Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina: MAGIK appreciation 2021

[Andru]

Illyana features in today's Cable. There's also a Belasco connection and a hint about her future.

Thanks! Any chance you have the panels and can share?

[ZephyrSurf]

spoilers:

I guess Magik is getting a second dimension, or fusing one into her own. Also really curious about that coin.

end of spoilers

[loke13]

For those who read Cable what's a marker?

[ZephyrSurf]

For those who read Cable what's a marker?

It was in issue 1, it's a krakoa thing where if you lose against someone in the quarry you owe them a marker which is a favor.

[sunofdarkchild]

There's a lot to unpack with Illyana's 2 pages. We can add Cable to the list of characters with whom Illyana can have a 'buddy comedy.' I feel like the marker has to have more significance than just 'i owe you a favor' since 1. Cable could have just said that, and 2. the focus on the coin would be really out of place if that's all it was. There's also the question of why she'll need the coin "someday." The possibility of her coming to rule a second dimension is interesting, but I don't see it happening, because I don't see the point. I'm also not sure why she seems to just leave and not be among the group going to fight Stryfe when this whole situation is more up her alley than anyone else's. Stryfe is using a tome of Belasco's to sacrifice mutant children and launch a demon invasion from a realm that's basically Limbo without being Limbo. She should be with the Summers family and I hope she does return for the big fight in the next issue.

Also, a meeting between her and Stryfe could have more meaning. When I posted Stryfe's file on her I began to wonder if perhaps he had deliberately infected her with the Legacy Virus in order to get rid of her before her time travel/manipulation powers manifested. The way he described her time travel as greater than his and the beating-over-the-head foreshadowing of what his 'legacy' would do to her seemed to imply it being more than just an accident or chance to me. It's a Cable book, so even if she does show up for the big fight it will most likely not be addressed, but even a sentence would have the benefit of solidifying that Truth or Dare is not in continuity.

[Scavenger]

I'm reading something by Dhalpin3, which pointed out that due to the Fox Disney Marvel merger, and Anya Taylor-Joy's character in The New Mutants movie, that Magik is now a Disney princess!

(technically, so is the Xenomorph Queen of the Alien franchise, as well as Princess Leia, so Illyana is in good company despite The Mouse.)

Illyana would have become a Disney Princess when Disney bought marvel...not when they regot the film rights...and she didn't because she, as well as the Xenomorph QUEEN are not PRINCESSESS, which is right in the !@#!@# name.

Silver Sable would be one, and I suppose Black Widow because this is the X-board and Claremont kept wanting to do a story where Widow was revelead to be the lost princess Anastasia.

I'm also not sure why she seems to just leave and not be among the group going to fight Stryfe when this whole situation is more up her alley than anyone else's..... She should be with the Summers family and I hope she does return for the big fight in the next issue.

Except that she's NOT a member of the Summers family and there's a whole lot of "destiny of the Summers family" and "things that are meant to happen are now happening" going on in the issue.

[sunofdarkchild]

Except that she's NOT a member of the Summers family and there's a whole lot of "destiny of the Summers family" and "things that are meant to happen are now happening" going on in the issue.

If the Summers family theme is so important that only family members can be in this fight then don't set it up with Belasco's spells, a carbon copy of Limbo, and a demon invasion. Stryfe could be doing a million other things that don't involve elements for which Illyana is best qualified person on Krakoa to deal with. This is more like Star Trek Nemesis where a 70+ year-old Picard chooses to go alone into a firefight with a ship full of hostile aliens as well as his much younger clone instead of sending the super-strong android or the legendary Klingon warrior because the film has a 'theme' about him having to face a mirror image of himself. The story suffers because the theme is upheld even when it doesn't make sense. Anyone who doesn't think to bring Magik to the fight when the words 'Belasco' and 'demon invasion' are mentioned has no business being in any leadership position.

And all that ignore the fact that they're also bringing Deadpool along, so it's not only the Summers family to begin with.

[sunofdarkchild]

X-Men: A Dangerous Mutant Leader Might Be Getting Even MORE Power

I suppose there is potential in her gaining a second dimension if it affects her relationship or status among the other hell lords. Just giving her more demons to command doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

[sunofdarkchild]

With the talk about characters being plot devices, I guess now's as good as time as any to bring this up.

I recently reread the issues where the Russian government kills the Rasputin parents and tries to accelerate little Illyana's parents and the rest of her appearances up until her death, and I finally put my finger on why this whole sequence never sat right with me beyond the waste of killing off a great character.

Throughout the entire period from when the X-Men go to visit the Rasputins in Russia until her death - until her return in Quest for Magik, actually - Illyana was not a character but a simple plot device. She was there to be cute or innocent, and everything was about how others reacted. She was not allowed to have a reaction to her parents being murdered or to being put in a torture machine. She couldn't have a response to suddenly becoming an orphan, because that would take away from her cheerful innocence and make her an actual character rather than some symbol of innocence. Hers is the one point of view that isn't explored even though she's the one who's dying. Xavier pretty much comes out and says at much when he tells Kitty he should have been helping Colossus instead of the dying little girl.

It's not the first time Marvel has done something like that. Gwen Stacey didn't have much of anything to do in the issue where she was killed and was basically a plot device, but she was still reacting to Harry Osborn's situation and the whole thing was 1 issue. Illyana's situation was drawn out for several months and there was never an instant where the loss of her parents was addressed. Everything was about Colossus or how other people were affected. Dead characters usually are plot devices for living characters, but generally that starts after they die instead of being a constant throughout the story leading up to their deaths. That's what bothers me, that she wasn't allowed to be a character in those final months.

[Fokken]

There's a lot to unpack with Illyana's 2 pages. We can add Cable to the list of characters with whom Illyana can have a 'buddy comedy.' I feel like the marker has to have more significance than just 'i owe you a favor' since 1. Cable could have just said that, and 2. the focus on the coin would be really out of place if that's all it was. There's also the question of why she'll need the coin "someday." The possibility of her coming to rule a second dimension is interesting, but I don't see it happening, because I don't see the point. I'm also not sure why she seems to just leave and not be among the group going to fight Stryfe when this whole situation is more up her alley than anyone else's. Stryfe is using a tome of Belasco's to sacrifice mutant children and launch a demon invasion from a realm that's basically Limbo without being Limbo. She should be with the Summers family and I hope she does return for the big fight in the next issue.

Also, a meeting between her and Stryfe could have more meaning. When I posted Stryfe's file on her I began to wonder if perhaps he had deliberately infected her with the Legacy Virus in order to get rid of her before her time travel/manipulation powers manifested. The way he described her time travel as greater than his and the beating-over-the-head foreshadowing of what his 'legacy' would do to her seemed to imply it being more than just an accident or chance to me. It's a Cable book, so even if she does show up for the big fight it will most likely not be addressed, but even a sentence would have the benefit of solidifying that Truth or Dare is not in continuity.

Consider me shook.
I had not considered that angle (Stryfe deliberately targeting Illyana with the legacy virus because her abilities make her a significant threat to his plans).

I prefer that much more over the Truth or Dare arc.
You always have such terrific hot takes, sunofdarkchild!

I also would have loved to have Illyana join the Stryfe hunt.
The inclusion of Domino and Deadpool proves that this is less of a SUMMERS outing, but more specifically a CABLE outing, so I'm not AS disappointed. haha.
Their brief interaction had me day dreaming about what their relationship might've been in the 90's had Illyana NOT been de-aged & died, but joined the other New Mutants among X-Force.

[sunofdarkchild]

Attachment 111247

This is from a book called Spellbound, a 6-issue mini from 1988, specifically issue 4. It was written by Lousie Simonson, the writer of New Mutants from the time Claremont left until past Inferno.

This answers pretty much every question about Illyana Simonson's New Mutants run. Even though she was Claremont's editor for the Magik mini, she had really forgotten much of it, including the fact that Illyana spared Belasco's life at the end, and she didn't look at a copy to make sure she was getting things right. This is why Illyana had no problems sending people to Limbo or setting out with the intention of murdering Forge - Simonson truly thought Illyana was a killer of her foes. This might even be why N'Astirh was created. If she really thought Belasco was dead then someone new was needed. It's no wonder in Inferno she forgot that Illyana had been in Limbo for 3 years and had 2 bloodstones made from her soul by the time S'ym first punished her or that Belasco started corrupting her soul seconds after dragging her to Limbo so there was no innocent Illyana for the New Mutants to rescue before she could be corrupted or that S'ym wouldn't dare kill Illyana during her punishments because he wouldn't anger Belasco by killing his apprentice.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this is that this forgetfulness was probably so influential on how Illyana has been characterized since then. Her psychopathic Exiles version, the cold-blooded House of M version, even her willingness to kill in the years since her return, are likely a direct result of authors taking from a run where Simonson forgot that Illyana let Belasco go.

[Andru]

Anyone read X-Men #1 today?

So, apparently the new "Seneca Gardens" serves as the X-Men's NYC headquarters and a monument to mutants who never made it to Krakoa...not sure how that works with ressurection and all...but hey, there's Illyana!

Attachment 111272

But wait, why? Last time I checked she is still breathing, and a captain to boot!

[sunofdarkchild]

I would have said that's not Illyana, but the sword clinches it.

The guy in the foreground looks like Thunderbird, so it is the memorial to the fallen. Except the whole world knows Magik is alive. She rose to prominence during the Phoenix 5 era and has been a fixture of the X-Men since then. Her opening portals over dozens of major cities around the world during the recent Man-Thing crisis would also be pretty well-known and she would have been pretty prominent at the gala. So a memorial to her would simply raise questions from the humans.

A memorial to the child version who succumbed to the Legacy Virus would make sense as a symbolic representation of why mutants need Krakoa and what they lost to get there. But then it should be the child who is depicted, not an oversized version of the warrior sorceress. Maybe that's what it's supposed to be and the artist messed up by making it the older version of the character.

[sunofdarkchild]

Another hot take.

Dr. Strange knew all along that Illyana would return. This isn't even speculation. It's the only way to read the Bendis Uncanny run. She came from the future to seek his help and was older than she was at the Inferno and he knew she was from his actual future and not an alternate timeline. He could have told Xavier or Colossus that she'd return and chose not to. Any doubts he might have had would have disappeared when he officially joined the Avengers in the early 2000s, confirming what she'd told him about the future, and from then it would have been a matter of waiting.

[Meta jon]

picked up a couple of sketches from an artist named Tom Kelly - super nice guy and fast as hell
https://www.deviantart.com/tomkellyart
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