A Magikal Fairy Tale In New Mutants #27

Let’s take a trip to Wonderland in New Mutants #27, 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: It’s time for the third part of the Labors of Magik, and you know what that means: time for our third Magik to enter the real world, instead of sticking to her vintage flashbacks.

Stephanie Burt: Whatever “real” means in Limbo. Or in the secondary Limbos within Limbo, or forgotten Wonderlands within Limbo, that young Illyana once created… 

Magik’s Fairy Tale

Liz: We open in “Limbo, then” — a great setting if I’ve ever seen one. The alternate Magik is just a child here, but all of her late night studying has made her more powerful than any adult on Earth. Unfortunately, she’s not on Earth. Trapped here, at the mercy of Belasco, she is still no match for him. 

Stephanie: You know what else is more powerful than anything on this Earth? The combo of Reis and Duursema/Redmond art. Visually we are exactly where we need to be. And the “Alice in Wonderland” material, which would feel cliched in another context, works, because it comes from young Illyana’s head (somebody has read these stories to her, or else she’s read them in Limbo), and because Illyana has not previously associated herself with this kind of English nonsense arcana, which would seem more at home in an old Excalibur. Illyana doesn’t belong in Wonderland. That’s the point. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Liz, have I trapped us in a time loop?

Liz: I guess being trapped in Limbo doesn’t stop her from loving story time, which is a lovely, child-appropriate hobby for her! She wrote her own story about an adventure, and she’s reading it to none other than the reanimated corpse of her own brother. It’s an impressive use of magic (lowercase!) but absolutely a disturbing image.

Stephanie: Disturbing and understated. He looks almost alive! But no one alive would display that kind of exaggerated grimacing pain. (Liz, have you been reading DIE? Is Colossus a Grief Knight?)

Liz: I really like the switch in this issue from the young Magik/flashback stories seeming in the distant past to being the “current” story, telling us about the events of the issue. Timelines can be confusing before you add in multiple universes, but I like this a lot! (I haven’t been— but maybe I should!)

Stephanie: I like it the best. Most time loop stories strike me as gimmicks at best. This one isn’t. Illyana will need– and we’ve seen this trope before– to call on both her past and future selves: future Illyana can’t get anywhere without young Illyana’s magic and memories (some of which she’s since erased), and young Illyana will have to call on her not-yet-present future self’s toughness and confidence to get out of Belasco’s trap. As for Colossus, she thinks she needs him, but. Liz, I think I’ve been time looped. Where are we again?

Liz: The story she tells opens mid-battle. This opening page is great— a nine panel grid, with half of the panels in darkness, interspersed with the chaotic scenes of battle. It really brings you into the middle of things, grounded despite what’s happening on the page being our heroes fighting demonic versions of Alice in Wonderland’s sentient playing cards. 

Stephanie: Look for that nine panel grid later on, since it comes back as a set of prison cells! It’s like our characters have been trapped in the darkness of…. standard superhero comics form. And of course they need to escape.

Liz: I love it. Nothing scarier than comic traditions! 

But the demonic side must make these playing cards extra powerful, as they manage  to defeat Dani, Madelyne, and Rahne. Unfortunately, Illyana isn’t there to see it, as she’s having a nice little snooze in the Mushroom Forest. 

Stephanie: Love those shrooms. IIRC this page marks the first time Rod Reis has drawn young Illyana at any length, and the first time we’ve seen an English fairy tale landscape from his pens and brushes. As you’d expect, it’s a home run, or (since it’s English, derived from Lewis Carroll) a great batsman on-drive against a spin move? I have no idea what those words mean– I just googled some cricket.

Anyway Reis rules. Look at those blank inks against those pastels: it’s like stained-glass and Victorian picture books and also like surviving traumatic childhood. Then look at Reis’s work with facial expressions: young Illyana trusts grown-up Magik, and grown-up Magik knows enough not to trust anyone that much. They need each other.

Liz: It turns out that even though young Illyana is incredibly powerful, she’s not quite where she wants to be yet. Her spells have somehow turned Limbo and its inhabitants into a cast of characters out of Wonderland, and she’s drawn the New Mutants here only to place them in terrible danger. Belasco, as the Red King, rules this land, and is going to kill the other New Mutants unless both Illyanas can team up to stop him.  

Stephanie: Wonderland: the place that looks safe, but isn’t, but at least it’s safer than original flavor, barbecued-corpse-filled Limbo. That’s as far as Illyana’s spell can take us. And it’s almost far enough. Liz, did you like the Red King design? That’s the only visual element I would change. Dude looks like the Joker with a sunburn. He’s just not scary enough visually. Though he’s scary enough once you know who he is.

Liz: He’s not very scary, especially not when we’ve spent the last few issues trekking through Limbo. It leans into a traditional look, like a clip art devil image, when I feel like this is a chance to change it up. Overall, of course, the design of Wonderland is delightful. They’re a great mix of whimsical and scary, and make such a perfect setting for this story. 

We’re All Sad Here

Liz: Illyana is getting to do something that a lot of us would probably appreciate: meeting our younger self at a terrible time, and getting to talk to them. Young Illyana feels so horrible about what’s happened, and blames herself for everything. She didn’t mean to do any of this, she’s just trying to escape her own horrible situation. The reassurance and kindness on display from older Illyana is sweet to see, and you wonder if she’s ever treated herself with this much understanding. 

Stephanie: She has not. I am over the moon about the psychological allegory here. You survive an impossible, abusive, apparently no-way-out situation by calling on your future self, who then looks back to her past self, and you take care of each other. It’s nice to have Piotr there too, and lovely to see him carrying young Illyana in her sleepwear, but he’s not the one who will save the day. (Though young Illyana believes he is.)

Liz: It’s clear that Young Illyana has a hero worship for her older self (who could blame her!). When IIllyana agrees to help with a spell that Young Illyana thinks will fix everything, it’s almost an immediate switch to Young Illyana being convinced that the situation is practically already resolved. There is a visible panic on Illyana’s face at this, as she realizes what she’s gotten herself into.

Stephanie: Realizes…. or remembers. I disagree slightly about that hero worship though: young Illyana says a few pages on that Piotr has to save them, because he’s the hero she summoned with her spell. She doesn’t know yet that she has to save herself.

Liz: That’s fair! At the very least, she thinks she’s cool. Our first data page is the magic spell that Young Illyana thinks could help. It’s labeled “To Summon A Savior” and brings you someone who you think could save you. The ingredient list is unfortunately smudged, so I won’t be testing it out, but I like that there’s been a modification to account for the use of their stepping discs instead of teleportation runes. It shows that Young Illyana is really learning magic, not just using her own (strong) powers. 

Stephanie: She’s learning! She’s teaching herself! If you’re trapped in a hell dimension with a manipulative, inappropriate parental figure, the best place you can hide is likely the library. But you’re going to have to modify whatever you learn there so it can apply to you. Write your own stories. Edit and make your own spells. 

Liz: With all of this, I almost forgot about the others, who are trapped in the Red King’s dungeons when he stops by to threaten them with a tea party. It seems pretty ominous to me, and Madelyne definitely agrees. I gotta say, I love her whole vibe here. Whether she’s reminding the others that they’re absolutely going to get eaten by a monster, or flopping dramatically onto the bed in her cell, she’s always having fun.

Stephanie: She’s also (and I know Conor Goldsmith will have my head for saying this) anarchically awful. Liz, want to talk about the jailhouse conversation on the next data page?

Liz: The transcript makes a lot of great points on all sides. Dani wants to clear the air, and make sure that Madelyne knows that Dani may dislike her getting power, but that doesn’t mean she agrees with Sinister getting power either. 

Stephanie: I guess? Madelyne’s entertaining, and her selfishness makes a very good narrative contrast with Dani’s and Rahne’s insistence on others’ welfare, but her argument strikes me as pure whataboutism. Dani thinks Madelyne should not exercise great power. Madelyne says neither should Mister Sinister. Neither Madelyne nor Mister Sinister (nor Professor X) should have that kind of power, but we work with the Quiet Council we have, not the Quiet Council we wish we had or may have at some future date. Realpolitik, baby. (Something Illyana has always understood.)

Liz: Nobody is wrong, is the thing! Dani is right, probably, that many of the people involved in power structures on Krakoa and Limbo shouldn’t be in power, because they’ve done horrible things they’re not really sorry for. But Madelyne is right that at least some of her horrible actions had mitigating circumstances, and why should she be treated more harshly than those who have done worse? (And I don’t think Rahne should be on such a moral high horse here, either!)

Stephanie: High horses are the only kind Rahne rides. But Dani has an answer to that one: Madelyne shouldn’t be given a new kind of power she does not already have unless she at least makes a stab or a start at something that looks vaguely like restorative justice. Illyana might be able to convince Dani otherwise, but Illyana’s, uh, busy.

Liz: Also, to be clear, I personally want some terrible people to be in power in the X-Men comics because I love mess. Like, yes of course, Dani is right, but consider: it’s going to be extremely fun when Madelyne returns with an army of crop-topped demons to kidnap Alex or murder Sinister or whatever. 

Stephanie: For certain values of fun. 

Liz: Fun for me and Alex Summers, maybe nobody else. But back to our regularly scheduled fairy tale! In the Little Goblin storybook, Illyana is now cast as the Mad Hatter to Young Illyana’s Little Goblin. Together, they’ve summoned The Knight, also known as Colossus from Krakoa. It’s an awkward reunion. The siblings’ relationship has always been complicated, and even a child could pick up on it. 

Stephanie: It’s a three-way relationship among young Illyana, adult Magik, and sincere, somewhat thick-headed Colossus, who can’t tell saving others from sacrificing himself. Young Illyana looks up to him limitlessly. Adult Magik knows better. One of the under-noticed threads in all X-comics featuring Illyana, going back to her resurrection, has been: she knows better than you, and she doesn’t care what you think about her. She saved the world from the Elder Gods back in the Zeb Wells-written New Mutants and it earned her a trip to the brig. Colossus, on the other hand, lives to walk heroically and stupidly into traps, to the extent that the great Vita Ayala, who isn’t normally given to wisecracks, lampshades it: “You will pay, defiler of children!” Piotr yells, at which point Belasco’s/ the Red King’s pale-blue minions (no relation to banana-yellow Minions) exclaim “We do not get paid enough.”

Liz: I appreciate that both Rasputin siblings seem to think that a “plan” can just be “walk directly into a trap”. The problem solving skills, they do not run in the family. I guess that all of Young Illyana’s studying has made her a little bit strategic, as she seems dubious, but Colossus points out the advantage of being underestimated by one’s enemies. A valuable lesson for someone smaller, weaker, and less powerful than the main antagonist in her life. 

Stephanie: A lesson for us all. Also a time loop.

Liz: Belasco sure is full of himself, huh? Just doing a full on villain monologue while enemies with unknown powers come to fight him. At Young Illyana’s request, Colossus gets first crack at him, since he was specifically summoned for this. With the goons scattering and Colossus handling Belasco, Illyana can free her friends. And that’s it, right? Like Madelyne says, I’m genuinely shocked at how quickly this little tangent seems to have resolved itself! 

Let’s Try This Again

Liz: Illyana faces off against Belasco, yet again. This version doesn’t know her— or at least adult her— but his hubris is his downfall. He mocks her powers, because although he can sense her power, she’s behind frosted glass, shattered and cracked.  And she returns all of his comments. A cracked cup can hold other things besides water, and broken glass can be used to cut. She’s no easy prey for him, and while he’d win a fight against a child, he has no real chance against the woman she’s become.

Stephanie: We’re back to the tropes from the 1983 Magik series about surviving childhood trauma. Your future self will defend your present self, and get strength, in the future, from knowing what your past self has come through. 

Liz: Poor Illyana. She defeats him, but she knows that if she kills him, the timeline will be absolutely fucked for Young Illyana. There’s no way for her to rescue herself, and spare her everything she went through. Illyana makes one change, though: she removes Belasco’s memories, and creates a crack in his defenses to give Young Illyana a leg up when it’s her turn to fight.

Stephanie: Thus making it possible, even fated, that Illyana will beat him later. Time loop, ahoy! Ayala’s dialogue flags that one too: we go from Rahne saying “Not again” to Dani and Rahne telling Madelyne they’re stuck in a cycle to Illyana saying she wants the chance to “do this again.”

Liz: It’s an issue packed with people wishing they could protect this child, as Colossus also wishes he could stay with Young Illyana to keep her safe. They’re going to have to leave her behind, but all they can do is hope that this experience makes her a little braver, or more confident. Seeing an adult version of herself kick Belasco’s ass makes an impact, because she knows that one day, she could do it. 

Stephanie: Or, if we’re thinking purely in terms of time loops and not in terms of branching timelines: she knows that one day she will do it. Did you notice the way the color palette reverses itself as the fight with Belasco concludes? Adult Magik makes a short speech about how the edges of broken glass, or broken grown-up Russian mutants, can still cut, and not only does her Soulsword manifest, as a curvy new blade: everything around her changes from reddish to bluish, and she herself manifests a full suit of Soul-armor, for the first time this issue. 

Oh wow. Illyana has silver Soul-armor because she mentally modeled her protection on her brother’s powers, right? I’m not sure if that’s ever come up before, but the one panel where we see her armor here makes that resemblance newly clear.

Liz: I definitely did NOT realize that. That’s really lovely and also I’m so sad about it. Speaking of sad, young Illyana finished telling the undead Colossus this story. She knows he doesn’t really understand or know what’s happening, but she wanted to share this with him. She just wants him to know that he’s still her hero, one last time. 

Look, I’m a known Colossus hater. And this made me tear up. Young Illyana is making the choice to return him to death, because she knows it’s the right thing to do (raising the death is never good), but now she’s going to be all alone, with nothing but the memories of this possible future to help her keep going. 

Stephanie: Exactly. And young Illyana knows what she’s getting into, because her only companions so far, before this new story began, have been dead or corrupted or at best (i.e. Storm) exhausted versions of the former X-Men, who have already failed once at rescuing her. Pretty much all Illyana-centered stories in the history of the X-Men have had the same subtext (which doesn’t make the stories otherwise similar): you can accept help or you can reject help or you can oscillate between the two, but in the end you’ll have to learn to use the tools you have to save yourself.

That said, Ayala– unlike some previous writers- knows when not to twist the knife, and when what we need is literally a big hug. Young Illyana gets a hug from future Piotr (not the dead guy but the bearded future Quiet Council member) and some reassurance that in at least one timeline (the only one in this issue) both Piotr and Illyana survive. And adult Magik realizes that young Illyana already knows what she will have to learn over and over.  You can save yourself. “You know what you need to do.” “I would be proud to become you.”

Liz, any last words on the art?

Liz: I love the Wonderland locations. They’re whimsical and scary. I love the design But the flashback art in this isn’t quite hitting it for me the way it did in the previous issues. i know drawing kids is hard, but there’s a panel here of young illyana’s face that really just took me out of it.

Stephanie: We’ve got at least four art styles in this issue, and I think they work well together but they’re definitely A Lot: Reyes’s present-tense art, Reyes-in-Wonderland (where the backgrounds are totally different and the people look softer except for adult Magik), Duursema-doing-Buscema for the flashbacks, and someone– I guess Redmond/Duursema?– doing the text-heavy, ink-heavy, illustrated-book pages where Belasco appears as a dragon. Adult Illyana as the Mad Hatter (who looks like young Illyana in a top hat), and young Illyana as the Little Goblin (who looks like a very cartoony young Rahne). Maybe I have a higher tolerance for the occasional stray mark, but I’m still in it for the length of the issue. Only one more issue of this amazing story to go…

X-Traneous Thoughts

• I love adult Illyana censoring “bullshit” to “BS” for the child Illyana’s benefit.  
• Rahne has so little to do in this issue that I’m hoping she gets a big role in the next one; otherwise why bring her along?
• We’ve been talking about how the 1983 Magik: Storm & Illyana miniseries speaks to this arc (it’s great! this is great! they are peak X-comics!). I wonder whether other Easter eggs here point to Rahne’s Fairy Tale, New Mutants # 22?
• Twol word balloons here consist of untranslated Russian. Help a girl out, anyone? [Ed, note: I love you so much, little snowflake. Ans no matter what happens, I’ll always be there.]
• Actually, when did we stop doing Krakoan teasers on the final page of the issues? I liked doing my little decoding every issue — the only Krakoan this time says “Next”.