GOOD GOLLY, Destruction was QUITE an AMAZING display for Illyana. I could not be prouder. spoilers:end of spoilers WHAT. A. RIDE.
The fervent insistence she demonstrated in locating and retrieving Douglas. The swaths of beasts she continually mowed down alongside the other sword bearers. But when I say that I swelled up / welled up seeing Captain Commander reach out to Illyana (again) during this event to pull off some sick crazy bonkers shit with bringing the Peak!?! My body wasn't ready and I've died and been reborn.
Her contributions to the team were considerable even if the tournament being a joke made her scouting out the competition with Gorgon worthless in the end.
Doug actually acquitted himself pretty well in the final fight in that he wasn't immediately killed, which can be attributed to the crash course in fighting Illyana gave him.
Cyclops' plan was something he worked out with her in advance before the tournament, which is why she knew exactly what to do when he contacted her. She was also the one pushing him to make plans in the first place.
Both Cyclops' plan and Cable's plan needed her power to work, and without either one they would end up being overwhelmed and Apocalypse wouldn't get his moment.
One big complaint though, why does she or anyone else not think to summon her Limbo demons to help fight off the opposing demon army? Empyre wasn't that long ago and she summoned her demons to fight the zombies and plant aliens then. The tension of 'oh, the demons outnumber us so much' is lost when the X-Men have an army they can call up a lot easier then any of the other reinforcements they got during the battle.
Also, THIS is the 'mother of all stepping disks, not whatever this is.
'largest' stepping disk.jpg
I thought that too -- about summoning "back up" -- but in the end I'm pleased they gave us a fresh solution but in a similar vein, given as you said how she previously did that during the Empyre event which wasn't very long ago.
I appreciate that they showed it wasn't easy for her to make such a huge portal. Seemed pretty painful actually.
it was a pretty cool moment overall! The ending was satisfying.
Despite me liking the tournament silliness I was left wanting for more of an exciting moment for Illyana, like Wolverine or Storm. And I do agree on the summoning limbo demons thing, but oh well!
I was rereading New Mutants (2019) 1 and I realized something that I hadn't noticed all year. Illyana basically pulls an 'I am not left-handed' in her sparring match with Raza. For most of the fight she primarily uses her unarmored arm, but when she gets mad at being punched in the face she switches to her armored arm and that's when she breaks his sword and cuts off his arm. A bit more evidence of her throwing the arm-wrestling contest with Pogg.
I think it would have been risky for Magik to summon demons with so many enemy Summoners on the battlefield. They could have turned against her
She did the scream so that they won't keep asking her to teleport the solar system out of the way of the big bad.
Same reason she pretended to need other spellcasters to bring the school to Limbo.
Being reduced to Magik Bus / Genie is a drag, and like with children, ya gotta let the mortals handle their own problems, or they never grow up.
I've started a sequel to my rewrite of the movie.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1375819...nts-the-Sequel
The fight with the human form of Sadurang the Dragon took place off-panel in Savage Avengers. Conan, Black Knight, and Juggernaut are all unconscious - though Juggs was out after he fell last issue - and only Illyana is still able to fight at all, though she's not doing too well. The 'next time on' blurb suggests she's going to take the fight to Limbo to even the odds.