![]() (Pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Tom Palmer, colors by Ken Feduniewicz, letters by Tom Orzechowski)įor Illyana, the leotard becomes her default outfit for the remainder of the series (she’s wearing robes at the start of the third issue, but then she inexplicably changes into her adventurer’s clothes between panels without leaving her bed). There’s a clear connection being drawn between Belasco’s influence, moral compromise, and how sexualized a given character appears. In moments where Storm resists the draw of that power, she’s depicted in flowing robes and hair that hide her body (the one clear exception is the sequence in the first issue where she bathes while talking with Cat after initially rescuing Illyana this is mostly just a long established thing where if Claremont can justify it, he will write Storm bathing or otherwise going au natural). Although the majority of the story features her as an old woman who has done everything she can to separate herself from Belasco, a sequence in the third issue where Illyana travels back in time to see the moment when Storm almost deposed Belasco as ruler of Limbo shows her in a highly sexual outfit at the same time that she’s most accepting of demonic influence. We even see this pattern reflected in Storm. (Pencils by Ron Frenz, inks by Tom Palmer, colors by Glynis Wein, letters by Tom Orzechowski) Storm when she had fully embraced the demonic influence looks very different from how Illyana sees her throughout most of the series. Belasco’s corruption also manifests explicitly in Cat’s appearance her face is meant to appear feline (though in effect it’s mostly just sort of alien looking). Cat’s style of resistance to Belasco’s depredations in Limbo is far more physically aggressive than Storm’s, and that aggression gets paired with a more overt sexuality (Storm is also, of course, an old woman in this story where Cat is in her prime). We’re meant to take the wardrobe change as a signal that Illyana must begin to grow up by abandoning unnecessary attachments and niceties, but there’s also a connection between her appearance and Cat’s Illyana still looks like a child, while Cat, a skilled and ruthless fighter, is sexualized as almost a matter of course. After Cat abducts Illyana, she dresses the girl in a leotard made of animal skins. ![]() Under Storm’s tutelage, Illyana wears a long nightgown that emphasizes her innocence in contrast with the corrupted, adult-presenting and sexualized part of her soul that Storm tries and fails to excise. She’s just been pulled into a world where survival is difficult and not assured, and her clothing highlights her young age and lack of preparation. When she first finds herself trapped in Limbo, she’s dressed in a baggy shirt and pants to denote her childishness. This story takes place over the course of seven subjective years, and that passage of time gets reflected most strongly in the way Illyana’s character design develops. With Illyana, those codings get amplified by her coming-of-age narrative. (Pencils by John Buscema, inks by Tom Palmer, colors by Glynis Wein, letters by Tom Orzechowski) While there’s a lot to unpack about “Inferno,” the salient point that I’m reminded of with regard to Illyana and the Magik series is the use of corruption and demonic influence as coding for both sexuality and societal nonconformity among marginalized groups. ![]() The event ends with both women being effectively removed from all the ongoing X-Men stories at the time as Madelyne dies and has her memories absorbed into Jean Grey, and Illyana gets de-aged back to her pre-Limbo seven year old self. Running parallel to Madelyne’s story is Illyana’s they have a lot in common as morally gray women acting with extreme agency at a time when Marvel’s editorial policy ran heavily towards social conservatism. “Inferno,” which happened in the late ’80s, is mostly the story of Madelyne Pryor, Cyclops’s first wife and a clone of Jean Grey, entering into a deal with the demon N’astirh that threatens to turn all of Earth into a hellscape. I got to thinking about how Illyana being female shapes our perception of her experience because of the analysis that Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men did during their coverage of the “Inferno” crossover event which serves as the climax of this version of Illyana Rasputin’s story. Illyana Rasputin is fourteen years old when this series ends.
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