New Mutants #71-#73: Inferno

New Mutants #71-#73 shows us Inferno from the perspective of the New Mutants and their new buddies the X-Terminators.

First issue we spend mostly in Limbo, and Magik gives us a tour of her backstory for those of you who had followed my colleague SpaceSquid's advice and stayed well away. Specifically: the bit about the dead X-Men littering Limbo (to your left is a bit of Nightcrawler's foot; on your right you can see Kitty Pryde's skull). I'll reply to some of SpaceSquid's points here (he hasn't done the thing for #4). So, SpaceSquid reads this as a morality play about ends vs. means, and he regards the idea (expressed by Storm and Magik) that using imperfect means - such as dark magic - to save - can possibly be described.

But it's not just a morality play. It's about actual demons and actual souls and actual dark magic. If you accept that logic of that using dark magic - even if for a beneficient end - can corrupt and deprave - then the rest follows. The soulsword is not a metaphor for the atomic bomb, and Magik is not President Truman. She is someone who is literally losing her humanity, her ability to empathise with others, and afraid to show herself to her friends, because of the acts of self-abuse she is committing. Whether or not it her actions are morally acceptable in their own right is besides the point. They come with a cost: can she live with it?

The answer here, of course, is no. She, the blonde girl imbued with magical powers and who has been fighting a very powerful figure who wishes to open a rift between dimensions so that demons might invade Earth, must commit one final action, of self-sacrifice, to close the portal, in the culmination of a long-running storyline. Her devoted sibling makes one last-ditch effort to talk her out of it, but fails. Oh, and the issue in question is called "The Gift". I've mentioned how Buffy-ish New Mutants is getting at this point, but this is uncanny.

Buffy died, but Illyana didn't take quite such an extreme measure. Instead, she survives, as if she'd never been to Limbo, had never spent those years there. ("The Gift" of the title, I think, rather than the Gift of death that the Buffy episode is referring to.) With that done, the portal closes and all is saved? But there's a back-up plan, shenanigans involving Baby X (Chris/Nathan/whatever) and Maddy Pryor.

Inferno the first proper complicated inter-title crossover that the X-franchise has really had: the massacre prelude was fairly minor; the Massacre didn't have any substantial shared scenes (you can't sensibly trace the comings and goings of the Marauders between series - I tried); and the Fall of the Mutants was just a parallel of unfortunate events (with oblig watching events elsewhere on telly). The meeting with their contemporaries from X-Factor plays out completely differently to the version in X-Terminators - and not just in the dialog and timing but different things happen. And this despite Louise Simonson writing both issues! I daresay this is due to the Marvel method: Blevins and Bogdanove must have gone different ways from Simonson's plot.

It would be an intersting exercise to steal panels from the four or five main titles here (changing dialogue where necessary) and see if you could put together a coherent Infero miniseries, to which the others are merely tie-ins. Artistically it would be an abomination, of course, but it'd have made my life easier, and that's really what counts, isn't it?

New Mutants #65-#66: She's Lost Control

New Mutants #65-#66 (July-August 1988), as we discussed last post, came out too late. But it's not just that Uncanny #231 is set after it; it also features an appearance by Shadowcat, setting up her situation in Excalibur Special Edition #1 (cover dated April).

Magik wants to kill Forge. Magneto refuses to get help, and grounds all the kids. I'm not even sure why he bothers to say that at this point. Magik goes to Muir Isle to check in with Shadowcat, who has got quite a bit better and is now able to turn solid if she can concentrate. Shadowcat declines to get involved in the killing-Forge plan. And then finally we get that bit from the end of #61 where the New Mutants dress up in the graduation costumes and agree to defy Magneto.

The Mutants teleport to Dallas, where Freedom Force are conveniently waiting, on Destiny's instructions (they must have spent Christmas there). There's a fight. Destiny seems to prophecise Inferno. Magik and Forge then proceed to a solo fight for #66.

Plotwise it's not as deeply connected to Uncanny #231 as I had expected from the latter. The flashback in that was to events between the two stories. But certainly Magik's attitude towards her brother's death follows a through-line that starts here (or rather, in #64) and continues in Uncanny.

Uncanny X-Men #231: Reunion of the Rasputins

Uncanny X-Men #231 is cover-dated July 1988, and picks up a thread from New Mutants. A footnote helpfully clarifies it picks up from #66. Which was cover-dated August. It looks like that fill-in issue over in Mutants screwed up a tight crossover. Let's do these in publication order, though, and see how comprehensible this is.

Colossus is moping. He's got good reason to: he's stuck in his armoured form, and has become incredibly hot to touch (he accidentally burns a picture of Illyana). Gateway summons him - possibly the most demonstrative that Gateway has been yet - and teleports him to Limbo.

In Limbo, Illyana is now back to fighting a full-fledged demonic rebellion, and is doing the appropriate spell to bring Piotr back to life. Well, to undeath. She didn't count on getting the real deal, and assumes Piotr is hers to command. She explains the plot to him, anyway, and gives what I take to be a summary of #65 and #66: that Baba Yaga (a figure from Russian folklore) had abducted the New Mutants. He succesfully rescues them, and during his mission finds himself able to transform to flesh again.

After this he delivers some homilies to Magik. She still is of the opinion that she is inherently evil, and any altruism is simply an act. But, as Colossus points out, thinking it is worthwhile putting on that act is what makes one good. Our Piotr wouldn't be so cynical as to think of the possibility that she's a very manipulative psychopath playing a long game. They part with Magik still believing that Colossus has perished, but having accepted it a little.

But why did Baba Yaga attack the mutants in the first place? Magik doesn't think to ask that. She should have: it's another front being by S'ym opened in the war in Limbo. Oh dear...

New Mutants #63: 1 x magik story, past use-by date

New Mutants #63 is a clear case of an inventory story, if ever I saw one. Even if it weren't for the split credit (plot: Claremont, script: Simonson), or the fact that it wasn't dealing with the aftermaths of Doug's death yet, then the unusual structure would give it away. The entire issue is a dream sequence, in which Illyana recalls events that took place around the time of New Mutants #21, which in turn involves time travel to before she became Magik.

Simonson has done what she can to contemporise the story: the outer narration sets it after Illyana heard about her brother's death on the television. But it ends up a mess. Nothing happens that matters and we don't have any new insights into Magik. But then, an inventory issue in these circumstances was never going to do that. Let's just be happy that it was scripted by Simonson with about as much deftness as was possible, and move on...

New Mutants #52: Didn't This Book Used To Be Set In A School, Or Something?

The New Mutants are back at Westchester. They left during the Mutant Massacre to rescue Karma but then things have happened, and they've fought Magus, been to Limbo, met Robert the Bruce, seen two different futures, and encountered Professor X and the Starjammers. Although they've often only scraped through these adventures, this clearly puts them at a power level and competency that questions the premise.

So. Back at Westchester, and they are in the Danger Room with an extended sequence versus the Marauders. They lose badly, which conveniently nerfs them back to an appropriate power level for the format of the series: a bunch of students who get into japes despite the wishes of their teachers and escape by the skin of their teeth.

That's half the plot, anyway. The rest is Magik and Magneto. The comparison between the two is made a little blunter than usual: Magik has her demons to deal with (they're rebelling against her, and she dare not use the full extent of her power to put them down), and so does Magneto, as he points out. Except that his are metaphorical, and hers are literal. You see what he did there! Subtle.

So, that's about it. Nerfing and some characterisation. Will it work, though? The New Mutants have and done so much in the last few issues that going back to the school feels so... small. Coming back to my Buffy analogy, it feels like that scene of "The Body" where we're just following Dawn at school and she has no idea what's happening. After what has happened, you can't go back. You just can't. And there is still that outstanding question of Karma's brother and sister (Magneto assures her that he's doing what he can - presumably through the Hellfire Club).

In a reply to a letter, an announcement is made that Louise Simonson will be taking over New Mutants from #55 for a brief period while Chris Claremont takes a break to write a novel, "Firstflight" (Ace). I know the publication history: Claremont'll never come back, and eventually Rob Liefeld will start doing the art, and turn the series into X-Force. You can see the germ of it here.

New Mutants #48-#50: With Jetpacks

We've seen the future before in Uncanny X-Men, but it's New Mutants, with its themes of youth and forward-looking, that starts using it as a regular setting.

This initial post-Mutant Massacre arc sees two future dystopias. The first, in New Mutants #48, is your Days of Future Past timeline (apparently different enough that it's reckoned to be a different version, but I don't see that myself), and the origin of that is explained. But the grimness of that future as Uncanny had it cannot withstand the optimism and wish-fulfilment of New Mutants and we soon discover that in addition to the few surviving New Mutants (Dani and Sam), Lila Cheney is alive and has helped them set up a colony on her Dyson Sphere.

In #49's future dystopia, what was left of the X-Men, led by Magneto, have allied with the Hellfire Club to take over the world. New York has become a dystopia in part modelled on 2000AD's Judge Dredd: complete with Arbitrators (not Judges) with eye-obscuring visors. The more sinister part is their resemblance to the New Mutants uniforms, and the revelation of Bobby and Amara's leadership role in this regime. Our kids are helped by an elderly Kate Power, who clings to the ideals of the past.

Both groups are rescued by Magik, who brings ideal help for dealing with the future in the form of their mentor: Professor Xavier. He's been worried about what Magneto might be getting up to in his absence (having nightmares about the Holocaust and joining the Lords Cardinal of the Hellfire Club would seem to be the order of the day), and he's happy to, with Binary, join Illyana in a rescue mission.

Another father figure is part of the story, of course: Magus, who they had gone into Limbo to escape. Thanks to the power of teamwork (and Xavier and Binary, and willing self-sacrifice from Cypher and Warlock), the Magus is regressed to a state of infancy. Will he grow up better this time? Or will someone pretending to be Eric the Red age him back to distract them, as when the same trick was played on a character with one more 'n'. At the end it looks a lot like Xavier is going to return to Earth and stay... I'd wondered how long that would last: this is shorter than I was expecting.

New Mutants #46-47: In Limbo

So, while the main team in Uncanny were out rescuing, the New Mutants were left with strict instructions to stay at the mansion.

They of course do no such thing, and by the end of Uncanny #212 they are missing, presumed incinerated. What happened to them?

Well, Karma tried to call her siblings at their Manhattan flat, and they didn't pick up. This is worrying. Magik and her check it out, only to be greeted by an exploding bomb (which is taken to by the Marauders, although I don't think there's any actual evidence). When they don't return, the other New Mutants go looking for them, via that Manhattan-Westchester tunnel. They go straight to Karma's, skipping any Morlock interludes, and find the fire brigade attending a burning apartment building and Xi'an and Illyana safe and sound. No sign of the younglings, though.

Then Warlock goes a bit crazy and Magus turns up, which is possibly not the best timing ever. Happily, there's a 'porter on the team, so they all wake up in Limbo. Wait, did I say happily?

This is possibly the longest extended time that the non-Russian members of gang have spent in Limbo, and it is not to their liking, especially as Bobby and Amara's elemental powers don't work very well there. And worse, they're not even safe: Magus breaks through the dimensional barrier, somehow. So they 'port randomly away again. This time to somewhere in Europe during the Scottish War of Indepenence, where they do the superhero fight-truce-teamup thing, only with Robert the Bruce. Which is at the very least novel.

Meanwhile back at the mansion (there should be an HTML entity for that, I have decided), Moira is worrying about the kids (particularly Rahne) still being missing, in between moments caring for injured X-Men and Morlocks. Magneto makes sure she eats properly, possibly the most leaderlike thing he's done in 23 years. But no action is taken by anyone. I suppose Cerebro isn't what it used to be.

New Mutants #36: Beyond Help

New Mutants #36 is another crossover issue with Secret Wars II. To be honest, it's a wonder that the launch of X-Factor wasn't tangled in with that.

Kitty is researching Norse mythology after the X-Men's recent Asgardian experience. She's supposed to be meeting up for food with Illyana later, but instead ends up with Magik's armour and soulsword, and is attacked by a demon. Meanwhile, another one ends up at the mansion and attacks the New Mutants - but Warlock takes it out.

Illyana has been delayed by the Beyonder, and turned into a complete version of herself. She takes a subway car (quite literally) to Westchester, and explains what has happened to the New Mutants, making an analogy with Clarke's Childhood's End, says that Beyonder is here to help, and is very firm indeed on the fact that she certainly hasn't been brainwashed or anything like that.

When she realises that her cleansing meant that her responsibilities as Magik devolved upon Kitty (who is now in grave risk from demons), she gives herself freely back into corruption to save her. After all, if she doesn't, she can't very well keeping calling herself good. Those Rasputins are screwed up, I tell you.

New Mutants #15-#17: Chasing Demons

New Mutants #15 starts the day after Uncanny X-Men #180. Kitty is missing. So are the X-Men. Illyana is worried enough that she sends an astral projection to go check on Kitty, and unfortunately finds her a captive of Emma Frost, whose illusions are fooling Doug into thinking nothing's wrong.

Kitty and Frost notice the psychic form, and Illyana cries out in pain. The New Mutants - who've been left behind in the mansion, go see what's up, engage in a spot of demon-hunting (the spell backfired a bit), and then sit down and have a Serious Conversation with Illyana.

Illyana 'fesses up about the sorcery, and tells them about Kitty. The Fantastic Four and the Avengers have also been captured by the Beyonder and forced to participate in his miniseries, so that's not much use, and they are reluctantly forced to catch the bus to MA. On the bus, Rahne is freaking out about Magik, as might be expected, and someone - Sam - finally tries talking to her about theology, rather than just passively watch her denounce herself as the work of Satan.

Illyana dons Kitty's old New Mutants uniform, and they start the rescue attempt. The entrance to the Massachusetts Academy is impressive, being from the direction of below, with the help of Magma.

They roam around the school at will, seeking out Kitty and Emma, and eventually being confronted by a team of mutants at the Academy: consisting of Catseye, Empath, Jetstream, Roulette, Tarot and Thunderbird (who seems to be the first Thunderbird's brother) - a sort of dark mirror of the New Mutants called the Hellions (groan). They fail to escape, and wind up in a well-appointed school jail.

Well, most of them, anyway. Illyana has broken out the soulsword and teleporting, and has managed to get herself and Dani to Limbo. S'ym proves to be properly loyal, and rescues them, allowing them time to regroup. After a brief detour to a 1985 in which the entire New Mutants team are Hellions, they arrive a week after #16. The Hellions aren't thrilled about the management either, and propose a duel for the New Mutants' freedom. Just as this seems to be working out for them (the match is Cannonball vs. Jetstream, which if nothing else is sure to produce a lot of collateral damage), Frost and Shaw arrive. Thanks to continued youthful rebellion on the part of the Hellions, the New Mutants are able to get away.

The Hellions are what this title really needed - an enemy of equal stature, and that provides everyone something interesting to do during a fight scene. The same reason, I suppose, that the Brotherhood was created, back in the day. With Magik joining the team (assuming that she stays permanently) they become slightly more powerful; and finally we are done with the Kitty/X-Babies feud.

New Mutants #14: Secret Magik

New Mutants #14 starts with a brief recap of the Magik limited series, for those who haven't read that, and picks up exactly as it finished, with Xavier declaring a snow day. It's Illyana's birthday, whatever that means (she's 15 now - but her experience in Limbo was undateable - is it just that Xavier decided she's more or less 14 and now this is her next birthday?)

While Xavier is worrying about Illyana (perhaps something he should have been doing more of recently), S'ym - Belasco's head minion - turns up, takes down Xavier, and lays in wait for Illyana. Oh dear. She uses her mutant power to bring the New Mutants into the mansion (and in a curious bit of timey-wimey, intersecting with a bit of Magik #3), where they start the requisite punching. Teamwork, as usual, proves key. Magma gets to use her powers in controlled combat for the first time, by making a mini-volcano inside, busting up the floorboards. I can see a small problem with that.

Magik recovers. Her spells prove ineffective, so she is forced to resort to the soulsword. With this she threatens S'ym into her service. Stevie Hunter witnessed all of this, so Magik rips a trick from Xavier's playbook and mindwipes her. All that is remembered is Magik's mutant power: the light circles. She keeps the magic to herself.

Magik #1-#4: A Snowflake's Chance

Kids. They grow up so fast these days, don't they?

We've had comics being set between previously released issues. We've had comics set between panels. The bulk of the Magik: Storm and Illyana miniseries is set between two parts of the same panel of Uncanny X-Men #160. In that, Illyana is lost in Limbo, and ages half a dozen years while the X-Men watch.

The experience has clearly affected her more than the X-Men suspect. Xavier noticed something odd with her on the scanner, she was honouring an absent friend's birthday (not the brood-fighting Kitty Pryde, although it was her birthday) in New Mutants #3, and then there was that incident with the Danger Room and the sword in Uncanny X-Men #171.

Illyana Nikolovna Rasputin (named here with the correct patronymic for the first time - they even retcon in a previous usage) recounts the tale of her experiences in Limbo - her friendship with an aged Ororo and an adult Kitty Pryde (calling herself Cat), their destruction at Belasco's hands, and her seeking revenge, which in itself corrupts her.

It's not a happily ever after. The Illyana who escapes is warped, and has become exactly that vision of future Illyana that Ororo and Cat had sought to prevent. She has learned all of Belasco's spells, can teleport with the aid of discs (her mutant power?), has created a Soulsword from a bit of herself, and started to grow horns and a tail. She escapes, at which point she appears with the X-Men. At a time and place of her own choosing, it seems.

This is a good story, the best thing I've read yet in the course of my reading for this blog, and it really lays out the character of Magik, who I always had difficulty grasping. By a happy coincidence, I read this the same week that Uncanny X-Men #18 dropped, which has Magik admit to trying to bring Colossus down to her level - perhaps trying to recreate the demonic Colossus she meets here in Limbo. "No snowflakes in hell", she says. She's not wrong.

Uncanny X-Men #169-#171: Morlocks and Rogue

Uncanny X-Men #169-#170 is a little two-part story which introduces the Morlocks, followed by an epilogue in #171 which also features Rogue. They've captured Angel (who is living with Candy Sothern - that version is coming up so frequently I can't quite believe it's a simple misspelling), and Callisto plans to wed him.

X-Men stop that, but at what cost... Storm defeats Callisto in a fight "to the death" (Callisto gets better in #171), because she sees no other option, thus continuing her spiralling descent since the Brood eggs arc. Caliban, who we'd met in #148, is now seen as one of them, seeking out new recruits for them, and helps provide the information they need, in exchange for Kitty agreeing to stay down there with him in the tunnels, and be his friend.

Meanwhile, in Alaska, we've still not yet met Scott's grandparents, but he's become fascinated by Madelyne Pryor. Who is not just similar-looking to Jean Grey, but is the spitting image of her. And turns out to have survived a plane crash on September 1, 1980. I simply don't believe Claremont's claim that this was all originally supposed to be a coincidence. Why do that - why have the little tease "How'd you know that's my favorite breakfast"/"Simple - I'm a mind-reader"?

And somewhere else, in a safe house, Mystique is having strange dreams, not unlike the ones that Jean Grey had during Mastermind's brainwashing of her (a narrative caption curiously pegs her birth year as 1953, which not only rules out the long Wolverine-like appearances throughout the century, but also means she cannot be Nightcrawler's parent. Er, not that we know that yet.)

She's going by the name "Raven" even in private with Irene, now. And Rogue has run off, apparently also under the influence of Mastermind. Where could she have gone? To the X-Men's mansion it turns out (er, so that's another on the list of people who know where to find the X-Men - it must basically be common knowledge by now), where she begs for help.

The result of this is slightly spoiled by the cover (Rogue joins the X-Men!), but it's good stuff anyway. Storm and the X-Men are strongly against it - despite having offered refuge to the Morlocks that very day; but Binary reacts more violently. Xavier makes a Patrick Stewart Speech (I do wonder whether there's a little mind control going on here), and the matter is settled. Rogue joins, and nobody quits, apart from Binary, who hasn't really been hanging around the mansions since they returned from space anyway. Not enough meat of this is made, I think.

Xavier's relatively liberal attitude to Rogue - welcoming her in even over the objections of his team - can be compared to the Morlocks, who remain in the tunnel system. Sure, they make a token effort to invite them back, but Storm could try a little stronger - she is leader now after all - they could suggest someone comes and visits on a trial basis. Once more we see the X-Men's passing privilege raise its beautiful head. Nightcrawler says that he's found it OK upstairs, apparently forgetting that he's had access to an image inducer. Even on a practical level this is odd - Healer and Masque would be very good additions to the team in so far as their power-sets - is this a case of prejudice defeating even practicality?

And, finally another little sub-plot! Crikey, Claremont does like embedding them in, doesn't he? While Xavier and Lilandra are looking at Rogue, the other X-Men go have a session in the Danger Room. Illyana programs it with Belasco's realm, and when Kitty tries to turn it off, she uses a kind of strange sword (that has come from nowhere) to stop her. Something's going on here, but looks like we've got another slow burner.

Uncanny X-Men #160: Could it be Magik?

The last issue saw the X-Men suddenly summoned back to *Proto-Utopia because Xavier's coma has worsened. Uncanny X-Men #160 doesn't do anything with that, but ends up being one of the most important fill-in issues of all time.

Illyana (who apparently got migrated to Island M/Proto-Utopia with the rest of them, rather than being sent home to Siberia which might be the more sensible thing) triggers a device that sends her to a strange realm ruled by Belasco. The X-Men follow, fight Belasco and mostly win, but unfortunately end up with a 13-year-old Illyana, who has lived in Limbo for half her life, rather than the 6-year-old one that had run off. What has she learnt from Belasco in the mean-time, and more to the point, how on Earth are they going to explain that to her parents? While the last issue is providing the inspiration for BtVS, this then is Connor. She's got a medallion that'll go off when she hits womanhood and do all manner of unspecified sinister things, too.

This all only happens due to the X-Men being stupid. They've settled on this island that has risen from the deeps and has unusual architecture and is of unknown origin and have not even yet thoroughly explored it. The fault must be laid squarely at the doors of Professor X and Storm - both of whom were in a position to order the island to be checked out, and neither of whom did.

We get another name for Illyana this issue. She is "Illyana Natalyanovna", which along with the fact that she keeps calling her brother "Piotr Nikolievitch" implies that they don't quite understand how Russian names work yet. Apart from your basic first, given, name and surname/family name, Russians have a middle "patronymic" name, derived from the first name of their father, with -ovna (овна) or -evich (евич) appended. Natalyanovna is what, a matronymic? Which you might get for someone of unknown paternity. So not our little snowflake, then. Additionally, we're not sure what Russian name "Illyana" is supposed to represent. Ульяна (which might usually be translated Ulyana), possibly. Who knows?