Issue(s): Magik #1, Magik #2, Magik #3, Magik #4
Cover Date: Dec 83 - Mar 84
Title: "Little girl lost" / "Cold iron hot blood!" / "Soulquest" / "Darkchild"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
John Buscema / Ron Frenz / Sal Buscema - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker

Review/plot:
The first two issues of this series have really nice art by John Buscema with Tom Palmer (really my favorite combination of penciler & inker). After the first two issues Ron Frenz and then Sal Buscema take over on art. Palmer keeps it consistent but it loses that little extra something.

This mini series dives more deeply into the time that Colossus' sister Illyana spent in Limbo under the tutelage of Belasco.

It's mainly a swords & sorcery story...

...where Illyana is torn between the appeal of Belasco's power and corruption and the love and white magic of an alternate dimensional Storm. Illyana actually succeeds where Storm failed in the past - a younger Storm defeated Belasco...

...but refused to show him mercy, and that act corrupted her and kept Belasco in power.

An alternate Kitty Pryde, physically altered to be more feline, acts as an independent agent also resisting Belasco.

    

There's also an evil Nightcrawler...

...and we're re-introduced to the demon S'ym who will later become Magik's untrustworthy lackey.

Illyana becomes somewhat corrupted but doesn't make Storm's mistake and resists fully embracing Belasco's path.

She also learns magic, some swordplay, and the ability to control the teleportation discs that appear around Limbo.

There's a neat scene where we see a Limbo version of the Savage Land that has been warped by Belasco because of his unpleasant experiences there (as shown in the Ka-Zar the Savage book). We see a two-headed Zabu that Cat kills for dinner.

Belasco is actually dealing with Ka-Zar during the course of this story as well.

Overall, probably unnecessary, but a fun adventure story...

...and it establishes Magik's corrupted nature which will be a theme in the New Mutants.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - introduces Limbo, provides background on Magik

Chronological Placement Considerations: The majority of this mini-series takes place during Uncanny X-Men #160. But the framing sequence takes place during New Mutants #14, and that's what determines placement in my project. Since most of this book is therefore flashback, Belasco and S'ym's appearances don't "count".

References:

• Illyana was taken into Limbo by Belasco and returned as a teenager in Uncanny X-Men #160. This series fills in the gap of what happened in between.
  
• As Illyana is learning to use the teleportation discs, she briefly winds up in a scene from New Mutants #14.
  
• Belasco is working on his machinations for Ka-Zar the Savage #29 when Illyana shows up for the final confrontation.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The Nightcrawler mini-series and this book were both originally announced in late 1982; but this was under the name "Ilyana and Storm".

Armando Gil was the first announced artist for ths book.

Why isnt this placed concurrently with UXM #160? It literally take place between panels there.

Jay, as i say in the Chronological Placement Considerations section, this series begins and ends with a framing sequence that takes place circa New Mutants #14.

It seemed like after the success of Wolverine, that Marvel decided to continually produce mini-series dealing with the X-characters. Surprising that it took so long after X-Men #160 to finally tell this story, but it did run to coincide with Illyana's addition to the New Mutants.

Just got the marvel premier GN, looking forward to connecting this with my reading of the concurrent run of X-men.