New Mutants #26 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #26
“The Labors of Magik, Book Two: Best Laid Plans…”
Writer: Vita Ayala
Artist: Rod Reis (main story) & Jan Duursema (flashbacks)
Colourists: Rod Reis (main story) & Ruth Redmond (flashbacks)
Letterer & production: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Brown
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1: Magik with a broken sword, surrounded by shattered images from her past. The demons on the right are Belasco and presumably S’ym. The horned figure on the left is presumably Magik herself in demonic form. The armoured figure in the top left is Magik in the full armour that she had in “Inferno”.
PAGES 2-3. Magik, Dani, Rahne and Madelyne in the wilderness.
Basically just recapping the plot from last issue.
PAGE 4. Recap and credits.
PAGE 5. Storybook page: the “Goblin Exile” fights the techno-organic demons.
Continuing the storybook pages from last issue, where the “Little Goblin” was at least principally Magik (though the name is surely no coincidence bearing in mind that Madelyne is the former “Goblin Queen”). This is the alt-timeline older Magik that we’re about to encounter, defending her corner of Limbo from the techno-organics.
The suggestion is that Magik has accidentally taken them into the future of Limbo, but concept like “future” are all fairly vague in Limbo given its weird rules of time. There are obvious echoes here of the Magik miniseries (and the first Limbo story, Uncanny X-Men #160), which also had alt-timeline versions of core characters wandering around Limbo.
Limbo was first infected with the techno-organic virus by the Magus in New Mutants vol 1 #47, and had become overrun with it by the time of “Inferno”; it served as a motif for Magik’s loss of control of her pocket dimension.
PAGES 6-9. The heroes meet the older Illyana.
This is apparently an alt-future version of Illyana (or at least, Illyana as she would have been if she hadn’t met… this Illyana). Since she’s trapped in Limbo and unable to teleport home, she doesn’t really explain how she made contact with Warlock, but presumably he got there for reasons connected to this particular pocket of techno-organic infection.
PAGE 10. Data page – a transcript of a conversation between Magik and Madelyne about why Madelyne is suitable to take over Limbo. This is apparently being recorded by Warlock, presumably without their knowledge.
Magik’s basic case is that Limbo needs to be run by someone who has survived a suitably damaging and traumatic past, and that Madelyne also has a link to the dimension from “Inferno”, when she formed an alliance with the rebel demonic forces.
More to the point, while Magik’s story arc involves her transcending her traumatic past by distancing herself from Limbo, Madelyne got involved with Limbo as part of her search for autonomy after years of being manipulated or at least defined by relationships. Magik mentions Mr Sinister (who created her in an attempt to replicate Jean Grey for his own reasons), Cyclops (her husband, who left her for Jean) and Havok (who she was dating in the lead-up to “Inferno”, as much as anything in reaction to Cyclops). It’s stretching a point to say that Madelyne was ever strongly defined by Havok, or manipulated by him – and some might say that any list of the other people who define Madelyne should surely also include Jean Grey, from whom she was cloned. Still, Magik’s point is basically correct – for Madelyne, Limbo symbolises striking out for autonomy, albeit in a very inadvisable fashion.
The Council resurrected Madelyne “at the whim of Alex Summers” in Hellions #18. Again, this is a little unfair – Madelyne had previously been allowed to remain dead, and it was Alex’s persistent lobbying that resulted in her being brought back to life at all. Calling it his “whim” is a bit harsh. But the basic point is fair – Madelyne wasn’t resurrected for her own sake, but by way of an apology to Alex for the way that he had been treated. Madelyne understandably bristles at being brought back into the world for that purpose.
PAGES 11-14. The demons offer a deal, and alt-Magik explains the plot.
Straightforward.
PAGE 15. Colossus looks for Illyana.
If you’re only reading New Mutants, it’s worth flagging here that Colossus is under the long-term mind control of MIkhail Rasputin, via the reluctant influence of Chronicler.
Karma is still with her new girlfriend Galura.
Warlock has decided to walk around next to Cypher and copy his movements today, instead of being an arm. You can’t always be an arm.
That’s Rain Boy and Chamber in the Green Lagoon, with the Blob (as usual) behind the bar.
Meanwhile, in narrative, Illyana sees where her older self has gone wrong – presumably the benefit of not adjusting to the status quo slowly over time, which means that she gets to learn from this and make her own choices. It doesn’t seem to have that much to do with the action in the art, but it’s an efficient use of space.
PAGES 16-20. Illyana & co defeat S’ym’s forces.
S’ym is carrying the same mace that was conjured out of him at the start of this issue. Since he seems familiar with alt-Illyana, presumably this is an alt-S’ym.
Curiously, the scene ends with Magik manifesting a new sword, presented as something of a turning point – but alt-Illyana tells us on the upcoming data page that it doesn’t last.
PAGE 21. Another storybook page.
Spelling out the point fairly directly: even though it’s young Illyana who sees the solution, she still gets inspired by the solo last stand of her alternate self, and she gets to see that, in the end, she won.
PAGE 22. Data page. The future Magik’s journal, all fairly straightforward.
PAGES 23-24. Flashback: Illyana and Cat.
Presumably another scene set between Magik #2-3, as Illyana starts to teach herself, and manages to (very) briefly turn Cat back into Kitty Pryde.
PAGE 25. Trailers.
Am I the only one who wonders if Ayala actually read Uncanny X-Men 234? She says that Limbo represents corruption for Illyana but Maddie came to Limbo to strike back against the forces that controlled her. Maddie NEVER was in Limbo before this storyline. She was unconscious in Australia and S’ym approached her in a dream and tricked her into becoming the Goblin Queen. She was corrupted as much as Illyana was.
It’s annoying, because this is the first storyline where Maddie and S’ym have met since Uncanny 234 and fans have argued for decades about how much of Maddie’s actions were hers and how much was S’ym’s. And Maddie and S’ym haven’t really interacted this story. Even in the context of the story it doesn’t work. S’ym said Maddie bound herself to his reality. So shouldn’t the other characters be wondering what that means since they’re running from S’ym? Can S’ym sense where Maddie is? Can he make her turn against the others? Can he turn her back into a powerless human? You’d expect the others to be asking these questions but they aren’t.
I think there’s definitely something up with the “imprint” of Maddie that Illyana keep mentioning. At first I thought it was that the imprint is the Maddie that allied with Ben Reilly but now I’m wondering if there’s something else going on.
At the start of issue 25, S’ym says “This seems too easy. She’s too strong for this to work.” and then S’ym’s master says “I know our quarry better than you.” I don’t think it’s Illyana or Krakoa’s Maddie that S’ym’s master is after but Maddie’s imprint, for some reason. And maybe Maddie’s imprint is demon that stole Illyana’s comb and maybe the Little Goblin- Maddie’s imprint is helping them.
Vita Ayala writes such lively characters! She ought to be given the opportunity to create her own and write them more freely. Hopefully we will see more of her Children of the Atom sometime soon, at the very least. She deserves better than trying to milk yet more hopefully functional stories of such convoluted characters as Magik and Madelyne.
The art was magnificient.
I just did not expect to enjoy a limbo-based story this much.
FYI, Vita Ayala Is nonbinary & uses they/them pronouns. Obviously, no one here is using feminine pronouns out of ill-intent. I’m just putting that out there for future discussions.
Was Madelyne Pryor corrupted by Limbo? S’Ym is a powerful demon from Limbo who used Madelyne for his own ends. She went from being justifiably angry at the world, especially Scott’s abandoning her for the woman she was cloned from, but it took sign torturing her in a dream to make her the Goblin Queen. I’d say that her corruption is tied to Limbo, therefore saying Limbo was the cause is accurate enough.
I like that Maddie has a chance for redemption. I don’t know if it will take, given what we saw in that FCD Spider-Man comic, but Ayala & Reis continue to make her journey compelling.
It’s probably not a good sign that this issue has only generated four comments, huh?
It’s a shame, because Reis is a really good artist and I enjoy the logical extensions of continuity that this book is mining (what happens to Amahl Farouk when the Shadow King is gone; what happens to Maddie when she’s resurrected with no friends in a nation full of people who hate and/or abused her). But I really wonder if the gaps between issues just killed any momentum the book might’ve had.
I just don’t have the time to comment on every issue anymore (1yo son & increased workload), but I keep enjoying Ayala’s run. And Reis’s art is excellent.
Having started reading ongoings month to month around the 2004 reboot, the Limbo story I adore most is actually Kyle&Yost&Young’s Quest for Magik (coincidentally, the art is what makes it sing) from that New X-Men x-kids book. And I like the former New Mutants mainly from Zeb Wells’s run, not the original, as I haven’t read that yet.
So mining 80s continuity here doesn’t do much for me. I only read the Madelyne part of Claremont’s run last year. But even without that context, I like Ayala handling of these characters. They write a very relatable Madelyne, if you can describe a resurrected clone with demonic powers and a history of child sacrifice as such.
BTW, I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, but it appears this will be Vita Ayala’s last story arc on New Mutants. There’s an Amazon fish for New Mutants by Danny Lore collecting issues 29-33.
I’ll confess I don’t know who Danny Lore is. Has anyone read anything he’s written?
(Whoops, some quick googling tells me that should’ve been “…anything THEY’VE written?” That’ll teach me to assume based on names, I guess.)
Danny Lore’s doing a one-off James-centric story post-Magik arc that I believe was originally solicited as an Annual. Ayala is back for #31, an anniversary issue. I believe Lore confirmed on Twitter that it’s just a fill-in to give Ayala/Reis a chance to catch up.
Interesting… you certainly wouldn’t except a TPB to be called “New Mutants by Danny Lore volume 1” for just a fill-in issue, but that’s how it’s listed. Of course, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time an Amazon solicit has been wrong, but usually that’s about contents, not the actual title.
The art is fabulous, as ever from Rod Reis, but why oh why is Madelyne still dressed like that?!
It really feels like, as Michael suggested, no one has ready any issues pre-Inferno.
>> why oh why is Madelyne still dressed like that?!
This x1000.
I hate her costume too bit its “iconic” by now and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change.