Magik (comics)

Magik (Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina - typically anglicized to Rasputin) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most often in relation to the X-Men. She first appeared in the comic book Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975).

Magik is the younger sister of the Russian X-Man Colossus. She is a member of a fictional sub-species of humanity known as mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. Her natural mutant power is the ability to teleport. She also is a capable sorceress.

Publication history

Illyana first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975), though her first name was not given until Uncanny X-Men #145 (May 1981). For the first eight years of the character's existence, she was an infrequently appearing background character. The means of changing this was set in Uncanny X-Men #160 (August 1982), in which she ages seven years while in a paranormal dimension called Limbo, became a sorceress, and develops the mutant ability to create "teleportation discs." These changes were not immediately explored or explained, and for the next year she remained essentially a background character.