Magik Question

[sonofagun]

I've been an off again/on again X-Book reader over the last few years (actually since the whole hunt for Xavier storyline)
I know that Magik recently showed up in New X-men, but after so many false starts like Black rain (was that the title) and Exiles, I kind of gave up on picking up books that alluded to her return to continuity. From the posts that I read however, it kind of sounds that the Magik that was in New X-men was the genuine article. Has there been any other appearances since then? what is the status quo of my fav Russian teleporting demon sorceress?

[Flâneur]

I've been an off again/on again X-Book reader over the last few years (actually since the whole hunt for Xavier storyline)
I know that Magik recently showed up in New X-men, but after so many false starts like Black rain (was that the title) and Exiles, I kind of gave up on picking up books that alluded to her return to continuity. From the posts that I read however, it kind of sounds that the Magik that was in Young X-men was the genuine article. Has there been any other appearances since then? what is the status quo of my fav Russian teleporting demon sorceress?

Basically, in HOM, Wanda recreated Illyana and Belasco took notice but could no longer find her after the warp wave was sort of undone, so he attempted to pull together the parts of her soul in an effort to recreate her himself. Unfortunately he failed and was only able to pull in 3/5th of her soul, the Darkchilde, and was disgusted at this, casting her far away from him in Limbo and kicking Amanda Sefton out entirely.

As they were the last people to have contact with Illyana in HOM, he pulled the NXM down into Limbo and tortured/interrogated them in an attempt to discover her wherabouts but of course they knew nothing, however a number of the students aren't captured by Belasco and team up with Illyana, where Illyana extracts part of Pixie's soul and uses it to create a soul dagger with which to penetrate Belasco's protections. Another group of students work with Amanda Sefton and one of the Sentinels, beginning an assault upon Belasco which coincides with Illyana's arrival.

Upon sight of Belasco, Illyana summons her silver armour and pounces toward him, extracting power from Pixie's soul, she blasts him into smithereens. Relishing in the power gained from such a pure and innocent soul, the Darkchilde attempts to take more and reach god-like power but stops (or is stopped, can't remember). The Astonishing X-men arrive on the scene and after a touching moment, the Darkchilde gets upset and teleports every single one of them home.

The final scene depicts Darkchilde as ultimate ruler of Limbo as she is scrying, a small picture of Pixie appears and Illyana promises to get her soul.

[sonofagun]

WOW
ok, so is this traded? because this sounds to be the most interesting thing that's happened with the character since she was (IMO) screwed at the end of Inferno!

[Loki]

I've been an off again/on again X-Book reader over the last few years (actually since the whole hunt for Xavier storyline)
I know that Magik recently showed up in New X-men, but after so many false starts like Black rain (was that the title) and Exiles, I kind of gave up on picking up books that alluded to her return to continuity. From the posts that I read however, it kind of sounds that the Magik that was in New X-men was the genuine article. Has there been any other appearances since then? what is the status quo of my fav Russian teleporting demon sorceress?

We don't know for sure the status of the true Illyana. Back during Inferno, Illyana appeared to revert to childhood, BUT it's always been a possibility that what actually happened was that the by-then-demonic Illyana swapped places with the young and uncorrupted Illyana whose X-Men had died in Belasco's limbo. If that's the case, then Magik has been hiding out somewhere ever since, presumably unwilling to risk showing herself to her friends and family while still tainted.

When HoM happened, we got Illyana back - but it's not certain whether she was resurrected from the dead like Cypher, transformed like others in the vicinity of the warp like Wolverine or Spider-Man (this option would require her to be alive as suggested in the last paragraph), or whether a brand-new Illyana was created to fill the gap left by the living but out-of-range Illyana (as happened with Proteus - 616 Proteus is alive and out in the multiverse, so a new one got created; this option would require Illyana to be alive as suggested in the last paragraph, but somewhere out of reach of the HoM warp - given Illyana's temporal teleportation power, that's not an immense stretch). HoM Illyana teleported to an undisclosed location before HoM ended, and so like Proteus and Warren Traveler (both of whom skipped dimensions before the warp ended and so escaped changing back) she might still be out there in her HoM form...which means that there might be two Illyana's kicking around.

Belasco sensed Illyana being alive again, but by the time he could look for her, HoM had ended and she'd vanished off his radar (either stopped existing if she got caught in the reality warp changing things back to 616 standard, or simply well-hidden somewhere). So he tried to resurrect her himself, but only got her demonic Darkchilde aspect minus the real Illyana's soul, presumably because someone out there is still using it. This is the being currently ruling his realm, and plotting to locate her missing soul.

Given the missing soul suggesting one of the non-Darkchilde Illyana's is alive somewhere, this suggests we have at least two, and possibly three Illyana's running around out there.

[worstblogever]

And... in the future, just post your Questions in the "Questions" thread, rather than start a whole new thread for one question. Good times.

[Darkchylde]

We don't know for sure the status of the true Illyana. Back during Inferno, Illyana appeared to revert to childhood, BUT it's always been a possibility that what actually happened was that the by-then-demonic Illyana swapped places with the young and uncorrupted Illyana whose X-Men had died in Belasco's limbo. If that's the case, then Magik has been hiding out somewhere ever since, presumably unwilling to risk showing herself to her friends and family while still tainted.

When HoM happened, we got Illyana back - but it's not certain whether she was resurrected from the dead like Cypher, transformed like others in the vicinity of the warp like Wolverine or Spider-Man (this option would require her to be alive as suggested in the last paragraph), or whether a brand-new Illyana was created to fill the gap left by the living but out-of-range Illyana (as happened with Proteus - 616 Proteus is alive and out in the multiverse, so a new one got created; this option would require Illyana to be alive as suggested in the last paragraph, but somewhere out of reach of the HoM warp - given Illyana's temporal teleportation power, that's not an immense stretch). HoM Illyana teleported to an undisclosed location before HoM ended, and so like Proteus and Warren Traveler (both of whom skipped dimensions before the warp ended and so escaped changing back) she might still be out there in her HoM form...which means that there might be two Illyana's kicking around.

Belasco sensed Illyana being alive again, but by the time he could look for her, HoM had ended and she'd vanished off his radar (either stopped existing if she got caught in the reality warp changing things back to 616 standard, or simply well-hidden somewhere). So he tried to resurrect her himself, but only got her demonic Darkchilde aspect minus the real Illyana's soul, presumably because someone out there is still using it. This is the being currently ruling his realm, and plotting to locate her missing soul.

Given the missing soul suggesting one of the non-Darkchilde Illyana's is alive somewhere, this suggests we have at least two, and possibly three Illyana's running around out there.




Except that during the "Quest for Magik" it was confirmed that the House of M Illyana wasn't real, that she was a creation of Wanda's. Whether or not she teleported away to parts unknown remains to be seen, but it was implicitly stated that the HoM Illyana was merely a creation of Wanda's spell. Further, while the idea has been tossed around that there could be one, two, no, three (!) Illyanas somewhere, the fact is that despite Louise Simonson's original intent, it's pretty much accepted X-canon that *our* Illyana did, in fact, regress to childhood during Inferno and later die from the Legacy Virus.

My guess is either a) Illyana's soul has moved on to the afterlife, b) is still floating on Earth somewhere (see the Uncanny X-Men Christmas issue from several years ago, wherein Illyana's ghost is semi-haunting the X-Mansion), or c) is contained in the Soulsword, since the blade was created from Illyana's soul and has always been bonded to her.