Magik #8 annotations
MAGIK vol 3 #8
“Frayed Not Broken”
Writer: Ashley Allen
Artist: Matt Horak
Colour artist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan
COVER: Symbolic image of Magik in Liminal’s hand, which would been a better fit for the previous arc.
PAGES 1-4. Magik, Mirage and Liminal track down the Scarlet Eye.
Okay, recap: Last issue, Magik showed up at the headquarters of the Society of the Eternal Dawn looking for Cal Isaacs. Cal turned out to be completely possessed by Liminal, although currently with little or no power; Liminal claimed that he would be “limitless” once his new body adjusted to him. The Society’s leader, the Embodiment, sent Magik and Mirage to Las Vegas where (she claimed) a magical artefact that could be used to separate Cal and Liminal was being used by local drug dealers to enhance their drugs. Magik insisted on Liminal coming with them because she didn’t trust the Society to take care of him; Embodiment agreed to this after using magic to symbolically remove Liminal’s heart, apparently as some sort of tether.
The High Roller. It’s a real Ferris wheel in Las Vegas.
The Scarlet Eye. They’re new. Apparently they’re the magically-enhanced drug dealers that Embodiment told us about last issue.
Zosimos’ Quill. The magical artefact that’s supposed to separate Cal and Liminal, according to Embodiment. According to Liminal – if you can trust him – it contains a gem that “modifies both the physical and metaphysical”. Liminal claims that the gem could separate him from Cal’s body, but that this wouldn’t achieve anything in terms of saving Cal, because Cal is dead. Magik insists that this isn’t true, but offers no reason.
The Quill itself is new, but Zosimos is presumably Zosimos of Panoplis, a fourth century alchemist who wrote the oldest surviving books on the subject.
Aendret worms. According to Magik, magical creatures that eat the mind. They seem to be new. “Aendret” is a Danish word meaning “altered” or “changed”.
Liminal. As in the previous arc, Liminal presents himself as a kindred spirit of Magik who can potentially ally with her – though doesn’t seem to quite understand how others perceive him. He claims that the Society have imprisoned him because it’s “corrupt and fears what they cannot control”, and seems to think it’s obvious that there would be no good reason to control him. That’s despite him having killed people, imprisoned Magik and gloated about his upcoming limitless power in previous issues. In fact, Liminal is right about the Society being dodgy, but he’s hardly the best example to prove it.
“Make another deal with you?” Magik made a deal with Liminal to get out of his pocket dimension in issue #3.
PAGE 5. Magik, Mirage and Liminal arrive outside the Scarlet Eye’s HQ.
“That stupid fight in Ireland.” Issue #5, presumably referring to Mirage giving Magik a dressing down for her treatment of Cal at the end of the issue, when she took Cal away on her own. Magik interprets that lecture to be accusing her of putting Cal in danger. As so often in this book, Magik lashes out rather defensively at this allegation, but her narration and private behaviour elsewhere suggest that she actually agrees with him.
Liminal seems to be drawing a sigil of some sort, though it doesn’t appear to mean anything to Magik. The next scene has Illyana and Dani arguing even more than normal, and Illyana finding herself following Liminal’s lead during the fight, so perhaps the sigil is something to do with that.
His claim that he didn’t do anything is obvious nonsense, but perhaps he’s just trying to make sure that they bring him along on the mission instead of parking him on a rooftop by making sure to look as untrustworthy as possible.
PAGES 6-14. Magik, Mirage and Liminal fight the Scarlet Eye.
The Scarlet Eye appear to have either psychic or magical illusion defences which make the room appear to be full of hallucinatory enemies.
While Magik seems strangely compelled to follow Liminal’s suggestions in this scene, the suggestions themselves are basically sensible. Nonetheless, Liminal has started talking as if everyone else is fulfilling a mission for him.
Mirage is able to use her powers to create an illusion for the Scarlet Eye based on Liminal‘s fear of being returned to his prison dimension.
PAGES 15-16. Magik and Mirage talk after the fight.
This is obviously the point where they reconcile their arguments that have been ongoing throughout the series (perhaps because it kind of needs wrapped up before we reach “Age of Revelation”).
Liminal argues that the Society entirely failed to prepare Magik and Mirage for what they just fought, and suggests that it was a suicide mission. While they don’t trust Liminal at all, both immediately agree that he’s made a legitimate point here.
“If I were leading this mission during Krakoa…” Presumably in her capacity as one of the Krakoan Captains.
PAGES 17-20. Magik and co retrieve the Quill.
The Quill is in the possession of an incoherent man who has apparently been using it to create the illusions from earlier in the issue. The Scarlet Eye turn out to be defectors from the Society, although since the bit about drug dealers seems to have been true as well, they may not have been saints either.
“They feed my name to their star and I slowly unravel.” Last issue, the Embodiment caimed to have created the Society’s tower “by confining a falling star and forcing it to invert”, whatever that means.
Lexi Larsen is one of the three Exemplars we saw working for the Society last issue – she was the “Exemplar of Recruitment”. She can create golems, like the two we see in the background. She’s removed the smiley-face half-mask she wore last issue, showing some sort of energy effect on her mouth. (Her eyes do glow green in a couple of panels of that issue, though.)
The two guys behind her with machetes are presumably Society members; we didn’t see anyone wearing this sort of black ops gear at the tower in the previous issue.
We’ve discussed on other occasions how the heroes threatening the villains with torture to get them to talk has Unfortunate Implications but Illyana threatening Eddie with the worms to get him to talk seems particularly egregious. Yes, he’s a criminal but it turned out he was only trying to keep his boss from being murdered by the Society.
“The Quill is in the possession of an incoherent man who has apparently been using it to create the illusions from earlier in the issue”
The idea seems to be that the Soceity’s magics are driving him insane and he took the Quill to try to stop the effect.
Anyone else prefer the annotation that was character focused? Reading page by page feels more like school Sparks Notes
I go back and forth on this question myself.
It’s kinda sad that Marvel considers a 10-issue run to be successful these days.
Things have certainly changed.
Maverick’s solo series from 1998 was regarded as a flop because it was canceled after twelve issues making it, up to that point, the shortest-lived ongoing X-book in history (until The Brotherhood came along a few years later).
To be regarded as a comparable flop by today’s standards, an X-book would have to be canceled after twelve pages.
@Uncanny X-Drew, Moo- A 10-issue series is not considered successful nowadays. 10 issues is the bare minimum a series gets nowadays. Which is why most people are surprised that Magik has seemingly been cancelled after 10 issues when it’s outselling most other X-books.
The common theory is that Magik is going to be relaunched in December or January as Magik: Sorcerer Supreme.
Come to think of it, I think a meta story about a comic book series getting canceled halfway through its first issue would be kind of hilarious.
The second half of the book would consist entirely of sequences depicting stage hands tearing all of the set pieces down while the characters are shown returning to their dressing rooms and calling their agents in the hopes of landing a new gig.
@Moo- Over at DC, Vixen’s series was basically cancelled midway through its first issue. Vixen was intended to be introduced as the star of her own series. But due to the DC Implosion, her series was cancelled before it even saw print. So her first issue, which introduced her, was published as part of the Cancelled Comics Calvacade, a collection of stories from books that were cancelled as a result of the Implosion. Her creator, Gerry Conway, brought her into the Justice League six years later.
@Michael, that’s what I mean. Series run their 10 issues then get canceled. See West Coast Avengers, a series that was also well received and enjoyed by many, but Marvel still canceled them. Magik also sold well each month but still only got its 10 issues till its maybe relaunch. ♂️
DC All In has no problems saying issue 35 is a new story arc on its cover. Marvel should just do the same. ♂️
Also maybe it be worth discussing: if 10 issues is the norm these days, maybe the concept should be established by issue 2 and let issues 3-8 cook the “long term” story telling.
“Come to think of it, I think a meta story about a comic book series getting canceled halfway through its first issue would be kind of hilarious.”
This is a fantastic premise!
I am picturing this to be less meta than Ewing’s Defenders and more directly representative such as a Chip Zdarsky spin off of Public Domain. Who would you or others choose to be the creative team?
@woodswalked, Chip Zdarsky for sure.
I think everyone involved should be someone named Chip.
And then Marvel could market the comic as being brought to you by a bag of Chips.
Damnit. It’s started again.
@Moo, the cover copy, “Once you pop, you can’t stop!”
Incidentally, I looked it up, and “bag” is indeed the appropriate collective noun to use when referring to a group of guys all named “Chip.” The same term can also be used to refer to a group of women named “Candy.”
@Uncanny X-Drew- Sales for West Coast Avengers were poor. And a lot of people have issues with Ultron being part of the team and with Duggar’s writing, especially with Angelica’s alcoholism. I can see why it was cancelled after 10 issues.
10 issues is supposed to be a MINIMUM, not the norm, which is why Magik getting cancelled at 10 was so surprising, unless it was to set up a relaunch, of course.
“And a lot of people,,,”
This again? Look, I’ll stop saying “Chip” when you start citing sources. Deal?
@Michael, so when a vast majority of future and current titles are silently canceled after 10 issues, what’s your response going to be?
I think you all are subconsciously remembering the final issue of Howard the Duck, written by Chip Zdarsky, and featuring a cover where the set is being broken up and the characters are all actors and such.
You could write a thesis on this comment section.
@Si – Not me. I neither read that comic nor heard anything about it. I never even heard of Chip Zdarsky until Chris V mentioned his name in some other comment section.
^In relation to Chip Zdarsky writing Howard the Duck. It’s all come full circle.
There was also the final issue of the Ka-Zar series from the 1980s where his comic was being torn down and there was a farewell party being thrown by all the Marvel characters whose series had been cancelled. Ka-Zar gives a rousing speech about how he’s had a series cancelled more than any other Marvel character, and he’s not dead, so no one should despair. Then, they all return to the Land of Cancelled Heroes, which Morrison tapped in to while writing Animal Man (at DC it’s called Limbo).
@Moo- I was responding to Uncanny X-Drew saying that West Coast Avengers was well received without citing any sources and thus its cancellation was a surprise. I figured that if Uncanny X-Drew could make a statement like that without citing sources,then I could reply without citing sources. Besides, if we’re discussing why a book was cancelled, my opinion is irrelevant- what’s relevant is common complaints that might have driven people away from the books.
If you read the Firestar Appreciation Thread at CBR, you will find the majority of Firestar fans on that thread seem to dislike Duggan’s work:
https://community.cbr.com/threads/angelica-jones-firestar-appreciation-2025.176515/
But okay, maybe I should have just said- “Cite sources for it being well-received, the majority of Firestar fans at CBR seem to hate it.”
Oh, yeah, I vaguely remember Ka-Zar’s final issue having something of an odd cover. Did that happen to fall on Assistant Editor’s Month?
@Michael I got Psylocke #10 in the mail and the letters page confirmed it’s cancelled too. So I think you’ll start to see a lot more cancellations/series ending at #10.
It seems like it should have been, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. It says, “Collectors’ Item Final Issue!” on the cover though, which is odd. Especially for a character telling us that his comic has been cancelled so frequently.
Just calling it now: but with Psylocke cancelled at #10, I expect Magik and Laura Kinney: Wolverine to be too.
@Chris V
Yeah, I just checked. Ka-Zar was published bi-monthly and, though it was still ongoing at the time, it missed out on Assistant Editor’s Month.
And that final cover turned out to be not the one I was thinking of. I was thinking of the Ka-Zar the Detective cover which was issue 17, apparently.
I do remember Ka-Zar getting canceled, though. Mainly because it was one of six titles that Marvel announced the cancelation of simultaneously. The other five being (going from memory) ROM, Power Man & Iron Fist, The Thing, New Defenders, and Micronauts: The New Voyages. I can remember that, but not what I had for breakfast this morning. Or birthdays.
@Chris V- Marvel’s editors in the 80s had a sense of humor about their failed series. On the covers of the last issues of Team America and Dazzler, the covers said “Because YOU demanded it. The last issue of…”
@Moo- Sorry, .but I think your memory of that is wrong as well.
Ka-Zar 34 was cancelled covered dated October 1984. Power Man and Iron Fist was cancelled cover dated September 1986. It’s highly unlikely that Marvel would announced the cancellation of Power Man and Iron Fist two years in advance.
The titles other than Ka-Zar that you mentioned- ROM, Power Man & Iron Fist, Thing, New Defenders and Micronauts- were all cancelled over a period of about seven months, so it’s possible that Marvel announced their cancellation simultaneously.
It would have been Micronauts being cancelled, not The New Voyages. Wasn’t Moon Knight cancelled at that time? I remember Marvel promising that Micronauts, Moon Knight, and Ka-Zar (which had all become direct only titles as part of an experiment) would be relaunched soon. Micronauts: The New Voyages wound be the relaunched Micronauts. Moon Knight did get relaunched, but that only lasted for six issues. The new Ka-Zar series never materialized, as Ka-Zar didn’t get a new comic until the late-‘90s Mark Waid series.
@Chris V
It was definitely Micronauts:The New Voyages, not the previous series. Of that, I am positive.
Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu was canceled at around that time, but it wasn’t announced along with the others
@Michael – You’re right. Not long after I posted that, I felt like Cloak & Dagger should’ve been in that list, but that would’ve made seven. I guess it was Cloak & Dagger and I misremembered Ka-Zar as one of the six.
Yeah, Cloak and Dagger ended long after Ka-Zar. The Cloak and Dagger ongoing would have been cancelled around the same time as Dr. Strange, as the two titles were put in the new Strange Tales.
Here’s the cover dates of the final issues
Cloak & Dagger 10 March 1987
Micronauts: New Voyages May 1986
Moon Knight Fist of Khonshu 6 Dec 1985
New Defenders 152 February 1986
PM & IF 125 September 1986
ROM 75 February 1986
The Thing 36 June 1986
Six of those seven cancelations were announced at once in a Bullpen Bulletins column.
It was either Moon Knight Fist of Khonshu or Cloak & Dagger that weren’t announced with the others. I’m leaning towards Moon Knight as I seem to remember that being dropped rather quietly.
Regarding the ten-issue runs for the From the Ashes books, it certainly seems like the Age of Revelation cross-over was planned to coincide with the point that a lot of these books would be hitting a tenth issue anyway, so that they can be replaced with a short mini and then the books that have been working will return with a new #1 after the event.
Thats a strategy that probably works well enough with modern superheroe storytelling, where everything is interrupted for line-wide events, and relaunches happen on a regular basis. However, it does make it hard for any individual book to organically build momentum. Magik has apparently been selling better than any solo X-Men title has in ages, and once upon a time that would have been enough for the book to be left alone to flourish. There will inevitable be a post-Age of Revelation reboot, but it remains to be seen whether that kills the momentum of this title or builds on it.
I suppose the other side of the coin is that in a previous era, a book like Magik may not have been greenlit at all. A lot of these FTA solo titles seem like my were approved on a speculative basis, with editorial assuming that nothing had to be a breakout hit, since they only had to survive long enough to fill two trade paperbacks …
@Chris V – Actually yeah, I remember Strange having to share a series with C&D, so maybe it was Moon Knight that was in the six announced. Damnit, somebody find a Bullpen Bulletins page from 1985 please.
I dunno, does replacing what are in effect 10-issue limited series with four-issue limited series (or however long Age of Doug is going to last) really work? The line seems seriously adrift. Not for the first time, it must be said, but perhaps worse than ever…
As far as the book being taken apart in the final issue, the final issue of the first volume of Sensational She-Hulk did that bit, with She-Hulk explaining how subplots were going to be resolved and moving crews taking down walls and stuff.
Seems a good time to mention The Great Ten being canceled with issue 9. An all-timer.
@MarkCoate, I found it amusing that a series titled “The Great 10” was already cancelled at only issue 9 , in the same meta-ironic way that the Macguffins in Disney’s POTC series were 7 Pieces of Eight , I wonder if DC Editorial intentionally did it ? And to be fair , as a SEAsian myself , the whole high concept of a Chinese Govenrment super-team that ISN’t a villain team is always in the outmost bad taste tsk tsk tsk
@Jdsm24
Great Ten was announced as a ten-issue series, with a spotlight character per issue, and ultimately cancelled an issue early.
Really, you’d think that if it was that close to completion, they’d take the hit to finish it rather than set such a bad precedent (that, or can it before the penultimate issue).
@Aro-tron: It’s been many, many years since we’ve had proper sales data, but from what I recall back in the day, relaunching a book with the same creative team (e.g. the Rowell She-Hulk into Sensational She-Hulk, to use one recent example) would typically have a bump for the #1, and then sales figures would quickly settle into exactly what it was before. Not especially disruptive from the reader’s POV, it seems.
As for the 10-issue “limit”… I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem, unless of course the writer isn’t aware of that limit. Geoffrey Thorne and Mark Russell have both suggested they weren’t told about the potential cut-off at #10, which explains both the… *leisurely* pace of their books and the final issues being so rushed and lacking closure.
Diana> As for the 10-issue “limit”… I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem, unless of course the writer isn’t aware of that limit. Geoffrey Thorne and Mark Russell have both suggested they weren’t told about the potential cut-off at #10, which explains both the… *leisurely* pace of their books and the final issues being so rushed and lacking closure.
Honestly, while there’s definitely a failure on Brevoort & co’s part if they weren’t told… that’s at least partly on the writers anyway. Enough Marvel books have been canned well before #10 in the past decade or so that they should have been assuming five or six issues if they didn’t have a “#10 guarantee” – not twelve or fifteen – and structured accordingly.