ileana rasputin aka magic
is part demon queen a powerful sorceress
sister to a classic x-men hero
and one of the stars of 2020's the new
mutants
to learn more about this powerful mutant
let's dig into the untold truth of
magic when it comes to the new mutants
most of the classic characters come from
the 1982
new mutants original graphic novel or
the ongoing series that follows
magic on the other hand first appears
way back in 1975's
giant size x-men number one giant size
x-men number one is a game changer
many of the most popular modern x-men
are introduced to the x franchise in
this 1975 comic book
including peter rasputin aka colossus
when we meet him on a collective farm in
siberia he's using his powers to save
his unnamed little sister from a runaway
tractor
of course that little girl will grow up
to become the magic we all know and love
but in this particular tale ileana
rasputin has little to do with the story
once her brother saves her
of course a slightly older iliana would
eventually show up in later issues of
uncanny x-men
and get her own mini-series before
joining the junior x-men in new mutants
as for her relationship with colossus
the two don't get a lot of time to hang
out
after all the siblings are on different
teams embarking on different adventures
nevertheless magic and colossus have
crossed paths multiple times
they've supported each other through
thick and thin in the beginning of
1982's uncanny x-men number 160
ileana rasputin is 6 years old by the
end of the issue
she's 13 and she survived more than her
brother colossus knows
it all starts back in 1981's uncanny
x-men number 145
when we learn miss lock employee of the
eccentric killer for hire arcade
has kidnapped ileana rasputin and others
to force colossus and the x-men to
rescue her employer
from the tyrant doctor doom after that
adventure is over and ileana is saved
she's allowed to live with her brother
in charles xavier's winchester mansion
but when uncanny x-men number 160 comes
along and the x-men lock horns with
demonic velasco ileana is there to
suffer the consequences
velasco captures ileana and kitty pryde
aka
shadowcat as part of a plot to free
himself from the interdimensional realm
limbo by the end of the story the x-men
have saved both kitty and ileana
but things don't work out super well for
poor ileana as the team is being
teleported away
belasco grabs ileana from her brother's
arms
and yanks her back into limbo back on
earth kitty pride quickly reaches back
through a portal
grabs ileana and pulls her to safety but
peter's sister is seven years older than
she was on the previous page
it won't be until the 1983 miniseries
magic that we see what happened to
ileana in the interim
with the 1983 miniseries magic ileana
became the first
new mutant to get her own solo story
which helped explain what happened to
her during those missing seven years we
didn't get to see back in uncanny x-men
number 160.
the mini-series begins and ends with
iliana safe at xavier's winchester
mansion
and the story of her time in limbo
unfolds as a flashback
in these scenes iliana is pressed into
service of velasco
who hopes to use her as a means to
summon powerful elder gods
in the seven years she remains in limbo
ileana learns much from belasco
as well as alternate reality versions of
x-men particularly a duplicate of storm
in the interim her mutant ability to
create teleportation discs manifests
and the sorcerer skills she learns from
belasco grow powerful enough that she's
able to defeat the villain
during the mini-series we also see her
first manifestation as the powerful
soul sword as well as the first
emergence of the dark child
her dark demonic half many mutants are
defined by their innate powers but over
the years
iliana rasputin has proven so gifted
with her magical abilities
that it can be easy to forget that she
even has a mutant power
are you crazy that thing will kill you
he's right it's magic
iliana's mutant power is the ability to
create teleportation discs which allow
her to teleport herself
and others over great distances and even
through time
while most often used for practical
purposes like getting her friends out of
danger quickly
iliana is not above using her discs as
weapons
in 2019's uncanny x-men number 20 for
example
she kills the alternate reality mutant
dark beast by teleporting him so that
his head reappears in a ceiling
but iliana's magical abilities have
often proven impressive enough to
outshine her mutant powers
her soul sword and the mystical armor
that manifests with it are extremely
powerful on their own
particularly against magical targets and
her dark child form is extremely
formidable
she's the sorcerer supreme of limbo the
same title dr
strange wields in marvel's home
dimension and the eye of agamotto
identifies her as one possible candidate
to replace dr strange
as earth sorcerer supreme in 2009's new
avengers number 53.
we've already talked about that time
when ileana rasputin aged seven years in
a single comic
but that isn't the last time fate plays
havoc with magic's age
in 1989's new mutants number 73
as part of the line wide event inferno
ileana has her years in limbo
and with the new mutants taken from her
see ileana transforms into her demonic
self
the dark child but eventually ascends to
what wolf's bane calls a being of light
or a light child as a result colossus
and the new mutants believe she's dead
within her mystical armor
until they hear her voice calling for
help colossus tears the armor open to
find her six-year-old self
waiting inside from that point forward
iliana remains a child for several years
of x-men stories
until her tragic death in 1993's uncanny
x-men number 303
a number of rulers in marvel comics have
double duty as superhero and world
leader
and magic also walks that line however
iliana has something of a unique
responsibility among marvel's rulers in
that she claims control not over a
nation
or even a world but the entire dimension
of limbo
sometimes it depends with the help of
her demon lieutenant
sim ileana takes control over limbo from
belasco
but holding on to limbo continually
proves to be a tricky prospect
when your servants are demons your
servants all want your throne and
throughout her time in the new mutants
iliana is forced to fight against the
rebellious sim in 1988's uncanny x-men
number 231
she unwittingly summons her brother
colossus who she believes to be dead
to help her fight sim and his forces
then symbolize with another demon to
help defeat magic in the 1989 line-wide
event
inferno which helps lead to magic being
de-aged to childhood
but even that wasn't the end of the
struggle one of the most recent examples
of how tough it is to be a demon queen
is in 2013's uncanny x-men
when magic and the x-men fight off an
attempt by the powerful
dormammu and his hordes of mindless ones
to take over limbo
magic is ultimately forced to in her
words end
limbo by mystically drawing the
dimension into herself
and eventually remaking it you could
argue
all of us have a so-called dark half but
in the case of magic
her dark side manifests as a literally
separate
destructive being she's had different
names like dark soul and dark child but
whatever you call it
iliana's dark self gets closer to the
surface the more iliana uses her magic
i killed 18 men one by
one when she summons her soul sword for
example
usually a magical armor will appear
along with it
and the percentage of her body covered
by the armor grows steadily as she uses
more power
if she wields enough sorcery she
manifests other devil-like physical
attributes
like horns sprouting from her forehead
and cloven hooves replacing her feet
in spite of its power the dark child
often proves to not only be magic's
greatest weakness
but something her enemies can use
against her friends
characters such as the godlike beyonder
and the asgardian sorceress
enchantress have sometimes managed to
force the dark child to the surface to
use against magic's allies
and in the case of enchantress in 1985's
new mutant special edition number one
she physically separated dark child from
iliana to remove any and all-tempering
goodness from the mightier demon half
it isn't until 1984's magic number four
that we get to see the very first time
ileana creates her
famous soul sword as part of a spell she
cast to gain
vengeance for the death of her friend
the limbo duplicate of storm
however publication wise the soul sword
first appears in 1983's uncanny x-men
number 171
when iliana panics as she remembers her
experiences in limbo
her best friend kitty pryde aka shadow
cat calms her down
but not before magic cuts kitty's cheek
something that shocks kitty because she
was using her
phasing power to become intangible at
the time the soul sword has since been a
staple of magic stories and she's rarely
seen in battle without it
the sword boosts her mystic might and
wielding it usually summons a powerful
accompanying armor
for the most part the soul sword damages
creatures of mystic origin
though non-mystical and even intangible
characters have also been affected by
the blade
unlike a more physical weapon like
thor's mjolnir magic carries the weapon
within herself
the outward appearance of the soul sword
is always changing
when it first appears the soul sword
doesn't look particularly unique
but in more recent years the sword has
grown in size until its massive girth
looks more like what you'd expect cloud
to be swinging in final fantasy vii
for close to a decade the mutant legacy
virus
rampaged through marvel's mutant
population and the first hero to succumb
to the illness
was ileana rasputin having been reverted
to the age of six by the end of 1989's
new mutants number 73
magic is still a little girl when she
grows ill attempts are made to cure her
but nothing bears fruit with jubilee by
her bedside
iliana's life slips away in the
emotional story of 1993's uncanny x-men
number 303
in the wake of her death colossus
briefly leaves the x-men
and joins forces with magneto and the
ironclad hero eventually sacrifices
himself to eradicate the virus that
killed his sister
in 2001's uncanny x-men number 390.
of course both ileana and her brother
eventually returned to the land of the
living because no one really stays dead
in superhero comics
[Music]
someone call it ambulance
oh god oh my god well almost no one
hostilities break out between two of
marvel's most beloved teams in 2012's
line wide event and accompanying
miniseries
avengers vs x-men the feud is all over
the impending return of the destructive
phoenix force
in an attempt to stop the entity the
avengers inadvertently disperse it
between five mutants
cyclops emma frost namor colossus
and magic who become known as the
phoenix five
at first the five seem to want to use
their new godlike powers only to help
the world
but eventually their newfound might
corrupts them magic and colossus work
hand in hand as part of the phoenix 5
both before and after they turn their
attention to destroying the avengers
unsurprisingly considering her darker
leanings magic proves just a bit more
committed to their course
in avengers versus x-men number seven
she tries but
fails to murder scarlet witch two issues
later both she and her brother lose
their power after beating spider-man
nearly to death
at first they begin arguing because
magic is annoyed at her brother's
hesitance toward killing spidey
and that's when peter parker uses the
opportunity to provoke them both
as a result magic and colossus strike
each other
driving the phoenix force out of both
their bodies in the process
after the event which eventually
includes the death of professor x at
cyclops's hands
iliana doesn't seem particularly
remorseful over her involvement
she joins cyclops emma frost and magneto
in their fugitive team of x-men
for a long time the question of magic
sexuality has been up in the air
she rarely if ever has shown interest in
romance leaving some fans to theorize
she might be asexual
when marvel's xbooks were revived in
2019 though
it included a revival of new mutants and
in 2020's new mutants number five
iliana seems to be like fellow marvel
hero deadpool
pansexual as the new mutants confront
the shia
death commandos magic takes on three of
them all on her own
but before fighting them she asks each
one of them whether or not they want to
make out with her
whether the scene was mostly comedic or
a glimpse at magic's deeper feelings
it definitely seems that magic is open
to a lot of possibilities
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