I confess.
I did NOT like Illyana Rasputin.
Magik has one of the most complicated origin stories in comics. She went from little girl to teen demon sorceress in an instant then a child again, then died, then resurrected with an evil persona. A confusing back story paired with just plain vicious treatment of fellow mutants made her unlikeable.
There’s cold and cool like Emma Frost and then there’s just cruel like Illyana’s treatment of her big brother Colossus.
Cyclops, Emma, Magneto and Magik were the central cast of Uncanny X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis. The broken powers of each character led to vulnerability for each powerhouse – that made them more compelling than ever.
As we experience the final chapters of the Bendis run it’s time to look back and give credit where it’s due.
I was not eager to see a new Magik/Limbo story but Brian Michael Bendis and Frazier Irving have changed my mind about supernatural stories and Magik in just one perfect issue.
Uncanny X-Men #7 was beautifully written and drawn. More than just X-Men vs. demons, this was a story of sacrifice, identity and cry for help. Heroes living with demons are compelling but Illyana’s demons are literal.
Magik’s power has disrupted the supernatural realms and the X-Men have incurred the wrath of Dormannu. The story weaves between Magik confessing her sins in with “a very special guest star” and back to the battle with Dormannu where she pays a terrible price for saving the X-Men.
After years of being a literal hellraiser on Earth, torturing her brother and suffering from multiple reinventions, Brian Bendis made Magik sympathetic and beautiful by getting to the core of her character.
“As far as Magik goes, she is a pretty interesting character and it’s pretty funny because people are so eager to see her in a relationship or with somebody and I was always very perturbed by that because to me, I always focus on the fact that she’s — on some level — a little girl in an adult body, with no childhood and I kinda looked at this part of her life as her adolescence. I think she achieved a great deal in it, from the very first issues with [artist] Frazier Irving , we had her face a lot of stuff, and then her trying to live up to this thing that she says she wants to be. People looking for more with her, I think that issue is shipping tomorrow. Issue #600 has another chapter with her and her reuniting with Colossus, which will, I think, put a little of a cherry on top of my feelings about her, where she’s been and what she’s been doing,” Bendis told Comic Book Resources.
Another great moment is the Magik and Kitty Pryde on Monster Island issue that took me right back to the Claremont days when these teens were best friends and in the end they set out to find Colossus.
The Rasputin reunion happens in Uncanny X-Men #600 in October.
By Editor