Illyana Rasputina/Magik Appreciation 2022

[sunofdarkchild]

Belasco was depicted as having both arms during the waves of enemies the Shadow King forced the New Mutants to fight.


Belasco 2 hands.jpg

[WallStreeter]

I'm also fine with #26.

The return of technovirus is fine with me, and overall, it seemed respectful.

Technically it shouldn't be Belasco, since we've seen the horned figure's right hand.

I vote for a future version of Illyana who has already gone through this, or Ideally, the Illyana 1.0 who became Lightchilde, who is trying to free Illyana 2.0 to become her own being, instead of the Homunculus created by Belasco.

There have been a number of mysterious 'interventions' throughout Illyana 1.0s history, from the appearance of the SoulArmour, to teleporting out of the way of the bomb in Karma's apartment, to ending up in the Brood ship, to teleporting to the Shi'ar Galaxy, the planet Xavier happened to be visiting...

The possibility that those interventions were directed by a version of Illyana lurking in the Shadows, including the 'repository of all Magic' in the Magik mini where Amanda Sefton was playacting, and Limbo was destroying all other splinter realms...

I vote shadow Illyana

I had thought it might be some other version of Illyana too, until we got Old Lady Illyana this issue. I don’t think they would have yet another version of Illyana again.

Belasco could have gotten both his arm back when he got resurrected. Given Vita’s interest in trauma, that’s who I think it is.

But we will find out next issue.

[sunofdarkchild]

I have a theory as to why Belasco never attempted to to kidnap Illyana again once she was deaged and living with her parents again. He should have leapt at the opportunity given that she didn't have even the New Mutants, let alone the X-Men to protect her, and this time her could have done it right and raised her without any interference from the likes of Ororo and Cat. But he left her alone for that entire year or try to save her when she was dying despite how obsessed he was with her.

My theory is that Belasco rejected the deaged Illyana for the same reason he rejected the Darkchild version he brought back without her soul, she wasn't the 'real' Illyana. If she had truly been deaged, he would have come for her, but since she was taken from an alternate timeline he wasn't interested. She wasn't 'real' enough for him.

Yet another way in which the 2 Illyana's explanation fixes plot holes and makes Illyana's history make much more sense than the idea that Illyana was physically transformed into a younger person and had all her memories erased at the end of Inferno.

[Krakoa]

I have a theory as to why Belasco never attempted to to kidnap Illyana again once she was deaged and living with her parents again. He should have leapt at the opportunity given that she didn't have even the New Mutants, let alone the X-Men to protect her, and this time her could have done it right and raised her without any interference from the likes of Ororo and Cat. But he left her alone for that entire year or try to save her when she was dying despite how obsessed he was with her.

My theory is that Belasco rejected the deaged Illyana for the same reason he rejected the Darkchild version he brought back without her soul, she wasn't the 'real' Illyana. If she had truly been deaged, he would have come for her, but since she was taken from an alternate timeline he wasn't interested. She wasn't 'real' enough for him.

Yet another way in which the 2 Illyana's explanation fixes plot holes and makes Illyana's history make much more sense than the idea that Illyana was physically transformed into a younger person and had all her memories erased at the end of Inferno.

Could also just be that he knew she had the legacy virus and was gonna die fast.

[sunofdarkchild]

Could also just be that he knew she had the legacy virus and was gonna die fast.

It actually can't. It was explicitly stated that he was not expecting her to die and had been waiting for a chance to get her back when she unexpectedly died. And if he had known she was dying, that would have been all the more reason to take her and use his dark magic to try to cure her given his obsession with her.

belasco waited.jpg

The simplest explanation remains that he was waiting for an opportunity while she was still a teenaged sorceress, that her death in Inferno is the unexpected death which was referred to, and that he gave up on getting her back after Inferno since he didn't consider the child version to be the real Illyana.

[Micabe]

Why the hell is the newly minted Madelyne Pryor wearing that Goblin Queen relic?!? What? Jean won't share her closet with her twin?

[WallStreeter]

I have a theory as to why Belasco never attempted to to kidnap Illyana again once she was deaged and living with her parents again. He should have leapt at the opportunity given that she didn't have even the New Mutants, let alone the X-Men to protect her, and this time her could have done it right and raised her without any interference from the likes of Ororo and Cat. But he left her alone for that entire year or try to save her when she was dying despite how obsessed he was with her.

My theory is that Belasco rejected the deaged Illyana for the same reason he rejected the Darkchild version he brought back without her soul, she wasn't the 'real' Illyana. If she had truly been deaged, he would have come for her, but since she was taken from an alternate timeline he wasn't interested. She wasn't 'real' enough for him.

Yet another way in which the 2 Illyana's explanation fixes plot holes and makes Illyana's history make much more sense than the idea that Illyana was physically transformed into a younger person and had all her memories erased at the end of Inferno.

She was a much younger Illyana who had not yet a chance to be his protégé and whose soul he had not stolen 60 percent off. Probably not useful and impossible to use another Illyana when he needed the real one.

[sunofdarkchild]

Finally have a physical copy of New Mutants 26. Those massive delays will forever be memorialized in a comic which released in late June having an ad for a movie which released in early May.

[Krakoa]

She was a much younger Illyana who had not yet a chance to be his protégé and whose soul he had not stolen 60 percent off. Probably not useful and impossible to use another Illyana when he needed the real one.

Also, was he even able to grab her? IIRC the reason he could grab her when he originally did was because of his connection to Magneto's island.

[sunofdarkchild]

Also, was he even able to grab her? IIRC the reason he could grab her when he originally did was because of his connection to Magneto's island.

When Belasco was the ruler of Limbo he was also trapped there, hence the importance of the connection between Limbo and the island at that specific time. After Illyana defeated him and took Limbo from him he was able to return to Earth, so after Uncanny 160 and the Magik mini-series any limitation on how he could interact with the earth was completely gone. But even when he was trapped in Limbo, he proved beyond any shadow of a soubt that he had the power to abduct Illyana from her parents' home in Russia. In Magik issue 4 she teleported to her parents' home and had the scene where they rejected her because she was much older than she should have been. It was stated to be real and not any kind of illusion. Belasco sent the zombified corpses of the X-Men to Russia to bring her back to Limbo. He was also able to send S'ym from Limbo to Earth even after he'd lost control of Limb, again for the purpose of abducting Illyana.

Belasco was always going to come for Illyana after she came back from Limbo. She says it herself multiple times, that if she had stayed in Limbo she'd be completely safe from him, but if she returned to Earth he would for certain come for her again. Belasco was always going to come for her on Earth, and he always had the ability to come for her. That was the story which was set up, and the only reason it wasn't told is Bob Harris hated everything magical about the X-Men and made it his mission to stamp out anything connected to magic in the franchise.


Belasco 100% could have, would have, and should have come for Illyana if the writers and especially the editor at the time cared about actually telling her story or doing anything with what Claremont had set up for her. Him not coming for her at any point between 1984 and 2007 is the equivalent of Voldemort completely disappearing from the Harry Potter series after Philosopher's Stone and never coming for Harry again in books 2-7.

[rcaguy]

Why the hell is the newly minted Madelyne Pryor wearing that Goblin Queen relic?!? What? Jean won't share her closet with her twin?

Sad to say, Maddie has better taste in clothes-including those smelly rags.

[G0RM]

I feel stupid that I didn't realize it myself immediately, but I saw on another forum that the military base that Old Woman Illyana took over was a shout out to Project Purgatory from 2009.

And speaking of Project Purgatory, not each and every Limbo Baby was shown to have died on panel, and it would have been interesting to have Maddie interact with one of them, or even Cable, given the marker that he owes Illyana.

But Purgatory being brought up means somebody's been paying at least some attention to continuity.

(Evil speaking Cat aside, which might be from the timeline of the alternate Illyana who is currently tormenting this crew.)

[WallStreeter]

I feel stupid that I didn't realize it myself immediately, but I saw on another forum that the military base that Old Woman Illyana took over was a shout out to Project Purgatory from 2009.

And speaking of Project Purgatory, not each and every Limbo Baby was shown to have died on panel, and it would have been interesting to have Maddie interact with one of them, or even Cable, given the marker that he owes Illyana.

But Purgatory being brought up means somebody's been paying at least some attention to continuity.

(Evil speaking Cat aside, which might be from the timeline of the alternate Illyana who is currently tormenting this crew.)

Doesn’t matter if they died on panel. The Limbo babies cab now be resurrected due to the Scarlet Witch’s Eldritch orchard.

I’m pretty sure at some point in the future we will see Maddie or Illyana interact with a Limbo baby.

[sunofdarkchild]

It's going to be a pretty big week for Illyana. New Mutants 27. She's sitting on a magical tribunal to judge Captain Marvel. And the spoilers for the Hellfire Gala are pretty big. Those latter 2 might be problematic depending on how they are handled.

[sunofdarkchild]

New Mutants 27 fixes most of my problems from issue 26 and is a much better issue. My feelings on what happens with her in the Hellfire Gala issue are much more mixed.