Stories that make you go "aww": that one time Mags was a good teach to Illyana

[salinea]

7 pages from New Mutants #52







This takes place sometimes after after Mutant Massacre in which Kitty was wounded into being permanently dephased (which was fixed thanks to Doctor Doom, LOL). So yeah, Illyana feels pretty unbalanced with her roomie & best friend as well as everything else.









So yeah, despite everything else face palmy or groan worthy in events to follow, I still find this last page very "awww" inducing.

Also why recently, in A vs X Consequence miniseries when we found out Magneto and Magik were hanging out together, I was disappointed we never had a scene seeing what the two had to say to one another.

Comments

[theflames]

This is really cool! Way before my time, but still, I really like it.

And it makes them being on the same team in the new books fairly interesting now, though yes - I hope to see them interact soon. It also makes the decision of 'Villain it is' (in Consequences) a little depressing.

[salinea]

Claremont's New Mutants was, at times, absolutely wonderful. Especially paired with Sienkiewicz.

Haha, yeah, though not quite as depressing as Magneto crashing Illyana's funeral to try to recruit some X-Men or the whole of Inferno. (Man, I have so much rant to do about Inferno. I can deal with them taking Magneto to ridiculous levels of EVIL because he's that sort of characters and he will always be potrayed otherwise as well. But the way Inferno betrays Illyana's story I can't forgive). Marvel went out of their way to try to show that they were too damaged to ever "win" against their darker natures in that case. But still. Still does it mean they should not try?

[icon_uk]

Worth noting though, that this example isn't Sienkiewicz.(He did the cover, not the interiors of #52), this is Rick Leonardi.

[salinea]

Oooops. Thanks for the correction.

[drmcninja]

Sorry, but in Inferno, didn't they all end up winning against their evils? The only ones who failed were Havok (and thats questionable) and Longshot (and only directly because of N'astirth or whatever his name was). The rest of them trumped their other evils, and the New Mutant outside of Illyana were almost totally unaffected. Then Illyana ended the entire event by throwing away the literal manifestation of her evil.

It was a depressing event, but I think everything worked out for the best for everyone, right? Although it has been a while since I read it.

[salinea]

I'm really not sure what you're remembering, but what I do remember from Inferno is that all the female characters who were temporarily crazy / corrupted by evil power were victims /evil, one died (Madelyne), one went on being evil for a while (Polaris), one was removed from existence and replaced by her child self (Magik); whereas the same for the male characters was confirmed as being a hero just more badass after the arc of corruption (Archangel). You could argue that Havok was also corrupted by evil in that, but I read it more as being a victim of Madelyne and conned into that the whole "power makes you crazy thing". I hate specifically the thing with Illyana because of the reasons I highlighted above. She "won against her evil" arguably since she did a heroic sacrifice, but that doesn't stop that fact that given that her self was removed from existence, she kind of "died"; and that it sent a message that people who have been damaged are incapable of true redemption in their own, damaged self; only the pure and innocent, undamaged ones are.
Don't remember what specifically happened to the other New Mutants (or to Longshot), nor am I sure why it's relevant to what I was saying?

Things "working out for the best for everyone" is hardly why the hardly criteria for something being deemed depressing. Even if it was true (which it isn't in this case, Madelyne died. Illyana "died").

[drmcninja]

I'll be honest, I was ready to contend that Illyana's story was more on of rebirth and redemption, but after reading your metaphor-for-abuse explanation down below, I don't think I can. It's something I've never considered or realize. I need to think on that, because it makes a hell of a lot of sense and other things are falling into place now too.

[drmcninja]

Yikes, that spelling and grammar.

[trobadora]

This! This is why I've been wanting Magneto/Magik interaction since forever. WHY WHY WHY are we not getting it?! *grumbles*

[salinea]

I DONT KNOW. SOMEONE SHOULD ASK BENDIS AND REQUEST IT. or not, he hasn't written 'yana very well so far...

[trobadora]

It's really surprising how much I'm enjoying ANXM, considering how many things in it are not as I'd want them!

[salinea]

LOL yeah.

My favourite comment on ANXM so far is "I hate how much I'm enjoying it". Bendis is very good at this short of shit.

[icon_uk]

I remember this story, and even then I remember being just plain puzzled by Illyana's attitude and to be honest I still am.

Getting help from someone to overcome an otherwise fairly unstoppable monster is not a sign of weakness, asking for help never is, and I see nothing wrong at all in getting help from a friend/ally in stopping it, it's what being in a team is all about, and learning to trustpeople, which is something that neither Belasco nor S'ym understood..

If she HAD accepted his help, the whole of the "Inferno" event could have been avoided for starters.

[salinea]

She was raised in a hell dimension. It's not that weird that she has some weird concept about what trusting people means.

If you take it very literally, I guess it can be seen as weird. But most of Magik's story is a metaphor for abuse. The way she transforms herself a monster - you have to see it as a metaphor for the sort of deep shame and self-loathing it causes in people. How that leads to people being unable to show themselves where they are vulnerable, even to their loved ones, because they're afraid of being condemned for it, because they become persuaded that it makes them unloveable.

So yeah, of course you're right, ideally it should have been a story about learning to trust people, and how teammates make one another stronger. But instead we got Inferno which was about how the only thing worth saving in Illyana was the child because the teenage girl - the abused girl - was too damaged to be worth redeeming. So yeah, I really really hate that about Inferno.

[icon_uk]

I don't think I'd ever considered Illyana's story to be quite such a metaphor, but I can see that reading of it when you phrase it like that, thanks for the interesting take on it, will need to ponder that.

[salinea]

I'm surprised you got anything from all this mangled syntax. Me speak the england very good.

[marghammerman]

Wow, thanks... Illyana's character arc always bothered me, but I wasn't really sure about the specifics of why. What you're identifying as the central problem makes so much sense to me, though: that supposedly the only way to "save" Illyana is to erase her trauma (by turning her back into a child), rather than to help her negotiate it (by figuring out a way for her to live as a teenager). That's an awesome insight, even though it makes me more than a little depressed :(

[salinea]

Yeah, it's really depressing for the people who related to Illyana as a character who was superheroic because she had survived trauma. :/

[icon_uk]

Also it's interesting to note that this game of football at the end is, I think, the one from the start of Fallen Angels miniseries, which will lead to Sunspot and Warlock leaving the team.

[salinea]

That's... kind of sad :(

[lilacsigil]

I love this scene so much. Neither of them can go as far as "trust" but they both understand why, and Magneto is starting to help Illyana realise that who she has been doesn't have to define who she will be.

[salinea]

Yeah, theirs is a very interesting relationship.

So many potentially interesting relationships that Erik has that we never see addressed *sighs*

[flo_nelja]

Oui, c'est vraiment adorable !
(Et je suis d'accord sur le principe d'envoyer une lettre à Bendis pour lui rappeler que ça existe !!)

[salinea]

lol faut que qqun se dévoue.

[morwen]

I've been reading this era of New Mutants lately (for a Blog All The X-Men project), and I'm slightly puzzled that in subsequent issues Magik has a different attitude: it's almost as if they forgot that she turned down Magneto's help here. Instead, she's grateful for his help with dealing with her rebellion problem. I know you can read it as being grateful for the offer of help, but it doesn't quite ring true. In fact, until you'd posted this I'd decided my memory of #52 must have been wrong!