the Morlocks forgiving Scalphunter for his crimes was utterly rejected by the mercenary, who claimed this scenario only made his feelings worse on the matter. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #517, 529] Eventually, Danger came to regret playing a part in imprisoning others. After the war between the Avengers and the X-Men, she emptied the cells in the X-Brig and let all of her charges free, including presumably Scalphunter. [Uncanny X-Men (2nd series) #20]

[Note: Several other versions of Scalphunter also appeared during this period. Scalphunter was seen walking around free in the Utopia and Second Coming crossovers, contrary to the diner Scalphunter's immediate imprisonment. This was either a continuity error, or yet another copy of Greycrow running around.]

As a mercenary, Scalphunter also did work for the Assassins Guild during his off time from Sinister's employ. Years before, he was assigned a contract on Cape Crow, an assassin who went rogue stealing other killers' assignments and eventually killing them as well. Scalphunter, Sabretooth, Taskmaster and Bullseye were sent out after him, but all four were defeated. Cape Crow disappeared for years after that but, when word reached the Guild he had resurfaced, Scalphunter decided to pursue the contract again to get revenge. Even with the partnership of Lady Bullseye, however, it was a free-for-all hunting the bounty on Cape Crow. Facing off with Elektra on Monster Island, this version of Scalphunter was killed by the local giant monsters before he could take his revenge. [Elektra (3rd series) #1-5]

Scalphunter and the Marauders were targeted by Magneto in cold vengeance for their actions during the Mutant Massacre. Magneto's informant Briar Raleigh gave him intelligence regarding the various Marauder cells hidden around the globe, sets of clones primed to activate in the event the previous cell was destroyed. Magneto meticulously made his way through nearly all the Marauder clones, killing Scalphunter and his comrades repeatedly. At least one Scalphunter was left alive, dismembered with cauterized stumps in place of his arms and legs. Instead of totally eradicating the Marauders, however, Magneto assumed control of the last cell. He used Sinister's genetic imprint technology to reprogram the Marauders before they emerged from stasis, priming them to be loyal only to him. [Magneto (2nd series) #5-6] The Marauders became Magneto's new enforcers as he set up a refugee camp for mutants in the ashes of Genosha. They were still under his command as he engaged the invasion of Earth-1610 during the final Incursion and the destruction of Earth-616. Although it's fuzzy how much of the days before the Incursion still happened after the multiverse was restarted from Battleworld, reports of a S.H.I.E.L.D. strike on Genosha were made. Later, the Terrigen Mists reportedly wafted through Magneto's settlement, killing sixty mutants. The destruction of Magneto's new refuge strongly suggests this particular incarnation of Scalphunter and the Marauders did not survive. [Magneto (2nd series) #15-19, Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #3]

Greycrow remained semi-active as a mercenary after that. Scrambler of the Marauders turned evidence against Scalphunter while trying to go straight, sending him to prison. Scalphunter got out and tried to pressure Scrambler back into a life of crime. Scrambler scrambled him and sent him back to prison, but later broke Greycrow out in part to make amends. [Deadpool v. Gambit #3-4] The Office of National Emergency got their hooks in Emma Frost, using her telepathy to manipulate various mutant groups into taking each other out. She sent Scalphunter and the Marauders after a new colony of Morlocks, which in turn prompted the X-Men to seek out the Marauders. Scalphunter and the others didn't even remember attacking the Morlocks, and tried to surrender. However, Chamber had been living with the Morlocks before they were killed, and used his bio-blasts to execute the Marauders anyway, dying himself thanks to Harpoon's last act. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #18]