Speaker 0:09

Hello and welcome to Uncanny Book Club. I'm Isaac Federspiel, and joining me as always is my co-host Adam Ward. Now with a beautiful mustache. Ooh. You'll have to picture it in your mind's eye. We'll make it the cover art for the episode.

Speaker 1 0:27

I found it very freeing, if I'm honest. There's been something, I don't know, that very manly about it. Well, it worked for Scott. My wife has told me that she thinks I look good with a mustache, so that's only boosted my confidence with it. Like a pirate. Yeah, it's been nice. Kind of like a cowboy is probably closer to what it is.

Speaker 0:51

Well, in this episode, we're going to be doing things a little different. Instead of doing Uncanny X-Men, today are we are going to be covering Magic issues one through four, just to follow up on where we left things in issue 160 and u Illyana's seven-ish missing years. Really sad years, too.

Speaker 1 1:13

It's not the best place to hang. No. Well, as we'll see, she kind of goes on a roller coaster of emotions. And it's important to remember she's seven. So this is a very young child experiencing all these things, being thrown into an incredibly traumatic situation that's forcing her to grow up even more than like what the her the number is of her age, right?

Speaker 1:39

I mean, she's already been kidnapped by bad guys, technically, I suppose, for Murder World. Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:46

The life of being Colossus's sister feels bad. Yeah. I have a a bit of a bone to pick with Colossus that we can get into. Unsurprising. Colossus sometimes has a mustache. Yeah, man. And his mustache looks frickin' awesome. He should only have it. If I could have a metal mustache like that and it looked cool, I would do it. But it alas, I only have hair. So but a human.

Magik #1 summary

Magik #2 summary

Issues 1-2 discussion

Speaker 2:15

Well, without further ado, issue one begins with a teenage Illyana standing atop a cliff reflecting on her life. It should be her eighth birthday, but is instead her 14. Half of her life has been spent living in a hell dimension, and she describes herself as humanity's savior or the means of its internal damnation. We jump back to the end of issue 160 and see the X-Men about to escape with Illyana when Belasco slips by and grabs hold. He's able to escape with her, but the old sorcerer storm gives chase. Belasco ends up pulling a piece of Illyana's soul from her body, he ages up the soul and twists it in his image and binds it to him, creating the first bloodstone. Belasco blasts Storm and seems to have won the day when an older Kitty Pride appears, throwing a ninja star. Belasco uses one of her own tricks and phases away from her strike, but Storm and a renamed Kat are able to bring Illyana back to Storm's oasis. Illyana pretends to be asleep but listens in on their conversation. Storm wishes to break Belasco's link with Illyana. Kat thinks they should instead kill her. Storm enters Illyana's mind via astral projection and they come upon the corrupted portion of her soul. Evil Iliana seems to have bested Storm, but she's able to escape by relying on her mutant powers. Storm decides she needs to make Illyana her apprentice, which Kat is not happy with. Storm takes Iliana to a giant tree, the first thing Storm created when she built her sanctuary. She guides Iliana's spirit out of her body and teaches her that any magic pales in comparison to the miracle of life. Illyana finds corrupted flowers that are dying, warped by Limbo. Storm heals them, and Illyana says she wishes to learn how to do the same. Storm freaks out, telling her that she must never even think about it, or she could destroy them all. She grabs Iliana, hurting her. Storm says that she must respect the order of the universe instead of trying to overwrite them with her will. Iliana then turns her attention back to her own body, perceiving the portion of Belasco within her. She says that it is ugly and asks if Storm can make it go away. She can't, and Illyana then notices the same within Storm, only bigger. When she returns to her body, a year has passed. They leave the grove. Neither of them notice that the plants Ororo seemingly healed have withered and died. That night, Kat appears and knocks out Ororo and offers to take Iliana home. Belasco watches, gleeful that Kat is freeing Iliana from Storm, saying her success will be his victory. Issue number two opens with Kat engaging a demon in battle. Iliana ends up falling through a stepping disc and appears in the chamber with her dead brother from the alternate universe. Sim is there smoking a cigar and he apprehends Iliana. Kat then appears and stabs him in the tail before the two escape through a portal. She kills a two-headed tiger for dinner, shocking Iliana with her ferocity. Kat informs her that Kitty Pride would have never behaved that way, but Kitty Pride was human. They begin training the next morning, which involves Kitty running and Illyana trying her best to keep up or get left behind. When she collapses to the ground, Kat throws a sword at her and begins attacking her with a knife. They repeat this day after day. Eventually, Kitty uses the sword instead, and Illyana the knife. Illyana has started winning their duels as well. At this point, Illyana has aged almost three years. They begin traveling to Belasco Citadel and are attacked by the twisted version of Nightcrawler. Kat dips out and Illyana begins fighting him 1v1. Kat returns and phases Nightcrawler's leg into the floor, destroying it and trapping him. She then stabs him through the chest, killing him. Kat begins walking up the air of limbo with Illyana until they find Kitty Pride reaching for her hand. When they finally grab hold, it's revealed to be a trick of Belasco's. Because she killed Nightcrawler, he says it's fitting for Kat to take his place, and she's further transformed into a cat and obedient servant to Belasco. He gives Illyana a magic blade, and her blood creates the second bloodstone. He says in the morning she will begin her apprenticeship. The issue ends with an enraged storm hurling her crystal ball into the wall after viewing what's happened. She says that Illyana and Kat are as my own flesh, yet for the sake of their souls and for the world itself, I must destroy them. Well, that was a lot. That was a lot. Two issues. Half of our story. I think the thing that sticks out the most to me, and it is kind of a bummer, not in the sense of like, oh, limbo's a terrible terrible place to be, but it feels weird that the entire first year there is sort of just she walks around the garden with Storm, and then when she returns to her body, she's a year older. It feels like very kind of anticlimactive. We sort of just like skipped ahead, but without any time really passing. But on the other side of that coin, I feel like what she does with Kitty is done very well, where you kind of get that sense of like, you know, they're traveling, they get up day after day, she's running after her, she's training with sword by the end of the day. You really get, I guess, a bigger sense of time and effort being put into something. You know, she's learning a lot from Kitty versus I would have liked to see more of a true apprenticeship with Storm before she moved on.

Speaker 1 8:04

Yeah, I agree with all of that. I kind of view Storm through these issues as a Obi-Wan type character. Her job is to kind of set her on her path, right? You rescue her, you welcome her into limbo, give her a safe place, you're kind of equipping her with a base knowledge of how the world works and are really exposing her to her new reality, then she is removed from the story for the better, in my opinion. Just like you said, I felt like the kitty stuff was much more interesting, just overall. The time flow through these issues is paced very strangely, where large amounts of time pass, and the readers are kind of meant to, I think, make a lot of assumptions of what's happening during that period of time. I think when, and correct me if I'm wrong, maybe I'm misremembering, it's been a little bit since I've read these, but if I'm remembering correctly, in her time with Storm, it seemed almost like one session occurred. It was like she spent like maybe an afternoon with her. It's I think the blessing and the curse of the general concept of how time flow works in limbo. On one hand, I do think it's very fun to kind of have this situation where Illyana is pulled into this hell dimension, and the time flow here is just incredibly different, where, you know, seconds in the real world, or in this case, I guess the main timeline are, you know, only not holding your hand for a few seconds. That's it. But in Limbo, we have this large time gap, and I think it really makes the story interesting, like entirely. But at the same time, the curse of this is the fact that over seven years to fit in, I think, meaningful content in that time may have been a waste of panels. But I think having more of a time frame check-in, even more than what we have, I think would have been helpful just to kind of give us an idea of the time passage.

Speaker 10:26

And I think there are other moments within this series. You know, we we already covered the one in issue two where I think they high handle time a little better. But I I feel like the other moments within this when we are seeing those time jumps, you still have like a sense of, you know, one of them is kind of in between issues when spoilers, but Illyana has been learning magic from Belasco. And while we don't get to see it, we can still imagine that, all right, she, you know, it's a day after day, it's she makes progress here and there. It probably would have been cooler to dive into that a little bit more and see more of that, but I'm assuming there are probably some follow-up issues where if we did want to, you know, expand things a little bit more than what this four-issue mini has given us, I'm sure that stuff's probably available. One of the things that I think they did really well with time, and it's possible that this is just me projecting this onto the books, but I feel like as Illyana goes through like these age-ups, the way she talks and like her narration also changes. Like as she ages up, like even just like this one-year jump in the first issue, I feel like there's I think just more maturity to like the way she speaks.

Speaker 1 11:53

Yeah, her perception of the world really changes in that period of time. They do a great job reflecting that through her narration, which I just need to say was the perfect way to guide us through the story. So we're getting just a clean cut. This is Illyana's perspective. You know, yes, we do kind of get some behind the scenes of what Storm's doing at time, but really everything is being told through Illyana as just a a storytelling vessel, as it should. This is her backstory, this is core to the character and what she becomes. And it's important to note like this came out not right after that initial 160 issue. This is much later on, and New Mutants is also on the shelves now. So Illyana, the character, is getting a lot more screen time, comic time. She's a starring character now, and she must have been popular, I'm assuming. I'm assuming. To get a mini, I would have to assume that you're pretty popular.

Speaker 13:03

One thing that we talked about earlier is the feeling of things sometimes feel a little bit too abbreviated in this mini. Like we get four issues, but was the desire to have like six or eight of them. It it it just feels like it's not as tight. I I I don't know. It's it I feel like with some of the other like two or three issue story arcs that have been, you know, planned out and written by Chris, they've been a little bit like tighter and more purposeful. And this sometimes feels like things get abbreviated or we move on from certain things quicker than I guess I would like. And I part of me wonders if that's, you know, did the team want to do six or eight issues, but ultimately it was said you get four.

Speaker 1 13:58

Yeah, that would probably explain a lot about the situation and how much we got and that time jump wonkiness, you know, the timey whimey of it all would kind of fits that narrative that maybe they were kept to four books, this material that maybe filled in the blanks was left on the cutting room floor, and this is what we got. Which isn't a bad thing. Like, to be clear, like it's unfortunate we don't have that, and I think it would have really given more, even if it was one more issue. But the overall story I really, really enjoyed.

Speaker 14:34

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't mean to sound super negative about the mini, and I guess I have we'll we'll get toward it at the end as we're wrapping up, but I think the thing that I had messaged you was that I had complicated feelings about it.

Speaker 1 14:51

Yeah, I believe that is what you said. I want to call out one thing that I really, really liked, and this was a consistent through all four issues, but I think they really set the tone for just the visuals of Limbo, how Belasco looks as a villain. The entire setting of Limbo is awesome. I love the aesthetic, it's super metal. Character creation design of the demons is interesting and out of the box when you think of how demons look in you know the traditional sense. I really, really enjoyed every aspect of how they presented this place and the feeling of it, and you know, really providing that view of hell with this painted fantasy lens. It's it was very enjoyable to look at.

Speaker 15:47

And spending all of our time in a hell dimension, you know, one could worry, like, are we going to like are things just gonna be drab or like dreary? But they really do a good job of just making there's a lot of color. Like everything pops really good. It's not just like, you know, we're it's it is a horror aesthetic, but there's I mean, it this issue, these four issues really are just a treat for the eyes, and they do a good job of working in color, so it's not just a monotonous experience. You know who would look great with a mustache? Sim? Belasco. Hmm. Look at that. That's a much better answer. I you know, I was I I I panicked, I didn't know who, but yeah, that I could see it.

Speaker 1 16:34

Well, I sent you a picture for your viewing pleasure.

Speaker 16:37

Of Belasco with a mustache? Yeah, give it a peek. Very good. He he you know what? He looks more evil. Right?

Speaker 1 16:47

It's that's an improvement. Yeah, you mentioned Sim. So I had another one done.

unknown 16:52

Okay.

Speaker 1 16:53

Pretty good. He looks dirty and grungy. It's pretty good, man. He looks it's you know he looks more human. It's the right vibe. It gives him like a uh like a strong man feel. So one of the things that I was griping about when it came to Colossus here is nothing he did, but there is a panel when we interact with Sim where Colossus is hanging on the wall. It's really messed up. Now, I understand why it was done this way, because this to look at is a lot more safer work. It's not as gory it as it would be if he was in his human form, right? Okay, so you may know the answer to this. Shouldn't Colossus be in his human form now, since the way his mutant power is that he turns it on? Like by default, his he's a human. Or not human, but like he has his fleshy bits.

Speaker 17:54

Fleshy bits. Sorry, I'm still just smiling about fleshy bits. Um, I know he's died, but I don't know if he's died in his organic steel form. I don't see a reason why he wouldn't stay transformed. Like, I'm thinking of it more like he can choose to become one state and then move back to the other state. I feel like sometimes when he's knocked on you know, I don't know if they've been consistent. Cause things have been able to revert his you know powers back. Like, you know, I don't know if he's he's knocked out or he's hit by like a specific energy blast or something like that that you know turns him back into fleshy bits, but yeah, I'm not sure. I don't think it's been like super consistent. I'm I'm f very okay with it.

Speaker 1 18:53

Again, like I I understand why, right? Like I understand why they made this choice.

Speaker 18:59

I think it is almost extra gruesome, maybe not gruesome, but you know, there's it it it instills like a different situation than you imagine where, you know, we haven't, you know, we've only seen like one thing pierce Colossus's skin while he's transformed, and that was the javelin from Deathbird very recently. Yeah. And so to instead see him transformed, but you know, it looks like someone dug their hands in and then like peeled his chest and stomach away, it's more impressive.

Speaker 1 19:36

It is um an awesome panel, and again, just kind of adds to the overall aesthetic of Limbo. It was just a thing that I thought of and I couldn't get past. I guess it's my hot take for the issue. Sure.

Speaker 19:50

He should be fleshy. Colossus flesh boy. I think the only other visual thing that I really wanted to call out was just, you know, these are different artists than the ones that have been doing uncanny that we've been reading. And one of the things that I think they did a really good job with is just communicating through like body language and the facial expressions. Like, there's a lot of very clear communication and emotions that you can read throughout the entire mini.

Speaker 1 20:24

So I have to ask, what were your thoughts on Kitty through these issues?

Speaker 20:33

Hmm. I that's tough. You know, I wouldn't want to see main universe Kitty Pride like this, but I think that this is the right character for this story. And I really, you know, I like her, I like Kat more than I like Storm in this mini. Yeah. I think it's impressive that, you know, she thinks that they should just kill Illyana, but instead she spends, you know, weeks, months, a year, I'm not really sure, a long time investing in her, training her, trying to rescue her, you know, getting her back to her universe. When earlier she's like, you know, we really should just kill her instead. So it's impressive to see that struggle within her of, you know, maybe she feels like this is really the best thing to do, but she still has enough humanity, even as Kat, that she's able to do the heroic thing instead. Yeah, I agree with all of that.

Speaker 1 21:35

You know, I think Katie was a big highlight of issue two and how she trains Illyana, I think, to be a representation of the real world as Kat sees it. This wasteland where she is having to kill or be killed. She is a creature of her circumstances, and in this case. It is limbo and limbo as hell. And so Kitty has turned into cat, has become deformed due to Belasco's influence, and she's just more brutal than how Kitty is. I agree that I wouldn't want to see this all the time, but it works here very well. Now, do I think her costume was really over the top? Yes. I was thinking we were maybe going there next.

Speaker 22:27

It's I couldn't believe it when I saw it. It's too much. It's like uh you could describe it as like a almost like a one-piece swimming suit with long sleeves, but for some reason also there's slits all the way up to the like from thigh to armpit. Like, what is going on? It must be glued to her permanently. Well, that's just Belasco's magic. Maybe that's the curse. You know, she can't put on reasonable clothes. She has to be stuck with this uh outfit that just like the complete side is opened up, it doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1 23:09

Uh there's an even funnier panel that makes this situation uh even better. In issue two, when uh Belasco kind of plays his trick, right? When they when they make their dash to get Illyana home, and we can see the X-Men on the other side of the portal, and Kitty is staring down in the next one directly at this other version of Kat with this outfit on. And it makes you wonder what would she be thinking in this situation seeing her look like that. What is that? What am I wearing? What is going on? Why do I have what are these? Like saw blades, ninja stars?

Speaker 23:51

Those are the ninja stars. That's what I'm calling them. I mean, it's not like a real shuriken or anything, but yeah. It looks like a bay blade. Yeah, it does. Maybe she's just always ready to bay blade. You know, I have you ever played it in real life? I think once, once or twice.

Speaker 1 24:08

Yeah, I think I got it for Christmas once. Yeah. It's uh I did it as an adult.

Speaker 24:14

Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, like it looked cool when I Yeah, it looked cool like, you know, when I was a kid, but I never had access to it. And then like a few years ago or whatever, uh, I was at my friend's house and he has a he has a son that had some Beyblades, and uh, I think we let her rip one or two times. Yeah, isn't that what they say? You guys say let it rip? I think so.

Speaker 1 24:38

Beyblade, we're always looking for sponsors, so send us some Beyblades. We got I could go for some Beyblade.

Speaker 24:45

Yeah, we could film uh a whole video. Do you do like X-Men colors? You like you could have like a Wolverine, yellow, and blue Beyblade, you could have a Polaris green one, some magneto purple and red action, have them all battle it out. It's all there, man. Get that deal with Marvel and make us some Beyblades. Sure, dude, you can have Marvel Beyblade.

Speaker 1 25:09

You can expand. Think about it. You could have like a Captain America Shield. That one is just, you know, easy. Yeah.

Speaker 25:17

Writes itself. You may as well just print money.

Speaker 1 25:21

Because that's what it would be.

Speaker 25:22

Alright. Disney, Beyblade. You've got our email.

Speaker 1 25:26

Hit us up. Yeah, we get we get first dibs at least. Just send us a few so we can let it rip one more time. So the last thing I do want to say about Kitty, um, I felt like by the end of this she was just done dirty. I would have preferred that they just killed her, honestly.

Magik #3 summary

Magik #4 summary

Issues 3-4 discussion

Speaker 25:46

She doesn't have the happiest of endings in limbo, but we'll get to that more in issue number three. Issue number three begins with Illyana transforming her pet into a more monstrous creature under Belasco's tutelage. She swats it away and Kat chases it down and eats it. Belasco scratches Illyana's face, reprimanding her for her spell performance. She heads to her chambers and a vicious cat chases her and perches upon her bed. Kat then says Illyana's name, the first time she's been able to speak in two years. But Illyana is frightened and throws her down with magic. Illyana attempts to create a magic acorn, like Storm did, but it explodes. Ororo then appears as a projection, telling her to be patient and that she'll rescue her. Illyana then is able to conjure her own stepping disc and realizes that it is her mutant powers. She hears Belasco coming and she teleports herself into the tunnel below Limbo, and into the future, as she runs into the new mutants who know an older Illyana. She then ends up back in the present, and then back to the past to witness Storm fighting Belasco years ago. Storm strikes down Belasco, but gains features similar to his. It's then revealed as a trick, and Belasco is fine. Illyana goes back to the present and is apprehended by Sim, who she then pushes into a stepping disc, who knows where or when. Storm is battling Belasco in the present, but Kat sneaks up behind her and strikes her down. Illyana chases Kat away and ends up breaking her neck. Belasco monologues to Storm for a while about how she's failed and he's succeeded, and announces that death will not herald her freedom and her soul will instead be sent to the Dark Ones. Issue 4 begins with Belasco ordering Illyana to conjure the third bloodstone, and then use its power to strip Ororo's soul. She disobeys him and instead stabs Storm in the neck to save her from eternal torment. Lightning strikes, and Iliana uses the distraction to escape via stepping disc with Storm's body. She returns to her garden and buries her, but without Aurora's magic, everything is withering away. A zombie Storm then rises to chase her. She escapes via disc and encounters a zombie Colossus as well. Her next stop is her home in Russia, but her parents don't believe she's herself, as she is much older than when she left. A squad of zombie X-Men show up and capture her, and Belasco completes the third bloodstone. He leaves her to fend for herself in the wilderness of Limbo, unable to use her mutant gift to teach her a lesson. Illyana wanders the frozen landscape until she finds Ororo's tree. She attempts to use its life force to create her own acorn. Day after day, each attempt fails until the tree falls dead. Illyana realizes that what worked for Storm won't work for her as they have different goals. Illyana seeks vengeance. She tries the spell once more and pulls a sword from the sphere using energy taken from herself and the oak. With the sword, Belasco's spell to stop her from using the stepping discs is shattered. Illyana teleports and begins fighting Belasco with her new weapon. Sim appears as well, but is slashed through the chest. She destroys some of his ancient texts, and he's upset at the loss of knowledge. Little does he know, Illyana has been sneaking into the library to read the books over the years. As she fights, fangs, horns, redskin, and a tail appear on her and disappear from Belasco. It seems the elder gods have decided to bet on a new horse. Before she strikes him down, she realizes that she's become just like him and instead shows mercy. Belasco calls her a fool and notes that the battle is not the war. He manages to spirit himself away. Illyana grabs hold of the Bloodstone amulet and teleports herself back to Kitty's hand and they pull her free. This was a year ago, and we return to Illyana standing at the cliff's edge. She thinks that her gifts can be used for good or ill. The choice and responsibility is hers. She returns to the house to see her classmates, the new mutants, playing in the snow. We're left with the final words. An ending can also be a beginning. Mate, I'm excited for new mutants. Should be cool. Well, first we gotta go back to space and deal with the brood. Oh man, it's been so long since we've done brood stuff. I am excited to dive back into that world. Mm-hmm. I gotta see me some space bugs. Well, where would you like to start? I think the fun thing to see was, hey, we finally got some mutant powers now. It's nice that we got to do some of that. You know, we wondered back at issue 160, like, are, you know, is Illyana gonna come back from this having her powers to use the stepping discs? And it was nice to see that introduced at the start of issue three versus waiting to like the end of the story and just having it be some like MacGuffin that causes her to, you know, win in the end.

Speaker 1 31:17

Yeah, it definitely adds a lot to her character. And her being unsure whether she's a mutant like her brother is a key element of the story. So I am glad they didn't wait. Her exploring those powers becomes so powerful over these two issues, and just is nice to kind of understand the character the way we know her today. Cool moment. The the other thing that I really enjoyed about Illyana this is her hero's journey. She sets out, not by choice in this case, meets a couple friends along the way who teach her a bunch of different things. In this case, I find that she has like three key mentors, right? In Storm, Cat and Belasco, and they all kind of depart a different part of them on her that will ultimately carry over. Like the sorcery element of Illyana's character is pretty big. Her sword wielding, something she learns because of Cat. And then Storm really gives her, you know, another part of the magic puzzle, but also I think is morality. Is the heart.

Speaker 2 32:31

Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:32

She's what grounds her and prevents her from going too far in the opposite direction with Velasco's influence.

Speaker 2 32:39

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 32:40

So Yeah, I really like that the first three issues each have their own like assigned mentor. And I've already discussed that I didn't feel like we got enough of Storm in that role in issue number one. But in that defense, you know, we do see her continuing to impart that knowledge. And I really liked how you put it with heart more so than morality, just because I don't know that necessarily this version of Aurora is a moral character. But, you know, whether it's her seeing her, you know, traveling back to the past and seeing Storm's duel with Belasco that transformed Storm into a demonic figure, or, you know, learning from her more in the present. You know, we we continue to get that influence.

Speaker 1 33:30

Yeah, and that's all part of this journey we see unfold over these four issues. You know, after she's bestowed with all the knowledge and skills from her mentor, she's practicing and honing those skills. We get this awesome sequence in the beginning where she is using dark magic to create something that backfires, and she finds that, you know, this is uh dog eat dog world, even for her, and she has to keep her place. Nobody's gonna jump to her aid necessarily. And even, you know, when cat appears, it's not the cat that we see in the prior two issues. It is a literal cat. Like a feral cat. It's weird. It's weird, and I don't like it.

Speaker 34:17

No. Not a fan. Uh it was it was a m it was a better look, and you know, still in that outfit. Uh, it was a better look to be, you know, I I liked the just like, oh, she kind of has like some more cat-like features with like fangs and the eyes, but this is too much like that recent cats musical. It's a little too scary.

Speaker 1 34:39

Yeah, it's uh it's it's a lot. It's full furry. We've had many and furries in this episode. This is a wild one. It's the effect of Belasco.

Speaker 34:53

Well, it is uh, you know, it's a it's a it's a it's a more mature, darker miniseries, so you should have released this, uh release this one after hours, like at night. Comic book club after hours. After the kids have gone to bed, you can listen to Uncanny Book Club's summation of the Magic mini-series, I guess. You can bask in the horror as I try to explain my mustache. Hmm. Maybe that's how I'll start the episode description. Bask in the horror. That's pretty good. One of the things I like is that, you know, one, Illyana is secretly working against Belasco. You know, she sneaks out, she reads, she's learning. I think, you know, her ultimate intention is to turn against him, but at the same time, I also like, you know, the way we start issue three, she has that, you know, crazed, angry demon look to her. She gets the red eye pupils that sort of pop up throughout the throughout the mini while she's using dark magic or things like it. So she's still, you know, facing that, you know, duality within herself of like, you know, she doesn't trust Belasco, you know, she's working against him, but at the same time, she still also has to deal with I guess the the corruption that Limbo has had on her.

Speaker 1 36:22

Yeah, I think she has a bit of survivor's guilt too, right? And a little uh what is it? That when you're captured and you start sympathizing with your hostage? Stockholm syndrome? Yeah, that's it. Maybe. Mind you, there you know, there's also Belasco is an incredibly powerful demon who can do all sorts of magic shit and influence. So it probably is incredibly difficult and speaks to her strong willpower to hold back because it would be easy to capitulate. You know, somebody who did capitulate, Storm, as we learn, she gives into the dark side of the force and uh turns all red and demon-like.

Speaker 37:04

Yeah, at the beginning you said she was like an Obi-Wan character. Instead, she's more like an alternate reality where Anakin kills Obi-Wan, but then realizes that he was wrong and then serves in that role. One thing that I think we miss a little bit with some of the, you know, jumping around that we've done is coming out of this mini, I don't feel like we have a super strong sense of what Illyana can accomplish as a sorcerer.

Speaker 2 37:36

Hmm.

Speaker 37:37

Like with Belasco, we know that he can curse her and lock away her mutant powers. That seems like some pretty high spellcrafting. Uh, he can weather, you know, storms elements back when she was a sorcerer and a mutant powerhouse. But you know, I mean, like we see her do things like she transforms a pet, she creates her soul sword, she, you know, makes a circle, but I feel like we're we're we don't really have like a good sense of like, you know, what can she do? And that's one thing that I'm interested in exploring more and seeing like I'm curious about the balance that they strike in new mutants between she's good with sword, she's teleporting, she's a sorcerer.

Speaker 1 38:25

I don't know that it really crossed my mind, but the more I've thought about it, the more I agree. But I will say with magic that this is my headcanon, of course. But but I I think like when it comes to sorcery and magic, it is something that is perfected over years. And so I guess I kind of left the books feeling like she's a novice with magic, you know, she's just yeah, she's learned to do some basic stuff, and that'll probably be explored more going forward.

Speaker 39:00

I think that's something that even in like a lot of modern stories, they have a tough time balancing out, like, you know, she just doesn't end up using magic very frequently at times. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like she uses her mutant powers very much and is really just swinging around a really big sword. It's tough. Yeah.

Speaker 1 39:21

It's a complex character, but I think there's a lot of versatility there, right? And you could tell probably a bunch of different stories with Iliana to go, you know, either right down the mutant path, you know, and then you kind of have the sorcery stuff as a backdrop that can be a MacGuffin to deal with a problem, or you can go deep into the magic world and explore what that is and her connection with limbo and how that all kind of fits in together. And, you know, it would be, and I would not be surprised. I'm calling this now. I guarantee you, one day magic is going to become the Sorcerer Supreme. So did you have a big major point that you wanted to make about what you didn't like?

Speaker 40:06

Uh are you referring to me saying I have complicated feelings? Yes. It was more along the lines of so giving this a score as like a total, just like a total score for the full four issues. I'm thinking like around a seven, seven and a half, but where it gets complicated is I can see myself rereading this later when there are other things that I given like a seven and a seven and a half, where I don't think I would go back and reread. Like I could see myself being like, oh, I want to read that Illyana Mini. So that's where my complicated feelings are. I thought it was, you know, good, not great, but one that I would potentially revisit. And I think that that's an odd place to be. Yeah. I think overall, too, I think the mini improves as it goes. Four was my favorite issue, I think. I think two was better than one. I think one was the you know the weakest of the four. I'm unsure where I would put three because three is kind of an oddball issue where you know she's learning how to use her powers. We run into the new mutants randomly while they're driving in the tunnels of limbo, which I don't really understand, but I mean we'll get there eventually. And, you know, I do like that the end the ending of three is very good. You know, I like that we spend some time jumping to the past and we see storm falling to darkness, and then we jump right back ahead to the to the present and we witness another battle. And then four, I think there's a lot of good action, there's a lot of good introspection and you know figuring things out and being like, oh, making an acorn isn't for me. I'm gonna pull out a cool soul sword instead. So I guess that's my overall thoughts for things.

Speaker 1 42:12

I think I would give the four issues as a total, and I think that's the only way to really rate these properly, is just as a collection. I would give it a solid seven and a half. I think it there are parts that we've talked about where it could have been improved in some capacity, maybe some pacing problems at times, and you know, some of the character development just wasn't there, you know, looking at things with Storm specifically, the stuff that eventually happens with Kat, but like overall they took a lot of risks at exploring this world and you know the characters that kind of live here and really leaned to it into it being this horror fantasy setting, and the art was just absolutely stunning through all four issues. So, for all those reasons, I think a seven and a half is just very warranted in if not a very close eight. I think it's enjoyable, and I could reread this again.

Speaker 43:09

That does it for this episode of Uncanny Book Club. Thanks for listening, and we hope to see you next episode where we'll discuss issues 161 to 163 for the brood. For the brood. Hi everyone. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Uncanny Book Club. If you enjoyed this podcast, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share with a friend.