MAGIK

 

MAGIK

Real Name: Illyana Nikolaevna Rasputina

First Appearance: Giant-Size X-Men (Vol. 1) #1, May 1975 (As Illyana); The New Mutants (Vol. 1) #14, April 1984 (As Magik)

Powers: Magik’s mutant power enables her to manipulate the stepping discs of the demonic extra-dimensional realm of Limbo. The stepping discs are portals that allow transportation through time, space, and dimensions. They are a natural phenomenon in Limbo and crop up all over the landscape to connect distant points. Magik can summon a stepping disc regardless of her location. When Magik uses her teleportation portals, she passes through Limbo for a fraction of a second between jumps. Because Limbo is non-linear, Magik sometimes risks disrupting her sense of time when teleporting. She has control over short distances, but with longer distances (teleporting across continents, for example) she could end up displaced backwards in time from a few minutes to a week.

As part of the Phoenix Five, Illyana had the standard powers of cosmic fire enriching extreme telepathy and telekinesis which all Phoenix wielders have had since Jean Grey. She demonstrated a greater ability to manipulate the connection between Earth and Limbo created by her stepping discs, the biggest example being the prison she created inside of a volcano, a stable pocket of Limbo permanently tied to a single location on Earth, with transition seamlessly back and forth between the two.

Magik is also the Sorceress Supreme of Limbo's dimension and can manipulate mystical energy for a variety of effects. Her primary attribute is the Soulsword and the mystical armor that manifests on her body whenever she uses it. The sword can affect magical creatures or those possessed or enchanted by magic. It can disable spells with a touch of its blade and is lethal to all kinds of magical creatures. In the aftermath of the Phoenix Five, her powers reportedly enhanced, but whether this was due to the nano-Sentinels Dark Beast unleashed on the others or because of Dormammu's influence on Limbo is unclear. She demonstrated greater control over her stepping discs, summoning multiple discs simultaneously to connect to multiple different locations in Limbo, allowing specific beasts or phenomena from Limbo to tactically emerge as she intended. Her training with Dr. Strange gave her a greater control over magic in the Earthly plane. As a New Mutant, at least, Illyana's powers as Sorceress Supreme of Limbo were typically bound to Limbo, leaving her only the inherent capabilities of her Soulsword on Earth. So now she is capable of accessing the same sort of spells and magical power she had before, only now she's accessing it elsewhere from Limbo.

Additionally, she previously experienced an ongoing mystical corruption, causing her to become the Darkchilde. The transformation is a symbol of her corruption, as more dark magic settles into her body in place of her soul. This makes her progressively more powerful and less human. In her Darkchilde form, she manifested mystical armor whenever she summoned her powers, then slowly but progressively turning into a demonic form.