New Mutants #27
Magik and company find themselves in a very familiar place in New Mutants #27, by writer Vita Ayala, artists Rod Reis and Jan Duursema, colorist Ruth Redmond, and letterer Travis Lanham. This issue is another banger of a chapter to this story, made all the sadder because of the developments of the Hellfire Gala.
This issue is structured interestingly. It’s bookended by flashbacks, where readers find that young Illyana tried a spell to escape and created an Alice In Wonderland-esque world within Limbo. In the present, Madelyne, Rahne, and Dani are captured by playing card soldiers and taken to the Red King. Later, Magik awakens to find her younger self, who explains what she did. They decide to save others but cast a spell to bring Colossus to Limbo, which rankles Magik a bit. They make it to the Red King, who is Belasco transformed, and defeat him. Magik wants to take young Illyana with her, but everyone stops her.
Last issue, Ayala took us into the future and this issue the past. Again, it’s an interesting use of Limbo, one that has been presaged by the story young Illyana has been reading throughout the book. It’s fun to see young Illyana contrasted against the older, with her younger self still worshiping Colossus and unbroken by Limbo. She shows the Rasputin steel later in the issue, refusing to let her older self take her away from her destiny. It’s great how Ayala has used the last two issues to explore aspects of Illyana’s character, which is why Magik going to the X-Men is terrible.
Ayala is an MVP of the X-Men line and a better writer than Duggan. This story proves how much they love the character of Magik and how well they know her, so losing her to X-Men, a mediocre at best book, is a blow to New Mutants. This story is Magik’s swan song with the book, and Ayala shows just how much they understand Magik’s character and how the traumas of Limbo affected her. The moment towards the end of the issue, where Magik starts to break down about what was done to her in Limbo, not caring if she destroys the timeline to get herself out, is the most vulnerability the character has shown for ages. It’s haunting and poignant, a deep character moment from Ayala.
If there’s anyone to draw a twisted version of Alice In Wonderland in Limbo, it’s Reis. The opening fight is colored in a dirty, dream-like kind of way, as if the reader is looking at it through a haze. The two-page spread of panels of Magik and Illyana talking is gorgeous, lushly drawn and colored. It’s the highlight of Reis’s sequence, but all of his art is wonderful throughout the book. Duursema and Redmond’s sections are unsettling. There’s something about the way they’re drawn - a full panel of Illyana’s smiling face and a dead Colossus - that evinces a feeling of dread. There’s a panel of Illyana and Belasco, his hand on her shoulder, that’s wonderfully creepy.
New Mutants #27 is yet another wonderful chapter of this story. Ayala, Reis, Duursema, and Redmond are saying goodbye to Magik in epic fashion. This is a great story, and it’s sad there’s only one issue left.
