New Mutants #26 Brings Us A Little Jaunt Through Hell

Illyana Rasputina tried to give up her role as Demon Queen of Limbo in favor of Madelyne Pryor, who actually wants the job. Now Madelyne, Illyana, Dani and Rahne are trapped in the realm that scarred her– and it’s the future, and it’s snowing hard. Magik continues her labors in New Mutants #26, with writing by Vita Ayala, art by Rod Reis and  Jan Duursema, colors (on Duursema’s art) by Ruth Redmond, letters by VC’s Travis Lanham. 

Liz Large: We’re back in a reasonable amount of time with this issue, and I for one and very excited to see where the story takes us—besides Limbo— this month. 

Stephanie Burt: Reporting for duty on my current favorite comic book, which has decided to tie itself ever so closely to two of my favorite stories of all time: the original Magik mini-series, and the original (Simonson/Claremont) Inferno. Can Vita Ayala write everything, please?

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Liz: When we left off, Illyana, Dani, Rahne, and Madelyne were trapped somewhere in Limbo, having been attacked by S’ym. During that battle, not only was Illyana’s soulsword (and her power over Limbo) destroyed, but her teleportation powers have stopped working. All in all, a terrible omen for Madelyne’s future rule of Limbo. 

Stephanie: What future? Except for the weather– a big except: there’s snow everywhere! it’s a blizzard!– this setup feels like her past. She’s trapped, once again, in a Limbo she can’t control, and she fears that her magical capabilities, even when they don’t work, have endangered her friends. Can we pour one out, or maybe coin a medal, for Rod Reis’s work in these opening pages? First the vivid grey-and-white of the weather– imagine if J. M. W. Turner decided to draw some superhero comics!– and then the astonished sadness on Illyana’s face. And on Dani Moonstar’s.

Liz: The art really highlights how this is so clearly traumatizing for Illyana. There’s such a difference between freely giving her powers up, but having them taken from her is devastating. She’s blaming herself, pushing herself to simply get over it, even though it’s clear—to us and to Dani— that this won’t work. 

Stephanie: Willpower is necessary, but not sufficient, to get through a terror like this one. You also need tactics. And friends. Or frenemies, since Madelyne doesn’t exactly speak respectfully to the people who are, in theory, helping her gain a crown. I know she’s not used to treating young people as equals, but calling Rahne Sinclair a pet? Way to tear down any sympathy we had for you, Maddy, so that the rest of the plot can bring it back up. (Well done, Mx. Ayala. Well done.)

Liz: As our team gets their bearings, they hear the sounds of distant battle. And being the New Mutants, there’s no way they can simply ignore a battle! Demons—with some sort of techno organic infection—are attacking a base, and the enemy of their enemy must be their friend, right?

Stephanie: That’s how Limbo works, right?

Liz: The fight turns out to be between some demons…..and an older version of Illyana. And oh my goodness, Old Lady Illyana. She is really something here, with wild gray hair, Warlock arm and sword, massive gun, horns, and fur cape. And then she absolutely destroys a horde of demons with powerful blasts. Both Maddy and I are impressed. 

Someone Old, Someone New 

Liz: What do you think of Old Illyana’s personality? She seemed a little too friendly and well adjusted to me, considering that she’s essentially reliving her earliest trauma: being trapped in Limbo, watching her friends destroyed while she lives on, doing dangerous magic to survive. Maybe it’s Warlock’s influence, keeping her so sane.

Stephanie: I buy it. She’s tired. She’s very, very tired, and aggro against the first visitors she’s had in ages would use energy she certainly does not have. She’s also modeling her actions closely on those of the old-ish sorcerous Storm from the original Magik series, a Storm who was also hella tired, and hella devoted to the one task she had left: protecting the young Illyana till she could fashion her Soulsword and get the hell (literally the hell) out. Old Illyana even explains what happened to her original companions, her timeline’s Dani and Rahne and Madelyne: they’re gone, she’s the only one left, and she’s absolutely taken on the role of her childhood’s only non-evil mentor. Vita Ayala must have absolutely inhaled the Magik mini to be able to process and rewrite it in such a psychologically insightful way. (They wouldn’t be the only one who inhaled it. It’s one of the highlights of Claremont’s career.)

Liz: I can’t believe I didn’t make the Storm connection! Great point. 

Stephanie: Also Warlock is a very good, sane selfsoulfriend. And he himself looks pretty tired. He’s got some experience– like lllyana– being taken up and used as a weapon against his will.

Liz: I wish we had gotten the panels of Maddy and Illyana talking about why Illyana chose her to take over Limbo, but I’m glad at least that we got to see the dialogue. It really shows where Illyana is coming from. She’s giving Maddy choices—not just a binary yes or no choice, but a lifetime of choices. She’s giving her a life, with choices and consequences and completely free of the men who have ruled and ruined her life so far. 

Stephanie: Ding ding ding! You absolutely called it. I don’t even mind the page of prose dialogue, since translating that many words into comic-book panels would mean at least two whole pages of talking heads. And… Illyana’s just so absolutely mature and together here. She’s looking back at her own life, and at Inferno (the first one and the recent one), and seeing how much Maddy needs a clear path, a life where she’s not stapled to men, and then Illyana’s doing what she has to do to clear that path for a former villain whom, honestly, Illyana still doesn’t like.

Liz: Beyond all the interpersonal stuff our New Mutants brought with them, the strategic situation here isn’t sustainable. The demons seem to have endless resources, though it takes time to gather them, but Old Illyana and Warlock are slowly draining themselves to do the magic that fights the demons off. Something has to change, because nobody else is coming to rescue them—Krakoa has fallen, and they’re the last two left. 

Stephanie: Nodnod. How many times have the New Mutants met badly damaged older versions of themselves at this point? How many consecutive issues of a New Mutants comic have ever gone by without that? And how cool does it look when Illyana, our Illyana with blond bangs and clean skin, gets to stand beside her older counterpart, drink their undrinkably black (I think) coffee together, and laugh at the forces of evil? Illyana’s been told for so long, by so many jerks, that she’s fated to become the Darkchilde, to be evil, to bring the world down, and now she’s seeing an older self who’s fighting the good fight. Yay! Also uh-oh, because without tactics the good fight is one they’ll lose.

Liz: There’s absolutely zero consideration given to the demons’ offer to let the younger team leave, but Old Illyana has a counteroffer: let her face S’ym in single combat. I like the touch of the henchman demon turning the offer down, because it’s clearly a trap, but S’ym is letting his pride get the better of him. He wants to crush Illyana, and insult her in the process. 

Stephanie: Never forget that S’ym began as a parody of antifeminist comics creator Dave Sim and his cynical aardvark. He’s a fascinating villain because he’s neither showy (like Mr. Sinister) nor dignified, with his own code (like Apocalypse or Dr. Doom). He sucks up to power, because he wants power himself, and he’s about as trustworthy as… hey, am I allowed to name particular right-wing politicians here, or would ComicsXF Standards & Practices take them out? 

Liz: Do we….do we have S&P? Oh NO. [Ed. Note: Chris here. Clearly we don’t!]

Stephanie: Did you notice Illyana giving techno-S’ym the finger? It’s a joke inside a joke: a cartoon Illyana-face to cover the gesture, like all the cartoon Hawkeye heads that covered Clint’s naughty bits in the Fraction/Aja Hawkeye, except that we can absolutely see what finger she’s holding up, so the point is just to show us the cartoon face. And then, a few pages on, a brooding Colossus asks Doug and Warlock whether they’ve seen his sister, and the two soulfriends respond by holding up parallel, friendly, five-finger hands…

Liz: I love the art in this so much, censorship attempts included. The page showing their fight is fantastic. This fight isn’t long, but Reis packs in so much into the page. As Illyana rushes him, S’ym gets in what looks like a fatal blow, and we see the flash of red blood, followed by the final panel fading to gray. I love love love this. 

Stephanie: As do I. The color alone is worth the price of… well, the price of many things. Rubies, even. Also the Wizard of Oz joke as the other demons lose their techno-organic power-ups: “I’m melting!” one of them says, as the black-and-yellow circuit designs shift into regular demon skin purple, orange, red.

Liz: Illyana forging her replacement sword from the soul of her enemy is great. It’s a different sword than her old one, and less powerful and permanent, but it seems satisfying at least. 

Save the Cat 

Liz: Like last issue, we get three art styles in this issue. I can’t talk about the others without first addressing the main story, which Rod Reis handles in his always-beautiful style—he even makes the techno-organic demons look beautiful. There’s a moment mid-issue where Dani and Rahne hold back an enraged Illyana from attacking S’ym, and the way he washes the characters in red tones to show the rage is just….chef’s kiss. 

Stephanie: What isn’t chef’s kiss here? I’m out of superlatives. OK, I found another one: Rahne looks out of place in the main story, in Reis’s art, and that’s because she should look out of place: in this context she’s a fairy-tale figure, an innocent, an animal-fable figure who would make more sense in the Duursema flashbacks. She’s been through a lot herself, of course, but not this (at least not in stories that fans admire).

Also, it’s not a new effect (Reis used it in the Shadow King storyline too) but the bright vacationland colors of Krakoa land differently when the page just before is all grey, or all red, or all dark! Reis’s Krakoa looks and feels like the refuge it claims to be. Not that Colossus feels comfortable there without his lost sister.

Liz: The story of the Little Goblin (begun last issue) continues with the addition of the Goblin Exile. This  fairy tale metaphor is just so cute. This one has a sci-fi vibe, and I like the representation of the demons as aliens and robots.  The flashback scenes are hurting my heart. Little Illyana is trying so hard to survive in this horrible place, while also trying to save her best friend. She’s so young here and somehow thinks everything is her responsibility. 

Stephanie: And she does her best to live up to it. That’s what happens when you grow up without a reliable parent, or with a parent-surrogate you have to resist, because he wants to make you evil. It’s like we’re seeing three Illyanas in the main story whenever the art shows two, because the child-Illyana from the original series is still inside both women, resolved, scared, vulnerable. (Though the child did not drink coffee.)

Liz: If child Illyana had had access to coffee , she would have escaped from Limbo in six months tops. The caffeine addicted version of her was inside, waiting to be freed. 

Stephanie: In the same way, the teenage Kitty Pryde was still somewhere inside the corrupted Cat. Everything that has ever happened to you is still inside you, somewhere, and if you ignore it, it might come back to get you. Better to figure out how it’s part of yourself. Or make it your sword. 

Speaking of which, wow, the new Soulsword– black with gold filigree– reminds me so much, visually, of the malevolent black sword Stormbringer from the Elric stories. (I hope the resemblance is visual and nothing more!) And the final journal page, from Old Illyana, gives her a lovely, appropriate send-off– without telling us a blessed thing about the next trial Illyana and company (it really is Illyana-and-company at this point) are likely to undergo…

Liz: It’s nice to see that she’s going to make her own way after this (I’m not against seeing her appear again!). I like that she knows herself and her powers so well that she turns down the stepping disc journey because it simply does not look safe. She knows her limits!

Stephanie: The last words in the issue spoken by a character: young Illyana, to corrupted Kitty: “I’ll do everything in my power to save you.” So much of New Mutants is rolled up into that one dialogue balloon right there.

Liz: Duursema and Redmond are doing a great job echoing the look of the original Magik: Storm and Illyana series. I love how they’ve clearly referenced the story when it comes to the faces and everything, too— it could almost be a contemporaneous issue to the others. The flat colors of the early 80s look very different with modern technology, but they’re doing an admirable job of making it all work. 

X-Traneous Thoughts

• I love the little moment where older Illyana gives younger Illyana coffee, made the way she thinks she remembers liking it. Our Illyana is a known coffee gremlin, and it’s cute watching her chug it. 
• How dare Rod Reis draw a Colossus I (Liz, known Colossus-hater) don’t hate on sight. 
• Anyone have any plans to tell Illyana’s best gal pal Kate what’s going on? I know she’s in space, but where there’s a will there’s a Krakoan gateway.
• Liz, do you think Madelyne will go on being this rude to her apparent savior, or will we see some character growth? 
• I love cranky, horrible Madelyne, but I think their data-page conversation could be a real turning point. 
• Dani’s powers allow her to show anybody their greatest fear, or their most desirable outcome. We’re reading a story about Illyana’s greatest fears, and Madelyne’s most-wanted outcomes. 50 Shi’ar credits says that Dani’s powers will matter, a lot, and soon.

Liz Large

Liz Large is a copywriter with a lot of opinions on mutants.

Stephanie Burt

Stephanie Burt is Professor of English at Harvard. Her podcast about superhero role playing games is Team-Up Moves, with Fiona Hopkins; her latest book of poems is We Are Mermaids.  Her nose still hurts from that thing with the gate.