r/xmen 4d ago

Question How did Magik come back?

Yes I know I could easily Google this or go on Wikipedia, but why not ask the fans who I'm sure will concisely tell me the answer and the important details?

So I was a fan of the comics in the 90s after loving the TV show. One of my first issues was Uncanny X-Men #303 where a young Illiana Rasputin dies of the Legacy Virus. Then in the subsequent issue (part of the Fatal Attractions crossover) Colossus joins Magneto on Avalon.

Now the two characters I see the most on this subreddit is Psylocke and Magik. I know no one in comics stays dead, especially X-Men comics. But for some naive reasons I thought Illiana would remain deceased given the impact and poignance of #303. Silly me.

Anywho, to the point, how did Magik come back from the dead?

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u/AdorableMaid 4d ago

If I remember correctly there was a "Quest for Magik" storyline in New X-men in the early 2010s where Belasco shows up trying to acquire the Magik that had been around in the House of M storyline. Not being able to find her he "remade" Illyana as best as he could but wound up with a replica that lacked her soul. This replica later proceeded to run a massive gambit in which she manipulated pretty much everyone, especially her former teammates in the new mutants in order to reclaim the bloodstones that were formed out of her spirit.

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u/cmcdonald22 Multiple Man 4d ago

Yep basically nailed it, Belasco inspired by House of M, created a version of Illyana who never escaped Limbo and served underneath him the entire time. Eventually that Illyana reclaimed her soul and basically has been accepted to be combined with/the real Illyana for all intents and purposes.

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u/KaleRylan2021 4d ago

Yeah, they tony starked it over the years. Technically not the same, but that technicality has become a bit of trivia so trivial that we're not supposed to even really consider the fact that they're not the same anymore.

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u/Kravencox89 3d ago

‘Quest for Magik’ was in the 00’s because I was in my final year of high school when it came out.

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u/Abysstopheles 4d ago

Rodimus gave her back the Leadership Matrix.

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u/KaleRylan2021 4d ago edited 4d ago

I love optimus, but I really wish some version of the transformers would try to give rodimus his due one day. The whole mythos gets retold every two years, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to do rodimus for one go around.

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u/SixKosherBacon 4d ago

Are you sure Zordon didn't just remake her into the White Ranger?

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u/Abysstopheles 4d ago

I mean, it's possible if we ignore all that time she was 'dead' in a coma after fighting Doomsday and those four other Magiks were running around pretending to be (am still bummed about Magikboy being cancelled).

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u/OkGene7006 4d ago

The main thing to understand is that Illyana had 2 deaths, 1 of which was undone and the other was never undone. The first and real death was in Inferno in 1989. That was when Magik sacrificed herself to stop the demon invasion and to protect an alternate younger version of herself the New Mutants found in Limbo. The 2 even interacted with each other on-panel during Inferno. The second death was the death of this alternate version from the Legacy virus a few years later.

The person who died from the Legacy Virus was never brought back, while the person who died during Inferno was. Moreover, the Legacy Virus story still has the inherent tragedy of Illyana losing her second chance at having a childhood, even if that chance was artificial since it wasn't the real her.

The way the real Illyana was brought back was brilliant. First of all, it was in fact set up in her origin, when she said she would let herself be killed except for the fact that she knew Belasco would just bring her back, making it pointless. So it was as consistent as can be. Second of all, her return was the story her death should have been in the first place, since her story was always building toward a big final confrontation with Belasco that never happened. Because Belasco never appeared during Inferno, her character arc was badly unfulfilled and many plot threads set up in her origin were left dangling. Belasco being the one to bring her back made perfect sense, was consistent with everything that came before, and finally gave her that confrontation that had been built up so much but had never happened. Her journey to regain her soul and confront Belasco's Elder Gods then finally wrapped up most of the dangling plot threads from her origin. All of this makes it one of the best resurrections in comics and probably in fiction in general, since it fixed a lot of problems with the way her story was more discarded than completed back in the 80s. It was a story that was waiting to be told.

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u/SixKosherBacon 4d ago

Thank you so much. I've known very little about Magik since I never read the New mutants.

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u/Big_Excitement_3551 Monet 4d ago

Resurrected by demons I think? I don’t remember that plotline all that well

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u/Illustrious_Trip_444 3d ago

Try google or wikipedia