Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina: MAGIK appreciation 2021

[sunofdarkchild]

Illyana with her brother at the Hellfire Gala. A lot more white in this image.

Attachment 109883

[sunofdarkchild]

Two big things related to Illyana today.

1. She calls out Xavier and says she and the New Mutants will be better teachers than him.

2. Inferno 2.0 is coming later this year. It looks like Mystique is going to be the one to set if off, but I'm sure it's going to tie back into the original story in some big ways.

[Grunty]

1. She calls out Xavier and says she and the New Mutants will be better teachers than him.

They aren't doing a particular great job as far as we can see and low sales might kick the book into the bin before long. So it's quite a boast with little basis so far.

2. Inferno 2.0 is coming later this year. It looks like Mystique is going to be the one to set if off, but I'm sure it's going to tie back into the original story in some big ways.

Keep in mind there has been a trend at Marvel the past few years to pick names of famous events/storylines and re-use them for entirely unrelated new ones.

So chances are nothing about this Inferno will involve anything of the original and they just thought it was a cool name to recycle for a story about the attempted destruction of Krakoa by Mystique.

[sunofdarkchild]

They aren't doing a particular great job as far as we can see and low sales might kick the book into the bin before long. So it's quite a boast with little basis so far.



Keep in mind there has been a trend at Marvel the past few years to pick names of famous events/storylines and re-use them for entirely unrelated new ones.

So chances are nothing about this Inferno will involve anything of the original and they just thought it was a cool name to recycle for a story about the attempted destruction of Krakoa by Mystique.

She says herself that the way they went about it until now was wrong and so they're changing things. Until now they have been working with the kids the way Xavier worked with them, and now they've decided that's not good enough.

[ZephyrSurf]

They aren't doing a particular great job as far as we can see and low sales might kick the book into the bin before long. So it's quite a boast with little basis so far.

??? New Mutants isn't selling low though. Far as is aware, its sales have always been around Marauders and that hasn't changed with Ayala taking the book on.

[Kingdom X]

She says herself that the way they went about it until now was wrong and so they're changing things. Until now they have been working with the kids the way Xavier worked with them, and now they've decided that's not good enough.

All the releases this week really got me mad at Xavier. Probably wasn’t intentional but baldy can choke.

[Grunty]

All the releases this week really got me mad at Xavier. Probably wasn’t intentional but baldy can choke.

And then there was Way of X last week. We certainly get an increase again in books where people call out Xavier and he himself is presented as shady again.

So the whole feeling of hubris is hanging in the air again.

She says herself that the way they went about it until now was wrong and so they're changing things. Until now they have been working with the kids the way Xavier worked with them, and now they've decided that's not good enough.

So first it was the "human" way which was disregarded and now it's Xavier's way that is disregarded, but given their own state of mind and collection of various traumas, i think i remain sceptic on what ever they will do better.
Though if the intention of the writer is for their way to be better, they will of course show it being the best for them, regardless of how much the end result will make sense.

??? New Mutants isn't selling low though. Far as is aware, its sales have always been around Marauders and that hasn't changed with Ayala taking the book on.

I don't have factual evidence either, but sales in general had been on a steady decline for the X-line especialy for the satelite titles not staring the actual Wolverine (i don't get his sales power but it's clearly there). So it's more a hunch that cancelations for books like New Mutants might be just around the corner.

[ZephyrSurf]

I don't have factual evidence either, but sales in general had been on a steady decline for the X-line especialy for the satelite titles not staring the actual Wolverine (i don't get his sales power but it's clearly there). So it's more a hunch that cancelations for books like New Mutants might be just around the corner.

If books were getting cancelled, New Mutants wouldn't even remotely be first in line. My point of bringing up Marauders, is to point out that New Mutants is on the higher end of X-book sales right now. So worry about Vita's story not getting time seems silly to me, since there's several books one would have to talk about before touching New Mutants.

[G0RM]

In Illyana's letter to Xavier, there are a whole series of crossed out mispelings.

Is this an ongoing joke of how she misspelled 'Magic' in the X of Swords competition?

It certainly can't be a real thing in Limbo and Illyana's actual sorcery, given the near-fatal difference between 'Hel' and 'Hell' plus limitless numbers of other perfectionistic hazards in sorcery which would make lysdexia and mispeling an ongoing life and death situation.

Any other comments on Magik, mispelings, and Illyana 2.0's constant use as a humorous foil by many writers since her reappearance?

(Claremont and Simonson occasionally used Illyana 1.0 humorously, especially when combined with Kitty, but was normally taken far more seriously when in the New Mutants volume 1, especially around Rahne.)

{It just occurred to me that misspelling things intentionally while insulting Xavier as a teacher may have been a rather complex jab at him, given the Logan-like personal disdain Illyana has held for Chuck since TNM #51 due to his telepathic violation of her personal autonomy, much like Belasco's.}

[Krakoa]

Might also just be that:
- English is not her first language
- She spent most of her teenage years in hell and probably wasn't taking English class

[Leirus]

In Illyana's letter to Xavier, there are a whole series of crossed out mispelings.

Is this an ongoing joke of how she misspelled 'Magic' in the competition?

It certainly can't be a real thing in Limbo and Illyana's actual sorcery, given the near-fatal difference between 'Hel' and 'Hell' plus limitless numbers of other perfectionistic hazards in sorcery which would make lysdexia and mispeling an ongoing life and death situation.

Any other comments on Magik, mispelings, and Illyana 2.0's constant use as a humorous foil by many writers since her reappearance?

(Claremont and Simonson occasionally used Illyana 1.0 humorously, especially when combined with Kitty, but was normally taken far more seriously when in the New Mutants volume 1, especially around Rahne.)

{It just occurred to me that misspelling things intentionally while insulting Xavier as a teacher may have been a rather complex jab at him, given the Logan-like personal disdain Illyana has held for Chuck since TNM #51 due to his telepathic violation of her personal autonomy, much like Belasco's.}

Illyana 2.0 stopped existing at the end of the Zeb Wells volume, when she recovered her original soul. Yana grew up in Limbo and her original language is russian. I think she writes english pretty well, all things considered.

[sunofdarkchild]

The fact that she never received a proper formal education has been highlighted multiple times in the current run. She was taught english telepathically overnight. In Limbo her education was focused on combat and spell-casting, and while she learned to read a variety of languages there, those languages were the languages she casted spells in, and english is not a spell-casting language. What education she received at Xaviers was piecemeal at best, as he sent her off to Muir Island when he formed the New Mutants and didn't even start teaching her anything until Kitty and the X-Men came back from space. After being trapped in Limbo for so long she would have needed to start at the first-grade level in many subjects, but her education was constantly disrupted by Xavier disappearing for extended periods, the New Mutants disappearing for extended periods, Xavier leaving altogether and being replaced with Magneto, the school being closed after their fight with the Beyonder and them going to the Massachusetts Academy, getting lost in time and space, then Magneto spending more time with the Hellfire Club than teaching. They only ever had 2 teachers at a time, Xavier/Magneto and Stevie, who just taught dance. It wouldn't surprise me if by the time Inferno came about Illyana had only had a couple of weeks of real school in her entire life. And she's had no school since she came back, just what further magical training she had with Dr. Strange in the Bendis run.

Beyond that, how often would she write anything? The only times we've seen her writing are her letter explaining why she went to the future in BOTA and her having to write field reports for Karma in Dead Souls. Other than that, anything she needed to say she'd just say out loud. If she wanted to write a letter to her brother, it would be in Russian since that's the first language of both of them.

It makes perfect sense for her to be sensitive to the nuances of Hell and Hel since that's her area of expertise and what she was actually educated in, while having poor spelling in english since she received almost 0 education beyond that first mind-dump by Xavier. If anything it's astounding she made as few mistakes as she did and knew enough to correct them. It's much better than I'd expect from someone who was never taught how to read properly except in dead languages.

[sunofdarkchild]

One more 'Krakoan moment,' this time explaining why I think Illyana is doing so freaking much and working so hard.


Scott stepped into the Building which served as the New Mutants' headquarters. Dani, Xian, and Rahne were seated around a table having breakfast, while Illyana was standing apart from them, downing an entire urn of coffee while Warlock mimicked her movements. All conversation ended as the presence of the Captain Commander of Krakoa became known. Only Illyana did not react to his entrance, continuing to chug away at the coffee.

Scott waited patiently. No one approached him or moved to speak with him. It was obvious to all who he was there to see. When the urn was completely drained, Illyana set it down, wiped her mouth, and finally acknowledged his presence.

"Captain."

"Captain."

"What brings you here?" she asked.

"I wanted to talk with you," Scott answered, "in private."

Illyana gestured towards the door. "Step into my office."

They went outside and began to walk together. "I see the rumor of your coffee addiction are true," Scott observed.

"It's good coffee," Illyana said dismissively.

"And I suppose you need all the caffeine you can get to maintain your schedule."

"You and James have basically taken it upon yourselves to teach and train all of Krakoa's youth."

"The Professor pretty much forced that on us, but yes."

"That's a full-time job, on top of your duties as a captain."

"True."

"Plus you are teaching at Dr. Strange's magic school and you're helping him with his Kulan Gath problem. You just formed the Dark Riders. You're doing a lot of transportation, like when you took Logan to Mars and Nathan to Limbo. You're also still going on your fair share of missions, whether it's saving the human world from Man-Thing's pollen or negotiating our alliance with Mojo."

"What's your point?" she asked.

"It's a little much for one person to take on, isn't it?"

When she did not respond, he continued. "It's great that you're putting in so much work. No one has done more to ensure Krakoa works than you. But as your friend, I'm worried about you. I don't want you to burn yourself out. I mean, when do you sleep?"

"If I don't have enough time I can go to Limbo and catch some shut-eye there," Illyana explained. "What would be seconds here are stretched to hours there."

"Even still, you don't have to so much by yourself, you can delegate."

"I do delegate," Illyana insisted. "I've got Jimmy handling a lot of the training when I'm not around. Dani and Xian also handle a lot of the problems that pop up when I'm busy."

"You just said that's only when you're busy with something else. You're working 24/7 and taking no time to cool down or relax."

"You don't have to fix every problem by yourself," Scott said. "You can rely on other people sometimes."

Illyana looked down and to the side. "No, I can't," she said softly.

"What?"

Illyana grew angry. "We asked the Professor and the Council to help with the problems here, and they turned it around and forced the responsibility on us. But even if they hadn't, I can't rely on anyone."

"Why not?"

"Because every time I did, it ended in disaster."

This time it was Scott who did not respond so Illyana continued: "I was a baby, entirely reliant on the X-Men to keep me safe, but I still ended up trapped in Limbo and had to fight my way out myself. After I came back, I was relying on the Professor to help me figure out how to control my power, but he went off to space before he could. I relied on my brother and Kitty to be my anchors, but Kitty stayed in England after she got hurt and Piotr let me think he was dead. I relied on Magneto to give me a semblance of stability, but he got too wrapped up in Hellfire Club politics to be around. When I tried to give myself a second chance, I was relying on the X-Men to look after me again, and we all know how that turned out."

She shook her head. "I can't do that again. I can't depend on people who weren't there when I needed them most."

Scott breathed a sad sigh as he looked down at Illyana. They had been friends since the time they shared the power of the Phoenix Force, but he'd never been able to understand her. But this conversation explained so much he had been wondering about for years.

For as long as he had known her, Illyana had never been one to ask for help. She would either insist on doing it herself or - in the early days - manipulate people into doing what she wanted. That was what happened when the Elder Gods were released. Rather than ask for help, she used her position as a Hell Lord to make a deal with the god-mutant Legion. When she got her soul back and became less manipulative, she still never asked for help except as an extreme last resort, and then it was Dr. Strange she turned to, not any of her friends in the X-Men. She would also drive Scott crazy by going off to do her own thing, preferring to solve problems on her own rather than work with her team.

Despite his frustration, during that period Scott learned to rely on Illyana. She got things done quickly and efficiently, and she pulled his butt out of the fire many times. She made herself into the person Storm relied on the most during the Terrigen crisis and the person Jean asked to look after her stepson in Otherworld.

At last Scott was starting to understand why Illyana did these things and why she had to be this way. She'd been hurt, let down, and abandoned too many times as a child to go back to that. She wouldn't even let her brother try to take care of her anymore. She took on responsibility because she could trust no one to take responsibility for her.

She wasn't wrong, Scott knew. Professor Xavier had admitted as much when she was offered her captaincy. At every step, the X-Men had failed Illyana when she was a child.

And she still was a child, he realized. It was easy to forget, given her immense power and the responsibility she took on, but Illyana wasn't old enough to rent a car. With everything that had happened to her, she was closer in age to many of the students she was taking care of than her own teammates in the New Mutants.

"I understand," he said at last. "But you can't take care of everyone else if you don't take care of yourself first. If I ever think that you're working too hard or burning yourself out, I'm going to order you to take an immediate vacation. We need you to remain at your best."

Illyana nodded. "Agreed. And ... thanks. No one else would tell me I was working too hard."

"There's one thing you can rely on me to do," Scott declared, "and that's to make sure my captains stay in tip-top shape."

That was the way to get through to her, he realized. Make it a transaction, just like her deal with Legion. After being let down her entire life, Illyana would only trust that offers of help would be followed-through on if she knew she was expected to do something in return.

"Whatever happens, you can count on me," Illyana said.

"I know. you've never let me down. That's why I wanted you to be the captain."

It was a start. And, he hoped, it was something that could be built upon until Illyana was truly able to trust people to be there for her again.

[rcaguy]

Illyana 2.0 stopped existing at the end of the Zeb Wells volume, when she recovered her original soul. Yana grew up in Limbo and her original language is russian. I think she writes english pretty well, all things considered.

Don't see what the big deal is really.It's fairly obvious this was something that was done on the fly. Illyana just scribbled her thoughts down and hit send.

[juan678]

X-Men #1 exclusive variant by Jee Hyung Lee