All throughout April, we’re crowdsourcing a coronavirus quarantine comics reading list. Each weekday for a month, we’ll post a new recommendation from someone in the comics industry to help folks get through the isolation. This includes writers, artists, letterers, editors, comics journalists, publicists, and more…all paired with a local shop that’s currently selling the books via mail order.

Today’s pick comes from letterer Ariana Maher…enjoy!

I bought the four issue Magik mini-series years ago simply because Illyana Rasputin is one of my favorite characters. The very first comic I ever read happened to be Uncanny X-Men #303, the Death of Illyana. That was a heavy story for a kid to dive into, but I was left with a deep fascination of Magik and how she came to be.

Reading the Magik mini-series, a few things struck me immediately:

Tom Orzechowski's lettering in this series is epic.
Chis Claremont can pack a dense and dark fantasy tale into just four issues.
This is one of the bleakest X-Men stories I've ever read.
The title of the series is "Storm and Illyana: Magik."

I was prepared for the first three, but the fourth had me reading the story in a new light. I knew it was a cruel story of a girl raised to become a demonic sorcerer. Belasco, the master of Limbo, was an abusive and manipulative teacher. With Cat (Kitty Pryde) and the sorcerer Ororo surviving in Limbo as tragic older versions of their former selves, I thought they would train Illyana to defeat Belasco, when in fact they proved to be poor instructors as well.

Ororo wanted to take Illyana on as her apprentice, but was so terrified of the dark magic inflicted on the both of them by Belasco, she would grow upset and forbid Illyana from actually learning magic properly. Cat believed in violence and so trained Illyana to fight and be resilient, but physical training failed to protect them both from Belasco's magic. Eventually, Cat would become no more than a demonic pet, a lackey controlled by the dark wizard to keep Illyana in line.

Despite facing every difficulty in both surviving Limbo and learning the skills needed to free herself, Illyana studied and grew, forging a new path that none of her teachers had laid out for her. She defied Belasco's direct teachings as best she could and read all of his books to make better use of them than he had. She meditated as Ororo would, but instead of focusing on pure life magic, she used it to craft a weapon to free herself and enact vengeance. She trained her body, but also her emerging mutant ability to teleport, becoming a better fighter than Cat could hope to be. After three issues beset by obstacles, Illyana's battle to defy Belasco in the fourth issue is thrilling because I went on the journey with her.

Yet the series is titled "Storm and Illyana: Magik". As much as it was a story about a young woman growing to become a powerful wizard in her own right, it is also the tragic ending of an aged wizard, Ororo, who was held back by fear due to the trauma she had suffered. She had tried to protect Illyana, but her fear and hesitation had only hampered the girl's journey by being too protective and overly cautious.

If there was one part of the mini-series I did not enjoy, it was Belasco. I do not mind that he was one-note - an evil wizard being an evil wizard works just fine - but I was bothered that there was so little addressed about how he had such strong sway over Cat, Ororo, and Illyana in Limbo. The story implied it was dark magic and that was it. It had to have been magical influence, because his villain monologues were too on the nose to sound like the ruthless emotional manipulator he appeared to be. A good deal of his speeches sounded like "I'm evil, my plan is evil and you will love me." Um, ok.

If you're in the mood for a dark read with sparks of hope, and if you like the creative panels, lettering, and pacing of ‘80's X-Men stories, I highly recommend this series. -Ariana Maher

Storm and Illyana: Magik
Writer: Chris Claremont
Pencilers: Brent Anderson, John Buscema, Ron Frenz, and Sal Buscema
Inkers: Bob Wiacek and Tom Palmer
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: 1983
Colossus' 7-year-old sister Illyana Rasputin has been snatched away by Belasco, demon lord of Limbo! Though the X-Men rescue her what seems like seconds later, those seconds represent a years-long ordeal for Illyana - one that starts with losing a piece of her soul, and goes downhill fast! The sorceress Ororo and feline warrior Cat - alternate-reality versions of X-Men Storm and Kitty Pryde - aid young Illyana against the terrors of Limbo, including Belasco's henchman S'ym and a twisted, perverse version of Nightcrawler. Trained in good and evil magic, Illyana learns to control Limbo's teleporting Stepping Discs - but as the final battle against Belasco arrives, can good triumph over evil when Illyana doesn't know which one she is anymore?

Support Local Comic Shops: Arcane Comics in Seattle is doing curbside pick-up, as is Phoenix Comics in Seattle! And you can contact them both online through their websites.

Or, to find a local comic shop near you, check out his directory from the Comics Industry Collective of stores open and doing mail order!

Click here for the full coronavirus reading list!