Illyana Rasputina: Magik Appreciation 2020

[G0RM]

Limbo Powers Activate!

[G0RM]

We've already talked about this, Magik!

Call Back to Sexually Hostile Work Environment:

[Thirteen]

We've already talked about this, Magik!

Call Back to Sexually Hostile Work Environment:

(Main) Soulsword wielded in the unarmored arm though?
Never noticed it before but I guess it’s been done before...

[sunofdarkchild]

Her using the sword in her unarmored hand has been a thing since the armor first appeared. When the Demon Bear attacked her she summoned the sword in her right hand and then saw the damaged armor on her left arm and was shocked. The next issue she summoned the sword in her right hand and stabbed Officer Corsi with her right arm while the armor covered her left arm. She seems to be ambidextrous, as the hand she holds the sword in often changes from artist to artist, and even then there are artists who have her alternate which hand she uses. Bill S. seemed to depict her as right-handed most of the time. In New Mutants 50 she has the sword in her left hand, the armored hand, when she purges herself of the transmode virus and then switches to her right hand which has no armor when she stabs the ground and remakes all of Limbo.

[juan678]

[sunofdarkchild]

About time they released her twitter blurb. The others all came out by March.

[G0RM]

Deadpool #6 this week is Magik heavy, not as much as Empyre X-Men, but a lot.

I normally won't touch Deadpool, but she also had some cute scenes.

[WallStreeter]

I don't think of any version as being a "true" Illyana without having overcome extreme hardship and trauma with grace, but at great cost.

It's like saying a version of Magneto who didn't grow up in a Nazi Deathcamp 'is' Magneto.

The survivor of UXM #160 plus "Magik- Storm & Illyana" who had 3/5th of her soul irreversibly corrupted, taking over one of the planes of Hell at age 13 is the primary Illyana 1.0 I think of, but maybe I'd accept the "little girl illyana" who grew up in the camps of, and undid Age of Apocalypse, then becoming God Doom's first Swan.

I saw no real evidence that the version in Exiles had HellLord status, nor the "What If" version with Soul Staff, although I suspect that one had either 2/5 or 3/5 corruption. (I can't speculate about the one from Excalibur's Cross-Time Caper.)

If there's a 'Disney Princess' version without corruption, who doesn't rule Limbo, or for that matter, if this current Krakoan version isn't Limbo's Hell Lord as Belasco's current occupation of Limbo in Ghost Rider suggests, I'm not sure if any 'True' Illyana is on-stage, but instead lurks Elsewhen, watching All with an eyeroll.

I have similar things to say about not being an intergalactic cross-time Teleporter of armies and demonic hordes.

We see her summon demons from Limbo to eat the zombies and the Coati. She temporarily banished the old ladies to Limbo too. And she temporarily turned into Darkchilde. And she wore her complete armor set too.

Disney’s complete ownership of the X-Mem maybe why want Magik as a powerful mutant sorceress and not as the embodiment of a hell realm.

[WallStreeter]

Problem with that is Dr Strange and Wanda deal with mystic arts that are far more "family friendly" for the sake of Disney. They can make it more bippity-boppity-boo where Magik's story basically is the type of demonic sorcery that people's parents were scared of in the 70's and 80's. Disney does NOT want to have devil looking demons running around within kids grasps. Dormammu is one thing, Belasco and the concept of Elder Gods is a big ole nope even if they clean up their image a bit. Just too close to what the Christian vision of Hell is about.

Except Illyana fought her way out of hell and beat her demons to her soul back. Literally. Now she’s a powerful mutant sorceress. Trained by Strange after growing up in Limbo. But she does not rule Limbo. Belasco does. Kevin Feige has ultimate creative control over all Marvel properties and I’m sure he made this change so Magik would be usable in the movies.

CW is a family oriented channel and the Charmed Ones had to fight the Source of all Evil, and he is a bit close to the Christian concept of Satan.

Xena and Hercules faced demons and the Christian concept of Satan in their show in the early 2000s.

[sunofdarkchild]

Looking at the Magik-focused tweet my current hope is that her character arc is going from thinking she's a bad person to thinking there's a chance she can be good.

[c-lei]

We see her summon demons from Limbo to eat the zombies and the Coati. She temporarily banished the old ladies to Limbo too. And she temporarily turned into Darkchilde. And she wore her complete armor set too.

Disney’s complete ownership of the X-Mem maybe why want Magik as a powerful mutant sorceress and not as the embodiment of a hell realm.

You mean more towards what Claremont intended for Magik rather than what Louise Simonson did to Magik with her Power Packism of the New Mutants.

[G0RM]

Empyre: X-Men #3 delivers more Magik Heavy Action!

[Havok83]

The issue felt too much like a Magik mini which is a shame bc it had so many interesting characters that did absolutely nothing. She's kinda becoming overexposed and Im getting to the point where Im wanting them to limit her appearances bc when she does show up, the writers cant help but have her dominate the space even if its at the detriment of other characters

[Fokken]

The issue felt too much like a Magik mini which is a shame bc it had so many interesting characters that did absolutely nothing. She's kinda becoming overexposed and Im getting to the point where Im wanting them to limit her appearances bc when she does show up, the writers cant help but have her dominate the space even if its at the detriment of other characters

I regret to admit I feel the same.

[sunofdarkchild]

Indeed. This and New Mutants have recently had the unfortunate 'Magik is the only competent person around' problem. This was the reason Claremont nerfed her twice by having her magics not work on earth except when he wanted them to, having her not be able to control her stepping disks, and arguably a third time by making her soul sword not harm anything which wasn't magical. Even with all of those limits she was still the most powerful member of the team and could have solved many of the crisis they faced by herself without the others. Now she really has the Superman/Thor problem of being so much more powerful than anyone else there's not much point in others even being around.

This first became an issue during Battle of the Atom, not so much because she was too powerful but because she was literally the only character in the arc that was allowed to have a brain. In the Extraordinary era it was a plot point that she was literally doing everything, from protecting the school to rescuing every single mutant by herself, and the plot began with Iceman telling Storm they couldn't just rely on Illyana to do everything for them because it was too much for just one person.

Rosenberg ironically handled it the best in his New Mutants mini, despite the mess that was his Uncanny run. It was clear that her level of competency was well above everyone else and that they were holding her back, but her inexperience as a leader and the way the others didn't trust her balanced it out.

I'm a little worried about how the New Mutants is going to handle this as well. It's clear that she's way more experienced than the others, and she's really the only one we see in the previews fighting the Demon Bear. What can the others do? Dani and Rahne's powers are useless against the bear, and I doubt the boys can really do much against it either.