Magik (Storm and Illyana Limited Series) #2

"Cold Iron Hot Blood!"
Published January 1984
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: John Buscema
Inker: Tom Palmer
Cover: Ron Frenz and Tom Palmer

What's Going On?
Illyana is trained by Cat to survive in a harsh, Savage Land-esque, portion of Limbo.  She spends nearly two years learning to survive in harsh terrain and how to fight with swords.  At the end of teh training, they sneak into Belasco's Citadel.  The idea is to get to Belasco's altar, where the barrier between dimensions is thin; Cat thinks she can use her phasing abilities to cross the dimensional barrier and get Illyana back to her home.  They almost succeed, but Belasco appears and pulls them back to Limbo at the last moment.  To punish Cat for killing his servant, Nightcrawler, as they infiltrated the citadel, Belasco transforms Cat, stripping her of her humanity and making her even more feline.  Illyana is drawn to Belasco and conjures the second Blood Stone, seemingly content with becoming his apprentice. 

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- The fates of two more X-Men are revealed in this issue.  Colossus died at the hands of Belasco's demon lieutenant, S'ym, in an effort to save Cat's life.  Wolverine was also killed, as S'ym recalls feasting on his heart.  Nightcrawler was corrupted by Belasco and became his servant, until he was killed by Cat.  Granted, we knew about Colossus and Wolverine being dead from Uncanny X-Men #160, but we did not have any real details at that point.

- Storm tries to convince Cat to bring Illyana back to her sanctuary, but Cat refuses.  For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, Illyana states that Storm frightens her more than Cat does.

- Storm observed Cat and Illyana's attack on Belasco's citadel remotely, and watches Cat become enslaved by Belasco and Illyana willingly join his side.  Storm promises to destroy both Cat and Illyana.  Not Belasco, though, which strikes me as odd...

Writing!
Another issue in, and we've got ourselves even more exposition.  Granted, a few years have passed since last issue, but precious little has actually happened.  Illyana and Cat went to Belasco's citadel to try to escape this dimension; they failed and are enslaved by Belasco.  That brief synopsis makes this issue feel a lot more exciting that it actually is.  I'm not entirely sure what about this swords and sorcery tale is failing to impress me, but I'm bored.  Part of it is because Illyana's main character trait is being whiny.  Part of it is because I am not invested in any of the supporting cast, even Storm, Cat, and Nightcrawler; their survival means little, since we know the "real" X-Men survived in a comic published seventeen months earlier.  Perhaps the biggest reason is that Belasco is the big baddie of this title, and he has barely been developed in this title.  It does not help that he's hardly in this issue at all.

Art!
One of the challenges with this series is showing Illyana's changing age visually.  Buscema and Palmer certainly make an effort, but it has mixed results.  For every solidly done panel that shows an older Illyana with subtle signs of aging...

Lil' Illyana

Less lil' Illyana

...There is a page like this one, where the difference in age is less obvious and the colorist accidentally gave Illyana's unitard the color it had in her youth. 

You might think that they would have gone with something easier, like a different haircut or hairstyle, but no.

That said, I thought the team did a respectable job overall, and they did good work with two of the more gruesome moments in the script.  I thought the desiccated Colossus corpse looked pretty creepy.  I also was surprised to see the evil Nightcrawler getting a sword through the chest in a Comics Code-approved issue.  I guess it was okay because he was a demon?

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Cat's master plan is to get to Belasco's citadel and try to use her phasing power to cross the dimensional barrier to return to Earth.  Let's ignore the fuzzy comic book science of that (and the fact that she never uses her powers like that again) for now.  Let's also ignore the fact that Cat could have tried this stunt many times since she arrived in Limbo, but has not; I'm okay with the explanation she gives for that.  What I find amusing is the fact that she spends two years training Illyana for this, and then explains the plan to her only when they reach Belasco's altar.