X-Men '97 Brings Back a Fan-Favorite Mutant... With a Twist

X-Men '97 continues its big deubt on Disney+ with Episode 3 "Fire Made Flesh" - and the storyline of the episode created an opportunity for a fan-favorite mutant hero to (kind of, sort of) make a cameo return. 

The Episode 2 cliffhanger had a second Jean Grey show up on the doorstep of the X-Mansion, just as the X-Men's Jean had just given birth to Cyclops's son, Nathan. It turned out that "Fire Made Flesh" was actually X-Men '97's adaptation of the classic X-Men storyline "Inferno": the Jean who gave birth is revealed to be a clone created by Mister Sinister, in order to produce a child that mixed both Scott Summers' and Jean Grey's DNA. When the clone Jean confirms her true origin with Sinister, she has a breakdown, becoming the evil "Goblin Queen," who torments the X-Men with hellish psychic visions. 

Eventually, the Goblin Queen makes her base with Sinister in a creepy old cathedral. Magneto leads Cyclops, Morph, and Bishop to the Goblin Queen's location at the cathedral, but the tables quickly get turned on them. Goblin Queen attacks and Morph transforms into Illyana Rasputin/Magik, with her Soulsword in hand. Goblin Queen psychically hypnotizes Morph, and turns on his teammates, fighting Bishop in the image of Magik's "Darkchylde" form. 

Who Is X-Men's Magik? 

"Magik" is Illyana Rasputin, the younger sister of Piotr Rasputin, aka the X-Man known as Colossus. When she was a young girl, Illyana was abducted by the evil sorcerer Belasco and taken to the hellish realm of Limbo, where the X-Men tried and failed to rescue her. Illyana was forced to survive in Limbo, allying with that reality's surviving X-Men (Storm and Kitty Pryde), learning combat and sorcery from them and Belasco. 

At age Thirteen, Illyana's mutant power of teleportation manifested, and she was able to finally combine the power and magical knowledge to create the "Soulsword," which she used to defeat Belasco. When Illyana (now "Magik") teleported back to her reality, she found only moments had passed since she left, making her age change a mind-blowing change for her teammates. 

Magik joined the X-Men's New Mutants squad and has ben affiliated with X-Teams ever since. The character has been gaining more and more mainstream appeal in recent years – and even though the New Mutants movie adaptation became an infamous quamire, the meteoric rise of actress Anya Taylor-Joy (who played Magik in the film) has helped make the character famous on a mainstream stage. 

X-Men '97's Magik Cameo Creates Big Animated Series Continuity Question

Illyana Rasputin (voiced by Tara Strong) appeared as her six-year-old self in a episode of X-Men: The Animated Series titled "Red Dawn" (S2E4). The episode brought Colossus home to Russia, where he had to face the threat of USSR super-soldier and life-sucking mutant Omega Red. Illyana appeared in scenes of Piotr going home to his family farm to reconnect with his parents and sister. 

If Morph knows Illyana is Magik and can mimic her, it raises the questions of when Colossus's sister went to Limbo and had her years there. The X-Men '97 comic series also launched this week (at the time of writing this), and that series is filling in story and character gaps between X-Men: TAS and X-Men '97 – so put Magik's origin story on that slate? 

X-Men '97 is now streaming on Disney+.