Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina: MAGIK appreciation 2021

[Oldandevil]

It doesn't work. She escaped Limbo without having created the soul sword or reaching a point where she could create anything. Also, that's not right after Storm's death. It's a full year after Storm's death. The only time it makes sense for the What If to take place is when her mutant power first manifests at the beginning of issue 3 - when both Cat and Storm are still alive and she's only tried to make an acorn once.

The scene that I am thinking of in the ‘Magik’ miniseries is takes place in issue 4, page 14, panels 1, 2 & 3. Illyana has just tried and failed to make another acorn (her final attempt). Ororo’s oak, not Ororo herself, dies and Illyana watches as it “begins to crumble to dust”. In the comic we see Illyana’s thought bubbles where she says: “I want vengeance! Ororo created life for its own sake. I sought it as a means to and end – the utter destruction of my tormenter. Could that be the answer? Not a metaphorical weapon – as Ororo sought – but the REAL THING?!” From there it tells how Illyana cast her Master Spell, using all of the strength she took from the oak and all of her own. When she plunges her hand into the energy sphere, the Soul Sword was created. With it she goes on to defeat Belasco and return home through one of her stepping disks.
That is how it happened. What I suggest is when the oak crumbles to dust she thinks “I want to go home! Ororo created life for its own sake. I sought it as a means to an end – to escape my tormenter. Could that be the answer? Not a metaphorical escape – as Ororo sought – but the REAL THING?!” If that was what she really desired, her Master Spell may have given her a way to return to earth without creating the Soul Sword or any thing else. In the original, her mutant power is locked down by Belasco and is only restored when she shatters the enchantment used to Imprison her in panel 8. The ‘What If?’ has her running from Belasco, not having him defeated. It shows her having strong magic, but not being able to create. It shows her full of Rage and Grief and Hatred, releasing it after she defeats Belasco not in Limbo but on Earth.
It is my suggestion that the change I suggested would be logical for the story told in ‘What If? Magik’. That’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

[sunofdarkchild]

The scene that I am thinking of in the ‘Magik’ miniseries is takes place in issue 4, page 14, panels 1, 2 & 3. Illyana has just tried and failed to make another acorn (her final attempt). Ororo’s oak, not Ororo herself, dies and Illyana watches as it “begins to crumble to dust”. In the comic we see Illyana’s thought bubbles where she says: “I want vengeance! Ororo created life for its own sake. I sought it as a means to and end – the utter destruction of my tormenter. Could that be the answer? Not a metaphorical weapon – as Ororo sought – but the REAL THING?!” From there it tells how Illyana cast her Master Spell, using all of the strength she took from the oak and all of her own. When she plunges her hand into the energy sphere, the Soul Sword was created. With it she goes on to defeat Belasco and return home through one of her stepping disks.
That is how it happened. What I suggest is when the oak crumbles to dust she thinks “I want to go home! Ororo created life for its own sake. I sought it as a means to an end – to escape my tormenter. Could that be the answer? Not a metaphorical escape – as Ororo sought – but the REAL THING?!” If that was what she really desired, her Master Spell may have given her a way to return to earth without creating the Soul Sword or any thing else. In the original, her mutant power is locked down by Belasco and is only restored when she shatters the enchantment used to Imprison her in panel 8. The ‘What If?’ has her running from Belasco, not having him defeated. It shows her having strong magic, but not being able to create. It shows her full of Rage and Grief and Hatred, releasing it after she defeats Belasco not in Limbo but on Earth.
It is my suggestion that the change I suggested would be logical for the story told in ‘What If? Magik’. That’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

The central premise of the story is that she doesn't go home but leaves Xavier's altogether and wanders the country by herself until Strange finds her. An Illyana who is even more focused on going home wouldn't just walk away like that.

[Oldandevil]

The central premise of the story is that she doesn't go home but leaves Xavier's altogether and wanders the country by herself until Strange finds her. An Illyana who is even more focused on going home wouldn't just walk away like that.

I'm sorry but you are wrong about what the comic says... in particular the introduction printed on the First Page. Part of it reads "As a teenager raised in hell, Illyana struggled to readjust, finding herself hunted by the past...by the unknown outer limits of her powers...by the fear that Belasco would return.
What if this fear had driven her—away from her friends, family, and the New Mutants? What if Illyana...walked away?
Who would she become?" As you can see, the central premise of the story is not that she doesn't go home but she runs away out of fear, which supports the divergence I suggested. Flight not Fight.

[sunofdarkchild]

I'm sorry but you are wrong about what the comic says... in particular the introduction printed on the First Page. Part of it reads "As a teenager raised in hell, Illyana struggled to readjust, finding herself hunted by the past...by the unknown outer limits of her powers...by the fear that Belasco would return.
What if this fear had driven her—away from her friends, family, and the New Mutants? What if Illyana...walked away?
Who would she become?" As you can see, the central premise of the story is not that she doesn't go home but she runs away out of fear, which supports the divergence I suggested. Flight not Fight.

I'm responding to your version where she apparently had a stronger desire to go home, which rather than solve the problem creates a new one by adding a desire to go home that is contradicted by her leaving said home. In the original Illyana had strong doubts about returning home and even said that she didn't want to go back after defeating Belasco. The idea of creating an acorn as a way of escaping also does not make sense and is far too radical of a change of her character. The idea that she escaped but then left Xavier's from fear of her own power was never the problem. It's only a problem in your version.

It's the idea that that the Magik mini happened pretty much unchanged that's the problem. The idea that the mini happened and afterwards Illyana left out of a combination of fear of herself and to get away from the New Mutants given how they treated her at first could have made a good story. It's just not the story that was told. The story that was told is of an Illyana who is at an earlier stage in her development and did not create the soul sword. The story works only if she escaped while Cat and Ororo were still alive, when Belasco was unaware of her mutant power and had not moved to prevent her from using it. She never reached the point of self-understanding that was required to create the soul sword. In this case maybe she was less able to cope with life at Xavier's and ran away-notably not using her teleporting power until she was confronted by another sorcerer.

[sunofdarkchild]

Not a 'Krakoan moment' since it takes place at the end of the Bendis run, but in a similar vein.


Piotr was waiting after Illyana and the time-displaced original X-Men left the Danger Room, their session complete.

You need to focus more, Tyke,” she reprimanded the younger version of Scott Summers. “You get distracted way too easily in the heat of battle. And you, Ice-Man, stop showing off and fight.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” both young men replied.

As soon as the teenagers were out of sight, Illyana’s shoulders slumped and her confident posture disappeared.

“Piotr,” she said.

“Sister, I know I told you to stop yesterday because I needed you to know that I still love you, but it is time we talked.”

Illyana nodded, and a white light enveloped them both. When the light faded, they were in Piotr’s room, where they would have plenty of privacy.

Piotr pulled up a chair and motioned for Illyana to sit down.

“I wanted to have this talk yesterday, but between the intervention we had for Hank and Scott’s impromptu rally, there wasn’t any time.”

Illyana looked nervous, and he realized that part of her still feared that his acceptance of her the day before had not been genuine, but an act he had put on for Kitty’s benefit.

“Seeing that Katya had forgiven you made it a lot easier for me to do the same,” he admitted. “I’ve been talking with her about you, what you’ve been doing since we last met.”

Illyana took a deep breath, and Piotr assured her: “I didn’t tell her what you did to me. I wasn’t going to, but she even said she didn’t want to know. I quote: ‘I’ve finally gotten back something very precious that I lost so long ago, and I don’t want anything to tarnish that.’”

“When I asked how you won back her trust, she said it was because you were there for her and her students when no one else was, even after she said hurtful things to you. She told me about how you’re teaching, how your students like you and call you ‘the nice one.’

“But as I listened to Katya’s stories, I couldn’t help but think: I don’t recognize the person she’s talking about. I couldn’t square ‘the nice one’ with the person who hurt me so.

“I could go back in time so that it never happened,” Illyana said, “but that would be just as wrong.”

“What hurt the most about what you did, was the fact that you wanted me to hate you. After a lifetime of loving you, you would rather I kill you than hug you.

“And for a brief moment,” Illyana whispered, “you understood why I hate myself so much.”

“But the fact that you came to regret it, that we’re sitting here having this conversation, means you don’t hate yourself as much now as you did then. Kitty told me about the difficult times you’ve gone through, how you absorbed all of Limbo, how you watched a future version of me die. Before you wouldn’t have let anyone known how these things hurt you,” he observed.

“The cost of wallowing in my suffering became too high,” Illyana said. “I had to…I had to finally grow up or it wouldn’t just be my life on the line anymore.”

“My whole life the work of a series of puppeteers. Belasco, S’ym, N’Astirh, the Elder Gods. Belasco wouldn’t even let me rest in peace. Even with him and the Elder Gods dead, nothing was changing. I needed to take control, or I’d always be under someone else’s control.”

Piotr nodded sadly. “I’ve always blamed myself for letting you get taken to Limbo, as well as for everything that came afterwards.”

“And I always struggled to live up to what you expected of me, to be your little snowflake.”

“Is that why you did it?” he asked. “Was I… was I hurting you every time I tried to tell you that the…the rot in your soul didn’t matter?”

Illyana looked down, which was all the answer he needed. “I was done pretending, done trying to be something I’m not. People can like me or hate me for it, but I’m not going to apologize for who I am or for what was done to me anymore.”

“From the sound of it, people seem to like the real you.”

‘I’m sorry,” Illyana blurted out, covering her face in her hands.

Piotr was stunned into silence. He had taken her expression of “regret” the previous day as apology enough.

“That is the real me. I’m a person who could do such a thing to her own brother.”

Piotr pulled her close. “Yes, yes you were,” he whispered. “But you’re not that person anymore. That’s what I tried to tell you so long ago. What makes us human is our capacity to grow. Maybe you can’t get rid of the darkness in your soul the way you got rid of the darkness in mine. But you can be better than you were yesterday. Hearing about all the good you’ve done recently from Katya, it made me prouder than I’d be if you were just a perfect, innocent snowflake, because I know how far you’ve fallen, and how you must have worked to pick yourself back up again.”

"I never stopped loving you," she said. "Even at the worst, when all of my soul was gone, when there was nothing but the Darkchild, I kept searching for the pieces of my soul in the singular hope that I'd be reunited with you and Kitty and everyone else I loved."

Piotr smiled and wiped her cheek. "And here we are."

"Yes," she answered, "at long last."

[Oldandevil]

I'm responding to your version where she apparently had a stronger desire to go home, which rather than solve the problem creates a new one by adding a desire to go home that is contradicted by her leaving said home. In the original Illyana had strong doubts about returning home and even said that she didn't want to go back after defeating Belasco. The idea of creating an acorn as a way of escaping also does not make sense and is far too radical of a change of her character. The idea that she escaped but then left Xavier's from fear of her own power was never the problem. It's only a problem in your version.

Real people (and decently written comic book characters) are flawed and make poor choices at times. Just because we get what we want doesn’t mean we are happy with what we get. To paraphrase Aesop's Fables ‘Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.’ While in Limbo, Illyana wanted to go home (I am not adding that to her story, it is clearly something she wants) and Williams asks the question in ‘What if? Magik’ what would happen if she let her fear drive her away from “Home”.

[Peace]

The Magik story in what if is completely different to the 616.
In what if illyana was apprentice to Velasco for whole seven years and only when the mutant ability comes she's ru away... I'm fact she's fear cause belasco is live and sorcer to limbo again... In the one shot it's explain.
This illyana is fear and traumatized... Not brave and strong like 616 that's grown in limbo alone.
IMG_20211115_041955.jpgIMG_20211115_042021.jpg

[sunofdarkchild]

Whoever the new sorcerer supreme is will have a new ongoing.

"A New Sorcerer Supreme Will Rise," the Marvel press release reads. "Coming in March, the aftermath of DEATH OF DOCTOR STRANGE leads into a new ongoing series starring the new Sorcerer Supreme… Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more details." The PR also comes with a teaser featuring a huge transparent skull with its mouth open that appears to be shattering. The only other information provided is March 2022, though we are told to stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.



We'll know for sure on December 22, though this may suggest that Marvel might make the official announcement a little earlier.

[sunofdarkchild]

Strange Academy Magik variant cover rated the highest valued comic this week. https://comicbook.com/comics/news/to...avengers-more/

[Aetherna]

Magik being added to Future Revolution in December:

[Aetherna]

By the way, something to keep in mind is that the current roster for Future Revolution consists of Iron Man, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Spider-Man, Star-Lord (so mainstream famous MCU characters) and Storm (notable for obvious reasons.). This isn't one of the cases where she is added as character 53 to another mobile game so this *might* be a sign that Marvel has big plans in the near future for her.

Also some alternate costumes from that stream:

[rcaguy]

Whoever the new sorcerer supreme is will have a new ongoing.

"A New Sorcerer Supreme Will Rise," the Marvel press release reads. "Coming in March, the aftermath of DEATH OF DOCTOR STRANGE leads into a new ongoing series starring the new Sorcerer Supreme… Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more details." The PR also comes with a teaser featuring a huge transparent skull with its mouth open that appears to be shattering. The only other information provided is March 2022, though we are told to stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.



We'll know for sure on December 22, though this may suggest that Marvel might make the official announcement a little earlier.

You sure that this isn't really "What's old is new again"? Since the "OLD" Strange seems to be in some ways a "New" Strange as a result of his "death".

[sunofdarkchild]

You sure that this isn't really "What's old is new again"? Since the "OLD" Strange seems to be in some ways a "New" Strange as a result of his "death".

I can't be sure about anything. I don't think Marvel is going to pull a bait-and switch with Strange's death after teasing an actual new sorcerer supreme, and I don't think they're going to pull the 'Teen Tony, Teen Cable' schtick again now when those initiatives were so widely panned. I think the 1 week past Strange has is not going to be extended. Out of the crop of candidates, I think Illyana is the most likely one and it makes the repeated delays of New Mutants 25 make more sense. While creatively I don't think they should have their cake and eat it too, from a marketing standpoint it makes perfect sense to make her sorceress supreme and try to use that to bolster sales of New Mutants rather remove the book's most marketable character and force it into inevitable cancellation. I'd say I'm about 90% sure it's a new sorcerer supreme and about 30% sure it'll be Illyana, with no one else cracking 20%.

[sunofdarkchild]

The way today's Death of Dr. Strange played out I can no longer see Illyana becoming sorcerer supreme. The way they've set things up it looks like it has to be one of the people who went on the quest to save Strange's soul, and that's a total of 2 people.

[mugiwara]

The way today's Death of Dr. Strange played out I can no longer see Illyana becoming sorcerer supreme. The way they've set things up it looks like it has to be one of the people who went on the quest to save Strange's soul, and that's a total of 2 people.

Likely, yes.
And one of them is quite popular in the MCU.