Shadow and Flame with Magik

Including all of her appearances as herself, as Daytripper and the second Magik, which is why I’m writing this, she has made a total of 84 appearances, I thought it would be a whole lot more than that, she just leaves an impression I suppose.  I own 57 of those appearances, bringing my percentage to 67%.  So I feel like I know her pretty well.

Her mother is Margali, of the Winding Way.  Amanda is a witch.  Her and Nightcrawler grew up together.  That’s how I first met Amanda, as Kurt’s girlfriend.  Margali is Kurt’s adopted mother, so essentially, Kurt dated his adopted sister.  It is complicated.  I wonder if that is why the two of them haven’t spent much time together in the later days of their adventures.  It can be an awkward subject to bring up, but does it really need to get brought up?  That and Kurt killed her brother, who was also Kurt’s foster brother.

The whole family is a mess.  Then you add Mystique to the mix and it gets even more out of control!

I know at Kurt’s funeral, someone mentions how they should have invited Amanda, and someone else mentions the relationship.  Stating, “it’s complicated” is probably the best way to handle it.

I like writers who just refer to them as former boyfriend/girlfriends and that they grew up together, it is simple and that is the story point that has the most meat to it.

Paul Smith got to draw her, in Uncanny X-Men 168, 169, and 175.

It is a shame that she wasn’t really a member of the X-Men, like how Carol Danvers is.  I wonder why Claremont drew the line?  Amanda was or may currently be a Flight Attendant, so she makes it to New York City from time to time.  I do like how she isn’t a witch all the time; she has an awesome main job.

When she did join Excalibur on a long term basis, Excalibur 75-77, 80, 82-85, 89-92, 95,, 100-102, 108 and then she shows up at Brian and Meggan’s wedding. in 125.  Where she has a funny scene with Cerise, Kurt’s Shi’ar girlfriend – who also does not get enough play, but even less so!   Cerise was last seen in the Annihilation #6 and the Annihilation : Ronin miniseries.  Both of which, I missed out on.  Excalibur 125 came out October 1998 and Annihilation : Ronan 2 came out in July 2006, she is a forgotten character.

Then Illyana passes away, and before that, she is deaged, thus making no Magik, no more.

Now, I am not sure if it was due to a copyright issue or not, but Marvel gets the idea that they have to make a new Magik.  Storywise, someone has to be the ruler of Limbo.

Now, I’m not sure why that ruler couldn’t have their own special name, instead of making Magik a legacy character.  But they did and Amanda got the nod to take over in the miniseries, X-Men : Black Sun 1-5.  I only own issues 1, 2, and 5, it isn’t very good, if my memory of it serves.  I may also have been a stubborn fan and didn’t want to like it due to loyalty to Illyana.

Amanda becoming Magik II, pretty much ruins the character.  She got Black Sun in 2000, then within the same year (probably Marvel thinking it was going to create a new fanbase) and gave her the second Magik miniseries, also in 2000.  Sometimes, you will see the first Magik series titled : Magik (Illyana and Storm Limited Series) (1983) and the other as Magik (2000).  Which I never care for, as Storm is important to the original mini, but it is Illyana’s story and who cares about anyone else getting billing?  I rather we just refer to them as Magik-Illyana and Magik-Amanda, though only two people ever want to talk about the other one.  I want to say Magik-Amanda or Magik-2000 (like Knight Rider 2000) has a bunch of references to Illyana, thus, I own all four issues.  I may do a review on them, way down the line.  Might be nice to, as I barely remember it.  I do remember, the severe lack of Amanda appearances afterwards.

So Black Sun comes out November 2000, five weeks, five issues.  Excalibur 125 came out October 1998, so she was already in character limbo for two years.

Magik-2000 (makes more sense to do it by years as if you list it by character, I think you might confuse some people – Magik 2000 and Magik 1983). comes out monthly for December 2000 to March 2001.

Nightcrawler gets an ongoing series (richly deserved and pretty good, I believe I read all of them but only own a few of them) and  Amanda is essentially the co-star of the title.   Of the 12 issues, she is only not in issues 1, 5, and 7.  Pretty impressive!   I own issues 3, 4, 7, and 12.  12 is Kurt’s birthday, and a bunch of people show up.  It is awesome!  Also serves as a recap of the series.

Roberto Aguiree-Sacasa of Glee fame and of a horrible Marvel Knights : Spider-Man run wrote the series and Darick Robertson of Space Beaver – a series I am madly in love with and a real shame it only has 12 issues in existence!) drew it.  Darick is a huge Nightcrawler fan, and how could you not be!  He may not be anymore but he was at the time the series came out, that’s what I’m quoting.  (Just in case he has turn his back on the character).

I imagine no one bought Magik-2000, (the issues or the character) as 4 comes out March 2001 and Nightcrawler starts to came out November 2004.   That is another two years of being in Limbo, and only coming back when someone wanted to pair Kurt up with a former flame.

Then comes the awkward moment, when people want Illyana back (which they did as soon as she was deaged but once she was dead in Uncanny 303, people really wanted her back!).

Illyana sort of comes back in New X-Men 37, so they quickly put Amanda up in New X-Men 36.  These issues come out (along with Quest for Magik) in 2007.  Nightcrawler’s series ended in January 2006, and New X-Men 36 came out in May 2007, another solid year of no appearances.

Illyana shows up, it becomes official that Amanda is no longer Magik.  With Kurt not beign used and then being killed, she hasn’t had a new adventure since New X-Men 41 cover dated October 2007.

She showed up in a back up in Uncanny X-Men : First Class Giant Size Special 1 in August 2009, X-Men Forever 16 in March 2010 and X-Men Origins : Nightcrawler 1 in May 2010.

None of these are modern tales.

She is such a fun character but once you become a part of a Legacy, people only want the original back, and then you lose all that you had before then.  She became a place holder and it is a shame she isn’t used more.

Ideally, she would become a member of Amazing X-Men with how that story involves bringing Kurt back to life but Kitty isn’t involved in that mission so why would Amanda.

I also, don’t want her to just be Kurt’s girlfriend either but clearly she could have been part of any Supernatural style storylines.

She is a fun character, has a great powerset, hopefully still is a flight attendant – a job that I wish I had back in the day, I just like to fly in an airplane.  Imagine doing that professionally?  Has to be fun!  I also wanted to be a pilot as well, but that does seem to be a lot of responsibility, but I’m ready for it.

Probably too late for me though.  But it is not too late for Amanda Sefton, let’s get her back in a book, and a good one this time!  She got character assassinated!

The issues of her that I still need are only two :

Wolverine Saga (1989) 2

The Marvel Tarot (2007) 1

I doubt either are more than a dollar.