The queen is dead— long live the queen in New Mutants #28, with writing by Vita Ayala, art by Rod Reis and Jan Duursema, colors (on Duursema’s art) by Ruth Redmond, letters by Travis Lanham.
Liz Large: Oh gosh (oh golly oh wow, as Widget would say), we’ve got some twists and turns this week.
Stephanie Burt: And some nunchucks. And goblins. And Sun Tzu!
Time After Time
Stephanie: We begin in a cave, where Illyana, like Merrick Garland, has been keeping everyone waiting for a while, preparing for…. something. We can enjoy the red desert skies, and then the blue glow of the weapons she conjures, while we find out what and when and how. The weapons are cool, but they’re not the Soulsword. And– just like in the original Magik miniseries from 1983, which I can’t even imagine not knowing at this point (go read it, kids!)– Illyana, our Illyana, can’t get out of this dimension for good until she’s conjured up a sword.
Liz: One of the scariest parts of Limbo is something that it shares with a lot of otherworldly locations in fiction (Fillory, Jumanji, various fairy realms)— time works differently there. An hour or a minute could pass in the real world, but it’s the same as weeks or months in Limbo. It’s what caused Illyana’s age difference from her first time spent there. While she spent years growing and changing and experiencing truly horrible things, her loved ones on the outside simply….didn’t. It’s less scary in this instance, as Illyana and friends are experienced and have each other, but they’re completely cut off from Krakoa, with no idea how time is passing outside.
Stephanie: Also they’re trapped in a cave. Covid metaphor, anyone?
Liz: I think mask wearing in Limbo would DEFINITELY be prudent. Illyana is the subject matter expert here, and I gotta say, it’s irritating to see how much resistance she’s getting from every side. Madelyne has snide comments about how she’s handling losing her soulsword. Dani has a lot of feedback about the entire reason they’re here—giving over Limbo to Madelyne. I can’t believe they’re making me grateful for Rahne and Piotr!
Stephanie: Hard same. To be fair, they’re all acting in character, and there’s really only one mutant who’s ever understood just how trustworthy, awesome, and worth respect Illyana Rasputina truly is. And that mutant has recently died. In space.
Liz: Regardless of its actual projected success, Illyana has been putting in the effort to help Madelyne. She’s put a lot of thought into the set up, she’s used this extra time while they’re trapped here to tutor her, and she’s even offering to come back in the future to make sure Madelyne has all the help and knowledge that she needs.
Stephanie: Because Illyana has thought, a lot, about how teaching works, and about how to become a good teacher. We’ve been talking about trauma and autobiography and continuity in this arc a lot, but one core subject for Ayala and Reis’s mutant comics has not changed since the team came on board: they’re writing about how misfit kids and damaged kids and rebellious kids can learn to be teachers. Sometimes they’re the only kids who can become the kind of teachers we need.
Liz: Being trapped in Limbo and stuck in hiding has got to be stressing everyone out. They’re all getting antsy. It’s universal, finally bringing Dani and Madelyne together on an issue they can mostly agree on. None of the New Mutants seem the type to want to sit around doing nothing, and weeks without a fight have to be killing them.
Madelyne’s speech is a bit of a retread of what she’s already said (something Illyana even lampshades), but it’s worth repeating. The promise of Krakoa is a fresh start, a second chance. She doesn’t get that there, both due to the way people view her and the way she views Krakoa. It was built in large part by the man who did nothing but hurt and use and manipulate her. She’s never going to be at home there, but in Limbo, her dark past is an asset. She can build something for herself here.
Stephanie: Maybe it is a retreat but this speech, direct to Dani Moonstar, convinced me as her prior monologues never did. Krakoa gives every mutant a second chance, because so many have been hurt– or hurt others– on Earth. The people who hurt Madelyne live on Krakoa. They helped build it. One of them built her. She deserves a second chance just as they did– which means getting off Earth and out of Krakoa, into a place where she can exercise Krakoa-level control. (If you were reading Sabretooth, this speech harmonizes with that comic: restorative justice has to apply to all.)
Liz: We get a page of the Little Goblin story, telling us that this time, she’s going to win, because she has her friends with her. I really love these pages, and the way they interpret the New Mutants into their fairytale versions.
All Through the Fight
Liz: It’s finally time for the New Mutants to make their move: fight their way into the fortress, defeat S’ym and his demon horde to reclaim Limbo, transfer Limbo to Madelyne, and somehow get Illyana’s powers back before we head home. It’s a lot to ask of the team in the pages remaining!
Stephanie: Do you mean the New Mutants– what we get of them (Illyana, Rahne, Dani, Piotr, Madelyne)? Or do you mean Vita Ayala and the art teams? Either way, it’s a lot. They deliver.
Liz: Both? It can be both! I like the way this battle starts, with some nameless demons complaining that their new boss is even worse than Illyana was before she knocks them all out with some sort of mist. Dani (and me!) both think Illyana should use more magic in fights, aside from her soulsword. It’s so cool when she does things like this!
Stephanie: It’s even cooler than Dani thinks, because look what our girl Magik says: “I use it more often than you think… You just don’t notice.” Moving away from New Mutants for a sentence, my pal Kam has a theory that Dr. Strange is not only the villain of “Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness” but also the negative example for all sorts of moral lessons: he wants everybody to know that he’s using magic, so they can see how he’s the magical GOAT (which he is not). Illyana shows us that she’s the reverse: the magic she likes may not even look like magic. “What do you think the Soulsword is?” It just gets results.
Liz: This battle features a lot more Sun Tzu quotes than I expect for a battle taking place in another dimension where (I assume) Sun Tzu is not quite as well known. It’s pretty ominous! Something is definitely afoot here, as it seems like they reach and defeat S’ym far too easily. But he’s not who they needed to worry about…
Stephanie: As with all great comics (except the wordless ones) the art and the writing work together: the Sun Tzu quotes vary the comic’s verbal texture and give us something else to read on panels that stand out for the combat art. Hey, remember back when we thought Rod Reis couldn’t do big fast melee combat scenes? He sure can now. And his Illyana looks exactly like my Illyana. (Still not loving his triangle-eared, puppy-like Wolfsbane, but you can’t have everyone.)
You know who’s read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War at least ten times, by the way? Scott Summers. He and Illyana have been war captains together: I wonder if they talk strategy and tactics. I’d love to hear that conversation go on.
Liz: Scott has annotated his copy heavily, I bet. That could be a fun data page— speaking of, this data page is a What If? all on its own. What if Illyana had stayed in Limbo, instead of returning to the X-Men? It’s interesting to see what would have been different – the New Mutants would not have fared as well when Warlock’s dad showed up, and while Madelyne still would have come to ally with demons, the costs would have been higher.
I like the acknowledgment that Illyana’s presence made such a difference. It cuts off before we get to her present day, but it’s clear that if her life changed, so would a lot of other people’s. We don’t know what brought her here, but Queen Illyana says she was only able to come to our Limbo and take over because Illyana was neglecting it. It seems to be another point in favor of her decision to turn the reins over to someone else— somebody has to be in charge, here!
Stephanie: Exactly. If you’re going to be the political leader for a place, you should probably live there. (Pennsylvania voters take note.) Ororo didn’t make sense as Queen of Wakanda for similar reasons, though she was never in sole charge. Also that data page, with its sword divider… I don’t think we’ve seen a page like it before. Blood-red highlights on black bars dividing black-on-white information tags.
Liz: Queen Illyana has a villain’s fatal flaw: she’s sure she’s smarter than everyone else. Alas, while she continues to quote Sun Tzu, our Illyana has one quotation of her own, about the value of confusing your enemy through your own subtlety. Her near defeat at her duplicate’s hands was a feint, to buy Madelyne time to get into position to attack and defeat her. It turns out that the time they spent hanging out in a cave also bought them time to plan.
Stephanie: Exactly. Queen Illyana’s also a lovely boss who comes after the supposed big boss, because she’s the evil Illyana everyone in X-comics for so long expected our Illyana to become. She’s also got visual cues that show how much she’s borrowed from the Enchantress. And, since she’s an alternate self from another timeline, not a distinct figure with a soul of her own, it’s OK for Madelyne to just kill her. Which seems to be what Madelyne does.
True Colors
Liz: In her victory, Illyana absorbs the power of her other self, and gets not only her sword back, but a MAGICAL GIRL TRANSFORMATION into a gorgeous gold outfit. I love the new look!
Stephanie: It’s not just arguably her best costume yet. It’s also the first one that links her to the New Mutants since she stopped wearing the generic black and yellow. She looks amazeballs. And Rod Reis gives her half a page to show us how amazeballs, just standing there (Illyana, not Rod Reis), displaying her new gold soul-armor. (Kate’s gonna love it.)
Liz: Yes! Excited for her to coordinate more with her team, while still having individuality. The second data page takes the form of a mission report to the Council. She’s one step below “you can’t fire me, I quit”— while she wants to be a War Captain, it really seems like she would be fine if they fired her. She’s got a lot of focus on what matters to her: New Mutants job working with the kids, and her new plan to teach mutants magic. What do you think of her sorceress school plans?
Stephanie: I think it’s about freakin’ time. For one thing, if you’ve got a world-class trombonist at your school, and access to trombones, you should probably offer trombone lessons. Krakoa has access to magical planes and magical people, and Illyana’s right there. For another, more urgently, Krakoa, and Earth, face magical threats on the regular. Mutants should know how to defend against them, which means understanding how magic works. And Illyana’s been a magic teacher before. In Strange Academy. Which I’ve stopped following, but maybe I gave up too early. –We repeat: the original 1980s New Mutants was a book about teenage students. This one’s just as much a book about being a teacher.
Oooh, also: Illyana’s a fine, clear writer. But she can’t spell (in English). That’s a fun running joke, and it sets off the not at all joking argument this whole arc has been making, now in literal black and white on the data page: “I’m tired of being chained to the bad @#$% that happened to me, and I don’t think any of you get a vote on that.” The people who suffered the trauma and survived the trauma get to decide what to do about it. Not the friends, not the advisors, not the health care providers: the people who were there.
Liz: We get a sweet moment between the Rasputin siblings. The two who aren’t currently evil, anyway. Over an outlandishly large cup of coffee, they talk about how they’ve both been through some horrible times, and they’ve grown less close over the years. It’s a big gap, but they both seem interested in trying to overcome it. Illyana doesn’t want to be angry and hurt anymore.
Stephanie: I’d say that she can’t help being angry (at the world, at the older generation, at Belasco and S’ym) and she will always hurt. But she wants to stop being angry at Piotr. And she wants to make room for closeness, for tenderness, that she hasn’t felt in a while. “Being angry is easy for me. Comfortable. But what’s beneath that is hurt. So much hurt…I’m so tired of hurting.” Are you crying? Again? This comic keeps doing that. (“I always cry at endings,” to quote Belle and Sebastian. At least when they’re written by Vita Ayala.)
Liz: Our final flashback takes place before anything we’ve seen in this story so far. In Limbo, young Illyana sees S’ym tormenting an older horned man, and uses her magic to trick him into leaving. This man promises that he’ll repay her one day. He does so by creating the Little Goblin stories we’ve seen throughout this story, and plants them in young Illyana’s hiding place. Deep down, Illyana’s freed herself.
Stephanie: She’s freed herself by reading about a little one who freed herself, with help. And the reading helped her, because she helped this man. Who happened to be an old horned wizard. (Whose horns remind me of Josh, the Jersey Devil, who chose to live in Otherworld, much as Madelyne chooses Limbo.) Hurt people hurt people, as the proverb goes, but also: helped people help people. That’s what it means when the circle closes here.
Liz, any closing thoughts on Jan Duursema’s flashback art? We had to wait for the end of the book to get our Duursema fix here, and we got the most expressive goblin yet, and then the most inviting young Illyana, reading a book that does for her what the original Magik miniseries did for so many real readers…helping them find the patience and the fighting resources to survive an impossible, abusive, dominating, injurious home. And now look who our Illyana has grown up to be. I’d follow her anywhere. She’s golden.
Liz: Duursema is so great at modernizing the vintage art (is it vintage yet? The 90s were like 10 years ago right?) from the original series, in a way that works for the modern style of publishing. It’s a very clear and distinct difference from the standard art of today, and it works well to really differentiate the two eras. Redmond’s flat (in a good way!), within the lines colors also contribute a lot here, especially when contrasted with the more free coloring on Reis’s pages.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Reis continues to have so much fun with his art. The image of Illyana on a small Soulsword-style tank is a delight!
- Dani deserves to lead this team because in times of trouble, she knows to order a Fastball Special.
- A fine issue for outfits- in addition to Illyana’s new look, Queen Illyana’s more fantasy-inspired outfit is also pretty great!
- Did Illyana (our Illyana) simply kill S’ym? At this point I’d be OK with that. (The last named character she killed on Earth was Dark Beast. I am also OK with that.)
- Power mechanics geeks take note: Illyana’s stepping discs no longer take her through Limbo. She and Nightcrawler get to compare notes on where their teleportation goes instead.
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.
Liz Large is a copywriter with a lot of opinions on mutants.
