Early life Illyana Rasputina was born in the Ust-Ordynski
Collective farm, near
Lake Baikal,
Siberia,
Russian SFSR,
Soviet Union to Nikolai Rasputin and his wife Alexandra Rasputina. The 2006 comic mini-series
Colossus: Bloodline established that the family was descended from
Grigori Rasputin and a
Romani woman named Elena. Illyana's two older brothers,
Mikhail Rasputin and
Colossus (Piotr Rasputin) are also
mutants. Colossus' superhuman powers manifest while saving Illyana from a runaway tractor. At six years old, Illyana is abducted and brought to the United States by
Arcade, who uses her and several other hostages to coerce the X-Men into opposing
Doctor Doom. She is rescued and brought back to the X-Mansion.
Limbo Shortly thereafter, Illyana is called to the
Limbo dimension by
Belasco, who seeks to bring forth the Elder Gods to rule Earth. She is raised there, frequently bullied and tormented by Belasco's underling
S'ym. To free himself, Belasco needs to fill the Beatrix Medallion with five bloodstones. The bloodstones are created by corrupting Illyana's soul, with a new stone appearing as her corruption deepens. She is rescued and tutored in the practice of
white magic by that dimension's version of
Storm (who turned to magic when her mutant powers waned). Finding the use of magic abhorrent, Limbo's version of
Shadowcat, known as Cat, kidnaps and trains Illyana in hand to hand and sword combat. Cat, along with Illyana, storms Belasco's citadel. They are overwhelmed by Belasco, who further transforms Cat into a feline demonic creature. With Illyana back under his control, Belasco instructs her in the art of black magic in the hopes that it will further corrupt her soul. However, Illyana plots Belasco's defeat and continues to resist the dark influence on her soul. Illyana forms a mystical bond between both Storm and Cat, who were also tutored by Belasco. Belasco succeeds in creating three parts of Illyana's bloodstone pendant. Illyana creates the Soulsword and takes over Limbo as its new ruler. While wielding the Soulsword she manifests horns, a tail and fangs. She banishes Belasco from Limbo and claims S'ym as her servant. She then returns to Earth a decade older, although no time has passed on Earth since her kidnapping. There, Illyana meets Storm's ancestor Ashake, an Egyptian priestess. Together, they defeat an evil sorcerer, Heka-Nut, who sought an ancient mystical sword called the Sword of Bone using Magik's Soulsword. Ashake helps Illyana and Mirage return to the present, with Mirage's memory of the incident erased in the process. A strange armor begins to appear on her body each time she wields the Soulsword. The armor appears only on one of her shoulders and arms at first, but appears on more of her body each time that she wields the sword. Illyana's skill as a sorceress grows, and she battles other beings with mystical powers such as
Baba Yaga, the
Enchantress,
Forge,
Spiral, and Heka-Nut. Ashamed of herself, she flees into Limbo, and decides to end the demonic invasion by assuming rule of Limbo. However, her teammate
Rahne Sinclair persuades her against this, and she instead gives up her demonic powers by creating a massive stepping disc that banishes the demons back to Limbo, then throws her Soulsword in after them to seal the portal shut. Afterwards, the New Mutants find a seven-year-old Illyana inside the husk of her eldritch armor. She still possesses the bloodstone locket. Because of its mystic bond with Shadowcat, the Soulsword passes on to Earth's Shadowcat in England. It embeds itself in a stone near
Excalibur's lighthouse headquarters, waiting for Shadowcat to claim it and become its new wielder. After a conflict with the necromancer Gravemoss, the Soulsword is acquired by
Amanda Sefton, who becomes the second Magik. Illyana returns to Russia where she lives with her parents for some months until they are murdered by the Russian government to secure Illyana's abilities to defeat a psionic being known as the
Soul Skinner. Illyana then returns to the
X-Mansion to live with her brother and the other X-Men. Not long afterwards, Illyana contracts the
Legacy Virus, and dies in the X-Mansion, despite all efforts to save her made by
Charles Xavier and
Moira MacTaggert. Illyana's spirit returns to Colossus, who had recently returned to the United States with Shadowcat and
Nightcrawler following the disbanding of Excalibur. When investigating odd occurrences inside the Mansion, Colossus locates one of the stepping disks that Illyana had magically bound to the school. He is transported to a pocket world, which holds a memory imprint of Illyana. Colossus is later resurrected by an alien race. Belasco eventually deposes Amanda Sefton and, after seeing Illyana reappear during "
House of M" and realizing he carries a torch for her, creates a powerful spell to return her to him. The spell pulls forth the remaining essence of Illyana still held within Limbo's dimension, taking shape as Darkchilde, the semi-demonic version of Illyana corrupted and transformed by dark magic. Belasco is not satisfied with his creation, claiming that it is not the true Illyana due to lacking a soul, and banishes her to the outer parts of Limbo. Illyana, now with her Darkchilde persona, discovers some of the teenage
New X-Men being attacked by a horde of demons. After aiding the mutants against the demons, she uses a spell to immobilize them and steal a portion of
Pixie's soul, in the hopes of creating both a bloodstone and a new Soulsword, as Illyana felt Pixie had the most innocent of souls present.
Anole breaks free from Illyana's confinement and dispatches her. Pixie's soul extraction is partially successful however, creating one part of a bloodstone pendant and a soul dagger. Illyana attempts to complete the process and destroy those who wished to interfere, but
Rockslide thwarts her, and causes Illyana's human memories of her friends and life among the X-Men to return to her. Although only a part of Pixie's soul was taken, Pixie is now capable of performing magic, the hole in her soul having been filled with
black magic. Since Belasco had sealed his castle from her own magic and powers, Illyana teaches Pixie a
teleportation spell, with which the New X-Men attack and defeat Belasco. . While in Limbo, Illyana attacks various demons in her search for the Bloodstone amulet. Her activities are noticed by
Mephisto,
Blackheart,
Satannish,
Dormammu, and
Hela. Belasco's daughter,
Witchfire appears during the meeting and reveals she is the current owner of Illyana's Bloodstone amulet and vows to take her father's place as ruler of Limbo. Back at the X-Men's base in San Francisco, Pixie accidentally discovers Magik's Soulsword is hidden inside Nightcrawler. Sensing its presence, Illyana teleports in and reclaims her sword, transforming from the Darkchilde into her Magik persona. She strikes Colossus when he enters the Danger Room and calls out to her, realizing that something is wrong when she does not feel any emotions, and returns to Limbo. Witchfire has conquered Limbo and Magik's armies during her absence. Claiming everything that Belasco ever owned, Witchfire captures Magik, takes her bloodstone and adds it to the amulet. The X-Men arrive at the castle; Nightcrawler finds Illyana chained to a pillar. At her direction, he stabs her with Pixie's soul dagger, re-releasing the Soulsword inside of her. Witchfire completes the set of Bloodstones via another portion of Pixie's soul and releases the Elder Gods. Illyana and the other mutants hold back Witchfire and the Elder Gods. Using a combination of magic and the powers of the Soulsword and Souldagger, Illyana and Pixie remove one of Pixie's bloodstones. The Elder Gods are swept back to their dimension, along with Witchfire and the remaining bloodstones. Pixie's Souldagger merges with the bloodstone that was pried loose by Illyana. Saddened by the loss of her and Pixie's remaining bloodstones, Illyana teleports the mutants back to the X-Base, and they convince her to stay with them.
Return to X-Men/New Mutants However, the younger mutants are still very distrustful of her. Illyana seems to have undergone a personality change since her return from the future, becoming more detached emotionally in most cases, possibly due to the further loss of most of her soul. Later,
Cyclops sends Illyana to team up (unknowingly) with X-Force to locate
Wolverine and teleport them to Alcatraz to rescue any mutants taken prisoner by
Norman Osborn's forces. Along with Pixie, they teleport all the X-Men from San Francisco to their new home, Utopia. When
Hope Summers and
Cable return to the present during the 2010 "
X-Men: Second Coming" storyline,
Bastion begins eliminating all mutant teleporters to trap the mutant population on Utopia. While trying to bring Hope and Cable to Utopia, Illyana is fired upon by one of the
Purifiers with a supernatural weapon that opens a portal to Limbo that she cannot control; she is drawn into the portal by a cluster of demonic tentacles. She is eventually freed from her restraints by Pixie, and Illyana and her rescue team return to Earth. In a reversal of fortune, Pixie is kidnapped by Project Purgatory, and Magik returns to Limbo with the New Mutants to rescue her. While in Limbo, the New Mutants encounter the
Inferno Babies - mutants who were taken as infants by the government and raised and trained in Limbo. This now-adult team attacks and overwhelms the New Mutants. While the rest of the team is captured, Magik escapes to Earth with
Karma and Pixie. After hiding the Soulsword inside Karma, Magik teleports the rest of the X-Men to Portal Epsilon, Project Purgatory's gateway to Limbo, for what the X-Men believe to be a rescue mission. They arrive just as Limbo's Elder Gods breach the gateway to Earth. Karma releases
Legion's mind with the Soulsword, freeing him to use his powers to destroy the Elder Gods and return the bloodstones belonging to Magik and Pixie, thus restoring their souls. Confronted by Cyclops afterward, Magik admits to putting the world in danger and manipulating the X-Men for the sake of a personal vendetta against the Elder Gods. Cyclops decides that she must be restrained. While she remains unrepentant, she accepts his decision. Magik is placed in the X-Brig 2, a newly constructed, ultra-high security prison 500 ft. below sea level. She is controlled by devices that detect and prevent the use of teleportation and magic. During a visit Magik accepts the blame for her incarceration when Colossus tries to comfort her. Magik is temporarily released by Colossus and Kitty to get her help in defeating
Juggernaut. Following the events of
Schism, Magik is selected to be a member of Cyclops' "Extinction Team." Despite this status, she remains a prisoner. She is only released from the X-Brig for missions, and while in the field, her suit contains lethal fail-safes that prevent her escape. In
Avengers vs. X-Men, Illyana is chosen as one of the "Phoenix Five", a group of X-Men granted additional powers by the
Phoenix Force. After
Ms. Marvel is defeated by
Rogue, Magik appears and gags the Avenger before teleporting her into Limbo, trapping her and terrifying Rogue. Following the defeat of Cyclops, Magik and the other former members of the Phoenix Five are reported to have fled. Magik joins Cyclops' team of X-Men at the New Xavier School at the old Weapon X facility. The Phoenix apparently has damaged Magik's powers, like it apparently did to the other five; Illyana initially thinks her ability to channel increased energies from Limbo is a power upgrade, but Dormammu pulls her into Limbo, and demonstrates that her newfound ability to effortlessly summon Limbo energies is destroying Limbo. Dormammu later pulls the entire Uncanny team into Limbo, intending to kill them in front of Magik before he kills her. They fight back and Illyana absorbs all of Limbo's mystic energy, causing it and its creatures to disappear. She sends the X-Men back to Earth, and travels back through time to become the protégé of a past version of
Doctor Strange, explaining that she needs a greater understanding of magic, so as to better control her mutant powers. It is eventually discovered that Magik along with Cyclops,
Emma Frost,
Magneto, and Colossus were actually infected with nano-sentinels by
Dark Beast after the incident with the Phoenix Force, and that was the real cause for their broken powers or sudden upgrade. She has since regained total control over her powers and was able to recreate Limbo. Magik is employed by Karma to lead a new New Mutants team along with Wolfsbane,
Rictor,
Strong Guy,
Prodigy, and
Boom-Boom. When an eco-terrorist group attempted to use the
Man-Thing as a weapon against humanity, the part of Ted Sallis within the creature attempted to stop the threat by summoning the demon lord Belasco, who he had previously made a deal with to gain the insight necessary to crack the super-soldier serum. Instead, this ritual summoned Illyana, who offered to release Sallis from the Man-Thing with the warning that this would leave Man-Thing a creature of instinct who could endanger the world. Sallis accepted that he had to remain in Man-Thing, but Illyana not only helped stop the group that had unleashed Man-Thing as a weapon, but later summoned Belasco so that Sallis could punish the demon for his role in Sallis's fall.
Dawn of X After the formation of the mutant sovereign state of
Krakoa, Magik is granted the rank of Captain in the Quiet Council. She joins
Sunspot and the other New Mutants in travelling to
Shi'ar space, aboard the
Starjammers vessel, to locate Sunspot's best friend
Cannonball. Magik and the rest of the New Mutants are arrested once the Starjammers arrive at a space station to rob a highly valued object, having been believed to be behind the attempted thievery. The New Mutants are quickly bailed out by Cannonball's wife,
Smasher, under the order that they are to protect
Deathbird in transit to the Shi'ar homeworld to instruct her niece in the way of rule. The team was attacked by the Death Commandos who Oracle had ordered to keep Xandra of the throne, Magik excitedly defeated several of them all knowing she was not human and therefore was not violating Krakoa's laws. With Deathbird's help they defeated them all and took control of their ship. Once they arrived on Chandilar they ambushed Oracle for trying to have them killed leading to a fight between the New Mutants and the
Imperial Guard. Xandra put a stop to the fight by announcing that Oracle and Deathbird will both be her mentors and the New Mutants return to Krakoa. Sunspot stays behind to spend more time with Cannonball. After this she went on many more missions with the New Mutants to bring more Mutants to Krakoa, and developed a fondness for teaching and mentoring, training the islands youth at the Akadamos Habitat, teaching Magic at
Strange Academy, and forming her own version of the Dark Riders.
"X of Swords" In the 2020 "
X of Swords" storyline, Magik is one of nine Krakoan mutants chosen by
Saturnyne to fight against Krakoa's sister island
Arakko in a tournament in
Otherworld. She prepares by training
Cypher in swordfighting. In the tournament she is twice pitted against
Pogg Ur-Pogg. The first time is an arm wrestling match, in which Pogg easily beats her due to his strength. In their second fight, she outsmarts him by realizing "Pogg" means "sword" in Arakkii, and allowing him to swallow her so that she can pull the actual Pogg Ur-Pogg, a tiny goblin-like creature, out of his armor.
The Labors of Magik Magik decides she does not want to balance her teaching jobs and being a captain of Krakoa while also being queen of Limbo. Wanting to transcend her traumatic past, she decides to distance herself from Limbo. Needing a new ruler for the demonic dimension, Magik (over the objections of her fellow New Mutants) offers the role to
Madelyne Pryor based on her past connection to Limbo. And because, like Magik, she too has survived painfully traumatic experiences and is still a damaged soul. Illyana declares anyone normal and "untouched by darkness" to be ill-suited to rule Limbo. Due to their objections, Illyana offered to take Rahne and Dani with her to witness the handover of power. However, they were invaded by an army of demons led by S'ym, who wanted to take Limbo for himself and had his own weapon which was able to disarm Magik's soulsword. The four women were forced to flee back to Krakoa but Magik's portal failed and they found themselves stranded in a different part of Limbo. Magik found she could not teleport out of Limbo or summon her Soulsword and concluded S'ym must have destroyed it. Due to Limbo's temporal nature, they discovered an older version of herself living in a castle and using Warlock in place of her Soulsword. She revealed to them that she had been trapped in Limbo for many years fighting Technarchy-infected Demons and she and Warlock were the last two Mutants alive. She got a message from the demons offering her safe passage home for herself and her friends on the condition that she leaves her weaker older self. The two Magik's laugh in the demons face. The next day, the whole horde of demons comes in giving the younger Illyana one more chance to accept their offer. Instead, the older Illyana made her own offer - a one on one, winner takes all fight with their leader S'ym. To everyone's shock he agrees. He seems to get the upper hand but immediately after he stabs her, she reveals she is bonded to Warlock and used the stab to remove the techno-organic virus from S'ym and his allies. After watching her defeat S'ym once and for all, the team went further into Limbo, finding themselves in a fairytale world based on
Alice in Wonderland. They were ambushed by guards of the Red King (Belasco) and Magik was separated from the rest of the group. She was woken up by her younger self who was still Belasco's apprentice. She told her where her friends were being held and performed a spell to summon someone who could help, bringing Colossus to them from Krakoa, much to the older Illyana's dismay. Arriving at the Red King's castle where the others were being held, Magik took great pleasure in defeating a weaker version of Belasco. In turn, this inspired the younger Illyana to undo her spell, turning the fairytale world back into Belasco's castle. Illyana said goodbye to her younger self who was happy to know she would eventually become strong enough to escape and once again the group set forth further into Limbo. After months of waiting in a cave where she continued training Madelyne, the group stages an assault on the castle hoping to take Limbo back from S'ym. While initially successful, once they get inside the wall they realize S'ym is being helped by another version of Magik created by Limbo because the original spent to much time on Earth and neglected her duties. Magik allows her doppelganger to think she has the upper hand so Madelyne can defeat her while she is distracted. This causes the two to merge together making Illyana once again powerful enough to send them home. Madelyne to finally becoming the new Queen of Limbo. ==Name==