{"id":7996,"date":"2022-06-25T20:58:57","date_gmt":"2022-06-25T19:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7996"},"modified":"2022-06-25T20:58:57","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T19:58:57","slug":"new-mutants-26-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7996","title":{"rendered":"New Mutants #26 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #26<\/strong>
\n“The Labors of Magik, Book Two: Best Laid Plans…”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Vita Ayala<\/strong>
\nArtist: Rod Reis (main story) & Jan Duursema (flashbacks)<\/strong>
\nColourists: Rod Reis (main story) & Ruth Redmond (flashbacks)<\/strong>
\nLetterer & production: Travis Lanham<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Brown<\/strong>
\nEditor: Sarah Brunstad<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> 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”.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong> Magik, Dani, Rahne and Madelyne in the wilderness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Basically just recapping the plot from last issue.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong>\u00a0Storybook page: the “Goblin Exile” fights the techno-organic demons.<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Magik<\/em> miniseries (and the first Limbo story,\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #160), which also had alt-timeline versions of core characters wandering around Limbo.<\/p>\n

Limbo was first infected with the techno-organic virus by the Magus in\u00a0New Mutants<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

PAGES 6-9.<\/strong>\u00a0The heroes meet the older Illyana.<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Council resurrected Madelyne “at the whim of Alex Summers” in Hellions<\/em> #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.<\/p>\n

PAGES 11-14.<\/strong>\u00a0The demons offer a deal, and alt-Magik explains the plot.<\/em><\/p>\n

Straightforward.<\/p>\n

PAGE 15.\u00a0<\/strong>Colossus looks for Illyana.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you’re only reading\u00a0New Mutants<\/em>, it’s worth flagging here that Colossus is under the long-term mind control of MIkhail Rasputin, via the reluctant influence of Chronicler.<\/p>\n

Karma is still with her new girlfriend Galura.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

That’s Rain Boy and Chamber in the Green Lagoon, with the Blob (as usual) behind the bar.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-20.<\/strong>\u00a0Illyana & co defeat S’ym’s forces.<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong>\u00a0Another storybook page.<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22.<\/strong> Data page. The future Magik’s journal, all fairly straightforward.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong> Flashback: Illyana and Cat.<\/em><\/p>\n

Presumably another scene set between\u00a0Magik<\/em> #2-3, as Illyana starts to teach herself, and manages to (very) briefly turn Cat back into Kitty Pryde.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7998,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996\/revisions\/7998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}