DeMightySquidge

Agreed, Tom Baker with that crazy long scarf and wild hair. It's a close thing with David Tennant, though.

Wooden or metal bats won't do more than annoy an adult grizzly. Even hitting it on the head won't do more than get its attention. The front of an adult's skull will stop a bullet from an m1911 45 caliber pistol using ball ammunition. Hits from bats anywhere else will largely be absorbed by the coat.

Not gonna happen.

Heh, even worse!

Thor has much better showings against magic users than Supes. That comes from his natural resistance and the fact that he doesn't job against them as much as Supes does. If she's in high level Dark Raven mode, then that's a different story. Regular Raven can maybe draw this out by teleporting out of the way of Mjolnir and the like, but as soon as he does an AoE attack, she's done.

I say "maybe" because the best fast spur-of-the-moment teleport feat I know from Raven is her teleporting out of the way of Cyborg's sonic attack, which is way slower than Thor himself or Mjolnir.

As a solo, and not part of a team? She-Hulk. She has a better developed personality and background to carry a story by herself.

That said, I would prefer to see a Titans movie over a She-Hulk movie.

Hmm, against some bookish, nerdy looking kid?

Yeah, my avatar still doesn't stand a chance.

Hi Chiq, glad you liked the post!

I don't really know about the Nightcrawler and Mephisto thing, sorry.

As for the little Illyana left behind after Inferno, I think the original idea by the X-Men creative team was for that to be an alternate reality Illyana (probably the one saved by the team of X-men who got stranded in Limbo in Magik: Storm and Illyana). That was Louise Simonson's interpretation anyway, according to a comment by her that she always imagined that Magik had hidden herself away in Limbo. That got retconned (I think even officially) to Illyana de-aging herself, and then un-retconned in New Mutants #15 when Emma Frost questioned Magik about who she really was.

So, I'm going with "The little girl Illyana was that Illyana from an alternate reality. Magik ended herself and gave the other Illyana, who no longer had her own brother, a chance at a happy life." I think that fits the original intent of the authors of the Inferno event, and makes a lot of sense when you consider Magik's state of mind at the time.

Did the Magik that Belasco brought back after house of M the same Magik who ended Inferno? Warlock referred to her as Magik 2.0 at one point.

I'm of the school of thought that says Magik is an amalgum of the innocent Illyana Rasputin and the corrupt Darkchilde, and is always somewhere on the spectrum between those two extremes. So, yes I think it's the same Magik. The difference is that when Belasco brought her back, she started out at the Darkchilde end of the Magik spectrum, without a soul, and not the Illyana end like she did the first time (before Inferno and her death). I think Magik is more comfortable in her own skin this time around, having started out basically at the bottom and worked her way up to something she's content with. That's a very good thing. She certainly has more of her original soul now than she did at the end of her origin story.

I have to agree.
Magnus takes a Season 1 David for a solid 9/10 or better majority, with the occasional accidental win for David.
End of Season 2 David takes a solid majority unless he messes up, which is still possible.

@andromeda101: Thanks for the info!

I have changed that section, and the new information actually improved it, I think.

To everyone else:

If you find something which looks fishy in the topic above, please don't hesitate to post it here. Also, if you could do as Andromeda101 did and include where you got your information, (Book, chapter) that would be very helpful.

Hi All,

This post is meant to be a deep dive into Illyana Rasputin's mutation; my views on how it explains her unique capabilities as a Hell Lord and as a sorceress. Most, if not all, of this is stuff I've seen in posts and blogs over the years, from all over the Internet. I thought I would bring it all together here, because there is a lot of confusion over her mutation and how it affects her relationship with Limbo. I have tried to “show my work” in making this case, so it's a bit of a slog to get through the whole thing. With that in mind, here's the abstract...

TL;DR

Illyana Rasputin's mutation isn't teleportation, or even simply controlling Limbo's Stepping Discs. Those are the effects of her mutation, which is actually to completely incorporate a part of her local universe within herself, thereby creating an unbreakable tie between herself and the universe where her mutant power first manifested. This explains why, after her death, the Stepping Discs did not return to Limbo, but remained incorporated in the Soulsword. This is also why Limbo remained stubbornly loyal to Illyana even after her death, and why she knows instinctively how to do things nobody else in all of Marvel Comics can do, such as create soul weapons or absorb her Splinter Realm within herself.

THE LONG SLOG

Magik does things almost casually, by instinct alone, that nobody else in Marvel (not counting beings like the Beyonder) can do. Nearly powerless and need to defeat Belasco? She creates the Soulsword, the first (Pixie's Souldagger being the second) of an entirely new class of powerful magical weapons. Can't defeat Dormammu because he has prepped the heck out of the battlefield? She absorbs Limbo, removing both the battlefield and the prep from existence itself.

Then there's the fact that the inhabitants of Limbo insist that Magik is their rightful master, with demons begging her to stay and rule over them on multiple occasions, and even staging a commando raid at one point to bring her back to her throne. Even after she died, if you weren't a previous ruler like Belasco, the only way to become the ruler of Limbo was to possess the Soulsword. No other Hell Lord can make the claim that their realm is that stubbornly loyal to them, even in death. Especially when you consider that Magik is the very definition of a deadbeat ruler. What other Hell Lord spends so little time or effort in their realm?

I believe that Magik's insanely high level feats and unbreakable (even by her) connection to Limbo can be explained by her mutation, which isn't well understood by much of the Marvel fan community. Much like how their mutations make the X-Men superhuman, Magik's mutation makes her a super-powered Hell Lord.

What is it about Magik's mutation that makes her so powerful? Ask a casual X-Men fan about her mutation, and they will tell you she is a teleporter. Someone who knows more about her character might tell you that she teleports by controlling a natural phenomenon of Limbo originally known as “light circles” or “teleport circles”, and later christened “Stepping Discs” by both Kitty* and Cat*, much like how Ororo (Storm) controls the natural phenomenon of weather. However, it is more accurate to say that Magik doesn't merely control the Stepping Discs, but rather that she IS the Stepping Discs. Unlike Storm's more wide-ranging mutation, Illyana has incorporated the entirety of Limbo's Stepping Disc phenomenon within herself. That is her actual mutation, to sync/incorporate/whatever a piece of her local universe within herself. Imagine if weather simply disappeared from the Earth when Storm's mutant power first manifested, and only appeared when she called it forth. That is what happened to Limbo. Most people forget that before her mutant power manifested, Stepping Discs were a major nuisance in Limbo, ready to whisk the unwary off to who-knows-when-or-where. Belasco and Ororo could control them and keep them out of their respective fortresses, but in the wilds of Limbo they were all over the place.

*Kitty Pryde, no matter from which reality, is apparently always a Larry Niven fan.

After Illyana's mutant power manifested, all of those “wild” Stepping Discs disappeared. With very few exceptions, all of which involve powerful magic (i.e. “Inferno”, “Hellbound” or Dormammu), the only time we have seen a disc has been when Magik or the Soulsword has created one. Why the Stepping Discs, and not some other aspect of Limbo? Because when Illyana's mutation first manifested, she wanted a way to move undetected through Belasco's fortress.

After she died, the entirety of the Stepping Disc phenomenon transferred to the only intact piece of Magik in existence, the Soulsword. If Magik had merely been controlling the Stepping Discs, they would have returned to Limbo. Instead, after she was dead, not only did you need (unless you were Belasco, who as a former ruler was apparently “grandfathered in”) the Soulsword to rule Limbo, you also needed the Soulsword to summon a Stepping Disc. Even after Belasco regained mastery over Limbo without the Soulsword, he could no longer summon Stepping Discs.

So, as a result of her mutation, a part of Limbo has been a part of Illyana since even before she became its ruler. This incorporation of her domain explains much of Illyana's uniqueness among Hell Lords and magic users in general. It certainly explains how Illyana was able to devour Limbo in her second fight with Dormammu. She already had a part of Limbo within her, and after the Phoenix Force broke her mutation, expanding her connection to the entire dimension and making it parasitic, all she had to do was dial that up to 11.

Her mutation, even before the Phoenix Force broke it, had created something unique. Of all the Hell Lords, only Dormammu has a similar connection to his domain. As a means of amplifying his powers, Dormammu has merged himself with his domain, thereby tying his fate to that of his domain and vice versa. Magik's connection to Limbo, while it gives her insights and greatly affects the attitudes of her subjects, does not directly amplify her powers. On the other hand, it is a one-way relationship. Magik affects Limbo, but though she can feel discomfort when powerful beings (Magus, Thor, Dormammu) enter Limbo, the state of Limbo itself has little to no effect upon her. Magik and Dormammu make for interesting case studies, since they are the "odd-balls" among the Hell Lords.

That incorporation of her domain created a sorceress who instinctively does things that no other magic user in Marvel Comics can even begin to do. For example, Illyana created the Soulsword using a creation magic spell she learned from Ororo, but then modified after giving up on using it to create an acorn. In her origin story, she makes it look easy. First, she realizes why she cannot create an acorn, and decides to create something she can use to kill Belasco, instead. Then, acting solely upon intuition, she casts the white magic acorn spell as a black magic spell (facing towards the base of the pentagram), and also from outside of the pentagram. She then plunges her hand into the ball of energy, which again is something she does instinctively, as it is not a part of the acorn creation spell. The image of a sword comes at the very last moment.

Other than the base acorn spell, the rest of the creation of the Soulsword is done with Illyana making it up as she goes along. The creation of Pixie's Souldagger doesn't even require this much preparation. The creation of the Soulsword (and Souldagger) and the absorption of Limbo are similar events in that they are unique to Magik. Nobody else in Marvel Comics, short of Cosmic entities, and certainly nobody of Magik's youth an inexperience, can even begin to replicate these feats. They illustrate how Magik's connection to her magical realm, which is also a nexus to all other realms, gives her an instinctive feel for magic as well as deep insights into just what is possible in the Marvel Universe. It guides her hand in creating the Soulsword, just as it later guides her when she absorbs the entirety of Limbo during her second fight with Dormammu.

Much of this is obviously conjecture, but I believe the connection resulting from her mutation is the most likely explanation for her insanely high-end feats, and much else which will be discussed below. Nothing else seems to fit the evidence.

Next, let's dive into more detail on the two most unique aspects about Magik, namely the Soulsword and her relationship with Limbo. These sections are pretty large, so I've put them behind spoiler tags.

THE SOULSWORD

The creation of the Soulsword is a pivotal event in Marvel Comics, setting into motion intrigues and conflicts which have affected the Marvel magical community for literally billions of years, long before and far beyond Illyana herself. The Soulsword is the ultimate expression of Illyana's magical power, but while the sword itself is legendary, its creator remains largely dismissed by the magical community. In fact, despite the fact that many of them wish to possess it, most of the Marvel magical community is in complete denial as to the origin and nature of the Soulsword. They acknowledge that Illyana was the original possessor of the sword, but not that she created it. So, just what is going on with this legendary blade?

The commonly believed mythology surrounding the origins and nature of the Soulsword could be explained away as a retcon, but to abuse Hanlon's Razor, “Never attribute to retcon that which can be explained by stupidity.” However, can you really blame Marvel's magical community for getting it so wrong? After all, the Soulsword was described by the Elder God Cthon billions of years before Illyana Rasputin was born. Since Stepping Discs can send someone through time as well as space, it is entirely within the realm of possibility that Cthon would have known about it or even encountered it himself. Then, this magical neophyte comes along and claims to have created it. Preposterous! Since the vast majority of Marvel's magical community has such trouble accepting the truth about the Soulsword, they have created an entire mythology to explain the nature and origins of this mysteriously powerful weapon. A great example of this mythology is the whole “soulsteel” angle to the Soulsword.

Shrill believes that the Soulsword and her Soulsteel Eye are made of the same material. However, they almost certainly are not. When the Soulsword is sheathed, it no longer affects Shrill's eye. Since the Soulsword can be sheathed inside someone's body (Illyana, Kitty, Kurt), it makes you wonder why Shrill can't do something similar with her eye. Then, there's the whole thing she says about the Soulsword piercing souls. It absolutely does not. If the Soulsword pierces anything, it is magic, not souls. The Soulsword can be used to store souls, but if the Soulsword is used on a possessed individual, it will remove the possession, possibly killing the possessor, while leaving the possessed person's soul without so much as a scratch. It's as if Shrill just arbitrarily decided that the Soulsword must be made of the same stuff as her eye because the substances look somewhat similar, her eye doesn't like the sword, and both have the word “soul” in their names. Why bring all this soulsteel stuff up? Because it shows how off-base the Marvel magical community can be when it comes to understanding the Soulsword.

DOMINION OVER LIMBO

Magik's unique relationship with Limbo extends beyond merely the Stepping Discs. With the exception of the demon sorcerer N'astirh, there isn't a single demon in all of Limbo who will plot against her, no matter how neglectful she is of her realm. Even when she arrives in an unconscious state, her subjects won't take advantage of the situation. True, S'ym revolted against her while he was infected by the techno-organic virus, but he was under the control of Magus. Later, when that control had been broken, Magik asked why he was still turning Limbo against her, and he basically said it was her own subconscious idea. The next five panels illustrate S'ym's reaction to Magik's downward spiral towards Inferno. The first three are while Illyana was still dealing with her dual nature as Magik, and the fifth comes from the first chapter of Inferno.

At the culmination of Inferno, Magik fulfilled her own death wish, removing herself from existence and cleansing Limbo of the techno-organic infection. What is ironic is that it was Professor X himself who initiated Illyana's death spiral from Chapter 51 to the end of Inferno in Chapter 73. All of this is outside the scope of this post (which is already too long), and I hope to cover Magik's personality and how it affects her abilities in another post (don't hold your breath waiting on it), but here's an abbreviated summary.

For two partial chapters, Illyana was able to separate herself from the Darkchilde. That respite was cut short by none other than the good Professor himself. He wanted to send The New Mutants back to the Milky Way galaxy and Earth, and wasn't taking “No” for an answer.

In all likelihood Illyana would have ended up at something like Inferno anyway, sooner or later. Even she cannot break her link to her realm, and refusing to accept her nature and her responsibility to Limbo was never going to turn out well for her. The most tragic thing about Professor X forcing her back onto the path to Inferno when he did was that Doug Ramsey's (Cypher's) death and the apparent deaths of her brother and the rest of the X-Men hit her in rapid succession, which made her fall into despair and self-loathing that much harder and faster.

Oh, and if you ever wondered why Magik never seemed to have a problem with Scott Summers (Cyclops) after he went crazy with the Phoenix force and killed Professor X*, look no further than this scene. This was ancient history to the X-Men, but just a few months ago for Magik. Being dead (for 18 years real time, not sure how that translates into comic book time) will do that to your subjective time line. She remains devoted to Professor X's dream for mutantkind. To the man himself? Not so much.

* Discounting Lemire's writing in Extraordinary X-Men, of course. His writing Magik as freaking out over Cyclops' killing of Professor X is inconsistent with every other portrayal of her and even, to a degree, with his own later work in Death of X.

This next panel shows the real tragedy of the sequence of events set in motion by Professor X in Chapter 51. The Mutant Massacre, in which most of the Morlocks died, had already occurred in Chapter 46. The effect of that tragedy on Magik is covered in X-Men Unlimited Vol 2, #14. That event, followed by the rapid-fire deaths of her brother and Doug Ramsey, acted like hammer blows to Magik's psyche, and she went a bit crazy for a few chapters trying to kill Forge, whom she blamed for her brother's death.

As Warlock says, a large part of why Limbo is out of Magik's control is because Magik is focusing on Limbo being out of her control. That is basically the point that S'ym made in the panel above from Chapter 71. Yet, even when Limbo was for all intents and purposes out of Magik's control and in open revolt against her; even when S'ym was actively trying to kill her, the rank-and-file demons of Limbo, even as they were revolting against her, still begged her to rule over them. Magik is a part of the very fabric of Limbo, and unless Belasco is sitting upon its throne, its denizens will always consider her to be their ruler, even if it is simply via the Soulsword.

Dr. Doom, Darkoth, and Amanda Sefton (Magik II) all possessed the Soulsword when they established their rules. Only Belasco and Magik herself have established dominion over Limbo without the Soulsword.

However, contrary to a lot of material out there, the Soulsword was ABSOLUTELY NOT created as a symbol of dominion over Limbo. That is its effect, but when Illyana created the Soulsword she was Belasco's prisoner on an ice field in Limbo and not even dreaming about ruling anything. All she wanted to do was to make something to kill Belasco. So, when Dr Doom wielded the Soulsword he wasn't saying “Look, this is the badge of office for the lord of Limbo. That makes me the new boss!” Instead, he was saying “Look, this is Magik. I am her proxy,” or in Amanda Sefton's case, “I am Magik herself.” Limbo stubbornly refuses to accept anyone other than Magik as its lord with the exception of Belasco. An excellent example of this occurs in the X-Infernus comic, when Belasco's daughter, Witchfire, attempts to claim her father's throne in Limbo. You would think that Witchfire, being the daughter of Belasco, would certainly be on the list of potential rulers of Limbo. In any other Splinter Realm that would be the case, but the rules are different in Limbo.

Another illustration of the depth and strength of Magik's connection to her domain comes from the Mindless Ones that Dormammu brought with him when he invaded Limbo. The Mindless Ones attack anyone on sight. They just keep coming, and never stop. They are implacable engines of destruction. That's their schtick. They plagued Dormammu's Dark Dimension for years before he was able to establish some degree of control over them. Others have managed to attain some degree of control over groups of Mindless Ones, as well. However, the fact that Magik was able to send them running within minutes of encountering her for the first time with simply a gesture is unprecedented. They reacted exactly the same as Dormammu's regular demons. Was that because they instinctively recognized her as the personification of Limbo itself, rather than merely an individual? Remember that at this point the Phoenix Force had broken Magik's mutation, making her connection extend to all of Limbo. Before, she was a personification of the Stepping Discs, but now she's in a sense the personification of all of Limbo. The fact that the Mindless Ones ran from her is strong evidence that they did not perceive her as merely an individual. The Mindless Ones have fought across multiple dimensions, but Magik is something that their race has never encountered before.

SUMMARY

So, to recap and wrap this up...

The evidence from the comics supports the theory that Magik's mutation goes beyond merely controlling Limbo's Stepping Discs. This evidence falls broadly into three categories. The first category is the Stepping Discs themselves, the second category is the reactions of the lower demons to Magik's presence, or lack thereof, and the third category is the Soulsword itself.

The fact that the Stepping Discs disappeared from the wilds of Limbo when Illyana's mutation manifested and remained tied to the Soulsword after she died, indicates that she has never merely controlled the Stepping Discs. The Stepping Disc phenomenon itself became a part of her and has remained so, making her a permanent part of Limbo and vice versa.

The consistent reactions of the rank-and-file demons of Limbo and even demons from other realms to Magik's presence or lack thereof is further evidence of Magik's unique relationship with her domain. The lower, rank-and-file demons are arguably the most influenced by the natural fabric of Limbo itself, since they react mainly based upon their instincts. The repeated efforts of these lower demons to convince Magik to rule over them shows that Limbo itself considers Magik to be its “default” ruler, even when she is not present and even when she has no wish to even be associated with Limbo, much less rule it. Similarly, the Mindless Ones which Dormammu brought with him when he invaded Limbo reacted instinctively to Magik in a way that they have never reacted to anyone else.

The Soulsword itself is, ironically, one of the best pieces of evidence showing the unbreakable power of Magik's connection to Limbo. The Soulsword was never meant to be a badge of office for the ruler of Limbo. Soul weapons like the Soulsword and Pixie's Souldagger do not confer mastery over a domain. However, since that has historically been one of the major effects of possession of the Soulsword, it is understandable that most would simply assume that Illyana created it as a symbol of her mastery of Limbo. However, the Soulsword was absolutely not created for the purpose of conferring mastery over Limbo. That effect is solely due to the fact that a piece of Illyana's pure soul is within the sword, and in the absence of Belasco or Magik herself, that fragment of soul is absolutely required in order to rule over Limbo. This demonstrates that Limbo belongs to Magik in a way that no other Splinter Realm belongs to its ruler.

Magik's mutation has created a unique Hell Lord, one whose connection to her domain cannot be broken even by herself and one who, when pushed, does crazily overpowered stuff like creating an entirely new class of powerful magical weapons, or absorbing her Splinter Realm within herself. She is unique, an oddity in the Marvel Comics universe with one foot in the mortal superhero world, and one in the infernal world of the Hell Lords.

THE END