Josh Boone's New Mutants has been in Development Hell for the last few years, but his dreams are finally becoming a reality. A new trailer is due on January 6, ahead of an April 3 release date, and Boone has even indicated the movie will be based on his original version. So, who is Magik, the New Mutants' demonic sorceress?
Boone's biggest advantage is that he's dealing with superheroes who don't have the same kind of brand recognition as the likes of Iron Man, Batman, or Spider-Man. What's more, some of his casting decisions are absolutely inspired; he's chosen Anya Taylor-Joy to play a quasi-demonic mutant sorceress, which frankly makes The Witch feel like an extended audition. By all accounts, New Mutants' portrayal of Russian mutant Illyana Rasputin will be remarkably comic-book-accurate. But just who exactly is Magik?
Magik's Origin Story
The New Mutants brand has always seemed to blur the line between mutant and mysticism, which fits with a recent retcon in the comics; Marvel has suggested that the history of anti-magic violence was partly directed against mutants. Magik is a classic case in point, because she's both a mutant and a sorceress, and as a result, it's quite difficult to establish the precise nature of her powerset. She started out as a child, the six-year-old sister of Colossus, who tended to be over-protective and called her his "Little Snowflake."
But Magik's life was forever changed when she was kidnapped by Belasco, one of Marvel's Hell Lords like Hela and Mephisto, absolute ruler of the horrific realm of Limbo. Naturally, the X-Men persuaded Illyana into Limbo, where they briefly became trapped themselves and were corrupted by its demonic influence. Because time passes differently in Limbo to Earth, they took too long rescuing Illyana, and found she had aged a decade. She was now a teenager who could create teleportational "stepping discs" that transported her through space and time, and who had a penchant for sorcery as well. Unfortunately, Belasco didn't realize he had corrupted the teenager too well, and she had become ambitious enough to attempt to overthrow him alongside the X-Men.
Illyana returned to Earth as one of the New Mutants, developing a close friendship with Kitty Pryde; although it was never developed due to the Comic Book Code, there's a distinctly lesbian subtext in that particular relationship, and to this day many X-Men fans ship the two. Magik's powers began to grow, and she began to manifest eldritch armor ever time she used the Soulsword. In the end, though, Magik was restored to a child when she rejected the darkness of Limbo once and for all.
The Tragic Fate of Illyana Rasputin
Illyana had been given a second chance at childhood, her innocence restored. Unfortunately, that set her up for further tragedy, because the Russian government knew of her potential. Faced with the monstrous threat of a mutant called the Soul Skinner, they decided that Illyana would prove the perfect weapon; her innocence would make her immune to the Soul Skinner's power. They kidnapped Illyana, and shot her parents dead. Colossus led a rescue attempt, and she returned to America in his care.
And then Illyana began to become sick. At first everybody assumed she had the flu, but Charles Xavier realized it was something different, something new and dangerous. Illyana was one of the first people to contract the Legacy Virus, a disease that had been released into the Earth's atmosphere that targeted only mutants. Charles Xavier and Moira MacTaggert desperately attempted to save her life, but they were struggling to understand a genetically-engineered virus that came from thousands of years in the future. Illyana died in Uncanny X-Men #303, symbolizing the death of innocence, one of the defining moments in X-Men history. Colossus was devastated, and actually betrayed the X-Men.
The Return of Magik
Death is a revolving door in comics, and Magik is now back again - and an adult once more. It all began in the "House of M" event, in which the Scarlet Witch created a reality where every hero had been granted their deepest wish. For Colossus, that meant a life with his family; and so, for the briefest of moments, Illyana was back. Somewhere in the depths of Limbo, the Hell Lord Belasco sensed this and stirred. He sought out fragments of Illyana's soul from the various Hell dimensions, and pieced them together into a monstrous being called Darkchylde; furious because this wasn't what he wanted, he then captured Xavier's School and drew it into Limbo, attempting to force the X-Men to reveal the girl he was convinced they were hiding from him. This gave Darkchylde the opportunity to capture a little bit more of her soul when she acquired the Soulsword, which had been left behind when the original Magik was restored to childhood.
It took a long time for the X-Men to develop any real trust in this new version of Magik, not helped by the fact she had an agenda of her own; she incited a conflict between the X-Men and the Elder Gods, the demons who possessed the last fragments of her soul, and used the Omega mutant Legion as a weapon against them. She then manipulated her brother into absorbing the power of Cyttorak, becoming one of the Juggernauts.
Still, over the years Magik has become one of the most important X-Men. Under Brian Bendis, she developed her mystical powers, training under Doctor Strange himself. Magik unwisely chose to absorb Limbo into herself, amplifying her powers massively, but leaving herself incredibly vulnerable. This backfired when anti-mutant forces neutralized Magik's mutant powers. The demonic forces of Limbo were unleashed, and Magik was transformed into Darkchylde once again; she abandoned the X-Men in a crisis, now completely stripped of her humanity.
Magik has returned as part of Jonathan Hickman's X-Men relaunch. That picks up after a mysterious six-month time jump, which means it's unclear what happened in that time jump. It's possible Darkchylde's plans were ultimately thwarted and her humanity was restored; alternatively, given the X-Men have mastered a form of resurrection using cloning and Cerebro mental patterns, they could have just considered Illyana to be dead and thus restored her. If the latter is the case, it's unclear whether the X-Men's technology would replicate Magik's mystic bond with Limbo; and if it does, there are now two versions of Magik, each with their own connection to that realm. Magik may well prove to be a useful tool to explore whether or not the X-Men clones truly have souls.
